571-1 WHY NATIONS FALL
September 28, 1980PASTOR HENRY F. KULP
Proverbs 30: 11 - 16 There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother. There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men. The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.
Now we come to a very interesting part of the book of Proverbs. Here, as Solomon is well up in years, he is teaching his state department, he uses a method of teaching that is very interesting.
1/ He uses QUATERNARIES. A QUATERNARY IS FOUR THINGS THAT ARE PUT TOGETHER TO FORM A DOCTRINE. IT COULD ALSO BE SAID, FOUR THINGS THAT ARE USUALLY PARALLEL.
2/ Sometimes it will be three things, yea four, or three things plus one. Three form the illustration, or the fourth, or the next one is the doctrine.
3/ I read where A.C. Gabelein calls these quatrains. And these are not quatrains, for a quatrain is a four-line poem, and these are not four-line poems. A quaternary can be 8 lines or two lines, or something in between. You never know how many lines are in a quaternary. It is four things that are put together to form a doctrine, and it is a very interesting way to teach.
(Arno Clemens Gaebelein was a Methodist minister in the United States. He was a prominent teacher and conference speaker. He was the father of educator and philosopher of Christian education Frank E. Gaebelein.)
https://johnmichaelwiley.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/a-c-gaebelein-a-compassionate-dispensational-premillennialist-and-friend-of-israel/
4/ Of course, Solomon is teaching the teen-agers in Israel. Here he shows that four generations in succession can destroy a nation, and if you study these four with me, and then will study church history, you will see this is absolutely true. It is absolutely frightening to realize that it requires only four decadent generations in succession to totally destroy a nation or a civilization. Remember, these teen-agers will become adults and rule the land, and their experience in the teen-ager years formulates their later life.
5/ Verses 11 – THE FIRST GENERATION – This is the generation that has no respect for authority -- not concept of authority. (WHAT A DISGRACE TO HUMAN NATURE)...CURSING THEIR PARENTS. The cursing of a parent brings capital punishment upon the Israelitish teen-ager.
Leviticus 20: 9, 10 For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him. And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Leviticus. 20: 9 And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.
For everyone who curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. Then in the 10th verse he talks about who commits adultery. Shall be put to death -- you see, the one sin is aligned with the other.
6/ Then the cursing of a parent has the same punishment as blaspheming of God.
Leviticus 24: 11 -14 And the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name of the LORD, and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses... And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.
7/ Lack of respect for parents leads to lack of respect for all in authority, and authority is necessary for the survival of a nation -- and loss of respect for authority begins in the home.
8/ The word, curse, here means to have a lack of respect for the parents, and then this is carried over into the classroom. Lack of respect for the teacher, to the streets as they have a lack of respect for other people's property, and it goes into athletics -- lack of respect for the coaches, and it comes to the lack of respect for the policeman and all authority. You can see it in the war-resisters -- those who are against atomic power, and the way they carry on. You see it in the sexual revolution, you see it in the smoking of marijuana, using of other drugs. You see it in sports ever so clearly today.
9/ Take music. You even see it in the music of the day. It is music that calls discord music. You see it in the art of the day. You see it in every realm of life. So this first generation is right in our land today. But now we have a shocking thing to see.
II Timothy 3: 1 - 2 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy.
In the last days, and I believe we are in them right now, men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedience to parents, and this is speaking to the church, those who are believers in Jesus Christ. They will not put up with parental restraint.
10/ Remember the tragic case of Ham, the son of Noah?
Genesis 9: 20 - 27 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
Ham had a curse brought upon his children because he himself had dishonored his father, Noah, in looking upon him when he was unclothed. It may seem strange to you, it seems remarkable to me, that God thought less of Noah being drunk than He did the sin of Ham in observing his father's nakedness. At any rate, a terrible curse was put upon Ham and his children because he had been an undutiful son, lacking in reverence and respect for his father's person. But Shem and Jepheth were blessed because without looking they covered their father, Noah.
11/ Verse 12 – The second generation rejected all authority. Now they reject the authority of God. They are in rebellion against God and it naturally follows, when one rejects his parents authority he will reject God's authority. What did they do? They were pure in their own eyes, and yet were not washed from their filthiness. God says all are sinners, depraved, and need salvation by grace plus nothing. I have found the hardest people in the world to reach are those who reject authority. Immediately they look at their own goodness or think they have goodness. THIS IS SELF-DELUSION – NO CONCEPT OF SIN.
12/ They actually reject the authority of the Bible. They have no concept of sin. Is this true today? Look about you. The religion of the hour is the rejection of the authority of the Bible. Just take one phase of life today -- homosexuality -- a horrible sin in God's sight. He gave up the Gentiles in Romans because of this sin. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain for this sin, but these folks believe they have a right, and they think they are pure in God's sight. I read where one homosexual said, God created him that way, and He never created a mess. God never created any man a homosexual. He got that way through his own wickedness, and God can deliver him through salvation, but he rejects it.
13/ Take the matter of sex in general. It is in rebellion against God's authority. Yet, these people think they are pure in God's sight, and in so doing, they reject divine viewpoint, the Bible, altogether.
14/ Notice, NOT WASHED. They are still in their filthiness. Do you see this happening in our society today? You do, on every side.
15/ THE THIRD GENERATION – Verse 13 – This generation is described by an idiom which refers to a complete and thorough pride. HOW LOFTY ARE THEIR EYES, THEIR EYELIDS ARE LIFTED UP. Human viewpoint reigns supreme. It is the result of a previous generation's accumulation of sin. The self-righteousness of the second generation leads to much arrogance and pride in the third generation. If anyone seeks to correct them, and make them conscience of their true condition in the sight of God, they turn angrily upon him as wild beasts, ready to rend with their teeth which are like swords and knives.
16/ Eyelids being lifted up. They are not looking unto the Lord as we have in Colossians, but they are exalting themselves. Do you want to see the climax of this sin?
II Thessalonians 2: 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
Here we see this pride embodied in a man -- the man of sin, sitting in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Self-exaltation, and may we say, self-exaltation stinks.
17/ Proverbs 16: 18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
Here we have the embodiment of this teaching concerning the third generation.
How often we look at others and we see pride and arrogance in the other person, and we are appalled with what we see -- we are filled with disgust. But then we turn around and tolerate it in ourselves. What hypocrites we can be.
18/ Verse 14 – THE FOURTH GENERATION – As a result of their pride, their arrogancy, their pride has to be fed. Pride always demands feeding. The only way to feed pride is on the outside, and it is by status symbols, and of course this is always at the expense of others. They take advantage of the poor and the helpless in order to feed their pride and their arrogancy.
19/ We can see all four of these things in our nation today, and rest assured it didn't happen overnight. It was a progressive thing from one generation to the other. First, handing down rebellion against authority, starting with rebellion against parents, and then the next generation, rebellion against God, doing your own thing. Then the third generation becomes proud and arrogant. Then the fourth generation becomes grasping and self-seeking.
20/ Let me show you a generation that all four of these signs, and that generation fell and mighty was the fall of it. You take the nation, the generation that was existing when Jesus Christ was upon this earth. You take the Scribes and the Pharisees. Did they reject authority? They most certainly did.– Here Jesus Christ quotes Moses and He said Moses commanded that his people give honor to father and mother.
Mark 7: 10,11 For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother.
The penalty of death was attached to the violation of this commandment. Whoso curseth, that is, in any way harms or wrongs father or mother, let him die the death. This would surely involve caring for aged parents who were unable to provide for themselves. The least that sons and daughters could do is share with parents that which God has given to them. But the rabbi's had declared that a man might dedicate all his possessions to God, declaring it to be Corbin, that is a gift for the maintenance of the work of the temple, and if his parents were in need, he would insist that he had nothing with which he could help them, because all he possessed had already been devoted to God. This was deceit of the rankest order.
21/ They had rejected authority.
Mark 7:1 - 9 Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
By their tradition they had rejected God's authority in the Word of God, making it null and void.
22/ Then they also showed self-righteousness that followed. A rejection of God's authority.
Matthew 23: 27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
Here He said to those who were very religious, they went to church at least three times a day, prayed seven times a day, they went around performing all sorts of good deeds, and sentimental things. They were very sincere and zealous, but the Lord said to them: Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
23/ We see the results of the third generation in Israel.
Luke 18: 9 - 12 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
Here we have the parable of the self-righteous Pharisee. What did he do? He trusted in himself that he was right, and then this led him to despise others. He was pure in his own eyes, but not washed of his filthiness.
24/ The third generation could be seen. They were arrogant, full of pride. This is exhibited by the very king of the Jews.
Acts 12: 20 - 23 And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon: but they came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend, desired peace; because their country was nourished by the king's country. And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.
Here is Herod who was so prideful and arrogant, that he thought he could have people think he was God, but he was eaten of worms.
25/ What about the fourth generation? Could it be seen in this generation? Absolutely. Their ego had to be fed. They were grasping and greedy and put down the poor and the needy.
Matthew 23: 13,14 He said: But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. 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.
How wicked a prayer is, what an abomination to the Lord when such a prayer is used to build up a reputation of godliness, while one is actually living in hypocrisy.
26/ And what happened to this generation? It was blinded, it was cast aside, it was given up by God.
Additional Scripture to study:
Matthew 21: 23 And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?
Romans 11: 25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Same with families – 4 generations – utterly wrecked
AMEN
9/28/1980 / 571-1 WHY NATIONS FALL / 8/6/2026
Now we come to a very interesting part of the book of Proverbs. Here, as Solomon is well up in years, he is teaching his state department, he uses a method of teaching that is very interesting.
1/ He uses QUATERNARIES. A QUATERNARY IS FOUR THINGS THAT ARE PUT TOGETHER TO FORM A DOCTRINE. IT COULD ALSO BE SAID, FOUR THINGS THAT ARE USUALLY PARALLEL.
2/ Sometimes it will be three things, yea four, or three things plus one. Three form the illustration, or the fourth, or the next one is the doctrine.
3/ I read where A.C. Gabelein calls these quatrains. And these are not quatrains, for a quatrain is a four-line poem, and these are not four-line poems. A quaternary can be 8 lines or two lines, or something in between. You never know how many lines are in a quaternary. It is four things that are put together to form a doctrine, and it is a very interesting way to teach.
(Arno Clemens Gaebelein was a Methodist minister in the United States. He was a prominent teacher and conference speaker. He was the father of educator and philosopher of Christian education Frank E. Gaebelein.)
https://johnmichaelwiley.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/a-c-gaebelein-a-compassionate-dispensational-premillennialist-and-friend-of-israel/
4/ Of course, Solomon is teaching the teen-agers in Israel. Here he shows that four generations in succession can destroy a nation, and if you study these four with me, and then will study church history, you will see this is absolutely true. It is absolutely frightening to realize that it requires only four decadent generations in succession to totally destroy a nation or a civilization. Remember, these teen-agers will become adults and rule the land, and their experience in the teen-ager years formulates their later life.
5/ Verses 11 – THE FIRST GENERATION – This is the generation that has no respect for authority -- not concept of authority. (WHAT A DISGRACE TO HUMAN NATURE)...CURSING THEIR PARENTS. The cursing of a parent brings capital punishment upon the Israelitish teen-ager.
Leviticus 20: 9, 10 For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him. And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Leviticus. 20: 9 And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.
For everyone who curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. Then in the 10th verse he talks about who commits adultery. Shall be put to death -- you see, the one sin is aligned with the other.
6/ Then the cursing of a parent has the same punishment as blaspheming of God.
Leviticus 24: 11 -14 And the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name of the LORD, and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses... And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.
7/ Lack of respect for parents leads to lack of respect for all in authority, and authority is necessary for the survival of a nation -- and loss of respect for authority begins in the home.
8/ The word, curse, here means to have a lack of respect for the parents, and then this is carried over into the classroom. Lack of respect for the teacher, to the streets as they have a lack of respect for other people's property, and it goes into athletics -- lack of respect for the coaches, and it comes to the lack of respect for the policeman and all authority. You can see it in the war-resisters -- those who are against atomic power, and the way they carry on. You see it in the sexual revolution, you see it in the smoking of marijuana, using of other drugs. You see it in sports ever so clearly today.
9/ Take music. You even see it in the music of the day. It is music that calls discord music. You see it in the art of the day. You see it in every realm of life. So this first generation is right in our land today. But now we have a shocking thing to see.
II Timothy 3: 1 - 2 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy.
In the last days, and I believe we are in them right now, men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedience to parents, and this is speaking to the church, those who are believers in Jesus Christ. They will not put up with parental restraint.
10/ Remember the tragic case of Ham, the son of Noah?
Genesis 9: 20 - 27 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
Ham had a curse brought upon his children because he himself had dishonored his father, Noah, in looking upon him when he was unclothed. It may seem strange to you, it seems remarkable to me, that God thought less of Noah being drunk than He did the sin of Ham in observing his father's nakedness. At any rate, a terrible curse was put upon Ham and his children because he had been an undutiful son, lacking in reverence and respect for his father's person. But Shem and Jepheth were blessed because without looking they covered their father, Noah.
11/ Verse 12 – The second generation rejected all authority. Now they reject the authority of God. They are in rebellion against God and it naturally follows, when one rejects his parents authority he will reject God's authority. What did they do? They were pure in their own eyes, and yet were not washed from their filthiness. God says all are sinners, depraved, and need salvation by grace plus nothing. I have found the hardest people in the world to reach are those who reject authority. Immediately they look at their own goodness or think they have goodness. THIS IS SELF-DELUSION – NO CONCEPT OF SIN.
12/ They actually reject the authority of the Bible. They have no concept of sin. Is this true today? Look about you. The religion of the hour is the rejection of the authority of the Bible. Just take one phase of life today -- homosexuality -- a horrible sin in God's sight. He gave up the Gentiles in Romans because of this sin. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain for this sin, but these folks believe they have a right, and they think they are pure in God's sight. I read where one homosexual said, God created him that way, and He never created a mess. God never created any man a homosexual. He got that way through his own wickedness, and God can deliver him through salvation, but he rejects it.
13/ Take the matter of sex in general. It is in rebellion against God's authority. Yet, these people think they are pure in God's sight, and in so doing, they reject divine viewpoint, the Bible, altogether.
14/ Notice, NOT WASHED. They are still in their filthiness. Do you see this happening in our society today? You do, on every side.
15/ THE THIRD GENERATION – Verse 13 – This generation is described by an idiom which refers to a complete and thorough pride. HOW LOFTY ARE THEIR EYES, THEIR EYELIDS ARE LIFTED UP. Human viewpoint reigns supreme. It is the result of a previous generation's accumulation of sin. The self-righteousness of the second generation leads to much arrogance and pride in the third generation. If anyone seeks to correct them, and make them conscience of their true condition in the sight of God, they turn angrily upon him as wild beasts, ready to rend with their teeth which are like swords and knives.
16/ Eyelids being lifted up. They are not looking unto the Lord as we have in Colossians, but they are exalting themselves. Do you want to see the climax of this sin?
II Thessalonians 2: 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
Here we see this pride embodied in a man -- the man of sin, sitting in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Self-exaltation, and may we say, self-exaltation stinks.
17/ Proverbs 16: 18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
Here we have the embodiment of this teaching concerning the third generation.
How often we look at others and we see pride and arrogance in the other person, and we are appalled with what we see -- we are filled with disgust. But then we turn around and tolerate it in ourselves. What hypocrites we can be.
18/ Verse 14 – THE FOURTH GENERATION – As a result of their pride, their arrogancy, their pride has to be fed. Pride always demands feeding. The only way to feed pride is on the outside, and it is by status symbols, and of course this is always at the expense of others. They take advantage of the poor and the helpless in order to feed their pride and their arrogancy.
19/ We can see all four of these things in our nation today, and rest assured it didn't happen overnight. It was a progressive thing from one generation to the other. First, handing down rebellion against authority, starting with rebellion against parents, and then the next generation, rebellion against God, doing your own thing. Then the third generation becomes proud and arrogant. Then the fourth generation becomes grasping and self-seeking.
20/ Let me show you a generation that all four of these signs, and that generation fell and mighty was the fall of it. You take the nation, the generation that was existing when Jesus Christ was upon this earth. You take the Scribes and the Pharisees. Did they reject authority? They most certainly did.– Here Jesus Christ quotes Moses and He said Moses commanded that his people give honor to father and mother.
Mark 7: 10,11 For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother.
The penalty of death was attached to the violation of this commandment. Whoso curseth, that is, in any way harms or wrongs father or mother, let him die the death. This would surely involve caring for aged parents who were unable to provide for themselves. The least that sons and daughters could do is share with parents that which God has given to them. But the rabbi's had declared that a man might dedicate all his possessions to God, declaring it to be Corbin, that is a gift for the maintenance of the work of the temple, and if his parents were in need, he would insist that he had nothing with which he could help them, because all he possessed had already been devoted to God. This was deceit of the rankest order.
21/ They had rejected authority.
Mark 7:1 - 9 Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
By their tradition they had rejected God's authority in the Word of God, making it null and void.
22/ Then they also showed self-righteousness that followed. A rejection of God's authority.
Matthew 23: 27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
Here He said to those who were very religious, they went to church at least three times a day, prayed seven times a day, they went around performing all sorts of good deeds, and sentimental things. They were very sincere and zealous, but the Lord said to them: Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
23/ We see the results of the third generation in Israel.
Luke 18: 9 - 12 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
Here we have the parable of the self-righteous Pharisee. What did he do? He trusted in himself that he was right, and then this led him to despise others. He was pure in his own eyes, but not washed of his filthiness.
24/ The third generation could be seen. They were arrogant, full of pride. This is exhibited by the very king of the Jews.
Acts 12: 20 - 23 And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon: but they came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend, desired peace; because their country was nourished by the king's country. And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.
Here is Herod who was so prideful and arrogant, that he thought he could have people think he was God, but he was eaten of worms.
25/ What about the fourth generation? Could it be seen in this generation? Absolutely. Their ego had to be fed. They were grasping and greedy and put down the poor and the needy.
Matthew 23: 13,14 He said: But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. 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.
How wicked a prayer is, what an abomination to the Lord when such a prayer is used to build up a reputation of godliness, while one is actually living in hypocrisy.
26/ And what happened to this generation? It was blinded, it was cast aside, it was given up by God.
Additional Scripture to study:
Matthew 21: 23 And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?
Romans 11: 25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Same with families – 4 generations – utterly wrecked
AMEN
9/28/1980 / 571-1 WHY NATIONS FALL / 8/6/2026
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