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.
Matthew 23:13–14
I
would be hard pressed to admit that those Scribes and Pharisees were overtly by
some deceitful manner to not have a desire to please God. Yet, they were so
off–base! Jesus before saying the words noted above said this: “Then Jesus
spoke to the multitudes and to Hs disciples, saying: ‘The scribes and the
Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that
observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for the say, and do not
do” (Matthew 23:1–3). It is not that some preachers say things that are not
Scriptural, at least in all cases, and those that are Scriptural, do them! But,
it is as the old adage goes: “Do as I say, and not as I do.” Some leaders in
Christianity are not doing the will of God and teach all things according to
Scripture and teach things that even may be heretical and by doing so, “they
shut up the kingdom of heaven against men.” Those false teachers, and they
are false because they are hypocrites, and like Saul who did not obey God and
do His will tried to make a good excuse for not doing so, by saying that those
who were to be destroyed and were not were going to be used as a sacrifice to
God. God does not need our sacrifices; He desires obedience. You may say, I
pray, and in fact you may give long and laborious prayers but are not obedient,
therefore you prayers are a pretense making cause for you to feel pious. God
requires a person to obey, obey His commands, and not add anything to those
commands, i.e., the works of the Scribes and Pharisees. This addition to the
will of God, even by men who believed in God, or at least in a god, in every
attempt to teach an understanding of life, God, and the reason for existence,
were heretical, in practice, and in theology. We have leaders today who sound
good, even titillate our senses, but are not doing so in obedience to God,
rather for some personal gain. One may point out that there were men who became
monks, who cloistered themselves from the world so that they could concentrate
on worship to God. Yes, there were, and in the Medieval ages many of the monks,
those men who set aside the pleasures of this life were godly, and they held
the word of God with all sanctity, and translated Scripture, and taught how a
person was to live. Yet, some of those were doing so for reasons that were not
being obedient to Scriptures, rather, they were so by not having to deal with
life and all its problems, a runaway effort, and some were harsh and even, in
later times contributed to the horrible Inquisition. Did command any of this?
NO! Did God command or even approve of the practices being done by those who
claim to be “Christian” and bark like dogs, howl like wolves, speak in
gibberish as though they were being obedient when the word of God does not
command us to be this way? NO! Much of these practices, theologies being
pressed upon people leads them away from true worship of God, keep them from
the kingdom of heaven. All this faced the early Church and those men who
strived to keep the Church free from heresy, free from the impact of
philosophies, and theologies that were not according to God’s will. There
effort was to keep the word of God intact as was written by those men who were
inspired by God to write for us His will, His commands for His children. This
came at a cost. It will come to us as a cost if we obey His commands.
For the
first 250 years Christian faced persecution by local authorities, by mobs that
were so absorbed by philosophies; i.e., Platoism, Neoplatonism, Gnosticism,
etc., and just atheistic. It was during this time that men of God wrote
treatises against such things that were so against Scripture. There was a need
to keep the congregations from such false teaching, those seemingly good
sounding words, yet were not true words of God. Christianity was growing in
number, and was a religion accepted by Roman authorities, at least for a time,
and with this growth came many who needed instruction as to the true teachings
of Jesus Christ. We need this today! Much is said, many are coming to our
Churches, even making a decision to follow Jesus Christ, only to be following a
Jesus Christ that is not the Jesus Christ of Scripture. Neoplatonism in its
attempt to blend Plato philosophy with Christianity led many into excesses that
seemed right, even holy, even pleasing to God, but were not for it is like
putting dirt in clear water, no matter how much water is added, it is still
dirty. There must be a removal of the dirt. This is what men, of God, those
holding to the truths of Scripture were attempting to do. All this in face of a
society that were heathen, persecutors of the truth. Some men fell prey to this
societal problem and began to add things to their theology that sounded good,
had good words, but only diluted the truth. There was then, and now, a need to
remove this false teaching, this dirt from God’s people. The true water of life
is Jesus Christ and Him taught in truth.
We must ask
ourselves: “Are we willing to make the needed changes when we learn the truth,
or will we make excuses for our not following the truth, doing of God’s will?
We must see how this diluted truth led to abuses in the Church and then find
out by our study how the truth was found and then taught; yet some still hold
on to that which is false, they are not willing to change. God asks us to
change, to stop our sinful life, to follow him, to be converted, not just
decide to follow Him, but to be converted to Him and then to live obediently.
Will You?
Then He came to His disciples
And said to
them,
“Are you still sleeping and resting?
Behold, the
hour is at hand,
And the Son of Man is being betrayed
Into the
hands of sinners.”
Matthew 26:45
Don’t Sleep; Don’t Rest: Be Intentional To Serve Him
Richard L. Crumb
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