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Be seated. If you are a guest of 2819 sitting in this room, overflow wherever you are, we welcome you to our church where we are very serious about the spread of the Gospel and the multiplying disciples examples because we are socially aware, biblically conscious, that time is running out and that this is the hour, this is the moment to be serious about your walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are one of our digital disciples, watching me live right now across the nation, around the world, we welcome you to 2819. And if you're not a follower of Jesus Christ and you are in this room, and we know that you are in here, we want you to know that you can be long before you believe you could be amongst us, before you believe you could keep listening to these conversations that our shepherd is having with sheep. Our prayer for you is that you would hear the invitation of Christ and that you would hurl yourself at the foot of the cross, that you would come into this spiritual family, that your name will be recorded in life before time has run out on you. We are in the end or the back half of one of the most important series in our study through the book of Matthew. We are in a series called Entry and End Times, in which we are studying together the final words and the final actions of our Lord and Savior, the man, Jesus Christ. And in this message, our text is coming From Matthew, chapter 23, verses 13 through 36. We tag a title to this text that is most appropriate. Woe to you, spirit of the living God, you who dwell in eternal light, you who are sovereign and all knowing and all powerful. Now in this moment, I pray an awakening for the sons and daughters. Trouble the atheists, trouble the one who was far away from you, and draw them to yourself as your holy word is proclaimed. I pray in my weakness, you give me strength to declare these truths that are forever settled in heaven. We want to lean in to see your beauty, your brilliance and your majesty, your love and your fury. Not for entertainment, not to hear a man, but to behold the beauty of of the one you called the Christ. I ask this in the mighty and the majestic and the matchless name of our soon coming King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen and amen. And amen. Woe to you. Now, family, from the days of the beginning of my Christian walk in November 2003, I have seen two grievous forces that are always at work against those who call themselves followers of Christ and those who may even be seekers of Christ. One of those forces that I have seen is that those of us who call ourselves followers of Christ will always be the subject of spiritual attacks. Because we have a real enemy called Satan, that dragon of old who hates those who bear the image of God. And so as long as you and I have breath, and as long as you and I bear the name of Christ, we will always be the subject of spiritual attacks. It is that annoyance when all things are going well and then out of nowhere a storm rises up in your life where out of nowhere hell breaks out from every side in your life, a backstabbing, a friend abandons you, trouble in the marriage, a doctor's report, an affliction you didn't plan for. Satan now has come against your home, your mind, your heart, your marriage, your children. We know this by the writings of Paul when he penned the letter to the church at Ephesus. He taught us in chapter six that God gave you and I a spiritual armor. And that spiritual armor of Ephesians, chapter 6, watch. It prophesies to you a battle. So there is no Christianity without a fight. Let me say this to you again. There is no Christianity without a fight. Let me say this one more time. There is no Christianity without warfare. There is no Christianity with fight. That's why we must train followers of Christ man to be fit for. For battle and for warfare. Especially when you're going in the right direction. Sometimes opposition is assigned to you that you're on the right path. And of all the pieces the armor fits on, there is one place there is no armor, and that is for your back. Because there is only one direction in the kingdom, and that is forward. But I have seen in my 21 years of walking with the Lord another grievous things that come against those who are followers of Christ or those who are seekers of Christ. And not only spiritual warfare, but spiritual deception. This is when the enemy works through those who are false teachers, who have false teachings, with false authority coming after the saints of God or the seekers of God to lower them away from Christ, away from the Church, away from the Word, away from truth. Both of them are destructive. But I think in my estimation, the one that is most damaging is the latter one. Spiritual deception. Because family, you can go through a spiritual battle and still come out with your faith intact. You can go through a spiritual battle and still come out on the other side. But there are people who have been the victims of spiritual deception. Hear me. Who has not come out on the other side. They have not come out with their faith. They have not come out with their testimony. You See this all the time in the United States. People who went to seminary and say, I don't know if the Bible can be trusted. People who was once on fire and then another season, they're far away from God. Like you and I have sat in classes and you've heard your professor say, look left and look right. At the end of the semester, one of those people will not be there. And in the same way as we walk into the kingdom, man, years go by, you look left and you look right and people who used to be on fire are no longer on fire. It's the same pattern all the time. You've seen this, right? They come into community and then all of a sudden they start reading things on the Internet that has nothing to do with God. They start reading books that have nothing to do with God. They start putting themselves in social media groups that have nothing to do with God. They start putting in their heart the things Jesus said in the book of Revelation, those deep things of Satan. And now all of a sudden they've grown in self righteousness, they've grown in bitterness towards pastors and the church and biblical community. Now they're anti church, anti community, anti pastors, anti shepherds, anti Bible. And now they have some other doctrine that they try to pass off. This is more damaging. Family, hear me. Because this is happening all around our country. It's happening every place in America. It's happening right now on social media, TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook. We see people rising up with false authority and leading, suspecting sheep, unsuspecting sheep, seekers of Christ, leading them far away. This, hear me, is far more destructive because in the end there are millions, millions of men and women who was this close to salvation on the doorstep of the kingdom, who are going to be eternally separated from God. Watch this. Because of doctrine, because of something they believed, because of strongholds built up in their mind that they think they were smarter than God, smarter than his Word. And they latched hold of some New Testament apostle, some New Age apostle, some fake phony Facebook prophet who got some 4am revelation different than the word of God. And because we don't read and because we're biblically illiterate, we believe everything preachers say. Where you should stop believing everything that we should say. You should stop checking behind us and reading the scriptures for yourself. Because the more truth you know, the easier it is to discern a lie. But for lack of biblical knowledge, watch right now as I'm talking to you. There are demons standing in pulpits all across America leading people astray. And right now, as I'm talking to you, there are people on a fast track to eternal damnation. Not because they were wicked people, but because they were ignorant people. Doctrine will put people in hell. And the most dangerous threat to the body of Christ is not just Satan himself, but the ambassadors he works through to come into churches. Start your little small group, start your little unauthorized group and lead people out of the church, out of the gathering, away from God, into an eternal furnace waiting for your whole little group. That is the most dangerous thing that we face. This is why the apostle said, as soon as we leave, we know ravenous wolves are going to come into the church. Hear me. And they will not spare the flock. That the thing you need to look after for more than anything else is your soul. And that's why you should not give access to everybody, to your soul. Everybody should not have access to your soul. You cheapen your soul when you give everybody access to your soul. You think because you got a big Instagram, I owe you access? Or because you got a platform, I owe you access. Or because you do a conference, I owe you access to. Or because you got a book and a podcast, I owe you access. You watch too much. You thumb too much. Is why you got strong thumbs and weak souls. We swipe and listen to too many false prophets. Your thumb is strong and your soul is weak. This is the seriousness, hear me, at the center of our text. This is not a game. This is the complexities of what we call the last public sermon of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear me. In his first public sermon, he preaches to the people eight blessings. In his last public sermon, he will preach to people 8 woes. They are juxtaposed one another. Beginning his ministry with blessings, ending his ministry with woes and damnations and warnings. Listen, last words are very important. And when somebody's on their deathbed, their words are very important. This is the final public sermon of the Lord Jesus Christ. We should lean into his words. If we are followers, hear me. We should take his words very seriously. You remember the scene. There is your Savior, Eman, in the temple complex surrounded by thousands of people. He has just defeated his enemies, the spiritual leaders of the day, the Pharisees, Sadducees and Herodians. In a theological debate in which there was no match for the King of glory, we crowned him in the text. And now the Lord, Hear me. Looking out over a crowd with all them false fake religious leaders in the crowd, knowing that in a few days from now, he will be crucified and raised to life and gone, knowing these sheep will be left on their own with just the Holy Spirit and the apostles. He does not use his last sermon to talk about love. He does not use his last sermon to talk about blessing. He does not use his last sermon to talk about grace. No. He used his last sermon like a father would over a child. That he used his last sermon, hear me, to protect the people that he's leaving behind of the danger of these ravenous wolves called the Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees. Now, hear me. As we walk through this text, it's going to be less application and just more information. I don't want to spend so much time talking to you about ancillary things. I want you just leaning to the words of your Savior. There must be a time when we grow to a place of maturity where the words of Christ is enough. In our last message, we started the beginning of his sermon, verse 1 through 12, where he explained, exposed the character, the deeds of the Pharisees and the scribes. And now he will finish his last public address with eight woes, eight warnings of divine judgment, giving one last opportunity for any of those Pharisees to repent. Some did, like Nicodemus and for the people to hear. Listen, these are the kind of men we need to stay away from now. Family. Look, I'm about to read these to you. And as I read them to you, I want you to get in your heart that the things that Jesus says, you need to avoid this. When you see it in America, when you hear teaching like this, when you see people like this on social media, it's for you to run in the opposite direction. Hear me, Woe. I don't want no parts of that, that whatever God hates, I want to run from that. You don't want to be on the other side of a woe from God. So wherever we see woe pop up in the scriptures, we know this is something God hates. And this is something we need to run from. Side note, you need to not enjoy anything that God hates. Like God says he hates those who sow discord amongst brothers, people who tear up a church with gossip. He said he hates that in Proverbs, chapter six. But you better watch your mouth in these private chats. We need to be careful about not indulging in things that God said I hate. Things he calls an abomination, trying to change the definition of marriage. We run from things God says I hate. I don't even know how you Call yourself a Christian and you indulge in things that God says. I hate one. 12. The character of the Pharisees. 1336. My issues with them, saith the Lord. Matthew, who was there that day, an eyewitness to what Jesus has right here in the text. He says in verse 23. He says this? No. Verse 13. I'm sorry. Matthew, chapter 23, verse 13. Matthew recorded these final words of the Savior. He says to the Pharisees. Watch. He preached to his followers and to the crowds, warning them about the character of the Pharisees. He talked to his disciples in the first half of the message. Then he pivots and he talks directly to the Pharisees and the scribes that are in the crowd. He confronts them. Watch this word in public. Now, before I read, I just want to parenthetically insert this. The Lord is not some soft cotton candy European floating on crowds just playing harps. Punk. No. He confronted these men. Watch this word in public. And that every time we do this, you cry judgmental. Anytime a real man of God or a real woman of God say anything about a false preacher or about a wolf, you know what? Y' all cry judgmental. And because you keep telling us we're judgmental, you let the false prophets run free in America. They got a market in the country because we can't say nothing about it without y' all attacking us. God forbid any real pastor calls out a false prophet. You. You posted. How could you be so judgmental? You talk like that because you have not read. Some of y' all be condemning real preachers for things Jesus did. For first, we just trying to follow him. We just trying to be his model. We just trying to take up his cause. And all you cry is be judgmental. So if you keep attacking real prophets to protect fake prophets, you keep a market for fake prophets to keep deceiving you who keep crying judgment against the false prophets. How do you protect your abuser? That's what y' all do in America. You protect it. We telling you this is a wolf and stay away. You judgmental. This person is an Antichrist. You judgmental. You shouldn't talk like that. You should just pray for them. The Lord didn't pray for these Pharisees. I never see him pray for a Pharisee. What we see him doing is exposing those who were sons of the devil. Watch this. Watch. To protect you. Verse 13. Woe to you. He talks to them directly in public. Scribes and Pharisees. He calls them what they are, hypocrites. For you shut the kingdom of heaven and people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. So first, the word woe, which is a word of divine judgment and sorrow. The Lord is not just angry, his heart is broken. He calls them hypocrites, an ancient word that came out of theater, that in the ancient world people would placate in theaters. They would wear a mask in the theater, and there would be one thing on the outside and something else on the inside. They call it hypocritas, hypocrites. And over time, it became synonymous with people who live a duplicitous life. You are one thing on the outside. You are another thing on the inside. There is inconsistency between what you say and how you live. Inconsistency between how you post and how you live. Inconsistency between what you write and how you live. You are a hypocrite. This is not a person who makes mistakes. This is a person who lives an inconsistent life. He says, because of you. You shut the doors of the kingdom. I want to draw your attention to the word kingdom. It was Christ who emerged in the first century A.D. preaching the gospel of the kingdom. He came saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He came preaching a message, come from heaven for eternity. Now watch. In the first century, when Jesus came preaching that message and his cousin John the Baptist came preaching that message, there was. Watch this word revival. People are coming to the faith by the thousands. They're turning to Christ by the thousands. The scripture tells us early in Matthew that great crowds started following Christ from everywhere he traveled as he preached, taught and healed. Now watch the Pharisees. They see this happening. And in this moment, they have to make a decision. They could assist him in his ministry, help him in his ministry, pray for him. Since they were looking for the Messiah and he beared all the testimonies of the Messiah. He's preaching, healing, talking like the Messiah. He must be the Messiah. They have a decision, let's help him. They don't take that decision. They take the ladder. Let's attack him. Now watch carefully. The Pharisees begin to attack the Lord Jesus. They do everything they can to discredit his ministry. Watch as they are doing that. You create emotional conflict in the hearts of people. In the first century, do we listen to our spiritual teachers? Do we listen to this man called the Christ? Oh, my God. There is an incongruence between our spiritual teachers and this man called the Christ. Now I'M betwixt in my heart. And because I have an affinity for wolves, I side with the Pharisees. And the moment people kept siding with the Pharisees, they were shutting the doors of the kingdom. Why? Because Christ came preaching a message that led people into the kingdom, into eternity, into salvation, into life. The Pharisees preaching against them led people away from Christ, away from the Word, away from the kingdom, into a false religion. They, through their attacks of Christ, inadvertently shut the kingdom in the face of people. They slammed the door shut by blocking people from seeing the truth with their false accusations. People do this all the time now, where God raises up a real man of God, a real woman of God, with the message of the kingdom. But then you got heresy hunters and people on YouTube and people on social media who don't like you don't like your haircut, your dress, they don't like where you came from. So they make all of these comments, all of these content, all. All of these videos about real men and women of God. You turn people away from that voice and what you're inadvertently doing is shutting the doors of the kingdom. You are turning people away from gospel truth. And that blood is going to be on your hands when you die. If you don't like the vessel, pray for the vessel, especially if God sent the vessel. This is why you and I should not be like the Pharisees. Hear me. We should be people who opens the door and not people who shuts the door. That is, we should be people that do everything we can to spread the truth, spread the gospel, be involved in making Christ known, that the more we make Christ known in our lives, in our witness, in our posts and our podcasts and our sermons and our books, the more we make Christ known, the more we open the doors of the kingdom for people to run in and be saved. Do you want to be a door opener or a door closer? Because your personal life can close doors, your witness close doors. You got people who's watching you all the time. You call yourself a Christian, they see how you live. They turn away from God. They don't want nothing to do with the God you serve. You're closing the doors of the kingdom. Why? The Pharisees are not entering themselves. They don't let nobody. It's one thing to reject God for yourself. It's another thing to be the person that caused others to reject God. That's why one of the best things you can do when you find yourself on a mess, just get low. Don't parade sin all over Social media when you got unbelievers watching you, why you parading? I was about to say something. I don't want to get in trouble. Why? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We need to stop parading sin on social media. We having gender reveals and we're not married with Christian in your profile. We are turning people away from the go slamming the doors of the kingdom in their face. Why don't you deal with your sin in private with your community group instead of parading all your sin on social media. Man, come on, man. I ain't coming back there. Next week you're going to go find your little soft whack church that's going to keep you comfortable in sin while blood is piling up on your hands. I want anybody will be thankful that you're hearing gospel truth. Come on, man. Come on. We got to stop slamming this door on the faces of people who are watching our lives and listening to our doctrine. Like these Pharisees because of their false religion was a hindrance to people being saved. I'm trying to. Sister. Verse 15. Now verse 14 is missing. This would be one of the woes. Verse 14 is missing in Matthew because it was not there in the original manuscripts. But the woe that would be in verse 14. You could find it in Mark's writing, you could find it in Luke's writing. When the Lord said, woe for what they did, they took advantage of widows, people who was insecure, people who was emotionally distressed. They took advantage of widows. These false teachers, they took advantage of their emotions and they prayed big prayers in public to make a show of themselves. Then in verse 15, he says to them, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You travel across the sea and land to make a single proselyte which is a convert to Phariseeism. And when he becomes a follower or proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. So he says, woe to you. Scribes and Pharisees watch you travel far distances. You go through great lengths on social media, post conference to convert people to your false religion. And when you convert people to your false religion, you make them twice the son of hell. Why? Because oftentimes new converts have more zeal than their teachers. And so now they are spreading your lies more, more aggressively on social media. He says, woe to anybody who makes a convert into a false religion. The Lord says, woe to you. This is what happened to Paul before he was saved. He was under a man named Gamaliel. Because Paul was a Pharisee and he was more zealous than Gamaliel is why he was killing Christians in the first century A.D. he was twice the son of Hell before God got a hold of his heart. You better be thankful that God got a hold of your heart. This is us. It's one thing to not believe we're being a false religion. It's another thing to convert others to a false religion. That's why we need to pray for the millions of people that are in false religions and spreading false religions. They show up at your door with their bow ties and their tithes trying to spread false religion. They're traveling far distance to make people sons of hell. They're standing in the grocery store and they're standing in the airport. They're standing at the bus station with their little magazines trying to make people twice the son of Hell. We need to be praying for all these people who are in false religions, fake Christian religions, and trying to spread that fake doctrine in society. This is the problem. When we have bad exegesis, bad hermeneutics, and we're spreading that false doctrine in society. The Lord says, woe, verse 16. For us, the third world. Woe to you blind guides who say, if anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the goal in the temple, he is bound by his oath, you blind fools. Who which is greater, the goal or the temple that has made the goal sacred? And you say, if one swears by the altar, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gift or the altar, he is bound by his oath, you blind men. For which is greater, the gift or the altar. That makes the gift sacred. So watch God. So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and him who sits upon it. She calls them blind fools. Blind men, blind guides. Because that's what false teachers are. They are blind fools. Blind men, blind guys. Blind guys leading people to hell. These Pharisees had a law called Corbin, watch the things of God, not important to them. The temple, the altar means nothing. The gold, the gift, the materialism, that means something. Bring those things to the temple. We're going to keep those for ourselves. We're going to keep those for ourselves. That's what they was doing. Watch. That is what they was doing. They lived in A time and a culture where everybody was lying, lying abound. And for people to have trust in what you say, they was making all these oaths. This is why Jesus came along and said, family, stop making all these oaths. Stop swearing by your mama when you we in the south, right? I swear by my mama. I'm telling the truth. No, don't swear by your mama and don't swear by your father. Don't swear by nothing. As soon as you swear, you're bound by God. This is why God taught you and I. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Watch. Let your character be so strong. We believe what you say. You want character so strong that when you speak, people believe what you say. We want to trust what you say without a contract. I want to trust what you say not because you swore. I want to trust what you say because your character is strong. Strong character makes strong words. Weak character makes weak words. Why you begging me for trust when you're inconsistent? You can't trust inconsistent people. Husbands, you want your wife to trust you. Be consistent. Ministers, you want people to trust you. Be consistent. I'm trying to. Verse 23. The fourth. Woe, we remove. Verse 14. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees. Hypocrites, for you tithe, mint and dill and cumin. This is monumental. And you have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done all of them without neglecting one. Others you blind guides straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. Watch. Tithing was an Old Testament principle that showed up in the life of Abraham. He came back from war and tithe a tenth of everything he got from war to a man named Melchizedek, who had no parents, a type of Christ then in the law. God gives his people tithing in the law so that they would put aside 10% of everything that came in from their harvest to help the foreigner to help build the temple and the church. Although tithing is not structured to be bound in the New Testament, Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, we give out of the generosity of our heart. The principle was give 10%. Now these Pharisees watch this. They were so legalistic. Pay attention. They are tithing from the seasonings in their cabinet, but neglecting justice, mercy and faithfulness. Preacher, I don't get it. I don't understand. Philip. You are majoring on minors and ignoring the more important things. You are majoring on these tiny things because you're legalistic. But the other things you're not missing, this is like people that like to fight. Those who said when. Why you, Why y' all worshiping? It's not the Sabbath. It's not the Sabbath. Every time we say we're going to take a Sabbath, people come on our. They fight. Oh, you know Sunday is not the Sabbath. Give me the camera. We know that Sunday is not the Jewish Sabbath. We know that Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath. We worship Christ on Sunday because he was resurrected on Sunday. And instead of fighting us about the Sabbath, man, you should love people that may not agree with what you have to say. We gotta stop majoring on minors. You can worship Jesus any day of the week. If he told us to enter into him and he is rest. He is a type of Sabbath for me, man. I could worship at Tuesday, at 3 o' clock in the afternoon in the park in my neighborhood. This is why we give grace for non essentials and we go 10 toes down for essentials. Let's talk about the Deity of Christ. No grace. Let's talk about the triune God, no grace. Let's talk about the infallibility of the Word of God. No grace. What day? I worship on grace. This is you fighting people about the Sabbath, but you don't love people in your heart. This is why we as believers should stop having fights on social media around doctrine. When you don't have love in your heart, the Lord says, do both. Tithe and love. Tithe and care about people. Do both. You're straining out a gnat. A gnat. The smallest creature in Israel that was considered unholy swallowing a camel. The largest creature in Israel considered unholy. You focus so much on this gnat, but you're not seeing all the false doctrine you swallowing. Woe 6. Woe 5. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Verse 25. For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate inside. They are full of greed and selfish indulgence. You blind Pharisees. First clean the outside of the cup and the plate and the outside may also be clean. This is like you ain't never going to nobody's house and ask them for a drink of water. They go in, they sink to the dirty dishes, pull out a cup, they wash the outside of the cup. They leave all the mildew on the inside of the cup, pour in water and hand it to you and say, drink. You're going to take that cup, you're going to sit it down. You're not going to drink from A perverted cup. What the Lord is saying that we need to stop. Come on. Purifying our external Christianity. Fixing your clothes, fixing your hair, trying to look holy on the outside. You clean up everything on the inside, but you don't deal with the sinfulness of your heart. This is the Lord saying about the Pharisees. And me saying to you, you need to care about more than just coming to church, more than just being on a team. You need to be wringing out the sin from your heart and dealing with the inside of your heart. Hear me. This is why I pray over you every day of my life except Friday. Lord, I pray you will create in my family clean hearts every day except Friday. Lord, I pray you will create in my family pure hearts. Hear me. I want you to have a desire for a consecrated interior life. Don't nobody care about your books, your posting, your ministry, your conference, when your inside is dark, nasty, and rotten. I'm talking to us American Christians. We spend all this time trying to look holy and pious on the outside, and you do nothing about the darkness of your heart on the inside. No, you need to shed tears and wring out the sin that's in your heart. We racist. We idolatrous. We treat our skin color like an idol. We got all of this evil in our hearts. And. And you're preaching. You're trying to be holy. You're saying, bless the Lord, but you got all of that nastiness in your heart. No, Lord, give us a consecrated interior life. We want to be pure on the inside. Because you think a man with a suit is holy, but a dude with a chain around his neck is not holy. Man, get in my prayer room. Get in his prayer room. Let's talk about who's doing this real work off the platform on y' all. Y' all think a big following and a big Instagram. And you. You think people are holy because they got a big ministry or a big church or they. They wear a suit every week. And all that outside is clean, and inside they filthy and disgusting and nasty. That's why I keep trying to tell you 100 times a year, be more impressed with character than oratory. Come on, man. Woe six. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. Continues the same argument. Hypocrites. For you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness swallowed, so also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within, you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. He's saying this in public. In the first century, during times of feast like Passover, they had outside tombs. They would wash it to make it clean so nobody won't touch it and be unclean. But inside those tombs are dead bodies, corpses. He said, why do you make the interior clean and inside you are like a corpse? And then the last woe, he says to them, woe seven for us. The final one, verse 29. Now this one right here is serious. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of righteousness. Saying, if we had only lived in the days of our fathers, we. We would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. We're doing monuments to prophets. And then we say stuff like, man, if I was alive when they was alive, I would never have done what they have done. That's called self righteousness. Some of us do that. Right now we say, man, if I was alive in the first century, I would have followed Jesus with my whole heart. I would have been eating breakfast with Jesus. Man, you have Jesus right here and you don't follow him. You have Jesus in your heart through the person of the Holy Spirit. You don't follow him. You think if you would have been with him physically, you would have followed him? No, you would have been with him physically and still disobedient. You got Christ right here. You got Christ in generation, Genesis to Revelation. You got all of Christ right here. And you still don't listen to him. We still don't listen. You got his voice right here, and we still don't listen. We still don't obey. We still argue and fight and push back. Okay, verse 31. Watch what he says. Thus you witness against your own selves that you are sons of those who have murdered the prophets. You testify your own self. Verse 32. Because Jesus is gangster like that. Fill up then, the measure of your fathers, that is. Y' all talking about honoring prophets. And in your heart you're plotting the death of the greatest prophet the world has ever known. Come on, man. Y' all are decorating the tombs of prophets, and before you is the son of God. As I'm talking to you, you're plotting my death in just three days from now. So watch what the Lord says. Fill up then, the measure of your fathers, that is, go ahead and do what you plan to do. If people think Jesus is soft, this soft little European Jesus floating around. No, Jesus was gangster a little bit. He Told him to face hit you plotted my death. Watch. Go ahead and do what you got to do. Then go ahead and finish your evil. Gosh, that's so gangster. Watch. Since I already know what you plotting. Go ahead and do what you got to do. I'm going to come out anyway. I'm going to be raised in three days anyway. I'm coming out that tomb anywhere. Go ahead and do what you got to do. I'm coming out anyway. Tell the devil. Go ahead and take your best shot. I'm coming out anyway. Go ahead and take your best shot. I'm coming out anyway. Won't shut me up, Won't shut me down. Won't rob me of praise. I'm going to praise God. No matter what shot you take, somebody give him praise right now. He told his enemies, take your best shot. Verse 33. You serpents. Watch how he closes his last sermon. You serpents. You know who else he call the serpent? Satan. He's attaching them to the identity of the devil. You brood of vipers. You know what's a brood of vipers? A cluster of snakes. He's condemning the whole order of the Pharisees. How are you going to escape being sentenced to hell? He testifies of the existence of hell. You don't want to believe in that because you think God would never send nobody there. The Lord would never allow human beings to be known. Hell is the place that exists. It's a prison cell like Rikers Island. People are there right now, begging for water but begging for air. Begging for sight, begging for life, begging for light. They'll get nothing until they're tossed into the lake of fire. Ain't no purgatory false doctrine. Ain't no praying people out of hell. False doctrine. When you get clipped, wherever you did with Jesus is where you end up for the rest of eternity. That's why today is the day of salvation, not next week. As the rain is falling on Atlanta, I pray, rain down Revelation on your heart right now. Rain down repentance on your heart right now. Now watch. The Lord knew what they was about to do. He knew they was going to engineer his death. He knew that in a few days they would engineer his execution. So that in these last verses, he gives them the final judgment. He says to them in verse 34 final verses, therefore. You know what therefore is? That's a transition. It connects everything he said before to everything he's about to say. Because you have closed the door of the kingdom. Because you have been my enemy. Because you have turned People away because. Because you have lied, because you have a false religion, because you have rejected the Messiah, because people in society are rejecting the Christ. Therefore, because of your rejection, I'm going to send you prophets, preachers, wise men and scribes, writers, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute them from town to town. Now watch. He's not sending these men to win them. He's sending these men to fill up the wrath of God against them. I'm going to send you more people after me when I'm done, knowing you're going to reject them. That's why they killed Stephen. Knowing you're going to persecute them, knowing you're going to do this. Watch. I'm going to make sure when I'm done with you, I'm going to fill up the wrath of God's cup all the way to the brim. I'm going to make sure you can't escape this wrath. I'm going to make sure I fill up this wrath. So much grace won't be able to get you out. This is why it's dangerous to hear truth and keep rejecting it. Every time you hear truth and reject it, you're just filling up wrath for the Day of Judgment. How many conferences, how many books, how many sermons, how many Sunday mornings. We're just filling up wrath. So when we die, you try to give God all these excuses. And he said, how many Sundays you've been to church, how many vbs you've been to? How many camps, how many Bible studies, how many sermons, how many podcasts? You heard all of that and you still rejected me. No, the cup is full now. The more truth you know, the more you're responsible for. It'd be better for you to not hear truth at all than to hear truth and reject it. The more truth you hear, the more you're responsible for. There's going to be no excuses on the Day of Judgment. Oh, my God, I ain't coming here next week. You need to hear this so you don't die and blame God. You can't tell God, no. You was going to that whack church for 30 years that never preached the truth. You're going to die and say, God, I went to service. No. He's going to say to me, many of you come to me, say, lord, Lord, did we not do all this stuff in your name? He's going to say, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you the atheist is not going to call him Lord. He's talking to people who think they're Christians. I'm going to send you these people. Y' all going to kill them. That's why they killed Stephen. That's why they flogged Christians. And here is the reason. Verse 35. So that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. You killed a prophet in the temple. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Notice the word, this generation. The Lord said to these Pharisees, because y' all are about to commit the ultimate sin. You about to kill the son of God. I'm going to fill up the wrath of God against you. And all the blood from the first martyr in the Old Testament to the last martyr of the Old Testament Testament. I'm gonna put all that blood on you. Abel, the first martyr in the Old Testament, killed in Genesis. Zechariah killed in second Chronicles, which we believe was the final book of the Jewish Old Testament. He said, all of these people you killed in between. I'm gonna charge all that blood to you so that this generation will not escape. And the generation he was talking about was the generation of people. Lie. The most unique generation in the history of the world. Why, Philip? Why? Why? Because that generation had the Old Testament. That generation had the prophets. That generation. Watch this. They had God in the flesh walking around, and y' all still rejected him. The most unique generation in the history of the world. You got the Old Testament, you got the prophets. You have Christ in a flesh, physical body walking around. And y' all still rejected it. So on that generation, I'm going fill up the cup and watch how he closes out his sermon. Verse 37. He looks out over Jerusalem. Those Pharisees, those Sadducees. He looks out over the city that rejected him. And he says, oh, Jerusalem. And Jerusalem. Gosh. The city that kills. The prophets, stones, those who are sent to you. Oh, often I would have gathered you, your children together as a hen gathers. Watch her brood under her wings. You know what? A mother puts her wings over her hands. You know what she does? She gives them protection. She gives them nourishment. He said, I wanted to protect you. I wanted to nourish you. I wanted to be a God to you. But you were not willing. They resisted his grace. It wasn't irresistible right there. They resisted his grace. See, your house is left to you. Watch desolate. You know that is empty. You won't have the Messiah. I take my hand off, you won't have my protection. It's left to you empty, desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Watch. The Lord prophesied to them. The nation of Israel is going to left desolate. I'm going to remove my wing from over you the evidence that Jesus can be trusted. Because this is around AD33, maybe around 30 something years later from this. About 40 years later, there is an uprising in Jerusalem. A leader called Titus rolls into the city sacks. The city burns the temple kills the Jews. Hundreds of thousands of millions of Jews. Their bodies are dead in the street. He ransacked Jerusalem. And for 2000 years the nation of Israel has removed. They've lost the wing of God because they rejected them. They're still, still waiting for the one who came 2,000 years ago. This is why this people has suffered. They've gone through great hardship and trial. Watch because they God has he. He has left them desolate. But watch. He gives them hope in the end that a day is coming, man. You're going to say to me, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord in that great tribulation, in that great millennial kingdom. When he deals with the Jews, at the end they're going to realize he was the Messiah and they will repent. This is me now saying to you, be careful with false prophets, be careful with false teachings. Be careful about all the books you're reading, the podcast, you're listening to the churches. You're going to be careful about those who prop up themselves higher than God. You need to guard your soul from these kind of men. They're everywhere. The Bible, Bible says the false prophets have gone out into the whole world. Be careful about heresy hunters that keep persecuting voices, men and women that God has established. Be careful about being a kind of person who shuts the doors of the kingdom with your words, your post, your testimony, your witness. We want to avoid the woes that Jesus gave to these Pharisees. We want to remember that it was Christ who came, lived, died, was raised to lead you into the kingdom, that you may have life and life more abundantly. This is the season to be right with Christ. Be serious with Christ. Read that Bible for yourself. Pray, fast. Go after Jesus with your whole heart, man. This is the season to be a person who opens the doors of the kingdom. Through your prayer, through your witness, through your sacrifice and not be a person who closes the door of the kingdom. You are anointed. You have been chosen. God is with you. Your name is recorded in the book of life. Man, be a person who opens the door. Be a woman who opens the door. Be a man who opens the door. Open the door with your prayers. Open the door with your post. Open the door with your podcast. Open the door with your books. Open the door with your preaching. Open the doors with your life. Open the doors with your witness. Open the doors of the kingdom for people to run in and run from every woe. This is my prayer for you, Sovereign Lord. I pray for everyone under the sound of my voice, all of us who are living in these last days full of wolves and false prophets, with false authority and false ministries. I am asking you that you would pour out upon us like it's raining outside. Pour out upon us discernment, make us more sensitive to your spirit. Open our blinded eyes that we would see and our ears that we would discern lies in our society. Let us not be afraid to take a stand against false prophets who false teaching, false religions, false ministries. Let us be those who open the doors of the kingdom and run from every woe. I pray that over my brothers and sisters and pray that you would save the person who's far away from you right now. Save them. Deliver us from our antics, our foolishness, our wasting of time. Let us give you a whole yes. Burn us in our hearts. Let us see the world as you see it. Anoint our lips to speak truth. Let us stand against the evil in this generation. Set this church on fire. Bring revival in this nation. Expose the false prophets. Pull up their skirts. Empty their churches. Deliver those who are under the tyranny of false prophets. Bring a revival of repentance, awareness and gospel seriousness. I ask this in the mighty and the majestic and the matchless name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.