Scribes & Pharisees—Whited Sepulchers

Lord, help our hearts to be open. Help us to be introspective and look at our own life. And Lord, we definitely don’t want the doctrine of the Pharisees to infect us. And Lord, we just pray that you would help us to be right inside and out. Lord, just like you say in this passage, so guide us and help us. Lord, help me to say what your people need and meet our spiritual needs here tonight, we ask in Jesus’ name.

Amen. So this section 23 down through verse 33 can be divided, I divided it into three sections. You could divide it into four, but we’re going to look at it in just three sections. Verses 23 and 4, verses 25 through 28, and lastly verse 29 through 32. And then verse 33 is kind of the tag on the end, and we’ll look at that as we finish. But verse number 23 says this, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, 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. The first thing I want you to see is this, is that these people were extremely scrupulous, these scribes and Pharisees were extremely scrupulous about making sure they divided out the tithe of even the small herbs. We’re talking about seeds and leaves that were used in food or even as aromas.

They were extremely scrupulous in dividing out every part of their, you know, whatever their increase was because they wanted it to be just right. And indeed the law of Moses actually did command that the children of Israel should give tithes of all their increase unto the Lord each year. And he doesn’t specify only the big stuff, he says all your increase. That’s what the command was to the children of Israel.

This of course included the small herbs. So when we say that they were tithing of the small herbs, like Luke uses the word rue, but it’s mint, anise, cumin, and rue, when he says that, the scriptures do absolutely say that. So we have to be careful when we look at this not to just throw out the baby with the bath water, and as we’ll see, the Lord doesn’t.

The law of Moses did indeed address tithing of those things to the temple. The law of Moses also addressed the matters of judgment and mercy and faith, and in Luke chapter 11 verse 42 added to that is the love of God. So you can find the character of judgment and mercy and faith and the love of God in the law of Moses also. But here’s the thing the Lord’s pointing out, that the tithe of the small leaves of herbs and the matters of judgment, mercy, faith, and the love of God are not of the same importance.

Now you could argue, well, they’re both in the Bible, and people do. Often people that strain at gnats and swallow camels argue on that basis and say, well, this is in the Bible, so all of our focus needs to be on that. But in scripture, that’s not the right way to look at it. The Lord does absolutely weigh, like we saw this morning, weigh some things over others, and that’s exactly what he’s doing here.

So the fault of the Pharisees in verse 23 is not in the fact that they tithe on these small comparatively insignificant herbs. That’s not the fault. The fault is in being scrupulous in keeping these less significant matters while also ignoring the most important matters. You see, whatever matters in Scripture are the most important are the ones that should be done first. Whatever matters in Scripture are the most important are the ones that should be done as a priority.

Whatever matters in Scripture are the most important are the ones that should be focused upon and emphasized and not to ignore those with the excuse of, well, they’re in the Bible and so I’m doing these others so I can kind of let that slide. Luke says that they passed over these virtues in Scripture, judgment, mercy, faith, and the love of God. But note what I want you to see about in verse 23 is this, they have omitted the weightier matters of the law. Now look at these matters that are mentioned, judgment, mercy, and faith, and then Luke adds the love of God. Judgment, mercy, and faith. These are what the Lord describes as the weightier matters. Notice how the weightier matters are all matters of the inward man and none of them have anything to do with the outward man.

Do you notice that? And yet by comparison when you see what the scribes and Pharisees were doing, they were super, super scrupulous about giving tithes to herbs, of herbs, right? And that is an outward act. That is an outward act. That’s like you writing your tithe or your offering check in such a way that you wanted to bug Karen to no end by doing like half cents and stuff like that. It’s like, super, super scrupulous. And I’m sure you would get a phone call from Karen if you did that. Don’t do that. She don’t want to have to do fractions of cents. Any more now cents are going out, I hear, because they’ve discontinued the production of pennies. Sad day in this world, I’m telling you. The penny. But they’re doing it. So they paid close attention to those things and ignored the big things. And the things that they paid attention to were the things that were outward.

So they would take their, I don’t know, maybe they had a harvest of anise or cumin. Maybe they had a bushel of these seeds that they would use as spices. Maybe they brought the bushel and they brought it into the temple at the appointed time. And they went through the process of dividing out one-tenth of that to give to the priest. Maybe they did that. But you notice that’s all on the outside. That’s external. That’s something people can see. And the things that people can’t see, the things that the Lord says are far more important are the things they completely ignored.

Why do you think they ignored those things? Because nobody sees it. And to them, if nobody saw it, what’s the use? It’s not important. But the Lord says those things were, were absolutely important. You see, and this is actually going to these principles that we see in the first set of verses we’re looking at are principles that we are going to see repeated. The contrast between the outward and the inward. The contrast between the weighty versus the less weighty. Now here’s the reality as far as the way that we weigh what’s important in Scripture. Does everyone, I think everyone agrees that not everything in the Bible is of equal importance. It’s not that any part of it is unimportant, but not every part of it is of equal importance. Some things are more important. For instance, what you do with the gospel is of supreme importance, and who came married is of far less importance in comparison. Can we get it? Can we at least agree on that?

Right? So we do weigh things out like that. We do absolutely weigh things out like that. But when we weigh things out in our own mind, however much time and effort we put into that thing, whatever that thing that we think is weighty, however much time and effort we put into that, getting that thing right demonstrates the weight that we put upon it. If we put all of our time and effort, now I’m speaking of our spiritual world, right? If we put all of our time and effort on visible external things, and by comparison put very little time and effort on our internal virtues that the Lord says are more weighty in His estimation, then we’re way off balance.

We’re way off balance. That’s exactly what these Pharisees were doing. If there’s anything that should characterize a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, it should be that we first and foremost have inward virtues that exude from us, right? Like a fragrance, that we have inward virtues that exude from us by the person of the Holy Spirit of God. Because you know, and I know, in other words, as a priority, those things should be our primary concern, not the way we dress, not the way we look, not our haircut, not all the visible things that we use to judge, you know, where somebody’s at, not all of those things. But the inward things, that should be the characteristic, whether we love one another, right? That should be the thing that stands out, not these outward things. Now we can’t control what other people see, but we do control our own emphasis and focus in our own heart and life, right? You see, a person can be clean cut, right? Have all their hair off their ears and none of their hair touching their collar, right? Some of you know exactly what I’m talking about. And you have a skirt that’s just so, three inches below your fingertips, right? And you have a shirt that’s high enough to at least reach your clavicle and sleeve lengths, you know, that’s certain length and you can go on and on and on. You can have all of those things, whether you’re a man, whether you’re a woman, and yet be a merciless, divisive, unkind, hateful, and proud person. And have none of the virtues, be totally void of the virtue. The inward virtue that the Lord says is far more important than these outward things. It is absolutely possible.

And this is, you want to talk about Phariseeism? Again, I said it this morning, Phariseeism, as we think of it today, as we view it today, is not, well you have very, you have very strict standards. That is not Phariseeism. Phariseeism is having strict standards and being void of virtue that matches those standards. That’s Phariseeism. And the Lord puts forth a very strong warning. But at that point, so I’ve said all that, but at that point some nat strainer is going to look at me or look at you and say, oh well, I guess, I guess none of those things matter. You can just do whatever. You can dress however you want to dress and go wherever you want to go and do whatever you want to do. And none of that really matters. You know, you talk about all the externals, none of that really matters.

And that’s exactly how the conversation goes. But notice what the Lord says in verse 23. He says, of the weightier matters, judgment, mercy, and faith, these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. See that? So the others, which were the externals, which were the less important matters, it is not we ignore them because we’re concentrating on the more important matters. It is that those secondary matters become secondary. And we should do that. If the Lord says to do it, we should do it. Right? Those are things we should do. But they shouldn’t be done first, and they shouldn’t be done with the greatest emphasis, and they should not be done as the priority. And yet, listen, especially, hear me now, especially in conservative-minded churches like ours, this is a big danger. This is a big danger. Notice verse 24. The Lord says, ye blind guides which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. When they had wine, you know, fruit flies, right?

If you have fruit in your house more than a few days, you have fruit flies flying around. Well, that was the same and true when they had their wine. And so there would be fruit flies, there would be gnats, there would be little bugs flying around. And sometimes those bugs, just like in our time, would fall into the wine. And those bugs, according to the law of Moses, Leviticus 11.4, were not permitted to be eaten. They were unclean. Because you could only eat, the only bugs you could eat were locusts and what was the other? Some other kind of bug, I can’t remember. But grasshopper, there we go. So if you guys want to eat that, go right ahead. We’re not under the law, but you can eat gnats if you want. I mean, you can eat whatever. Cockroaches, I don’t care what you eat.

Don’t give it to me. So these gnats would fall into the wine. And of course, the scribes and Pharisees concentrating on that, think about, now just think, how small is a gnat? So what you have in the gnat is you have a visual representation of the smallest matters, right? And they would fall into the wine. So you know what they would do? They would filter the wine. They would strain the wine out with a filter to get the gnats out so that when they drank their wine, they wouldn’t actually be accidentally consuming an unclean animal. But then Jesus says, ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. You know what a camel was? It was also an unclean animal.

And they swallow that but they’re whole. Do you notice what the Lord is? Both are unclean. Both are unclean. You shouldn’t eat either one. But swallowing a camel whole refers to omitting the most enormous and pressing and important matters of scripture while concentrating on straining out little bugs for fear you’re going to eat them. It’s not that it’s okay to eat the bugs. It is that you’re worried about the bugs but you have a thousand pound animal you’re swallowing whole. Which one is going to make you more unclean?

It’s almost comical. But of course the Lord speaks in earnest here. It is not that the gnat doesn’t matter because the gnat does matter in its place. It is that the more important matter should be given more importance, more emphasis, more priority, and here’s what often happens. It’s not that those things are completely ignored by us. It’s that those weightier matters are only given lip service while we in practice concentrate on the external less important matters.

We give lips, oh yeah love love yeah he’s supposed to look whatever, and sometimes even to the point of mockery. But the Lord is not mocking those weightier matters. Judgment, mercy, faith, the love of God. He’s not mocking them. Those should be where our time is spent and our emphasis is put. So when somebody comes to church or maybe maybe you meet someone out that they have characteristics that you don’t believe are right.

How do you respond to that person? What is it as a matter of priority? What do you want to see that person become as a matter of priority? Do you want them to get rid of the nose ring? Is that your first concern? Right? If they would just wear something more modest, is that your first concern? You see what I’m saying? Or is your first concern where their soul is? Maybe they’re saved and they’ve grown none. Is your first concern that they might have the virtues of the Christian life?

In their heart? In their life? On the inside to begin with? You say well hey if they had those it would come out on the outside. I agree and we’re actually going to address that in just a minute. But what we’re talking about here is the emphasis and the concentration. When somebody comes into our church and they’re tatted up and they smell like something like maybe they’ve been in stuff or whatever. Listen, our first job, our most important priority is to make that person know that they are loved and to make that person know that they are welcome and to make that person know that you know we’re not going to listen we’re not going to start practicing the things that they’re doing to make them feel that way. But we’re not going to be but we don’t have to know any more than the law had to change what the what the commandments of the law were in order to emphasize the the judgment and mercy and faith and love of God.

It didn’t change at all. It was there already and so it is with us. I’ll just tell you there’s a lot I mean a number of people I’ve talked I talked to when they found out I’m the pastor of a church and all and this happened just a couple of weeks ago. I got a call from one of our our mailers. I think I mentioned it to you. Now the fellow hasn’t shown up but one thing he asked me is if I come in and I’m not wearing a suit is that and you know you might you know everybody in this room would probably chuckle at that.

You know kind of that’s kind of you know nobody’s going to make a scene over it. There’s a reason he asks that though. There’s a reason because he’s probably been to places where he did get looks and people did people absolutely looked at those external things and and that was what their focus was on. Listen this is exactly what James is talking about when he says that we ought not have partiality among ourselves right. A guy with a fan you know if a guy comes in and he’s got a gold ring on and he’s got a fancy suit and he looks like a you know he looks like a Christian right. He comes in with his family and everybody’s dressed and the kids are like little you know little stair steps and he comes in and everybody’s oh and we want to go shake their hand and oh maybe this will be our next member. This is a good member. Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.

That’s partiality. That’s partiality and what are we judging? That guy might beat his wife. We have no idea. We’re passing an entire judgment what on only the externals. This is the kind of emphasis I’m talking about right here. We got to be careful. We got to be careful and I’m not knocking all that. I mean that was I mean that was my family right. It’s not anymore because they’re bigger than me most of them but but listen I’m not I’m not knocking all that but that’s it’s our it’s the way we think. It’s not the way we think. It’s not the way we think.

The way we think. How is it that we do we weigh fault? How do we weigh vice? How do we weigh character in the in the scales of our mind? Do we put supreme importance on external things or upon inward virtue? And when we find ourselves listen now when we find ourselves void of inward virtue do we console ourselves because we have external scruples even though inside we’re empty?

If so we might have been infected with the doctrine of the Pharisees. Look at verse 25. 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 of hypocrisy and iniquity. And Luke this is covered in Luke 11 38 to 40 and in that passage Jesus we won’t go there for time but Jesus is that’s the passage where Jesus is eating with the Pharisees so he’s invited by the Pharisee into the Pharisee’s house. Some host and when he comes into the house and he sits down to eat he didn’t wash his hands. Now the Bible doesn’t say you got to wash your hands.

There’s nowhere the scripture says you have to wash your hands before you eat. You should but as far as a moral matter there’s nowhere God tells you to. Just so you know. Some of you might be a little bit disappointed in that they’re germaphobes. But so he sits down without washing his hands and the Pharisee who is his host finds fault because he did not wash before eating and all the while that very man is filled with filth inwardly and yet all that he is concerned with and he finds fault with is the fact that somebody did not wash their hands before they ate. You see this contrast? You see this contrast? Notice what the Lord says in verse number 25.

Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter but within they are full of extortion and excess. If the cup on the inside where the beverage goes is dirty the cup is useless. Right? The cup is defiled no matter if the outside is beautiful or not. Cleaning the outside of the cup does not make the cup useful to drinking. It is still dirty whatever the outside might appear to be. Now notice the scribes and Pharisees the Lord says you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter. Why do they put so much emphasis on the outside? We’re repeating ourselves now. You know why? Because that was what was visible.

That was what others other men saw and that is what that is the facade and appearance that they wish to maintain that others would think that they were righteous. That’s why they paid so much attention and so we see that was their highest priority though the inside of them remain defiled before God. They weren’t paying attention to God at all. Notice what it says in verse 26 and this is so this is so insightful to us. Thou blind Pharisee notice the words cleanse first that which is within the cup. Cleanse first. So you got a cup if you can imagine it you have a cup and it’s dirty inside and outside. What are you going to do? Jesus says now of course this is just a picture with an analogy. He says cleanse first the inside. Why does he say first? Because that’s the priority. That’s the importance. That’s the focus. But it also shows us because he says cleanse first that does imply that there is a second which is the outside of the cup. So the Lord is essentially saying the same thing as we saw before not to leave the other undone. He’s saying no you can clean the outside and indeed you should clean the outside but not first. The emphasis and focus and priority must be on the first and then second you can clean the outside. Verse 26 notice what it says. Thou blind Pharisee cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter. Now notice the words carefully that the outside of them may be clean also. So let me ask you a question. How do you get the outside of a man clean?

By cleaning the inside. That’s what the verse says. Cleanse the inside that the outside. So one is the cause of the other. The outside of the cup being clean is the effect of the inside being clean. So here’s the principle. If you and I want the outside to be clean the way to do that is by concentrating on the inside. The way not to do that is by concentrating only on the outside, the externals and to make it look right that will make somebody twofold more a child of hell.

But let me point it back at you back in the mirror. When you see something in your life, when you see yourself as a dirty cup your life’s messed up inside and out and some of us are like that. What do I mean by that? It’s one thing to have one sense of the heart right and that’s a sin right but then those things come out and we start doing things publicly people see it so you got the public and you got the private okay and the public is not just I don’t mean public like in the street I mean where other people see it like your husband like your wife like your children right those that’s the outside of the cup. When you see yourself when we see ourselves as dirty on the outside and on the inside what is the goal? Is the goal just to clean up the outside so that we maintain our image? It should be Lord something is wrong with my heart.

Lord what you see is most important and I’m I’m I fear you Lord I want this fixed on the inside but oftentimes the only thing we’re concerned with is our image.

I don’t know I think I think religion and I don’t mean Baptist I don’t mean Catholic I mean religion Islam Buddhism it teaches men to be concerned with the outward appearance first and foremost it just does it’s like it’s like wired into it and that was no different because you see it in the Lord’s in in what the Lord is teaching here. Does the Lord want the outside of the cup clean also? Well of course he does but the outside cleansing is a byproduct of the more important inward cleansing. Get right with God and it will affect the way that you act and treat other people and man that what a man what what a what a good principle to to to lean upon.

If you’re if listen if you or I are at odds with somebody on a regular basis in your family or in your you know in the church or in your work or whatever and there’s just constant issues and strife it could be that you need to get right with God that the outside is being revealed the inside rather is being revealed by the outside. Now I know when you’re dealing with another person you have another side to the side of the coin I get that feeling.

But hey you can be right with God fully and that will affect the outside that will affect the outside. So how do we what do we do when we meet a person who is dirty both outside and in who is who is corrupt inwardly and also lives in a way that is that is not scriptural.

We should not seek to clean that man up on the outside so that he is just presentable. We must first and foremost concentrate on his inner man the hidden man of the heart and work on getting that right with God and listen I promise you if a person’s heart gets right with God in time that person that the evidence of that will be shown on the outside it will inevitably clean up.

And think about how this applies to the gospel think about how this applies to the gospel. It’s not about just running people through prayers and so that we can stand them up and say look at what we have here and get a notch on our belt like the Pharisees and the proselytes.

But it’s not even about having a church that’s full of clean sharp looking you know no no it’s not what it’s about at all it’s about people getting truly converted and really having an inward man that has been transformed by the gospel. If that’s not there all the rest of it is vain. Every bit of it.

I’ll say this before we move on to the next one is this some people however and you probably met some of them claim that their inside spick and span but the outside hasn’t changed at all still dirty.

I think that’s a testimony that the inside is not clean. So it cuts both ways does it not? It indeed does. Look at verse 27. What when do you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you are like unto whited sepulchres which indeed appear beautiful outward but are within full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness. They would they would paint these we call it paint they didn’t have paint like we think of paint but they would have lime powdered lime that mixed with water and it’s white and they would splash it on the graves because indeed the scripture said I’ll read this to you numbers if you want to write this down numbers 19 16 here’s what it says and what and whosoever toucheth anyone that is slain with a sword in the open fields or a dead body or a bone of a man or a grave shall be uncleaned seven days that’s what the bible says so if they came across a grave and they accidentally stepped on it they would be ceremonial ceremonially uncleaned for a week so they would paint in white so they wouldn’t accidentally step on a grave now that’s a legitimate that’s a legitimate thing but think of the pictures think of the picture that that’s having that’s we see here the painting of the tombs in other words the tomb the grave is itself the source of the filth is itself the source of the filth is itself the source of the of the defilement as we compare it to sin and yet that is the thing the source of the sin that is being painted something’s wrong with that it’s like putting lipstick on a on a pig they say right and in the lord’s comparison you got to remember and this is what I want you to get from this section here in the lord’s comparison he says in verse 28 even so ye scribes and Pharisees also outwardly appear righteous unto men but within you’re full of hypocrisy and iniquity you see in the lord’s comparison here we have to remember that touching a grave could render a person unclean according to the law right so the the analogy goes so if the doctrine of the scribes and Pharisees which is what we’re talking the grave that’s the scribes and Pharisees if that doctrine is passed to us and we become infected with that we too shall be also unclean so you have this idea if you remember the scribes and the Pharisees are the grave the grave that’s the white encephalogra they are the grave and if you step on the grave you now have received the uncleanness of the grave that’s why the law says not to not to touch it so if the scribe and Pharisee is the grave and we touch them and they they pass that infection the doctrine of the scribes and Pharisees to us we will also become unclean this is the this is the warning of the grave don’t touch them in fact this is what the lord said in the scripture he says this in loop 12 1 he says he began to say unto his disciples first of all beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy why is he telling us to beware you need to avoid these people of course we have to be be careful of it cropping up in our own life for sure but whenever we see it in others we need to run you think well that’s not very nice the lord says beware because like the grave it will make you and me unclean you hang out with those kinds of people i’m telling you you hang out with people who’s who’s that that have the characteristics all of which we’ve seen in chapter 23 i’m telling you you and i will start to think and emphasize and focus on those same things not what the lord says and i’m telling you because this doctrine exists among ifb churches it is not uncommon it is not uncommon i don’t even like i don’t even call myself an ifb i don’t partially for that reason i don’t even call myself an ifb for fear of the association with whoever you know even though i am independent and fundamental and baptist okay just just to clarify but what does it what does it mean to avoid this doctrine of the Pharisees like you avoid the grave believe this doctrine of the Pharisees here’s what it looks like it looks like external righteousness paired with internal envying strife hatred bitterness anger sexual immorality but together here’s what that means you want to see where and i’m just telling you this is this is based on the scriptural principles in this chapter when you see people who have external appearance of righteousness but inwardly in their private life they are hateful angry immoral full of strife and bitterness and deceit when you see those two things together in the same person you are dealing with a Pharisee okay the lord says run and this is a big problem in churches that would be considered like ours how many how many scandals how many how many scandals of sexual immorality have gone through christ baptist colleges and churches and have been swept under the rug all the while those same people touting the rules and regulations about the way you’re supposed to dress and music supposed to listen to and all you know all those things and i don’t disagree necessarily with those outward external things in in in all cases but you see those two things paired lord says you run you run that’s why this is just me talking i have no no me personally now i have no tolerance for the kind of arrogant and proud and bitter and backbiting kinds of preachers no matter what their label is where you see the works of the flesh manifested behind a facade of outward righteous i don’t want to see it i don’t want to hear it i for me personally and i’m just speaking for me okay the kind of preacher that i want to listen to and the one i hope to be is the kind that i know the man’s life and he there is at least some semblance of consistency with his life to what he says and you can you you put those two together and hopefully you have a sincere you know preacher that’s that’s the kind of preacher that i want to listen to for me personally but you are you know and i know that among independent fundamental baptists that’s not always the case and in fact sometimes things that are actually the reverse of virtue that are actually vices and evils are promoted you know with the pretext of being standing and all this other stuff that they say i’m just telling you what sayeth the scripture what is the priority what is the emphasis it’s not you choose one or the other it’s one is more important than the other but you do both right listen to this from matthew henry when all other graves are opened these whited sepulchers will will be looked into and the dead men’s bones and all the uncleanness shall be brought out and be spread before all the hosts of heaven jeremiah 8 1 and 2 for it is the day when god shall judge not the shows but the secrets of men and it will be it will then be small comfort to them who shall have their portion with the hypocrites to remember how creditably and plausibly they went to hell applauded by all their neighbors man what a warning i don’t think he was any he was any harsher than the lord jesus and finally we get to verse 29 woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites because ye build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchers 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 so the lord pivots from talking about whited sepulchers to talking about the way that they decorate the sepulchers of the prophets you see they decorated these tombs of the prophets these the micas and the isaiahs because they existed at that time still in israel and still do some exist their intention on the outside was to build up and beautify the tombs as an honor to the prophets but the question you have to ask yourself is this how did those prophets get into those tombs they were murdered that’s how they got into the tomb and so if you look at it just in a little bit slightly different way the fact that they’re building up the tombs of these prophets by building up the tombs they’re building up a monument to the murder of those same prophets for that’s how they got in those tombs and that’s why jesus says wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them that which killed the prophets you see these self-righteous hypocrites are showing their hands verse number 30 says if we had been in the days of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets that’s so self-righteous so self-righteous and it’s telling you see they are not self-aware of their own wickedness that’s why jesus five times says that calls them blind they’re not aware of their own wickedness one greater than the prophets is with them and they are plotting at this moment to take his life from the earth thereby proving that they are the children of the prophets murderers and they have no idea and these persecutors and these murderers that we read here are saying that they would not have participated in the killing of the prophets and yet they’re trying to kill the one of whom all the prophets foretold now notice the attitude we if we had been in the days of our fathers this is what the attitude of the pharisee is i would never i would never that is beneath me the attitude of a saint is i might do that but oh god help me anytime you have in your mind or i have in my mind i would never do that the doctrine of the pharisees is coming in if you i would encourage you listen get down before god and let god teach because i i know what god god would teach he teaches all of us he teaches all of us that in the right set of circumstances if he just let us go a little bit we would do that thing that’s the that’s the difference between the attitude of a of a saint and the attitude of a pharisee they sang the song how deep the father’s love here’s the verse one of the verses they sang behold the man upon the cross my sin upon his shoulders ashamed i hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers first time i heard that i was like i was like struck to tears because on honestly when i heard that that phrase that that that the part of that verse of that verse i thought to myself that really could have been me that really could have been me but the pharisee says and i i lord knows we all got it we all got to be careful of the doctrine of the pharisees infecting us but the pharisees attitude is i would never do that while doing it but the saint’s attitude is god help me because i might if you don’t help me lord let’s pray