[continued from previous message]   
      
   > justified the means, while errors of perhaps less consequence were treated   
   > as unpardonable. These blind guides so confused the minds of their followers   
   > in regard to sin and the proper standard of holiness, that they were   
   > destined to eventually perish with their leaders.   
   >   
   >      The Pharisees took upon themselves the responsibility of deciding   
   > concerning the burdens and duties of others according to the judgment of   
   > their own carnal minds. They accepted money from persons in return for   
   > excusing them from their vows, and in some cases, crimes of an aggravated   
   > character were passed over in consideration of large sums of money paid to   
   > the authorities by the transgressor. At the same time these hypocritical   
   > priests were exact in the matter of sacrifices and ceremonies, as if it were   
   > possible for cold forms to blot out the unrepented sins of their daily   
   > lives.   
   >   
   >      The Lord said unto Samuel, "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt   
   > offerings and in sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to   
   > obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." No   
   > outward service, even in that which is required by God can be a substitute   
   > for an obedient life. The Creator desires heart service of his creatures.   
   >   
   >      God has said through Hosea, "For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and   
   > the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they like men have   
   > transgressed the covenant; there have they dealt treacherously against me."   
   > The many sacrifices of the Jews and the flowing of blood to atone for sins   
   > for which they felt no true repentance was ever repugnant to God. He spoke   
   > through Micah saying, "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow   
   > myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings,   
   > with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,   
   > or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my   
   > transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed   
   > thee, O man, what is good; and what doeth the Lord require of thee, but to   
   > do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"   
   >   
   >      Costly gifts and a semblance of holiness cannot win the favor of God.   
   > He requires for his mercies a contrite spirit, a heart open to the light of   
   > truth, love and compassion for our fellow men and a spirit refusing to be   
   > bribed through avarice or self-love. The priests and rulers were destitute   
   > for these essentials to God's favor, and their most precious gifts and   
   > gorgeous ceremonies were an abomination in his eyes.   
   >   
   >      The Pharisees built expensive monuments to the dead prophets,   
   > pretending to deplore the sins of their fathers in rejecting, persecuting   
   > and slaying the chosen servants of God. At the same time they were burning   
   > with rage against the greatest prophet the world had ever seen, simply   
   > because he revealed and reproved their sins. They not only manifested the   
   > same spirit of hatred which had actuated their fathers, but were doing   
   > ten-fold worse than they in opposing and plotting against the divine Son of   
   > God.   
   >   
   > Jesus exposed in so unsparing a manner should be a warning to those who   
   > reject the light of truth. They had gone step by step into darkness,   
   > rejecting the evidences that Jesus was the true Messiah, until the obscurity   
   > of their minds was so great that they called righteousness sin and sin   
   > righteousness. They evinced the same malice that actuated Satan against   
   > Christ in heaven, and for the same reason, because of the superior goodness   
   > of the Son of God. They were indeed the children of Satan. They condemned   
   > the acts of their forefathers in persecuting the prophets, and assumed to be   
   > the representatives of those holy men of God who died for their faith; they   
   > built the tombs of the prophets and garnished their sepulchers, and said one   
   > to another, If we had lived in those days we should not have been partakers   
   > with those who shed the blood of God's servants, yet at the same time they   
   > were planning to destroy the Son of God, and would not have hesitated to   
   > imbrue their hands in his blood if they had not feared the people.   
   >   
   >      The condition of the Pharisees should be a lesson to the Christian   
   > world of the present day. It should open their eyes to the power of Satan to   
   > deceive human minds when they once turn from the precious light of truth,   
   > and yield to the control of the enemy. Many who make exalted professions   
   > today are following in the track of the Pharisees. They zealously cherish   
   > the memory of the prophets, even as the Pharisees were zealous in building   
   > and decorating their tombs. They declare that, had they lived in the days   
   > when Christ was upon the earth, they would have gladly received his   
   > teachings and obeyed them. But if these very persons had been placed in a   
   > similar position with the Jews, they would have done no better than they who   
   > crucified the Saviour.   
   >   
   >      Unpopular truth is no more acceptable to Pharisaical, self-righteous   
   > hearts today than when Christ walked the earth, a man among men.   
   >   
   >      If Christians were to be tested now as were the Jews at the first   
   > advent of Christ, few would accept him wrapped in his garment of humanity,   
   > living a life of humiliation and poverty. The Christian world can accept   
   > Messiah as a King at the right hand of God in heaven, but their hearts   
   > reject a Saviour of humility and self-sacrifice; they shrink from the cross   
   > of Christ, even as did the haughty Pharisees. Few indeed imitate the example   
   > of Jesus and follow his teachings in their daily lives. He has exhorted his   
   > disciples to follow in his foot-steps. Many are in as great blindness   
   > concerning the plan of salvation as were the Pharisees, who professed   
   > obedience to God while they rejected Him who came to work out their   
   > salvation, that their efforts to gain a righteous character should have   
   > virtue with God through the sinner's Advocate and substitute.   
   >   
   >      If man sacrifices righteous principles and truth because he can thus   
   > avoid persecution and trial in this life, he may obtain the friendship of   
   > the world, but will lose the favor of God. He barters his eternal welfare   
   > for trifling considerations. But he that obeys the requirements of Christ,   
   > neither looking nor planning for his own convenience, preferring even to   
   > sacrifice his temporal life rather than turn from the light of truth will   
   > secure the reward of the future immortal life. Jesus has said, "He that   
   > loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world   
   > shall keep it unto life eternal."   
      
   Eugene Shubert   
   http://www.everythingimportant.org   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)