Seven Woes, a Conclusion, and a Lament
First B Jackson
2023-11-26

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Good morning, everybody. How are we? It's good to see you. Would you stand with me? We'll we'll begin by worshiping in song, and here's a good word from Hebrews to lead us into worship.

It's let's come boldly. Let's come boldly before the throne of our gracious God. And there, we'll receive his mercy, and he'll we'll find grace when we need it most. Let's sing it. It come thou found of every blessing.

Come thou fount. Every blessing to my heart to sing thy grace.

Have a seat. A few announcements. Let's see what comes up. Discovery class. This Sunday between services in, my office, which is the second door on the left down the hall down there.

I assume Gary's gonna do that one this morning. Gary Geek is, ready to do discovery class. Kind of a new members class for folks who don't know or probably do know enough about it to think, might want to do that. Come on down the hall. You can learn more about us, but also we can learn more about you too.

So it's between services in my office down there, and Gary will be leading that. Life, love, and sexuality, the beauty of God's plan, where is that? Will satisfy the desires of your heart. Heart. Brian Butler is coming.

This is a a lot of the churches in Jackson have gotten together for this event. It's gonna be held here December 2, six to 8PM in the evening. It'll be right here. So pizza and talk will be at six, ages 12 and up. So this guy speaks on this subject all around and we were called and asked, hey, what do you think of this?

And we said, yeah, we'll provide the space. So here it is. There's a QR code. You can learn more about it. There are some little cards in the back.

It's primarily for the youth of the area. All right. Twenty twenty four calendars are available in the lobby for $10 The proceeds go to youth programs. We've been doing this since I've been here. These same calendars show up every year, and we just love them.

So this is kind of the official church calendar with all of our scrolling all over it. But this is happening. It's they're back there. This one is a little bit weird, I'll have to say. But she asked if we would.

Krista Nethercott, who goes to church here, and Tyson from Grand Teton Funeral Home, formerly Valley Mortuary, okay, they've asked me to put out a call for helpers. They're moving everything from the funeral home building, which is kind of across the street from Fiesta, you all know where that is. They're moving everything from that building here to storage in Idaho Falls on Monday. So if you want to, if you could, if you would, call Tyson and let him know that you can help and you want to. (208) 709-3403.

That's a little odd, but I'm thankful that we are the people that people call for help. So I think that's it. Anybody have another announcement? Anything out there? Anybody wanna praise God, stand up, and wave their hands?

Let's all do it together. I'm glad you're here.

Be shaken by drowned storm. The peace that passes on you standing is my song I sing. My hope is in you, Lord. I wait for you, and my finds rest. And my silverfishness, you show me grace.

As we were singing that song, something occurred to me, and that is some of you may be feeling like you are waiting. You're waiting on something to happen. You're waiting for something to change. You're waiting for a better outcome. And can I just share this as a word of encouragement to us?

And it's from Isaiah 40. Yet those who wait for the Lord, they'll gain new strength. That as we wait in the Lord, we will gain new strength. They'll mount up with wings like eagles. They'll run and not grow tired.

They'll walk and not become weary. Lord, would you help us to wait on you. Lord, your timing is not always our timing. And sometimes we want things to happen right now, very quickly. And we're we're we're waiting for a better outcome.

God, could we wait on you and find our refuge in you, find our comfort in you, find our strength in you. In Jesus name, amen.

For your mercy never fails me. All my days, I've been held in your hand From the moment that I wake up until I lay my head, I will sing of the goodness you've done. And all my life, you've been faithful. I've known you as a father. I've known you as a friend.

Before the throne of God and body I have a strong man the vividly oh great high priest whose name is love. Whoever lives in the place, oh, my name is on his

You can have a a seat here for a moment. This is the worship through giving part of the service, and invite the ushers to come on forward. We're gonna sing a song, I guess, that's new to us. Christ be magnified. But from Psalm 34 here, the scripture to go with this song, it's, oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let's exalt his name together.

That's what we endeavor to do on a Sunday morning. Let's magnify God's name together. Ray, would you pray?

Yep. God almighty, thank you for this, for this beautiful morning, Lord. Overwhelmed with your goodness this morning. I've overwhelmed with the good news. Lord, that sits in a world that seems to be filled with bad news.

It is the hope that we're looking for like we sang. My hope, Lord, is in you before the throne of God above. So good. God, thank you for these truths that just resound and resonate with us. We need you, Lord.

We need you. And so we're asking, Lord, that you would fill us with your spirit, with your presence, that you would that you would communicate, Lord. As Hebrews says, Jesus is the exact representation. He's exactly what God, what you are trying to communicate to us. May we may we understand that, Lord.

May we get it. And, Lord, may we move towards that. May we move towards Christ. Would you, by your spirit, transform us, Lord? Would you use your word in our lives to to shape and mold and form us so that we would be according to your will, Lord, your people, called by your name, who speak unified, The love, mercy, forgiveness, the gospel, Lord.

We're gonna hear a lot of words of woe this morning. I pray, Lord, that we would take those things and be warned by them, Lord. In Jesus' name, we ask that you would transform our lives by your spirit. We ask a blessing, Lord, on this operatory time that you'd bless the gift and the giver, that you'd use everything that is placed in these plates and everything that we lay before you and say, lord, take this and use it as you will to do your kingdom's work. In Jesus name, we pray that you'd be doing your will among us, through us, in your way.

Amen.

In me. Oh, Christ be magnified from the altar of my life. Christ be magnified you join me on this course? Oh, Christ be magnified. Let his praise arise.

Christ be magnified in me. Christ be magnified from the altar of my life. Christ be magnified in me. When you turn over all the angels and saints. My heart is still missing, and my song may say, Christ be magnified.

Let his praise arise. Christ be magnified me. Oh, Christ

Amen. There it is. Children's Church. Thank you, Carl. I heard that song at college college houses, this ministry in Columbus, Georgia.

And earlier in the year, we had a chance to go with them. There were just a bunch of college kids sitting around playing acoustic instruments and singing that's first to find heard. Thank you. God help us. Oh, seven woes.

Seven woes of conclusion and a lament. I it's been a couple weeks since I was up here. So thank you, Carl. I appreciated the good message from Philippians last week. I have had a couple weeks to stew on this one, these seven woes, and I had a hard time.

I had a hard time working my way through them. And, I don't know about y'all, but if you have to stand up and present, yeah, that's people don't like that. I don't mind it so much these days, but if I miss a week, I get nervous. And if I'm preaching kind of a message about the bad news, I get nervous. And so it's been a couple weeks, and I'm up here preaching seven woes.

I like this a lot, though. I think it gets at the heart of what's going on in our world today. It is so pertinent. It's so close to my own Christian experience right now. So I I wanna go through it.

But before we do that, these seven woes in Matthew look like the six that are in Luke. And actually, there's seven of them in Matthew. If you're if you have an NASB Bible and you're looking at the headings in your Bible, it says eight woes. Count them. There are seven.

It's so strange that it says eight and there are seven. Part of that is because verse 14, I'll say this, get this out of the way first. Verse 14, if you're looking at an NASB Bible or any of the modern translations, it'll skip from 13 to 15. Please do not listen to TikTok. Please do not listen to Instagram.

Please do not listen to amateur theologians that say they're trying to keep something away from you. Okay? In biblical scholarship, there are a few places where there's a little addition of a text that is the text of scripture from, say, Mark, and this one, verse 14. It's a repetition of all the seven woes that are in Matthew, but it also has one from Mark. So that's the eighth woah.

If you're reading and you say, eight woes. Wait a second. Let me go back and count these. There are only seven. 14 is not usually included in the NASB text.

It will be at the bottom of the page. It will have an asterisk somewhere. It will have something that will tell you that it's there. But we're going to go with seven. The reason that I'm saying seven for part of the reason today is it is a chiastic construction, and the one that's right in the middle of those seven is the one that is the overarching point in Jesus' little discussion here.

So seven woes, a conclusion, and a lament. Here we go. Six woes in Luke. And they look like this. Woe to you Pharisees.

Oh, gracious. It's the Pharisees again. And it's gonna be the Pharisees again today. Woe to you Pharisees. Woe to you.

Woe to you lawyers as well. Woe to the lawyers. The people who have studied and are supposed to know the text. Right? Woe to you.

You build the tombs of the prophet. Wait a second. We're gonna hit almost all these. Woe to you. You've taken away the key of knowledge.

You yourselves did not enter and you hindered those who are entering. If you wanna look, that's what these were about. I presented this a while back from Luke 11. It's right after the Lord's prayer. Hypocrisy, imbalance, ostentation, impossible demands that we put on other people or that they put on other people.

Intolerance and exclusiveness. That's what the six woes in Luke were about. And the ones in Matthew are similar. But when I started looking at these, it reminded me of a couple of other places. So I went there too.

This is the conclusion from Luke. When he left that place, because he had said, woe to you scribes and pharisees, woe to you pharisees, woe to you. When he left that place, not surprisingly, the scribes and the pharisees began to be very hostile towards him. And they began to interrogate him on many subjects. And that's what they were doing the last time I preached two weeks ago.

They were interrogating him about a lot of different things. They were hot button items. They were trying to get him to declare his allegiance to one side or the other, and they were trying to trap him. It says they were very hostile. Began to interrogate him about many subjects, they were plotting against him to catch him in something he might say.

This is kinda cancel culture right there. They're looking for a way that they can just exclude him. Divide. Hypocrisy, imbalanced, ostentation, impossible demands, intolerance, and exclusiveness. So that reminded me of Isaiah.

Six woes from Isaiah. So six in Luke. There's six in Isaiah. Woe to those who attach house to house and join field to field if there's no more room. Are you and you are alone in a land over in the midst of the land.

If I were to just boil this down, greed is the first woe and drunkenness the second. In Isaiah, Lord of armies will be exalted in judgment, and the holy God will show himself in righteousness. Woe to those. Woe to those. Woe those.

Woe to those. Woe to those. My goodness. What is it? Deceit.

Being deceptive. Lying. Fudging the details for your own benefit. Blasphemy. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes. It sounds like he's getting everybody, does it not? Woe to those self righteous ones, wise in their own eyes, clever in their own sight, Think they've got it all figured out. Drunken injustice. Woe to those who are heroes when it comes to drinking wine and valiant men and mixing drinks.

But they declare the wicked innocent for a bribe and they take away the rights of the ones who are in the right. So deceit, blasphemy, self righteousness, and drunken injustice. There they are. You put those with Luke. My goodness.

It's did you see how I've had a couple of rough weeks considering the text? Let's keep going. Habakkuk, Habakkuk, whatever. I call it Habakkuk. It sounds like tobacco, but it's Habakkuk.

All right? Habakkuk two. This is five woes. So there's six in Luke. There's six in a row in Isaiah, and there are five in Habakkuk.

Woe to him who increases what is and makes himself rich with debts. This is an oldie but a goodie, usury. We don't talk much about usury. If you hear it at all these days, it's called predatory lending. Makes himself rich with that, taking advantage of the poor.

Woe to him who makes evil profit for his household. The evil prophet is one. Builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town upon violence. Woah. Self serving violence.

I don't know. If think of anywhere in the world, there's some self serving violence going on right now. There always has been. There always will be. But woe to the one who engages in it.

Woe to him who makes his neighbor drink. Oh my goodness, this one's a little rough. Let me skip to that one. Drunkenness, we'll call it lusts and violence. Drunkenness, lust, and violence.

Looking upon others' nudity and having them look upon yours. Drunkenness, lust, and violence. Woah. Woah. To him who says to a piece of wood, awake.

What benefit is a carved image when its maker has carved it or cast metal image a teacher of falsehood for its maker trust in his own handiwork when he fashions speechless idols. Come on. There's a place in Isaiah. It's not a woe passage, but it says, woe to him who says to a piece of wood, awake and to a mute stone, arise. That's your teacher?

Really? Behold, it's overlaid with gold and silver. It's fancy, alright, but there's no breath at all inside it. But the Lord in contrast, he is in his holy temple and let all the earth be silent before him. Idolatry.

Idolatry can be anything that takes the place of God. Our worship and admiration, which is due for him goes to something else, and it is idolatry. This is certainly old old world idolatry, but it still exists. Usury, profiting from evil, self serving violence, drunkenness, lust, and violence, idolatry. Those are the five.

Are there any others? Oh my goodness. So words of woe. Y'all know what woe even means? Are you just sitting there going, don't even know what woe means?

Like, it can just mean, alas, woe. But it also usually is a fairly strong condemnation. It's saying, what you're doing is wrong. What you're doing is wrong. Take note that there is a standard, and you're not up to it.

Woe to it. If we were honest, just the ones I've listed so far would probably hit most everybody in the room on some level in your flesh. Right? It's not godly. Those things are not godly.

But if you're looking up isolated woes, man, are pages and pages of them. Actually, here they are. That's what I went to go get during that song. Here they are. Individuals.

I tried to simplify. There are a lot of place names that are listed. Moab, not Utah. Oh, maybe Utah, but not not right now. That's not what I'm talking about.

In the Bible, it's Moab. The Philistines constantly. Us, woe be unto us. This is a writ of holy scripture. Woe be on us, the people of God, because we're not acting like the people of God.

Woe be on me if I'm wicked, Job says. We've been reading a lot from Job lately. Woe be on me. Woe be to the lonely one who falls? Woe be on you who are ruled by the immature hedonist?

Oh my goodness. Woe be on them who sinned shamelessly. Woe be on the wicked. Woe be on the greedy, the drunk, the deceitful, the blasphemous, the self righteous, the frivolous, unjust. Woe be upon me, Isaiah says, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.

When faced with the holiness of God, he recognized that he was lacking. That makes sense? Woe be on Assyria, Diamond, Moab, Ethiopia. Woe be upon me because I am treacherous. Woe be upon me who am proud and habitually drunk.

Woe be upon Ariel. I don't think that's about the Little Mermaid. I don't know where Ariel is. Pretty sure it's a place though. Woe be upon those who are sneaky, deceiving liars and cheats, rebellious children to those who trust in government and military might.

Woe to be upon those who are just destroyers. Woe to the one who quarrels with his maker. Woe to be upon us for our own evil. Woe to those at war with God. Woe to the unclean and the impenitent.

Woe to men of strife. I think it could be extended to women of strife. Euodians and Ticky last week. Alright. Woe upon the unrighteous builders, the bad shepherds.

Oh, Ezekiel 34. Woe be upon this evil generation, Nebo, Moab, Chaldeans. Woe be upon sinners. Woe be upon evil abominations of the people of God. Have you noticed that it's not just outsiders?

It's a lot of it is about insiders, about the people who are supposed to be God's people. Now, this is Old Testament. This is Old Covenant. Right? It is Old Testament, Old Covenant.

Y'all, I know you came to a New Testament Christian church. You already know about the gospel, but I'm I want you to sit in it for a minute as much as it depends on you. Old Covenant depends on these people to live according to God's holy law. Evil abominations of the people of God to foolish prophets who are following their own spirits and not the spirit of God. Probably include prophets for a prophet in there.

Sorceresses. Woe to the wicked. Woe upon Jerusalem which he calls the bloody city. Woe for the day of judgment, the enemies of God, bad shepherds, those who are eating the sheep and not taking care of them. To those who know God but have strayed, backsliders.

Ephraim. Woe to those who are longing for the day of the Lord. Wow. Woe to those who are carefree. Woe to those who feel secure in the mountains of Samaria.

Oh, no. Sorry. Woe to those who live at the beach. It really says that. To those who devise wrongdoing, to those who are plotting, what does it say that they left the woe session in Luke?

They plotted against him. Woe to those who are unjust, to the bloody city, to the usurers, to the selfish evildoers, violent builders who tear down others, idolaters, beach dwellers, there it is, Cherithites, by the way. I don't know where Cherith is. The rebellious and defiled oppressors, the worthless shepherd who abandons the flock. I'm sorry.

I missed last week. No. I'm just kidding. We did need to go where we needed to go. But I tell you what, when you're reading through all these as a I wanted them to sit in your lap for a while too.

To Chorazin and Bethsaida, we've moved into the New Testament now. Those are cities that were among God's people. He said, woe to you, Bethsaida and Chorazin, because if the same things had happened among these hateful people of Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented. They would have come to know God, and you are rejecting him. Woe to those who are stumbling blocks for other people, especially those who put people out claiming to speak for God.

Scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, it says that a lot. We'll get into that. That's from Matthew, from Mark. Woe to the rich, woe to the well fed, woe to those who laugh. Good gracious.

Can any of us stand? I think that's the point. No. Chorazim, Bethsaida, Pharisees, hypocrites, we'll keep on. When you get outside of the gospels, there's one that I'll say for the very end.

And then Jude, woe to them, the ones who are haters, who are money lovers, false prophets, and the rebellious. In Revelation, it literally says, if you feel like you've like you hadn't gotten it yet, woe to those who live on the earth. Okay? Does that cover everybody? It covers absolutely everybody.

And then in Revelation, there are three woes. And when he gets to the end of the first one, it's pretty bad. He goes, hey. The first woe is over. Goodness gracious.

That reminds me of the optimist that fell off. And as he's passing the window on the way down, he says, I'm going good so far. So far, so good. Seven woes of Matthew. Here we are to the text that we came to talk about today.

But woe to you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites. Woe to you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites. That's like the name for them. It's an appositive. It is what he calls them most of the time, actually, when he calls them.

Woe to you scribes and pharisees, religious folk that are very concerned with your interpretation of the text. You hypocrites because you shut the kingdom of heaven in front of people. There are people that will listen to what you say, pharisees. And you are shutting the door of heaven because you don't enter it yourselves nor are you allowing those who are entering it to go in. There were crowds that followed Jesus everywhere he went, and they were amazed by him, and they were drawn into relationship with almighty God.

And as they are approaching him, pharisees would stop and say, don't listen to him. He doesn't know what he's talking about. So a failure to recognize the Messiah is what that's all about. Now you can look at it and go, oh, it's because of all the list of rules and the things and the conduct and all that, but that's not what it says. It says that you are shutting the door of the kingdom of heaven in front of people because you're not going in, and you're not letting them in either.

Ugh. That's the first one. Woe to you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites. He starts off several of them like that. It drives the point home.

Hypocrites means actor, a play actor, someone who wears a mask. Woe to you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites. You're not being real because you travel around on sea and land to make just one proselyte. And when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. The missionary enterprise.

He's actually not fussing at him about the missionary enterprise. He is saying, you're swaying people to believe like you believe. And you know what the problem with that is? Is when you sway people to believe like you believe, and it's not the truth, they get worse than you. I I I'm gonna I'm gonna hurt people's feelings right here.

I don't mean to. But I agree with everything I've ever read straight up from John Calvin. One generation later, I'm like, where did they get that? Right? I agree with a lot of what Arminius wrote.

But one generation out from him, I'm like, why are they being so mean? To the other side. Right? If we're swaying people to our opinion, that's not good. That's really, really, really bad.

That is the opposite of humility before the text. To say that I've got it all figured out and that my way is the only way. Now, I do think that there is truth. There's not my truth and your truth. There is truth.

But we're human beings. God is an infinite God. We're finite beings. The way that I understand this, sometimes some things just resonate with me all the way down to my very soul that I could not do otherwise. Before God, I could not do that, and I recognized that it would be alright.

I've mentioned military service. I'm absolutely in awe of people who have served, can serve, will serve in the military, and I think that's great. I I don't think I could do it. I personally don't think I could do it. There's nothing wrong with it.

I couldn't do it. Right? I couldn't at the same time proclaim God's love for you and be aiming at you. I couldn't do that. I understand that there's a time for it.

Governments are given the power to do that. I get that, but I couldn't do it. I I want to bring people to Jesus and allow him to transform them. That's what I want. That's what I hope.

The second woe is really about being superficially zealous, but you're doing more harm than good. What are you blind guides who say, whoever swears by the temple that's nothing. Okay. That's okay. No.

That doesn't mean anything. But whoever swears by the gold at the temple, he's obligated. Does that sound like equivocation right there? Which oaths are we gonna pay attention to? You fools and blind men, Jesus calls them.

Which is more important, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold? And you say whoever swears by the altar, that's nothing. But whoever swears by the offering that is on it is obligated. That sounds like sophistry, doesn't it? Where it's just like spurious reasoning.

And this is stuff they argued about. There's plenty of documentation from the first century of them going over which one of these is legitimate and which is not legitimate. And if an oath is made on one thing, it's not binding, but on another thing it is binding. And Jesus is very clear throughout. Let your yay be yay and your nay be nay.

Don't mix them. If you're gonna say you're gonna do something, be doing it. Right? Do it. Fulfill your vows.

Right? No wonder James says, be careful about oaths. Don't just don't be doing that. You blind men. Which is more important, the offering on the altar or the altar that sanctifies the offering?

There therefore, the one who swears by the altar swears both by the altar and everything on it. Come on. And the one who swears by the temple. Swear about both the temple and by him who dwells in it. Everything that you say is given before God and should be valid.

And if it's not, woe be unto you. The one who swears by heaven swears both by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it. This one is a misguided use of scripture. These folks are looking for loopholes. Okay?

They're looking for ways out where they don't really have to stand behind their word. Equivocators looking for loopholes. Misguided use of scripture. I don't know. Can you all think of any misguided uses of scripture?

I mean, we tend to pick and choose, don't we? I promise you there's as much in the woes for us as there is for outsiders. I promise you. And woe be unto us if we don't see those things and take the warning because we know or we're supposed to know God. Woe be unto you scribes and pharisees.

This woe be unto you. Actually, when I was little, had an aunt that would always say, listen. Y'all go play in the yard. And if you come back in this house, woe be unto you. Off comes your head and a chunk out of your behind.

And every time I see it, that's what I think of. Woe to you. Woe to you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe. Wait a second. Jesus is getting on to him for tithing.

Wait a second. Let's listen. For you tithe mint and dill and cuban, you're tithing on your spices, but you've neglected the weightier provisions of the law. Justice and mercy and faithfulness. But these are the things you should have done without neglecting others.

Go ahead and do the tithe. That's fine. Tithe. If you feel that you need to tithe on your mint, dill, and cumin, then be doing it. Yes.

There are plenty of regulations about how and what you're supposed to do, and they need to be conscientiously held. But don't forget about justice and mercy and faithfulness, and these things are weightier, he says. You should have been doing these things all along without neglecting the others. Matthew's already mentioned Hosea six six twice in this gospel. For I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

Actually, speaking to the Pharisees, when he said, go learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and an acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. So that's kind of Pharisees and Sadducees. They were the ones that were really concerned with temple worship and burnt offerings. I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

And he closes this section out with you blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. Both of those are unclean animals, by the way. Oh, I can't have anything unclean. I'm straining the gnat. Fork I forgot that can you imagine on the way to the temple?

Can you imagine? I forgot my cumin. I forgot to bring my mill, my dill, my mint, my cumin. We cannot forget that. Walking right past the beggars on the way in the door.

You blind gods, you strain out a gnat, you swallow a camel. This is, I think, the very center. This is the center point. All the rest of them work backwards from the first one. The center point of the cast at construction is a fundamental failure to discern the thrust of scripture.

I have a book that's called Adventures and Missing the Point. Fundamental failure to discern the thrust of scripture. Are we taking scripture in and applying it to our own lives for the transformation that God desires? I wouldn't have stood up here and listed all those woes if I hadn't thought it was necessary for us to sit with it for a moment to go, woah. Who can stand?

Like Isaiah, my mind was flooded for the past couple of weeks with all of the things that fall short. Here we go. Woe to you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites. Again, for you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they're full of robbery and self indulgence. You blind Pharisee, individually.

First, clean the inside of the cup and the dish so that the outside of it also may become clean. The outside will the outside will get there. You concentrate on the inside. If you are really walking in righteousness, eventually, it will begin to show. Misguided use of scripture.

It's got to look good. Ding. All is well. Woe to you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, actors. For you're like whitewashed tombs which are, on the outside, they appear to be beautiful, but inside they're full of dead men's bones and all kinds of uncleanness.

Gnat camel. No. Uncleanness. Ugliness. There's ugliness inside.

So you too, outwardly, appear righteous to people, but inwardly, you're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. I had someone share with me an article. I won't even tell you what it was about. I don't want anybody going to look for it. But it was about a pastor who had fallen recently, And it was really upsetting.

And I read it out loud actually to Mike and to Carl. And instead of going instead of laughing, instead of both of them being empathetic men and in pastoral roles. Both of them said, God help him and his family. God help him and his family. And then the next prayer is, God help us and our families.

Superficially zealous, but you're doing more harm than good. If people knew that we were struggling and we were also able because of Christ to walk in victory, That'd be much better off than just looking like we've got it all together all the time. Woe to you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, for you build the tombs for the prophets and you decorate the monuments of the righteous. And you say, if we've been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners for them with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. These are the guys who are plotting against Jesus.

At this point, we've already seen them plotting with people they don't even like to try to kill him. They're trying to trap him. They're trying to cancel him. They're trying to do everything that they can. And Jesus says, you say, well, if we've been living back then, certainly, we would have been on the side of right.

We wouldn't have killed those prophets. We would have listened to everything they said. We would have repented in sackcloth and ashes. Absolutely. But Jesus says, so and in this way, just so, in this way, you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets.

It's your heritage. It is the way that you are and have been. Fill up then the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You snakes, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? Strong words from Jesus.

Are we getting close to the end of these seven woes? My goodness. It was a failure to recognize the prophets. Now what was the first one? The first one was a failure to recognize Messiah.

Really, failure to recognize the prophet. Now the woman in Samaria at the well recognized the prophet. He re she recognized Jesus right away. She dropped her water pot, ran back to town, and told everybody, come see this man who told me everything I've ever done. And honestly, was at the well in the middle of the day by herself for a reason.

But her whole past of woe had been transformed by meeting Jesus and recognizing who he is. And then going into town, she's like, come on out here. I'm gonna show you El Tayeb. Sorry. I keep switching over until hell comes up right there.

Dan Rather had a a biography, and he wrote that he had a little radio station in Texas, and he had preachers that would preach for an hour on a record. So he put the record on, and he said, it was a whole hour before I had to be back. And he put this record on, and he thought, I'm gonna run I'm gonna run see my gal. I'm gonna run grab the chicken fried steak. You know?

And he goes, and when he gets back in the car and turns on the radio, the record is skipping, and it's on the preacher at the crescendo of, you're going to hell. You're going to hell. All the way back, he listened to that. I didn't mean to stick it right there, but this is what I'm looking for. So failure to recognize the messiah was first, and that's compared to the failure of their ancestors to recognize the prophets.

The superficial zeal that does more harm than good is proselytizing people to your opinion. Misguided use of scripture, weaponizing scripture, clobber passages of scripture, Fundamental failure to discern the thrust of the scripture. The thrust of the scripture is that all of us fall short. All of us fall short. And we are in need of a savior.

We're in need of a redeemer, someone who can take upon him all of our sins and transgressions that will accept that blame because he has a righteous record, that he exchanges for ours, his perfect life for our imperfect one. Jesus' conclusion to this set of seven woes, the most complete set of woes that I see in the whole Bible. Therefore, behold, I'm sending you. Jesus said, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes. Some of them, y'all are gonna kill and you're gonna crucify, and they did.

And some of them, you're gonna flog in your synagogues. Think about Paul. You know what? Paul might have been present. We know Paul was present at Stephen Stoning.

He might have been present here. Where else would he be? This is the week before Passover. This is the hottest ticket in town right here, right now. Jesus is teaching in the temple, and all sides are coming up and questioning him.

You think Paul wasn't there? Saul? Excuse me. Not Paul. Saul.

Right? So some of them you're gonna flog in your synagogues, and some of them you're gonna persecute from city to city. So that upon you will fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, From the blood of the righteous Abel, you know, killed by Cain, to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered. You. You Murder between the temple and the altar.

Truly I say to you, all of these things will come upon this generation. Jesus knows what's coming, and he knows that his blood is gonna be on their hands. And honestly, his blood's on our hands too. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. And then, that sets him into a lament.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kills the prophets and stones those who have been sent to her as messengers of woe and warning. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who've been sent to her. How often I, Jesus says, wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. You're training up your children to be contrary to my way. How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and you were unwilling.

Every time I see that unwillingness, I I think of this, verse. Actually, the you there, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. You were unwilling. This is what the Lord God, the holy one of Israel has said in Isaiah 30. In repentance and rest, you will be saved.

In quietness and trust is your strength, but you are not willing. I I wonder if we're willing for God to transform us. I wonder if we're willing. Are we bucking up against and saying, no, God. I wanna hold on to that.

Lord God, if it's unclean in my life, I want you to take it out. If there's a cancer in me, Lord, I want you to surgically remove it. I wanna be willing. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate. For I say to you, from now on, you will not see me until you say, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

You might say, well, they just said that. They did just say that. They just said it on the triumphal entry, but that was the crowd that was with him that was saying it. And he's saying the people who are in leadership, they're not saying it. You're not gonna see it again until you recognize the truth for what it is.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Are there any other isolated woes I I shared and I read them instead of waiting till now? Read them earlier. There are pages of them. If you saw yourself in any of those, a woe is a warning.

Woe is a warning. Woe be unto you. We stayed outside. We didn't want to lose our heads and a chunk out of our behind. Right?

Woe be unto you if you are this way. And truth be told, we are this way. So how do we get past that? How many of these apply to me and to you? A lot of them.

So Jesus' question for them is is a question for us is how will you escape the sentence of hell? And really, it's what will you do with Jesus? He was standing right there in front of them. Now if Paul was right or if Saul was right there, and whether he was quiet or whether he was questioning or whether he was acting up, he might have been one of the ones that was egging him egging him on. We don't know.

But when we see him recognize who Jesus is being knocked off of his high horse and blinded by the light, who is he, Lord, so that I may serve him? The transformation and the humbling of seeing and feeling the weight of our own sin on us is very, very powerful to the point of it will it will make us, unstable. It'll make us hurt because there's not anything we can do outside of Jesus. He is the way. He is the truth.

He is the life. The good news is that though we have a sentence of woe, God has made a way that that can be lifted off of our shoulders. This is Paul's testimony. Saul, Paul, testimony. And I and I think that if we think about it this way, it's helpful.

I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord. He recognizes it's not just him. There are other people who have come to believe. I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful. I don't know why he did it.

He considered me faithful, putting me into service, and I'll be willing to go wherever he sends me and say what I need to say to whoever he sends me to. Even though I was previously a blasphemer, I called the evil good and good evil. I said what was sweet was bitter, what was bitter is sweet. Even though previously I was a blasphemer, woe be unto the blasphemers. And I was a persecutor.

I was violently aggressive towards those who followed the way previously. That's a woe be unto you. And I was a violent aggressor. Another woe be unto you. He lists three of them out of the box there and then says, yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief.

I didn't know what I didn't know. Now listen to this church. You do know. And the people all around us don't know what it is they don't know. I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus.

And this is a trustworthy statement, deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And immediately, he feels the weight of his own stuff. He goes, among whom? I'm foremost. I'm the chief of sinners.

Yet for this reason, I found mercy. So that in me as the foremost sinner, Jesus made an example out of me that he might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life. And now, to the king, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. So I'm gonna ask you I'm gonna ask you, what will you do with Jesus?

If you're sitting here and you're being honest, you have to either conclude two things. I am under a condemnation of woe, whatever that means. I disregard everything that tall guy in the front has said. I don't believe anything that's written down in this book. I ignore it completely, and I'm gonna go living my life.

Or because I'm under this sentence, I will accept the provision that you have made, God Almighty. Now the altar is always open up here. If you wanna come forward, you're welcome to publicly. I'll be here for the first part of this week. I'm always available by phone.

If you wanna talk about it. If you wanna talk to Gary down in the office in between, please. I wanted to sit the woe in your lap, but I also don't wanna leave here because there's one more that I didn't mention, it's this one. For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of. I told you a lot of bad news and a little good news this morning.

For if I preach the gospel, have nothing to boast of. I'm under a compulsion. God saved me against all that I was doing against him. He saved me out of it, and he sanctified me still. And he's putting me through some stuff that's transforming and sanctifying me right now.

But woe be unto me if I don't preach the gospel. Woe be unto me if I don't say Jesus is the way out of this situation. Come on up, Carl. We're gonna sing a song. Would you stand?

It's a hymn of invitation and response is the way it's always listed. If you had a bulletin, that's what it'd say. I'm inviting you to respond to the call of Christ to lay down your woes. Put those on him and accept the grace and the mercy, the forgiveness, and accept the mantle. God is faithful, and he will allow for you to also be faithful.

I'll receive you if you come forward if you want me to. I'll turn the microphone off. In Jesus name.

The Lord is faithful. Yesterday, now, and always, ways. Your mercy is mighty. I In your presence, I know there's power, power to say. And I will tell all the wonders, sing of your grace, faithful yesterday, now, and always, you're where you are, you were, you are, you've always will be God again you are you've always will be God yes you always will be God and I will tell of your wonders sing of your grace the God of creation knows me by name the Lord is faithful yesterday yesterday and now and always Amen.

Oftentimes, Blake picks the benediction slide. This is always a good one. Each of you should use whatever gift you have. It says, each one of us have been given a gift right before this. And each one of you should use whatever gift it is that you have received to be serving others and as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms.

Lord, may we be sharing your manifold grace with the world around us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for saving us. In Jesus' name, amen.