In our study of Mark we are in Mark 12:38-40; and the parallel passage in Matt 23; where Jesus is condemning the progressive Jewish leadership because they were teaching evil manmade religion and legalism rather than the grace and truth of God's Word.
When we stopped last time we had noted the principle that dead people can't do anything. Death in any given sphere causes incapacity in that sphere.
Spiritually dead people can't do anything to be saved and carnally dead people can't do anything to be restored to fellowship and the physically dead can't even move.
Religion obscures the fact that in the spiritual and soulish spheres the only thing that is acceptable is compliance with God's mandates that are compatible with his work of grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ.
Religious people don't know this so they perform dead works that they hope will be sufficient but they are not. These dead works create whitewashed outsides but the inside is still dead and rotting. This was the Pharisees situation.
Matt 23:27; "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like unto whitewashed tombs."
In His sixth woe Jesus explains why it is impossible to clean the outside when the inside has not been cleaned.
A whitewashed tombstone was the grave of a poor person that had been whitewashed so was visible so people could see it and avoid the grave so they would not become ceremonially unclean.
According to Israel's ceremonial law if a person walked over a grave they became ceremonially unclean and could not participate in the ritual observances of the Mosaic Law for seven days in compliance with Num 19:16.
In Acts 23:3; Paul called the high priest a whitewashed wall. This was one of the greatest insults you could make to a Jew.
In other words, the high priest who was presiding as Paul's judge in the Sanhedrin was unjustly judging Paul by using mob violence instead of a legal trial.
A whitewashed wall means you are dead on the inside even though you look good on the outside.
Jesus warned them that because they were religious they are constantly in the process of whitewashing the worst kind of evil on the outside because inside they were completely dead and rotting.
On the outside they looked righteous but this was just to cover the dead men's bones of their inner sin and evil. On they outside appeared beautiful but inside are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness" Matt 23:27; Net note 32
Matt 23:28; Outwardly they looked righteous and acceptable to other people but in their thinking they were full of evil mental attitude and motivational sins.
The progressive politicians running our country are exactly the same. They lie and deceive to get elected and once elected do the exact opposite of what they said they would do. They never intended to do what they said because they only lied and deceived to steal power.
Lies like "if you like your doctor you can keep him" and " if you like your insurance plan you can keep it" were intentional lies made for the purpose of stealing an election.
These people are satan's children because satan is father of lies and a murderer. John 8:44; and satan's people always eventually get around to killing God's people. 1John 3:12-13; John 15:19-25;
We can see how bad things are in our nation because everything that is being promoted by the progressives in our national government is a lie or is based on a lie. Just like their father the devil, they are liars and there is no truth in them.
They are using Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels doctrine. He said, if you repeat any lie long enough and loud enough people will believe it.
The Jewish leaders of Jesus day used it, The Nazi's used it on the German people and it is being used on the people in the USA now.
Satan's strategy is to destroy the nations and he is very successful at it. Isa 14:12;
Our job is to stay out of the way by committing the wrong to Jesus and then patiently wait on Jesus Christ who will personally depose them to His own glory in His perfect timing. Eph 6:5-8; Col 3:25;
We must always remember that our anger does not achieve the righteousness of God. James 1:20; and wait on Jesus Christ. Rom 12:19;
Matt 23:29; These evil people were giving lip service to all of the people their evil forbearers had martyred. In their hypocrisy they had turned the martyrs into heroes that they honored and they had rituals to put wreaths on the graves.
They built great memorials to the prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, who their evil forbearers who were just like them had martyred, massacred, and assassinated.
In other words, the Jewish political religious leaders admired the greatness of these men without understanding that the grace of God had made them great.
So while they were putting decorations on the graves of the martyrs they have the same satanic doctrine and the same hateful attitude such they are at the very moment conspiring to kill to and will participate in the murder of the Lord Jesus Christ who was the greatest prophet in all of human history.
Progressives in our country do the same thing today. They give lip service to the founders of our nation while simultaneously making laws that oppose everything that the founders died for.
Progressives don't understand the source of our nation's exceptionalism and they even think that it is unfair that our nation is exceptional so they are working to destroy our nation because they feel guilty.
Progressives don't understand that Jesus Christ is the only source of national prosperity and exceptionalism. They think that the people did it so they think they can change things to "help the middle class" and make it happen again but they can't because the people didn't do it Jesus Christ did.
Jesus Christ who controls history did it because our founders were thinking His Word and He honors His Word.
The only that can be done to reverse the national discipline that is occurring is for individuals to change their thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ and return to Him and think like He does. 2Chron 7:14;
When that happens God will take care of the evil progressive leadership when He is ready. That's not our problem it's God's problem Col 3:25; Rom 12:19; We just get our thinking right and wait patiently. Isa 40:31;
Matt 23:30; "And say." When they stand before the tombs of the prophets their forefathers murdered they have a little self-righteous speech: "If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in the blood of the prophets."
Actually, they are lying and they would have murdered them because they were actually worse, but they are living in self absorption, self justification and self deception because those who were alleging this were the very ones who instigated and demanded the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The members of the Sanhedrin were the very ones who took the Lord Jesus Christ to Pilate and demanded He be killed, were the ones who would take wreath to the tomb of Isaiah, to the tomb of Jeremiah, to the monument of Zechariah, and they would place it on the tomb and say, If we had been living then, as God is our witness, we would have never done this horrible thing.
But they were the very ones who took the Lord to Pilate and demanded He be crucified. Mark 15:13-15;
Matt 23:31; NET Religion hates the truth. God's prophets all stood for the truth and religion hates the truth so they killed them just like they are conspiring to kill Jesus.
Matt 23:32;NET The killing of Isaiah was a little in the measure, the killing of Jeremiah, the killing of Zechariah was a little more in the measure. But to kill the Lord Jesus Christ is to fill the measure up to the top.
Jesus was prophesying an event that would happen within 48 hours. The Pharisees lusted to kill Him because they are filled with mental attitude sins. They were jealous of Him, they envied Him, and they are full of arrogance, implacability and vindictiveness so they hated Him.
When He said this to them they were conspiring with Judas to betray Him so that they could kill Him and they would kill him as soon as they got the chance and that would occur when the timing of God the Father permitted it.
By choosing to participate in the murder of Jesus Christ they were filling the measure of the fourth generation curse of Exod 20:5; that resulted in the termination of the Jewish client nation under the fifth cycle of discipline. Lev 26:27-38;
No one could touch Jesus until God the Father permitted it. Psa 105:14-15;