Welcome to Bible Believers Fellowship and the ministry of bbfohio.com and our study in Luke chapter 11 verses 42 through 44 titled, Woe Unto You Pharisees! This is Pastor Greg, and I'm thankful for Bible believers who look forward to our biblical examination of current events and our expository studies of the Authorized King James Bible. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to share a prayer request, you can send those to us by email at bbfohio at protonmail.org. or you can send your message along with any check or money order contributions that you'd like to send to support this ministry by addressing those to Bible Believers Fellowship, P.O. Box 662, Worthington, Ohio 43085. You can also donate at bbfohio.com using the PayPal donation button. Now we begin with the current events update and then on to our study of Luke chapter 11 verses 42 through 44 titled, Woe unto you Pharisees. This is part one of two. Our current events update. Joe Biden anti-christian and pro-sodom. And that's just fact. Christian schools are under assault by the Biden administration. A judge says that the Biden administration can force Christian colleges to change LGBT policies. In his executive order signed January 20th, Biden said, it is the policy of my administration to prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. In other words, he's promoting discrimination against straight people. And he doesn't want straight people to have bathrooms where the opposite sex doesn't come into those bathrooms. And he also wants to discriminate against Christians who believe that it's a sin for a man to dress like a woman or a woman to dress like a man. We believe it's a sin for two men to engage in sex or two women to engage in sex or for them to have sex with dogs or any other animals. We also believe it's a sin for two men or two women to claim to be married. It's blasphemous and it's a violation of the true nature of marriage. Joe Biden is an anti-Christian bigot and he is pro-Sodom. Our reprobate, Mr. Resident, is what I call him, not Mr. President. He's Mr. Resident, is filled with the spirit of Sodom. And the backslidden Laodicean church says very little about it. You wanna know a backslidden Christian, it's one, and a backslidden pastor, or an apostate, fake pastor, he will not tell his congregation what you're hearing right now. Many Christian groups say the executive order could have a devastating impact on religious freedom. Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the College of the Ozarks, which is the particular college that was taken to court over this, or went to court over this. It's a Christian college in Missouri. Jesus told us, likewise also as it was in the days of Lot, whose side are you on? If you're on the Lord's side, then you're not on the side of the LGBT movement. If you're on the Lord's side, you're on whatever the Lord says is right. Christian denominations are continuing to fall away. In Sweden, the largest denomination in that country, is a Lutheran denomination. And they penned an open letter and proclaimed itself a transgender denomination. The largest denomination in Sweden. Posted an open letter this month to the transgender community declaring that it too is transgender. The Church of Sweden, a Lutheran denomination with more than five million members, posted the letter on its official website with the names of nearly 1,000 people who signed it. It was authored by six individuals, four of whom are priests, which tells you something about that denomination because they're not supposed to be a priesthood in the real New Testament church. They're a bunch of disgusting fakes. The Church of Sweden is no more a church than the Church of Satan is a church. It's not a church of Jesus Christ. We are writing to you from a church that is also trans. A church is made up of people, the letter says. People are different. We have conferments, employees, church wardens, elected representatives, and other parishioners who define themselves as transgender people. The church thus also consists of transgender people. Therefore, the church could be described as trans. Well, a true church preaches that trans should repent If you're in the closet as trans, if you're in the closet as a homosexual, if you're in the closet as a thief, if you're in the closet as a liar, if you're in the closet as a murderer, if you're in the closet of anything as anything that God says is a sin, repent. 2 Thessalonians 2.23 says, Let no man deceive you by any means for that day, talking about when God pours out His wrath on the world, shall not come except there come a falling away first. These are the last days. We're there. And we just have to remind you that we will continue to stand for what's right, for the truth, no matter who likes it and who doesn't. And if we suffer consequences for standing with God, we also know we suffer reward from God. And we're gonna stand no matter what happens. And I hope you're preparing, because you may be called upon to stand or lose a job. You may be called upon to stand or lose family. You may be called upon to stand or lose friends. You may be called upon at some point to stand or lose your life. What are you going to do? That's between you and the Lord, but you shouldn't wait for it to happen before you prepare your heart. Stand. Amen? Alright, we're in Luke chapter 11, verses 42 to 48. Woe unto you Pharisees. I'm not talking to you, I hope. I mean, yeah, I could be, but you know. Woe unto you Pharisees. Luke 11, 42 through 48. I'll have you read the even verses with me, so pick right up there with verse 42. But woe unto you, Pharisees, for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs and pass over judgment and the love of God. These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone. Woe unto you, Pharisees, for you love the uppermost seats in the synagogues and greetings in the markets. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. Then answered one of the lawyers and said, I'm gonna stop there. You know what, that's a typo. I'm stopping at verse 44. So, I don't know how that happened. Jenny, you know, she's such a distraction, I'll blame her. She's so pretty, she sits across the room there and I'm typing, I just keep looking over at her and winking. So, in our text, gentle Jesus is about to strike again. Now, don't get me wrong, and I don't want you to think wrong on these things, obviously, as your Bible teacher this morning. Jesus can be and was and is very gentle toward those who are, let's just say, those sinners that need saved His Holy Spirit woos them in. He doesn't club them over the head with unconditional election and irresistible grace. But He does put them under conviction. But there's a point where gentle Jesus lets loose on those people. He did on me. I was one of those really hard-headed types that had to be brought to my knees, face my mortality and my sin to be saved. He does that out of love. Same thing's true about you and I now that I'm His child. There have been times where Jesus has kind of let it fall on me. Sometimes it's just my own consequences, my own choices. Other times He's used other things to bring me to my knees to get right. You know what? If you're without chastisement, you're not His Son, you're not His child. So that's why we thank God when we know God's pouring it on. And we should then repent and confess our sins, and He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. But these Pharisees, they're not the new kids on the block. And He's been dealing with some of these guys, He's seen them by face numerous times. He's also aware of what they're doing when He's not in their presence. You see, He's God. And so He knows things that, like with you, I have no idea. I mean, you could be the biggest hypocrite in town and I wouldn't know it. I'm not the Holy Spirit. I'm just a Bible teacher. What you have to do is learn to allow God's Spirit to speak to you and guide you. His Word, as you read it, when there's something that isn't right in your life and you see it right there in black and white, don't just read past it. When you read that and it convicts you, you should stop right there. And don't go another word into the text until you make things right, right there. Allow the Holy Spirit to do a work in you. But these Pharisees were stiff-necked, hard-headed, and keep in mind Jesus' definition of a Pharisee. We went over it last week, but to remind you, I'll read another text we didn't read last week. Matthew 15.9 says, But in vain they do worship Me. See, a lot of hypocrites are church members. Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. That's not just the Pharisaical preachers, although there's some of those. But what's it mean? It means people, how many of you hear people say things like, my Jesus? You're probably in trouble. I mean, 99 out of 100 times when someone says, my Jesus, my Jesus wouldn't send someone to hell. My Jesus wouldn't condemn someone because they love someone. That's the gay thing. My Jesus wouldn't condemn, and it'd be straight people just, you know, living in sin or whatever too. My Jesus. Well, I don't care what your Jesus thinks. Amen? Don't tell me what your Jesus thinks. I know what the true Jesus Christ of Nazareth thinks. I got his word on it right here. And what your Jesus thinks contradicts this book. Your Jesus is the devil. See, Satan appears as an angel of light. Satan will appear as a Jesus. Satan appears as Mary all the time. I believe Satan appears as aliens all the time. Satan can appear in... he's a counterfeiter. And there's a whole lot of people with a Jesus that they didn't get from the Bible. They got from the figments of their own imagination. Sadly, a lot of times it's things that they were taught by their own churches or their own families. That's why you're to be a Berean, anything you hear Greg Miller teach, anything your old Sunday school teacher taught, anything your own parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, best friends, anybody, anybody teaching you is subject to this book. And you've got to test it. So how does Jesus feel about these Pharisees who teach for doctrines the commandments of men? Watch the woes. Everybody say woe. So the three woes to the Pharisees we're gonna look at this morning. And then we'll pick on the lawyers and scribes next week. The first woe is because they're loveless. They're without love. Look there in verse 42 again. For ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs and pass over judgment and the love of God. You see, first of all, if you judge sin today, people look at you and say, judge not lest you be judged. You know what you say? Okay, now read the rest of what Jesus said. You just quoted the first verse of Matthew 7. Let's open it up to Matthew 7. If you would, turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 7. And now you quoted verse 1. Let's continue reading verses 2 through 5. You see? And you'll find out that that's not all Jesus said. He didn't just say, unless you be judged. He's basically telling you in those verses how to judge and not to be like the hypocrites who judge even though they themselves are guilty of the same or other sin. But once you get things right with God, that's your job. Did you know that? You're to judge when you see, not someone's heart, you can't read their hearts, but you judge what you see and you hear by the Word of God. That's not just teachers, that's everything. And so if you see somebody out there doing something they shouldn't be doing, you don't go up and start yelling and screaming at them, you just walk up to them as a brother or sister in Christ and say, you know, that's not really right according to the Bible. Well, who are you to judge? I'm exactly who the Bible says should judge. Paul says, no you're not, that you'll judge angels. We're going to be involved in judging people too, believe it or not. Now I got my ideas of what that entails, but the Bible says it. Go read Paul's epistles to 1st and 2nd Corinthians, you'll see all that. Good works mean nothing. without a heart of love for God and charity for others. So you're not a judge-not-crowd, but you do what you do out of love. You love them enough to tell them the truth. Amen? You love them enough to confront them about their, first of all, if they're unsaved, about their need for salvation. If there's somebody that you know is going to hell, and you will not risk having your little feelings hurt if they tell you off, You won't risk that or even risk losing your friendship with them. You know what? You make the choice. When they go to hell, are they going to say, you didn't tell me for eternity? Do you want people in hell cursing you for eternity because you didn't tell them all about how to be saved? Or would you rather them in hell saying, I should have listened to you and say your name? See, I want people, and if they go to hell, I don't want them cursing me for not telling them how to stay out of it. That's what you do when you love people. By the way, Scripture with Scripture. Look at 1 Corinthians 13. A very familiar passage, but the new versions change the word charity to love. And you say, well, the problem is no one knows what love is anymore. Love is lust these days. So 1 Corinthians 13 verse 1 says, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels. That's not talking about Pentecostal speaking in tongues. There's a heavenly language and it's not what Pat Robertson is selling you. The heavenly language is actually a language spoken in heaven. And we're not going to run all the references, but I'm telling you this so you can go do your own Bible study. The Bible says there's a language in heaven that we're going to speak when we get there. It's a new language. At least new to us. So, though I could speak with that language that angels speak, and have not charity, I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. All your showing off means nothing if you think you're so spiritual, but you don't demonstrate love. Verse 2 says, and though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. Read verse 3. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. There were people, through the years, there have been people burned at the stake. And then they went to hell. Why? Because you're not saved by being burned at the stake. And those people were burned at the stake for blasphemy, even though some people were burned at the stake for blasphemy and they didn't actually do it. There were some people burned at the stake for attacking the Roman Catholic Church. We'd pretty much applaud that in most cases. But if they just were sick of the church and weren't Christians, weren't saved, they were burned at the stake and went to hell. How many times have you heard people like, all those people, 3,000 or whatever, died in the Twin Towers in 2001? Do you know a lot of those people went straight to hell? You don't go to heaven for dying at the hands of terrorists. Now, it's terrible and we respect them and their families and all that, but it's still no different than dying in a car crash or a heart attack. If you die unsaved, you go to hell. It doesn't matter how you die. And as a Christian, you could give your life, even be burned at the stake. And if you have not charity, it says it means nothing as far as God's concerned. And it really won't mean anything as far as your witness is concerned. If people know the real you, and know you really aren't motivated by love, and we don't have time to go into all that, the whole chapter, but that's the basic bottom line. But I want you to look at Mark 12 before we get back to our text. Mark 12, 29, it says, When the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? Let's read verses 29 through 31 together. And Jesus answered him, the first of all the commandments is, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. Notice, those basically sum up the rest of the law. Why? Because if you obey those, you get it all right. If you love God, you're not going to have other gods. You love God, you're not going to have little idols you're praying to. If you love God, you're going to be faithful to God and His Word. And so that's going to cause you to what? Not violate His Word. And if you love others, you're going to preach the Gospel. If you love others, you're not going to steal from them. You're not going to lie to them or about them. All these things that we want to do are motivated, if they're respected by God and if they're done right, they're motivated by your love for God and others. And you take somebody who's not saved, and they can post the Ten Commandments on their wall, and they can read it every day before they go out the door, and they will still break those commandments when they go out that door. But even if they keep those commandments, pretty much, they will still be sinning, because they won't be motivated out of a love for God and others. That's the bottom line. And notice Jesus says, and these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. There are people who never give a dime to the ministry, and they prop up these out of context, and they pretend that, you know, since Jesus rebuked these guys who tithed and gave offerings, that somehow means you're not supposed to give offerings. That's not what he says. He says, these ought ye to have done. But the problem was, they left the other undone. Judgment and love. So you ought to be a giver. You ought to give to the local church ministry, but you ought to be a giver when you see someone in need. You ought to be a giver when God's Spirit impresses upon you to help somebody out. You've got a pair of shoes sitting in your closet you know you're never going to wear. And you know this person could wear them and they need them. That kind of thing. Don't leave those things undone. But you ought to do those and not leave the other undone either. We should maintain both, amen? Works with love. People get the wrong idea that because we believe salvation is apart from works, that somehow we're against good works. No, we just don't want you to think that's gonna get you to heaven. Because then it'll be partially our fault that you wake up in hell. thinking your good works are gonna get you to heaven. We want you to work. We even sing about it. We'll work till Jesus comes. I mean, there's other, what's the other song? Work for the night is coming. We have all kinds of songs we sing about working. We never though sing or teach that those works in any way help as a matter of your salvation. And your works are to be done because you love the Lord. You want to please the Lord. And you love others. And really that love is only going to be there if God has given you that love. God gives you the love that you can have for other people. So works without love, or love without works, Well, that was a weak... That was... It sounded better at home when I was testing it. Like... But anyway, you got the idea. So the second woe. Number one is they were without love. And judgment plays in hand with that. I already explained that. Number two, they were proud. Woe unto the Pharisees, because they're proud. Look at verse 43 again in Luke 11. Woe unto you Pharisees, for you love the uppermost seats in the synagogues and greetings in the markets. I've known some people who have some real talent, but they will only use it if they get glorified for it. They'll only use it if they can get their names in lights or everybody applauding and telling them how wonderful they are and all that. You know what the Bible says?