Living in the Last Hour

Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Isaiah 55:6

 

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. Matthew 23:25-27 New King James Version

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.

To whom are the above and all Scripture written? In today’s social milieu, who ultimately holds the responsibility for delivering the truth of God’s message? Should we simply accept any message from God if it comes from a favorite, well-known pastor, bible scholar, apologist, a self-proclaimed prophet, or whatever they call themselves, whether they be male or female ? Today, we have “Christian influencers” whose purpose is to promote “something.” Do we gauge their credibility or knowledge of the Scriptures, etc. on the number of followers, or popularity? What do the Scriptures teach?

There is one truth in the Scriptures that all mankind will hear. Accepting or denying that truth will determine every man’s eternity. The hope we share is that God knows the heart of every man. The Scriptures contain commands, guidelines, rules of order, etc. for God’s children to live by and follow when interacting with the world. God’s yoke is easy and His burden is light. The people of God and His leaders have a history of going astray after other gods.

In the Scriptures above, who are these folks that Jesus is rebuking? “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees.” No doubt they were leaders, Matthew 23 has this to say about the Pharisees.

The Pharisee:

• Bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
• All their works they do to be seen by men.
• Love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues. They still do.
• Love greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’
• Shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for they neither go in themselves, nor do they allow those who are entering to go in.
• They devour widows’ houses (consider that), and for a pretense make long prayers.
• They will receive greater condemnation.
• They travel land and sea to win one proselyte (a convert), and when he is won, they make him twice as much a son of hell.
• They pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin (small inexpensive herbs). They neglect the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.
• They are blind guides, who strain out a gnat (tiny bug) and swallow a camel (consider that).
• They clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.
• They like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.
• Outwardly they appear righteous to men, but inside they are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

For the Fear of one People

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel. Exodus 1: 8-12 

For the Fear of the One

Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. Matthew 2:16

In Matthew 2 we read the story of Herod and the wise men. Under the pretense that he wished to worship the baby Jesus, King Herod used the wise men to search for the infant and report back to him. When the wise men saw the East star, they rejoiced and followed the star. There they found Jesus and His mother, and they fell down and worshiped Him. They presented Him with their gifts. Then, they were divinely warned in a dream to not return back to Herod, so they took a different route home. Now after they departed, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying for them to flee to Egypt, and to stay there until He told them otherwise. The Lord warned him that Herod will seek to destroy the young Child.”

As a believer in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the almighty God of the heavens, my identity as a child of the God is one that prioritizes who and what I am. I accept that this world is not my home. I am fully persuaded that God is who He says He is and that no one on this earth will ever fathom the mind of a holy God. I cannot make anyone believe that God exists, or that they should believe in God. It is the Lord of hosts that leads the heart of all men to Himself, to those whom He calls. I do not believe that any man, or a people can create a world free of conflict. Politicians can create all the right laws. They can incarcerate all criminals. They can try to rid the world of those things they see as evil. They ignorantly define sin as that which comes from the outside, outside our neighborhood, outside our state, outside our country. That which is evil or sin does not come from outside. It is what is inside the heart of all men

“What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” Mark 7: 20-23 Trying reading Romans 7.

The lust of flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life define the story of a once great nation. I say a once great nation because of the MAGA battle cry. Compared to other nations we have a lot of protected freedoms. Some which are probably now in danger. We are blessed by God in so many ways. I guess some people no longer believe that to be true. No one denies that Manifest Destiny, the slave trade, Revolutionary War, The Civil War, The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, etc., is the history of this great nation. Consider how different the country would be if slavery and The Civil War had not been part of our history. There would have been no need for the abolition of slavery, Jim Crow, separate but equal, no excluding people of different ethnicities from public places, the KKK, white supremacy, or anti-discrimination laws. The church, as a body, would not have been complicit in the practice of slavery. Some were probably more complicit than others. But it did happen that way. So, how did we get to this place again of accepting dehumanizing behaviors as appropriate? Fear. Fear. Fear. No trust, or faith in God. All men doing what is right in their own eyes.

Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.”

But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also. Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.” 1 Samuel 8, NKJV

2 Thessalonians 3:3 “But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.”

Romans 3:1-4 “What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words and may overcome when You are judged.”

Romans 3: 10-18 “As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Let he who has ears, hear.