Matthew 23:1-39 KJV
1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:
3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
7 And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.
8 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.
9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.
11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.
19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.
21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.
22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.
23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

This would not constitute idle gossip, or speaking evil about someone, instead it speaking truth of the situation, maybe a warning for the future of how Jesus does not want his disciples or future Christian leaders and disciples to be. Yet he talking to his disciples about the Pharisees and their hypocrisy. We know this is before the triumphal entry because of the last verse. I seem to have crisscross over and back and forth in the Gospels to the Triumphal entry and the staying in Bethany but that is okay. It not Easter yet. It is okay If I back track over some of the teaching of Christ because some of his teachings need to be at the minimum read. Maybe expounded upon in some areas. If we look only at the outwear of the pharisees they wore on their garments phylacteries and enlarge their borders of their garments with fringe to make themselves look as if people should bow to them or follow in their leadership because of their garments. Their garment was suppose to remind people to worship God even down to the phylacteries that carried the law on their helmet and arm bands. It something to think how what a person wears is designed by God to remember the laws of God instead it made men into giants of the law of God and men to revere.

As a little girl I remember I just gotten saved, and a friend asked me a Bible question, instead of saying I do not know, it was more like I said something that sound correct whether in truth it was or was not. I was probably about seven at the time. I had not learned knowledge is of God not of man or woman. Knowledge we gain from scripture must truly come by the Holy Spirit and the study of scripture. The understanding comes with the knowledge from study and the Holy Spirit for there is no way to contain it all as a believer in our hearts or minds. This chapter is one of those passages I think I taught maybe a few times on it, but the study on this chapter made me dig for meaning. You want to know about this chapter you need to dig.

You are either a servant or you a person that thinks you should be waited on hand and foot. I be honest we all like to be pampered from time to time. Where is our faith? Where are we headed. Disciples exalted Jesus in the Triumphal entry, but did Jesus not demand it in one sense? Or was it not only a tribute to who he truly was. Jesus talks about being a servant in this passage, one to be exalted is the one that will serve and not just lead. Disciples needed to learn to be humble and not standing out and up as if they needed recognition. Jesus was the only Master. There is only one Lord, one faith and one baptism. The baptism of faith comes with learning to be obedient to Jesus, willing to serve him. Yesterday we talk how David vision entailed two Lords. One Lords role was to put the enemy under the Lord's feet. The image of the Trinity does not fit here beyond the point the fullness of the Godhead bodily completely seen in Christ and God the Father and the Holy spirit. (Colosians 2). All of God is seen in Christ as in the Father. Only use the name Jesus in worship we still are worshipping God the Father and Holy Spirit if you are aware of personification of the Godhead bodily. The Holy Spirit is the only one that needs to teach you. There is only one teacher. Yet teachers and ministers prostylete not understanding they create even more devils then they create angels, because men love the praises of God just like the Religious leaders did. Our praise needs to be for God and not everyone else. Is there a problem with saying good job, or I like what you did or so forth, not in the least, Jesus is talking about the worship and adoration only belongs to God and our servanthood as believers only belonging to God.

Servanthood to God alone does not mean you will not help someone, it means you are getting direction from God not man. It must be learned. I was in a church service once, I know the Spirit spoke to both my husband and I, for we both did the what was needed to be done, without communication by Pastor or each other It was not reflects of action, it was something neither knew to do. Find yourself in unfamiliar territory definitely obey the Lord. Pray and seek direction. I mean anywhere you are, God is with you.

Pharisees cared more about their outward cleanness and spiritual appearance of cleanness they would not pass grave yard with white markers, or get in the way of anything unclean. Their cleanness even went to their cups they drank wine in and put a netting material over to keep bugs out. Most of us use sippy cups today for that purpose and to keep from spilling it, if knocked over. The point is would you still drink from the cup without a cover. Would you make sure the glass inside was clean and not just the outside of the glass. If in a bar you might drink from a dirty glass if on a western movie. Hwever it not even about the glass itself, it about what that wine is being poured into, a person of holiness but being unholy, unclean because of a lack of faith and unrepentance of sin. The outwear being clean, nice appearance but inside it black as soot inside a dirty chimney that burned all winter long.

Spiritual cleanness being gone because of the need to be honor for position and so forth. This passage also speaks of swearing by altar and because one did so, was also swearing on the sacrifice, one swearing on the temple was swearing on the altar inside the temple and so forth and all that in the temple. And all that swore by heaven swore by all that was in heaven. The tithe being great then the issue of faith, mercy, judgment and the law. They honor the dead, the prophets and so forth, because of this they bring the judgment down upon them and cause the heathens to sacrifice the prophets and religious leaders that exalt themselves, that even humble themselves, because the heathen understand not the love or the value of faith in God alone. Uplifting of man cause man's destruction, man will fall when exalted. There is right kind of exaltation and a wrong kind. To uplift man he will fall, he will also be persecuted for that exalting him or her for.

Elijah seen the prophets destroyed because Jezebel understood that they knew God and she did not honor God but Baal and the prophets of Baal. Man is evil they persecute believers because they truly understand not the power of God and the power of God in a believers life. Jesus would be exalted as we know in the Triumphal entry but he was truly God's only begotten Son and worthy our praise. Blessed his he that comes in the name of Lord, speaking of Jesus. God would allow his Son to be killed for what would happen despite he was not wrong to defend God's house and God's commands.

God allowed it to show us we too destroy the word of God in our disobedience and betray God in our fear of who Christ and God the Father is, even the Holy Spirit. We become the hypocrits of the word of God when we do the opposite of God's word and walk around acting clean and in truth we need to go to the altar and repent to God and have him purify our hearts from sin through Christ suffering on the cross for our sin. Receiving him as Lord and Savior and allow his Spirit to do a work of grace by the sanctification process, when he corrects our hearts when we are not obeying him. We must be renewed by faith day by day. Our walk is daily.

Dear Heavenly Father, help us not to be the hypocrits of the Pharisees and religious leaders of today, but to serve you with our whole heart, soul and mind. Help us to obey your word because we believe in Jesus. In Jesus precious name, Amen.

Continual Scripture Study: James 2:1-10 KJV
1 My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
2 For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;
3 And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:
4 Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
5 Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?
6 But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?
7 Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?
8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
9 But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

Galatians 3:24-27 KJV
24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Ephesians 5:26-27 KJV
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.