Who Was The 'Generation of Vipers'?

Tom:

This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we are in the gospel of Matthew, we’re in Matthew Chapter 3, and we’re going to pick up with Verse 7. “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Saducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance….”

Dave:

Tom, I guess those who have been listening are following this, but they would realize what it’s talking about here. John Verse 4, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Verse 4, had his raiment of camel’s hair, and leather girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts and wild honey. This is—he’s out in the wilderness and people are coming to him. Amazing, he didn’t have a stadium rented, he didn’t use a coliseum there. And I’m not criticizing anyone who could do that, but this is quite an anomaly here. These people are going out of the city out to the wilderness, they’re listening to—

Tom:

And Dave, there are no signs and wonders taking place out there.

Dave:

No, no gimmicks.

Tom:

No—right.

Dave:

And no techniques. He doesn’t say, Now, remember, cross yourself and bring your medals.

Tom:

Or a, you know, kind of a Benny Hinn type approach, you don’t find any of that here.

Dave:

He’s not blowing on people and knocking them over, he’s not asking anybody for money. He’s not telling the great needs of his ministry, he doesn’t even have an airplane to fly. I mean, this guy, he’s something else! And yet they are drawn out there because he was foretold in the scriptures, this is the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make strait a path for the Lord. So, this is John the Baptist, and Wow! They are coming to him confessing their sins, Verse 6, but now he sees Pharisees and Saducees come to his baptism. Now of course he’s been studying Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Schuller, how to be positive—

Tom:

How to win friends, and influence people.

Dave:

Right, right, and so he says, Well, let me encourage you guys, he said, You generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Umm, I don’t think you’d get very far on Oprah Winfrey’s show with that, she’d throw you off instantly.

Tom:

Well, this is not the Buddhist way, as we’ve learned. This is not the Dalai Lama’s way, at least according to what we can see he’s promoting, not according to the secret stages that you go through, and initiations stages.

Dave:

Right, and there’s no secrets to this either. You remember when Pat Robertson was promoting the secret kingdom, do you remember that?

Tom:

Mmhmm.

Dave:

I don’t know how Pat heard about this secret kingdom, because I don’t read of it in the Bible. But anyway, somehow he got insights into a secret kingdom, and amazingly God gave him the franchise. And he was charging, I think it was a hundred dollars at that time for his book that outlined the secrets of the secret kingdom.

Tom:

But it was for ministry purposes.

Dave:

Right, right, yeah. And amazingly one of them, one of the secrets—well it went by 8 laws, and I don’t want to go into the details of that. But there again, we’re back into techniques.

Tom:

Sure.

Dave:

Laws.

Tom:

One of them was the Law of Reciprocity: that whatever you gave would come back to you.

Dave:

Ah yeah, that sounds like The Secret!

Tom:

It does, doesn’t it.

Dave:

The secret that now Oprah is promoting.

Tom:

Right.

Dave:

But another one was the Law of Miracles. Now, any atheist would criticize us, he would say, Wait a minute, you guys, you believe in the god of the gaps, the only reason for god in your mind is because science hasn’t explained everything, but when science has explained everything we don’t need your god anymore, that’s out. No, that’s not the God we believe in. And furthermore, it doesn’t work by laws. That’s what we’ve been talking about, rituals or whatever. You can’t impress God, and you can’t activate God and make Him, whether it’s doodling or whatever it. So, Pat originally, as I recall, you correct me if I’m wrong, Tom, but it was a hundred dollars for the book to begin with.

Tom:

I don’t remember that part of it, but go ahead.

Dave:

Then it dropped to twelve ninety five of supply and demand, and then you could buy it in the book store for twelve ninety five, as I recall. And how did he get this secret, the secret kingdom? Remember what Jesus said, and I love it because He’s quoting from Isaiah:48:16Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.
See All..., as I recall. And Tom, you know, I don’t hold myself to exact verse. I think it’s Isaiah:48:16Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.
See All..., It says: I have spoken from the beginning; from the time that it was there am I. Well, you know that’s God speaking. Then he goes on and says, The Lord God and his Spirit have sent me—so you have the trinity. But he says, From the beginning I have spoken, and I have spoken nothing in secret. And Jesus was referring to that and he was claiming to be this One, who I believe is the Word, the God who speaks. So, you’ve got the One who speaks, the Word, you’ve got that God sent me and his Spirit, okay. And when Jesus was before the Pharisees, and you remember—well, it we before the chief priests and so forth—they said, Tell us of your ministry, and your disciples. I love it! Jesus said: I have not spoken in secret, why did you ask those that heard me. So, there’s no secret kingdom, but Jesus was claiming to be this One. And God does not speak in secret, whosoever will, may come. So, I don’t know how Pat kept a lot of people out of that kingdom for a while, but you know about that kingdom, Tom, and I’ll just shut up and let you talk. But we speak to storms and they cease, we speak to money and it comes, and Pat literally said: I have discovered that there are laws, and even the occultists can do this, but they do it for the wrong motive, but we do it for the Lord. So it reduced the whole thing to a system, to a formula. And anyway, we had better get back to John the Baptist. That’s not what he was preaching, this is not a secret kingdom, He’s calling everyone to—and you enter this kingdom by repentance.

Tom:

Right.

Dave;

And these are Jews who are being prepared for the Messiah. They are not to imagine that the Messiah just accepts them the way they are, and He’s going to come and rule over them. Wait a minute guys, you’ve got to clean some things up, you’ve got to repent.

Tom:

And of course, Verse 9, you certainly don’t get the idea that—although they claimed—that they had a badge, they were part of the club. And in fact it says, Verse 9: “And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”

Dave:

So, we’ve got a problem right here, because John Hagge says that Jews have a different way of salvation. And, no don’t think you’re something special because you’re a Jew, that’s not going to get you into the kingdom of God.See, people say, Well, don’t Jews have a different way of salvation than Gentiles? No. Well, Tom, I hope I’m not getting off the track, but I think it’s very important. He is declaring something, you’re going to have to repent to be in the kingdom of God. And what does the Bible say? I love the Bible, you know that, Tom, I say that, maybe quite often. Well, it says, The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. And every place Paul went, every city, he went first into the synagogue and preached to the Jews. There is no separate way of salvation for Jews from what the Gentiles must enter into the kingdom by.So, this is what John is saying: Hey, guys, don’t think you’re somebody special just because you’re Jews because God can raise up children of Abraham from stones.

Tom:

Mmhmm. Dave, we have the same problem within Christianity. A lot of children who come out of Christian homes think that they are Christians just because their parents are Christians, but God doesn’t have any grandchildren.

Dave:

That’s right.