← Back to sermon library

Well, please turn with me in 
your Bibles to Matthew chapter 23. Matthew 23, I'll pick up reading 
at verse 13. 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. 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. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites, for you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, 
and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell 
as yourselves. Woe to you, blind guides, who 
say, whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing, but whoever swears 
by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it. Fools 
and blind, for which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies 
the gold? And whoever swears by the altar, 
it is nothing. Whoever swears by the gift that 
is on it, he is obliged to perform it. Fools and blind, for which 
is greater? The gift or the altar that sanctifies 
the gift. Therefore, he who swears by the 
altar, swears by it and by all things on it. He who swears by 
the temple, swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And 
he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by him 
who sits on it. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and 
have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and 
mercy and faith. These you ought to have done 
without leaving the others undone. Blind guides who strain out a 
gnat and swallow a camel. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites, for you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, 
but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, 
first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside 
of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed 
appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's 
bones and all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear 
righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and 
lawlessness. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and 
adorn the monuments of the righteous and say, if we had lived in the 
days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with 
them in the blood of the prophets. Therefore, you are witnesses 
against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the 
prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of 
your father's guilt, serpents, brood of vipers. How can you 
escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you 
prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and 
crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues 
and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the 
righteous blood shed on the earth. from the blood of righteous Abel 
to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered 
between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all 
these things will come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 
the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent 
to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together 
as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you were not willing. See, your house is left to you 
desolate. For I say to you, you shall see 
me no more till you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of 
the Lord. Amen. Well, let us pray. Father in 
Heaven, we thank You for this Lord's Day. We thank You for 
the privilege to gather in Your house. And we would pray now 
that You would send forth Your Holy Spirit as we look to Scripture. We pray that He would lead us 
and help us to understand this passage and help us as well to 
apply it. For certainly this is a picture 
of the scribes and Pharisees in the first century, but it's 
also a warning to the Church in the 21st century. May You 
keep us from hypocrisy and keep us from the things that are indicated 
in this chapter. And may You, by Your Spirit, 
take that word and put it into our hearts and in our minds and 
restrain us day by day and grant us the grace to bring glory and 
honor to You. We ask that you would forgive 
us now for all sin and transgression. How we thank you that if we confess 
our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse 
us from all unrighteousness. So we pray that even now, asking 
that you would pour out the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ 
upon us. Cleanse us and wash us and purify us. And we ask 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, we have spent some 
time considering Jesus' condemnation of the religious leaders here 
in chapter 23. As I have suggested several times 
along the way, how we understand, beginning in chapters 21 to 23, 
what we understand concerning what's going on there, it will 
help us to understand the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24. Well, 
this morning we'll take up that last woe, the eighth woe, Matthew 
23, verses 29 to 33. Just a reminder of the preceding. 
In verse 13, woe number one, they close the doors of the kingdom. 
Number two, they exploit widows and engage in pretentious prayers, 
verse 14. Number three, they are missionaries 
for hell itself, verse 15. Woe 4, they pervert oaths in 
verses 16 to 22. Woe number 5, they neglect weighty 
matters, verses 23 and 24. Woe 6, they emphasize externals, 
verses 25 and 26. And woe 7, they embody hypocrisy 
and lawlessness. And we'll see in this last woe 
the same sort of thing is evident and is obvious. What they profess 
On the outside is betrayed by their conduct on the inside. 
The precise definition of hypocrisy is once again seen in woe number 
eight. So Jesus starts off in verses 
1 to 12 by warning the disciples and the multitudes and then he 
turns his attention directly to these religious leaders in 
the first century in verses 13 to 33. So let's look at verses 
29 to 33, under three considerations. First, their professed allegiance 
to the prophets, verse 29. Secondly, their protested association 
with their murderous fathers, in verse 30. And then thirdly, 
the prophetic assertion of their hypocrisy. in verses 31 to 33. But note in the first place, 
their professed allegiance to the prophets. That's the thrust 
of verse 29. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and 
adorn the monuments of the righteous. This reflects something that 
goes all the way back to the book of Genesis. setting up a 
monument where somebody died. And in this particular instance, 
building the tombs of the prophets. Probably they didn't engage in 
this themselves, but they authorized it, they sanctioned it, they 
enjoyed it. And as well, adorning or decorating 
the tombs. You can read Gil's commentary 
for several examples of this particular practice. You see 
it as I said, in the book of Genesis, Peter on the day of 
Pentecost, In Acts 2, it speaks of David's tomb being with us 
to this day. So it was a common practice to 
do this, to build tombs for prophets, to adorn the monuments of the 
righteous. And by doing so, what was communicated? The scribes and the Pharisees, 
by this activity, said that they held allegiance to the prophetic 
doctrine. said that they were in line with 
those prophets who had come before them. By doing this outward task, 
or outward activity, they tried to communicate something that 
was simply untrue, as Jesus points out in this particular section. The scribes and Pharisees outward 
displayed their commitment to these prophets and righteous 
men in the Old Covenant, and yet by their inward activity, 
by the fact that they themselves want to kill the Lord Jesus Christ, 
it is inconsistent. It is hypocrisy. A couple of 
men observe with reference to their practice. Calvin says, 
it is customary indeed with hypocrites thus to honor after their death 
good teachers and holy ministers of God whom they cannot endure 
while they are alive. It's easy to say, well, we just 
hold allegiance to those fathers, to those prophets, to those righteous 
men before us, but when they are gone and they no longer condemn 
us. Calvin goes on to say, it is 
a hypocrisy which costs little to profess warm regard for those 
who are now silent. J.C. Ryle says, their own conduct 
was a daily evidence that they liked dead saints, better than 
living ones. The very men that pretended to 
honor dead prophets could see no beauty in a living Christ. 
This is the point. This is where Jesus is going. 
This is why He condemns them. On the outward, or on the one 
hand, outwardly, they show this allegiance to the prophets and 
to the righteous. But on the inward, or in their 
hearts, they have purposed, plotted, and planned to murder the prophet 
Christ who is standing right before their eyes. Pastor Porter 
just read Matthew 12, one of the aspects of the Sabbath wars 
that went on between Christ and the Pharisees. They plotted how 
they might kill Him. We see this over and over again 
in this section of Matthew's Gospel. And Matthew expects us 
to understand that, to see what Jesus is condemning. He's not 
saying it's wrong to honor the memories of those who have gone 
before us. He's not saying it's wicked to 
have a tomb for King David. He's not saying it's wicked to 
forget about all those who are in our past. What He is saying 
is that it's wicked to on the one hand say we esteem them, 
but on the other hand to live absolutely contrary to the way 
those men themselves live. When you contradict the prophets 
and the righteous, don't pay lip service by building them 
tombs or adorning their monuments. That's the thrust. Notice, secondly, 
their protested association with their murderous fathers. Jesus 
says to them, because you build the tombs of the prophets and 
adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, if we had lived in the 
days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with 
them in the blood of the prophets. Pretty easy for us to say what 
we wouldn't have done, isn't it? Oh, well, if I lived back 
then, I would have never done that. Do you really believe that? Do you know your heart? Have 
you exhausted all of the recesses of the darkness of your heart? 
Can you say with judgment day honesty, if I lived back then, 
I would not have done such and such. I mean, imagine it now. People say, if I would have lived 
in the first century, when everybody was against Jesus, and everybody 
spit on Jesus, and they were slapping Jesus, and they mocked 
Jesus, and they said, away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him, 
I would have never participated in that. And yet, how much of 
that is duplicated in our very day? Persons read the gospel 
narratives and they see the mistreatment of our Lord Jesus, and then they 
delude themselves by saying, I would have never done that 
had I lived in that particular time. Yes, you would have. Apart 
from the grace of God, you are undone. Apart from the grace 
of God, you would be in dire straits. Apart from the grace 
of God, you would have picked up every stone that was launched 
against a prophet, and you would have joined in them likewise. 
Apart from the grace of God, you would have been with that 
angry mob, saying, away with him, away with him, crucify him. 
You need to be very careful before you assert what it is you wouldn't 
have done. And in this instance, these men 
professed or protested association with their murderous fathers. 
Go back to Ezra for a moment, Ezra chapter 9. A few passages 
we ought to consider and compare to see the difference between 
men like Ezra and Daniel versus the scribes and Pharisees of 
Jesus' day. In Ezra 9, the specific context 
is Ezra is praying to God. They have intermarried with pagans 
and that is wrong. And so Ezra, on behalf of Israel, 
on behalf of the post-exilic community, comes to God in prayer. And note what Ezra says in verse 
7. Or verse 6, beginning. He said, And I said, O my God, 
I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to you, my 
God. For our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, 
and our guilt has grown up to the heavens. Since the days of 
our fathers to this day we have been very guilty, and for our 
iniquities we, our kings and our priests, have been delivered 
into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, 
to plunder, and to humiliation as it is this day. You see a 
fundamental difference between Ezra and the scribes and the 
Pharisees. Ezra identifies himself along with those who have opposed 
the prophets of God. Not the scribes and the Pharisees. 
They think by virtue of these monuments and tombs, they are 
golden. They think by virtue of this 
outward activity that it means or legitimizes their inward hearts 
of waywardness. You can turn to the prophet Daniel. 
Daniel, specifically chapter 9. We oftentimes focus on the 
70 weeks at the end of Daniel 9, and there's no reason why 
we shouldn't focus on that, because it's all about Christ. But preceding 
that 70 weeks prophecy, there is prayer offered up by Daniel. And notice specifically in Daniel 
9 at verse 4, And I prayed to Yahweh my God, and made confession 
and said, O Yahweh, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant 
in mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep 
His commandments. Now notice, we have sinned and 
committed iniquity. We have done wickedly and rebelled, 
even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. Neither have 
we heeded your servants, the prophets, who spoke in your name 
to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and to all the 
people of the land." So you see a fundamental difference between 
the scribes and the Pharisees of Jesus' day versus the godly 
or, dare I say, the righteous that they themselves built monument 
to. They themselves adorned those 
monuments. So they assert that they would 
not have participated in the murder of the prophets. Again, 
be very cautious as to what you assert concerning your past fidelity. I would have never done that. 
Be careful. There's a lot of arrogance in 
our hearts and a lot of things that we think we know and a lot 
of things that we would simply never see ourselves doing. Well, 
praise God in His infinite mercy has put the grace of God in our 
hearts and He has restrained us prior to our conversion even 
from doing all manner of wickedness. As well, the evidence of their 
assertion was the respect they paid to the memory of the prophets 
and the righteous through these tombs and monuments. See, the 
same emphasis is throughout. They clean the outside of the 
cup, but the inside is filthy. They whitewash the tombs, but 
the inside is filled with dead men's bones. They tithe the mint 
and the anise and the cumin, but they neglect the weightier 
matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. You see the 
recurring emphasis. You see what hypocrisy is. It is to say on the outside or 
to manifest on the outside something that is just not true. You know, 
you hear this at times. People say, well, the church 
is full of hypocrites. Ask people what they mean by 
that. If they mean by that sin, well 
yeah, you're absolutely right. The church is filled with sinners. 
But he's not a hypocrite who goes to the Lord God Most High, 
confessing his sins and asking for forgiveness. That's simply 
not hypocrisy. That is what Christianity is 
all about. My little children, I write these 
things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have 
an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. 
So that if you sin and you confess your sin, that's not hypocrisy. 
That's the life of faith. Hypocrisy is looking on the outside 
something different on the inside. And that is what typified these 
religious leaders in that day. And it's probably what typifies 
a lot of professing Christians in our day. Because quite frankly, 
if everybody who named the name of Christ was actually converted, 
and actually saved, and actually walking in the fear of God, probably 
things would look a whole lot different than they do today. 
Euthanasia, sodomy, abortion, all those particulars that are 
just freely legislated. Are we as God's people crying 
out over the abominations in the land? Are we as God's people 
being faithful as individual citizens? Are we as God's people 
doing those things that are consistent with our testimony of faith in 
the Lord Jesus Christ? Or oftentimes does the church 
mimic what the world does, and her homosexuality rates and her 
divorce rates and her murder rates sometimes are as consistently 
high as the world's, and that ought not to be. You see, hypocrisy 
wasn't a first century sin. Hypocrisy is in every century 
sin, and we need to take heed. On the one hand, professing allegiance 
to the memory of the prophets, and on the other hand, wanting 
to murder the Lord Jesus, the great prophet who's standing 
in their midst. The betrayal of their assertion 
is seen in many passages that we have before considered. The 
fact that they claim the murderers of the prophets, they themselves 
make this admission. Notice in verse 30, if we had 
lived in the days of our fathers, Jesus will pick up on that. We'll 
look at that in just a moment. But the fact that they claim 
the murderers of the prophets as our fathers and the fact that 
their desire is to murder Jesus Christ. Here is what Spurgeon 
says. What bitter irony there was in 
such language from the lips of men who were even then plotting 
the death of the Lord of the prophets and of the righteous 
of all ages. You see, you can't miss this, 
brethren. It's so ironic. It's just so fundamentally incongruous. 
We would never have done that to Isaiah. We would never have 
done that to Jeremiah. We would never have done that 
to any of the godly and the righteous. But in your hearts presently, 
you have not only plotted, but are presently plotting and will 
carry out the plan to deliver up the greatest prophet of all 
times to the shame and torture of a Roman cross. This is just 
terrible. Jesus brings it to bear upon 
their hearts. Knox Chamberlain makes this observation, 
to be sure. They outwardly honor the Old 
Testament prophets, yet they fiercely oppose the greatest 
prophet, the one their scriptures foretold. And thus they show 
that they have neither understood nor obeyed the prophets they 
venerate. It's an amazing thing, isn't 
it? The prophets who testified concerning the coming of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, on the one hand they affirm, but on the 
other hand they want to murder the very one that Isaiah told 
was coming. You see where Jesus is going 
with this. Now notice in the third place, the prophetic assertion 
of their hypocrisy, verses 31 to 33. He's given them the woe, 
verses 29 and 30. And now He's going to bring it 
to bear upon their hearts in the first place. Notice, they 
witness against themselves. Therefore, you are witnesses 
against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the 
prophets by their own admission. They called them our fathers. Jesus picks up on that. It's 
a Semitic idiom. for partaking of the same nature. It's used in 2315. You make them twice the sons 
of hell that you are. Jesus capitalizes on this to 
show them their connection to their murderous fathers themselves. John 8.44, he says, you are of 
your father the devil, and the deeds of your father you want 
to do. He was a murderer from the beginning 
and a liar. When he speaks, there's no truth in him. Those deeds 
you want to do. Notice, specifically, you are 
witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who 
murdered the prophets by your testimony, by your actions, no 
matter what you conclude or what you say outside. You may visit 
tombs, you may adorn the monuments, you may pay great respect at 
the cemetery, but your actions speak differently. How can Jesus 
say, you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons 
of the prophets? Well, they rejected John the Baptist, didn't they? 
It's an amazing thing when we compare what Jesus is doing here 
with what John does in Matthew chapter 3. They use the same 
language in their condemnation of these religious leaders. They 
rejected John the Baptist. He came preaching. He was the 
forerunner. He was Isaiah 40. He was the 
man that would announce the coming of the king and call the nation 
back to repentance. Did they receive him? Did they 
act upon what he said? No. They thought he was a nut. 
They thought he was a madman, the common idea among the Israelites 
of that day. John didn't come eating or drinking, 
and you think he has a demon. The Son of Man comes eating and 
drinking. You call him a winebibber and a glutton. You can never 
make some people happy. That's what Jesus said. You'll 
die trying. Trying to make everybody happy, 
you can't do it, because if you don't eat, they're going to say 
you have a demon. If you do eat, they're going to say you're a 
winebibber and a glutton. You really can't win with a people that 
are absolutely wicked in their hearts. They as well reject the 
Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, you are witnesses 
against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the 
prophets by their rejection of Christ. By the fact that we are 
in this context that began in Matthew chapter 21, on the Tuesday 
of the Passion Week, when Jesus comes to the temple, they hit 
Him with a question of authority. By what authority do you do this? 
Jesus hits him back to shut him up, and then he tells three parables 
about them, specifically coming under the judgment of God. And 
then comes four direct confrontations. They send persons to ask him 
questions, to try and put him on the horns of a dilemma. And 
in each instance, he successfully answers, and then he brings the 
last one to bear upon them, whose son is Messiah. We don't know. That's exactly right. You don't 
know because you've rejected the One who came into this world, 
sinners to save. See, they rejected Christ. They 
had become witnesses against themselves that they were in 
solidarity with those who murdered the prophets. You see, if Isaiah, 
and Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, and Daniel, and Hosea, and Joel, 
and Amos, and all those godly prophets of old, and all those 
righteous men of old all testified of Christ, And these men oppose 
Christ, then there's no possible way they're aligned with those 
men of old. It simply is not the case. There 
are several instances in Matthew's Gospel, as I've already rehearsed, 
that we see Jesus understood what they were going to do to 
Him. Just a couple of the more famous or the more well-known 
ones. Notice in 1621. From that time, 
Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem 
and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and 
scribes and be killed and raised the third day. Again, 17, 22 
and 23. Now, while they were staying 
in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the Son of Man is about to be 
betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and the 
third day He will be raised up. And they were exceedingly sorrowful. 
Notice as well in chapter 20, verses 17 and 18. Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, 
took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, 
Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed 
to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they will condemn 
Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and discourage 
and to crucify, and the third day He will rise again. So we 
go back to chapter 30. The reason I read these particular 
passages, and we can multiply them, is because I can hear objections 
when we read a passage like 23-31. In our own society, people would 
say, Jesus, that's not fair. You just don't know that. You 
can't judge somebody's heart. Well, first of all, He's Jesus, 
and He most certainly can judge somebody's heart. He judges them 
by their actions. They want to kill him. He knows 
this. Matthew expects you to remember this, so that when we 
come to the woes, it all makes sense. You're not scratching 
your head saying, where did this come from? Or you're not like 
those other persons who have said, Matthew 23 sounds like 
the most unchristian chapter in the entire Bible, because 
Jesus is speaking so harshly toward them. Do you know that 
everything stated in Matthew 23 can be found elsewhere in 
Matthew? Do you know that everything stated by Jesus in Matthew 23 
was testified by Yahweh of Israel to Old Covenant Israel? Jesus 
is not doing anything new. Jesus is suing the persons with 
a covenant lawsuit, setting the stage and the ground for chapter 
24, when He prophesies of Jerusalem's destruction, of the temple's 
destruction. We're not to be left wondering, 
is He talking about our future? No! He's talking about this godless 
generation that rejected the Lord of Glory that Yahweh sent 
to them. They reaped the curses of the 
covenant vis-à-vis Deuteronomy 28. I submit that if you get 
21 to 23, 24 is simple to understand and to 
apply. That's not to say there isn't 
judgment in the future for sinners today. That doesn't mean there's 
no judgment for those who profess to be Christians and are not. 
But we need to take the context, and it speaks very loudly. In 
fact, 23.36, Jesus gives us a marker how we're supposed to understand 
the Olivet Discourse. This will come upon this generation. Not our generation. Why do we 
read Matthew 24 and say, well, this must speak of our time? 
Why? Why would we ever do that in 
light of chapters 21 to 23, where Christ has essentially led us 
by the hand, and Matthew has led us by the hand, and he has 
showed us what is going on. The significance of Matthew 24 
is the covenantal transformation from Old Covenant Israel to the 
Church. This is what John highlights 
in the book of Revelation. He expounds it in detail. Commentators 
have long said, Matthew 24 is the little apocalypse. Exactly! John's speaking about the selfsame 
thing in the big apocalypse. It is the fall of Old Covenant 
Israel because of the rebellion against Yahweh that culminated 
in the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, not to suggest 
that if these sins are duplicated now that we'll somehow escape 
judgment, but the target in Matthew 24 is Jerusalem and the temple. Not a future Jerusalem, not a 
rebuilt temple, but the very self-same one that the disciples 
looked at and said, isn't this beautiful? And Jesus says, I 
tell you, not one stone will be left. Brethren, we need to 
think biblically when we come to prophetic passages so we don't 
end up whacked out. So many weird things come out 
of Matthew 24 that never were intended by the Spirit of God. 
And if we would take and pay attention to the context, it's 
a beautiful thing to help us in our study. Now, let's get 
back to that eighth woe. I guess I had to get that one 
off my chest there just to get us thinking properly. But in 
this context, notice secondly, the measure of their father's 
sins were filled up. Notice, eighth woe, and then 
he starts to speak judgment upon them, or bring the assertion 
of their hypocrisy and their guiltiness. In the first place, 
verse 31, they are witnesses against themselves. Notice, secondly, 
fill up then the measure of your father's guilt. That's a command. Jesus is telling them to do something, 
and you might think, that's odd, because if you understand what 
he's saying, go ahead, murder me and murder the godly men I 
sent. That's essentially what he's saying there. Fill up then 
the measure of your father's sins, the measure of your father's 
guilt. Go do what you're going to do. 
Jesus will say this to Judas in John 13, what you do, do quickly. This is what's called an ironic 
command. You find them in the prophets 
when they command Israel to do something sinful. We're not to 
suppose that God really wants them to do something sinful. 
It's rhetoric designed to highlight their guilt and depress them 
with the reality of it. That's the view, or that's the 
thing. Fill up, then, the measure of your father's guilt or the 
father's sins. This indicates a few things that 
we ought to pay close attention to. In the first place, he's 
speaking still of their father's guilt. Now, he's already said 
that they are aligned with those murderous fathers. Everybody 
following the argument. Verse 31, you testify against 
yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 
You're connected to them. Now let's just consider what 
it is they've done, and then compare it with what the scribes 
and the Pharisees are going to do. When we consider the measure 
of the Father's guilt or the Father's sin in the Old Testament, 
there are many, many passages we could go to. One thinks of 
the murder of the prophets by Jezebel, that wicked, wicked 
wife of Ahab. One thinks of Ahab's treatment 
of Micaiah the prophet, the one prophet who told the king the 
truth, and what does he get as a result? He gets a slap in the 
face and he gets sent to prison to eat bread. The one guy that 
actually had the guts to tell Ahab what was up, he gets a slap 
in the face. See, this isn't new in Israel. 
They've treated the prophets and the righteous this way for 
many, many, many years. We could see the testimony of 
Elijah after that victory on Mount Carmel. What does he do? 
He laments over the reality that Israel has killed the prophets. 
We could focus on the various specifics throughout Old Covenant 
history, but there's a couple that I think we ought to notice, 
and especially ought to notice where they are contextually. 
In the first place, 2 Kings chapter 17. We're looking at the measure 
of the Father's guilt. We're looking at the measure 
of the Father's sins. We're understanding Jesus essentially 
saying, you've already witnessed by your activity that you are 
sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure 
of your Father's guilt. In other words, what you have 
purposed in your heart, go ahead, carry it out. Again, he doesn't 
mean this in the sense that, you know, I want you to go out 
and do bad things. It's ironic. The prophet Isaiah 
uses this. The prophet Amos, specifically 
in chapter 4. It's something that is a rhetorical 
convention that is used to press the guilt upon the person and 
hopefully shock them into realization that what they are doing is absolute 
folly. But notice in 2 Kings 17, beginning in verse 13, Yet 
the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah by all of his 
prophets, every seer saying, Turn from your evil ways and 
keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which 
I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants 
the prophets. E.J. Young's book on the biblical 
prophets is that title, My Servants the Prophets. God calls them 
His servants because they declare His Word. Notice. Nevertheless, 
they would not hear but stiffen their necks, like the necks of 
their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. And they 
rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with 
their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against 
them. They followed idols, became idolaters, and went after the 
nations who were all around them, concerning whom the Lord had 
charged them that they should not do like them." Now, where 
is this located in biblical history? 2 Kings 17, this is the fall of 
the northern tribes. This is the fall of the northern 
kingdom. This is when God had that measure 
of guilt filled up, and He sends Assyria in to destroy the northern 
tribes of Israel. Notice in 2 Chronicles 36, Just 
seeing a pattern here, similar to what Jesus is saying, and 
I think it takes on a great deal of significance when we get to 
verse 34 and Jesus says, I send you scribes, I send you wise 
men. This is exactly what Yahweh is 
saying to the nation of Israel prior to the announcement of 
their fall. Jesus will do this thing in that 
period between His resurrection or ascension and the time that 
Jerusalem falls. He sends prophets. He sends wise 
men. He sends apostles. And what do 
they do? They kill them. They reject them. 
They despise them. Notice 2 Chronicles 36 at verse 
14. Moreover, all the leaders of 
the priests and the people transgressed more and more according to all 
the abominations of the nations, and defiled the house of the 
Lord which He had consecrated in Jerusalem. And the Lord God 
of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising 
up early and sending them because He had compassion on His people 
and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers 
of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until 
the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no 
remedy." Interesting context here. It's the announcement of 
the fall of the southern kingdom. 722, God uses the Assyrians to 
shut down the northern tribes. You'd think Judah would learn, 
but no, they didn't. So Judah continues to sin against 
God, and God, in 586-587, sends Nebuchadnezzar, whom God, through 
the prophet Jeremiah, calls, My servant, to shut down the 
southern tribes. What's one of the indicators 
of their sins? What is one of the things that 
they had engaged in? They rejected the prophets. See, 
to reject the prophets is to reject God. To reject the Word 
of God is to reject the God of the Word. And so this announcement 
concerning the fall of the northern tribes, this announcement concerning 
the fall of the southern tribes, Jesus is doing the same thing 
with the first century representatives of the nation that had apostatized 
against God and would be shut down once and for all. Again, 
the prophet Jeremiah, same sort of thing. In 25.4, in 26.5, in 
35.15, same thing. They had rejected the prophets, 
they rebelled against the prophets, and specifically Jeremiah is 
prophesying right before the fall of the southern kingdom. 
See, when we get to Matthew 23, don't go, wow, this is brand 
new. Not if you've read your Bible. You're going to say, when 
Jesus enters into Jerusalem at the triumphal entry, and persons 
are mesmerized by His appearance, and they ask, Who is this? And 
the men of Galilee say, This is Jesus, the prophet. If you've 
read your Bible, if you've read the Old Testament, you're not 
going to be shocked at the language that's used. You're not going 
to be shocked at the nature of the condemnation. You're not 
going to be shocked at the pronouncement of judgment, because the same 
thing's already occurred. in the 8th century B.C. and in 
the 6th century B.C. This was the culmination. This 
would end it. This would cause the nation of 
Israel to enter into the ranks of every other nation. We ought 
not to be anti-Semitic. We ought not to hate the Jews 
or anything like that, because God brought judgment to bear 
upon them once for all, and now the new covenant expression of 
God's kingdom on earth is the church. and it's made up of Jews 
and Gentiles. So there ought not to be any 
wickedness in our hearts. Some take Matthew 24 and, oh, 
this is a future tribulation of the Jews. No, it isn't. God's 
already brought that judgment to bear upon them. We ought not 
to expect it. Talk about anti-Semitism, thinking 
that there's somehow some massive extermination of Jewish people 
coming in the future. They say that we hold an anti-Semitic 
view. That is just as anti-Semitic 
as one could get. That if you think in the future 
of the Jews that somehow slaughter is in their future. I don't know 
how that sounds nice or good. Matthew 24 isn't about our future. It was about the disciples' future 
under the judgment of Christ via the Roman armies. Now notice, 
The command here, fill up then the measure of your father's 
guilt functions in the context of an oracle judgment to show 
their solidarity with their murderous fathers and to announce that 
when judgment comes, it will be well deserved. They have just 
filled up the measure of their father's guilt. Now, they didn't 
listen to this because they do crucify the Lord of Glory. They 
didn't listen to this because in the New Testament, or in the 
Book of Acts rather, when we see the early church starting 
off, who's the first great enemy of the early church? It's not 
Rome. It's not the Empire. They would increasingly become 
more hostile toward Christian presence in the Roman Empire. 
But initially, I think they thought they were a subset of Judaism. 
They just didn't pay much attention to that. The first main persecution 
of the Church was through unbelieving Israel. And again, it's not anti-Semitic. It's what the text of Scripture 
says. Paul's testifying before the Sanhedrin. Paul says to the 
high priest, remember they slap him on the face, and Paul said, 
I didn't know you were the high priest. He's not apologizing, 
he's not saying, well, if I would have known you were the high 
priest, then I wouldn't have said that you're a whitewashed 
tomb. He's not bad with his vision. Some say, well, Paul had malaria, 
his eyes were bad, he couldn't really tell. No. He said, I didn't 
know you were the high priest because you're not acting like 
the high priest. It was they who persecuted the 
Church. Again, it's not anti-Semitism 
to report the facts of history. There ought to be no ill will 
in our hearts toward men of any ethnic persuasion. Israel, at 
the destruction of Jerusalem, entered the ranks of every other 
nation. God's heart is with His Church in this new covenant era. Now notice, thirdly and finally, 
with reference to this indictment, Therefore, you are witnesses 
against yourselves. Secondly, fill up, then, the measure of 
your father's guilt. Now, notice, thirdly, serpents, 
brood of vipers, how can you escape the condemnation of hell? 
The question concerning their condemnation. This is where Jesus 
would be asked to leave the university. Well, he would have been asked 
to leave the university long before this. Hypocrites? You 
can't call anybody a hypocrite, except if they're Christian. 
You can call us hypocrites, you know, from morning till night. 
Go ahead. But if we dare utter hypocrisy concerning someone 
else, how dare you? Hate crime, vicious, bad, horrible. 
Jesus would have been kicked off of any university campus 
in this continent. And if he hadn't, if he'd have 
gotten by with hypocrites, if he'd have gotten by with blind 
guides, probably verse 33 would have done it. Serpents, brood 
of vipers. What serpents suggest? If you 
say snake, You're right. If you say Genesis 3.15, you're 
righter. What did the devil use to tempt 
Eve? It was the serpent. Revelation 
12 identifies the devil with the serpent. The promise of Genesis 
3.15 is that in this skull-crushing activity of the woman's seed, 
he will sustain a bruise to his heel. These men would be the 
means by which the serpent would bring that bruising to the heel 
of the Son of God. It's not an illegitimate, it's 
not an inconsistent, or it's not an unwise or unkind epithet. It is absolutely accurate. Serpents! And interestingly enough, 
it's the same thing John the Baptist says to them when he's 
preaching in the wilderness of Judea in Matthew chapter 3. Notice, 
how shall you escape, or how can you escape the condemnation 
of hell? John asks the same thing. In 
fact, look there. You've got to see this solidarity 
between the two prophets. Matthew chapter 3. Specifically, verse 7, when he 
saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, 
he said to them, Brutivipers, who warned you to flee from the 
wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruits worthy 
of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, we have 
Abraham as our father, for I say to you that God is able to raise 
up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the axe 
is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which does 
not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed 
baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me 
is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He 
will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing 
fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing 
floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up 
the chaff with unquenchable fire. So you see the same thing at 
the beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry, vis-à-vis the ministry 
of John the Baptist. And at the end of that ministry, 
what do they do? They still reject, they still despise, they still 
forsake. But we have these tombs of the prophets, and we have 
these monuments to the righteous, and this should evidence that 
we're good guys. No, you're not. When you reject 
the Baptist, and I don't mean Baptists, though you shouldn't 
do that either, but when you reject the Baptist and you reject 
Messiah, You rightly call down this curse upon your head, brood 
of vipers. What else does this suggest? 
Brood of vipers. What does a viper do? What does 
a serpent do? It hurts other people. Jesus 
has already shown us their contaminating abilities with the whitewashed 
tomb. You like whitewashed tombs that 
men don't see, so they walk on them, and then they are ceremonially 
unclean. They've affected others. That's 
why at the end of verse 36, it's this generation. Not just these 
religious teachers, but this generation in Israel followed 
these religious teachers, and as a result, what Jesus says 
in Matthew 15 happened. If a blind man follows a blind 
man, what happens? They both fall into the pit. If you learn anything, at least 
by way of a sideline note from this passage of Scripture, find 
someone who preaches the truth. Don't put up with garbage. Don't 
put up with heresy. Don't put up with the sorts of 
pablum that is peddled out there in the name of Jesus about feeling 
well or being good or this. That's all hogwash. You need 
the reality that God is a holy God, Christ is the only way of 
salvation, that unless we believe in Him, we will perish in our 
sins for eternity. You need that kind of religious 
teaching. Notice, Jesus, like John, says 
the same thing, but Jesus, unlike John, specifies the nature of 
the condemnation. John says, wrath to come. Jesus 
says, Gehenna. Jesus defines for us what that 
wrath looks like. R.T. France makes this observation. The continuity between the missions 
of John and of Jesus and the consequent link between their 
deaths as martyrs is underlined not only by Jesus' use of John's 
uncomplimentary epithet, brood of vipers, but also by a very 
similar rhetorical question to John's escaping the coming judgment. This time, however, the threat 
is more explicit. The addition of hell both makes 
clear the ultimate nature of the judgment and indicates that 
as far as they are concerned, the verdict is already clear. You know, at least one of the 
commentators that I have on my shelf made the observation, or 
he made the supposition, or perhaps just asked, Could it be here 
that Jesus was even proffering or offering mercy? It wouldn't 
be out of the context, because remember back in the previous 
woe when Jesus tells them specifically, first cleanse the inside of the 
cup. Yes, that's in terms of the strategy 
for cup cleaning, but there's a merciful element in it. He's 
telling these apostates, first cleanse the cup. with the hope 
or intention that perhaps they'll say, how? And he can say, there 
is a fountain open for sin and uncleanness. Well, as I said, 
at least one commentator asks the question here, how can you 
escape the condemnation of hell? Perhaps Jesus was seeking to 
provoke them to say, how? Explain! Tell us! I tend to agree with France, 
that their condemnation is sure by this point. But we ought not 
to pass 33 without asking that ourselves. You may be a hypocrite 
this morning. You may have professed faith 
in Jesus Christ. You may have said, well, I'm 
like my father. He would never kill a righteous 
man or a prophet, and I'm like that. And yet in your heart of 
hearts there is rejection, there is rebellion, there is ungodliness. I submit that we all ought to 
ponder verse 33 just for a moment before we conclude. How can you 
escape the condemnation of hell? Because it does you no good to 
sit here in the 21st century in a nice cushy place and say, 
oh, those terrible scribes and Pharisees, those terrible men, 
how could they ever do such unkind and untoward things to Jesus? 
And yet, continue in your sin impenitent. Continue in your 
unbelief without giving it any thought or concern whatsoever. 
So I ask you with Christ, how can you escape the judgment of 
hell? How do you think? Is it through your works? I know 
what I'll do. I'll go home, and I'll get rid 
of this, and I'll get rid of that, and I'll start going here, 
and I'll start doing that. That's not going to get you free 
from the condemnation of hell. You say, well, I'll start going 
to church, not just once, but twice on a Sunday. I'll be like 
those really weird ones that go to Free Grace. I mean, they 
go both morning and evening. And that'll fix me, that'll help 
me. No, it won't. Listen to Christ's 
question and ponder it. Don't think, what's he on about? 
Think about the question for you. How can you escape the condemnation 
of hell? You've got to understand, there 
is a condemnation of hell, because God is a holy God. He made man 
upright in order to worship Him, in order to serve Him, in order 
to glorify Him. But man sought out many devices, 
and those devices are multifaceted, but all consistent in one thing, 
rebellion against God. It's indicative of all our hearts. 
It's all of us. Before faith in Christ, it's 
every single one of us. Raising our fist in rebellion, 
some through pornography, some through drugs, some through alcohol 
addiction, some through, you know, self-righteousness. Well, I'm not like other men. It's all opposition to the living 
and true God. It's all rebellion. If we could 
actually see the hearts of the sons of men, we'd see a lot of 
this. We'd see a lot of this, wouldn't we? We'd see what Pastor 
Porter read in Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage and the 
peoples plot a vain thing? Against who? Against Yahweh and 
His Christ. Why? Why would men possibly do 
that? Because Yahweh and His Christ 
only give us things for our good. It is an evidence of the waywardness 
and the hard-heartedness of man that we would stand rebelled 
to someone who has in his mind for us good things. You've all 
seen that with your kids, right? You've told your kids, Father's 
Day, here's your Father's Day sermon. You've done this with 
your kids. You've told them something that's 
for their good, and they go out and do just the opposite. Isn't 
it amazing that they would do that? Don't you want to just, 
in a kindly and graciously way, yell at them? Why would you do 
that? This is what David's asking in 
Psalm 2. It's a question. Why? Why do the nations rage? Why 
do the peoples plot a vain thing? Why do they take their stand 
and their counsel together against Yahweh and against His Christ? 
Why would anybody in his or her right mind do such a thing? Well, 
we're not in our right minds. In Adam, we died. In Adam, we 
are opposed to God. In Adam, our hearts are dark. 
In Adam, we love those things which are unlovely. In Adam, 
we gravitate towards that which is wicked. So I ask you, don't 
think about some wicked person you know out there. Think about 
you and ask yourself the question, how can you escape the condemnation 
of hell? It's pretty heavy, isn't it? 
It's a pretty weighty concept when we're talking about heaven 
and hell. You all know what the answer is. I don't think anybody's 
here that I've never seen before, and I'm sure I've told you the 
answer before, but you need to hear the answer. You need to 
listen. See, there's no proof that you're 
going to walk out of here today and live another 20, 30, 40, 
50 years. Paul, in his preaching, said, 
now is the acceptable time. Today is the day of salvation. Why will ye die? Turn ye, God, 
through Ezekiel says, and live. What's prophet Isaiah say? Why 
do you spend your wages on that which does not satisfy? Why are 
you going to leave this place today after hearing the remedy 
for your sin? Why would you continue to spend 
your money on that which does not satisfy? Why will you go 
back to the filth? Why will you go back to the hog 
pen? Why will you go back to the sin and the depravity? Why? 
Again, that's God, through the prophet Isaiah, taking people 
by the scruff of the neck, saying, Why would you do such a thing? 
God says, Let your soul delight in Me. Those who have no money, 
come buy and eat. Those who have nothing, come 
drink water, wine, milk, everything that a parched sinner needs. We need water for refreshment. 
We need wine for exhilaration. We don't all need wine, that's 
just the thrust of the prophet there. And we need milk for nourishment. That's Isaiah's version of Ephesians 
1-3. Blessed be the God and Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual 
blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Milk, wine, water, 
come! You who have no money, come, 
buy and eat. The answer is to look unto Jesus 
Christ, to believe on the One that these men are rejecting, 
the One that these men are resisting, the One that these men are going 
to deliver up to be crucified. But paradoxically, not paradoxically, 
predeterminedly, this was the means by which God could offer 
salvation to us today. It's through the death of His 
Son. It's through His life of obedience, it's through His death 
at Calvary, and it's through His resurrection from the dead. 
The Bible is crystal clear. I hope no one ever leaves from 
this church saying, I just don't understand what the Gospel is. 
The Gospel is simple. God is holy. You're not. Jesus 
lived, died, and rose again. That's the Gospel. That's the 
good news. The response is believe. Look unto Christ. Stop looking at your own resources. Stop looking at your own moral 
reformation. Stop trying harder and look unto 
Jesus and live. That's the message. That's the 
answer. Had one of those scribes or one 
of those Pharisees said something to the effect, I am tortured 
in my conscience, I've heard these eight woes, and I want 
to know, how shall I escape the condemnation of hell? Jesus would 
have said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be 
saved. It's beautiful. Father, the best 
gift you can give to your children is teach them this gospel tirelessly, 
Always present to them Christ. This church ought to be about 
Christ. Christians ought to be about 
Christ. We're not Christians because 
we're better than the next-door neighbor. We're Christians because 
Christ died and rose again. We're not Christians because 
we go to church. We go to church because Christ 
died and rose again. We're not Christians because 
we read our Bibles and pray. We read our Bibles and pray because 
Christ died and rose again. We're not Christians because 
we have a heart for God, because we didn't. We're Christians because 
Christ died and rose again. And through the power of the 
Holy Spirit that comes upon us during the preaching of the reading 
of God's Word, we by grace believed. So, if you're not a Christian 
here today, don't look at other Christians, or people that are 
Christians, and say, wow, they must have done really well. No, 
we didn't do really well. In fact, we did very miserably, 
horribly, if you must know. If you got, you know, 25 hours, 
I can start to scratch the surface of year one. You say, well, that's 
hyperbolic. No, not according to Psalter. 
The wicked go estranged from the womb, speaking lies as soon 
as they are born. Our hearts are in Adam. Your 
heart is in Adam. You need to be in Christ, and 
the only means by which is faith in Jesus. Believe in Jesus, and 
that is how you shall escape the condemnation of hell. Well, 
let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank 
you for your word. We thank you for the clarity 
of our Lord Jesus Christ and these things that are not hard 
to understand, but hard to receive, especially if we are hypocrites. Lord, do forgive us for our sins 
and our unrighteousness and our inconsistency, and forgive us 
for that remaining hypocrisy where we're not always consistent 
with our profession of faith in the Son of God. I pray as 
well that you'd open eyes and open hearts and open ears to 
the truth of the gospel here, and that you would save to the 
uttermost all who draw nigh unto God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. And it's in his most blessed 
name that we pray. Amen.