What a wonderful privilege is mine to be
here with you and to share what God
has put upon my heart.
A number of years ago, the little ministry
with which I'm involved, which is called International
Awakening Ministries, felt the time had come to
regularly publish a little journal, which we called
Revival Commentary.
Unfortunately, I ran out of strength to do
it and all the other things, and it
dropped by the wayside.
But a few issues were published.
And in one of those issues, I wrote
an article entitled The Nomenclature of Revival.
A few of you may have seen it.
In my mind, it was a perfectly wonderful
article, not so much the one that wrote
it, but the content of it.
Because what it did was to take the
20-some terms that had been used over
the century to describe these wondrous movements of
God's spirit.
They've been called rain from heaven.
They've been called awakenings and, as I just
said, many other names.
But one of those was divine visitation.
Now, at the time that the article appeared,
it seemed to me it would be lovely
if somewhere along the line, I had opportunity
to preach a series of sermons on each
of these terms.
But in actual fact, it never came until
recently.
As I was praying over the subjects that
I ought to deal with, it occurred to
me that I ought truly to speak to
you on this subject of divine visitations.
However, after I had prayed much and done
a good deal by way of preparation, I
realized I was in trouble because I had
four messages and only three opportunities between the
two weeks to give these messages.
And I was quite up against it, wondering
what to do.
And out of the blue, it seemed, Nancy
Wells, the coordinator and hard worker who's put
this all together, called and said, we would
like you to take an additional service.
And I thought, well, now, truly, if I
needed confirmation, well, there it is.
But the awkward aspect of it was that
it was to be divided over two different
sessions.
But the happy realization I came to after
arriving was anyone here could access the two
from last week.
And word has already been given as to
how to do that.
And it may indeed be announced further if
any of you are needing help.
But let me in a moment review the
matters that I covered last week and then
tell you what's on my heart for today
and for one additional session.
I don't know how many of you preachers
ever preached on the song of Zacharias in
Luke, chapter 1, an incredibly beautiful two-stanza
song.
But he speaks in each stanza of a
divine visitation.
In the first stanza, he speaks of the
visit of the horn of salvation.
And in the second paragraph, really, which is
rejoicing, I shouldn't say paragraph, stanza, which is
rejoicing over the fact that his own son
is to be the forerunner, he rejoices and
sings his hallelujahs to the Lord because of
the impending visit of the sunrise from on
high.
If you have not familiarized yourself with that
song, I would heartily encourage you to do
so.
In the second message last week, it seemed
necessary to go to the actual work of
the forerunner concerning whom his father had sung.
And so I was dealing last Saturday night
with Luke, chapter 3.
Now, I hope it isn't true, but someone
said I spoke for two hours and 20
minutes.
I'm not allowed to do that.
And surely, I dare not.
And someone on the front row, as it
looks like I'm trespassing, can do a little
something like this.
And I'll keep the time in mind.
But oh, how urgent it is to prepare
for these divine visitations.
John, in the most incredible fashion, prepared the
way of the Lord.
And I believe that each one of us
who is here now must think very carefully
and prayerfully about what we need to do
to prepare our hearts and to prepare the
way of the Lord.
And in that God gave us each two
ears, I'd like to make a simple suggestion,
figurative, of course, but nonetheless significant.
Use one ear to listen for your own
heart, to hear what God the Lord says
to you concerning the needs in your life
by way of making preparation for the coming
of the Lord in one of these precious
divine visitations.
But let the other ear listen with great
care for your church, your pastor, those in
your circle of responsibility.
What a tragedy when God visits his people,
and many of them miss his visitation.
Now, my dear friends, you don't have to
know very much about church history to know
that many, many in the past have missed
the Lord when he came.
And our passage this afternoon deals with this
critical issue.
So I'm inviting you now to turn, if
you will please, to the Gospel of Luke
at chapter 19.
Our focus is only upon three verses as
our basic text, but a host of additional
material.
We will be reading verses 41 to 44
of Luke chapter 19.
Let me repeat.
This passage is about a very significant body
of those who thought themselves believers in God
Almighty and his followers who missed their appointed
visitation.
And before I read the passage, I want
to mention what the fourth passage is that
I have upon my heart and hope to
speak about later this week.
And that is from the book of Acts
chapter 4, where in a strange and a
wonderful way, those who crucified Christ are offered
the opportunity of repenting and returning and enjoying
a season of refreshing from the presence of
the Lord.
You're ready?
Luke 19, verse 41.
And when he approached, he saw the city
and wept over it, saying, if you had
known in this day, even you, the things
which make for peace, but now they have
been hidden from your eyes.
For the day shall come upon you when
your enemies will throw up a bank before
you and surround you and hem you in
on every side and will level you to
the ground and your children within you.
And they will not leave in you one
stone upon another because you did not recognize
the time of your visitation.
What a heart-rending passage.
Well, some perhaps don't feel that because that
was the Pharisees and the scribes and the
chief priests.
Yes, but they were people too, people who
needed the Lord, people who were loaded up
with religious convictions and concerns, people who honestly
thought they were right with God and ready
for anything God sent.
But they missed it.
And would it not be terribly foolish to
suppose that we are sufficiently unlike them so
that we are in no danger whatsoever of
missing our time of visitation?
And in that I've already asked you to
listen for yourself and for your church, your
pastor, those in your immediate realm of concern,
how tragic if you should receive the visitation
and others you love and are responsible for
should miss the Lord's coming.
And you do understand, don't you, that revivals
are always divine visitation, times when God draws
near to his people.
Now, let's be sure we understand the context
in which these words that we have read
occur.
If you go back to the beginning of
this 19th chapter, you will discover in verses
1 to 10, our Lord's encounter with Zacchaeus.
And in verse 7, right in the midst
of that encounter with Zacchaeus, you will read
the protest of certain of the leaders that
Christ should associate himself with someone as abominable
as Zacchaeus and other tax collectors and sinners.
Then in verses 11 to 27, we have
the parable of the nobleman and his money.
And that is very relevant because, indeed, that
parable, along with numerous other parables of our
Lord, was directed immediately at these persons who
missed his divine visit.
Then in verses 28 to 40, we have
the triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
And again, right in the midst of that
triumphal entry, the protest of the religious leaders
and the taunting and mean-spirited statements that
they made.
And then verses 47 to 48, or excuse
me, 45 to 46, leaping over the passage
we've read, we have the second cleansing of
the temple.
And how much good did the second cleansing
of the temple do?
Why, just the same amount of good that
the first cleansing did.
Drove them out one door and they streamed
in another.
Isn't it tragic that when God, in incredible
mercy, brings about some kind of a righteous
judgment like a cleansing of the temple, there
are multitudes that sees no significance in it,
are unchanged by it, and persist in their
error?
And in this instance, even a second cleansing
had no greater impact, it appears, than the
first.
And then at the end of this 19th
chapter, verses 47 and 48, you read of
their determination to destroy this one who had
brought to them the greatest of blessings and
the blessing they desperately needed, but were not
willing to receive.
And the next chapter opens in verses 1
to 8, chapter 20, with a controversy concerning
his authority and who did he think he
was to say and to do things like
this.
But let's look at the portion we read.
And just in a moment or two, examine
the statements that are made.
Our Lord, verse 41, approaches the city and
weeps over it.
Do you think that our Lord today could
approach your city and do anything other than
weep over it?
Or take your own church, do you think
he could draw near to your church and
do anything other than to weep bitter tears?
And in verse 42, the cause for tears
is clearly indicated, if you had known in
this day, even you, the things which make
for peace, but now they have been hidden
from your eyes.
Now, you see, that is really at the
heart of the danger that God should hide
from our eyes his visitation.
And we need to be certain we understand
why God would do such a thing.
And my purpose today is to help you
to see why our Lord made it crystal
clear.
You have eyes that do not see.
You have ears that do not hear.
You have hearts that cannot receive.
And in verses 43 and 44, he describes
the doom before them.
The day will come when your enemies will
throw up a bank before you.
They'll surround you.
All understand this occurred literally in the year
70, a war around them.
They were surrounded by enemies, hemmed in on
every side.
And they were leveled to the ground.
And even those mothers bearing children and those
fathers' seed, yet to be planted, lost.
Not one stone remaining upon another because they
did not recognize their day of visitation.
Many of you have heard preachers like myself
lay out as carefully as we know how
the difference between remedial judgments and final judgment.
I shall not take that up now.
But clearly, we are looking at a final
judgment.
When all hope is gone, when there's not
one possibility in all the world of their
repenting, they had their opportunity.
And they refused to bend.
And so what we have in this passage
is not a call to repentance, but an
announcement of doom.
Oh, but what a happy thing it is
for me to say to you, we have
no announcements of doom to be pronounced upon
this body today.
We have only hope and expectations that in
this incredible grace, he will yet visit us.
But I beg of you, do not miss
his visit.
I want to take just a few moments
to review something of what lay behind all
of this.
Did it ever occur to you that at
the time Christ was born and the magi
approached Herod and asked concerning the place of
the child's birth, Herod summoned these very people
into his presence and revealed to them something
of what was in his heart?
Did you notice that in the past?
Did you say to yourself, now surely the
beginning of great evil in the hearts of
these men is crystal clear?
Matthew chapter 2, verses 1 to 6 lay
this out.
And in the next few moments, what I
hope to do is to simply trace through
Matthew's gospel a bit of the history of
what brought these religious leaders to that point
where they missed their divine visitation.
You understand, don't you, that the problem was
obvious to John the Baptist?
Listen to these words from chapter 3 of
Matthew at verse 7.
When he saw many of the Sadducees and
the Pharisees coming for baptism, he said to
them, you brood of vipers, who warned you
to flee from the wrath to come?
Therefore, bring forth fruit in keeping with your
repentance.
There's an important record in Luke chapter 7,
verse 30, that the Pharisees and the lawyers
rejected God's purpose for themselves, not having been
baptized by John.
Unlike many a Baptist preacher in America, he
didn't baptize those hypocrites.
And oh, that God might give us a
spirit of discernment, and that we might learn
who we must not baptize, along with those
who indeed, by God's grace, are ready for
that wonderful ordinance.
Did you ever consider the Sermon on the
Mount in relationship to these scribes and Pharisees,
these Sadducees and hypocrites?
In chapter 5 of Matthew, verses 10 to
12, our Lord was describing the blessing of
being persecuted.
But the persecutors to whom he was making
specific reference were these very men addressed in
Luke 19.
In verse 20 of chapter 5, our Lord
said, unless your righteousness surpasses the righteousness of
the scribes and the Pharisees, you cannot be
part of the kingdom.
In verses 21 to 48, chapter 5, our
Lord went through a series of statements.
You have heard it said, but I say
unto you, all of them dealing with these
Pharisees, these Sadducees, their saying, their viewpoints, their
judgment.
And then in chapter 6, starting at verse
1, a series of statements where our Lord
said, beware of practicing your righteousness before men
to be noticed by them.
Now, there's a summary statement of the heart
of these men.
They practiced their righteousness before men to be
seen by them.
Is there a danger that you've been practicing
righteousness before men to be seen by them?
Indeed, I dare to think that many here,
if the record were open wide, would quickly
crawl under the seat, because it would be
revealed that much of their practice of righteousness
is immediately related to being seen of men.
Our Lord spoke to them about alms, chapter
6, verses 2 to 4.
He spoke about prayers, verses 5 to 13.
He spoke about forgiveness, verses 14 and 15.
He spoke about fasting, verses 16 to 18.
He spoke about piling up treasures, verses 19
to 34.
He spoke about judging one another, chapter 7,
verses 1 to 5.
He talked about casting pearls before swine.
In verse 6, he talked about false prophets,
verses 15 to 20.
The bulk of the Sermon on the Mount
has an immediate application to these individuals who
were not prepared for their day of visitation.
It's time we face some of these issues
with the kind of care that they deserved.
Move over to chapter 9, verses 1 to
8 of Matthew's gospel.
They labeled Christ a blasphemer for granting forgiveness
to a paralytic.
Then, verses 10 to 13 of this same
9th chapter, they were offended and registered their
complaints because he ate with publicans and sinners.
In verse 34 of chapter 9, they claimed
that Christ cast out demons by the ruler
of the demons.
And in chapter 10, verses 16 to 23,
when our Lord sent his disciples out, he
said to them, I am sending you out
as sheep in the midst of wolves.
And again, it's clearly these same men who
are the wolves that our Savior is warning
his disciples concerning.
If you move to chapter 11 of Matthew's
gospel, verses 20 to 24, Christ reproached their
cities because with the incredible miracles that had
occurred in them, they still would not repent.
And in verse 25 of chapter 11, Jesus
praised his Father because he hid these things
from the wise and the intelligent, and he
revealed them to babes.
And there's no question who the wise and
intelligent were.
Maybe somehow you've been deluded by your brilliance.
Maybe you've put more stock in your education
and abilities than they deserve.
It is often those who amount to nothing
in the sight of the world who understand
the things pertaining to divine visitation.
And oh, may God grant that not one
here will miss their season of visitation.
In chapter 12 of Matthew's gospel, verses 22
to 45, they blasphemed against the Holy Spirit,
having already, as recorded in 12.14, regularly
plotted together to destroy Christ.
But in that same chapter, at verse 2,
they had accused his followers of unlawful conduct
because they picked grain and ate it as
they were passing through.
And our Lord, as I mentioned earlier, often
revealed their plight and parables.
But in chapter 13, verses 10 to 17,
he explained with great care what that plight
was.
While they see, he said, they do not
see.
While hearing, they do not hear.
Nor do they understand.
And our Lord gave that as an explanation
for his use of parables.
And you know perfectly well, they were more
concerned about the traditions of the elders than
the commandments of God.
And our Lord addressed this in chapter 15,
1 to 14.
Jesus labeled them as hypocrites.
He said, this people honors me with their
lips, but their heart is far from me.
But in vain do they worship me, teaching
as their doctrines the precepts of men.
And in chapter 16, verses 1 to 20,
they ask him for a sign.
And they were told, an evil and an
adulterous generation ask for signs.
And then he had to warn his disciples,
beware of the leaven of the Pharisee.
And our Lord, on a number of occasions,
told his disciples that he must suffer many
things from the elders, and the chief priest,
and the scribes, and be killed by them.
For instance, chapter 16, verse 21.
Chapter 17, verses 22 to 23.
Chapter 18, or excuse me, chapter 20, verse
18.
And then when it came time for the
triumphal entry, they were full of anger.
And they made awful expressions of their indignation.
Chapter 21, verses 15 to 16.
And then our Lord directed the entire parable
of the landowner against them.
And for it, they sought to seize him,
but they were afraid of the multitude.
Chapter 21, verses 33 to 46.
In chapter 22, verses 15 to 46, they
sought to trap him by subtle arguments concerning
poll taxes and other silly things.
And then finally, chapters 26 and 27.
They crucified the Lord of glory.
It's bad enough to miss your visitation, but
I don't believe the situation today is all
that much different from then.
It seems to me the evidence is mounting
up substantially that many are jealous.
That many are envious.
That many grow angry with the Lord when
he rebukes them through one of his servants.
Indeed, I don't wonder, but there are gathered
with us any number of pastors who are
hurting because of the abuse heaped upon you
by those in your congregation who are missing
their day of visitation.
And all around us are men plunging into
moral iniquity.
And others who we described as burned out,
who have lost their heart and their confidence
in the Lord, and who, too, are missing
their visitation.
I pause again and ask, please, please, don't
live through the days of this conference and
miss the visitation God has for you.
And do everything in your power to hear
on behalf of your church and others so
that they will not miss what God has
in store for them.
But having given you that quick rundown, I
want you to turn now to Matthew's gospel,
chapter 23.
And let us focus more particularly upon what
our Lord reveals in this 23rd chapter of
Matthew's gospel.
In verses 1 to 7, our Lord provides
a summary statement about these persons of whom
I have been speaking to you already.
Let me read starting at verse 21.
That's Matthew 23.
Excuse me, not verse 21, verse 1.
Matthew 23, verse 1.
Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to
his disciples, saying, the scribes and the Pharisees
have seated themselves in the chair of Moses.
Is it possible that the position you occupy
you grabbed, you fought for, you struggled to
get to?
I've observed many a situation of a man
rising to prominence.
And all along his path are those he's
knocked down and stood upon to get where
he is.
And it's not just a few brutal fellows
who have the capacity to behave that way.
There are multitudes who have seated themselves in
the seat of Moses.
Give that some careful consideration.
It surely deserves it.
He then goes on to say in verse
3, therefore, all that they tell you to
do and observe, do.
But do not do according to their deeds,
for they say things and they do not
do them.
And did we not already have a statement
about that in that wonderful opening session of
a few moments ago?
Was not God gracious to begin this conference
with that precious time?
But ought we not to ask our hearts
with great integrity, are there things I'm lining
out for others to do that I do
not do myself?
Is there not huge danger for every teacher
and preacher of laying out carefully instructions for
the congregation or the class that they have
no real heart to pursue themselves?
It is not just scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
chief priests, and elders that miss their time
of visitation.
There are sweet-spirited elderly ladies who look
almost like heaven in clothes, who are as
in great danger as the vile reprobates of
our society.
Do you do what you instruct others to
do?
In verse 4, our Lord said, they tie
up heavy loads and lay them on men's
shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move
them with so much as a finger.
And thereto we have to honestly examine ourselves
and our conduct.
Are we in any way guilty of piling
loads upon people that they are weary of
carrying and wilting under the weight?
And we ourselves are so disconnected with God
and His purpose, we don't even use a
single finger.
But our Lord doesn't leave it there.
Notice what He says next.
They do all their deeds to be noticed
by men, for they broaden their phylacteries and
lengthen the tassels of their garments.
But ought we not to pause and honestly
ask, how much of what I appear to
be and to do is because of my
desire to be noticed by others?
Are we not finding many around us who
live more off the praises of men than
the praises of God?
I don't believe anyone is automatically immune from
such conduct.
This type of evil is so easily slipped
into.
In just a passing conversation out in the
hallway, somehow the subject of hardening the heart
came up.
And I asked a brother, what did God
have to do to harden Pharaoh's heart?
And the answer, nothing, nothing whatsoever.
It is only God's grace operating in us
that keeps our hearts soft.
And once we disconnect, even for a brief
season from our Savior, our hearts start to
harden.
And these atrocious acts and deeds begin to
accumulate, even so much as engaging in our
religious exercises to be seen of man.
I remember a season when I had really
gotten ever so determined and careful to conduct
the morning hours every day with an extended
season of prayer and focus upon the Word.
And I caught myself one day telling others.
And immediately it came to me, you Pharisee,
this is not so much to draw near
to God as to be seen of man.
Let us with great integrity probe deeply into
our hearts.
Then notice in verse 6, they love the
place of honor at banquets.
They couldn't conceive of taking the most obscure
seat.
He goes on to say in verse 6,
they love the chief seats in the synagogue.
And then he adds in verse 7, they
love respectful greetings in the marketplaces.
And then he even goes so far as
to say they love being called Rabbi by
man.
Where do those specific issues hit home?
And must we not be thoroughly aware that
to whatever degree we line up with these
scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites, we are in great
danger of missing our time of visitation.
But there's more in this chapter that it's
necessary to look at very carefully.
Our Lord moves from those men to us.
Chapter 23, verses 8 to 12.
Verse 8, but do not be called Rabbi,
for one is your teacher, and you are
all brothers.
I'm appalled.
I'm going to speak plainly.
I don't know how this happened, but somewhere
along the line, somebody gave me a doctor's
degree.
I never earned it.
It was never official.
I'm no doctor at all, but it keeps
getting plastered on me.
I've told many groups I have no doctorate,
and I know there's a great deal of
kindness that's extended often in those honorary degrees.
But what's wrong with my name?
My folks thought it was all right, and
they gave it to me.
Or what's wrong with brother or mister?
Or if you're a friend, Dick.
Or if you're a stranger wishing to be
personal, Richard.
Or if you don't know what else to
do, go back to what I said in
the beginning, Richard O.
Roberts, that's been on my person since the
beginning of my day.
But now let's take the term reverend.
What a shock it is when a person
steps up to me and says, oh, I'm
Reverend Jones.
I'd like to belt them.
Do you realize what a despicable act it
is to call yourself reverend?
Can you imagine a judge stepping up to
you and saying, hello, I'm Honorable Jones.
These are titles and descriptive words that are
bestowed upon us by others.
So if you're introducing your pastor to a
stranger, you can appropriately say, if he's a
mister, you can use one expression, if he's
a doctor, another.
I would like you to meet my pastor,
the Reverend Doctor, and give his name.
Or the Reverend Mister.
But to take that title upon yourself!
And I'm never more greatly offended than when
some woman steps up to me and says,
I'm Reverend so-and-so.
In her case, I don't wish to belt
her.
I just desire to be out of there
right now.
But I put it in a light fashion.
But these Pharisees love their titles.
And what about you?
Do you find that a good bit of
who you are hangs on your titles?
Now, there are legitimate titles.
I do not wish to embarrass my dear
brother Kinlaw, but it will not be inappropriate
for me to say this.
He doesn't know this.
My family came from Schenectady, New York.
And Dr. Kinlaw courted a girl who was
a member of our church, the First Presbyterian
Church of Schenectady, New York.
I was smart.
He was smart.
But this is what he doesn't know.
My dad was immensely impressed with Dennis Kinlaw.
Deeply moved.
Wonderfully stirred.
Dozens, if not hundreds of times, my father
spoke to me about Dennis Kinlaw, commending him
to me as an example of both a
learned and a godly man.
I'm not stretching anything when I refer to
him as Dr. Kinlaw.
He did a lot of hard work, and
he earned a degree.
And we readily, gladly ascribe that term to
him.
And I'm not speaking, you see, against the
legitimate use of legitimate terms.
But when ego is involved, when you can't
live with just being plainly yourself, when you
require something more, and just as an addendum
to that, this last week, we had a
report from his granddaughter that just sent shivers
up our spine.
And she and one of her friends were
here, and they gave us a description of
that sweet and precious movement of the Spirit
of God at Asbury College in recent days.
Oh, it was lovely.
I wish you could have all been here
to experience and to enjoy their description of
the visitation of God.
But you see, in this passage, we're dealing
with men who love titles.
And our Lord is very severely warning us,
don't get caught in this treacherous trap.
One is your teacher, or are your brother.
And some of you may need to do
some serious repenting.
And I'm just going to take one more
whack at those fellows who call themselves doctor,
and all they've got is some miserable little
thing they purchased, or some silly school bestowed
upon them, and it has no real meaning.
Well, if the school wishes to honor you,
that's all right, but you don't have to
sport that.
And if I had a hundred of those
honorary degrees, I wouldn't dare stand beside Dr.
Kinlaw and use my degree.
But it's the heart behind this that our
Lord is concerned about.
This need of the acclamation and affirmation.
Look at verse 9.
Do not call anyone on earth your father,
for one is your father, he who is
in heaven.
And do not be called leaders, for one
is your leader, that is Christ.
But the greatest among you shall be your
servant, and whoever exalts himself shall be humbled,
and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.
So our Lord has described, pinpointed in precision,
these scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites, and then warned
us of specific areas where we must exercise
the greatest care.
But let us move now from Christ's summary
of them and his warnings to us to
the woes that he pronounced upon them.
Again, chapter 23, starting at verse 31.
But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
You shut off the kingdom of heaven from
men, for you do not enter in yourselves,
nor do you allow those who are entering
to go in.
It's not stretching the truth to observe that
there are men in ministry who are literally
barring the way to the kingdom of God.
And partially that's done by teaching one thing
and living another.
No hypocrite ever helped another to find the
Lord.
And partly it's done by false doctrine.
Partly it's done by legalism.
There are all kinds of ways in which
it can be accomplished.
But every one of us must carefully, before
the Lord asks the question, am I in
any way shutting up the kingdom of God
so that others cannot enter?
And look at verse 14.
Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
You devour widows' houses even while for a
pretense you make long prayers.
Therefore you shall receive greater condemnation.
I'm aware of a pastor in our country
who is presently engaged in a major lawsuit
because he managed to manipulate a woman's estate
and pocketed a huge sum of money himself.
Our ability to sin is endless.
And oh, what care we must exercise that
because of our sin we miss our time
of visitation when it comes.
Look at verse 15.
Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
You travel about on sea and land to
make one proselyte and when he becomes a
proselyte you make him twice as much a
son of hell as yourself.
Many of you realize that we are truly
living in a season of epidemic immorality among
the clergy.
Incredible numbers caught in pornographic interest on the
internet.
I mentioned last week to the dear folk
who were present that on the Sundays when
I'm not preaching out of town, I'm preaching
in the First Baptist Church of St. Charles,
Illinois in what is for me a very
heart-rending situation.
I had known the pastor there for years.
I thought we were of one mind and
heart.
But after years and years and years of
ministry, he had to be removed from the
church on a moral matter.
And since August I've been meeting with those
dear folk trying to help them over this
terrible season.
Why many of our most energetic evangelists who
travel all over earth and cross every sea
to make converts end up making them twofold
more children of the devil than themselves because
their own personal conduct totally undoes their entire
life of witness and ministry.
There isn't a single person here that does
not have the capacity to do incredible damage
to those they have longed to help.
And believe me, almost daily I remind myself
years ago there were one or two people
that heard you and reported that they had
been helped.
And then a few more, and a few
more.
And while those who have been helped by
me still constitute a terribly small number, it's
a whole lot larger number than ten years
ago.
And what if, what if I were now
to fall?
And all those who by God's grace found
some measure of help were to have that
completely swept out from under them.
Because I linked myself with the scribes and
Pharisees and hypocrites and taught one thing and
lived another, traveled the earth trying to make
proselytes, and then ended up making them much
the worse.
I don't believe a single pastor here can
dare to avoid this severe issue.
We must, we must walk with the Lord.
As I said concerning the hardening of the
heart, how long does it take to find
your heart hardened?
Why, I should think twenty-four hours is
more than enough.
And a week of neglect, of holiness, and
of the Word, and of prayer could set
a man up for an incredibly awful fall.
And just because we're not exactly like these
scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites doesn't mean we are
not headed in their direction.
And with ease could join them.
But look now at verses 16 to 22.
Woe, says our Lord, to you blind guides
who say, whoever swears by the temple, that
is nothing.
But whoever swears by the gold of the
temple, he is a blind.
You fools and blind men.
Which is more important, the gold or the
temple that sanctified the gold?
And whoever swears by the altar, that is
nothing.
But whoever swears by the offering upon it,
he is obliged.
You blind men.
Which is more important, the offering or the
altar that sacrifices the offering?
Therefore, he who swears, swears both by the
altar and by everything on it.
And he who swears by the temple, swears
both by the temple and by him who
dwells within it.
And he who swears by heaven, swears both
by the throne of God and by him
who sits upon it.
Now, I think one could summarize all that
by saying nonsense.
Nonsense.
Many a preacher is devoted to nonsense.
My word, you listen to him and you
say to yourself, what a brilliant fellow.
But the sum of everything he said is
nothing.
It's possible to speak in such a way
that huge crowds are swayed and moved.
But when they analyze your sermon, they discover
it's just words.
Silly words often, absurd, self-contradicting words sometimes,
and positions, practices that just simply boil down
to nonsense.
And again, I don't think any of us
are automatically immune.
I believe with all my heart that we
must with the greatest diligence be certain that
none of these things come upon us and
we miss our day of visitation.
Drop, if you will, to verse 23.
Woe to you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, for you
tithe mint and dill and cumin and have
neglected the way to your provisions of the
law, justice and mercy and faithfulness.
But these things you should have done without
neglecting the others, you blind guides who strain
out a gnat and swallow a camel.
Now let's look at it from the standpoint
of these things you ought to have done
and not to have left undone these others.
What undone things remain?
Some of you have vowed a large number
of times to become a man or a
woman of prayer.
It remains undone.
Some of you have vowed to master the
Scriptures.
It remains undone.
Some have vowed to focus their hearts upon
holiness.
And it remains undone.
We don't have to restrict this to the
subject of tithes.
We don't have to concern ourselves with the
true significance of Christ's words about their going
into the spice cabinet and paying their tithes
out of what they find there.
This issue touches home with every one of
us where there are things that we ought
to have done and still ought to do
and yet they remain undone.
Many have acknowledged when it comes to the
subject of divine visitations that the road to
revival is often a difficult road.
And that's true.
There's no denying it.
My dear wife Maggie and I at one
time were under extremely heavy difficulties.
And one day we just sort of looked
at one another and she voiced what I
was thinking.
Do you know what...
She said to me, Do you know, Dick,
what we have to do to get out
from under all of this?
And I looked at her and I said,
Maggie, you're not thinking of it, are you?
No, she said, absolutely not.
But it was so clear to me this
morning when I was meeting with the Lord
that all we had to do to get
out from under this incredible weight of difficulty
was to abandon our prayer and our concern
for revival.
Everyone that I've watched closely who has come
under a burden for revival and kept under
it has experienced extraordinary levels of pain and
difficulty.
These things you ought to have done.
Yes.
But don't leave the other things undone.
Every single person here should be under the
weight of the need of revival.
It should press more heavily upon us than
virtually anything we can think of because as
has been stated here already, revival is God
in the midst of His people.
And nothing is more urgent, nothing is more
wonderful.
I hope all of you often reflect upon
those words of Psalm 73, The nearness of
God is my God.
And oh, that God might draw near not
for a matter of moments or even days,
but that we might know a season of
divine visitation that stretches year after year until
the whole of our society is turned on
its ear and remarkable evangelism occurs and reformation.
But look now at this next woe.
Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.
For you clean the outside of the cup.
This is verse 25.
You clean the outside of the cup and
the dish, but inside they're full of robbery
and self-indulgence.
You blind Pharisees.
First clean the inside of the cup and
of the dish so that the outside of
it may be clean also.
Is there any possibility that someone here has
done a lovely job of cleaning the externals?
And you look like a shining and a
bright believer, but inside, inside, the old man
still reigns.
All the filth and the corruption of the
sinner's heart is in your heart, though outside
you are a very impressive person.
Surely each of us must concern ourselves with
this issue as our Lord lays it out.
Then move to verse 28.
Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.
For you're like whitewashed tombs, which on the
outside appear beautiful, but inside they're full of
dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
And then he adds in verse 28, even
so you outwardly appear righteous to men, but
inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
There's an obvious connection with verses 27 and
28 and 25 and 26.
But move now to verses 29 and 31.
Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.
For you build the tombs of the prophets
and adorn the monuments of the righteous and
say, why, if we'd been living in those
days, the days of our father, we would
not have been partners with them in the
shedding of the blood of the prophets.
Consequently, our Lord says, you bear witness against
yourselves that you are the son of those
who murdered the prophet.
Now on the surface, many that I meet
with profess to love serious and deep biblical
preaching.
But if it runs over an hour, that's
another matter.
Or if it touches their life and it's
crystal clear, they're the sinner that needs to
repent.
They claim they would never persecute a prophet
of the Lord.
They seem to share embarrassment over their fathers
who did so.
But in actual fact, they only love the
prophet as long as he's touching others and
not themselves.
And what about you?
If indeed one of the prophets of the
Old Testament were preaching here today and preaching
as they always did, what would your true
reaction to them be?
But again, I want to remind you I've
asked you to use both ears.
And you say, well, at least on that
one, I do honestly love the most fervent
and direct preaching.
And I can even sit still for hours
if indeed the Word of God is coming
to me.
But many of you associate with other professed
believers who have no appetite at all for
the Word of God.
And it is not part of our task
in this hour to concern ourselves with others.
Because while we would be grieved to miss
our own visitation, would we not be grieved
to miss the visitation of God to those
we love?
We have two children.
A son who has six children and a
daughter who suffers a severe brain difficulty.
And to our knowledge, she will never be
able to marry.
And the likelihood is the six grandchildren we
have are going to be the top number.
We were with them a couple of days
last week.
I would hate to enjoy a divine visitation
and to have my grandchildren miss it.
My dear brother Kinlaw said to me before
this meeting how his heart leapt with joy
when his granddaughter spoke of that which had
happened in her heart.
Is not every one of us here as
burdened for those we know and love as
we are for ourselves?
And when we call out to God for
revival, is it not above all to His
glory?
And will He not receive the greater glory
if all those we know and love and
millions and millions beyond them are touched by
this same divine visitation?
We must listen for others and commit ourselves
to do absolutely everything in our power to
assure to whatever degree God makes possible that
they not miss their hour of visitation when
it comes.
To this end, some of us need to
get a whole lot more serious in our
preaching and teaching to this end.
Many of us, perhaps a majority, need to
get a whole lot more serious about prayer
and about cleaning up our own lives and
making ready the way of the Lord.
But there's one last woe in this passage
that I must call to your attention.
It's worse than a woe.
Look at verses 32 and 33.
Our Lord reports the consequence.
Consequently, you bear witness against yourselves that you
are the sons of those who murdered the
prophets.
Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt
of your fathers, you serpents, you brooded vipers.
How shall you escape the sentence of hell?
Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and
wise men and scribes.
Some of them you will kill and crucify.
And some of them you will scourge in
your synagogues and persecute from city to city,
that upon you may fall the guilt of
all the righteous blood shed on earth, from
the blood of righteous Abel to the blood
of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you
murdered between the temple and the altar.
Truly, I say to you, all these things
shall come upon this generation.
Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and
stones those who are sent to her.
How often I wanted to gather your children
together the way a hen gathers her chicks
under her wings, and you were unwilling.
Behold, your house is being left to you
desolate.
For I say to you, from now on,
you shall not see me until you say,
Blessed is he who comes in the name
of the Lord.
But look at verse 32 again.
Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt
of your fathers.
I wonder how many of you recognize that
to every single entity on earth, God has
granted a measure of sin.
And when that measure of sin is full,
the wrath of God is upon that entity
to the utmost.
Read again, 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, where our
Lord reported that the Jews who crucified Christ
and worked hard to keep others from hearing
the apostles' message had actually succeeded in filling
up their measure of sin and were then
and there under the wrath of God to
the utmost.
I don't think most of us are anywhere
near serious enough about these matters.
Say to your own heart, God Almighty has
allotted to me a measure of sin.
If that measure ever fills up, I am
under the wrath of God to the utmost.
As I said earlier, this passage is not
an appeal.
This passage is a proclamation.
For these to whom our Lord spoke, it
was too late.
Their measure of sin was full.
The wrath of God was upon them to
the utmost.
They would not repent.
When our Lord, looking over the temple site,
said, Your house is left unto you desolate.
He meant that precisely.
He left the temple in Jerusalem never ever
to return again.
Although He spoke those words sometime around the
year 33, and it was not until the
year 70 the temple was destroyed.
Nonetheless, in those years between His proclamation and
their destruction, they went on carrying their religion
on as if God were there.
Surely every one of us who is here
today must face the possibility, even for ourselves,
but certainly for our nation, that we cannot
persist forever in our path of wickedness.
But the happy thing, the joyful thing, the
thing that thrills my heart, even as I
finish this afternoon, is that the day of
mercy is still ours.
Will you commit your heart, even before we
leave this room, to see to it that
there's no possible way you can miss your
time of visitation?
And will you set your heart as well
on behalf of those for whom you bear
responsibility that by God's grace they too will
know their time of visitation?
And take these words concerning the Pharisees and
the scribes and the hypocrites to heart.
For these words reveal precisely why they missed
their time of visitation.
Grant, O Lord, such focus in our hearts,
such determination in our spirits, such all-out
commitment to our dear and wonderful Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ, that not one here and
none for whom they are concerned will miss
the season of visitation.
And to the Lord Jesus Christ, who has
so kindly helped us through these passages of
Scripture, and whose blood, even now, is our
soul's hope of cleansing, we raise our voices
and our hearts in praise and adoration, both
now and by your grace forever.
Amen.