Just preach!

In Matthew 15 Jesus does something that was very bold.  So bold in fact some might call it callused.   

Jesus is speaking… [Matt. 15:7-12 (NASB)]  7 "You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: 8 'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FARAWAY FROM ME. 9 'BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.' " 10 After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, "Hear and understand. 11 "It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man." 12 Then the disciples came and said to Him, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?"   13 But He answered and said, "Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted. 14 "Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit."

Wow!  Jesus really let the Pharisees have it.  He calls them hypocrites.  He says that they honor God with their lips, but their heart is far from Him.  He says they worship in vain. 

I’ve noticed something interesting here.  He says all this, to their faces none the less, and then His disciples came to later Him and said, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?" 

The disciples were concerned that Jesus had offended the Pharisees, but Jesus wasn’t concerned in the least!  He knew they were offended, but he didn’t care! 

Now before you think I’m giving you the right to just go around offending people because Jesus did it, take a look at what He was doing here.  He was calling for truth and true righteousness.  He was condemning the sins of organized (false) religion.  The Pharisees were basing their relationship with God on their own merit, which is never good enough.  They were preaching their ideas rather that the truth of God.

Then Jesus goes even farther by saying, "Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted.”  The Pharisees were a ‘plant’ that the Father had not planted, or in other words they were not a branch of Judaism that God ordained.  “They are blind leaders of the blind.” 

We live in a world full of false religion.  Multiple, so called, “Christian” denominations have chosen to condone what God has condemned. 

Now here’s my point.  We have to preach the truth, period.  If the truth of God offends someone, or some group, a denomination, or even a whole religion, it’s still the truth and we still have to preach it.  Jesus advice was, “leave them alone.”  Let them live in their deception if they choose to do so.  God will uproot the plants that He has not planted. 

There are others out there though that need to hear the message we preach.  They are looking to hear the truth and will listen to it and be saved, if we don’t allow the hypocrites to distort the truth of God’s word.

Preach the truth and let God worry about who will be 'uprooted'… Our intention is not to be offensive, but we cannot worry about the truth offending someone, and neither is it ours to worry about who will be judged by God for wrong doctrine.  Just preach!  Preach the truth.  That's what we are called to do.