Whited Walls

[00:00:00] If you would come with me to acts, chapter 23 to pick up where we left off this morning. [00:00:07] Acts, chapter 23. [00:00:15] We'll start reading in verse number one. [00:00:21] And we will only read a few verses. Acts 23, verse number one. [00:00:32] The Bible says, and Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. [00:00:48] And the high priest, Ananias, commanded them that stood by to smite him on the mouth. [00:00:55] Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall. [00:01:02] For sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law. [00:01:09] And they that stood by said, revilest thou God's high priest? [00:01:16] Then said, paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest. For it is written, thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people. [00:01:25] Let's pray together. [00:01:28] Father, we thank you for, again, for the chance to be with your people, to fellowship, to praise you, to hear these good songs that brother Ari led us in singing, and just such good reminders of what you have done for us. Thank you for that. [00:01:45] We hear a sermon in the songs that we sing together. And, lord, we just pray that you'd bless our service tonight. And the preaching and the hearing of the word. That everything that's done would be just exactly. Not more and not less. Just exactly what you want. And so we ask that you would meet with us here this evening, in Jesus name. Amen. [00:02:11] So, Paul is, of course, before the council. He will have precious words to say before this council. [00:02:18] It's not like their hearts were open anyway. But I want to concentrate on verses two and three. [00:02:27] I'll go through it one time with the historical part so that everybody. We're all on the same page as to what is being said. [00:02:36] And then we'll kind of go back over it and examine a couple of things in more detail. But in verse number two, says, and the high priest, Ananias, commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. Now, we know in verse three, Paul says. That Ananias giving the command to one of the people standing by to strike Paul on the mouth. In other words, to shut his mouth for what he's saying, which is what we talked about this morning, that he had lived in all good conscience unto this day. [00:03:09] That itself was a violation of the very law that Ananias was purporting to have been judging Paul by. In fact, if you could just go there real, really quick to these couple of verses. The first one is in Leviticus, chapter 19. I want you to see it for yourself. [00:03:28] And this is a little glimpse into our brother Paul and how well he knew the Bible. And his Bible did not have the New Testament, or at least most of the time, didn't have the New Testament. He had the Old Testament, but he knew what it said. [00:03:48] He quotes a verse which we'll see in a minute, but in Leviticus 19, in verse number 35, look at what it says. [00:03:57] Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meat yard, in weight or in measure. Notice that. No unrighteousness in judgment. So when someone went to judge according to God's law, it was to be done just like God said. It was to be righteous. It wasn't to be some. It wasn't to be some pompous, fancy dressed high priest who was actually appointed there. I mean, the days of Aaron's sons, being the high priest, had long since been forgotten. And these people were basically political appointees. And they did not Ananias. They did not fear God. They did not fear God. You think of Caiaphas and Annas, who were the high priests during the trial of our Lord before he went to the cross. They did not fear God. They were the furthest of everyone in Israel. They were the furthest from God. Okay? And that's evident as you look throughout the New Testament history here. [00:05:12] And so you see this man. He is giving a command just because he can, to, outside of the law, strike a man when he hasn't even heard what the man is accused of or given him an opportunity for defense. That is in the Old Testament scripture, you say, well, that's an american idea. No, no, it goes way back before that. All right, let's look at one more. Deuteronomy 25. [00:05:38] Deuteronomy, chapter 25, verse number one. Look at what it says. This is another scripture that Ananias violated by his ordering someone nearby to strike. Paul. [00:05:53] Deuteronomy 25, verse number one. The Bible says this, if there be a controversy between men, and they come unto the judgment that the judges may judge them, then they shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked. [00:06:08] And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down and to be beaten before his face according to his fault by a certain number. [00:06:23] You see, there was a method. There was a process. First of all, there had to be an actual trial where a man stood before a judge, he heard the arguments on both sides, and a judgment was duly rendered. And then that person was to be judged according to the judgment, according to God's law. [00:06:47] In this particular way. He's to lie down, to be beaten. Right there. You see, there's a process. And they don't do any of that. They don't do any of that. And it's not that it's a big deal. In fact, I don't even think that Paul was actually struck at that point, because he spoke up immediately. But it does reveal something about this man, Ananias, and how wicked he was. And history records Josephus, in particular, records how wicked Ananias was. Now, Ananias, according to historians, depending on which one you read. But Ananias was actually not the high priest. He's called the high priest because he was the last person to occupy the position of high priest. But he's actually not in the office. It's vacant at this point. [00:07:38] But notice they call him the high priest back in our text. [00:07:42] And Paul says, in verse number five, he says, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest. What does that mean? I know that the language is a little. Not exactly what we would say, but I wist not, just means, I didn't know. I didn't know he was the high priest. I sense a little bit of snark, a little bit of sarcasm from Paul, who, of course, no doubt, would have known the status of the high priest. And he says, I didn't know he was the high priest, because if he was the high priest, the scripture says, and here he goes quoting a verse, thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people, which is Exodus 22 28. So, in other words, Paul says, paul, being a man who knows the scripture, if this man was in his role legitimately, Paul would give him the honor that his role deserved. But again, this is corruption. This is just wickedness. It's just political maneuvering. And these people were. [00:08:45] It's interesting history, if you're into that kind of thing. If you look up historical information about. About these particular people, this man, when Paul says, God shall smite thee, God's gonna. God's gonna get. He's gonna get you. [00:09:01] That actually came to pass. This man was murdered. This man was murdered after. You know, of course, after this. He was. He was. He did get his just desserts. But what I wanna pay attention to in particular is when he says in verse number three, God shall smite thee. Let me say a little note. [00:09:24] You hear that kind of caustic, that retort of Paul, very pointed, very direct, God shall smite thee. Thou whited wall. And he rebukes him directly. This is the man who is playing the part of one of the most important leaders in Israel. Israel. And Paul, directly to the man's face, rebukes him. Is this not reminiscent of, like, John the Baptist, you know, esque, who rebuked Herod and who was unafraid? And this is. Listen, this is the way. This is the way the Lord wants us to be. [00:10:02] And I say us. I know most of us never get into a place where we would interact with somebody in this way, but this is the kind of boldness. This is not rude. This is a matter of righteousness. Stating it directly, and this is the way that the Lord wants christians to be. Not afraid to say anything. Not afraid to speak directly, but to speak directly. And to speak directly does not mean that we have no compassion. To speak directly does not mean we have no empathy or. Or anything like that. No, no. [00:10:40] It's that fine line between being rude and not being willing to speak. And the Lord wants us to speak clearly. In our day, we need people that will speak clearly on issues of. Issues of truth, issues of morality, issues of righteousness. We need people that will speak truth. And you know what? That's you. That's you and that's me. That's all of us. You guys go in places that I don't go. You have circles that I don't listen, you know, you think about the modern things on, you know, the trans ideology and Dei and all that stuff. You see, it's like, just bombarded all the time. Everywhere you look, it's everywhere. But you know where. That's where you combat that stuff. Not for a political purpose, but for a matter of righteousness. You know, you do at your job. When you say, you know, that's just bump. That's just. That's just a bunch of garbage. It's all false. That's. That's you speaking up directly and not being afraid. So that's what we see with Paul. But notice in verse three, he says, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall. So I want to talk about painting tonight. Painting. Painting. [00:11:47] Whited wall. How many of you have ever. How many of you, let me ask you this. How many of you have lived in a time when the term whitewashing was. Was used? [00:11:58] That is before my time, I must say. That is before my time. But whitewashing, of course, is just as another way to say painting, really. [00:12:08] But in this time, they didn't have paint like we think of paint. They can go down to the Sherwin Williams store and buy white paint. You know, number whatever. Get the code and have them make up some paint. No, no, no. [00:12:19] They use whitewash. And basically what that is, is it was a slaked lime. So they would take limestone, and they have a process to heat it, and it would bring it into a certain. [00:12:32] Through that process, they would get slaked lime. They'd mix it with water, and, of course, it's white. Lime is white. And when they did that, it would create, like, a thick kind of paint paste that could be wiped on or applied, like paint. Like paint. And then when it dried, it would dry and it would stay white. It was like a chalky type of thing, and it would stay white. And that's what is being referred to here, a whited wall. Now, in our time, you know, we had our. I guess a year ago or so, we had the church, the exterior of the church, power washed. Remember that? Does anybody remember what it looked like before some of those stained places and how good it looked after? Now, imagine that times a million. Okay? [00:13:16] You go to some places, and he's referring to a wall here. And, of course, I immediately think of southeast Asia, because there's places where they build the wall, and it looks nice for about a month, and then the moss and the algae and all those things, the things that we had cleaned off the church, they grow, but nobody bothers to clean it or anything like that. So it just gets worse and worse. And my kids know you've seen some nasty, nasty ones. Walls. Nasty walls. And that might sound unusual, but when you see something like that and how nasty it is, it's kind of revolting, and it really makes the whole place look just dirty and nasty. So what is Paul saying? Basically, what they would do is they would take this lake line, this whitewash, and they would paint it over these walls to make it look nice, make it look better. [00:14:16] That seems simple enough, right? But here's a few things I want to remind you of, of this. Now, this is what. This is what Paul called the high priest. He said, you are a whited wall. [00:14:33] You're nothing but a dirty, dingy wall that has been merely painted over. [00:14:43] That's basically what he's saying. I mean, that's quite an insult. [00:14:49] But think about this as we meditate on what is he saying by this. [00:14:55] See, whitewash is just. Or paint, we might say, is just a thin layer on the exterior of a thing, right? It's just a thin layer. How many of you have ever painted over something that was already filthy, and you just didn't want to bother with it. [00:15:11] Brother Darrell's the only honest person in the room. [00:15:17] It ain't worth it. It ain't worth it. I'll just paint over it. Paint over it. Well, this is exactly what Paul is calling this person. [00:15:23] The whitewash is only a thin layer on the exterior. So if you imagine this man, he has a. He has a thin layer of righteousness over him, basically, is what Paul is saying. But here's the thing. [00:15:39] Here's the thing. [00:15:41] There is no depth to this man's righteousness. [00:15:48] It's just an exterior film. That's it. There's nothing that's penetrating to the inside of this man. Ananias. [00:15:56] All right. The second thing I noticed is, as I was meditating it. Meditating on this, is that, you know, because it's just a thin layer. What is underneath that thin layer of whitewash of paint? What is underneath it? [00:16:10] Whatever was there to begin with is still there. [00:16:14] In other words, if it was filthy, if there was grime and mold and mildew and scum and moss. And whatever that was on there, it's still there. And that thin layer of paint has not altered it at all. All it's done is hidden what was there. It is the same as it ever was. [00:16:35] This is what Paul is describing this man as. [00:16:41] And see? And so the third thing I thought about was this. [00:16:44] The whitewash. The effect of painting is only to give the appearance that it's clean. [00:16:55] It's not actually to clean it up. It's not actually to make it in substance better. It's just to make it appear better. With that thin veneer. With that thin layer. Hold your place here. Look at Matthew, chapter six. Really quick. [00:17:15] Notice what the Lord says about. [00:17:19] In Matthew, chapter six. [00:17:31] Matthew six, verse number five. [00:17:37] The Bible says this. And when thou prayest, the Lord Jesus speaking in the sermon on the mount, and when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are. For they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets. That they may be seen of men. You see that? That they may be seen of men. That's what they're trying to do. They're trying to appear a certain way. Look at verse 15. [00:18:05] Did I write down 1516? I'm sorry. Moreover, when you fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces. So this is the reverse. They're not trying to look good, but look bad. So everybody knows they're fasting in both cases. Here's what you have. You have the appearance. [00:18:28] Their primary concern is the appearance. Listen, our primary concern as a, as a believer, as a disciple of Christ, must not be the way we appear. [00:18:48] Our primary concern, look, it is natural. All of us, all of us care about the way we appear. How many of you brushed your hair before you came to church? [00:18:58] Okay, you liar. [00:19:01] Ain't got no hair. [00:19:05] So all of us care to some degree about the way we appear to others. And you know what? That's fine. That's good, because there's a matter of our personal christian testimony that matters. [00:19:17] But listen, those of you that have been around christian institutions know that christian testimony has been, its meaning has been widened to include almost anything. Well, we're gonna, you know, we're gonna spend, you know, $15.9 million so that we can have a good christian testimony on this new building. I mean, that's kind of the way, the way, the kind of thing that you hear about. [00:19:43] But there is a truth in the matter of your christian testimony, the way you appear to others. It doesn't matter because, remember, the outside is all that anyone ever sees. They don't see your heart. But your primary concern and my primary concern must not be that thin layer on, on the outside. [00:20:00] Because you know what? That's the easiest to clean up. [00:20:03] Just get you a little paintbrush. [00:20:06] Just paint over that thing. Right, brother Darrell? Paint over it. It's fast. [00:20:13] And then everybody, everybody thinks, man, this is pretty, this is nice. It doesn't matter if it's rotten underneath. You just paint over the rot. [00:20:24] That should not be our primary concern. [00:20:27] A disciple of Christ, if you follow the teaching of the Lord Jesus, the primary concern should be the substance. Now, here's the reality. Here's the benefit. If the substance is good, it will also appear good. [00:20:47] That's the thing we need to remember that you paint over it. It looks nice, but the substance is bad. But if you actually, in this case, the wall, the white edge wall that he's, that Paul is calling this man, if you. If, if the wall was actually clean, it would also look nice, right? [00:21:05] So why paint over it? Get the wall clean. [00:21:09] That's what the Lord wants us to do. He wants us to concentrate on the substance of what we are as a disciple of Christ, to be righteous, to be upright, to be honest, to be kind, to be gracious, to be merciful, to be friendly, to be whatever the case might. He wants us to be that, not just look the part and if we be that, we will appear that right. [00:21:41] If we are that, we will appear that. [00:21:46] Another danger with this whitewashing, going back to our text here in acts 23, is the whitewash. The paint on the outside tricks or deceives other people that are looking at us into thinking that because of the color, this thing is real. [00:22:06] But here's the danger in that, is that over time, the reality of that person. [00:22:17] Once that veneer, because you can't hide forever. [00:22:21] The paint fades. Look, the paint will fade. You can't hide forever. You can't play the part forever. Eventually your guard will be let down. And then that person who thought you were the real deal is going to see or not. You know what it'll do to them? It'll disillusion them to what you represented at the beginning. That is terrible for the name of Christ. [00:22:43] That's terrible for the name of Christ. That's why you got to be the real thing. We have to be the real thing. [00:22:50] Because if you look pretty and then later it's found out that it was just a facade. It was just a veneer. It was just a coat of paint and nothing else that makes it look worse for the Lord than it did at the beginning. [00:23:04] But the second thing is this. The paint on the outside of us, it also deludes us, ourselves into thinking that because others esteem us a certain way, that is what we are. [00:23:22] Did you hear what I said? [00:23:25] We think because other people think of us a certain way. That is, therefore the way we are. And that's not the way it is. That's not necessarily the way God views us at all. The Lord views us according to what he tells us, not according to what people think of us. So the most important thing is not what the appearance is on the outside. Further, the most important thing is not what others think of us. It is what the Lord thinks of us. And you know what? This is a basic christian truth, is it not? [00:23:54] What the Lord thinks of you is more important than any man's opinion? [00:23:59] We must live according to this truth. [00:24:04] We must live according to this truth. [00:24:09] Now, this is what I'm describing here is what happens when someone who has up to a point in their life lived a, you know, a sinful life, and then they add to that a form of religion. And that does happen to people. [00:24:32] And they paint. They get religion and they paint over. [00:24:37] A sinner gets painted over with white paint to look righteous. [00:24:41] Everybody thinks he's righteous. He himself thinks he's righteous. Because, after all, everybody else thinks I'm righteous. [00:24:48] But he's not. [00:24:50] And in many cases, like the Lord said, he is twofold more the child of hell than he was to begin. [00:24:58] That's a terrible place to be in. [00:25:02] But you know what? Paul used this comparison of a whited wall. He wasn't the first person to do that. I want you to do something in order to get to the end of what our message here. I want you to get in your left hand. I want you to get in Matthew, chapter 23. And in your right hand, I want you to get Luke, chapter eleven. I want to compare the two. [00:25:25] Matthew, chapter 23 and Luke, chapter eleven. [00:25:36] Matthew 23 and Luke, chapter eleven. [00:25:54] Now, if anyone thinks that Paul's words were pointed or caustic. Or maybe Paul spoke out of anger. Or maybe he shouldn't have said it like that. Read Matthew, chapter 23. [00:26:07] The Lord was known to speak like this. [00:26:10] And he reserved his most scathing tone for these people. Who had that thin layer of whitewash. [00:26:23] Look at chapter 23, verses three and four. [00:26:25] The Bible says this all. Therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that. Observe and do, but do not ye after their works. For they say and do not see that he's talking about the leaders. He's talking about the scribes and pharisees. In verse two, he says, the Lord says, the scribes and pharisees say and do not. [00:26:54] They have a good talk, but no action. [00:26:58] Notice verse four. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne. And lay them on men's shoulders. [00:27:05] So they come up with all kinds of rules and laws. Other people, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. In other words, they say, you need to do this, and you need to do this, and you need to do this, and you need to do that. And they themselves do not do any. Even the smallest of those things. This is exactly what Paul is saying that ananias is saying. Look at chapter eleven of Luke, verse number 46. [00:27:33] It says this. And he said, woe unto you, ye lawyers, for ye laid men with burdens grievous to be borne. And ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. You don't do what you tell people to do. [00:27:50] You don't do people what you tell people to do. We don't. We need to leave. We need to listen. Parents, right, grandparents, whoever. Whoever we're. [00:28:01] Whoever we are. When we have authority, influence over another person, we need to remember that whatever we're telling them to do, we need to be doing ourselves. [00:28:12] Say amen. Amen. That's what we need to be doing all right. Look at one more. Look at matthew 23, verse 25. [00:28:21] Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites. Notice the exclamation point. For ye may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. [00:28:34] Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean. Also notice the emphasis on the exterior. [00:28:46] It looks nice, but when you put liquid in it, it'll make you sick because the inside is dirty. Look at Luke 1139. [00:28:59] And the Lord said unto him, now do you, pharisees, make clean the outside of the cup and platter, but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without, that's outside. Make that which is within also. [00:29:21] Why is it our tendency to neglect the inside for the outside? [00:29:29] That is our nature. [00:29:31] It is our nature to do that. [00:29:34] If we're going to be different and better, you know what we're going to have to do? We're going to have to, on purpose, pay attention to the inside. That's what we're going to have to do. [00:29:43] We're going to have to devaluate other people's opinions of us. And increase the value of the Lord's opinion of us. [00:29:56] Matthew 23. This is the last one. We'll look at verse number 27. [00:30:04] Thou blind Pharisee. [00:30:07] I'm sorry. I looked in verse 26. Look at verse 27. Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites. For ye are like unto whited sepulchres. Notice whited sepulchres. They're painted right, they're whitewashed. But these are sepulchres. These are graves which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within, full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so, ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Let me ask you a question, based upon what we're reading. Very words of the Lord Jesus. Do you think he cares about the way things appear or the way things really are? [00:30:52] I'm talking about Jesus, the Lord of all, the Lord of all the universe, right? The king of kings, Lord of lords. He's the judge of all the earth. What does he think based upon what he's saying here? [00:31:05] And he's using this striking example. [00:31:09] You think of a grave. A grave is a place that's especially to the jew that's where uncleanness is. A grave is where dead bodies are. And yet they're painted. [00:31:22] You're painting over with a thin layer, death, corruption. This is the picture, and this is not something the Lord made up. This is what the Lord observed. They would paint the graves. Now, they had a reason for painting the graves. They had a reason for painting graves. Here's the reason. Numbers 1916, says this. [00:31:44] And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body or a bone of a man, or a grave shall be unclean seven days. And when a man is unclean under the law, which is all of this is under the law. When a man was unclean for seven days, he could not participate in any of the rituals or festivals or offerings or any. He couldn't go to the temple or anything like that until he was cleansed from his uncleanness. So one of those things is, if he touches a grave, okay, simple enough. [00:32:21] He touches a grave. [00:32:24] It's interesting because Peter and John, after the Lord rose from the dead, went into the grave. But is it a grave anymore if there is no dead body there? [00:32:36] Hmm, that's a good question to ponder. [00:32:43] So what they would do, because they didn't want to be defiled. You know what they would do? They would paint the grave so that it was obvious that it was a grave and you could therefore avoid it and not touch it. [00:32:58] But that practice, though, played right into the Lord's illustration, did it not? [00:33:07] You're just like a painted a whited sepulcher. [00:33:11] You look pretty on the outside, but you're dead. [00:33:16] Nothing there but corruption. [00:33:20] That's what the Lord is. I would say what the Lord said is more caustic than what Paul said. Paul just called him a wall. Jesus said, you're a grave. [00:33:32] Look at Luke. [00:33:36] Luke, chapter eleven, verse 44. This is a little bit different than what Matthew says, but it has kind of a different point, but interesting and similar. [00:33:46] Verse 44 says, woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are as graves which appear not. Remember what I said. Remember what I said. Why did they paint the grave? So that you could see them. This says, for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. What happens if they walk over them? [00:34:07] They're unclean. Seven days, number 1916. So they're unclean. Seven days. So what is this is a little bit. A little bit different of a twist. This is a grave that's not been painted so you don't even know the death is there, the corruption is there, that you're being defiled. That's the way it is with these Pharisees and hypocrites as well is they're interacting with them and have no idea that they're actually being defiled by them. [00:34:35] That there's corruption touching them. [00:34:38] From whom? [00:34:40] From those Pharisees. [00:34:47] Here's the thing. [00:34:48] You look at all of these passages, you put them together, you know what you find? [00:34:53] Just to reiterate, you find that our Lord Jesus Christ is most concerned not with the outward appearance to man or man's opinions of us, but he is most concerned that we are the real thing, that we are the substance, that the wall is clean, that the grave is empty so it's no grave that we're alive, that we live according to what we profess to live and not just say the words but do the thing. [00:35:35] This is what he's teaching us. Let's pray.