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How to Avoid the Worst Woes in Life - Part 1
The Gospel of Matthew
Matthew 23:13-24
Sermon by Rick Crandall
(Prepared January 28, 2023)
MESSAGE:
*In this chapter you will hear the strongest words of condemnation Jesus ever spoke during His ministry here on earth.
Eight times Jesus called these religious leaders "hypocrites."
A. T. Robertson explained that "this hardest word from the lips of Jesus fell on those who were the religious leaders of the Jews.
The Lord's verbal thunderbolts of wrath were deserved by the scribes and Pharisees, due to their murderous conduct toward Jesus and their unholy treatment of God's things."
(1)
*Jesus called them hypocrites 8 times, and in the same verses He pronounced 8 woes on their souls.
Our English word "woe" is a strong exclamation of grief that comes from a serious affliction or misfortune.
It expresses deep distress, misery, or wretchedness.
*William Barclay explained that "the original word for 'woe' here was hard to translate because it included both wrath and sorrow.
There is righteous anger in the Lord's voice in this Scripture, but it is the anger of a loving heart that was broken by the stubborn blindness of these evil leaders."
(2)
*These scribes and Pharisees brought the Lord's condemnation on their own heads.
But their story can help us today.
We need to be as far away from them spiritually as we can possibly be.
We need to run away from their hard-hearted ways, and the Lord Jesus Christ will help us!
1. SO FIRST: DON'T HINDER PEOPLE FROM GOD'S KINGDOM.
-- HELP THEM GO IN!
*This is the Lord's message to us in vs. 13 where Jesus said, "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in."
*What did Jesus mean by this accusation?
Well, we have to understand that the only way into the Kingdom is through the King!
The only way into the Kingdom is through God's Son, the Messiah Jesus Christ.
As Jesus said in John 10:9, "I am the door.
If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture."
Then in John 14:5-6 , when Jesus was about to go to the cross: "Thomas said to Him, 'Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?' Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through Me.'"
*The Pharisees believed that the way into the Kingdom of Heaven was by keeping the multitude of petty regulations they had added to God's Law.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Trusting in Jesus Christ is the only way into the Kingdom of heaven!
So, by rejecting Jesus, they were slamming the door on themselves, and on anyone else who would listen to them.
*How can we avoid this woe?
Don't do anything to hinder people from God's Kingdom.
Help them go in.
And God will help us to help them!
*I love to hear stories about how God does that.
Charles Spurgeon was one of the great preachers of the 1800s.
One morning, he asked the Lord to direct him in what he should read for his morning devotions.
And he was strongly moved to read the book of Joel.
*When Spurgeon came to Joel 3:3, he read, "They have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink."
Or as the Living Bible says, "They divided up my people as their slaves; they traded a young lad for a prostitute, and a little girl for wine enough to get drunk."
In that moment of reading, the Holy Spirit made sure that the word "girl" caught Spurgeon's eye.
The preacher was curious about it, and he checked his concordance to see how many times the word "girl" was found in his KJV Bible.
To his great surprise, he found the word only occurred once.
*Later that same day, Spurgeon decided to take a walk.
He had gone about a block and a half, when he looked up to see a certain house.
Spurgeon knew that a radical atheist lived in that house.
This hard-hearted unbeliever was very ugly to anyone who believed the Bible.
But Spurgeon went up and knocked on the front door.
*In a growling voice, the atheist asked, "Well, what do you want?" "I would like to read the Bible to you," Spurgeon replied.
The atheist began his usual abuse, but then suddenly he stopped and asked, "Will you tell me how often the word 'girl' is in the Bible?"
*Mr.
Spurgeon immediately answered, "Once."
Then the surprised atheist said, "Tell me where it is found, and I will let you in."
Again, without delay Spurgeon answered, "Joel 3:3."
The shocked atheist then said, "Before I let you in, tell me: How did you know it?"
And Mr. Spurgeon answered, "I haven't known it two hours.
But in my morning devotions I read the book of Joel."
The atheist let Pastor Spurgeon come in, and in half an hour that lost man was down on his knees asking God to forgive his sins.
Praise the Lord! (3)
*How did that happen?
It was the supernatural Hand of God, working through the infallible Word of God, and a Christian like you and me.
God helped Charles Spurgeon that day.
And He will help us help other people enter the kingdom of heaven.
*So, don't hinder people from God's Kingdom.
Help them go in!
That's how to avoid the worst woes in life.
2. AND DON'T BE GREEDY.
-- BE GENEROUS!
*Tragically, the scribes and Pharisees in today's Scripture were living in the exact opposite way.
But in vs. 14, the Lord's message to us is: Don't be greedy.
-- Be generous!
Here Jesus said: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.
Therefore you will receive greater condemnation."
*Those men were so greedy that they were like savage animals, devouring widow's houses.
W. E. Vine thought they were seizing the widows' property by force, and they certainly had the power to do that, if their deceased husbands were behind on their temple tax.
John Phillips also explained that "one of the duties of the scribes was to make out wills and other deeds.
And whenever they were not satisfied with their usual fees, the scribes would swindle grieving, fearful widows by persuading them to deed their property over to the temple.
The scribes often did this, and whenever they did, they would receive a big portion of the money.
Then they would cover up this fraudulent activity with hypocritical prayers.
(4)
*Again in vs. 14 Jesus told these wicked rulers, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.
Therefore you will receive greater condemnation."
*God doesn't want us to be greedy.
He wants us to be generous.
That's why in 1 Timothy 6:17-19, Paul said this about prosperous Christians:
17. Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.
18.
Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share,
19.
storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
*John Gill explained that when we are generous, we are laying up a treasure in heaven, which we will enjoy to all eternity!
And God promises to bless generous givers.
As the New Living Translation says in Proverbs 11:24-25: "Give freely and become more wealthy; be stingy and lose everything.
The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed."
(5)
*Of course, Jesus Christ is our best model for generosity.
In 2 Corinthians 8:9, Paul spoke to the church about giving and said: "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich."
*God wants us to be givers, because HE is a giver.
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