Verse by Verse Matthew 25:31-26:13

[0:00] and make it and said that wasn't happening. So he's laying low for a little bit. I'm wondering how often this is going to go on, not with him, but with everybody, as they continue and it just continues and continues.

[0:18] All right, we're in Matthew 25 this morning. We got into, I think we got almost to the end.

[0:30] And covered some good ground last Sunday. Remembering that we are in this answer to his disciples from the beginning of chapter 24.

[0:48] And so 24 and 25 cover all the same material dealing with the second coming of Christ and the establishment of the kingdom. And in verse number 31, it describes him seated or sitting upon the throne of his glory.

[1:04] And that's a literal throne. And that's down here on this earth. And that day is going to come. And what we're trying to do here is rightly divide the word of truth.

[1:19] And we're trying to be careful that we allow the Bible to teach what it says, where it says it, and not presume something that we know that Paul taught to the church and then try to plug that back into the book of Matthew, which is a very common mistake.

[1:35] And it just produces problems. And one of the biggest things it produces is, well, it causes you to question the words of God, what it does in the end.

[1:47] Because it causes somebody to twist a word or to twist a phrase of a teaching somewhere in 1 Corinthians or Romans, because Christ said this.

[1:59] And so to try to bring them together, we have to just tweak one or the other just a little bit or suggest that the word really means this or that he's really saying this. Instead of just letting the word of God be true and studying it carefully and realizing that God's format for man and plans for different people groups has changed over time.

[2:21] Now, let's just be basic a little bit if we have to be. So before we really get into that, catch 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

[2:34] And then I'll review briefly where we were. Keep your hand in 1 Corinthians 10. We'll go there in a moment. In Matthew chapter 25, I showed you that there was three groups here when Christ comes back to this earth.

[2:50] And not counting the Son of Man and the holy angels in verse 31. In Matthew 25, verse 32, he gathers all nations before him. And in those nations, he separates the ones, he calls them sheep and goats.

[3:07] In verse 32 and 33, he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. And there's a third group in here, and that would be the brethren.

[3:18] As he mentions in verse 40, toward the end of the verse in verse 40, He says, are there that he redeems and are gathered to him.

[4:01] Now, there's also the rest of the nations, though, and there's all of this before him that he separates. So, in the other parables, I don't know if we'll get to that or not.

[4:12] We're going to, there's too much coming. There's three groups here, right? There's the Jews, and then there's the righteous and the unrighteous in front of him, the sheep and the goats.

[4:24] Now, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10, and notice this. There's three groups mentioned here, and they're not the same. But this is where people try to put them back into Matthew and make them just be the same.

[4:39] They're not. In verse 32, Paul says this to the church at Corinth. He says, The church of God.

[4:54] Well, the church of God's not mentioned anywhere in the book of Matthew. There's nothing to do with this church of God. And it's just Jews and Gentiles. Before this mysterious church of God shows up, just go to your right a little further, Ephesians chapter 1.

[5:11] Before the church of God shows up, it's Jews and Gentiles. And before Abraham, it's just the human race. But when Abraham shows up, then God begins to deal with his seed and separates them from everybody else.

[5:32] And now there's two distinctions. There's Jews, the Hebrew nation, God's people, and then everybody else, Gentiles. And that's the way it goes up through the times of Christ when he's teaching.

[5:44] And they know that clearly. Then when Paul comes on the scene and he starts to reveal some things to the world, to Christians, to believers, that God's doing something different, come to Ephesians chapter 1 and notice, we'll start in verse 20, speaking of the resurrection of Christ, because that's an important element of this, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.

[6:19] And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him, Christ, gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.

[6:30] Look at chapter 5. The church is called his body. It's a new term, not mentioned in Matthew, not mentioned anywhere back there. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 25.

[6:45] Well, verse 24. Keep backing up. Oh, let's get the wives. Verse 22. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body.

[7:00] Same language. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be subject, or be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.

[7:12] And then skip down to verse 29. For no man ever hath hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church, for we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones.

[7:23] And in verse 32, he says, it's a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. All right, so there's this church of God. Now, that's not back there in Matthew 25.

[7:35] And it's not there when Christ is teaching his disciples about it in this moment, when they take him and show him the buildings of the temple and ask him about the coming, the sign of the coming, and so forth. And so with his answer, he doesn't say anything about this group of this body of Christ or this church.

[7:50] They're non-existent at the time. And furthermore, he's prophesying of a time when that body won't even be there to discuss these things, in the sense of they're not getting separated.

[8:03] You and mankind, you're not going to be separated in this time to decide if you're righteous or if you're wicked. And so the teaching goes, in Matthew 25, plainly goes beyond the church age and out into the tribulation and out to the end of the tribulation, and the church is nowhere to be found in this setup.

[8:21] And that's plain teaching from the Bible. There's no need for somebody to teach that there is no rapture of the church and we are going to be separated by Jesus Christ in this judgment.

[8:35] And come back to Matthew chapter 13. Look at Matthew 13. We covered some of this already, but it's been a while. And notice what comes to pass when the king returns.

[8:50] We'll start in verse 41. These are the parables, the seven parables about the kingdom of heaven. In verse 41, he's explaining the one about the sower and his seed and the wheat and the tares.

[9:09] In verse 41, the Son of Man shall send forth his angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire.

[9:19] Just keep that in the back of your mind. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Keep that in the back of your mind. We'll see that again soon. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father.

[9:32] So the righteous get in, but the wicked and them that offend and do iniquity get cast into fire. Look at verse 47. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind, which when it was full, they drew to shore and sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.

[9:53] And what does that mean? So shall it be at the end of the world. The angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just and shall cast them into the furnace of fire. Again, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

[10:07] Now come back to Matthew 25. And that's the thing that happened to that unprofitable servant earlier in the chapter that we read and even preached on Wednesday night about him.

[10:18] The end of that man, who wasn't busy and wasn't faithful to his Lord while his Lord was away, was called a wicked and slothful servant.

[10:30] And that man was cast into outer darkness in verse 30 of Matthew 25. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So when Jesus Christ returns, there's a separation going on.

[10:42] And that's what we're reading about again as we continue to the end of this chapter when he separates these nations. He has all the nations before him. He separates them. It's the same picture as the wheat and the tares.

[10:54] And some are getting bound up and cast into a fire. And that's where we're going to pick it up today. And I'll start in verse 31 and read down and then we'll pick it up where we could. So in verse 31, The Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him.

[11:08] Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. Before him shall be gathered all nations. Now let me pause and say this. If he's seated upon the throne, the work has been accomplished.

[11:19] That the war and the tramping out of his enemies, and those are armies. So those aren't like he's killing every single individual on the earth that doesn't believe on him or that isn't so forth.

[11:31] So the armies that have come against Israel, he comes through and just makes an end of them. And he makes an end of all nations, as he says, but that's a military kind of thing.

[11:42] And so now he's got it established. He sits on his throne. Now he's going to cast judgment upon the people. And so verse 32, And before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another.

[11:54] As the shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats, and he shall set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on the left. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

[12:09] For I was unhungered, and ye gave me meat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me in. Naked, and ye clothed me. I was sick, and ye visited me. I was in prison. Ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee unhungered, and fed thee, or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

[12:25] When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? The king shall answer, and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, and as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, the Jews, ye have done it unto me.

[12:42] Now there's where we paused last week. And I want you to remember the language of your Bible that describes, he says to them, Come ye blessed of the father, verse 34, inherit the kingdom.

[12:54] Come, you get in. They get in. They get in. To the kingdom. Elsewhere it's called enter into life. If ye will enter into life, do this. All right, now, that's on the earth.

[13:06] And that's what's gonna, kind of where we're gonna pick it up here. I wanna show you and remind you some things that this is taking place on the planet, right here. This dirt. And verse 41, Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

[13:30] And he goes through the whole statement. We'll read it. For I was unhungered, and ye gave me no meat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me not in, naked, and ye clothed me not, sick and in prison, ye visited me not.

[13:43] Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, whence are we thee unhungered, or a thirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, and as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

[14:00] And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. Now, there's so much to pull out of here. Let me just make this note.

[14:12] It says, they depart from me, in verse 41, into everlasting fire. Fire. Jesus Christ preached on fire. He talked about fire a lot.

[14:22] And so do the prophets, in reference to this day. And in verse 46, just to make sure we understand, with the Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Seventh-day Adventists, and whoever else teaches, that your soul gets annihilated, that you just go and get punished, and you cease to exist forever.

[14:39] It's called everlasting fire. And in verse 46, they're going to go into everlasting punishment. So don't tell me they just cease to exist. They're going to be punished everlasting.

[14:50] As long as God's alive, and He's a righteous judge, and He's a consuming fire, they're going to be in punishment. And I don't care what they teach about it, and how they try to slip some other scriptures in, and twist some things.

[15:03] And I've read their stuff. I know what they teach. And they don't know how to read their Bibles. That's just the bottom line. They don't know how to study their Bibles. So anyway, getting back to this, we got the Lord saying, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

[15:21] Now we always teach this. It's always taught this is hell. They go down to hell. He's casting them into hell. But we have to understand the setting here is when Jesus Christ comes back to earth.

[15:33] And so a soul that dies today goes to hell. The soul goes to hell. The body goes to the dirt and just starts to break down. But the soul departs the body.

[15:45] But in this case, this everlasting fire, this place of torment, is on the earth. And we need to know what that means. So come back to Isaiah and start.

[15:57] We'll catch, I think it's chapter 29. Where I want to start at. We could go earlier, but this will do. Yeah.

[16:08] 29. So when the Lord comes back, Matthew doesn't give any kind of detailed description of what's taking place, but the prophets before him sure do.

[16:27] Let me read you a verse. While you get Isaiah 29, let's read a quick verse from 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1, where Paul talks about Christ's return in the kingdom.

[16:47] And he says that the Lord shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel.

[16:58] And he says, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction. So that's the second coming of Christ and the fire and the destruction. And there's something about this though.

[17:08] When Christ comes back, and we'll read the verses, I'll back it up with scripture, but just to let you know where we're going, he comes back and kindles a fire here on earth, a place of judgment. It'll be hell on earth. It'll be a lake of fire on the planet.

[17:20] And there's good reason for doing that. It's going to be a visual deterrent for wickedness and for sinners. And so this fire though, he says is prepared for the devil and his angels.

[17:33] We always think, oh, that's hell. And I know why, and it's okay. But when you really put that verse in the setting of the second coming of Christ, then we need to understand that it's on earth.

[17:46] All right, Matthew, or Isaiah 29. We have to, we're going to hop around through Isaiah a few places here. Verse six. Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise with storm and tempest and the flame of devouring fire.

[18:04] And we could read the whole passage here. He's threatening judgment on these nations and he's telling them you were big stuff because you came and fought against Mount Zion in verse eight, the end of verse eight.

[18:15] But you're just going to be done when I show up with my fire. Look at verse, or chapter 30, all the way to the end, verse 27. Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from far burning with his anger and the burden thereof is heavy.

[18:30] His lips are full of indignation and his tongue, his tongue as a devouring fire and his breath as an overflowing stream shall reach to the midst of the neck to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity.

[18:45] And there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people causing them to err. And skip to verse 30. The Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard and shall show the lighting down of his arm.

[18:55] It's a reference to his might. With the indignation of his anger, with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering tempest and hailstones. And here's a reference to the Antichrist in verse 31.

[19:07] For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down which smote with a rod. And in every place where the ground staff shall pass which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps and the battles of shaking.

[19:22] Will he fight with it? For Tophet is ordained of old. For the king, the Antichrist, it is prepared. He hath made it deep and large.

[19:34] The pile thereof is fire and much wood. The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it. Now, I'm just going to stay there.

[19:45] We're going to cross-reference, just read you another verse that matches this and shows the timing of it. In 2 Thessalonians 2, where Christ is talking about coming and where the Antichrist, the son of perdition, that man of sin, where he's seated in the temple of God showing himself that he's God.

[20:05] When Jesus Christ comes back and kicks him out and it's revealed who he truly is, it says in verse 8, then shall that wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan and on and on.

[20:25] He does it with the spirit of his mouth. That's what we just read there. Through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down and it was him with his glorious voice be heard with his tongue, the flaming fire and all of that.

[20:39] All right, moving in Isaiah just a little bit, chapter 31 and notice just the end here, verse 9, he shall pass over to his stronghold for fear and his princes shall be afraid for the end signs, saith the Lord, whose fire is, present tense, at this prophetic reference, whose fire is in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem.

[21:03] Where were those tares cast into? Into a furnace of fire, was it? All right, chapter 33, this is the last one.

[21:14] Just look at verse 11 and 12. Well, verse 10, you can see the Lord lifting up himself.

[21:25] Here he comes. Now will I rise, saith the Lord, now will I be exalted, now will I lift up myself. You shall conceive chaff, you shall bring forth stubble, your breath as fire shall devour you and the people shall be, the people shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut up, shall they be burned in the fire.

[21:45] In verse 14, last verse, the sinners in Zion are afraid. Why are they afraid? What do they have to be afraid of? Look around today, are sinners afraid? They're not afraid of a thing.

[21:58] Sinners are bold. Sinners boast of their wickedness. But in this day, there's going to be a reason. Sinners are afraid. Fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?

[22:12] Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? You know, the Bible says that our God is a consuming fire. It's part of his nature.

[22:24] Now come back to Matthew. And since we're hitting this, let's just clean it up a little bit more. Hit chapter 3. Matthew chapter 3. And let me come back through and remind you of some things we've already studied.

[22:44] And let it just come together and be solidified in your mind of the doctrine of all of this. Matthew 3. John the Baptist shows up and he starts preaching to a people he calls a generation of vipers.

[22:58] They're the hypocrites that Jesus Christ called them. Isaiah said hypocrites, didn't he? In verse 10. And now also, now also the axe is laid into the root of the trees.

[23:13] Therefore every tree with bring not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water under repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I'm not worthy to bear.

[23:25] He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire whose fan is in his hand. And he will thoroughly purge throughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

[23:37] Now this is pre-parables of chapter 13. Christ never went through and taught on these kingdom of heaven parables. John shows up preaching the kingdom of heaven and the second coming of Christ to the nation of Israel just right out the door.

[23:51] All right, go to chapter 6. No, chapter 5. Chapter 5. Matthew 5. All right, verse, we came through here, verses 29 and 30.

[24:17] This is about the guy that's looking on a woman to lust after her. And it says in verse 29, if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, cast it from thee, for it is more profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

[24:32] Let me ask you a question. When does your body ever get cast into hell? Your soul goes to hell, never your body. So this is on earth. This is a living creature getting tossed into a fire.

[24:45] In verse 30, if thy right hand offend thee, cast it out, or cut it off, cast it from thee, for it is more profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

[24:56] And we covered this again in chapter 10 and there was another place in 18, I think. So come back to Matthew 25 and try to keep going here. So the fire is kindled on earth at the second coming of Christ and it's kindled by the Lord Jesus Christ.

[25:13] There's a place I didn't read back there in Isaiah about the land being turned into, I wanted to read it, I missed it, I'm just going to find it quick, into burning pitch.

[25:27] And it was probably the next chapter, yeah. It says, the day of the Lord's vengeance, this is Isaiah 34, 8, the day of the Lord's vengeance and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion and the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch and the dust thereof into brimstone and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

[25:47] It shall not be quenched night nor day. The smoke thereof shall go up forever. From generation to generation it shall not lie waste. None shall pass through it forever and ever. Generation after generation after generation that land is burning.

[26:01] And this is the setting here of Matthew 25 when he's separating the righteous from the wicked in his kingdom. Some are getting in, some are getting tossed into a fire.

[26:15] I'm running out of time with all of this and it's going a lot longer than I anticipated so you could write down or make a note to read the end of Isaiah 66. We've done it before but it's worth showing you again Isaiah 66.

[26:28] The very end of it they're going to be walking by and looking on them in the fire and it's going to be a huge deterrent from anybody to try to rebel against the king when they see what he does to the subjects that do.

[26:42] Alright, so back in Matthew 20, oh wait, Matthew 25, let's go to Revelation 12 too while we're here. This is, we're moving today, I think we're good. I hope you're staying with me and this isn't too much, too fast.

[27:06] Revelation 12, remember what he said about that fire, who it was prepared for. It was prepared for the devil and his angels. And I've always had the concept that that's a reference to hell down in the lower parts of the earth where it is today.

[27:23] But in the context of that chapter, it's not. And the devil and his angels, Revelation chapter 12, and this is a future setting as well, a tribulation setting here.

[27:41] Just look at verse 9. I think you're familiar with this. The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent. Now this is not the anointed cherub getting cast out of the third heaven from covering the throne of God.

[27:56] This is after that. He gets cast out out of the heavens or the second heaven at least and he's cast out that old serpent called the devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world.

[28:08] He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. And now verse 12 says, Therefore rejoice ye heavens and ye that dwell in them.

[28:21] Woe to the inhabitants of the earth. And of the sea for the devil's come down unto you having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And he goes right after the woman, after the woman Israel in verse 13 in the tribulation when the devil saw that he was cast under the earth he persecuted the woman.

[28:42] And what happens and I'd love to read it all but in chapter 13 what happens then? Up pops a man. He's called the beast. And the beast is the man of sin that we call the antichrist.

[28:56] And this man is in the end of verse 2 the dragon that's the devil Satan gave him his power and his seat and great authority.

[29:08] and verse 4 they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast and on and on and the beast is a man in verse number 18 there's that number the number of a man and on and on and on but that's the setting here.

[29:23] Now the devil's cast out to the earth having but a short time in that passage it's three and a half years that he has and the man of sin immediately pops up and gets the whole world worshiping him and there's another beast and the signs and the deceptive things going on and he has a seat and we read from Paul that he goes and sits in the temple of God showing himself that he is God and then Jesus Christ comes back and so that fire is kindled and prepared for the devil and his angels that were cast down to the earth and he's going to keep them there and he's going to bind them there.

[29:59] In Revelation he's bound in a bottomless pit and it's a tough thing that I can't reconcile all the thoughts I can't see it all in my mind they say I've heard say that a bottomless pit is like the center of the earth because it has no bottom to it like if you fall past the center you end up getting gravity wise pulled back I don't know if that really applies to spiritual beings or to the devil himself it's kind of hard to make all that make sense but nevertheless it seems as though in Matthew 25 I believe that this fire that's prepared for the devil and his angels is the one that's kindled here by the Lord Jesus Christ on his return to earth now let's try to finish we did read through the passage didn't we so Matthew 25 again it's sad to know that so many people are going to be tormented and thrown into everlasting punishment when it says it was specifically prepared for the devil and his angels it's never been the Lord's will to damn the souls of mankind even though some people have a distorted view of teaching that when it's God's will that it's not God's will

[31:14] God's not willing that any should perish it is his will that the devil and his angels that rebelled perish but it's not his will that man would perish alright coming down through the passage did we cover everything through here it's hard to say I think we did oh one more point this is a this is huge in the setting of the tribulation and of the the teaching of all this do you notice that that he tells them to depart from me speaking to these people and they say why why and the answer is because you didn't take care of my brethren he never tells them because you didn't believe on me because somebody knocked on your door and gave you the gospel or gave you a gospel tract and tell you about Jesus Christ this has nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ and why they're getting sent it's because of their treatment of the Jew it's their works it's how they responded to what was being preached during the tribulation time that's what it is the ones that are getting in to the kingdom are the ones that had the works and had fulfilled the word of God in that age it's a different setting if this was all about the gospel of Jesus Christ shouldn't it be in that passage somewhere and if it's just if it's the church then the church then we can lose our salvation if we don't live it or do right that's not going to work either according to

[32:43] Paul so it's not the church and when you want to make somebody have to well I hope you understand that and can see the difference that there's there's a eternal security in this age but when Jesus Christ comes and calls us out of here he goes back to a different setting a setting that fits that Old Testament and this book through the gospels here through Matthew where they have to do what they're told to do and if they don't do what they're told to do they could be a servant of the Lord and end up getting cast out they could be children of the kingdom in Matthew 8 and end up being cast into outer darkness so the doctrine has got to be understood and it's got to be divided or you're going to try to make yourselves lose salvation and everybody teaches it everybody teaches you can lose your salvation they go to Matthew they go to Hebrews those are two places I'm sure they have other places they stumble on but those are the two big ones alright so let's we can just start chapter 26 here a little bit and we're moving out of this now

[33:49] I told you when we started 24 we're going to be through some heavy stuff for a while now we're going to get out of that and it's going to soften up a lot so Matthew chapter 26 we'll finish on a lighter note it came to pass when Jesus had finished all these sayings he said unto his disciples you know that after two days is the feast of the Passover and the son of man is betrayed to be crucified so it's getting close it's getting close and Jesus Christ can feel it it's pressing on him without a doubt there's weight of what's about to happen in Jerusalem and he just said you know it's two days away is this and then you know what happens after that and he's talking about it because it's on his heart and we see when he gets into the garden here later in this chapter that he wants to get out of it it's it's right there at the door now in verse 23 then assembled together the chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the people under the palace of the high priest who's called Caiaphas and consulted that they might do what what are they going to get together with the high priest these are the top dogs of the Jews religion and of their nation the leadership and they're going to assemble together to do what to have a prayer meeting to study the scriptures no they want to kill somebody these are wicked wicked men they consulted that they might take

[35:13] Jesus by subtlety oh isn't that an interesting word where does that word fit where's the first time you saw that in your bible in genesis chapter 3 maybe the serpent was more subtle and these men are of their father the devil in john 8 48 44 they consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill him and they said not on the feast day oh they're smart guys right lest there be an uproar among the people they know they're politicians they know they have to worry about the people and the masses and their position and they know that they need to work the dirty work undercover and that's exactly what they are they're worried about their position verse 6 now when Jesus was past tense this had already happened he was in Bethany so the he's two days away from the Passover in verse 2 but he was previously in Bethany a little bit ago and I think Matthew Matthew kind of lays his gospel out in this order where he spends much time dealing with the doctrine the kingdom the constitution of the kingdom the teaching and preaching of Christ about the kingdom for Israel and then he gets into those parables that are a little bit you know not as revealed a little bit veiled teaching about the kingdom and then moves into exposing and rebuking the leadership and exposing their hypocrisy denouncing their condemnation and then these two chapters about the second coming of

[36:47] Christ all of that and slips into the death and this passage here with Mary fits into the death it's about the burial in verse number 12 she did it for my burial and so this really wouldn't fit earlier in Matthew's gospel or we'd be confused we'd be kind of hopping back and forth between two things and so I think that's a great placement of this maybe it was purposeful by Matthew or just the Holy Spirit kept him in that flow of events to where this would apply best and so here he is I'll just read it now when Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box a very precious ointment and poured it on his head as he sat at meat now the other writers or Luke describes that she bowed down behind him and did it on his feet so she did both and in verse number 8 when his disciples saw it they had indignation saying to what purpose is this waste for this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor when Jesus understood it he said unto them why trouble ye the woman for she hath wrought a good work upon me for ye have the poor always with you but me ye have not always for in that she hath poured this ointment on my body she did it for my burial wherefore I say unto you wherefore I wherefore I shall be preached in the whole world there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her we're out of time here we'll have to pick it up and go through this a little bit cleaner with a little more time next week just understand we're just at the door because the next thing we read is about

[38:29] Judas Iscariot covenanting with those Pharisees and the priest for that money to betray him so it is his death is imminent and there's something going on here this story that we in North America thousands of years later are reading about and in fact what she did was told for a memorial it was a voluntary action here and it's something precious to the Lord so we'll stop there and we'll pick up