Israelites, Pharisees & Sadducees In The 21st Century Church

(e) When men depart from the rule of God’s Word in determining sin, they prove
themselves foolish and blind
(f) Superstition and error blinds the mind, and stupifies the heart.
9. Pharisees Only Give Partial Obedience
The Pharisees vaunted their precise keeping of the law in the smallest things while they
despised the law in the greatest duties.
(a) It is no new thing for hypocrites to major on small matters while rejecting the
most weighty duties. The Pharisees tithed anise and omitted mercy. Yet doing
those greater duties does not liberate us from our obligation to do the smallest
duties, one authority obliges us to do both. Christ say that they ought still to have
done these but “not left the other undone” (v23).
(b) Hypocrites being strict are more ridiculous than someone refusing to swallow
a fly while swallowing a camel.
(c) Those who take it upon them to teach others the way to heaven need to know
it well themselves; for it is a fearful charge to be found blind guides.
10. Pharisees Pretend to be Holy but are Not
The Pharisees deceived the people with an appearance of holiness when there was
nothing of the kind in them (v27-28).
(a) Hypocrites may carry their wickedness so fair that men may be deceived: for
they may seem very beautiful outwardly, when inwardly they are filthy, like tombs
plaistred12 without, and full of rottenness within.
(b) God will not be deceived by hypocrites, but will find them out. In His time He
will expose them to the world and pour out wrath on them, for Christ says “Woe
unto you”.
11. Pharisees Honour the Godly of the Past but Hate the Godly of the Present
The Pharisees pretended to honour the saints of the past (v29-30) but in the meantime
hated the godly in the present. Indeed they were about to murder Christ Himself.
(a) The world loves dead prophets better than the living: the living reprove their
sin more directly than the dead.
(b) Gross hypocrites pretend to love good men and yet do not love goodness.
They can condemn their fathers’ faults and yet practise the same themselves.
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