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Man, Matthew 23 here we read about the scribes and the Pharisees and this has become something that we call people as a derogatory term. We say they're being a Pharisee or don't be a Pharisee. And this chapter really focuses on the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees over and over. He calls them hypocrites. Now what does it mean to be a hypocrite? Well this is a great place to actually define what it means to be a hypocrite because here is a list of all the things that these people are doing and then it's calling them hypocrites over and over again. But the key thing is found at the end of verse three. If you start reading there in verse number two it says, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do but do not ye after their works for they say and do not. And that is really the essence of hypocrisy, saying one thing and doing another, right? Saying and doing not is what made the Pharisees such hypocrites. Now here's the thing. The problem with the Pharisees is not that they lived by strict rules because there's nothing wrong with having a disciplined life and having strict rules for yourself and having a lot of character and setting a lot of boundaries and how you personally live your life. The problem is when you begin to impose those things on other people and you're taking unbiblical rules or extra biblical rules and you start teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. So it's one thing to just say, well this is my rule, this is what I do, or this is the way we do things in my house or my family has this rule because obviously mom and dad have the right to make rules in the home even if they're not in the Bible. They can just make arbitrary rules like this is when bedtime is or this is what we eat for breakfast and we don't go here and we don't do this. Parents make rules for their children, but the problem is when I then take those extra biblical rules that I have made for myself and start teaching them as if they came from God and started imposing my preferences and my super strict interpretation of the word of God on other people, that's where it becomes a problem. And then taking it a step further is that the Pharisees, not only did they try to impose these strict extra biblical rules that they had invented for themselves and they're not even doing it, you know, they're secretly indulging in all kinds of stuff that they are forbidding and condemning publicly. And so the Bible says in verse number three, all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do. Is that saying every little made up rule that they impose? No. Get the context. It says at the end of verse two, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do. What's he saying? He's saying when they're teaching you to follow the mosaic law and when they want to follow every jot and tittle of the mosaic law, well, you know, listen to them when they, when they tell you to do what the Bible says, but don't do what they do because they say and do not. But when they're teaching you the commandments of Moses and they're sitting in Moses seat, then you do want to do those things. So here's what he's saying. And I think is an important point here is that you don't want to overreact to the Pharisees and say, well, the Pharisees are total hypocrites and they're not doing what they say and they're making up all kinds of extra biblical rules. Therefore I'm just going to go the other direction and just be really loose and permissive. And that's what we see a lot today in Christianity is that people are reacting to maybe some Pharisees and some extra biblical teachings. So then they go too far in the other direction and they have this idea that just says no rules. We don't talk about do's and don'ts. It's just a relationship, you know, Christian Liberty and we don't really think about commandments. It's just a relationship, right? And so we want to make sure that we don't go too far in the other direction. And that's what Jesus is saying. He's saying, look, you know, following the commandments of Moses is good, but don't be like these people. These people, the Pharisees in their personal lives are rotten people. It says in verse four, they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. Here's what he's saying. It's not that they're preaching righteousness and coming up a little bit short because that's every preacher of righteousness because no preacher of righteousness is perfect or sinless. Does that make him a big hypocrite? No, it just means that he's a human being, right? And God all throughout history has used human beings to preach righteousness and it doesn't mean that they're going to be perfect and it doesn't make me a hypocrite if I preach that we shouldn't sin and then I commit a sin because guess what? I'm going to sin because I'm human. They're binding burdens and grievous to be born and loading them upon men's backs. They're not even touching them with one of their little fingers. It's not that they're just imperfect or a human and not quite living up to the standards that they set. It's that they are not even coming close. They're not even trying. They're not even in the ballpark of what they're preaching. That's what it means to be a hypocrite, okay? It's not hypocritical to preach against something and you've done it once or something or you do it occasionally or you, you know, come up short of the glory of God because that just again makes you a human being. So these people are far from the standard that they're imposing upon other people. They themselves will not move them with one of their fingers, the Bible says, so they're not even trying. It says in verse number five, but all their works they do for to be seen of men. So they're not living up to what they preach, not even coming close, not even trying. And when they do actually do something good, it's only because they want to be seen of men. It's not because they're doing it because it's the right thing to do. All their works they do for to be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments and love the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief seats in the synagogues. So they want to be seen as religious everywhere they go. Hey, look at me. You know, I'm spiritual and they've got the weird outfits and think about how false religions love their weird outfits, don't they? You know, you see the Jewish rabbi going through the airport or even just the Orthodox Jew himself or the Hasidic Jew and they always wear some weird outfits. It's not an outfit that's mandated by scripture. There's nowhere in scripture that said, hey, wear white shirt and a black outfit with a black hat and have these weird curly Q, just a couple of pieces of hair coming down all by themselves. You know, they're doing that because they want to be a spectacle. Hey, look at me. I'm different. I'm better. I'm special. I'm spiritual. You know, you see the Orthodox priest and he goes through the airport, right? And he's got like some giant cross around his neck and he's got this big black flowing dress. He's got a beard, you know, down to his chest and he's just this, he looks like some kind of a wizard or warlock or something, right? And then you got the Roman Catholic priest again with the black flowing garment, the color turned around backwards, the cross and this little pious queer look on his face. But anyway, you've got all these different sects and religions, like for example, the, you know, the Amish or the Mennonites, you know, putting on a show with the way that they look, making broad their phylacteries, enlarging the borders and other garments because they love to be seen of man. They like to stand out like a sore thumb. You know, we as God's people, we should look similar to everyone else. Basically we shouldn't join into sinful trends. And you know, if the world starts having gender bending apparel, we're not going to get involved in that. If the world is wearing a clothing that's immodest or women are scantily clad, we're not going to get involved in that. But you know what? Here's the thing about Jesus is that when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, you know what they said? How are we going to know which one is Jesus? How do we know? Oh, well it's the guy with a giant cross around his neck. It's the guy with the super huge dress and the beard down to his waist. You know, of course, no, he looked like other people. He looked like normal people, right? And we as Christians, it's okay for us to just look like normal people. We shouldn't have to put on some special outfits, some weird outfit just to go around and show how different we are. Why don't we let our work shine? Let's let our good work shine before men instead of just our giant cross shining and making it an outward show. But they love this because they love the greetings in the markets. They like everybody to see them and know immediately, oh, this is a man of God. This is a spiritual person. Or same thing even with women with the nuns and other things. The Muslim women with their weird head coverings or whatever, that's just because their pervert false prophet, I guess, made them do that. But anyway, verse number eight, it says, but be not ye called rabbi. It says in verse seven, they love the greetings in the markets and to be called of men, rabbi, rabbi. Now what does the word rabbi mean? Rabbi means master, okay? And that's defined in scripture, even the King James will explain to you that rabbi means master and elsewhere. And right here, this is a good place to show that it means master because it says, be not ye called rabbi for one is your master, even Christ and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth for one is your father, which is in heaven, neither be ye called masters for one is your master, even Christ. Now this goes to show you that there are certain religious titles that are inappropriate for spiritual leaders. Now, of course, when you call out the Catholics on this and say, why are you calling the priest your father? When the Bible specifically says not to, they'll say, well, you know, do you call your dad, father? Well, my dad is my father. Okay. That's the difference. He actually is my father. You know, if I were a slave and I had a master, I would call him master because he would really be my master. Okay. Because that's what that is. But here's the thing. A spiritual leader is not your master or your father. Okay. Now the word master here actually, you know, I said that about the slave and the master. This isn't really that type of master necessarily. The type of master that we have in this passage is more literally like what we would think of as like a Kung Fu master or something, right? You know, or for you dweebs out there is a Jedi master. Okay. But the point is that that's really the type of meaning that we have here. In fact, it's interesting, the modern Greek word for professor, excuse me, for a professor like any university, they actually take the word from the Greek New Testament right here. And so I was thinking about jiu jitsu because my kids go to jiu jitsu and the guy at the jiu jitsu gym, they call him professor, which kind of struck me as strange because I never really thought of martial arts practitioners as being called professor. But who knows what I'm talking about where the jiu jitsu black belts are called professor, right? Now here's the thing. I don't think there's anything wrong with the jiu jitsu black belt being called professor. I don't think there's anything wrong with the guy at the university necessarily being called a professor. I don't think there's anything wrong with some Kung Fu master being called a master because again, that's what they are. That's what they're doing. You would have like a school master, for example. I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with that term in the right context. Okay. But just like there's nothing wrong with my dad being called father because he's literally my dad. But the problem is when we have that kind of a view toward clergy, toward religious leaders, toward a pastor, God's letting us know that these are terms that are putting too much honor upon the man of God. Now look, the Bible does say that we should honor pastors, that we should count them worthy of double honor and so forth. But there's a limit though to the honor that we give and we don't want men to be exalted too highly. And so these terms are off limits, okay? And notice what it says in verse eight. It says, be not ye called rabbi for one is your master, even Christ and all ye are brethren. This is why a better term to call the man of God is brother Anderson, not father Anderson, brother Anderson, right? That's the appropriate term. That's what the Bible says. Don't be called father, your brethren. So be called brother. This is why we refer to pastors as brother Jimenez or brother Berson's. Now we do use the biblical terms of pastor or Bishop or, uh, elder, you know, those type of terms. But let's think about these terms that the Bible does use about a man of God, right? He used the term pastor. What's a pastor? A pastor is somebody who's caring for the flock, right? So he's, he's guarding the flock from wolves. He's protecting the flock. He's feeding them spiritually, right? Because as a pastor, I'm trying to lead you to certain pastors. And when we open the Bible to a certain chapter, I'm taking you to a grazing and getting you the grass that you need and getting you the water that you need. You know, I'm trying to feed you spiritually, uh, nourish you, protect you, help you. That's what I'm trying to do. Christ is the good shepherd and I'm the under shepherd. That's what the word pastor means. Pastor just literally means shepherd. And then what about the word bishop? You know, the bishop is an overseer. It's just someone who is basically just watching out and making sure that things run the way that they're supposed to and just being a supervisor. That's what I mean. I mean the word overseer and the word supervisor mean the exact same thing. Super is Latin for over, right? Visor, supervisor, right? Overseer. So it's the same exact thing, right? That makes sense. That's, that, that's what pastors are doing. They're being an overseer, they're overseeing the work of God, making sure things go the way that they're supposed to. And then elder, what does elder mean? You know, it just means that I'm further down the road spiritually than others perhaps because I've been saved for a long time. I've read the Bible a lot, but here's the thing. It's not that I'm better. It's not that I'm smarter. It's not that I'm more spiritual. It's not that I've achieved some higher level of enlightenment or some higher plane of spirituality. It's just that I am an experienced Christian leader, right? That's what a pastor is. He's leading the people, he's an overseer, he's got experience. That's what these three terms would point to. What would the term master point to on the other hand? Well, this would make it seem like I've somehow arrived at some really, like I've got a black belt in Christianity up here. You know, you're, you got a white belt with like two stripes on it and I'm up here with a spiritual black belt. See, that's really not the way the dynamic should be. In fact, I will tell you this, I guarantee you that in churches all over America, perhaps even in our church and, and, and in our friends' churches, there are people in the pew who could know the Bible better than the pastor or that could, uh, you know, be a better Christian than the pastor. They could be smarter than the pastor. They could be someone with more integrity than the pastor. Whatever, whatever Christian attribute you want to name, the pastor is not necessarily the best person. Whereas if I go to a jujitsu gym, the professor is probably the best guy in that gym. He could probably kick everybody's butt pretty easily. Okay. Whereas that's not really the way the church is. And even if it were that way, that's not how we would think about it. We don't want to think about it that way, but it's not even true anyway because I guarantee you there are lots of laymen and lay women that will receive even more rewards than the pastor perhaps because maybe they've done even greater works for God or, uh, there could be people in the pew who know more than the past. But here's the thing about that. If you know more than the pastor, that still doesn't make you the pastor. If you're a better Christian than the pastor, that still doesn't make you the pastor. The pastor is the pastor, right? He has certain duties, he has certain authority, he has a certain job and you know, you might even be permanently disqualified from being a pastor, but you still might be a better Christian and know the Bible better than the pastor. Hey, but you stay in your lane. The pastor stays in his lane, right? We all need to function as a well working body. Okay. And so we need to understand that there's isn't a hierarchy of the clergy being better than or on a higher level than the layman. And I think that's what he's getting at here with this term rabbi or master. I think that's the issue. That's the problem. And it makes sense in the context of the scribes and Pharisees because they do go around thinking that they're better than other people, they're beyond other people, they're on another level, and that is a wicked mentality. And when it comes to the term father, you can see some problems with this term father being applied to the preacher because our father is someone that we have to obey on a different level than where the Bible says, you know, obey them that have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God. You know, when it comes to obeying them that have the rule over who have spoken unto you the word of God, the key is who've spoken unto you the word of God, right? The pastors up here preaching and teaching the word of God. He's sitting in Moses seat. He's sitting in the apostle seat and he's preaching things from the word of God. And so you should obey the preaching. But does the pastor have the power to make arbitrary rules about your life and tell you, Hey, in your home, this is what you're going to do now. Now the pastor oversees the church. Pastor makes rules that have to do with the church, but the pastor shouldn't be coming to you and telling you how to live your personal life or coming into your house and laying down the law. That would be inappropriate. Whereas dad does have the power to make arbitrary rules and just lay down the law about all areas of your life. I mean, dad can really micromanage his kid's life in whatever area that he deems fit and the children have to obey their parents, right? If he says, this is what you're going to eat, this is what you're going to drink, these are the clothes you're going to wear. But does the pastor get up and tell you, here's what you eat, here's what you drink, these are the clothes you're going to wear. Do you see the difference? And so father is a different type of relationship. Also calling the pastor by this title of father is taking glory away from the father, which is in heaven, right? We want to emphasize the father in heaven as our spiritual father. And so that's why he says, one is your father, which is in heaven, call no man your father upon the earth. Neither be ye called masters, verse 10, for one is your master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And this is why pastors are also called what? The minister. Minister literally means servant. That's what it means to be a pastor. It means being a servant, not being a master. And so the Bible says, whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. It says in verse 13, but woe unto you scribes and Pharisees. So he just finished saying, hey, this is the way things are supposed to be, but woe unto you guys because you guys are the opposite. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. So he starts out verse 13 just saying, you know, well, first of all, you're not saved. You know, let's just put that out there. These guys aren't even saved according to Christ. And he said, not only are they not saved, but they even are preventing people from getting saved. Verse 14 he says, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows houses and for a pretense make long prayer. Therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. He's saying they're doing unloving, uncharitable, dishonest, wrong things, but they do it in the name of God and they do it under the auspices of religion and that makes it even more damnable, even more of a condemnation upon them. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you can pass sea and land to make one proselyte and when he's made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. He's calling them children of hell. Again, making no bones about the fact that these people are unsaved and they're on their way to hell when they die and that they're going out and converting people to Judaism, but they're not actually getting people saved. Okay. Now you would think that by turning someone to the God of Judaism, meaning, uh, you know, the God of, in this context, cause this is before the current religion of Judaism was founded because you know, most people would point to like 70 AD for the, you know, the destruction of the temple. That's when what we think of as Judaism really started. But you know, as far as converting people, I should say to the God of the Hebrews, you'd think that by converting people to the God of the Hebrews, uh, you know, that people would be getting saved. But, but the Bible is saying that when the Pharisees go out and convert someone to the God of the Hebrews because they are corrupt individuals themselves, they end up converting people to a corrupt, twisted, perverted form of the worship of God that is not salvific. And so another way of looking at this too is that it, you know, uh, only a good tree can bring forth good fruit and a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. And so just this today, an unsaved person who claims the name of Christ, they could go travel across sea and land and convert some bone in the nose kind of a guy to Christianity. But if they're not saved, are they actually able to get Mr. Bone in the nose saved? No. They might get him to believe in some form of Christ or Christianity, but it's not going to be the actual saving knowledge of Christ, you know, from the word of God, an actual belief in Christ as the only way to heaven and fully trusting him for salvation. You know, because think about that, you know, they're going to, they might get him to go through the motions or they might get him to believe in a workspace salvation or just whatever the case may be. But, but at the end of the day though, getting saved is a spiritual transaction. And so the power of the Holy Spirit is involved in salvation. And if the sole winner is unsaved, the power just isn't there. Okay. And so they go across sea and land to make one proselyte. And when he's made, they make him twofold more the child of hell than themselves. And by the way, you know, uh, what's the point in crossing sea and land to make one proselyte when they're all kinds of people to convert unto Christ right here at home. You know, if I'm going to compass sea and land, I want to make more than one proselyte. You know, I want to go somewhere receptive where we can get a lot of people saved. Otherwise it would make more sense to just go soul winning right here at home. Um, but anyway, that's kind of a digression, but it says in verse number 16 woe unto you you blind guides, which say whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing, but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor. Now here they're kind of, they're letting their Jew show a little bit here, okay. Because they're kind of showing what their real God is. And apparently their real God is money. And the Bible says you cannot serve God and mammon. And so here he's saying that they actually value the gold that the temple is made out of or the gold that adorns the temple more than the temple itself. So if you swear by the temple, they're just kind of like, but how dare you swear by the gold of the temple, oy vey, you know, that's too sacred. It shows that they're worshiping money. They're worshiping material things, ye fools and blind. Now again, it always cracks me up when people think that Baptist preachers preach too hard or you know, how dare you ever call names. You should never call names when you're preaching. Even Mr. Holier than thou biblical preachers, including Jesus called names and they're preaching. And it wasn't just him. What about the apostle Paul in first Corinthians 15 when he said, thou fool about those who were mocking the resurrection and they were mocking the fact that a person could be bodily resurrected after they die. He says, you're a fool if you ask that question, okay. And so he fools and blind. That's what the Bible says. And people will sometimes say, well, he's Jesus, so you know, he can say stuff like that. Well, number one, he left us an example that we should follow in his steps. Number one. And number two, the apostle Paul's not Jesus. Okay. And other men like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel aren't Jesus. Now look, I'm not saying that we should go around calling people fools, but this is not Jesus walking up to a specific person and calling him a fool. This is not the apostle Paul in first Corinthians 15 walking up to a specific person and calling them a fool. Preaching, preaching is by nature going to be a little bit rough if you're doing it right. Okay. Preaching is supposed to be hard hitting and sometimes a bit abrasive. And so this is a generic thing saying that anyone who fits this bill is a fool. If I got up and said, hey, you know, the Mormons are idiots for serving communion with water instead of grape juice. For doing communion with water. They're fools. They're blind. You know, that doesn't mean I'm just going to walk up to every Mormon just be like, hey, hey, dipstick. Hey, idiot. You know, I'm not going to, I'm not going to necessarily do that. But in preaching, you know, I'm going to use harsh condemnation of foolishness and stupidity. Why? Because I'm following Christ because I'm following the prophets of the Bible. You say, well, I don't like it. Well, let's just say theoretically that I didn't like it. Let's just say theoretically that I didn't like to ever call a name in my preaching. I would still do it anyway so that I can be like Jesus and the apostles and the preachers of the Bible, right? Because I'm not going to get up and be more holy and, and, and, and kinder than them. Okay. I'm going to follow their example. And so he says, you know, you're blind, you're stupid if you think that the gold is more important than the temple, which sanctify at the gold and whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing, but whosoever swereth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. Again, the value in material items rather than spiritual things. And he says again, uh, he fools and blind for whether is greater the gift or the altar that sanctified the gift who's to therefore shall swear by the altar, swear it by it and by all things they're on and whosoever shall swear by the temple, swear it by it and by him that dwelleth therein and he that swereth by he that shall swear by heaven, swear it by the throne of God and by him that sitteth thereon, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith. These are you to have done and not to leave the other undone. He's saying, look, it's good that you paid tithe of mint and anise and cumin, which are obviously just referring to spices. This would be like you're taking a 10th of the salt in your salt shaker, you know, and one 10th of the pepper and the pepper shaker and you're tithing on that because you're just so straight, the parsley on your plate, you're going to take one 10th of it and give it to the Lord, right? It's just talking about this pedantic, strict, uh, tithing on every last penny. He's saying it's not bad that you did that, but it's amazing how you're so focused on that because it's financial. You're so focused on that because that's what you value, money and things and material possessions and you've omitted the weightier matters of the law. You know, meanwhile, you're sitting here and tithing with an exacto knife, but then you've admitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith. You know, uh, imagine just having a perfect tithing record your entire life and then going to hell when you die because you didn't even believe in Jesus, but you followed all these strict rules. You never ate, you know, a meat and cheese out of the same dish or whatever other foolish Jewish rules and you go to hell having never tasted a cheeseburger and there's no cheeseburgers in hell, my friend, and you're going to be burning in hell and you're not even gonna know what a cheeseburger even tastes like. Incredible. Meanwhile we at the baptist church are eating thousands of cheeseburgers, chicken, pulled pork, all of it, and we're going straight to heaven and when we get to heaven, there's probably going to be more cheeseburgers in heaven when we get there. We're probably going to be served a cheeseburger when we get there and I'm not even kidding because of the fact that, you know, the Bible says, bless is he that eateth and drinketh in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus ate and drank after he was resurrected. Hey, I'm going to go to heaven and I'm going to eat. All the things that the Jews that are burning in hell skipped. We're going to get there and it's going to be everything that they forbade. It's all going to be there, my friend. What a day that will be. But the Bible says in verse number 24, ye blind guides would strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. You strain at a gnat and you swallow a camel, right? You worry about every little tiny thing. You know, another way of putting this is you're penny wise and you're pound foolish, right? You get all the little things so perfect and you just blow it in big areas that really matter the most. You know what cracks me about this verse, too, is that I've had a lot of people tell me, well, you know, if you go back to the Greek here in this verse, it's really not which strain at a gnat. It's supposed to say which strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. OK, now, first of all, that doesn't even change anything about what this verse is saying. First of all, I disagree in the first place, but but second of all, it doesn't even really change anything. But but some I think what he's saying when he says which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. This is what it's saying, OK, what I believe it's saying. And let's think about what they're saying and think about how it doesn't really change anything. But that the way the King James words, it makes more sense anyway. But like, let's say, you know, the other day, for example, this happened to me less than two weeks ago. I was in a room. I wasn't in my house, but I was in a room somewhere. And there were these little like fruit flies buzzing around. And one of them just flew in my mouth and just it just it just went straight from my throat, just like, you know, just like coming in for a hard landing. And my throat was the runway. Who knows what I'm talking about? I remember one time I was soul winning with Pastor Burzins and this little gnat just flew in his mouth and he was in the middle of giving the gospel, he just swallowed it and kept going. And I was like, man, I hope this girl gets saved because Pastor Burzins just swallowed a bug and didn't even miss a beat because he's just, you know, he's got to he's got to do the work of God, you know, and so he just and just kept on going. Well, you know, I accidentally swallowed a bug less than two weeks ago, just flew in. And it was just like it was easier just to just to let it go down. Not going to I'm not going to strain at it. I just you know what I did instead of straining at the net, I basically just kind of just resigned myself to fate. And it was just like, OK, you want to fly into my stomach. You know what? You're not going to like it when you get there because it's all acid and you're just going to get digested. And it's you know, you're going to die in a very short amount of time. But you know what? Fine. I'm not going to sit here and stick my finger down my throat and hack and it's just like, you know what? You want to fly in my throat? Fine. OK, so that was me not straining at a net. But straining at a net is like, oh, man, you know, I can't swallow that. You know, which strain at a net and swallow a camel. Now obviously, it's impossible for any human to even come close to swallowing a camel of any size. This is like a ridiculous picture of someone swallowing a camel, right, because we're not talking about they shoved a cigarette down their throat, OK? So we're talking about the animal. So basically, you know, it says they strain at a net and swallow a camel. He's saying, you know, these little tiny minutiae bother you and then you just, you're just, you know, swallowing something ridiculous and absurd, OK? You know, this kind of makes me think of when you listen to atheists and agnostics talk about the problem of evil. You know, I'm talking about these philosophers with the problem of evil and they struggle with the problem of evil and they're so hung up on the problem of evil. But then they swallow this camel of everything came into existence by itself. And there's no such thing as the soul. And we're just glorified chimpanzees and, you know, and they swallow this camel that the whole universe created itself out of thin air. It's just like it's absurd. But then they but then they're just like, well, but here's what I don't get about God. How could God allow these bad things to happen? So, well, maybe God's just not who you think he is. Maybe you just need to read the Bible and get to know God a little bit. Then the things that he does will make more sense to you. But you're you're replacing one small problem with a gigantic problem by turning around and saying, well, God doesn't even exist or something stupid like that. And I say that that's stupid with authority because the Bible says the fool has said in his heart that there is no God. And so straining it a gnat and swallowing a camel, right? Straining it a gnat is the person who picks apart, perhaps, the way that we do soul winning. And then they don't do any soul winning at all, right? Strain it a gnat and swallow a camel would be someone who, for example, you know, it reminds me of one time I saw a Muslim woman in a bikini with a head covering on, you know, that straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel, you know, oh, I got to keep my head covered or whatever. And then their bodies practically naked. And so, you know, we could go on and on with those traces about that. Now they say that, you know, woe unto ye blind guides which strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. The other thing is that like there's a bug that landed in their drink and they, I guess, skimmed it out. They strained out the gnat and then drank their drink. But then when there was a camel floating in their drink, you know, they just went ahead and took a big sip of that drink with the camel in it. Now again, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Obviously, in either situation, you're using like exaggeration or hyperbole about like the idea of swallowing a camel. At the end of the day, the application is the same but that doesn't make any sense to me that he's saying, oh, you didn't remove the bug from your, you know, you removed the bug from your drink. You strained out. Or, but let's even say it said strain out a gnat. I mean, that could still be the thing flies into your mouth and you strain it out of your mouth, you know, and you strain it out that way with your throat, with your mouth or whatever. But that's the kind of pedantic stupidity that the opponents of the King James bring up. And here's what's so ironic about that. By bringing up this verse as a supposed error in the King James, you know what they're ironically doing? They're actually straining it and swallowing a camel. Think about it. By saying, oh, well the King James is inaccurate. Just look at Matthew 23, 24. That should say strain out and, you know, they're straining it a gnat because it literally affects nothing about the doctrine or the point that Jesus is making. And then they swallow this camel of removing 16 verses from the New Testament. They swallow this camel of, oh, the entire ending of the book of Mark is not authentic. They swallow this camel of, oh, the entire story of the woman taking adultery isn't authentic. They swallow this camel of all of the weird, here's the camel that the ESV readers swallow. Saul was one year old when he began to reign. They swallow that but they're worried about this verse. And you know, here's what I thought was so funny. There were a couple debates a couple years ago between James White and, somebody help me out. No, no, no, the Reformed Baptist guy, why am I drawing a blank? I know this guy. No, no, no, no. This guy is a, this is a King James guy. This is a, no, no, no, Bart Ehrman is not a King James guy, all right. Man, why am I, I'm sorry, I'm losing my mind. But anyway, there were, I'm having a senior moment here, I'm sorry. But anyway, James White and this Baptist pastor who's defending the position of the Textus Receptus and the King James, okay. And now it's kind of just bothering me though that I just, that I'm having a memory disorder up here. What? No, no, no, no, no. You're just making it worse, all right. You're just confusing me. Anyway, there were a couple of debates and these two guys, somebody can Google it actually, Google James White Ephesians 3-9 debate. Somebody help me out. Don't just guess folks, do the Google and they get back to me, all right. Jeff Riddle, oh man, I'm losing my mind. So anyway, so James White versus Jeff Riddle, right. And so these two guys, they did a debate about the text of scripture and here's what's funny. Jeff Riddle wanted to talk about the long ending of Mark, right, which is a big chunk of 12 verses, you know, and it's got some important implications in those 12 verses, like this big important text of scripture. But James White would only agree to do the debate with Jeff Riddle on the condition that they did a debate on Mark 16 one night. That's what Jeff Riddle wanted to talk about if he would agree to do a debate with him on Ephesians 3-9 the other night, okay. So James White wants to talk about Ephesians 3-9. Jeff Riddle wants to talk about Mark 16 nine through 20, you know, which has a little insignificant verse in it, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, right. Kind of important, right? I mean, just turn to Ephesians 3-9 with me. I know I'm just going on a rabbit trail, but it is what it is at this point. Look at Ephesians chapter three verse nine, you know, and basically here's what it comes down to for James White. James White wants to spend an hour talking about this in Ephesians 3-9, whereas the King James proponent, the Texas Receptus advocate, he wants to spend an hour talking about Mark 16 nine through 20, okay. Look at Ephesians 3-9, it says, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world had been hidden God who created all things by Jesus Christ. And the discrepancy here in the underlying Greek is between the word fellowship and the word dispensation or administration. So instead of saying to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, it would be something like, you know, to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery or the administration of the mystery or something like that. I believe that's what the issue is because remember, I don't even remember the guy's name. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, the point is when you read that verse both ways, that's a pretty slight nuance and you know, you kind of walk away wondering like, what does that really change that now I realize that every word of God is important and I'm not saying that, you know, anything doesn't matter. But let's face it, folks, whenever the modern Bible version crowd wants to argue about a verse, it virtually never affects the price of tea in China. Whereas when King James people want to argue about a verse, it always has some hard hitting impact on the Trinity, on salvation, on the doctrine of hell. You know, James White's favorite thing to talk about is not even Ephesians three, nine. He loves Ephesians three, nine. He loves to argue about that one word, which again, you have to read the verse like 20 times to even try to figure out what the difference is in the actual meaning of the, of the verse in context. And you have to read it over and over again, trying to figure out like exactly what the difference of nuances. Here's the other one. Revelation 16 five, this is the other one that James White loves to make a big deal about. In fact, he devotes like many pages in his book to this one verse and he says like, this is just the death blow to the Texas Receptus. This is just game over for the Texas Receptus. I mean, he makes a huge deal about Revelation 16 five, right? And here's what it comes down to in Revelation 16 five. It says in the King James Bible, and I heard the angel of the waters say, thou art righteous O Lord, which art and wast and shalt be, because thou has judged us. Here's what James White is taking issue with, is that he believes that it should be thou art righteous O Lord, which art and wast the Holy One, because thou has judged us. So instead of which art and wast and shalt be, because thou has judged us, which art and wast the Holy One, because thou has judged us. Now obviously one of those is right and one of them is wrong. Obviously they can't both be right. One of them's right, one of them's wrong. But at the end of the day, is any doctrine possibly affected by that change? There's no doctrine that you could possibly affect with that change. And again, I'm not saying it doesn't matter. I do believe it matters. And I believe the King James is right and James White is wrong. Don't be wrong. But isn't that a silly thing to focus on? Just stop and think about it. You know, I go to bed at night and Revelation 16 five never bothers me. It just doesn't. I'm not just in bed just like, is it the Holy One as it shall be? You know, I'm just like, ah. But man, these other changes ought to bother you when they're taken out major verses on the Trinity, on the blood of Christ. You know, they're removing mentions of hell and so forth. Look, I don't want to swallow a gnat. Who here wants to swallow a gnat? No one. I'm not saying it doesn't matter. I'm not saying, hey, let's all just open our mouths and ride our bike on that one part of the green belt where there's a lot of gnats and just go, ah, and just mouth wide open, just gnats flying in, I was like, ah. Is that what I'm saying? Hey, go, you know, strain at the gnat. But sometimes, you know, sometimes it's easier just to let the thing roll down your throat and just move on with your life. But these people, they're straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. They want to just bicker and fuss about Revelation 16 five and Ephesians three nine. And it's like, you don't even have to watch the debate. You literally just look at the fact that James White is demanding. We have to talk about Ephesians three nine if you are going to talk to me about Mark 16 nine through 20. Now you say, well, why would he choose Ephesians three nine when it's just so nuanced and so minor and it's so hard to even figure out what's going on, whether it's even that different. Let me tell you why. Because he believes that in an argument about Ephesians three nine that he can win. He has a better argument in Ephesians three nine and he believes he can win. Why does he want to talk about Revelation 16 five? Because he believes he can win in a conversation about Revelation 16 five because he has more evidence to back up his position. Whereas his position on Mark 16 nine through 20 is a lot harder to defend. So this goes to show what James White really cares about. He just cares about winning. He just wants to win an argument. He'd rather argue about something that either doesn't matter or barely matters for an hour if he can win the argument than to talk about something that's actually relevant and actually matters where he isn't going to be having as easy of a time winning. Does that just tell you everything you need to know about this guy or what? It's not about teaching God's people. It's not about talking about things that matter so that God's people can be edified and so that people can be blessed and so people can be helped. It's just about I won. I did debates in South Africa. I have a PhD that I mailed in for with two box tops from a crackerjack lid and a hundred dollars that's an unaccredited fake PhD and I'm on fake PhD lists all over the Internet. Look at me. Look how smart I am. I won the debate on Ephesians three nine, which he didn't anyway. Jeff Riddle won the debate, you know, I should have remembered his name, darn it. But the point is that, you know, these people that strain it and swallow a camel, you know, it's not about feeding the flock. It's not about being a blessing to God's people. It's not about building people's faith. It's about building their ego. And that's really what the whole chapter is about, isn't it? Master, Rabbi, Father, right? It's all about their ego. Look how holy I am. Look how separated I am. Look how strict I am. And I'm so much stricter than you are, you know, and I'm I'm just a million times as holy as you are and so forth. And so these modern version crowd, it's funny, I always think of this. They strain it and that and swallow a camel. And then they're like, actually, it's straight out of camp. It's like, shut up. It's like you just proved my point right now, where all of your textual differences that you want to talk about are always things that don't affect doctrine. And then the stuff that we want to talk about always affects doctrine. That's why we're worried about it. That's why we care about it so much. He says, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they're full of extortion and excess. Out blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and the platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you're like undewighted sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead man's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto man, but within you're full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous and say, if we'd been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers, you serpents, you generation of vipers. How shall you escape the damnation of hell? Now I love this part where he says, you know, your fathers killed the prophets and you garnished their sepulchres. It's funny how in a preacher's lifetime he's preaching hard on sin and he's preaching things that are unpopular and he's getting all kinds of flack, he's getting all kinds of persecution, but then after he's dead all of a sudden he was wonderful. Now here's a better way of saying that perhaps, is that people lift up and praise preachers from the past that were a certain way, but then preachers that are like that in 2023, they don't want anything to do with. It's hypocritical, right? So they want to glorify the hard preaching of yesteryear, but then somebody gets up and preaches hard now and we don't want anything to do with them, right? And we reject the guy who maybe, or how about this, you know, people love the reformers of the past. I'm not necessarily talking about the Protestant Reformation or something, but just reformers, people who fix things, people who cleaned up things or straighten things out. But then someone comes along as a reformer in 2023 and wants to straighten things out and fix things and everybody wants to stay the same, right? And so this is human nature to glorify preachers of the past, but then to reject the preachers of today that are saying the same thing, you know? And one example of this, and I'm not necessarily condoning this man's teachings or condoning him as a Bible teacher in toto because of the fact that, you know, this guy has a lot of wrong teachings. I don't even, you know, I wouldn't even speak necessarily to his salvation even, but you go way back to the fourth century A.D. and you have a guy like John Chrysostom, okay? So you got John Chrysostom, and again, you know, I don't really know enough about him to really speak intelligently about all of his beliefs, but I have read his sermon on Romans chapter one, and I've read his sermons in a series, he did an eight part series called Against the Jews, okay? And here's what's funny about a guy like John Chrysostom, you know, John Chrysostom has been declared to be a saint in the Roman Catholic religion, in the Eastern Orthodox religion, and in some Protestant churches he's been canonized as a saint, because some Protestants also have saints, which is unbiblical anyway because we're all saints, amen? But he's been canonized in all major, you know, mainline branches of Christianity, quote unquote. I mean, all the countries of Europe that are Catholic, or Protestant, or East Orthodox, they would all say that John Chrysostom is a saint, okay? And I kid you not, his Romans one sermon says literally everything that I have ever preached about homos. Like there is nothing that I preach about homos that he does not say in that sermon. And in fact, he says it even meaner. I'm not kidding. You know, you say, well, you said they can't be saved, so did he. You said they're beyond hope of salvation, so did he. You compared them to animals. He said that they're worse than animals. He said dogs have value. He said it's insulting to a dog to even call the homos dogs. I mean, read John Chrysostom's sermon on Romans one, and he goes off. And then these same European countries will ban me from even entering the country for saying the same stuff that Saint John Chrysostom said. And I'm banned for saying literally the exact same thing, or something even milder than what he said. And what's interesting about John Chrysostom is that he actually, in his lifetime, got kicked out of his position and was sent off into exile in his lifetime. He was kicked out of his church and sent off into exile in his lifetime. But now he's, you know, he's a big time saint. But you know, what about his sermon on Romans one? What about his sermons against the Jews? You know, if anybody gets up and preaches those exact same things about the Jews or those exact same things about sodomites, all of a sudden they're this horrible, hateful, wicked person. So then why have they declared this hateful preacher, John Chrysostom, to be a saint? In fact, in the East Orthodox Church, he's their number one saint, I believe. I mean, he seems to be their main guy that they look to more than anyone, sort of like Augustine is for the Roman Catholics or something like that. And so that's a great example of, you know, a guy who's persecuted in his lifetime, and then later everybody exalts him, and then somebody else comes along and preaches the same type of things and everybody freaks out. Well, guess what? The truth hasn't changed since the fourth century AD. And what he preached back then is still true today, and I'm going to still preach it. Again, I'm not saying that he's right about everything or even a lot of things, but he really nailed it on the sodomites, okay? What a great sermon. In fact, one of my goals down the road is that I would like to do as a personal project, I want to translate John Chrysostom's sermon on Romans 1 from the original Greek into English, but I want to make him sound like an independent fundamental Baptist preacher, because the problem is that his sermons, he's a preacher, and he was known for being a hard preacher and being eloquent, but his sermons have been translated by Catholic priests. They've been translated by these queer little sissies, and so then the choice of words is kind of like, they don't really make it hit as hard. Like even when we use the John Chrysostom quote in Marching to Zion, I even spiced up that translation a little bit, still remaining 100% accurate to the Greek. So I would like to someday hopefully publish a book called John Chrysostom Rips Face and just have this book where it's like his sermon on Romans 1, his sermons on the Jews, and but actually have it translated by a preacher and make him sound like a preacher, since these are sermons that were preached, and man, that would really make some people's heads explode. You know, and look, I'm not saying that I'm going to change anything, because I'm just saying when you translate, it's not just that you're bringing meaning over, you're also bringing style. Right? And that's one of the things we love about the King James, not only is it 100% accurate with its meaning, it also has such a great, beautiful, majestic style. It's got style, right? It's got class, it is powerful, even just for its content. Even if it were just rudimentarily translated, even if it were just a real basic, like a Tyndale translation, it still has power because of the word of God. But then when you put it in the King James language, it's just, it's got that beautiful flowery eloquence. You know, I wish someone would do that for John Chrysostom. We all eventually do it myself, you know, bring him into the 21st century and make him sound like an independent fundamentalist Baptist preacher, ripping some face, amen. But you know, it's a perfect example of this attitude, this hypocritical attitude, that's all about glorifying dead people. Why? Because dead people can't hurt us. You know why I want to glorify dead people? Because they can't do anything, right? They can't defend themselves. And also you can rewrite who they were. You can reimagine them and make them be just like you. You can, you can turn them into a queer little sissy like you. You know what I mean? Instead of them being who they actually are. And so, uh, hypocrites, my friend, is what we're talking about. The scribes and Pharisees, uh, they're full of themselves. They're not about helping people. They're not about loving people. They don't care about others. They care about glorifying self. They have a lot of strict rules. Not because they're just trying to live a clean life, but because they want to lord it over you. They want to lord it over others. So when we read a chapter like Matthew 23, here's what we want to do. We want to read all those things and say, I don't want to be like the scribes and Pharisees, right? I want to love people. I want to care about others. I want to be humble. I don't want to exalt myself. I'm not going to call myself by a bunch of fancy titles. I'm not going to sit there and major on the minors and get all obsessive about little nitpicky legalistic minutia. I'd rather focus on the big things. Obviously everything matters on some level, but let's focus on the big things that matter most. And hey, I'm all for you being strict in your personal life. I'm for, you know, if you want to have a strict diet and a strict exercise program and be super strict about the way that you live your life and you want to follow God's commandments to a T and you want to even add some rules for yourself that aren't even in the Bible just cause you want to live a super clean life. Hey, go for it. But you know what? Don't try to impose that on other people and don't, don't get prideful thinking, well, I do all these extra rules and I'm super strict, therefore I'm better. Call me professor, call me master, call me rabbi, call me father. It's garbage. You know what you ought to call me is brother, right? You can call me pastor Anderson or call me brother Anderson, but I don't need to be called Dr. Anderson. You say, well, that's cause you don't have a doctorate. Well, neither is James White and that doesn't stop him. Neither does Kent Hovind unless you count fake, fake mail in doctorates, you know, where you mail into us, uh, uh, uh, uh, a little like PO box somewhere and send in your money and, and, and send in your, your substandard subpar fake thesis and get handed a fake doctorate, you know? But the point is, you know, I don't care if I had five PhDs, I don't want to go around being called doctor and I want to be called pastor Anderson. I want to be called brother Anderson. Why? Because lofty titles that are about separating you from other people and putting you on another level from other people. No, don't get me wrong. I'm not against doctors being called doctor. Just like I'm not against my dad being called father. You know, if you got a stethoscope around your neck, I'll call you doctor. Okay. But why do we need all these, why do we need all these titles to separate us from other people or to put us on another level? Because you know what? I'm not on another level than you. Okay. I have a position, I have a job, I have a role and a function in the church, but I'm not on another level than you spiritually. I put on my pants one leg at a time, just like you. Okay. Just like the Pope puts on his dress one leg at a time. I put on my Pope, I don't put on my Pope, but I do put on my pants one leg at a time. You know, I read my Bible and God speaks to me exactly the same way God's going to speak to you when you read your Bible. I don't have some special anointing. We all have the same anointing. It's called the Holy Spirit. And so be humble, follow God, love people. Don't get too big for your britches. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this great chapter and Lord God, I pray that we would all be good people and loving people and humble people. And Lord, help us as we perhaps introduce strictness into various areas of our lives in order to be better servants of yours. Lord, help us not to begin to teach four doctrines of the commandments of men. And Lord God, I pray that you bless us as we go our separate ways and Lord, give us all a righteous, healthy week and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.