Chapter 66

Eight Stern Words of Condemnation

“But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:13-33)

Standing in the midst of the temple, after addressing his own disciples and the multitude around him, while he had the ear of the people, our Lord Jesus Christ turned to the scribes and Pharisees and in the most public manner possible denounced and condemned them with these scathing words.

            These words were not spoken secretly. Our Lord did not call the scribes and Pharisees aside for a private conversation. Rather, he went into the temple, where they regularly taught the people, where they were most highly respected, and there publicly condemned both them and their religion in the most contemptible terms imaginable. Eight times he uses the solemn expression, “Woe unto you!” Seven times he calls them “hypocrites.” Twice he calls them “blind fools.” And at last he denounces them as “serpents and a generation of vipers.”

            Why such sternness? Why such public condemnations? Why such scathing language? Could he not have said the same thing in a more polite, more civil, more acceptable tone? Of course, he could have done so. But it was not his intention to be polite, civil, and acceptable. It was his intention to be heard. Remember, these are the words of the one man, the one preacher whose love and goodness cannot be called into question. Why did our Lord choose to use such scathing language to denounce and condemn these men and the religion they taught? Because the glory of God, the truth of God, and the souls of men were at stake. The solemn truth to be learned from this passage is quite clear: The doctrines, the religion, the spirit, and the practices of the scribes and Pharisees are abominable in the sight of God. The religion of the world is contemptible to God and should be to us.

Shut up the Kingdom

First, our Lord condemns these religious leaders for shutting up the kingdom of heaven. — “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in” (v. 13). Of course, no man is able to literally shut up the kingdom of heaven. That kingdom which God almighty builds, no man shall hinder. Yet, many, like the scribes and Pharisees, do all they can to keep sinners out of the kingdom, persuading them not to hear those who preach the gospel and not to believe that which is obviously the truth of Holy Scripture. That is what the scribes and Pharisees did. They rejected the message of John the Baptist. They refused the doctrine of Christ. And they tried to keep anyone from hearing and believing the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Pretentious Religion

Second, our Savior condemned these men for being pretentious abusive and self-serving. — “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation” (v. 14). These base men, wearing the mask of piety and devotion, devoured widows houses. They took advantage of the most unsuspecting. Pretending to be devoted, spiritual leaders, true servants of God, they (like the hucksters of our day) took everything they could get from weak, unprotected, elderly women. The slickest and most vile con men in the world are those who run a scam upon the souls of men to enrich themselves! Men who enrich themselves by the work of the ministry are not God’s servants; and they are not ministering to people. They are using them. God’s servants come to serve the souls of men, not to be served by them (Matt. 20:26-28; 2 Cor. 2:17; 4:5).

False Religion

Third, the Son of God condemns the scribes and Pharisees (and all their successors today) for destroying the souls of men with false religion. — “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves” (v.15).

            Be sure you understand this verse correctly. Our Lord is not condemning what is commonly called proselytizing. If you care for men’s souls, you will do everything within your power to make proselytes of them; that is, to bring them out of false religion to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not the encompassing of land and sea to make a disciple that our Lord condemns. He commands that (Matt. 28:18-20). What he condemns is the destruction of men’s souls by false religion: getting sinners to believe a false gospel (gal. 3:1), getting people to make a profession of faith who have not experienced grace, giving people a false peace and false assurance in a false hope.

            Religious hucksters do not do what they do from a desire to benefit the souls of men, or bring them to the knowledge of the living God. Not in the least! Their only object is to swell their own ranks, build their churches, increase the number of their disciples, and make themselves a name. Their religious zeal arises not from a desire for the glory of God or the salvation of men’s souls, but from their own, self-serving interests.

Categorizing Sin

Fourth, the Lord Jesus condemns the scribes and Pharisees for categorizing sin.

“Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon” (vv.16-22).

            Our Lord plainly declared that we are not to swear at all (Matt. 5:34-36). But the scribes and Pharisees taught that some swearing was alright, that it was sometimes okay to take God’s name in vain (Ex. 20:3), so long as one did not swear by the gold in the temple’s coffers or the gifts upon the altar! Let a man, a church, or a denomination forsake the teachings of Christ and it is impossible to place a limit upon the heresies and foolishness to which they will run.

            Without question, some sins are more grave than others. Some will be punished more severely than others. But, whenever self-righteous religious men start defining and categorizing sin, they make the Word of God of non-effect and imply that certain sins, lesser sins, are permissible. Someone once stated, “The ten commandments are not ten suggestions, but ten commandments; and they are not multiple choice!”

Strain at a Gnat

Fifth, the scribes and Pharisees, like the religionists around us, exalted trifles, while ignoring the most important things. For that, they were be condemned.

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel” (v.23-24).

            They put the last things first and the first things last. They made a great issue about tithing, even on the herbs of their gardens. That would have been okay, except for one thing. They ignored “judgment, mercy and faith,” the justice of God, the mercy of God, and faith in Christ.

            I cannot imagine anything that more properly describes this religious generation. Religious people in our day, like the scribes and Pharisees, are meticulous about the outward form of godliness. They place great importance on outward behavior, dress codes, tithing, church attendance, and countless customs and traditions, while ignoring the most basic elements of the gospel and of true religion: the satisfaction of justice by the sacrifice of Christ (Rom. 3:24-26), the mercy of God flowing to needy sinners through that sacrifice (Eph. 1:7), showing mercy to others (James 1:17), and faith in Christ (2 Tim. 1:9-13).

Outward not Inward

Sixth, the religion of the scribes and Pharisees was condemned by Christ because it was an outward religion of rituals and ceremonies, rather than the inward, spiritual, heart worship of God.

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also” (vv.25-26).

            For most people, Christianity is an outward system of creeds, confessions, and ceremonies. But true Christianity, while never ignoring God’s doctrine or his ordinances, is primarily an inward, spiritual matter of the heart (1 Sam. 16:7; Pro. 23:26; Joel 2:13; John 4:23-24; Rom. 10:9-10; 14:17; Phil. 3:3).

Human Approval

Seventh, our Lord condemns as utter hypocrisy all religion that has for its object the approval of men.

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (vv. 27-28).

            Those religious works and ceremonies which are performed and promoted to show men how holy, zealous, or devoted we are, are an abomination to God (Matt. 6:3-16; Luke 16:15). We are neither ashamed nor ostentatious. We simply walk with and serve our God and Savior. We seek to live for his glory and do all things for his glory. And, really, it does not matter whether anyone, other than God himself, sees that. We want to glorify our Father before men, to live honestly, do justly, and to walk humbly with our God by faith in Christ; but we do not want men to look at us and say, “There is a truly humble man or woman, who lives for the glory of God.” If we seek the approval of men, we are not seeking the honor of God and cannot believe God (John 5:44).

Despise the Gospel

Eighth, the Son of God here condemned, as a crooked and perverse generation of snakes and vipers, all who exalt the names and honor of dead prophets, while despising those who preach and teach the gospel, the message of those prophets.

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (vv. 29-33).

            The scribes and Pharisees built monuments to dead prophets and revered the memories of God’s saints who lived in other ages. But, by their treatment of Christ, his disciples, and his people, they demonstrated that they were of one mind with those who “killed the prophets.”

Religious Serpents

Here are eight solemn woes denounced upon the very men who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. These stern words of condemnation were spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ, the meekest man who ever walked through the earth, the one who was the very embodiment of meekness and humility. They were made by that man by whom God shall judge the world in righteousness in the last day (Acts 17:31). He calls these men, and all who follow them, by names which identify them as a people whose father is that old serpent, the devil, whose damnation is sure. — “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?”

            Nothing is more damning to the souls of men than self-righteous, works religion. We read in the Word of God about many who were converted by God’s almighty grace. Idolaters, harlots, thieves, publicans, soldiers, and many who were possessed of devils have made everlasting trophies of God’s omnipotent grace. But in all the Word of God we find only two Pharisees who were converted: Nicodemus and Saul of Tarsus (John 3:1-21; 7:50; 19:39; Phil. 3:1-14). Two Pharisees, only two, are set before us in Holy Scripture who escaped the damnation of hell. Thank God, there were two, lest any despair. But there were only two, that none presume.

            How did these religious serpents manifest their serpentine hatred of the Son of God? What did they do to bring upon themselves such tremendous words of condemnation? They were not immoral in their outward behavior. They could not be charged with any open vices. They prided themselves in being very moral. They did not neglect the ordinances of divine worship, either in public or in private. They prayed three times a day, fasted twice a week, paid tithes on everything they obtained, and went to church every time the doors were open.

            What was it then, that brought upon these men the Lord’s most severe words of condemnation? It was their proud, Pharisaic self-righteousness, their legal righteousness, that caused them to despise the righteousness of God in Christ. Following after the righteousness of the law, going about to establish their own righteousness, such men show both their ignorance of  God’s righteousness and their determination never to submit themselves to the righteousness of God in Christ. — “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom. 10:4). Teaching others to do the same, they “shut up the kingdom of heaven against men.”

            They compassed sea and land, the Lord told them, to make one proselyte, and when this was done, they made him two-fold more the child of hell than themselves. That is, they labored to undermine the necessity of salvation by Christ in setting up and teaching others to do the same, a righteousness of their own: and thus by denying the fall of man and the necessity of a recovery by grace, they set up the kingdom of Satan, and like children of hell, fought against the kingdom of grace.

            Nothing is so completely opposed to the gospel of the grace of God, nothing is so opposed to the cross of Christ, nothing so despises the blood and righteousness of Christ, nothing is so hardening to the heart of man, nothing is so damning to the souls of men, nothing is so obnoxious to God in heaven as self-righteousness! When the teachers, preachers, and religious leaders of any age are engulfed in the darkness and delusion of self-righteous, free will, works religion, how great is the darkness of that generation! God hates hypocrisy and the show of religion! Let us ever pray as David did, “Let my heart be sound in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed” (Psa. 119:80). Let us be found in Christ, not having any righteousness of our own, but only that which was accomplished by the faithfulness of Christ our Surety, “the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Phil. 3:9).