Latest / Reformed Thinking / Blind Guides and Holy Realities (Matthew 23:16-22)

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Blind Guides and Holy Realities (Matthew 23:16-22) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to reform thinking. I mean, think about a courtroom,
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  right? Where the prosecuting attorney
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  is, well, the creator of the universe.
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  That is a pretty terrifying thought.
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  Right. And the defendants are the most
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  respected, highly educated religious academics of the day.
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  And you sitting right there listening to us, you are in the
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  jury box taking in this whole cross examination.
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  The front row seats to the indictment.
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  Yeah. So today we are analyzing
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  Matthew chapter 23, specifically verses 16 through 22.
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  Which is just a staggering piece of scripture.
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  It really is, and we are pulling our insights today from 2:00
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  very extensive theological commentaries. 1 is called Blind
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  Guides and Holy Realities and the other is the Blind Guides
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  and the Binding Throne. Both really solid resources for
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  unpacking this, yeah. And the mission for this deep
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  dive is to unpack Christ's devastating critique of
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  religious hypocrisy. We want to dissect that human
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  tendency we all have to, you know, look for loopholes in the
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  truth. Oh, we love a good loophole.
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  We do, and we also need to uncover the inescapable
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  sovereignty of God over every single word we speak.
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  Yeah, that courtroom analogy you used sets the stage perfectly
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  for what is actually happening in the text.
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  Because Jesus isn't just giving a nice sermon.
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  Here, no, not at all. He is not offering helpful life
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  suggestions. He is issuing a legal prophetic
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  indictment, and to grasp the full weight of this, we really
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  have to look at the timeline. Because timing is everything,
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  right? Spot on.
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  We are situated right in the middle of Passion Week.
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  So this is the final stretch of days before the crucifixion.
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  Yes, theologically and covenantally, this is the
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  twilight of the dispensation of the Law.
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  Jesus is making his final public denunciation of the apostate
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  leadership of national Israel. And right after this, he shifts
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  focus entirely. He does.
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  He transitions to his disciples to outline the prophetic future
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  in the all of it discourse. He is establishing a firm Israel
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  Church distinction right here. Like a definitive break.
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  Yeah, He is judicially rejecting the false shepherds of Israel,
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  abandoning their desolate house and preparing to to inaugurate
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  the Church age through his impending death and
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  resurrection. OK, hold on.
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  For listeners who might not have a seminary degree, when you say
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  the twilight of the dispensation of the law, give me the plain
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  English version of that. Sure.
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  Yeah, like. What does that mean for the
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  average person standing in the crowd listening to Jesus say
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  these things? That is a great clarifying
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  question. Think of it as a massive
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  transition in how God administers his rule on earth.
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  OK, for centuries God interacted with the world primarily through
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  the national geopolitical entity of Israel.
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  They had the physical temple, the Levitical priesthood, and
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  the Mosaic Law governing their civil and religious life.
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  The whole system. Right, but that entire system
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  was a shadow pointing forward to a future reality.
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  So when I say the dispensation of the law is in its twilight, I
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  mean the sun is setting on that Old Covenant arrangement.
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  Because the reality has arrived. Yes, Jesus is the reality that
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  all those shadows pointed to. He is officially stripping the
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  corrupt religious leaders of their authority.
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  The old system is being dismantled to make way for the
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  new Covenant, which will be established by His blood.
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  And that expands everything. It expands beyond the nation of
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  Israel to include the global church.
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  So I mean, the tension in the air during this speech would
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  have been a palpable Jesus is dismantling their entire power
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  structure right in front of their faces.
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  That context makes it so much heavier.
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  I mean, we are talking about the scribes and Pharisees.
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  These guys were the absolute pinnacle of religious authority
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  in that system. The Untouchables, basically.
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  Yeah, but behind the robes and the long pious prayers, they had
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  engineered this elaborate system of casuistry regarding oaths.
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  A very complicated web. And our sources point out that
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  this system was later codified in Jewish rabbinic writings like
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  the Mishnah. There are specific tractates
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  mentioned. Tractates shove it on oaths and
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  tractate netteram on vows. Yes, very detailed legal codes.
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  It had created this bizarre 2 tiered system of truth.
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  Explain what that actually looked like on the ground.
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  Well, it was a highly structured system of deception.
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  Yeah. To understand the Mishnah, you
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  have to realize that the Pharisees believed in an oral
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  law that was passed down alongside the written Law of
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  Moses. Like an unwritten tradition.
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  Right, and around the year 200, ADA man named Judah the Prince
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  compiled these oral traditions into a written document, the
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  Mishnah. But the traditions themselves
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  were already in full swing during the time of Christ.
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  They were already practicing this stuff.
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  Absolutely. They taught that the validity of
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  an oath depended entirely upon the specific object by which
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  someone swore. They categorized sacred objects
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  into different tiers of binding authority.
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  So it wasn't just I promise, no. For instance, an oath sworn by
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  the temple itself was considered null and void.
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  You could break it without any legal consequence.
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  Wait, swearing by the temple meant nothing?
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  Nothing but an oath sworn by the gold of the temple that was
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  strictly binding. Yeah, it is wild.
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  It gets worse. Similarly, they taught that an
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  oath sworn by the altar was nothing, but an oath sworn by
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  the gift placed on the altar was legally binding.
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  That is completely backward. How did they come up with such
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  an arbitrary system? I mean, who invents?
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  That it was heavily influenced by the chaotic Greco Roman style
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  of contract negotiation prevalent in the broader culture
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  of that era. Oh, so they were borrowing from
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  the pagans? Yeah, pretty much.
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  In the ancient Near East, commerce was face to face.
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  Written contracts were not always available to the common
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  person. Your word was your bond.
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  Handshake agreements. Right, but human nature being
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  what it is, individuals would try to bind others to an
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  agreement while leaving linguistic loopholes for
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  themselves. A way to back out if things went
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  South. Yes, and the religious elite in
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  Israel adopted this Pagan practice and baptized it with
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  religious terminology. They turned the solemn
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  covenantal act of oath taking into a deceptive game of legal
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  gymnastics. Man, this sounds a lot like
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  downloading a new app today. Oh, the terms of service.
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  Yeah, you scroll past the 50 page terms and conditions
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  knowing the tech company buried a tiny clause in paragraph 42
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  that lets them sell all your personal data.
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  And nobody reads paragraph 42. You agree because you want the
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  app, but they rigged the rules. The Pharisees were basically
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  writing the theological terms of service to benefit themselves.
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  That is a really good analogy. Because if you think about
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  everyday ancient commerce, this would be an absolute nightmare.
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  Oh, it would have been debilitating for a functioning
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  society. Imagine the scenario.
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  You are common laborer trying to buy a plot of land or trade
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  livestock in the marketplace. Just a regular guy.
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  Yeah, and the person you are dealing with swears by the altar
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  that the sheep are perfectly healthy and have no defects.
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  Sounds like a solid guarantee. You think you have an ironclad
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  guarantee. You shake hands, make the trade
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  walk away. But the merchant knows the
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  insider rules. He knows he used the wrong
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  formula. Right, He knows he only swore by
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  the altar, not the gift on the altar.
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  He is secretly crossing his fingers behind his back.
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  Oh wow. So when the sheep dropped dead
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  the next day, you have no legal recourse within their religious
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  courts because the merchant used the non binding formula and the
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  religious leaders sanctioned this behavior.
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  They. Protected the scammers.
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  They weaponized their theology for financial gain.
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  It is a total inversion of values.
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  The sources say they valued the material wealth of religion over
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  the spiritual reality of God's presence.
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  Very much so. They engineered a system where
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  the items with economic value, the gold and the guests were
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  given the highest legal weight. This was the economic engine of
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  their corrupt enterprise. They commercialize the sacred.
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  But here's what I am wondering. If the general public relied on
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  these leaders for their understanding of God, how did
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  the average person react to realizing the system was rigged?
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  That is the big question. I mean, did they play along for
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  convenience or were they burdened by it?
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  Because it seems like the common people would eventually catch on
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  to the grift. Well, the tragedy is that false
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  religion often produces willing participants.
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  Some people undoubtedly felt crushed by the burden of trying
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  to work through these arbitrary rules.
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  Feeling like they could never win.
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  Right. Realizing they were constantly
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  at a severe disadvantage against the highly educated scholars,
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  the Pharisees laid heavy burdens on people's shoulders and would
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  not lift a finger to help them. Jesus says that explicitly.
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  He does, but others likely embrace the system because,
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  let's be honest, the sinful human heart loves a loophole.
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  We really do. If an esteemed religious leader
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  tells you that you can make a solemn promise, sound incredibly
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  pious doing it in public, but still maintain a legal,
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  technical way out of your obligation.
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  Maybe we're going to take that deal.
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  The natural man is going to utilize that estate hatch every
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  time the leaders train the populace to think in terms of
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  formulas and gradations of truth.
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  That is how they rigged the system.
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  They created a whole culture of justified lying.
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  Yes, and Jesus quotes their false teachings directly to
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  expose the anatomy of this massive loophole.
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  Let's look at the text itself to see how Jesus handles this.
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  He says woe to you blind guides who say if anyone swears by the
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  temple it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the
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  temple, he is bound by his oath. Calling them out directly.
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  And then he repeats the same logical structure regarding the
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  altar and the gift on the altar. He is confronting their
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  technicalities head on. He is, and to understand the
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  severity of what Jesus is saying here, we have to look closely at
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  the language he uses. The Greek word Jesus uses for
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  the temple in this specific passage is naros.
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  Naos. OK, Why is that specific word a
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  big deal? Because it is a critical
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  architectural and theological detail, NAOS occurs 45 times in
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  the biblical text, and it refers specifically to the inner
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  sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. Well, not just the building in
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  general. No, this is the dwelling place
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  of the Shekinah, glory of God, the most sacred space in the
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  universe according to the Old Covenant.
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  Jesus deliberately avoids using the word Hyrin and.
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  What does Hyrin mean? That refers to the general
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  temple precincts or the outer courtyards.
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  Wait. Explain the difference between
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  those two areas for me. Paint a picture of the physical
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  layout so I can see why the word choice matters so much here.
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  Sure. So Herod's temple was a massive
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  complex spanning acres. When you walked onto the Temple
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  Mount, you were in the higher in.
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  The outer area. Right.
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  This included the Court of the Gentiles, where anyone could
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  walk. This was where the money
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  changers set up their tables and where a lot of general public
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  teaching happened. Lots of foot traffic.
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  Tons. But as you moved inward, there
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  were stricter boundaries. You had the Court of the Women,
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  then the Court of the Israelites, then the Court of
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  the Priests, where the great bronze altar stood.
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  Getting more and more exclusive. Exactly.
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  But at the very center of it all was a towering, restricted
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  building. That building was the Nyus.
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  The core. Yes, inside that building was
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  the Holy Place, and behind a massive, thick veil was the Holy
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  of Holies. Only the High Priest could enter
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  that inner room, and only once a year, on the Day of Atonement,
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  carrying the blood of a sacrifice.
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  So it's incredibly restrictive. The Naios represented the
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  unapproachable holy presence of the living God.
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  So they are not just talking about the outer walls or the
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  courtyard where people were buying pigeons.
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  No, they're talking about the very epicenter of God's
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  presence. And they're saying that the gold
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  plating, the ornamental metal on the walls, is worth more than
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  the presence of God himself. That is aggressive blasphemy.
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  Yeah, it really is. By elevating the gold over the
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  naos, the Pharisees were insulting the very presence of
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  God. Christ dismantles their false
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  logic with rhetorical questions of magnitude.
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  How does he frame it? He asks you blind fools, for
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  which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the
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  gold sacred? He proves syntactically and
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  logically that the lesser is always sanctified by the
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  greater. Which makes perfect sense when
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  you say it out loud. Right.
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  The gold has no inherent sacred value on its own, it is just
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  metal. You could melt it down and make
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  coins out of it. Spend it in the market.
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  Yeah, it only becomes sacred because it is attached to the
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  naeos, which is the dwelling place of God.
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  The connection to God is what gives it value.
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  Precisely. And the same unassailable logic
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  applies to the altar. An animal or a measure of grain
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  is just livestock or farm produce until it is placed upon
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  the altar of. God, the altar changes its
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  status. Yes, the altar sanctifies the
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  gift. The Pharisees completely reverse
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  the true order of sanctification.
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  The absurdity is just glaring when you lay it out like that.
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  I mean they valued what could be counted and displayed over the
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  divine ordinance itself. A completely material focus.
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  It exposes a heart that is radically disordered.
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  Our sources note that this prioritizes the material
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  economic engine of religion over the spiritual reality.
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  Which is a timeless problem. For sure, we can easily see how
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  this exact mindset persist today.
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  You see this in modern prosperity gospel ministries.
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  They value measurable financial markers over genuine holiness.
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  It is the exact same spirit they measured the blessing of God by,
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  the size of the bank account, the gold rather than proximity
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  to the temple, the actual presence and truth of God.
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  The parallels are undeniable, and the insidious thing is the
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  Pharisees did not discard holy language.
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  They still sounded religious. Very much so.
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  They kept all the right religious vocabulary.
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  They affirmed the temple and the altar verbally.
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  They wore the right clothes and prayed in the right posture.
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  Look in the part. But they quietly assigned
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  decisive functional weight to what was materially valuable.
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  This is how hypocrisy operates. It rearranges holiness around
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  human advantage. Because you can control gold.
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  Right gold can be counted, admired, deposited, possessed.
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  A physical gift can be displayed, measured, consumed.
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  But the true temple and the true altar direct attention away from
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  human contribution and point entirely toward God's sovereign
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  claim over our lives. Hypocrites want the prestige of
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  religion without the submission it requires.
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  That's a great way to put it. But I can understand valuing
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  gold because it has tangible worth.
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  People like money. It buys comfort.
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  It buys security. Sure.
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  But from a purely logical standpoint, how did the
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  Pharisees justify this theological inversion to their
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  followers without sounding blatantly greedy?
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  They had a system for it. Like did they have some
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  convoluted theological argument to back this up or was it just
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  raw unchecked clout? Oh, they justified it through an
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  elaborate illusion of meticulous piety.
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  They would argue that the gold given to the temple treasury or
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  the specific gift placed on the altar represented a dedicated
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  human sacrifice to God. A special offering.
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  Yes, they called this a Corbin. They elevated the human act of
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  giving. They could argue to the public
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  that because a person had specifically and voluntarily
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  consecrated this tangible item out of their own pocket, the vow
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  attached to it carried supreme legal weight.
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  So they spun it to sound super dedicated.
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  Exactly. But beneath that thin veneer of
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  dedication was a system designed to protect their own wealth and
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  influence. Because the temple treasury was
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  massive and they controlled it. Following the money always
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  reveals the truth. It does, and they could not see
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  the logical absurdity of their position because spiritual
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  blindness prevents logical self reflection.
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  About their own lives. When you lose the fear of God,
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  your theology becomes entirely self-serving, even when it is
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  demonstrably absurd, and that leaves directly into Christ's
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  severe condemnation of their spiritual state.
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  Right, because Jesus does not hold back.
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  He starts with the word woe. Woe to you blind guides.
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  He also calls them fools and blind.
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  This brings up the concept of total depravity on display.
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  And the linguistic severity of these terms cannot be
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  overstated. The word woe in the original
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  Greek is way. Way sounds harsh, just saying
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  it. It is.
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  This is not a sad sigh of resignation.
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  It is not a gentle pastoral correction from a life coach.
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  Not a slap on the wrist. No, it is a terrifying
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  interjection of doom. It is a prophetic curse
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  declaring impending divine wrath upon the unrepentant.
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  It stands in stark contrast to the word blessed or macarioi
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  that Jesus used at the beginning of his ministry in the Sermon on
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  the Mount. Back in chapter 5.
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  Right in chapter 5 he was pronouncing the blessings of the
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  Kingdom. Here, in chapter 23, Jesus is
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  speaking as the supreme divine judge, pronouncing the curses of
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  the covenant upon those who break it.
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  And the phrase blind guides, that is a devastating oxymoron.
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  I mean, if you are a guide, your one fundamental job is to see
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  the path. If you are blind, you are the
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  last person on earth who should be leading anyone anywhere.
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  Precisely. And the Greek word translated as
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  fools is moral way. Which sounds a lot like.
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  Yes, it is the root of the English word moron, but in this
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  specific biblical context it does not mean that someone with
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  a low IQ. Not about intelligence.
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  No, it signifies someone who is morally and spiritually obtuse,
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  someone completely lacking any capacity for divine wisdom.
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  Just a total block. Yes, our sources highlight that
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  this confirms the Reformed doctrine of total depravity.
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  These leaders possessed the external law.
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  They had the ancient scrolls, the rabbinic traditions, the
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  phylacteries, the recognized public offices.
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  But. Without the internal
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  illumination of the Holy Spirit, the natural man is entirely
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  blind to the things of God. They were spiritually dead while
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  walking around in religious garments.
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  OK, stop right there. You just used a major
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  theological term, total depravity.
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  I did, yeah. Give me the plain English
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  version of what that means and maybe what it does not mean,
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  because people hear the word depravity and they immediately
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  think of serial killers or the worst criminals imaginable.
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  That is a very common misconception.
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  Total depravity does not mean that every person is as
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  thoroughly evil as they could possibly be in their outward
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  actions. So the Pharisees weren't
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  necessarily committing terrible crimes in the street.
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  Right. They were actually quite moral
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  in their outward behavior. They did not rob banks or murder
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  people in the streets. Total depravity means that the
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  totality of human nature has been infected an corrupted by
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  sin following the fall in Genesis. 3 The whole system is
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  infected, yes. Our minds, our emotions, our
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  desires, and most critically, our wills are bound by sin.
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  The natural man does not seek God.
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  He cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God.
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  It's broken at the source. His default setting is rebellion
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  and self justification. It means we are completely
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  incapable of saving ourselves or producing genuine righteousness
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  without God's grace intervening first.
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  It is like hiring a financial advisor who operates exclusively
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  using Monopoly money. I love that comparison.
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  Like they might might sound incredibly confident giving you
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  directions. They might have beautifully
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  designed charts and graphs. They might wear a nice suit.
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  But the currency is fake. Exactly, I mean spot on.
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  They are leading you straight into bankruptcy because the
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  currency they are dealing in is entirely worthless.
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  In the real world. The danger of blind leadership
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  is terrifying. A blind man on his own needs
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  compassion. We help him cross the street,
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  but a blind guide is a literal threat to everyone following
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  him. That analogy hits the mark
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  perfectly, and this doctrine completely destroys the Armenian
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  notion of human autonomy. Hold on, there's another
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  seminary term. What is the Armenian notion of
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  human autonomy? Well, Arminianism generally
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  teaches that while humans are fallen, God gives everyone a
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  sort of preceding grace that restores their free will just
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  enough so that they can autonomously choose to accept or
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  reject God. Like a neutral starting point.
• 19:44
  It suggests the human will is a neutral territory.
• 19:47
  Yeah, but Jesus's description of the Pharisees shatters that
• 19:51
  idea. The Sinner does not possess an
• 19:53
  autonomous free will to manipulate God or to see the
• 19:57
  truth clearly on his own. Because the blindness is part of
• 20:00
  their nature. Yes, the Pharisees were
• 20:03
  operating out of a nature that was fundamentally corrupt.
• 20:06
  Their wills were bound by their sin.
• 20:08
  They were entirely incapable of understanding the truth without
• 20:12
  divine intervention. And as a result.
• 20:15
  They were leading the spiritually blind masses
• 20:17
  directly into the pit of eternal judgement.
• 20:20
  Their blindness was a feature of their fallen nature.
• 20:22
  So what does this mean for their accountability?
• 20:24
  That is the crucial question if they.
• 20:26
  Were completely spiritually blind, as the doctrine of total
• 20:29
  depravity suggests. How is it fair to hold them
• 20:31
  responsible? Are they still morally culpable
• 20:34
  for leading people astray if they literally lack the capacity
• 20:37
  to see the truth? This is one of the most vital
• 20:39
  theological questions a person can ask.
• 20:41
  Total depravity means that man is unable to choose God or
• 20:44
  desire true holiness on his own. However, this moral inability
• 20:49
  does not negate moral responsibility.
• 20:51
  OK, unpack that. They are not physically forced
• 20:53
  to sin against their will. They sin because they want to.
• 20:58
  They love the sin. Right.
• 20:59
  The Pharisees were blind because they love the darkness.
• 21:02
  Their blindness was a judicial hardening, a result of their own
• 21:06
  willful, repeated suppression of the truth.
• 21:09
  They kept choosing the wrong path.
• 21:10
  They chose their man made traditions over God's clear
• 21:13
  revelation. Their accountability is absolute
• 21:16
  because they operate under God's sovereign jurisdiction as
• 21:20
  rational creatures who willfully rebelled against the Creator's
• 21:23
  design. Which brings us right to the
• 21:25
  text again. Yes, this connects seamlessly to
• 21:28
  the climax of Jesus's argument. He strips away any illusion that
• 21:31
  they operate outside of God's authority, pointing directly to
• 21:34
  the throne of heaven. Which brings us to that rapid
• 21:37
  fire climax, the passage found in verses 20 through 22.
• 21:40
  Jesus says whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by
• 21:43
  everything on it, And whoever swears by the temple swears by
• 21:46
  it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven,
• 21:50
  swears by the thorn of God, and by him who sits upon it.
• 21:52
  The architecture of this passage reveals the author's meaning
• 21:56
  with absolute mathematical precision.
• 21:58
  It builds so quickly. When we look at the Greek
• 22:00
  structural symmetry here, we see Jesus using a series of
• 22:04
  articular participles. Whoa, seminary alert again?
• 22:07
  Breakdown the Greek grammar for me.
• 22:09
  What is an articular participle and why does it matter to the
• 22:12
  guy listening to this in his car on the way to work?
• 22:15
  Fair enough. In the Greek text, Jesus
• 22:17
  repeatedly uses a specific phrasing, the one having sworn
• 22:21
  that is the articular participle.
• 22:24
  He couples that phrase with the Greek preposition N, which means
• 22:27
  in or by. He repeats this exact
• 22:30
  grammatical formula over and over.
• 22:32
  Like a hammer. Yes.
• 22:34
  By doing this he builds an unbreakable chain link fence
• 22:37
  around their logic. He says swearing by the altar
• 22:40
  inherently includes the sacrifices on it.
• 22:42
  Swearing by the temple inherently includes the God who
• 22:45
  dwells in it. Swearing by heaven inherently
• 22:47
  includes the throne of God. You can't separate them.
• 22:50
  You cannot. It is a brilliant, escalating
• 22:53
  structural ascent. He starts at the earthly bronze
• 22:57
  altar, moves to the grand physical temple building, and
• 23:00
  ascends directly to the sovereign throne of the
• 23:03
  universe. It's like he's calling their
• 23:05
  bluff. Jesus is saying you want to play
• 23:08
  word games. Let's play.
• 23:10
  If you touch the earthly altar with your words, you touch the
• 23:13
  God of heaven. You cannot compartmentalize your
• 23:16
  speech. So Jesus is essentially using
• 23:19
  their own legal language to build an inescapable cage around
• 23:23
  them. He is removing all their blind
• 23:24
  spots. Every single one.
• 23:26
  This proves this passage is not just a simple ethical treatise
• 23:29
  on how to be a more honest neighbor.
• 23:31
  It is an assertion of the omnipresence and sovereignty of
• 23:34
  God over every single human utterance.
• 23:37
  Over every word. There is no secular versus
• 23:40
  sacred divide. You cannot say why made that
• 23:42
  promise at the office, not at church, so it doesn't really
• 23:44
  count. No, God hears it all.
• 23:45
  No human vow, no contract, no casual promises made outside of
• 23:49
  God's jurisdiction. And this truth annihilates
• 23:52
  modern post truth pragmatism. Elsa.
• 23:54
  Well, we live in an era that actively promotes a relativistic
• 23:58
  view of truth. We utilize psychological therapy
• 24:01
  speak to excuse the sins of our own hearts.
• 24:05
  We rebrand lying as managing optics or controlling the
• 24:09
  narrative. Corporate spin.
• 24:11
  Yeah, but God demands absolute integrity.
• 24:16
  The sources also point out that this text acts as a massive
• 24:19
  historical bulwark against complex doctrines of mental
• 24:22
  reservation. What do you mean by mental
• 24:24
  reservation? Throughout history, various
• 24:26
  religious systems, including Roman Catholic caduistry in the
• 24:29
  medieval period, created elaborate loopholes.
• 24:32
  More loopholes. Always they developed the idea
• 24:35
  of mental reservations, where you could legally state one
• 24:37
  thing out loud, but hold a contradicting thought in your
• 24:39
  head and therefore not be guilty of a sin.
• 24:42
  So crossing your fingers mentally.
• 24:44
  Basically, yeah. For example, you might say out
• 24:46
  loud, I did not break the vase while thinking in your head on a
• 24:48
  Tuesday. You effectively bypassed God's
• 24:51
  absolute standard of truth by using a technicality in your
• 24:55
  mind. Wow, that is sneaky.
• 24:57
  Jesus says that is completely impossible.
• 25:00
  Every word you speak out loud and every thought in your head
• 25:03
  is tethered directly to the throne of God.
• 25:06
  You cannot outsmart the Omniscient 1.
• 25:08
  The Pharisees treated God like a motion sensor security camera in
• 25:12
  a warehouse. Trying to find the blind spots.
• 25:14
  Yeah, they thought if they move slowly enough, if they use the
• 25:17
  right angles, if they stood in the shadows of the physical
• 25:20
  building, they could slip past the lens and do whatever they
• 25:22
  wanted. Play the angles.
• 25:23
  But Jesus says the camera is always on.
• 25:25
  It is recording high definition audio, and God himself is
• 25:29
  sitting directly at the monitor. He hears every single syllable.
• 25:33
  There are no blind spots. That is a staggering, terrifying
• 25:36
  reality. The universe is not fragmented
• 25:39
  into zones where God is present and zones where He is absent.
• 25:42
  He's everywhere. Heaven is not some empty
• 25:44
  abstraction floating in the clouds.
• 25:45
  It is the active sphere of God's sovereign rule.
• 25:48
  When you speak, you speak in God's world before God's face.
• 25:52
  Corumdeo, as the Reformer, said before the face of God.
• 25:56
  But if every single word is tethered to the throne of God,
• 26:01
  doesn't that make casual, everyday conversation incredibly
• 26:04
  daunting? It should I.
• 26:05
  Mean How does a believer function without being paralyzed
• 26:08
  by the fear of accidentally misusing language or making a
• 26:12
  promise they cannot keep because circumstances change?
• 26:15
  If God's standard is absolute perfection in speech, we are all
• 26:18
  doomed. Yes, the law is indeed meant to
• 26:21
  be terrifying. It is meant to crush us.
• 26:24
  To bring us to the end of ourselves.
• 26:25
  Right. It is meant to be paralyzing to
• 26:28
  our own self righteousness. When we truly grasp the
• 26:31
  omnipresence of God and His absolute demand for perfect
• 26:34
  truth in our innermost being, our immediate reaction should be
• 26:37
  utter despair over our own deceitful hearts.
• 26:40
  Because we just can't do. It we cannot keep this standard,
• 26:43
  our tongues are naturally bent towards self preservation,
• 26:45
  flattery and perjury. James chapter 3 says the tongue
• 26:49
  is a restless evil full of deadly poison.
• 26:51
  A. Fire.
• 26:52
  Yes, this despair you are feeling is the precise function
• 26:55
  of the Law. It strips away all our excuses
• 26:58
  and drives us desperately to the only viable solution, the
• 27:01
  perfect fulfillment of the law in Jesus Christ.
• 27:04
  Which is the good news? Exactly.
• 27:06
  Well, yes, it shifts our conversation directly into
• 27:08
  redemptive history. If our natural instinct is to
• 27:11
  lie to protect ourselves and God's standard is absolute
• 27:14
  perfection, we are in a completely hopeless situation
• 27:18
  unless someone else fulfills that standard for.
• 27:21
  Us our only hope. This passage leads us entirely
• 27:24
  away from moralism. We are not just looking at a
• 27:27
  lesson on how to be more honest person, we are looking directly
• 27:30
  at the cross. Jesus is functioning here in his
• 27:34
  office as the eschatological prophet, the one prophesied by
• 27:38
  Moses in Deuteronomy 18. He's uniquely authorized to
• 27:42
  interpret the law and expose the corruptions of the false
• 27:45
  shepherds. Our sources draw magnificent
• 27:47
  Christological connections. Here Jesus speaks of the temple
• 27:50
  and the altar, the sacred institutions of the old
• 27:52
  covenant, the shadow. But as the Gospel of John
• 27:55
  reveals in chapter 2, when Jesus says destroy this temple, and in
• 27:58
  three days I will raise it up, he was speaking about the temple
• 28:01
  of his body. He is the reality.
• 28:03
  Jesus Christ himself is the ultimate true temple.
• 28:07
  He is the Word made flesh, the exact location where the holy
• 28:10
  God and sinful man meet for reconciliation and.
• 28:14
  What about the altar? Hebrews chapter 13 identifies
• 28:17
  Christ as the ultimate altar. He perfectly sanctifies the
• 28:21
  ultimate gift, which is the sacrifice of His own sinless
• 28:24
  body. So it all points to him.
• 28:25
  The old bronze altar only sanctified ceremonially pointing
• 28:29
  forward to a future reality. Christ secures real, permanent
• 28:33
  cleansing and reconciliation. Think about the profound irony
• 28:37
  happening in this scene. You have the Pharisees standing
• 28:40
  in the physical temple precincts, weaponizing the
• 28:42
  language of the physical temple to lie and cheat everyday
• 28:45
  people. Right in the courtyard.
• 28:47
  And standing right in front of them, looking them in the eye,
• 28:49
  is the true temple of God speaking absolute truth.
• 28:53
  They're completely blind to the glory standing right in front
• 28:55
  of. Them it is tragic, and because
• 28:57
  of the total depravity we discussed earlier, we are
• 28:59
  entirely incapable of keeping the absolute standard of truth
• 29:02
  demanded by the throne of God. We need an outside savior.
• 29:06
  Someone to do it for us? This is why the doctrine of
• 29:08
  substitutionary atonement is so vital.
• 29:11
  Christ provides both active obedience and passive obedience.
• 29:14
  Break those two terms down for me.
• 29:16
  What is the difference between active and passive obedience and
• 29:19
  why do I need both? Well, Christ's active obedience
• 29:22
  means He perfectly fulfilled the righteous demands of the Law on
• 29:26
  our behalf during His entire earthly life.
• 29:29
  So he lived the perfect life. Yes.
• 29:32
  Every word he spoke was absolute truth.
• 29:34
  Every vow he made, he kept. He never exaggerated, never
• 29:37
  flattered to gain advantage, never used a loophole.
• 29:40
  Completely flawless. He lived a life of absolute
• 29:43
  flawless integrity. That perfect record of truth
• 29:46
  telling is imputed or credited to our account when we believe
• 29:49
  in him, OK. So that covers the active part.
• 29:51
  And his passive obedience means he he willingly subjected
• 29:55
  himself to the penalty of the law that we deserved.
• 29:57
  Taking the punishment. He bore the fierce wrath of God
• 30:00
  on the cross for our lies, our hypocrisy, our broken vows, and
• 30:04
  our deceptive terms of service. He absorbed the punishment for
• 30:07
  every time we crossed our fingers behind our.
• 30:09
  Backs. That is so freeing to hear.
• 30:11
  We need a mediator who both cleanses our guilt and provides
• 30:15
  us with a perfect record of righteousness.
• 30:17
  And Christ is that perfect mediator.
• 30:20
  But let me ask this if Christ already fulfilled the absolute
• 30:24
  standard of truth for us and His perfect record is credited to
• 30:28
  us, does that mean our ongoing struggles with honesty or just
• 30:33
  covered under grace? The antinomian question.
• 30:36
  Right. Is there still a strict standard
• 30:38
  we are expected to uphold? Or does grace mean we can be a
• 30:42
  little LAX with our words now because Jesus already paid the
• 30:45
  bill? That is a crucial distinction to
• 30:46
  make. We do not look to the law for
• 30:48
  our justification. Christ secured that completely.
• 30:51
  We cannot not earn our way to heaven by telling the truth,
• 30:54
  right? However, the Reformed tradition
• 30:56
  recognizes the third use of the law.
• 30:58
  The Tertius usis religious. Translate that Latin for me.
• 31:02
  What are the three uses and what is the third one doing the?
• 31:04
  First use of the law is as a mirror showing us our sin and
• 31:07
  driving us to Christ. We just talked about that.
• 31:09
  Shows us we need help, yes. The second use is as a curb
• 31:12
  restraining evil in society through civil laws and fear of
• 31:16
  punishment. Keeping order in the world.
• 31:18
  Right. The third use, the Tertius Usus
• 31:21
  LED us, applies specifically to the regenerate believer.
• 31:25
  For the Christian who has been saved by grace, the law acts as
• 31:29
  the perfect rule of life to guide our grateful obedience.
• 31:33
  So it's a guide. We are united to Christ, who
• 31:36
  said I am the way, the truth and the life.
• 31:40
  Therefore our words must reflect His character.
• 31:43
  Grace does not excuse deceit. Grace empowers truthfulness.
• 31:48
  It changes our desires. We tell the truth not to get
• 31:51
  saved, but because we are saved and have been given a new nature
• 31:54
  that loves the truth. Applying this third use of the
• 31:57
  law is like having a perfectly tuned GPS in your car.
• 32:00
  I like that analogy. The GPS does not build the
• 32:02
  engine, it does not put fuel in the gas tank.
• 32:05
  It doesn't make the car move. That is what Christ's atonement
• 32:07
  does. Right, but the GPS shows you the
• 32:10
  exact path to drive on so you don't crash your car into a
• 32:13
  ditch of hypocrisy. It guides the vehicle that has
• 32:16
  already built and fueled. That is a very helpful way to
• 32:18
  look at it. Our sources call for direct,
• 32:21
  uncompromising and highly pastoral application here.
• 32:24
  Starting at the corporate level. Yes, corporately, the Church
• 32:28
  must violently reject pragmatism.
• 32:30
  We must reject the seeker sensitive movement that measures
• 32:34
  success by the gold of budgets, slick marketing and weekly
• 32:38
  attendance numbers rather than proximity to the temple of
• 32:41
  faithful biblical preaching. Stop treating the church like a
• 32:44
  business. We must resist the urge to
• 32:46
  commercialize holy things to draw a crowd.
• 32:50
  The Church must operate with absolute integrity in its
• 32:52
  financial dealings and its public messaging.
• 32:55
  And individually, believers must apply this every single day in
• 32:59
  the trenches of normal life. Where it gets tough, right?
• 33:02
  The sources mentioned complementarian headship men are
• 33:05
  called to be the spiritual heads of their households, which means
• 33:09
  they must lead their families in truth.
• 33:11
  It starts in the home. There cannot be A2 tiered system
• 33:14
  of honesty. You cannot have one standard of
• 33:16
  truth for Sunday morning worship where you sing hymns about God's
• 33:19
  holiness, and a completely different compromise standard
• 33:22
  for Monday morning business practices or filling out your
• 33:24
  tax returns. You can't separate the 2.
• 33:27
  Christians cannot use legal technicalities to avoid their
• 33:31
  covenantal obligations to their spouses, their children, or
• 33:34
  their employers. The sources cite staggering
• 33:37
  global statistics regarding religious fraud and
• 33:39
  ecclesiastical embezzlement. This is a massive problem.
• 33:42
  Billions of dollars are lost every year because people within
• 33:45
  the visible church believe the lie of the Pharisees.
• 33:49
  They think they can manipulate the material things of God, the
• 33:52
  church budget, without standing before the throne of God.
• 33:56
  They lose the fear of God. They treat the Church like a
• 33:58
  secular corporation. Believers must cultivate a
• 34:01
  culture where vows actually matter, where financial
• 34:04
  transparency is non negotiable, and where absolute truthfulness
• 34:08
  is the expected norm. We speak, act and spend money in
• 34:12
  the presence of the one who hears, sees and judges
• 34:14
  perfectly. But practically speaking, in a
• 34:17
  corporate environment that rewards public relations spin,
• 34:20
  legal liability protection and aggressive marketing.
• 34:23
  The real world. Right the real world.
• 34:26
  How does a believer practice radical, uncompromising honesty
• 34:30
  without losing their livelihood or being taken advantage of by
• 34:33
  the world? It seems like telling the
• 34:35
  absolute truth in a cutthroat business world is a fast track
• 34:39
  to getting fired or going bankrupt.
• 34:41
  It requires an overriding fear of God.
• 34:44
  Proverbs says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
• 34:47
  Our primary allegiance is to the sovereign God of the universe.
• 34:50
  Not the bottom line. Not to our temporal earthly
• 34:53
  brand, our quarterly profit margins, or our financial
• 34:56
  security. A believer practices radical
• 34:59
  honesty by trusting that God is sovereign over the results of
• 35:02
  their obedience. Leaving the results to him.
• 35:04
  The world says protect your brand, manage the optics, use
• 35:07
  the loopholes. Christ says let your yes be yes
• 35:10
  and your no be no. The godly man does not need to
• 35:13
  resort to manipulation because he fears this pleasing God far
• 35:16
  more than he fears any earthly financial consequences.
• 35:19
  He trusts God to provide. He trusts that God will provide
• 35:22
  for him on the path of righteousness.
• 35:23
  So what have we uncovered in this deep dive?
• 35:26
  Christ exposes the blind guides who inverted holiness for
• 35:29
  financial gain. Calling them out for their
• 35:31
  greed. He proves syntactically and
• 35:34
  theologically that every oath, every promise, and every casual
• 35:38
  word we speak is tethered directly to the throne of God.
• 35:41
  The unbreakable chain. This text strips away human
• 35:45
  autonomy. It destroys religious
• 35:47
  pragmatism. It drives us to despair of our
• 35:50
  own righteousness so that we flee to Christ.
• 35:53
  The only safe harbor. Because he is the true temple.
• 35:55
  He is the perfect altar. He is our substitutionary
• 35:58
  sacrifice. I want to leave you with a final
• 36:01
  thought drawn from the historical context of our source
• 36:03
  material. Let's hear it.
• 36:05
  This exact physical temple, whose gold the Pharisees prized
• 36:09
  so highly, the very magnificent building where Jesus stood to
• 36:13
  pronounce this terrifying woe, was completely destroyed by the
• 36:17
  Roman army under Titus in AD 70. Just wiped off the map.
• 36:21
  The gold melted in the fires and ran down between the stones,
• 36:24
  just as Jesus predicts in the very next chapter of Matthew 20.
• 36:28
  Four, they lost the very thing they valued most.
• 36:30
  If God was willing to utterly obliterate the physical
• 36:33
  epicenter of Israel's worship because the leadership corrupted
• 36:36
  its holy purpose with lies and hypocrisy.
• 36:39
  It makes you think. How severely must he view the
• 36:42
  hypocrisy we tolerate in our own lives, especially knowing that
• 36:46
  the Scriptures call our very bodies the temple of the Holy
• 36:48
  Spirit? That is a staggering reality to
• 36:51
  consider. The camera is always on and the
• 36:54
  perfect judge is sitting on the throne.
• 36:56
  Thank you for joining this session of reformed thinking.
• 36:58
  We invite you to examine your own heart.
• 37:00
  Abandoned your man made refuges. Stop looking for loopholes and
• 37:03
  run to the cross.