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The Blood Required of This Generation (Matthew 23:34-36) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. So have you ever walked into a
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hospital room and just, you know, felt an immediate sense of
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safety? Oh, absolutely.
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It is a very specific feeling. Right.
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You look around and you see the pristine white floors, the
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sterilized instruments, the nurses and their crisp scrubs.
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The doctors walking around with their clipboards.
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Yeah, the entire environment is designed to broadcast one very
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clear message, which is preservation.
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People come there to be healed, yes.
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You trust the visual cues. You just assume the people in
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charge are working tirelessly to save lives.
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Well, and as a visual guarantee of health, we rely heavily on
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those aesthetics to feel secure. I mean the architecture of the
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uniform. They communicate care.
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Right. But imagine walking into that.
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You know, that exact same pristine hospital, and you
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slowly realize that the chief surgeon, the person with the
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highest credentials on the floor, is actually intentionally
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poisoning the patients. Wow, that is quite the image.
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The spotless environment is just a complete facility.
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It is masking a killing floor. And that realization is
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terrifying because the betrayal happens in the very place where
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you expected to find a cure. Yeah, you are describing the
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absolute definition of a whitewashed tomb there.
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The exterior is flawless, but the interior is just filled with
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death. And that brings us to the core
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of what we are doing today. Our mission for this deep dive
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into the source material is to analyze 2 intense theological
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texts that unpack a very specific passage of Scripture,
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which which is Matthew 23.34 through 36.
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It is a heavy passage it. Really is We are going to
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uncover the severe divine judgement pronounced by Christ
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upon apostate religion, but we are also going to contrast that
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terrifying reality with the hope found only in his redemptive
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blood. Which is such a necessary
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contrast. Yeah, we are looking at a moment
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where Jesus confronts the religious elite of his day.
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But before we get into the actual words, he says we have to
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set the scene. I mean, this is not a casual
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fireside chat. Not at all.
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To grasp the weight of this confrontation, we really must
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establish the precise historical and literary context.
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The timeline is critical here. So when are we?
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The year is 8033. We are on the final days of
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Jesus's earthly ministry. In fact, this occurs mere hours
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before his betrayal in the garden.
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Oh wow, so right at the end. Yes, and the setting is the
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temple precincts in Jerusalem. Think about what that means for
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a second. This is the epicenter of Jewish
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worship. It is the absolute center of
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their religious and national identity.
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The architecture around them must have been stunning.
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Magnificent. It was designed to inspire awe
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and reverence for God and the audience standing right in front
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of him. Well, it consists of the Scribes
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and the Pharisees. These are the guys who, as Jesus
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says early in the chapter, they sit in Moses's seat.
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They possess immense theological education.
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They memorize massive portions of the Torah.
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Right. They have the scrolls, the
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traditions, the public respect. If you saw them walking down the
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street in their phylacteries, you would think, oh, those are
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the holiest men in the city. Absolutely.
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Yet in this specific moment, Jesus looks at these highly
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educated, highly respected leaders and just denounces them
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as whitewashed tombs. The problem identified here is
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staggering. It really.
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Is they build beautiful monuments to dead prophets, they
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decorate the graves of the righteous, while at that very
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moment they are actively plotting to murder the living
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Son of God who was standing right in front of them.
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That is the terrifying paradox of this passage.
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We see men who possess a highly orthodox of vocabulary, but they
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harbor entirely unregenerate affections.
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They know the words, but they miss the point.
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They know the words of God, but they hate the word made flesh.
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Now, before we analyze the specific verses of judgment, if
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you were listening to this right now, you need to grasp the
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immediate literary surroundings of Matthew 23.
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You have to understand the gravity of Christ's words.
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Set that up for us. Well, the Gospel of Matthew is
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uniquely constructed to present Jesus Christ as the prophesied
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King of the Jews. From the genealogy in chapter 1
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to the Triumphal Entry, Matthew outlines the presentation of the
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King, the principles of His Kingdom, and the parables of his
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Kingdom. So it is building toward a
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climax. Yes, Chapter 23 is the
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devastating climax of his public ministry.
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It contains the blistering 7 woes.
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Which are intense. Extremely, they form the most
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severe and sustained denunciation of false religious
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leaders uttered by the Savior in all of recorded Scripture.
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This passage acts as a definitive literary hinge.
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A hinge between what? It marks the transition from
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Christ's public offer of the Kingdom, which the nation of
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Israel and its leaders have vehemently rejected, to His
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private instruction to His disciples in the Olivet
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Discourse, which we find in chapters 24 and 25.
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He's officially withdrawing the earthly Kingdom offer from that
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specific generation. So he is basically closing the
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door. He's shutting it firmly.
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The text we are analyzing point out the human capacity to appear
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intensely religious while harboring absolute hostility
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toward God. The scribes and Pharisees
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subordinated the actual authority of Scripture to their
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own human tradition. They love the aesthetic of
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piety, but they lacked regenerate hearts.
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You know, it makes me think of a specific kind of hypocrisy.
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Think of a guy who works as a museum curator.
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OK, He spends his entire life meticulously restoring the
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ornate gilded frames of priceless historical paintings.
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He polishes the mahogany. He applies the gold roof.
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He calibrates the gallery lighting to display these frames
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perfectly to the public. He did all the outward work.
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Right. But secretly, he absolutely
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despises the art inside the frames.
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He hates the paintings themselves.
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He loves the aesthetic of the museum.
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He loves the title of curator. He loves the respect of the
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wealthy patrons who attend his galas.
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But he harbors an intense hatred for the actual masterpieces.
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That is a brilliant way to frame the psychology of the Pharisees.
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They love the aesthetic of religion.
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They loved the robes, the titles, the seats of honor at
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the banquets. But they hated the actual
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authority of God when that authority exposed their sin.
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They were curators of empty frames.
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And you know, this raises A piercing question for you, the
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listener. Does possessing a Bible,
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attending a church regularly, or knowing the correct theological
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vocabulary guarantee a regenerated heart?
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It is a sobering thought. The historical record of this
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confrontation proves that outward association with holy
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things does not save anyone. The human heart can sing hymns,
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teach doctrine, give to the poor, and recite Scripture, yet
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still Rage Against the living Word.
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Yeah, natural religion without the grace of Christ often
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becomes rebellions. Most respectable clothing.
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Precisely. Which brings us to how the king
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actually responds to this Museum of hypocrisy.
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In verse 34. The text begins with these
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words. Therefore, behold, I send to you
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prophets and wise men and stripes.
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Let's look at the grammar of consequence here.
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Yeah. The word therefore links
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directly back to the previous verses where Jesus exposes their
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identity as the sons of those who murdered the Old Testament
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prophets. The Greek syntax here is vital
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for understanding the mechanics of what is happening.
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The inferential conjunction, therefore, which is diatuto in
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the Greek, anchors this action to the preceding woes.
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So it is a direct result, yes. Jesus is saying, because you
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have proven yourselves to be the hostile sons of prophet killers,
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I am sending you more messengers.
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Which seems counterintuitive. It does, but what is truly
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astonishing here is the Greek construction ego apostolu, which
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translates to I myself am sending.
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Emphasizing the I. Exactly.
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Well, highly emphatic rather in the Greek text that the
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inclusion, the pronoun ego is very deliberate.
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If we look at this Septuagint, the great translation of the Old
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Testament, the sending of prophets was the exclusive
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sovereign right of Yahweh. God the Father sent the
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prophets. Yes, by using this specific
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grammatical construction, Jesus is making an undeniable claim to
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absolute deity. He is assuming the sovereign
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authority of Yahweh. OK, wait, I am struggling with
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the logic here. I need to push back on this plan
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a little bit. If Jesus is sovereign and he
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knows entirely how depraved their hearts are, and he just
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established that they are the sons of murderers, why send
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these messengers at all? It is a tough question.
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Isn't he essentially just sending his own people into a
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meat grinder? He knows precisely what the
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Pharisees are going to do to them.
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How is that a good or just plan? It feels almost like he is
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setting up his own followers to be slaughtered just to prove a
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point. That is the natural human
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reaction to the doctrine of meticulous divine Providence.
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It feels abrasive to our sensibilities, but we must
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understand the theological framework operating here, OK?
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Walk me through it. Christ decrees the dissemination
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of His word. He sends His messengers into
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specific places at specific times, entirely aware of the
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violent reaction their message will provoke.
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He is not surprised by it. Not at all.
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He is not a passive observer of human history hoping for a good
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outcome. He's the active sovereign King
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who commands the mission. He sends the truth to accomplish
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2 distinct purposes simultaneously.
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First, He sends the truth to gather His elect.
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Even in the midst of massive national apostasy, there are
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individuals who will hear the gospel from these messengers and
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be saved. OK, that makes sense.
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And the second. 2nd And terrifyingly, he sends the truth
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to vindicate his justice by sending the clearest light of
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the gospel to these leaders. Their rejection of it fills up
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the measure of their guilt. So.
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They have no out. They cannot claim ignorance on
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the day of judgment. They cannot say we never heard.
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The sending of the messenger strips away every excuse and
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exposes the sheer malice of their hearts.
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Wow. God is entirely just in
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condemning them because they're violent.
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Reaction to His truth is entirely voluntary.
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So the light does not just illuminate, it also hardens
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those who hate it. That is spot on.
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Now regarding the specific messengers he sends, He lists
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prophets, wise men, and scribes. Let me stop you there, because
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when people hear the word prophets today, they immediately
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think of modern day Mystics. Yes they do.
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You know someone standing on a with a microphone claiming to
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have fresh new revelations from God that are not in the Bible.
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So by using this terminology, is Jesus authorizing A continuous,
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unending stream of new revelations for the Church
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today? Theological consensus on this is
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very firm. These categories do not
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authorize modern mysticism or extra biblical revelations.
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We have to clarify. The prophets, wise men, and
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scribes mentioned here correspond to authorized
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witnesses of the New Covenant era.
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We're talking about the apostles and their immediate associates
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who laid the foundation of the Christian Church in the 1st
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century. The original builders.
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Yes, Paul writes in Ephesians that the church is built on the
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foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself
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being the cornerstone. Once a foundation is laid, you
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do not keep laying it. Right, you move on to the
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framing. The Canon of Scripture is
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complete. The text we were reviewing shut
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down the pursuit of a continuing prophetic office in the modern
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era. The faithful preacher today does
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not invent his Commission or claim private visions.
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He stands strictly under the authority of the completed
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sufficient scriptures. That makes sense.
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The foundation is poor. Now we build the house using the
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blueprint we were given, and the reaction to that blueprint is
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documented in the second-half of verse 34.
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A very dark reaction. If the sovereign king sends
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truth into the world, how does the religious establishment
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react? The text outlines A grim
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progression of hostility. Jesus predicts some of them you
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will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your
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synagogues and persecute from city to city.
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It escalates quickly. This is not a mild academic
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disagreement over doctrine in a faculty lounge.
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This is an escalation to absolute violence.
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What is fascinating here is the prophetic precision of the word
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crucify. We must remember the mechanics
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of 1st century law. Right, because the Jews didn't
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crucify people. Exactly.
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Under Jewish law, the penalty for blasphemy or religious
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heresy was stoning. We see that happen to Stephen in
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the Book of Acts. So why mention crucifixion?
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By predicting crucifixion, Jesus accurately prophesized that the
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Jewish leaders will collude with the Pagan Roman authorities to
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execute his messengers. Crucifixion was a Roman
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punishment. Horrific one.
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It was designed by the empire to be uniquely shameful,
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excruciating in public. Jesus is telling these highly
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nationalistic Pharisees that their hatred for His truth will
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drive them to align with the Pagan empire they claim to
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despise just to silence his witnesses.
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Yeah, it is. Wild.
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It is the exact fate that awaits Christ himself in a matter of
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days. That collusion is a staggering
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detail. They hate Rome, but they hate
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God's truth more. So they make an alliance with
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Rome to kill the truth. And the text also mentions
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scourging. We are talking about severe
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flesh tearing, flogging with a whip.
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But notice the location. They will scourge them in their
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synagogues. That is a shocking reality.
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Think about what a synagogue is. It is supposed to be at the
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local House of prayer, the place where the community gathers to
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hear the reading of the Torah, a place of community and worship.
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It becomes something else entirely.
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False religion does not just ignore the truth, it weaponizes
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religious discipline to punish the truth.
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They turn the House of worship into a torture chamber to
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protect their own institutional authority.
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If we connect this to the broader landscape of biblical
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theology, this passage utterly shatters theological systems.
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That suggests man retains some inherent goodness or a
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libertarian free will capable of choosing God apart from
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sovereign grace. You were talking about systems
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like Pelagianism or Arminianism. Yes, I am.
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Those systems argue that the human will is neutral enough to
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weigh the gospel and choose it based on human capacity.
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But the text says otherwise. Look at the historical reality
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presented here. When the purest truth of God,
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carried by the authorized messengers of Christ, confronts
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the most religiously educated man of the 1st century, the
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result is not neutral consideration.
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It is homicidal rage. This puts the doctrine of total
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depravity on full display. Total depravity, meaning that
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every part of man, his mind, his will, his emotions is corrupted
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by sin, correct? The natural man does not just
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need better moral information. He does not need a more
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appealing, slicker presentation of religion.
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He requires an entirely new heart.
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Because the old one is hostile. The unregenerate will is bound
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by sin, and when threatened by the absolute, unvarnished truth
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of God, it reacts with violence. They do not kill messengers
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because they misunderstand the message.
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They kill the messengers because they understand the message
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perfectly and they hate the God who sent it.
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Men, it is a dark diagnosis of the human condition.
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It strips away all our illusions about human goodness, which
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leads us directly into verse 35 where we see this concept called
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the inclusio of blood guilt. A very significant literary
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device. We have to link this predicted
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violence to the historical sweep of divine justice.
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Why does this specific generation, these specific
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Pharisees standing in front of Jesus, face such a severe
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sentence? Verse 35 begins with a purpose
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clause, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on
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earth. Then he gives the timeline.
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Yeah, from righteous Abel to Zechariah the son of Boratia.
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That phrase so that is translated from the Greek
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conjunction hopos, which is purpose oriented.
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The shedding of this blood is not an accident outside of God's
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control. It is part of the plan.
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It occurs within the sphere of God's sovereign decree, so that
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the cup of their iniquity might be filled, making their
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judgement utterly righteous. Jesus then establishes what
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scholars call a canonical bracket.
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Explain how that bracket works for someone who might not know
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the layout of the ancient Bible. In the traditional arrangement
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of the Hebrew Bible, the order of the books is slightly
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different than our modern English Old Testaments.
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Genesis is the first book, just as it is for us, but Two
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Chronicles is the last book of the Hebrew Canon.
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Abel is murdered by his brother Cain in Genesis chapter 4.
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Zechariah is murdered by King Joash in Two Chronicles chapter
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24. So it spans the whole text.
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By naming these two specific figures, Jesus encompasses the
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entire history of Old Testament martyrdom, from the first page
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of the Bible to the last. He gathers up centuries of
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covenant rebellion, scoops it all up, and places it into one
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sentence of judgement upon this generation.
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Right. It's like he's drawing a massive
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circle around all of human history and saying all the
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righteous blood spilled inside this circle.
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It lands on your tab. That is a great way to put it.
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But I want to pause here and look at a technical issue that
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often trips people up regarding the specific verse.
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Oh. The genealogical question.
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Yeah, the text says Zechariah, the son of Barakiya.
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Now, some critical scholars love to point out that the Zechariah
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murdered in Two Chronicles was the son of Jehoiada the priest,
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not Barakiya. Yes, this is a common attack.
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They claim Jesus made a historical error here, confusing
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the martyred Zechariah with the writing prophet Zechariah, who
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is the son of Barakiah. How do we handle this attack on
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the text? Because I mean, if Jesus made a
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historical blunder, the whole thing falls apart.
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Theological scholarship forcefully rejects this liberal
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attack, asserting the absolute inerrancy of Scripture.
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The assertion that the omniscient Son of God made a
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historical blunder in the middle of pronouncing divine judgement
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is a severe assault on the trustworthiness of the Bible.
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So the text is accurate. The text is without error.
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So what is the historical solution then?
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The historical and genealogical realities explain this
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perfectly. Zechariah, the martyr in the
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temple court was likely the grandson of Jehoiada.
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Jehoiada was the famous long living high priest to raise King
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Joash. It was very common in Hebrew
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genealogies to skip a generation and refer to someone as the son
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of their famous grandfather, especially if the father died
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young. That makes a lot of sense.
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Zechariah's actual biological father's name was Barakiya.
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Barakiya is a very common Hebrew name meaning Yahweh blesses
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Jesus, possessing perfect omniscience, uses the man's
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precise patronymic name. So he is actually being more
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specific. Yes, this defense is vital for
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guarding the doctrine of biblical inerrancy against
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higher critics who seek to undermine the authority of the
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Word by inventing contradictions where none exist.
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That makes perfect sense given the fluidity of ancient
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genealogies. And we also need to look at the
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location of Zechariah's murder because Jesus brings it up for a
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reason. The geography of the crime.
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He specifies that Zechariah was murdered between the sanctuary
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and the altar. Think about the geography of the
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temple for a moment. This is akin to committing a
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murder directly upon the communion table in a modern
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church during a Sunday service. It is unthinkable.
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The altar of burnt offering is the place of sacrifice.
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It is the place where atonement is sought for the sins of the
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nation. The sanctuary, the holy place,
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is the dwelling place of God's presence, And right there, in
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the narrow space between the Altar of Mercy and the House of
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God, the religious leaders turn the courtyard into a killing
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ground. The audacity is chilling.
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The horror of the location intensifies the guilt.
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It shows a complete terrifying lack of the fear of God.
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It demonstrates that holy space cannot sanctify an unholy act,
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and religious architecture does not excuse rebellion.
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They murdered a priest in the courtyard of priests.
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Unbelievable. The accumulation of centuries of
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this specific type of guilt, this brazen high handed
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rebellion demands a final verdict.
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The Lord of history is keeping a meticulous record, and that
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brings us to the temporal guarantee of divine justice in
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verse 36. Let's read that.
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Jesus states truly, I say to you, all these things will come
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upon this generation. That word truly carries a lot of
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weight in the original language, doesn't it?
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Yes, the Greek particle is Amman.
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It acts as a discourse marker of absolute divine guarantee.
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When Jesus says Amman, he is speaking with prophetic
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certainty. It is a lock.
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This is not a speculation. It is not a mere possibility or
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a threat meant to scare them into better behavior.
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It is a fixed, unalterable decree.
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The judgement will fall upon the contemporary standing before him
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who reject him and who will soon persecute his emissaries.
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And if we look at the historical records, we know precisely when
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that gavel struck. The fulfillment is horrifying.
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The historical fulfillment is one of those terrifying events
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in ancient history. In 8070, exactly within that
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very generation, about 40 years after Jesus spoke these words,
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the Roman general Titus surrounded Jerusalem with his.
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Legions. The Siege.
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The Jewish zealots had rebelled against Rome, and Rome responded
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with annihilating force. The siege of Jerusalem lasted
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for months and was horrific. Historical accounts describe
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unimaginable starvation inside the city walls.
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It was incredibly grim. People resorted to eating
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leather, and even worse, factions inside the city
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slaughtered each other over scraps of food.
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Eventually, the Romans breached the walls.
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And they did a whole back. They decimated the city,
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slaughtered the inhabitants and dismantled the magnificent
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temple brick by brick, prying the stones apart to get to the
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goal that it melted. During the fires, the blood of
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hundreds of thousands flowed through the streets.
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Because the system was gone. The physical epicenter of
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apostate religion was utterly erased from the map, fulfilling
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Christ's words with the chilling exactness.
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Let me push back on that for a second.
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The destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 is a massive historical
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event. But if the prophecy was
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fulfilled 2 millennia ago with the Roman legions destroying the
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temple, does this text only carry weight for a localized
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historical event? Good question.
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If I am driving to work right now listening to this, is this
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just an ancient history lesson about Roman siege tactics, or is
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there a broader implication for me today?
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That is a critical question regarding how we read biblical
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prophecy. The destruction of Jerusalem
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operates as a historical microcosm for the final
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judgement preview. The physical devastation of AD
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70 is a tangible historical proof that God's warnings are
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real. It proves He is not bluffing.
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The scales of divine justice track every single sin committed
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in human history. So history doesn't just wash it
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away. Generation may pass, history may
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be revised by the victors, memories may fade, but God
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remembers the righteous blood. The broader implication is that
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delayed justice is never erased justice.
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That is a terrifying thought. The holy and flexible justice
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that demanded the destruction of the 1st century religious system
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is currently accumulating against every soul that persists
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in unbelief today. The wrath accumulating against a
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Christ rejecting world is inescapable.
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For the unredeemed, 8070 is just a preview of the end of the age.
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OK, up to this point in our analysis, the text feels like a
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continuous, suffocating pronouncement of judgement.
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We have whitewashed tombs, homicidal rage, accumulated
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blood, guilt, the total depravity of the human will, and
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the absolute destruction of a city.
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It is a lot of law. If you are listening to this,
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you might be feeling the weight of that justice.
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We have to ask, where is the good news?
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Where is the gospel in Matthew chapter 23?
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Because if we start here, we are left entirely without hope.
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If God's justice is that meticulous, none of us can
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stand. The Gospels found in the
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Christological fulfilment of the passage.
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The extreme darkness of the judgment makes the light of
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Christ shine more clearly. Break that down.
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We must connect this passage to Christ's threefold office as
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prophet, priest, and king. He is the prophet greater than
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Moses, the final and supreme revealer of the Father.
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To reject his messengers is to reject Him, right?
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He is the priest who enters A defiled, corrupt religious
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system to offer the true final sacrifice.
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And he is the King who pronounces royal judgement with
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sovereign certainty. Let's talk about the contrast of
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two bloods, because the theological consensus points to
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this as the absolute climax of our analysis.
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Absolutely is. Jesus specifically names Abel in
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verse 35. We have the blood of Abel, the
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first martyr, and we have the blood of Christ, which is about
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to be said a few days after this confrontation.
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How did these two historical realities interact?
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We must rely on the analogy of faith here, which means
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interpreting Scripture with Scripture.
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Genesis chapter 4 shows Abel's blood crying out from the
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ground. God says to Cain, The voice of
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your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.
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It wants justice. It is crying out for justice.
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It is demanding vengeance upon the murderer.
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The blood of the martyrs demands that the holy wrath of God be
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poured out upon the guilty. But if we look at Hebrews
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chapter 12, verse 24, the author draws A stunning contrast.
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What does it? Say it says that believers have
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come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the
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sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of
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Abel. A better word.
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That is such a powerful phrase. Yes, Abel's righteous blood
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demanded the outpouring of God's wrath upon the Sinner.
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Christ's righteous blood shed. Their penal substitutionary
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atonement absorbs that wrath for the Sinner.
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Let's breakdown that term penal substitutionary atonement for
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anyone who isn't familiar with the theology.
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Penal refers to the penalty of the law.
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Substitutionary means Christ took our place.
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Atonement means He reconciled us to God.
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The leaders in Matthew 23 shed the blood of the prophets to
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condemn themselves, accumulating a massive, unpayable debt of
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divine justice. But Christ willingly went to the
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cross to shed his own blood, to wash sinners clean.
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What a reversal he. Stepped into the courtroom, took
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the penalty of the guilty upon himself, and satisfied the
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absolute demands of divine justice.
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He secures grace and justification for the elect.
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He fulfills the law we broke and bears the curse we deserve.
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That is the gospel standing right in the shadow of this
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immense judgement. That changes the entire tone of
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the passage. The judge who pronounces the
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terrifying sentence, the king who decrees the destruction of
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Jerusalem, is the exact same Savior who will hang on a Roman
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cross to save sinners from that very wrath.
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It is a staggering reality. His blood doesn't cry out for
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our destruction, it cries out it is finished.
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Having established this bedrock theology of judgement and
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atonement, we need to apply the sharp edge of this text to the
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modern church and to your daily life as the listener.
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How does Matthew 23 speak to us right now in the 21st century?
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We have to look at the reality of the world today.
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According to the 2024 Open Doors World Watch List, over
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365,000,000 Christians currently experience high levels of
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persecution and discrimination for their faith. 365 million.
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Yes, the violence predicted in verse 34 is not confined to the
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ancient world. It is an ongoing daily reality
26:36
for millions. This text vigorously attacks the
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modern seeker sensitive pragmatism and the prosperity
26:43
gospel that infects so much of Western Christianity Today.
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Yeah, those movements are completely exposed by this text.
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Pragmatism measures success by cultural applause, attendance
26:51
numbers, and earthly affluence. They pitch Christianity as a
26:54
tool for achieving your best life now as a way to enhance
26:57
your personal brand. Which is entirely unbiblical.
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But Matthew 23 shatters the illusion that authentic
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Christianity will be loved by the world if the religious elite
27:07
of the 1st century hated Christ and murdered his prophets.
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We are completely deceived if we think the modern world will
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applaud us for preaching the unvarnished truth.
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The text demands that we stop trying to make the gospel
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palatable to people whose unregenerate hearts inherently
27:24
hate the authority of God. And the source material actually
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brings up some very modern, politically charged concepts
27:31
here regarding how we view oppression.
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Right, it mentions the necessity of rejecting secular humanistic
27:37
paradigms. And just to be clear for the
27:39
listener, we are not taking political sides here, left or
27:41
right. We are just conveying what the
27:43
theological text argues. It specifically calls out
27:46
frameworks like Critical race theory or Marxist definitions of
27:49
justice as unbiblical lenses. Yes, the argument presented in
27:53
our source is that those secular frameworks locate the core
27:56
problem of humanity in social structures and power dynamics.
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But the text we are analyzing argues that true oppression is
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fundamentally spiritual. It goes much deeper.
28:06
The core problem is the depravity of the human heart
28:09
rebelling against its Creator. True conflict is seen precisely
28:14
when the light of the Gospel collides with the darkness of
28:16
human depravity, resulting in the persecution of the Saints.
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That is a crucial distinction. The conflict is not just
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political or social, it is spiritual.
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It is the clash between the Kingdom of light and the domain
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of darkness. And Speaking of the modern
28:31
church, there is a chilling parallel regarding hypocrisy
28:36
that we really have to address. This is very convicting.
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Today, modern evangelicals love to decorate the tombs of the
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Reformation martyrs. We buy the thick biographies of
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Martin Luther, John Calvin, Charles Spurgeon, and Jay
28:48
Gresham Machen. We quote them constantly.
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Right. We quote them on social media.
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We frame their words for our offices.
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We name our massive conferences after them.
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We admire their courage because it is safely locked away in the
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past. It is the exact same dynamic
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Jesus rebuked in the Pharisees when he said you build the tombs
29:05
of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous.
29:08
Yes, if Luther or Spurgeon stood in our pulpits today and issued
29:12
the same blistering rebukes against our worldliness, our
29:16
prayerlessness, our pragmatism, and our obsession with
29:19
entertainment, would we receive them?
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Probably not. Or would we form a committee to
29:24
have them removed for being too harsh, too divisive and
29:27
unloving? We often admire dead Saints
29:30
because they cannot rebuke our current sins.
29:32
Their words are safe to quote as long as they don't threaten our
29:36
comfortable routines. That observation requires
29:38
intense self examination. Do we honor the prophets in
29:42
print while despising pastoral reproof in person?
29:45
The world says we should celebrate historical heroes, but
29:48
Christ demands that we submit to His living Word.
29:52
Which applies to all of us. It applies to parents leading
29:54
their families, to churches of plenty elders, and to
29:57
theological institutions training pastors.
29:59
We cannot presume upon inherited light.
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Having a historic confession hanging on the wall of the
30:04
sanctuary or an orthodox doctrinal statement listed on a
30:07
Church website cannot substitute for living faith and a
30:10
regenerate heart. So to distill this entire deep
30:13
dive, we have traversed some incredibly weighty territory.
30:18
We've seen Christ's sovereign authority and sending truth into
30:22
a hostile world, knowing precisely how that world would
30:25
react. We have seen the total depravity
30:27
of man. The absolute inability of fallen
30:30
man to receive that truth apart from sovereign grace, proving
30:34
that outward ascetic religion only masks A homicidal heart.
30:38
We have seen the certainty of divine justice sweeping from the
30:42
blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, culminating in the
30:45
horrific destruction of AD 70 as a terrifying preview of the
30:49
final judgement. And we have seen the gospel.
30:51
Yes, that the sole refuge from this coming wrath is found in
30:54
the cross, where the better blood of Christ secures grace
30:57
for sinners. It is a massive theological
30:59
landscape and it requires a response from the listener.
31:02
If you are listening to this right now, you may not be a 1st
31:04
century Pharisee plotting physical murder in the temple
31:06
courts, but you must search your own heart.
31:09
We all must. When the errant Word of God cuts
31:11
across your personal preferences, your cultural
31:13
comforts, or your hidden sins, do you submit in repentance?
31:18
Or do you quietly search for ways to silence the messenger,
31:22
marginalized the truth, and protect your autonomy?
31:25
Think back to that hospital. We talked about the beginning.
31:27
The pristine floors, the white coats, The illusion of health
31:30
masking A fatal reality. Or the museum curator who
31:34
polishes the frames but hates the art.
31:36
Don't be the curator. Do not let your religious habits
31:39
become a whitewashed tomb. Flee the false refuge of
31:42
respectable religion, abandoned the aesthetic of piety that
31:44
lacks A regenerate heart, and cast yourself entirely upon the
31:48
mercy of the crucified Savior. His blood speaks a better word.