God warns us of the great danger of inverting His priorities for our lives. He warns us of majoring on the minor things while neglecting the truly major and most important things in His word.

In these verses, our Lord declares that believers are to follow Him in such a manner that we would not be led astray by false leaders in the church, but rather, that we would be able to discern those who ungodly leaders and those who are true and godly. God shows us the way to do this in this passage. It is not all that difficult to spot those who are false. In these verses, God calls us to devotion to Christ and His word which discerns dangerous leaders.

In this passage, God condemns hypocritical spiritual leaders who lead people away from the gospel. He uses the word -hypocrite- over and over for such leaders. You and I today must understand that condemnation does not apply only to those Scribes and Pharisees to whom Jesus was speaking in the temple that day, but it applies to any spiritual leader today who is guilty of the same kinds of ungodly behavior.

Sometimes we encounter doctrines in God's word that are controversial or difficult to understand. The doctrine of election is such a doctrine. It is found, though, throughout the Scriptures. It is not an obscure doctrine. While many people may object to the doctrine, Jesus Himself makes it very clear that God works through the general call to faith in Christ in order to extend His effectual call to His chosen ones.

As our Lord speaks to the crowds and to these Jewish leaders, He is also speaking to you and me today. In these verses, God warns that everyone who rejects the Lord Jesus Christ will be rejected by Him. The message of God's judgement and wrath is definitely an unpopular one today, but these are the words of the Lord Jesus Himself as He describes in a most picturesque way that any one of us who rejects the Father and His Son will also be rejected by Him forever.

In this passage, God warns that everyone who rejects the Lord Jesus Christ will be destroyed by His judgment. That's a pretty heavy message, but it is indeed what Jesus was saying to the Jews 2,000 years ago, and it is the meaning of the parable and the verses that follow as they concern you and me today.

Jesus told the people a parable. The parable had a very simple point then and it has the same simple point today- God declares that obedience to His word is a fruit of genuine faith and salvation.

The Jewish leaders were challenging the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. They had clearly rejected His authority and were only concerned with their own. Where you and I are concerned, this passage has a very simple message- God calls us to submit to His authority over our lives.

God calls us to true religion that calls on Him by faith through prayer. Our Lord is describing true religion, real religion, authentic religion. And authentic religion is a relationship with the Father through faith in Christ that is characterized by constant, faith-filled prayer.

In these two verse, God condemns empty, fruitless religion. Sometimes, we refer to superficial Christianity as -religiosity.- It is the appearance of spiritual life when there actually is no spiritual life. That was one of the problems with Israel in Jesus' day and it is one of the problems we are facing in the church today.