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biblestudy: Matthew (Part Twenty-Nine)

Matthew 23 Assorted Questions from Members/ Avoiding Sin does not equate to Doing Good
John W. Ritenbaugh
Given 08-Sep-82; Sermon #BS-MA29; 74 minutes

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OK, we are going to use a good bit of the time tonight to answer a few questions that have been handed in by people like you, and our first one is going to come out of the book of Micah. Mike is a book we do not get into very often. There are 1 or 2 verses in here that are very well known, but the rest of the book seems to be something we kind of just ignore. That I guess there will be a time in God's wisdom when we will use the book considerably. But it's hardly ever used for sermons. Except around the Feast of Tabernacles, and then one or two of the verses are really used a great deal. But the verse in question here is in Micah 7 and verse 14, Micah 7 and verse 14. Very interesting question. It says feed your people with your rod, the flock of your heritage which dwell solitarily in the wood in the midst of Carmel. Let them feed in Bishan and Gilead as in the days of old. Now the question is this, could you explain what it may refer to? That is Micah 7:14. Possibly some of the church at the end time who are protected in these spots, meaning Carmel, Bashan, and Gilead. The questioner has the The idea or the thought that well maybe it'll be kind of a little place of safety. So are those places of safety, and then it says, or could it be after Christ's return when the Israelites again inhabit the land? The word solitarily is confusing. OK, first of all, we Always got to follow a biblical principle, and that is not try to lift a verse out of its context. And try to see it in a much larger context than just standing alone. And when you do that, it often begins to clarify what a particular verse means. Now in this case, it will lend some information. It's not going to clarify it a great deal. That is seeing in its context, but we are going to need a little bit of help from some other areas to help understand exactly what this verse is referring to. Let's go all the way back to verse 1. Where it says woe is me, for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the great gleanings of the vintage, there is no cluster to eat. My soul desired the first ripe fruit. Now first of all, we've got to determine who's speaking. Now it's not God Actually, the one who is speaking is Micah, and the further we get into this, the clearer it's going to become that what we are seeing here is a prayer. It's a prayer that Micah made and God had recorded, and it's also a prayer that is quite prophetic. It's very likely that God inspired it in the first place. Now we are going to see at the beginning of this prayer that Micah is following a biblical formula, and that is that in the beginning of his prayer he is giving reasons to God as to why he is going to say what he's going to say at the end when he begins to make his requests. And what he is talking about in the beginning is the terrible circumstances that are taking place within Judah. It was at this time. And so he begins by saying that, you know, woe is me. He had the, he had the feeling that he would, he was like somebody who went to gather the first fruit, you know, here you see a tree that is that is growing, and you see the fruit first in blossom, and then you see a little bud on there and then you see a little acorn sized thing and the first thing you know it's growing and growing. You see it ripen and you're anticipating the day whenever you're going to be able to go out there and pluck it. The only trouble was that Micah went out there to pluck it and it was all gone. See, and he said his soul desired the first ripe fruit, but there was nothing to eat, no cluster to eat. Now all it is, is a bit of imagery. Where he is trying to convey to you and me the feeling that was in him, a feeling of discouragement and disappointment. Verse 2, he gets a little bit more direct. The good man has perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood. They hunt every man, his brother, with a net. Now he's talking about the deceit that's filling the land, the violence that is filling the land. In verse 3, he talks about the ruler, the judge, and the businessman who has mischievous desire. Verse 4, he says the best of them is as a briar. You know what a briar is like. You stick your hand into it and you get, you get scratched. Ouch. The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen and of your visitation comes. Now shall be their perplexity. So Micah is seeing that Judah is getting ripe for picking. It's just about ready to go into captivity to be defeated, and he's saying to God, I can see that the time is just around the corner. That is the time of your visitation. And people now, as he is saying, are in perplexed perplexity. He says in verse 5, Trust you not in a friend. Put not, put you not confidence in a guide. Keep the doors of your mouth from her that lies in your bosom. You know you can't be saved or you can't trust any of these people. That's how bad the times are. Verse 6, for the son dishonors the Father and the daughter rises up against her mother. The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are men of his own house. And so therefore Micah says, I will look to the Lord. I will wait for the for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. So the general tenor now has changed from the telling how bad things are. To where he is showing that you can't put your trust in men, you've got to put your trust in God in order to get through this situation. Well, we are going to skip over several of the verses here and we will pick it up again. In verse 13, He's still praying. He says, notwithstanding, the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein for the fruit of their doings. Now he is beginning to conclude, conclude here now, and he sees that God's punishment upon Judah is going to be sure, there is no avoiding it any longer, that the people are not going to change, and all they are doing is reaping the fruit of all their wicked ways. Now verse 14, he begins to change the tenor of his prayer and begins to ask questions of God in the sense of making requests and also To speak a lot more positively about the future, to show God that he is confident that God is going to bring His people through this difficulty. And so his request is feed your people with your rod. Now the imagery he shifts over to is that of a shepherd. You see, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie to lie down in green pastures and so forth. And so he is asking God. That even in the midst of all of this difficulty that is coming on the land, that he would be sure to intervene and protect his people. Now we can begin to see here a bit of duality. Now this not only happened in Micah's time, but we can also begin to understand that if there is any duality here at all, he is asking in a sense for you and me that we be protected. In the coming difficulties because what Micah is referring to in Chapter 7 could just as easily be read in today's newspapers about all of the chicanery that is going on in business, in politics, the deceit, the envy, the jealousy, the, the bribery, the distrust that there is. And so how, how can we survive? In that kind of a circumstance. You know, in a way we are we are helpless people. For all visible purposes, we have no protection. OK, so Micah is saying feed your people with your rod the flock of your heritage. Which dwell solitarily in the wood in the midst of Carmel. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead in the days of old. Now let's go back Hold your finger there and let's go back to the book of Numbers. In Numbers, the 23rd chapter and in verse 9, and we will begin to zero in on this word solitarily. In Numbers 23 and in verse 9. Now Numbers 23 is right in the midst of the story of Balak and Balaam. Remember, Balak was the Moabite king, I believe he was, and Balaam was the high priest, the great Muckatyuck of the of Satan's false religion at that time. He was the Pope of his day. And Balak had hired Balaam to come and for money to curse Israel. Put a spell upon them or something. To do them bad so that they would have all kinds of misfortune. But every time Balaam opened his mouth, God inspired him to say a blessing instead of a curse. Now it's right in the midst of one of these blessings that we find something that is Distinctive about Israel and you'll begin to see it is also distinctive about the church. Verse 8. How shall I curse whom God has not cursed, or how shall I defy whom the Lord has not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold Him. Now the hymn here is Israel. Lo, the people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nation. Now what does he mean by that? They see, literally Israel was a kingdom of this world. They were God's kingdom. They were of this world. They were in the world. They had trading agreements and political arrangements with the other nations of this world. And yet here we see a prophecy about them dwelling alone. Well, what he means by this is that they are distinct. They are set apart from the other nations. They might be in the world, but they are not of the world. Now you see, we begin to see a parallel here with God's church. We are in the world, but we are not of the world, and so in that sense we dwell alone. And indeed God has tended to call people, you know, all over the place like so much salt and pepper. And very few of us live very close to one another, but even apart from that, We are a people distinct from even the other Christian religions of this world. We have doctrines that are distinct. We are the only ones who know what the true gospel is, and so we are alone. Now what we are beginning to get involved in here is the doctrine of sanctification, or as Mr. Brown was talking about last Sabbath, the laying on of hands, which is a visible sign of sanctification, a ritual that God goes through, that makes us go through in order for us to understand that we have willingly, voluntarily submitted to His government and as such have been set apart. From the rest of the world so that we too dwell alone. That is distinct or separated from the world. Now let's go to the book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy the 33rd chapter, Moses said something very similar. Deuteronomy 33 and in verse 28. Now let's begin all the way back in verse 26, Deuteronomy 33 and verse 26. Now remember this is a prophecy that Moses is making. He says there is none like under the God of Jehuron. Jessein is a name. For Israel. Who rides upon the heaven in your health and in His Excellency on the sky? The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms that is always to hold up. And he shall thrust out the enemy from before you. And shall say destroy them. Now Israel verse 28 then shall dwell in safety alone. The fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine, and also his heaven shall drop down dew. Now Israel certainly did not dwell alone, literally. But They were the only nation that God chose to be His people. They were the only nation that had the true God as their God. They were the only nation who had the true God, the Creator, as their king and ruler. They were the only nation who had the true God as their provider, as their defender and protector. who watched over their affairs in all parts of life. So surely they dwelled alone among all people. Nobody else was like them, you see. What we are beginning to isolate here is a sense of uniqueness. Among all the nations of the world. Now it goes one step further than that because remember it said there in Deuteronomy 33:28 that they shall dwell in safety alone. And so back to Micah 7. Micah 7 The word solitary here. Indicates Dwelling apart and unmolested. Now let's begin to put that back in there and we will define a few more terms. Micah says, feed your people with your rod. Now what he is asking God for is, as the shepherd to provide for his people in the midst of all of the difficulties. The rod was actually A means of protection. Remember when I went through Psalm 23? The rod was a short, stubby, strong stick. With which the shepherd would beat off. Intruders into his flock. He did not use his staff for that. The staff was not strong enough. The staff he used to prod the sheep, you know, to get them going in a certain direction or maybe to use his crook to pull them back into line, but his rod. It was a very stout piece of hardwood by which he clunked some animal over the head. Now that term has actually, actually came into the United States and what, what did they call out west, what did they call that gun that they carried on their side? They called it their rod. You see, that was their protector. OK, now Micah then is asking God to begin to supply his people's needs by giving them protection. You see, with the rod, he's not literally talking about food. But rather protection in the midst of all of the difficulty and then to make it specific that God knows who he's talking about, he says the flock of your, your heritage. Now again, if we apply this to the end time, we are talking about the church. If we apply it to Micah's time, we are talking about Judah and especially those people out of Judah that God was working with. Which dwell solitary solitarily in the wood in the midst of Carmel. Now Carmel needs to be explained a little bit. Carmel was a mountain that was in the northwestern portion of Israel. Carmel was one of the few spots in the land that received. A great deal of rain. And as such, it had the finest forests in all of Israel. So the wood is mentioned. Now what the Israelites did, that in time of difficulty, in time of invasion, when the Philistines were harassing or the Midianites were harassing. That if they were anywhere near Carmel, they would run into the woods and hide. The woods were so thick. It was so lush with growth at the time that individuals and families could virtually get lost in there, you know, even as today, people get lost out on mountainsides out west. It was impossible to move an army through that place because the trees were growing so close together that you could not, you could move individuals through, you could move small families through, but you could not move an army through unless you cut a road through, and that would take a lot of time. And so the Israelites always used Carmel as a place of refuge. They would run into it. At first sign of invasion and thus protect their lives. And so what Micah is doing here, he's appealing to God, Protect your people as if they are in Carmel. in the woods being protected. Then he says, let them feed in Bashan and Gilead. Now Gilead was a city in Bishan. Baishan was a district of Manassah. On the eastern side of the Jordan River. In what is today partly in Jordan and partly in Israel. But Gilead was to ancient Israel as The great central plains are to the United States. It was the bread basket. And and that was the area that they grew most of the grains and also the area that they grew most of the cattle, so it was a grazing and grain growing area. And so Micah is using these areas as examples of how he wants God to take care of his people. OK, now just to recap. He begins by recounting how terrible the times are. He ends the prayer by asking God. To feed his people by protecting them as if they were all alone, unmolested in the woods of Carmel. And then he says, while they are in Carmel, take care of them. As well as if they were living out in Gilead in Bishan. You see, as if they had enough food out there to take care of them for, for a lifetime. So you see, Micah did not hold back in asking God for big things. He went all the way He was asking God to really take care of his people. So that could apply to us at the very end. In type It no doubt applied to the time that Micah lived when Judah was coming under siege and Micah knew that the handwriting was on the wall and the country was just about to fall. OK, another question. Also in the Old Testament. This one is back in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 22. And verse 21. Where it says, and it shall come to pass in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah. Now the question is, who is my servant Eliakan? Is this a 4 type of Christ? Who then is talking? OK, now let's Again, go back a little bit further. Let's go back to verse 15. And we will read there till verse 25, and then we will begin to answer the question. Thus says the Lord God of hosts, Go get you unto this treasure, even unto Shebna, which is over the house, and say, What have you here and whom have you here that you have hewed you out a sepulcher here as he that hews him out of sepulcher on high and that graves and habitation for himself in a rock? Behold, the eternal will carry you away with a mighty captivity and will surely cover you. He will surely violently turn and toss you like a ball into a large country. There shall you die, and there the chariots of your glory shall be the shame of your Lord's house, and I will drive you from your station and from your state shall he pull you down. And it shall come to pass in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with thy robe and strengthen him with your girdle, and will commit, commit your government into his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder, so he shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none shall open, and I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring, and the issue, all vessels of small quantity from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons. In that day, says the eternal of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed and be cut down and fall, and the burden that was upon it shall be broken, cut off, for the eternal has spoken it. Now back to the question is, who is my servant Eliakim? Is this a poor type of Christ, and who then is talking? Now God is obviously the one who is talking through Isaiah. Now that answers that. Now is this a 4 type of Christ and who is Eliakan? OK, now first of all, let's answer the question about who is Eliakan. Now in its historical setting, Shebna It says in verse 15. With treasurer, which is over the house and say, Now, actually, he was more than treasurer. He was not only treasurer, but he was over the house. Which means that he was 2nd in command under the king. I, I'm the king at this time was Hezekiah. So Shebna. was at the very least a combination of treasurer and prime minister. And as such he probably handled the everyday affairs of state. Now, let's understand a little bit about what was going on. You can see the prophecy in regard to Shebna is very negative. Now what happened was this. At the time of this occurrence, Judah was under siege by Assyria. Assyria, the Assyrian king at the time was Sennacherib. OK, Sennacherib was invading Judah. Now Israel had already fallen some time before this also to the Assyrians. And Uh, Sennacherib was on his way to do a few things. A scare the daylights out of Judah. He was going to take over the country. in a bit, in a minute, we will be turning to some other verses and Feeling a little bit there. Now what God is revealing to Isaiah is this. That there has been a great deal of deceit and perfidy within the Judean government. Hezekiah He was a righteous man. Next to David and maybe equal with Josiah, he was the best king that that Israel ever had. David, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Were their best kings. Hezekiah, as I said, was a righteous man, and he embarked on a tremendous number of reforms. And pulled the nation almost up by its boot bootstraps by instigating a great number of spiritual reforms within the nation. But Hezekiah could not do everything. And even though he was able to do a great deal and he was looked upon by God as being a righteous man, one that did right and good in his eyes, He could not control every situation. Now Hezekiah, in the midst of this difficulty, was striving mightily to try to find out what God's will is or was. While all the while there were people who were working against him. Isaiah was counseling Hezekiah that look, this country is shot full of holes. It's not going to stand much longer. God's will is going to come to pass. And though he may give you a certain amount of peace, nonetheless, Judah is going to fall. So my counsel to you is I want you to cooperate with the Assyrians, pay tribute to them. Do whatever you need to do to appease them, but do not go to war with them. Now while Hezekiah was trying to carry out these affairs, it turns out that Shebna. was guilty of a great deal of disloyalty. Now Shebna's sin was that he was talking, speaking, and stirring up the country in just an opposite way. He was trying to rouse the people to patriotism and to fight against the Assyrians. And you know, to go to war, to war to them, all the while God was telling Isaiah, Look, I do not want you to go to war. I can't back these people any longer in good faith. They are so, so disobedient that I can't any longer abide it, and I'm going to give you a certain amount of peace as long as Hezekiah's alive, but I will not abide with you fighting against the Assyrians. Now Shebna was trying to make deals with Egypt to come to their side, their aid, and fight against, you know, in league as allies against the Assyrians. Now Isaiah 23 comes in here. And so God is revealing to Isaiah what's going to happen to Shebna. And what he is saying is that Shebna is filled with pride about Judah, about himself. In fact, he gives the example that he was ewing out a sepulcher that is a grave in the same area that all the kings were, you see where the kings of Judah and Israel were buried. And what God was saying, look, that's an example of how much he thinks of himself. He thinks he's running the country. He thinks he's the king. Well, I'll tell you what, Isaiah, I'm going to bring him down. I'm not, he said, I'm going to deal with him like you throw a large, a small ball in a great big large country. I'm going to just bounce him all over the place, you know, dribble him like a basketball. And he said when he's done, he's going to be pulled down out of his state, out of his station, and I'm going to replace him with Eliakim. Now Eliakim He was a contemporary of Shebna, a contemporary of Hezekiah, a contemporary of Isaiah, and as we can see here that he was a man of a great deal of sterling qualities, a man with a great deal of character, and you can see the way God speaks of him that he is a person of, you know, a strong constitution, one would think, because a lot of imagery here that does belong to Jesus Christ. Now let's make a little digression. And go to Isaiah the 36th chapter. Now in Isaiah 36, the time element is just a little bit later than what we saw there. In Isaiah 22. Now in verse 3 Then came forth unto him Eliakim, Hilkiaah's son, which was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joa, Aesaph's son, the recorder. Now, I read that because I want you to see that God has already begun to act. Shebna is no longer over the house. Eliakim is over the house. Eliakim has been, has replaced Shebna, and this was actually the beginning of a terrible decline for Shebna. And I'm sure that as God said in chapter 22, Shebna eventually ended up as a captive of the Assyrians. Now the conclusion of this event was that God intervened. For the sake of Hezekiah and Isaiah. And Sennacherib's army was destroyed without Hezekiah having to lift anything more than prayers. This is the time when 180,000. Men in Sennacherib's army were mysteriously found dead in one night. And just Just died They had, they had Jerusalem completely surrounded. And Isaiah and Hezekiah were praying like crazy. And one morning they got up. And no army And so they timidly sent out somebody to find out what was going on in the Assyrian camp. And the report came back that everybody was dead. 180,000 of them. Well, you see, that did not stop Judah from going, continuing their decline. And they of course then a few years later were taken into captivity by the Babylonians. Now back to Isaiah 22. Now is Shebna a type of Christ? It all depends on verse 25. Notice verse 25. In that day saith the eternal of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed and be cut down and fall, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off, for the Lord has spoken it. Now that is right in the context. Of what it says about Eliakin, not Shebna. It says in verse 23, and I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place. Then in verse 25, the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed. Now it's very obvious from verse 15 that Shebna was not in a sure place. He was not securely fastened. Now if verse 25 applies to Eliakan and it does appear. That that is the way it is, then Eliakkim cannot be a type of Christ. Because Christ, once he comes and establishes the kingdom of God, the government of God, he is not going to be removed. Nobody's going to take him out of that position. His kingdom shall last forever and ever. Now I'll tell you what I think happened. I think that verse 25 does apply to Eliakan. And what God is showing is That despite The carnal, very fine carnal character of Eliaan. That Eliakim too was going to find himself corrupted by all that was going on, all of the intrigue and deceit that was going on in the court of Hezekiah. You know, there is a saying That power corrupts. And that absolute power corrupts absolutely. And you know that every time that we have an election, There is always a period of time after the election that somehow or another the new man, the new regime, the new party, Fills us with hope. That maybe they will have the solutions. Maybe they will turn things around. Maybe the economy will stabilize. Maybe the budget will be reduced, you know, maybe money will be worth something. Maybe we will have a long period of peace. But you see, regardless of the personal integrity and character of the man who is the president or leading things, Eventually The system gets to him. Babylon is that way. And the real king and ruler of governments. Is Satan the devil And he throws things into confusion. And I am sure I just feel certain. That if verse 25 applies to Eliakim, That what we are seeing here is that despite the man's sterling qualities, that he too is going to be corrupted by the office. And by all the intrigue that was going on there and that he too was going to be pulled out of it. And he was going to go down OK. Another question comes from the New Testament in Matthew 27. Matthew 27. The question is verse 52, where are the saints whose graves were opened when Jesus died on Calvary? OK, the verse says in verse 51, and behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake and the rocks rent, and the graves were open, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose. Now if we take this verse in its time setting. And think of it in terms of The precise time that it occurred. Then There were no saints except for Christ. Because a saint is a sanct sanctified one. And the Bible says that a person is sanctified by the receiving of God's spirit. Now that is true, and therefore, since nobody received the Spirit of God. Until the day of Pentecost. There were no saints other than Christ until that time. Now what occurred here was that Christ died and was resurrected. In planning for this event, God also allowed the debts. Of apparently a fairly large number of people who were known in their community to be following Jesus Christ during his ministry. They were following him. They were not yet converted, but they were believing in him. They were believing what he was saying in much the same way that the apostles were believing in him. The apostles believed that he was the Christ, but they were not saints. They were not converted until the day of Pentecost either. So God, planning in advance for the return or the resurrection of Christ, allowed some who became sick to die. And then whenever they were buried, they were buried in no doubt in their local area, their village, their town, their city. And it was well known by their neighbors that they had died. Then whenever Christ died and was resurrected, these people that God had prepared beforehand arose from the dead and then, you know, walked into their city, towns, or wherever, went back to their families alive as if they, as if they had never been dead. Then on the day of Pentecost, And in that time afterward they received the Spirit of God and became saints. Now the writing of this Bye Matthew He is speaking of these people at the time that he was writing rather than at the time that it occurred. And so at the time of the writing of this, they were saints, they were converted, they did have God's spirit. They had died. They had been resurrected. OK then, Why did God do this? Well, he did it to amplify the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now turn with me back to 1 Corinthians, the 15th chapter and in verse 3. I Corinthians 15 and verse 3. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried and that He arose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he was seen of Sehos and then of the 12 and. That he was seen of above 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. And after that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles, and last of all he was seen of me also as of one born out of due season. OK. We have there then a listing of the people who saw Christ during that 50 days, or 40 days, the 40 days after he was resurrected and before He ascended to heaven. Now it's obvious that in that period of time that everybody in Judea and Galilee could not personally see Jesus Christ, see that he had been resurrected. And so what God then did is he prepared people before time. Who were also resurrected with Christ and were witnessed in their village being alive after they had been buried. Now what that tended to do then was prove to these people the possibility. The absoluteness of the resurrection of the of the dead, so that there would be no doubt that even though these people did not see Christ, they did see somebody that they knew who had come back from the dead. Now that's why he did it. He amplified the death of Jesus Christ so that there were multiple tens of thousands of witnesses. Even though there were only a small number who saw Christ resurrected, there were many, many thousands more who saw these other people who were resurrected. Now the question is, where are these saints whose graves were opened? Well, like Lazarus, they died a second time. And they are in their graves. Now it says here in I Corinthians 15. And in verse 22, for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Now these people were resurrected as mortal human beings, even as Lazarus was resurrected as a mortal human being. The reason I know that is because of what it says in John 3. 13 And from heaven. That's Jesus Christ. He's the only one who was resurrected as a spirit being, as a born Son of God. These others simply were resurrected as mortal humans, and they died again. Getting to be old hat, is not it, Mr. Roberts? Well I believe that Josephus does mention it. He mentions it in terms of Uh, That one who was supposed to have been resurrected, something like that. But he doesn't record it as a fact. Uh, but there are, there are a couple of mentions. Of of that Uh In that light But of course the Bible is the only real substantial one. The one that we can, the only one that we can really rely upon. So Verse 23, but every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits, afterward, they that are Christ at His coming. And so these people died and they are going to be resurrected again. When they are resurrected again the second time, they will be spirit beings. At least they will know what What to do. I mean, they have gone through it. OK, another question. A lot of questions for you tonight. OK, could you explain what is implied by the scripture in I Corinthians 7:11, 1st part of the verse. In I Corinthians 7, the whole context is marriage. And Of course connected to that is separation and divorce as well, both of them mentioned briefly in a period of about 5 verses. Beginning back in verse 7 or verse 8, he says, I say therefore unto the unmarried and to the widows, it is good for them if they abide even as I, but if they cannot contain, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn. Or to be troubled and uneasy and burned with passion. And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, let not the wife depart from her husband. Now he's not quoting directly, but he is paraphrasing what is recorded in Matthew 19:6, where Jesus said that there is no ground for divorce. That is acceptable to God. That is between two converted people. The only ground that he gives is fornication, see, which is not, would not instigate a divorce, but rather an annulment. And so Paul reinforces that. He says under the married. And it is implied there those. Marriages in which both are converted, the husband and the wife, I command, yet not I but the Lord, let not the wife depart from her husband. But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried. Now what you're saying here is that there might be Such a bad state of affairs between a man and a woman, both converted. That for whatever the reasons are, In order to preserve them for for purposes of spiritual salvation. It might be better for them to separate. Live alone so that they can be at peace, so that they are not always at war with one another, stirring up bitterness and hatred and as Paul said, becoming defiled. Just having their entire attitude twisted and perverted because of a state of warfare that exists between those two people. Now I think a natural question might be how are they going to be in the kingdom of God under that circumstance. Well, I do not think they would So what God is saying here is He is giving permission to people who might be in that circumstance. To go ahead and separate. And maybe even go through with getting a legal divorce from the state. But he said, I do not recognize your divorce. You cannot remarry. That's why he says let them remain unmarried. But in order that they might be saved, that they might be in His kingdom. He lets them separate and maybe go through a legal divorce, but they cannot remarry, which shows very positively that God does not recognize the divorce even though the state might. But he does allow them to separate so that there will be peace. And maybe enable them to make it into God's kingdom, that maybe even they can be reconciled as the verse go on or be reconciled to her husband and let not the husband put away his wife. OK, One final Uh, I think I'm going to skip that. That doesn't involve many people anyway. OK, I want to finish Matthew 23 tonight. Let's go back to Matthew 23. OK, this is the Great chapter on the scribes and the Pharisees who were the most prominent. Of the religions at the time of Jesus Christ, they were the ones who had the most influence on the people and therefore they were the ones that Jesus seemed to have more contentions with than any others. Now the common conception is that A Pharisee is simply a person who is a nitpicker. And I hope that I can get that. That idea out of your mind. I do not mean that they were not nitpickers because they were nitpickers. But that is not the real problem. The real problem extended to something far more serious than that, something that was latent. I would say potentially latent within all of us. And I believe that that is the reason why there is so much of it here in the New Testament. I mean so much about the scribes and the Pharisees. Now, Their major problems. might be able to be summed up in several cliches, and indeed we will use them. Perhaps one of the best is that they had lost all sense of proportion about what the purpose. Of religion was the purpose of life. And this is where the nitpicking begins to come in. But see, way over and beyond behind that motivating that is that they had lost all sense of proportion. The entire thrust of their lives was selfish and negative. They avoided sin. And that part was good. We're going to see a verse here reiterated to you once again that Jesus expects us to be careful, to be just as careful as the Pharisees were, but not get involved in all of the nitpicking things that they got involved in to try to keep from sinning. Because all of that effort that they went through to keep from sinning kept them from doing good. And so they spent all of their time in a negative approach to things, avoiding sin. They did not spend any of their time doing good. The entire thrust of their way of life was negative, not positive. Now in Matthew 23 and in verse 4, He says, for they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne. Now these heavy burdens came about in all of the multitude of regulations that they had to protect the law, and the purpose of it was to avoid sin. So there were hundreds of regulations about the Sabbath, hundreds of regulations about how far you could walk, whether you could squash a bug on the Sabbath, about what you could do in regard to eating and drinking and threshing and winnowing and all kinds of hundreds of them. And those things were a tremendous burden. So that it did not give them any time to do anything except to avoid sin. And lay them upon men's shoulders, but they themselves, notice this, will not move them with one of their fingers. Now there in a nutshell was their major problem. They went to tremendous extents to avoid sin, but they wouldn't lighten anybody's burden. Now that's the beginning of the problem. They did not relieve the burdens of the widow. They did not relieve the burdens of the poor. They made sure that they did not sin. And we are extremely careful in doing such things, so they emphasize. The wrong thing. Now down in verse 23. is a very important verse. Jesus said, Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and Anna and coming and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. Now verse 23 has this statement, These you ought to have done. And it is referring back to The being very careful about sin. See the tithing of Mint Annison coming. Now on the one hand, Jesus is complimenting them for being careful to avoid sin. But he says do not leave the other undone. The judgment, mercy, and faith. The judgment, meaning discernment, common sense, wisdom, the ability to perceive that somebody is in need, the ability to look at another person and see the problems that the person has, and maybe do something to relieve that person of that difficulty. Even if it be in timely advice. Maybe even correction or rebuke, you see, they would never do those things. They would lift up their skirts in holy horror and run away from sin. Now down in verse 25 he says, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within are full of extortion and excess. Now hear this really. illuminates to us their blindness. Now Jesus said, look, you go to very Great carefulness. To make sure that the pot and the cup are clean. Now what he said here about being full of extortion and excess was that even though they went to a great extent to make sure that the pot or cup was clean and therefore they would not be defiled by it. But they paid almost no attention at all as to how they got the food that they put in the pot. They might have gotten the food by taking advantage of some poor farmer out on the road who needed a few pennies in order to feed his family, and taking advantage of this man's condition, beat the price down. Down, down, till they practically stole the food from the poor farmer. They might have Gotten wealthy. By not paying their employees anywhere near enough for the labor that they performed. They might have Paid no attention. To how they ate the food. They might have filled the pot many, many times and made a glutton out of themselves. So you see, they, they missed totally. The proper thrust of God's law. And their motivation was to make sure that they did not sin. And the other side of the coin, the flip side. They missed that entirely. And so they did not do any good. All they did was avoid sin. Now there is a powerful lesson for you and me. Without even realizing it, we can spend our energies avoiding sin just like the Pharisees did. They had a form of righteousness. God said that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will not be in the kingdom of God. He admitted that they had a form of righteousness. Now the way that we can exceed the Pharisees is to do good. You know, if you look at it properly, If we are doing good, you do not have time to sin. And that was the thrust of Jesus' ministry. If you're doing good, it's almost impossible to sin. Now with that positive approach, you'll become like God. OK, now let's pick it up here. In verse 27 and 28, where he again picked up the same approach that these people had that they outwardly appeared righteous, I'm sure that they looked good to all their neighbors, and Jesus compared them to whited sepulchers, which was a custom that those people got into in trying to avoid sin. Because God surely said back in the book of Numbers, Numbers 19, that you shall not touch a dead body, because if you touch a dead body, you become defiled. You are unclean until you wash yourself. Well, what the Pharisees did, they said, Well, if you shouldn't touch a good good body or a dead body in order to be even more righteous, why do not we avoid even stepping on their tomb? And so they took the tombstones and they painted them white so that they would not step on a tomb even accidentally and become defiled, even not intending to. And so Jesus said, Well, you're just like those whited sepulchers. You look good on the outside, but inside you're, you're just like men's bones. You're all putrid on the inside. He's saying that their motivation was wrong in, in, in their lives. OK, verse 29. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous, and say, if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of prophets. Wherefore be you witness unto yourselves that you are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill you up then the measure of your fathers, you serpents, you generation of vipers. How can you escape the damnation of hell? Now here he was saying, Showing Their misunderstanding of their nature. Now sometimes When we are counseling someone for baptism. We will ask the person. A hypothetical. Rhetorical question. That if you were Adolf Hitler, Would you do the same things that Adolf Hitler did? Now it's often very difficult for people to picture themselves in that kind of a circumstance. But remember, the question is merely rhetorical. We're not after, you know, you to actually put yourself in Hitler's place. What we are after is to see if you understand the principle behind your nature. And the proper answer to that question is yes, I would do what Hitler did. And the reason is that because we have the same nature that Hitler did. The educational forces on our mind, the experiences that we would have in the environment, would tend so powerfully to mold us into that same form and shape. I'm speaking of a person's mind. That the chances are almost certain. That we would think and react the same way that Hitler did. Now it's not a question. Of just the environment. that one grows up in. It is a question of environment and nature. And that's what Jesus is getting at here. These Pharisees did not understand human nature, and in their self-righteousness they felt that if they were in the same circumstance, they would not behave as their fathers had done in killing the prophets. Well, Jesus is shaking his head at me, he says, You poor fools, you do not even get it. He says you're just as wicked as your fathers are, and you can't even see it. You're so busy avoiding sin, you do not even understand your nature. See, this is what Paul wrote about in Romans 7. He said until the knowledge of God's law came to him. Romans 7:7. He said he did not understand it. But he said when the commandment came, he says when he understood my nature, he said, sin revived and I died. And then later on in that same chapter, he says, I know that in me there dwells no good thing. That he knew that there was a tremendous battle. In a person's mind, in his mind, between the nature that God was filling him with. And the nature that still remained within him from carnality. Now these Pharisees did not even see that. Verse 34, he says, Wherefore behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them you shall kill. Jesus is now prophesying and crucify, and some of them shall you scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city. Now see, here he's prophesying. That their condemnation is going to come upon them, that one of these days they are going to realize that they did exactly the same things that their fathers did. The very things that they said that they wouldn't do, they would do. And they would make martyrs out of his followers, and indeed they did. By Acts the 7th chapter we have our first martyr. In Stephen. And who does it say there that the others gave consent? Sure, the apostle Paul, who was a Pharisee. And he says that he was esteemed above his fellows, which means that he had a very high position in the hierarchy. Even though he was a young man. Who knows, he might have been in the crowd who listened to some of Jesus' teaching. You can't tell Because he was certainly in Jerusalem at the time of Stephen's death. And he certainly was witness to some of the preaching of the apostles. And he certainly gave consent. To a great deal of persecution. So Stephen was killed, James was killed, and to the best of our knowledge, all of the apostles were killed, martyred, with the exception of John. And I'm sure that there were many others besides Stephen, who was not an apostle or an evangelist or a minister who were killed as well because of the persecutions that came about. Verse 35 that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zechariahs, son of Barakias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar. Now there is a little bit of difficulty with this verse. Because of the name of Barrachis. If one looks back into II Chronicles 24, where Uh, Zacharias. Martyrdom is mentioned. You will not find Barrecas's name listed as his father. Now there are 3 possible answers. For that Number one, I think is the least likely, and that is That the word Barracas is what the commentators call a gloss, a mistake. That a scribe made at one time. And it just then continued to be copied year after year and found its way even into the King James. That's one possible explanation. The second is that this Zacharias, who was killed, the son of Barakias, is not mentioned in the scriptures, and that it is an event that occurred apart from those things that are recorded but is a true event. That is a possibility. The 3rd, and I think the most likely, is that it is entirely accurate. That Zacharias was indeed the son of Berea. Now II Chronicles 24 gives the story, and it mentions Zacharias as being the son of Jehoiada. Now Jehoiada lived a very long time, 130 years. He lived one of the greatest men of all time. It was Jehoiadah who was responsible for many of the reforms that were instituted during the ministry of several of Judah's kings. He outlived a great number of them. But in the Hebrew, It is entirely Uh, proper. To list a person as a son of another person even though he is not literally a son but rather a descendant. And so Zacharias could have been a grandson or a great grandson. And what is listed in II Chronicles 24 would be entirely correct and would agree then with what Jesus said in Matthew 23. And it is highly likely that Zacharias was a grandson of Jehoiada, who was a very, very, in fact, he was dead at that time. At the time that Zacharias was killed. And so Zacharias could have been 40 years old, very easily. 40, 50, 60 years old even. And still been a grandson of Jehoiada. Now there is another thing here that many of you are aware of, maybe some of you are not. Why did he mention Abel in Genesis and Zacharias in 2 Chronicles? Well, he did it in order to encompass all of the period of recorded history in the Old Testament because in the Hebrew Old Testament, II Chronicles is the last book. So what he is saying here is from the first book to the last book, from the first mar martyr to the last martyr in the last book, you people have been killing. My profits And he said it's not going to stop. It's going to keep right on going because you people are going to make martyrs out of my followers, and indeed they did. Verse 36, verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets and stone them which are sent unto you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate, for I say unto you, you shall not see me henceforth till you shall say, Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. Now what we are seeing in verse 37, 38, and 39. is really A poignant tragedy. Of rejected love. Because this very Jesus who is speaking to these people in the flesh was the very same God who created man, the very same God who called Israel out of Egypt and led them under Moses, the very same God who entered into a covenant with them and who sent prophet after prophet. You know, time after time. In order to try to win Israel back to going the right way. So These 3 or 4 verses here, 3 verses show a great deal about the character of God in the midst of His plan. The first thing is it shows God's patience. You or I, if we were rejected the way God has been rejected, would get exceedingly uptight, frustrated, angry, and after a while we would strike out. In our anger And maybe just blast mankind from the face of the earth. But God has a purpose. And God knows that he has the power. And the wisdom to carry this thing through to enable as many as possible to receive salvation. And so he has very patiently restrained himself. And I'm sure it must at times almost bring him to the point of frustration that mankind. Continues to go the way that they are going. But it does show his patient that despite Israel's record, he carries on with his plans. Also, it tends to show the means. Of Christ's appeal. That his appeal is not forceful at this time. But rather his appeal is through reason. His appeal is through a man's history, his emotions, whatever. Now in the kingdom of God, when God establishes his government in the millennium, it's not going to be like that. God is going to change his approach. He says he's going to rule with a rod of iron. And there is not going to be the kind of liberty that man has today. I do not mean that man will not be free to exercise his free moral agency to a great extent. He certainly will. But the restraints are going to be on. God's going to put the brakes on, but right now that's not his approach. His approach now is basically hands off. You can do just about anything you want. OK, this verse also shows The deliberation of man's sin, he said, how often I would have gathered you as a hen gathers her chickens. But you would not. That's a very positive statement. Of rejection by man. And it shows that man's rejection is thought out. And Paul reemphasizes this back in Romans 1. When he shows that the leadership willingly rejects the knowledge of God's existence. Romans 1:18. And so Jesus is showing here that man's rejection of God is willing. That man is A hearing and man is rejected. And then finally it shows the consequences of that rejection because he is prophesying here of Jerusalem's destruction that man's way is going to come on his head as a result of this, that it's going to have to go that way in order for man to be convinced that there is a better way of doing things.

JWR/aws+/

 

 

Sermon Topics

False Gospels

Jesus Christ's Return

Life after Death

Repentance

Resurrection

The Gospel

The Kingdom of God