THIS next woe which Jesus pronounces against the Pharisees and teachers of the law is of a different and more serious kind. The woe against the widows effected people's temporal circumstances. This woe is more serious because it effects a person's eternal and spiritual circumstances. To be hurt and harmed in this life is bad, but to lose ones soul is far worse.

This woe finds its origin in the religious zeal of the Pharisees. Zeal to win converts is a most laudable activity of itself. It is the business of religion to win converts. Jesus sent his disciples out to win converts. Jesus commands us to be his witnesses in the world so people will believe, and it is a fact that there is too little zeal in the church today to win converts to Christ. But when zeal is founded on false religion it then becomes a most harmful thing, and this is the case with the Pharisees.

The Pharisees were zealous to bring people to follow the pattern of religion which they espoused. It was not true Old Testament religion based on the law of Moses, but the interpretation of the law of Moses which had grown up amongst the Pharisees. This was a religion which taught that all was right before God if outward moral and religious rules were kept, and which totally ignored the inner condition, the thoughts and imaginations, of the mind and heart. It also was a religion which engendered spiritual pride and promoted self glory. It was concerned about the opinions of men rather than the opinions of God. It was also a means of gaining self glory at the expense of true righteousness, by making rules which allowed people to be hypocrites, and still feel that they were righteous.

The zeal here is of the Pharisees wanting to make people like themselves and the result was that when they won a convert to their own sort of righteousness, that person became more bigoted than even the Pharisee, and surpassed even the Pharisees in meticulous outward self righteousness, which only produced pride, and criticism of others.

The terrible fact about the religion of the Pharisee is that it did not achieve the goal of true religion. True religion, Christian religion, seeks the salvation of the soul. True religion seeks to win converts so that they may be saved from hell, and saved for heaven. True religion's business is to bring people the forgiveness of sin, and reconciliation with God. True religion brings people into the favour and love of God.

The religion of the Pharisees had the reverse effect. Religion which parades good works and religious works as the way of acceptance with God, is a religion of the devil. It does the devil's work. It is an infiltration by the devil into religion, which destroys souls rather than bringing life to souls.

The Pharisees were children of hell because there was nothing in their lives and in their teaching which was acceptable with God. There was no true repentance for sin. There was no humility before God. There was little if any desire for the glory of God, but rather to promote their own glory. There was no appreciation of the holiness of God, and no real appreciation of sin, or the awfulness of sin in the eyes of God. There was a pride in their own righteousness, and their own religious works, and the belief that these works made them acceptable to God. They pretended to know God when they did not really know God. Even the better Pharisees which genuinely sought to be righteous were children of hell, because they did not appreciate that their supposed righteousness was of no value before God and even offensive before God.

Because they taught this sort of religion in their zeal to win converts, they made their converts children of hell like themselves. When these converts embraced this religion with all their vigor, and became even more zealous than the ones who had taught them, they became even more sons of hell than their mentors.

There could not be anything more evil and horrible than religion like this. This is religion which is doing the work of the devil. It is religion that is causing souls to think they a right with God, when they were not. It is religion of deception which makes people believe all is well with their soul when it is not. It is a deception, which if not found out, will cause people to die in their sins and find themselves in hell.

The fact is that any teaching which is not the true Gospel is a work of the devil and makes converts to it into children of hell, that is destined for hell. This makes the ministry of the church such a serious matter. We can make people into children of hell if ministry and teaching lacks the whole truth, or if it supposes people are accepted by God when they are not. Preaching that lacks the setting forth of Christ as the only Saviour, or lacks the presenting of Christ as Saviour, and so causes people to imagine they are right with God when they are not, is also making people into children of hell.