OUR FATHER WHO SENDS SHEPHERDS TO GUIDE OTHERS TO THE TRUTH

In Matthew chapter 23 verse 13, the Lord Jesus began pronouncing condemnations upon the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocritical conduct and culture where they presented themselves one way before the people but lived self-indulgently in private.

13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. 

The first condemnation against them was for locking people out of heaven by ensuring that the means of accessing heaven by faith was obscured from them.

The religious leaders had no interest or understanding of heaven and thus did not care to go there themselves and made no effort to show the lay people how to get there.

Have mercy on us O God.

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