At this point, as I would introduce a passage of scripture to be examined, I will often introduce it with, it is my desire to open up God's Word to you. And yet, even as we have read together from this particular portion of God's Word, from what Jesus has to say to the Pharisee, I feel that The normal words of introduction, that it is my desire to open out this passage to you, is not an accurate statement of the truth. Indeed, there is that within me as the preacher that would say, I wonder if I could just skip over it and just see whether anyone in the congregation might notice that I haven't actually preached the next passage of Scripture that is set before us. These are uncomfortable words. It is a difficult instance in Scripture. It's difficult for you as the hearers to sit under such a ministry. It was certainly difficult for the hearers to whom Jesus first gave these words. Not easy then for you to hear these things. Perhaps you have known of those who are of sensitive disposition that wish to remove any mention of death or of disease from their children's hearing, because they don't want their children to grow up afflicted by being told that we all must die, or that there is indeed sickness and disease in this world. They want to envelop their children in a sort of cocoon. and keep these things from them. I wonder what passage of Scripture we would be left with. Perhaps Genesis chapter 1 and 2, which could be removed from our Scriptures and kept and throw much of the rest of it away. Because there is much in Scripture that does speak about death, and we bless God for it. Why? Because we live in a world which still bears the consequences of man's rebellions against God. Death is upon every hand. It breaks in unwanted, not only for those who are old and full of years, but even as we have prayed for Maggie's family in the loss of a two-year-old, suddenly through an accident removed from the family. The day began as any other normal day, and yet by the end of the day, they are in the deepest sorrow. Here we have in this passage of scripture, a pronouncement of woes and of criticism of those who should have known better. It is difficult for the preacher to preach on such a message. I have to say, I have never heard a sermon preached on this passage, and it's not that difficult for us to understand why this is not a passage which often is brought in for exposition. how hard it is to wring from our text the gospel comfort. We might ask ourselves as we read through this passage, where is the balm of Gilead that might soothe a troubled heart? I would hide my own face from such a message and cannot lightly set it before the congregation that I love and hold so dear. But it is not unique in Scripture You know from the book of Revelation, the sixth chapter from verse 14, that sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, fallen us, and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" It's a striking picture, isn't it? All these mighty men, the powerful, the kings and the generals, those who have armies at their disposal, seeking to be hid from the wrath of the Lamb. I could have understood if Scripture had spoken about the lion of the tribe of Judah hiding me from his wrath. But the Lamb bespeaks, one who is gentle and meek. How awesome it is, therefore, for us to be confronted in Scripture by a picture of a Lamb who has exhausted kindness and meekness and has grown wrathful towards those who have been in rebellion against him. Reducing even the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful to call to the mountains, fall on us. Mountains, hide us from the wrath of the Lamb. There is, therefore, not only a difficult instance, there is a devastating indictment. Seven times Jesus says to the scribes and the Pharisees, woe! Six times he calls them hypocrites. Five times he calls them blind. And finally, he describes them as serpents and a brood of vipers. We can hardly miss the connection which Jesus is making in that reference. It takes us back to the fall and the evil that entered into the world as Adam and Eve were seduced into breaking the commandments of God, the bite of the viper would prove lethal. And Jesus is describing these scribes and Pharisees as being lethal to the well-being of those with whom they come in contact. Now it is not my design this morning to exegete each and every one of the seven woes, but to draw them together and to show us for the Word of God to be applied to our own hearts, how easy it is for us to perceive certain sins to be acceptable. We might as well look at the list and consider, well, what are the sins that have been left out? What are the Pharisees and the scribes not challenged with? They're not challenged with being adulterous. It's not that they have entered into the marriage bond and then become unfaithful to their wives. It is not that they are being challenged with stealing the gold from the temple or of entering into the wrong relationships in their business practices. It is not that they are being accused of being serial liars, depraved in their way in which they represent themselves in the court of law. These are not the sort of things that Jesus is speaking and drawing attention to. It is not those sort of sins which we would recognize and which we would be troubled by if we encountered it in our family or in our circle of friends. If we knew of somebody who was committed to any one of these things, we would say, no, this is not acceptable. We understand that these things are contrary to God's Word. But it is not those things for which Jesus reserves. the strength of his condemnation. They are, in certain measure, acceptable. Indeed, even perceived as being commendable, they have great energy with which they pursue their goals. They scour land and sea And when they get a convert, he ends up twice as fanatical as the teacher. And perhaps you've experienced that in your circle of friends, somebody who is converted into a particular set of beliefs. When it's converted as a Christian, we've all encountered it. Perhaps we can even look back upon our own experience. When we were first converted, we were more zealous than a Pharisee and were those who would not hesitate to tell others where they were wrong. So it is with the disciples of the Pharisee. They go almost literally to the ends of the earth. They look for those that they can bring in to their system of belief. And when they bring that person in, they are so transformed that they make them twice as fit for hell as they are themselves. What a noble endeavor, they would assure themselves. What zeal they had to advance the kingdom of God. And yet, even in that endeavor, Jesus restricts his harsh, if we can use that word, that severe criticism for them, even, as he brings it to their account. Brown Lenorth was a 19th century evangelist who wrote a number of expositions of Scripture always with a desire to challenge the unconverted. And in one of those, which I read some time ago, I'm afraid I can't actually remember which of his tracts I read it in, but he paints a picture of a minister. A minister who goes to a lost eternity. And there he is, surrounded for all eternity by the congregation that he has led there. I tell you, for any minister, it is a fearful thought. But how many ministers, perhaps in our generation, risk finding that to be true, to go to a lost eternity and there to be face to face with the very people that the minister had been charged to preach the gospel message and to have their accusations laid before him without interruption for all eternity. The unskillful pilot does not perish alone. But they had energy in the way in which they applied their rules. Jesus speaks of how they brought their tithes of mint and of cumin, how they would separate the individual sprigs out to make sure that they were holding rigidly to the law. But they had overlooked the very substance of what God had required of them. Now, what is it that Jesus is drawing attention to here? You see, there was this outward display and the assumption which is being made on their behalf. Well, surely if they are keeping the law right down to their herb garden, then surely they must be keeping everything else with great clarity and with great purpose. But Jesus, what is He saying? You make a great show of how fanatically keen you are to keep even these savoury herbs, but you have actually neglected the more important, the weightier matters of the law. Justice and mercy and faithfulness. What a condemnation, therefore, for these men that though they could stand before God and say they had tithed their mint, they had not kept God's Word when it came to justice or mercy or faithfulness. They strain at gnats and swallow a camel. Why a camel? Boys and girls, why does Jesus speak about a camel at this particular point? Here's a simple answer. it would be the largest unclean animal that would be familiar to his hearers. You see what Jesus is saying? They have this outward show that they tie into their herbs. And when it came to small matters of the law, they were able to separate out into minutest detail. But even while they were doing that, they were swallowing whole, unclean animals. They had energy in the way in which they presented themselves. They cleaned the outside of the cup. They'd make a pretty presentation. Look at the cup. As it were, metaphorically, hold it high. You know, boys and girls, what's the thing about holding a cup high? You can't see inside it. What a pretty display. It looked good from the outside. But inside, it was corrupt. Now, Jesus, at this point, uses that image with which, I dare say, most of us are familiar. They are like whited sepulchres. They're like a mausoleum that you might see in a cemetery, if you've ever had occasion to go there. The mausoleum will be there, and it might have the family name of those that are buried inside it. The Jews would paint those mausoleums, those sepulchres, white. And they did it at a particular time of the year. They did it just before Passover. Why? Because if you set your foot upon any part that contained corrupted bones, you'd become unclean. And therefore, you would not be able to celebrate the Passover. So devout Jews would go out just before Passover and paint the sepulchres white. One wonders if amongst that crowd that stood before Jesus on this, his last address in the temple precinct, whether there were Pharisees there who had just but lately come from painting sepulchres of their families white, and the whitewash was still upon their hands, and Jesus looks upon their hands and sees the whitewash because they are so fastidious about painting the sepulchres white so that others should not be defiled by it, even at the very point when they are condemning Jesus. Let me read to you from John 18, verse 28. Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. Do you see what John is saying there? They bring the Prince of Glory to the place where Pontius Pilate will condemn him to death, but they won't go in. Why not? Because he was a Gentile. Such delicacy. They wanted to eat the Passover without being defiled. They painted the sepulchres. Their hands perhaps even bore the signs that they had whitewashed their forefathers' tombs. And yet their hearts neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. There is, thirdly, a damning inquiry. Jesus says to them, fill up the measure of your fathers. They had confessed that they were the direct descendants of those who had killed the prophets. They were the very sons of those who had murdered those whom God had sent to them. But you know, all that their forefathers had ever done was put to death the messengers. And now they are about to lay hands upon the one who sent those messengers. How, says Jesus, are you going to escape being sentenced to hell? Jesus does not make explicit the answer, and neither shall I. But how shall we respond to these dark verses of Scripture? Well, we must take the whole counsel of God if we are to break open God's word and allow something of the gospel light to break through such darkened clouds. I would begin by bringing to your attention the words that Paul writes to the church in Corinth. No temptation, he says, has overtaken you that is not common to man. Perhaps The passage must grow that bit darker before the light can break through. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. How tempting it is for you and for me to separate ourselves out from the scribes and the Pharisees and say, now, these are particularly wicked men, but as for me, I would never have done that. Are you reading your scripture and allowing the Word of God to show you that there is no root of sin in their heart that you will not find in your own? It may be that they have allowed that sin to grow up and to bear its evil fruit, but the root of those sins are in your heart and in mine also. No. temptation that has overtaken you that is not common to man." I think the disciples had been woken to that great truth themselves in a way in which we would say, Lord, grant that I might have the grace and the wisdom of the disciples. You remember how the disciples were challenged by Jesus at the Last Supper. There's one here that's going to betray me. And what is it that the disciples say, each in their own hearts? Lord, is it I? So if you're reading through this passage and you say, no, those were awful, wicked folk, those Pharisees and scribes. And quite clearly, they deserve the condemnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ could not have misspoken. He did not exaggerate their evil. They deserved it. But these words could never, ever be applied to me. It is utterly impossible for these words ever to be applied to me. Where is the light of the Gospel to clear such darkness? Jesus goes on to say, therefore I send the prophets. I send you the prophets. Now when Jesus says that, there is a purpose in sending the prophets, and that is to bring judgment. That is brought out by Jesus' words. fill up then the measure of your fathers, you serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Barakiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation." Those prophets were sent in order to bring the judgment of God. Now, where you might ask yourself, and rightly so, where is the light of the gospel there? Well, I would bring to your remembrance another prophet that was sent with an unmistakable message of judgment. Jonah was sent to Nineveh with a message of God's judgment. But the king of Nineveh and the citizens of Nineveh repented when they heard that message. You're trusting in Christ. We've heard the profession of faith of two of our younger members as they proclaim their trust and their love, their confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I have every confidence to believe that their testimony is true. For you too, you made profession of faith and you're trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. One of those whom you will see in eternity will be the King of Nineveh. Jesus makes that absolutely clear, that they have gone into heaven, the King of Nineveh. What a conversation that will be, to meet with the King of Nineveh. Tell me, you don't have to call him your majesty any longer, but tell me, what was it like to hear Jonah preach Well, he brought us a message of judgment. That God is a holy God who will by no means quit the guilty. But the Spirit of God pressed that message upon my heart and I was converted. I blessed the Lord for such words because they were the very means that God used to bring me from the darkness of my sin into the light and peace of His presence. I would not have had it any other way, because it was the darkness of God's anger revealed against all unrighteousness that woke me and called me to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, how even in the darkness of this passage, The light of the gospel is being brought home to our hearts here. It may be that we read this particular passage and we are tempted to read this passage which speaks about woes and being hypocrites, as though there was a word from Jesus that was filled with anger and loathing towards the Pharisees. And I tell you, nothing could be further from the truth. The heart of Christ is never turned in anger towards those who are lost and perishing. But in this last dramatic call to them, even though judgment had been pronounced, even as it was pronounced upon the Ninevites, they repented and came to a saving knowledge of God. What grace would have been poured out even upon the Pharisees! And later, of course, many Pharisees were converted. Such is the God of grace whom we worship and adore. And it is because God is a God of grace, that without hesitation and without exception, I would invite you to come to God in repentance. to recognize that you and I this day are sinners in need of God's redeeming grace. If you have never confessed the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are bid come to Him. If you have known Him, but have grown weary in following, but something in your heart tells you, I still love Him, even in the midst of all my difficulties, then come again to Christ and find in Him the One who will embrace you and hold you close to Himself and dispel every darkness from your existence. How shall we respond? By coming to Christ and knowing that the Christ who spoke thus to the Pharisees, will also speak as we shall see God willing next Lord's Day in this wise. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it, how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings. And ye would not. Jesus still desires to gather the children of Jerusalem to himself. Let's pray together. Our gracious God and our heavenly Father, we do thank thee for this word. Though these words are difficult for us to hear, yet we would not remove them from the pages of Scripture. But sitting under the ministry of thy word, take heed to The condemnation that Jesus issued to the scribes and Pharisees, may we not this day sit lightly by, but hearing the gracious invitation to come, make our way even now, even in the place of prayer, with our heads bowed, our hearts yielding to thee, plead, O God, that Thou wouldst draw near to us, no matter how far away we might have been from Thee. So bless Thy word, O God. To Thy name be glory and praise, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.