From the ministry archive
Understanding the Nature of God
"Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not" (Mat. 23:1-3). This was the beginning of the most scathing rebuke that we have on record that Jesus gave to anyone, and he gave that rebuke to the Pharisees not long before they compelled his death. Those last words of the passage are the ones I want to focus on here today in short order: "for they say, and do not." 'Saying, and doing not' has been one of the most prolific and common sins of mankind ever since Eve believed the first lie in the garden of Eden. It is something that is seen in every place, in every venue of life, and with the overwhelming majority of people, both of low and high estate. It is something that destroys everything that is good and everything that is stable on every level of living in this world. When people in high and responsible places, such as politicians do it, and they do it often; it destroys their credibility and it kills the respect that they want people to have for them. When the mother or father of low or high estate do it, it destroys their children's view of how to live in this world, and how to have hope and comfort in life. When a husband or wife breaks the vows that they vowed to keep with one another, it destroys the confidence and trust that must exist in a marriage if it is expected to endure. When employers tell their employees that they will do thus and thus for them if the employees will do thus and thus for them, and then they fail to do what they said they would do after the employees have fulfilled their end of things; it destroys the morale of the employees and the result is a far less productive workplace. When friends tell friends that they will do a thing, and they do NOT do it, it destroys the very bond and essence of what a friendship is made of. People hope on other people's words. Yes, I know that we should hope only in God's word because we know that his word alone is unalterable. But people are created in God's image and are supposed to be mirroring that image, so it is natural that people hope that other people are going to do what they say they will do. Governing authorities are elected, or at least in this country they are; and they are elected by people who hope they will do what the authorities have said they will do. Should we hope that they will NOT do what they say? Of course not. Children hope that their parents will do what they say they will do, when their parents are saying something that makes sense and is hipeful for the children.
Married people hope that their spouse will do what they have vowed before God that they will do. Employees hope in the words of their employers when their employers give them promises to motivate them to do a good job. Friends hope that their friends will be friends indeed, and do what they've said they will do for them. Faithfulness is the greatest virtue that we can possess, and doing what we say we will do is at the very heart and soul of being faithful. In fact it would take an Idiot to even challenge that statement. Who will be raised from the dead to meet Jesus in the air on his way here when he comes? "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and FAITHFUL" (Rev. 17:14). Those who are chosen to be at "the marriage supper of the Lamb" will have been called by God, and chosen; and they will be chosen because they proved to be faithful (Rev. 2:10; Rev. 19:9). James gave very wise instruction in regard to all of our 'saying' when he wrote the following: "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" (Jas. 1:19). There is no doubt that Jesus saw the following proverb fulfilled by the Pharisees against themselves, who in fact wore it like a noose about their necks: "Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope of a fool than of him" (Prov. 29:20). And in regard to 'saying and not doing,' Jesus made it even more serious than that: "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned" (Mat. 12:36,37). Make no mistake my friend, Jesus was clearly saying here that if we 'say and don't do,' and we fail to repent and straighten that kind of thing out; it will surely come back to haunt us on the day of judgement, and it will certainly condemn us, which is to say it will damn us. Of course it is obvious that if we say we are going to do something that is wrong, and then we don't do it, that is a different matter. In that case we should repent of what we said. But if we say that we will do a right thing, and fail to do that, then it is the 'not doing' that needs to be repented of. In any event we need to get our saying and our doing lined up with each other on the right side of things, and that is not difficult if we keep ourselves pure in heart and empowered and led by God's "Spirit of truth" that always says and does what is good and right.
Meaning what we say and saying what we mean is exactly what Jesus was talking about when he gave us the following simplistic and holy instruction for our lives: "But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil" (Mat. 5:37). It's exactly like Jesus said, if our yea is not yea, and our nay is not nay, then it can only be because evil is present with us. That evil is called hypocrisy in the Bible, and hypocrisy is NEVER associated with righteousness anywhere in the scriptures. In fact Jesus went on in his sermon of rebuke that our text passage is taken from, to further address the gross hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and he did it in no uncertain terms: "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" (Mat. 23:14). We should avoid that example and follow the example of people like David, who after promising Jonathon that he would always show kindness to his house, fulfilled that saying long after Jonathon was dead (I Sam. 20:14-17; II Sam. 9:6,7). And we should have a heart like Ruth, who after promising her mother-in-law that she would never leave her, she faithfully endured in what she said she would do (Ruth 1:16,17 Ruth 4:13-15). It comes down to having an honest and faithful heart like these people had, and keeping our heart honest and faithful like they did. The proverb rings ever so true that says, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Prov. 4:23). Those "issues of life" are simply what we say and do in our lives, for that is exactly what comes out of, or issues from our hearts. It's almost ironic that the very next proverb in that chapter says the following: "Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee" (Prov. 4:24). The word 'froward' in that verse comes from a Hebrew word that means "distortion or crookedness," and the word 'perverse' comes from a similar Hebrew word that means, "deviation or crookedness." Certainly it is a distortion, a deviation, and a crookedness to say we will do a thing, and then fail to keep our word. Not only so, but it is evident that neither distortion, deviation, or crookedness will fit on the "narrow way," or be able to make it through through the "stait gate" that leads to eternal life (Mat. 7:14). It is just as evident that we cannot keep 'the golden rule' which Jesus spoke of just before the referenced verse, if we are saying to someone that we will do thus and thus and then go astray from our word when it's time to perform it. So just for good measure, and to punctuate the point with as much validity as is possible, let me finish this article with those very words of Jesus: "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets" (Mat. 7:12). Makes sense to me, don't you think? Amen!
