The Rebuke 0593

Matthew 3:7 (NASB95) — 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

John was not one to win friends and influence people.

John knew these religious charlatans. He was aware that they were the opposition to God’s plan and those who are in opposition to God’s plan were from the Serpent of Old who had in the beginning set the snare that would cause the fall of mankind.

1081 γένημα, γέννημα [gennema /ghen·nay·mah/] n n. Offspring

2191 ἔχιδνα [echidna /ekh·id·nah/] n f – Viper

Jesus also referred to them as the offspring of vipers

Matthew 12:34 (NASB95) — 34 “You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.

Matthew 23:33–36 (NASB95) — 33 “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? 34 “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, 35 so 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. 36 “Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

John 8:44 (NASB95) — 44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

The title serpent had always been a good descriptor of the one who in sin slithers his way connivingly to trip up those who are following the Lord. they are around to cast doubt on one’s faith. they lay stumbling blocks before the brethren even while claiming to be one as they sit in Churches looking piously with their open bibles and their churchy talk.

Yes, there are the wolves that dress up in sheep’s clothing. But there also these slithering snakes. The wolves devour, while the serpents slowly wrap themselves around their prey and squeeze. These serpents might be deacons and Sunday school leaders or those who sit in the quire or just one who slithers around though a congregation hissing words of doubt on the message of God.

These serpents operated in the Darkness, for their deeds not want their evil to be exposed.

Ephesians 5:8–13 (NASB95) — 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; 12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.

Ephesians 2:1–3 (NASB95) — 1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

Up to this point, the sects Pharisees and the Sadducees were the only game in town. These two rival groups, one legalistic and the other liberal stood opposed to one other but shared a common bond that both groups operated in an environment of evil.

It was John and Jesus both would upset the apple cart. Speaking with authority would bring to the people’s hearing the truth, revelation which was light, the light that would expose these groups as the serpents that they are.

Matthew 3:8 (NASB95) — 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

It is what is in the heart that drives a person’s decisions and actions. First comes the change of mind, which is the change of heart. from Repentance comes the fruit of the changed life. Rather than participating in evil, the life then does work within the environment of light. there will be some Pharisees that will see the light and they will themselves repent, such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea and later the notorious Saul of Tarsus.

The additional trouble that these sects will run in to are those among them that will hear the truth and respond to it.

Acts 26:20 (NASB95) — 20 but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.

The deeds of the spiritual life are those works that are produced by one who is walking by means of faith.

Ephesians 2:10 (NASB95) — 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Deeds and works that Paul is speaking here or what John is speaking of but is the result of a changed heart. for the Christian today fruit is the product of one’s walking in the faith.

Yes, there is works that are acceptable to God which are performed from a life that is truly set apart to God. these works and not coerced or under some obligation but in the light of a true relationship with the Lord.

The Pharisees deeds were those for show. Their piety was for show. All of which was dead works.

Point of Doctrine.

1. God does not grade or evaluate the work on the basis of quantity or effort

2. God grades the heart that produces the work and those works that are wrought by faith, repentant of dead works are rewardable in heaven.

Matthew 3:9 (NASB95) — 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

These religious types were operating on the S-E-L-F program. They were blinded by their own arrogance to think of themselves as something that they were not, and that they had a free ticket to heaven being that they were the seed of Abraham.

In the SELF program there are the arrogance skills

1. Self-Justification – is the one of excusing one’s self of wrong deeds and actions. It is the declaring one’s self as being right before God.

2. Self-absorption – Padding oneself on the back and singing one’s own praises. The self-absorbed will trade compliments with others in his group for the express purpose of receiving back accolades for himself.

3. Self-deception – False reality of one’s self.

With a wrong view of self before a mighty and just God who is ready to forgive and to wipe clean one’s sin, that one will walk away from the only opportunity to be acquitted on one’s crimes against God.

Luke 18:9–14 (NASB95) — 9 And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14 “I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Matthew 3:9–10 (NASB95) — 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. 10 “The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

The rebuke is stinging. John lays it out exactly to attack the heart of the matter.

They thought that as Children of Abraham that they were guaranteed eternal life.

Do you see the self-deception here.

Listen, the spirit of the Pharisees are still with us.

There are those who have walked the isle of repentance. They have been baptized. They go to a certain Church. But they are as lost as any unbeliever can be.

Even the moral ones who think that they are saved because the are good people and that they believe in God.

There are a lot of good people who will die and go to hell thinking that they are saved and they are not.

Matthew 7 is the scariest passage for me to think of love one’s who think that they are saved but not.

Matthew 7:21–23 (NASB95) — 21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

If I asked right now, wherever you are, are you confident that this is not you, are you sure?

What is the basis of your own salvation?

That you believe in God?

Listen, James writes

James 2:19 (NASB95) — 19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.

Oh, I belong to a church, I have been baptised and attend every week. I grew up in a Christian home. I am a good person, doing right by others.

My Friend, Hell is a pretty tough consequence for being wrong.

If the Basis of your salvation is not centered on Jesus Christ our Savior and his work on the Cross, you are not saved.

Jesus said

John 14:6 (NASB95) — 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

1 John 5:12 (NASB95) — 12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

While you have time to think about before the day that you will be judged

Are you justified on the basis of your works, your position in some church, on being baptized are you saying “Lord, Lord have I not…”

Or are you pleading mercy before the sovereign judge even unwilling to lift your head

You have the freedom to go your own way, but as for me, I will throw my self on the mercy of the judge.

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