The Warning of Jesus Concerning the Scribes

Introduction: The Setting and Context of Jesus' Warning

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, March 20th, 1988, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:14 Mark, chapter 12, and follow as I read verses 35 through 40.

0:25 For those who have not been with us for our consecutive expositions in the Gospel of Mark, perhaps just this little word about the setting of this section, Mark is describing, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, some of the activities of our Lord on the third day of what we have commonly designated as the Passion Week. He has been in the midst of the temple with his own disciples, the religious leaders, and what he himself calls the great multitude. And drawing near to the end of that day, he records, of the activity of our Lord Jesus, in verse 35, and Jesus answered and said, as he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that the Christ is the Son of David? David himself said in the Holy Spirit, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. David himself said, The Lord himself calls him Lord, and whence is he his son?

1:43 And the great multitude heard him gladly. And in his teaching he said, Beware of the scribes who desire to walk in long robes, and to have salutations in the marketplaces, and chief seats in the synagogues, and chief places, at feasts. They that devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.

2:19 These shall receive greater condemnation. As we have already alluded in this portion of the word of God read in your hearing, we find our Lord in the outer court of the temple just a few days before the beginning, the celebration of the Jewish Passover. He is in the company of the inner circle of the twelve, the multitudes of the common people, and also various representations of the official religious leaders of the Jews. On this particular day we have followed Mark's account of how our Lord wisely and effectively, silenced the four different questioners who came to him, so effectively silencing them, that in verse 34 of this chapter Mark says, No man after that dared ask him any question. So having effectively silenced all of his questioners, our Lord now takes the initiative and becomes, as it were, the aggressor himself. And in so doing, he asks a question

3:43 relative to the current teaching of the scribes with reference to the issue of the identity of the Messiah. And he does so for two basic reasons. He is desirous of exposing the scribes as unsafe guides in the interpretation of Scripture, and also he is concerned publicly, to declare his messianic identity as David's son, but also as David's Lord. Now having exposed the incompetence of the scribes as public religious teachers in verses 35 to 37, our Lord now is about to expose them as unworthy examples as public, religious leaders. He exposes them as incompetent public teachers. Now he will focus on an expose of their unworthiness to be examples as public religious leaders. They are not only poor interpreters of Scripture, they are wretched examples as leaders.

The Recipients of Jesus' Warning

5:08 And so, in verse 34, Mark says, And so, in verse 34, Mark says, And so, in verses 38 to 40, we have Mark's condensation of what is a much lengthier discourse recorded in Matthew chapter 23 of the warning of Jesus concerning the scribes. And as we think our way through the passage, will you notice with me first of all the recipients of this warning of Jesus. As Jesus warns, as Jesus warns, as Jesus warns concerning the scribes, who are the specific recipients of his warning? Well, in the parallel passage in Luke 20, 45, the answer is very clear and very explicit. Perhaps you'll desire to turn there with me as I read this one text. Luke chapter 20 and verse 45. And in the hearing of all the people, And in the hearing of all the people, he said unto his disciples, beware of the scribes.

6:20 So the recipients of the warning are very specifically and clearly delineated by Luke in the parallel passage. You have the disciples and you have all of the people. So the direct recipients of the warnings, according to Luke, were the disciples. So we have the direct recipients and then the indirect recipients.

6:47 They were the crowds or the vast multitudes gathered in the temple. Now, first of all, consider why he would have directed his warning particularly to the disciples. He said unto his disciples in the hearing of all the multitude. Well, the answer seems to be this.

7:13 As the opposition to our Lord increases, he is making it more and more evident in public that to follow him is to abandon the majority of the religious leaders of his day. To embrace Jesus as Messiah and his ministry as God's prophet, priest, and king, is in effect utterly to reject the scribes and the Pharisees as in any way leaders worthy to be followed either in their interpretation of the scriptures or in the pattern of their lives. Now, he has already predicted to his own in private that he would, during this very visit to Jerusalem, be, taken into the custody of this very group called the scribes and that they would be instrumental in handing him over to the Roman authorities which in turn would result in his death. Turn back to chapter 10 just to refresh your memories. In chapter 10 in verse 32, Mark says, and they were on the way going up to Jerusalem and Jesus was going before them.

8:40 and Jesus was going before them. And they were amazed. And they that followed were afraid. And he took again the twelve.

8:50 Here was a private but clear intimation of what would happen. And he began to tell them the things that were to happen unto him, saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priest and the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles. So our Lord has already predicted that in conjunction with this very visit to Jerusalem, the hostility of the scribes against him would reach such a fevered pitch that they with the chief priest would be instrumental in handing him over to the Gentile authorities that he might be executed. And in the light of this fact, fact, our Lord is concerned to immunize forever his followers against these wretched, hypocritical religious leaders who would be the leading instruments from the human side in precipitating his own death. But then, he does not take them aside privately to direct this warning to them. The recipients of the warning, though directly, were the disciples. There were the indirect

10:15 recipients, namely, the multitude. Look at the end of verse 37 in Mark 12, the verse before our text for this morning. And the great multitude heard him gladly. So the multitudes who have listened in

10:37 the official teachers, having just seen him, utterly baffle the official teachers of the scribes by showing from the word of God that David addressed someone as his own Adonai, his own sovereign and Lord, and therefore Messiah had to be more than merely David's son. He had also to be David's Lord, and only God was David's Lord. Therefore, Messiah would be son of God as well as son of David. And when he so effectively confounded and refuted these scribes, the common people, the vast multitudes, were hearing him gladly. And what seems to be is a situation where the multitudes are still hanging upon his words, and yet his eyes are directed to the band of his own immediate disciples, and he speaks directly to his disciples, but with sufficient volume that the entire multitude in the temple court could hear the warning about the scribes, specifically directed to the disciples,

11:55 but indirectly exposed to the entire auditory on that occasion. And as I was thinking of an illustration of how this happens, often with public teachers, I thought of the many times when in the midst of preaching, one of us will say, now, you children, listen to what pastor's going to say to you. And we try to zero in on little groups of the children, and we speak to the children in the hearing of the entire congregation. Sometimes we may say, and to you among us are strangers to the grace of God, and though we may not single you out and look directly at those whom we know make no profession of faith, we speak in terms of our verbal categories and say, oh, my unconverted friends, how long will you go on in your sin? And we are speaking to the unconverted in the hearing of all. Well, that's the kind of situation that we have here in this passage. Try again, using the faculty of imagination given to you by God, to reconstruct the situation. The tension is mounting. Four different people have come with

13:14 questions in which they thought they would entrap our Lord. Instead, our Lord has utterly confounded and baffled them. Now he takes the initiative and asks a question of them, and he has shown up the scribes before the very people that they were supposed to have as their following, but who are now in their affections and interests attaching themselves in some way to this rabbi who has come down from Nazareth, this Jesus of Nazareth. And now in the midst of that setting, with all of its building pressure, he speaks to his disciples in the hearing of the multitudes. Now having looked at the recipients of the warning, notice secondly the substance of the warning. In this warning concerning the scribes, there are basically three elements. A command, a description, and a prediction or a prophecy. First of all, a command. There is a command to beware of the influence of the scribes. And in his teaching he said,

The Substance of the Warning: A Command to Beware

14:31 Beware the scribe. Now when he used the word scribe, everyone in the temple that day would have understood exactly who he was referring to. These were the guardians and teachers of the Torah. These were the official leaders and guardians of the way of life revealed by God in the scriptures, and as they thought, hedged up by the multiplicity of their rabbinic traditions and regulations.

15:10 Now having exposed their incompetence as teachers, our Lord now issues a warning in the present imperative, be continually on the lookout for the scribe. And if we were to give a literal rendering of Mark's account of it, it would be this, be continually looking away from them. That is, do not in any way set them up as valid patterns and models of the scribes. So our Lord gives a command, a command, the essence of which is that his disciples are to beware of the influence of the scribes. And again, trying to think of how this would have sounded on the ears of the hearers that day. Can you imagine what would happen?

16:11 If hearing or finding out in some official publication that three months from now, there was to be a gathering of all of the cardinals from all over the world at St. Peter's in Rome, and the Pope was going to convene the College of Cardinals in order to make some great official pronouncement with reference to the future of Catholicism. And St. Peter's is packed.

16:41 With all of the cardinals and their finery, they can be identified by the miters upon their head and their red robes and all of the rest. And as many of the faithful and devout Catholics from all over the world that one could imagine have crowded into every place in St. Peter's Cathedral. If in the midst of that, just when everyone was silent, the Pope was about to rise and give a blessing.

17:10 Someone thundered with a stentorian piercing voice from the back of that vast cathedral. Beware of the cardinals. Can you imagine what the response would be among the vast multitudes of the faithful who had gathered? In their eyes, the Pope and his cardinals, the official interpreters of the scriptures.

17:47 Now that's something akin to what would have been felt that day in the temple. So the substance of the warning is first of all a command to beware of the influence of the scribes. Then secondly, there is a description of the most observable vices of the scribes. A description of the most observable vices of the scribes.

The Substance of the Warning: Description of Observable Vices

18:16 Now, if you have the time this afternoon, read Matthew 23, for in Matthew 23, you have the fullest exposure of the vices of the scribes. And as I compared the full exposure in Matthew with the summary statement of Mark and of Luke, it appeared to me, and I would not be dogmatic, but it appeared to me that by the guidance of the Spirit, Mark and Luke, focused in upon the most observable vices of the scribes. This is not a complete catalog of their vices. It may not even be an exposure of the worst of their vices, but it is a concentration upon the vices which the common people could most quickly observe, and with which they could most easily, relate. For remember, he spoke to his disciples in the hearing of the multitude. And therefore, in this description, we have a description of the most observable vices of the scribes. And I wrestled with whether we had two or three categories.

19:38 I believe there are three, not for neatness, homiletically, but because I do believe there is a subtle, but real, distinction in the first two categories, though I would not be ready to spill blood for that distinction. The first strand of the description is this. Their desire for excessive personal and official recognition. Look at the text.

20:03 And in his teaching he said, Beware of the scribes who desire, he uses a present participle of the verb to will. They are constantly, willing or desiring to walk about in long robes and carrying over the force of the participle who are continually desiring salutations in the marketplaces. What was the discernible, observable vice upon which our Lord is focusing in this description? I believe we can describe it as the scribes' desire for excessive personal and official recognition. Notice what he says. He says they constantly desire to draw attention to themselves by distinguishing external dress and appearance, and once garbed in that dress and robed in that appearance, they walk about. In other words, even when they have no business to do, they walk about.

21:17 In order to draw attention to themselves. And where the common peasants ordinarily wore varied colored common robes, you could always mark out a scribe and a Pharisee by his pure white robe with its abnormally wide fringes, so that if you had even 20, 40 or 20, 50 vision, from 50 to 100 yards away, you could always spot a scribe because he was prancing about. We had a word when I was a kid, at least my dad did, it's from another generation, and some of you older folks, you'll appreciate this. They were the ecclesiastical dandies of their day. They were the dandies. They dressed up in their white robes that they knew immediately would mark them out from the common masses, and they strutted about in these robes. Here we are.

22:17 There was this desire for excessive personal and official recognition, and then our Lord says, and they constantly desire greetings in the marketplaces. They strutted through what we would call the bazaars in current Middle Eastern culture. Not marketplaces such as we have in our malls and other places, but open marketplaces where masses of people gathered. And you see the picture of them is that once having put on their distinguishing clerical garb and become the ecclesiastical dandies of their day, they pranced about like peacocks with their tails spread to the full, so that when they would go where the most people were, they could hear without number. And we are told by some who've studied the culture of that day and the practices that everyone except an artisan sitting at his bench was expected to rise and give him a special greeting. We are told by others that they were expected to bend down and to actually kiss their hand or their feet. And see any modern counterpart of someone in fine ecclesiastical garb having people

23:44 kisses ring? The parallels are uncanny. But what is behind all of this? Luke says they love the salutations.

23:57 Well you see the person who makes himself conspicuous for no good reason in his dress and then in that knowledge of his conspicuous dress walks about where the masses of people are seeking to suck out of them these special greetings and special tokens of recognition and all that. For many a person has an insatiable thirst for personal and official recognition. He is like a sponge soaking up in some sick and horrible and wretchedly spiritually degenerate way, the recognition and the adulation of his fellow creatures. But then our Lord focuses secondly in this description of their observable vices, not only their desire for acceptance. but also their desire to be the most important of all of us in the world. personal and official recognition and I do believe there's a distinction he also focuses upon their desire for excessive personal and official exaltation look at verse 39 and still the concept of desiring and desiring chief seats in the synagogues and chief places at feasts

25:20 you see there are some people like some of the pathetically twisted young people of our day and my heart grieves for them I'm not angered at them I grieve for them who feel the only way to attract attention and have somebody know that I exist is to have my hair four different colors and spiked out in abnormal and unnatural configuration well you see they have a craving for personal recognition but they certainly know they're not going to win a beauty contest or be given the first place of honor in this or that social situation so there is you see a distinction there are some who thirst for personal and official recognition but they have no thirst for personal and official exaltation but not the scribes they had this constant desire that they would occupy chief seats in the synagogues

26:22 and chief literally couches at the feasts now what is our Lord talking about well in the configuration of the synagogue there was a platform similar to what we have here in fact a simple reformed church building is in many ways patterned after an old synagogue the congregation would sit there would be a raised platform the word of God the books of the law the Torah would be in a special place a special body box and there would be seats near to the front of the platform where the leading men the elders prominent men would be seated in those were the chief seats the first seats the seats of first rank and they would be pointed out as these seats are towards the congregation so that anyone sitting in them could be most visible by the entire congregation and himself could look out upon the entire congregation well Jesus said the

27:22 mark of these scribes is that they have this continuous this insatiable desire to occupy chief seats in the synagogue now think for a moment what was the synagogue it was the place where the word of God was read where the great Shema was corporately recited speaking of the unity and the solitariness of God it was the place where prayer was made it was the place where it was most central to the thinking of those who gathered in these plain houses of worship and in the very place where God should be central these scribes desired that they should be central they had this constant this insatiable longing for chief seats in the synagogues and they were no different in ordinary social gatherings they had this constant this insatiable longing for chief seats in the synagogues and they were no different in ordinary social gatherings a wealthy man had a feast and according to oriental custom as you've been told before they did not sit in chairs padded chairs ornate chairs but there were couches on which they reclined with one elbow and the

28:37 table came up as it were a chest level and they would eat from the table as they reclined well you remember in Luke 14 Jesus speaks when you're invited to a feast don't try to get the chief place take a lower one let the master of the peace say come up higher lest he say to you having taken the higher place take a lower one and you be embarrassed before all well these people were all the time itching to be at those places the couches of greatest prominence so that even in ordinary social gatherings their personal and official position would be exalted above the rest of the quote common people but then our Lord focuses thirdly upon this observable vice of the scribes not only their desire for excessive personal and official recognition their desire for excessive personal and official exaltation but now what is most sickening their practice of honorability unrighteous personal accumulation of goods covered by hypocrisy and the punctuation of the asv

The Substance of the Warning: Practice of Unrighteous Accumulation and Hypocrisy

29:53 is more true to the sense of the original you notice it in the asv you have a cold and after feasts now our lord says they that devour widows houses and for a pretense make long prayers such as these shall receive greater or more abundant judgment and here our lord focuses upon the practice of unrighteous personal accumulation of goods covered by hypocrisy look at the language they that devour widows houses katas theo the greek verb as theo is to eat kata down it's the picture of someone utterly consuming wolfing down his food we say well that's the picture and it's a very almost grotesque illustration he said these are the people who swallow up who devour houses now the imagery is so vivid that some have said well it really can't mean what it seems to mean on the surface therefore it must mean that somehow

31:14 they take advantage of the households no there is no need to translate the word household more likely and almost certainly what our lord is referring to is this as the official protectors and administrators of god's law it was these scribes and the other doctors of the law who would be called upon to settle matters of litigation in terms of what we would call the probate litigation litigation of the will and in that position what they did was to take advantage of widows the most destitute of all of god's creatures widows and the fatherless who are the special object of god's deepest concern in the old and in the new testaments these people would use their official position as a springboard to manipulate and take advantage and thereby swallow up that is take to themselves for personal aggrandizement the goods of even widows now how they did this hendrickson in his commentary says some of the answers that have been suggested are

32:33 to funds under their control and from which they these scribes could draw they asked widows to contribute more than could reasonably have been expected of them or in fact they may have offered their help in settling the states that fell to widows meanwhile taking for themselves more than was coming to them or they took unfair advantage of material support which a niche initially had been volunteered by widows for your member the next paragraph jesus talks about a poor widow who cast in her to my

33:09 which was all of her living i wonder if there's a connection that it was just such a such widows who these heartless religious leaders would consume their material possessions for their own advantage and because their consciences screamed against them and for fear they might be detected what did they do look at the text and for a pretense we would say in current parlance and for a front they make long prayers lest anyone should suspect them what do they do think of the horror of it according to the scriptures prayer more than any other religious exercise is the most immediate form of access to god and as such prayer is generally the most certain index of the health of a man's soul

34:11 sitting here this morning the most telling question I can ask anyone in this building to find out very quickly where you are spiritually this morning is this do you pray if so is there reality in your prayers is there communion with god in your prayers is there engagement of your heart in prayer is there delight in prayer is there tenacity in prayer in secret now these people People knew enough of the scriptures to know that Moses and Daniel and Samuel and a host of others eminent in Israel were eminent above all else as men of prayer. So what did they do? They said, we will take the symbol of the highest levels of spirituality and we will use that symbol as a covering for the avarice of our hearts. So the front to their horrible avarice was lengthy prayers. They prayed on until people said, oh, how spiritual they are. Look how long they intercede.

35:19 And I wonder if they even interceded for the widows. If they even prayed for the poor destitute widows while all the while they're swallowing down widows' houses.

35:32 But you see, our Lord in devastating incisiveness exposes this practice of unrighteous personal accumulation of goods covered. Covered by hypocrisy. Well, dear people, that's what the text says. What a shocking, what a disgusting picture.

35:53 And the common denominator, I hope you see it. The common denominator, when our Lord says, beware of the scribes, that's the command issued. Then he gives a description of their most observable vices. This excessive passion for personal and official recognition.

36:13 For personal. Personal and official exaltation. This taking unrighteous advantage of widows and for a covering long prayers. You see, the common denominator of it all is this passion for using their religious and official ecclesiastical posture for personal recognition, personal exaltation, and for personal accumulation of goods.

36:43 And of property.

The Substance of the Warning: Prediction of Greater Condemnation

36:47 Well, our Lord gave the warning. He gave the description. Now look briefly at the prediction of their end. The command, the description, now the prediction of their end.

36:59 These shall receive greater condemnation. And the demonstrative pronoun with which that clause begins, these, to catch the emphasis, we could paraphrase. These, such as these, shall receive greater condemnation. In other words, not every scribe was this way, for we looked at a scribe a few weeks ago who was not far from the kingdom.

37:28 So our Lord is discriminating. The vast majority were like this, but he says, such as these, now notice, shall, there is the word of Jesus, which though heaven and earth pass away, shall never pass away, here is our Lord making a prophecy, which will not fail of its fulfillment. These shall receive what? More abundant judgment.

37:58 And that word, crema, refers both to the condemnation and its execution. You find it in passages like Luke 23, 40, where the one thief said to the other, We are in this condemnation justly. A sentence of death has been spoken. A sentence of death has been spoken and is being executed.

38:21 We are in this crema, this condemnation. It is used in Acts 24, 25, about the judgment of both the just and the unjust. In Romans 2, 3, who know that we know that the judgment of God is according to truth. That is, a day is coming when God will issue a sentence and then he will execute the sentence.

38:45 And here our Lord predicts that the end of the great judgment, the great religious leaders, is the frightening judgment of Almighty God. And our Lord concludes his warning with a note of what I know not what else to call but solemn irony. Here are those as the safest God in heaven, and Jesus said, they are on a greased slide into hell themselves.

39:20 These shall receive. The more abundant condemnation. Jesus in Matthew 23, 15 said, When they make a man a convert to their ways, they make him twofold more. And some of the most profuse, we might even call sanctified, invective found anywhere in the ministry of Jesus is found in the fuller condemnation in Matthew 23, where again and again he speaks of hell and judgment.

Abiding Lesson 1: Jesus as the Good Shepherd and the Necessity of Warnings

39:59 As awaiting these religious leaders. Well, dear people, as I understand it, there is the warning of Jesus against the scribes. Now, having looked at the recipients of the warning, the substance of the warning now, what is the abiding lesson of this warning? What does God say to John and Mary and to Pete and Harry and to Mary and to Albert N. and to all the rest of us here?

40:29 This morning, this is the living word of God. It is not here that we might look into the temple scene and say, Oh, yes, I see it. I can feel it. I can enter in.

40:39 I can send some of the current and I can see the picture and it's horrible and disgusting. And now we'll go home having. No, no, my friends. All of this has been with the end that you may know what God is saying to you sitting here this morning.

40:53 And I urge you to consider with me, first of all, what this passage teaches about our blessed lives. Lord, as the good shepherd of his sheep, this passage contains some vital lessons about our Lord Jesus as the good shepherd of his sheep. You will notice in some of you wondered, why did you press the point so repeatedly that on the very threshold, we took up the question, who were the recipients of this warning? And we saw that primarily it was his disciples, because as the great shepherd, please, would lay, lay down his life for the sheep.

41:32 He was concerned for the spiritual well-being of these sheep and the very love that was in telling him onward and onward and onward to Gethsemane and then to the Pilate's Judgment Hall and then to the lonely tract to Golgotha's Hill. It was that love for his own. John says, having loved his own, he loved them even unto the end. And it was impelled by.

42:00 By the shepherd's love for the sheep that our Lord first of all warned them of the dangerous influence of a specific identifiable group of recognized religious leaders and teachers. Jesus warned them of the dangerous influence of a specific identifiable group of recognized religious leaders and teachers. Earlier, he had warned them about the painful, painful influence of the teaching of these people. Mark 8, 15, he said, beware of the leaven of the scribes and the Pharisees.

42:39 That is, beware of their teaching. Now, he says, beware of their very persons. There is no veiled illusion. Our Lord is not in any way chained by a false modesty that says, it is not polite to go name-calling, especially in the presence of those whose names you are calling.

43:01 Let's ask the Lord for forgiveness. In fact, the Lord has written this in his own words. He said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said,

43:50 about their painful and horrible influence. Further, he spoke about, He specifically names the vices of these religious leaders with discriminating incisiveness. Again, no general allusions to pride. He doesn't say beware of people who are seeking to walk about.

44:19 People who are official acknowledgements of recognition of their persons and their positions. Who are all jockeying for the chief placed in the synagogues and in your feasts. He lays bare the abuse of their power, their hypocrisy. Everything is concrete, specific, and true to fact.

44:47 And then furthermore, he even predicts their damnation and says theirs will be greater than others. Now dear people, if the passage doesn't teach that, then I've lost all ability to be in rational contact with the word of God. And what does that say to us? Hear me dear people, hear me.

45:06 This morning, it contains two vital lessons for us. Number one, it underscores the continuous necessity for such warnings as essential to the well-being of the people of God. If this underscores the continuous necessity for such warnings as essential to the well-being of the people of God, Jesus did not assume that the mere influence of his presence, would unionize against the horrible influence.

45:48 Beware!

45:55 Look, just be positive. The truth stands on its own feet. It's found in teaching of the word of God. And your people will be so grounded in the word of God, that the purveyors of error will be able to catch their ears.

46:14 Is that so? Then such teaching makes the words of Jesus irrelevant and unnecessary. For no one could more possibly beware. And when David celebrates the benefits of the word of God in Psalm 19, one of them is this, Moreover, by them is thy servant.

46:47 And in the keeping of them, there is great reward. Now a ministry comprised predominantly or exclusively of the warnings about evil, will never feed God's sheep. And I've had people that say, Pastor, why don't you preach against this? And why don't you preach against that?

47:11 And why don't you warn against this? I would be doing nothing but giving warnings, warnings, warnings, warnings. And I've said to such people, Look, the sheep not only need to be kept from the wolves, and kept from poisonous grass, but they need to be led to green pastures where they can lie down and nibble and chew, and be healthfully. But, oh God, have mercy on any ministry that fits the description of the false prophets in the Old Testament, dumb dogs that cannot bark.

47:50 And I tell you, if I've bought a dog to be a watchdog, and I've fed the hungry beast to be a watchdog, and the moment of truth comes when an undesired comes within the precincts of my property, I don't want him licking his head. And God says there's a time for the prophets to bare their lip and to snarl. And God condemns dumb dogs who cannot bark. Dear people, don't grow weary of explicit, specific warnings based upon a responsible, balanced exposition of the Scripture that focus upon the scribes of our day. You cannot help but see them in Papa Paul and his father, or you see them in the rulers of our day, and in the other charlatans who with their teaching for men, bills and sub-dollars, homes, and drive and disment, and they have their own corporation jets, and they have their own, at the expense of widows' might,

49:19 call Jesus cold, and him who for priests make prayers and shed tears.

49:29 This passage, following the pattern, of our Lord is the Good Shepherd, underscores the continuous necessity for such warnings. And secondly, it shows the complete compatibility of such warnings with Biblical Christianity. You ever hear people say, well, I just can't imagine Jesus ever condemning other religions. I just can't imagine Jesus ever condemning sincere religious leaders.

50:03 Well, you see, your imagination is not the measure of Jesus. Jesus is his own measure. And the only Jesus I know is found in the pages of this book. Jesus said,

50:29 and if you have a Christianity with which that's incompatible, junk it, because it's not the Christianity of the Bible. Know the same love for his own that is holding him in his path on the way to Gethsemane, to the Judgment Hall, and to Golgotha. It is that love which warns. So think it not strange when his under-shepherds, seeking to pattern their ministries after the Chief Shepherd, warn and expose and identify false religious teachers.

Abiding Lesson 2: Danger Signs of Unsafe Spiritual Leaders

51:08 We who do that must be careful, like our Lord, to do it in terms of strict, regard to facts, strict regard to reality, regard things as they are. But having done so, the warnings must indeed be issued. So, the abiding lesson of the passage is, first of all, to consider what it teaches about our Lord as the good shepherd of his sheep. But secondly, consider what it teaches about the danger signs connected with unsafe spiritual leaders.

51:49 What are the danger signs of unsafe spiritual guides? Well, in the previous paragraph, we saw that the sign that they are unsafe guides in the Scripture is when they have a selective use of Scripture. You see, the scribes took every passage that spoke of Messiah as David's son, but they conveniently overlooked the passages that spoke of him as David's Lord. They overlooked the passages that spoke of him as the one who is going to be killed.

52:18 They overlooked the passages that spoke of him as the one who is going to be killed. They overlooked the passages that spoke of him as the one who is going to be killed. And Jesus exposed their untrustworthiness as guides in the Scripture by showing they had a selective use of the Scripture. And what does he do here?

52:40 He focuses on their character. And whenever you find a religious leader itching to be noticeable in every place by special clothing by special clothing by special clothing by special clothing by special clothing by special clothing by special clothing by special clothing special titles when you find religious leaders always edging and shouldering their way into positions of prominence both in the places of religious worship and in social gatherings and when you see them using official positions for personal advantages while at the same time giving what seem to be excessive demonstrations of piety you know you have a scribe on your hands that's why jesus gave their characteristics in the concrete he didn't float them by in poetic terminology or in vague and and flexible descriptive words he said this is the mark of such ones of whom i warn you often god given his opinion whatever he may be as a political activist he has no business using the term rev amen nor does the reverend jesse

53:56 nor the reverend falwell nor the reverend anybody else men who stroke and fawn their denominational colleges hoping they'll get a dd thrown at them and no sooner does the school tell them that three months hence they're going to have it conferred they've got their letterhead changed before they even have their degree on their wall dr so-and-so they love the titles love the recognition they suck it in you find a man that loves his clerical garb wouldn't reach without a role wouldn't be seen in public without his turn collar now follow closely i'm not saying everyone who preaches in a role business right i'm not saying every man who wears a clerical caller is a false teacher i am not saying that but i am saying that behind much of the each for special clerical garb in the synagogue and in the marketplace is this on mortified passion for recognition of person and position everywhere i go i want everyone to know i'm a clergyman when i step out of this pulpit and greet you at that door i don't greet you as a clergyman

55:24 i greet you as my brothers and my sisters i greet you precious children as my friends and my buddies that's right be a lot cheaper to get a set of clerical clerics and be a lot easier on my suits i tear them up preaching them i do i tear them up wear them out i thought about getting a simple genevan robe could wear right over my undershirt comes right up here simple collar but i said no lord i dare not lest anyone coming in those doors think there's any affinity with what our lord here condemns my friend you beware you beware of someone who's itching to be called reverend itching to be called doctor itching for a doctor seeking for positions of prominence and then who in the midst of all that seems to be excessively 윤 obtener katie is modest and his most active jesus did wear in the closet where the father's season three so consider what this houses stop these about the day in june before you and then i conclude with this final them simple labors eenie minnie really

Abiding Lesson 3: Jesus' Knowledge of and Attitude Toward Religious Hypocrisy

56:51 Consider what it teaches about our Lord's knowledge of and attitudes toward religious hypocrisy. While multitudes were duped, our Lord was not. Listen to the language in the fuller treatment of this in Matthew 23. Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites!

57:19 You cleanse the outside of the cup and the platter, but within they are full from extortion and excess. You blind Pharisee! Cleanse first the outside of the cup and the platter, then first cleanse the inside, that the outside may be clean. You are like whitewashed sepulchres which appear beautiful unto men, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.

57:47 You! Outwardly! You appear, but in the language of hypocrisy, inwardly you are. The discrepancy between what you are and what you are is the essence of a hypocrite.

58:07 And I want to ask you sitting here this morning a very simple question. Are you for real?

58:16 Are you for real?

58:18 Outwardly you appear.

58:21 With the exception of about two or three people right now, as I move my eyes from here all the way over. Everybody's eyes are fixed on me. Some are looking down. I don't know where your mind is.

58:35 I can say this vast auditory this morning, you appear hungry for the Word. You appear interested in Christ and His will and His truth. You appear! But my question is, what are you?

58:55 But you appear.

58:59 Jesus said to the church at Sardis, You have a name, but you are. They appear, but they were dead. Jesus said, Jesus is in the midst of His church this morning with eyes as a flame of fire. He knows what this preacher is.

59:19 You only think you know by what He appears to be.

59:28 The same Jesus who knows this preacher knows you. Knows you all together. Knows you through and through. And my question, dear friend, is this.

59:38 Are you for real? Is there in your heart? No.

59:59 Bless God with a true hearty embracing of God's only Savior for sinners, the Lord Jesus. And in that embrace of faith and that posture of whole soul reliance upon Him, there is, God knows and you know, a measure of true love to Christ that longs to please Him, that is as jealous about the thoughts that only He sees, as the deeds that would be printed in four-inch block letters on the front page of a newspaper. A heart about what God's eye sees of a filthy thought, as you would be as if one of your elders caught you in a filthy deed. Are you for real? A real knowledge of sin. A real knowledge of Christ.

60:52 A real pursuit of holiness. I didn't say perfect. I didn't say most advanced. I didn't say most advanced.

60:59 I didn't say most advanced. I didn't say most advanced. I didn't say most advanced. I just said real.

61:05 If you're not, friend, listen to me. You may fool your elders. You may fool your brothers and sisters. But listen to the words of Jesus.

61:13 Ye shall receive. Ye shall receive. Ye shall receive. Greater judgment.

61:24 And if you fooled us all, what good have you done? When in that day He pulls away the front, and before assembled angels in the multitudes, of all who've lived through all the ages, He singles you out and says, Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire.

61:50 What good has it been that you fooled us? Fooled your mom? Fooled your dad? Fooled your white people?

62:01 Jesus Christ knows what you are. And if you're not for real, you go to Him and stay before Him until He makes you for real. Then if the whole world casts you out as an unclean, you can say, Lord, you know that I love you. You know that I trust you.

Prayer and Concluding Application

62:21 You know that I know you. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you again for the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, the true and the faithful shepherd of His sheep. Thank you for His example in this passage, faithfully warning His own about the horrible influence of these wretched, hypocritical, religious leaders.

62:56 And, O Lord, as we've felt something of spiritual nausea just looking upon them, we must confess the nausea at the sight of our own hearts. For we know that the seeds of everything of which they were guilty lie within our own breasts. O God, have mercy upon us. Deliver us from every last trace of scribal ostentation and pride and desire to suck up the praise and recognition of men.

63:30 O Lord, may we be like our Savior who said, I am among you as He that serves. O, give us a heart determined to cleave to the path of selfless service rather than stepping over people to promote ourselves. God, speak to those who sit here in hypocrisy this morning. Pull the mat.

63:53 Ask off, O God. Pull it off before the day of judgment. Bring them to honesty. Bring them to heart dealings with yourself.

64:02 O God, have mercy. Have mercy, we pray, upon those who in our day fleece poor widows. We think of the glut of them on the television, in the airwaves, and in churches who preach and lead, not for the sake of the souls, to whom they preach, but to promote themselves and to promote their own causes. O God, expose them for what they are.

64:32 As humiliating as it is to all of us, expose them, Lord. We pray now that you'd seal this word to our hearts, that it may bear abundant and eternal fruit to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.