Today's encouragement comes from Matthew 12:14, where we read these words:
“But the Pharisees went out and conspired against [Jesus], how to destroy him.” (ESV)Unregenerate though passionate overtly-religious sinners are the worst hu-man enemies of the Triune God, by far. “Garden-variety” sinners, who make no pompous claims to their own “righteousness,” are much to be preferred to Pharisees, hypocrites, and cruel, vicious religionists.
In the preceding verse, our Messiah had just cured a poor man of his wither-ed hand. What was the Pharisees’ reaction? Thankfulness? Praise? Wonder? No; they—the ones who claimed to uphold the Ten Commandments—“con-spire” to murder the Son of God who stood in their midst. No wonder they will occupy such low places in hell, barring regeneration and repentance.
[Puritan quote of the day: "Grace is not glorious if we add the least thing of our own to it.” —Richard Sibbes, in, "Glorious Freedom"]
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