Welcome to Bible Believers Fellowship and the ministry of bbfohio.com and our study in Luke chapter 11 verses 44 through 52 titled, Woe unto you also ye lawyers! This is Pastor Greg, and I invite you to join us in our ongoing verse-by-verse study of the King James Bible. If you have any questions, comments, or prayer requests you'd like to send to us, you can send those by email at the address BBFOHIO at PROTONMAIL.COM. You can also send your message along with any check or money order contributions to support this ministry. by addressing those to Bible Believers Fellowship, PO Box 662, Worthington, Ohio 43085. Donations can also be made at bbfohio.com using the PayPal donation button. And now we begin with the current events update and then our study in Luke chapter 11 verses 44 through 52 titled, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers. This is part one of two. And we're going to start with a clarification, because there's been some news out there, and there's been some confusion about it. You've heard about the mandatory vaccination by employers. The feds have said that employers can mandate vaccines, but it's not as bad as it sounds. It's bad. It shouldn't be any mandatory vaccination at all, according to the Nuremberg Code. But this was the headline that everybody all shook up about. Employers can require vaccinations under Biden rule. But if you read the small print in an update of its COVID-19 guidance, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission also said employers could require all workers physically entering a workplace to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. But sometimes we love that three letter word. But that federal law may require the employer to provide reasonable accommodations for employees who aren't vaccinated because of disability or religious belief. And there are other legal teams and legal ministries, actually, who also are saying the same thing, that it's not good, but it's not as bad as it may sound, because if you go to our website, let me just show you this. If you go to our website, which is bbfohio.com, bbfohio.com, and up at the top is our menu, and when you see pages, I'm sorry, resources, You'll see a list of links to different pages on the website. And one of those is called information on vaccines. So if you or someone you know wants information on vaccines, you can also find there our statement that we have used for years, and I've provided a letter for those who need it for employer or school exemption from vaccinations. And you click on that link, information on vaccines, and scroll, get back up there. That isn't maximized. There we go. Now you scroll down and you'll see it's a long, it's not just an article. These are all short introductions to the links that we give. And we give a number of links. You scroll down a little ways, you'll see the COVID-19 vaccines. And one of the links here is a website that we recommend called No Jab For Me and also America's Frontline Doctors. And then we give you educational information. And then there's our statement. Bible Believers Fellowship is not opposed to vaccinations. And we're lied about by some people. They falsely claim we are anti-vaccine. We are not anti-vaccine. We oppose forced vaccinations. And we oppose disinformation. We support your right to be vaccinated. Now, I personally am not. And if you ask me why, I can tell you why, but I'll direct you to this website because that's where all the information is. We also support the right to not be vaccinated. You see, we believe a little thing around here called freedom. Liberty of conscience. It's a wonderful thing that Americans have totally forgotten existed. You should have the information you need to make an informed choice and that choice then is up to you. I say this to every pastor. Shame on any pastor pushing you to get it or not get it. All I'm pushing you to do is think. and make an informed decision. We have a couple of people I know of that have gotten the vaccine. They haven't heard me, you know, chew them out or tell them anything. You know, I just tell them it's up to you. And then we got other people who have said they're not getting it. And I haven't said anything to them either. All I do is tell you the information. So I just want you to be aware of that. BBFOHighway.com and the Mandatory is kind of with a disclaimer with accommodations. So you need to know that. Then we also want to look at some headline reviews. First of all, there's this thing going on. Conservatives are leaving the pro-Israel plantation as they call it. Now, this is InfoWars and InfoWars has been growing increasingly anti-Israel. I'm just going to say this to you. If you criticize Israel for responding to the thousands of rockets fired at them by Hamas, you're a liar. and you're a hypocrite. Because I guarantee you that if they were firing them into your neighborhood, you would want them taken out. And I don't care who it is, even the pacifists, I guarantee you that if the rockets were killing their neighbors and friends, they would want the rockets taken out. And the fact that they hide behind women and children is on them, not on Israel. And anyone saying otherwise is a liar and a fool. And it's sickening that this generation of evangelicals is the most ignorant bunch since the dark ages. And when you talk to them about something like dispensations, they won't even listen when you try to explain to them how obvious it is that the Bible is a dispensational book. All I have to do is ask you, did you get up this morning afraid to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Did you get up this morning with a plan to build an ark to survive a flood? Or did you get up this morning having celebrated Sabbath the day before and offering sacrifice in the temple at Jerusalem? Then you're a dispensationalist whether you admit it or not. It's that obvious. And yet the mass majority of Christian churches and denominations preach against dispensationalism. today. And as a result, they're growing anti-Israel and not only just on a geopolitical level, they are the only democratic nation in the Middle East that doesn't want to destroy you. The other nations around there hate America and would destroy you in a heartbeat. You give them a button and say push it, they would push it and you would die. You give that same button to Benjamin Netanyahu and he'd punch you in the mouth. Because they know that America is the reason they still exist. And there's a lot of Jews here in America, by the way. Sadly, most of them are idiots. Most of the Jews in America don't even support Israel because they're stupid. And they have a veil over their face. They continue to reject Jesus Christ as their Messiah. And everybody says, well, then you shouldn't support Israel. No, because I read the Bible. The Bible says that when Jesus returns, He's returning to a nation of unbelievers in Israel. That's what we have because that's what God prophesied. If you think that there should be a Christian nation in Israel today, you're a Bible ignoramus and you're opposing God's Word. Yes, we preach the Gospel, but I'll tell you what, there's probably not a much higher percentage of saved people in Israel than there are in America right now. The mass majority of Americans are unsaved Bible ignoramuses. And that's why our country's going to hell in a handbasket. And then of those who are saved, there are a bunch of lily-livered effeminate little mice who won't stand and speak like the men in this book. And the women, you should be as bold as the men. Amen, like J.L. who put a nail in Cicero's temple. So it's the effect of apostasy. As the people who claim to be Christian continue to go deeper into apostasy, you're going to see these things increase. This is from the Brookings Institute. As Israel increasingly relies on U.S. evangelicals for support, younger ones are walking away. Those younger ones are also allies to the LGBT. They're also using the corrupt Bible versions. They're also listening to music that doesn't sing about the blood of Jesus and doesn't sing about the gospel in hardly any of the cases of modern Christian music today. It's all going into the pit. And along with it, you're gonna see this stuff. Now watch the spin that InfoWars puts on the same story I just showed you there. InfoWars says this, a Brookings Institution poll released earlier this week that was conducted before Israel's assault on Gaza. Found support for Israel among young evangelicals imploded from 75% in 2018 to just 34% in 2021. That line is, Israel's assault on Gaza, then the Revolutionary War was an assault on King George. And the response to Pearl Harbor was an assault on the Japanese. It's the same thing. So nowhere does Brookings refer to Israel's response to Hamas rockets with the words Israel's assault on Gaza. So they misrepresented Brookings Institute with this article as well. And then there's Gab. The CEO for Gab is now turned into a Jew hater. It's because of his theology. He's an apostate Lutheran who rejects dispensationalism. And he's promoting all these different sources and sites. And see, Gab was a place where Christians thought they could go after Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and these other places started expunging Christians from their websites. And a bunch of Christians went over there and found it's a haven for Nazis and a haven for white supremacists. Now, of course, a lot of people are called white supremacists who aren't, but these guys are. A lot of them. And Andrew Torba is promoting the Jew hate. He promoted this and said, name your favorite Roman emperor. I'll start. Titus. Titus was the general who came in 70 AD and destroyed the temple and annihilated Jerusalem and then became an emperor after that. That's Andrew Torba's favorite. He posted this. He reposted this from an apostate Lutheran He's Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, and sadly their theology is one of them that teaches this stuff. There's no millennium, meaning Jesus isn't going to return and set up his kingdom the way the Bible says. There's no rapture, even though we're told to be looking for the blessed hope, or to be watching for Jesus' return at any moment. The nation state of Israel is a geopolitical aberration, not a fulfillment of prophecy. The Jews are not chosen or special. The true spiritual Israel is the church and always has been. I mean, you talk about a goofball. They think that Noah's Ark was a local church. That's what they teach. Adam and Eve were Christians. I guess they crossed themselves too before they ate of the tree. As were Noah and Joshua and David. It's idiocy. Read from Genesis to the first verse of Matthew. Whatever Bible you carry, you might have a different book order. It doesn't matter. Read the whole Old Testament. You will never at any time see the word Christian. No one in the Old Testament is a Christian. But Christ hadn't come yet, and Christ as a word wasn't used yet. It's a Greek word, Christos. They were using Mashiach as the Hebrew transliteration. They would have called him Messiah, and they would have been Messiah-ins or something. But the Messiah Abis, or I don't know, they come up some word, but they weren't Christians by any stretch. And he says this, most American pastors are liars. And I'd say, yes, every pastor who teaches that crap is a liar. And that's most pastors today. So it's all setting the stage for what we read and studied in Revelation 12. All of our Revelation studies are available free of charge, bbfi.com. Scroll down until you see the playlist and you can listen to all 200 messages covering more than 100 hours of study. Revelation 12, 17 says, And the dragon was wroth. with the woman, and in the context, if you go back and watch it, you'll see why that is Israel. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, Israel, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, that's the 144,000, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. At this point, Israel, two-thirds of them are killed, a third of them go to the wilderness, and we believe will be in Petra, and then so the dragon turns his attention to the 144,000 that are going all over the world, and he kills them all. That all is going to happen during Daniel's 70th week. And that's what all this Jew hate and all this stuff mentally preparing people for what the Antichrist is going to do. So I just want to summarize. We have bumper stickers. Charlie, can you hand me that real quick? One of those. I meant to have one up here. Now, if you're not local, we can mail you one of those. but be patient because I don't know if these might run out. But we have these, if you'd like to put on your car, but you can also, you put it somewhere where people can see it. I don't care where you put it. You can put it on the front door if you want. But we just give you these so that you can publicly, don't get one of these and stick it in your Bible and keep it or whatever. But if you're gonna post this somewhere on your car or wherever, these are free of charge, along with all this other material over here. I stand with Israel. So that, and what I summarize is this. We stand with Israel here. And when that is no longer true, if I'm dead and gone and you guys decide you're not gonna stand with Israel, take down the name Bible Believers Fellowship and call yourself something else. Because Bible believers stand with Israel. All right, Luke 11, 44 is where we're gonna jump in. For context, we will read nine verses. And then we're gonna come back and cover, I think, three of those verses again next week. We're gonna start verse 44, and I'll have you read the even verses with me, so pick up right there with verse 44. 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 unto him, Master, thus saying, thou reproachest us also. And he said, woe unto you also, ye lawyers, for ye laid men with burdens grievous to be born, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe unto you, for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers, for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute, that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation. From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias which perished between the altar and the temple, verily I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation. Woe unto you, lawyers, for ye have taken away the key of knowledge. Ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. God's people say, Amen. Amen. So we began with the first woe to the scribes and lawyers in our previous study, which was also to the Pharisees. And that is in verse 44. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. for ye are as graves. So we want to start with just looking at the fact that the Pharisees, the scribes and lawyers, we'll focus on the scribes and lawyers this time. They are actually graves, which are, what are graves full of? Dead men's bones. Dead men's bones. It also said full of death. And that's a pretty big insult. So the outward appearance does not match the inner man. The Pharisee has an outward appearance of being holy. The Pharisee looks like the real deal on the outside. But he's a grave. That's what Jesus said, he's a grave. And the inner man doesn't match what you see on the outside. This describes the unregenerate religious man or woman. If you or anyone you know is religious, but you've never been born again. You've never been saved, which is what Jesus says happens when you believe how that Christ died for your sins, was buried and rose again from the grave. You don't work to be saved. Your works do not save you. Jesus died and that's what the verse on the wall back there is the gospel according to 1 Corinthians 15, one to four, that Jesus has paid for your sins. Now you have to stop being so proud and you have to humble yourself and go to God empty-handed. And that's hard for people to do. But you have to go empty-handed and say, I know I can't save myself, I believe in Jesus who did all to save me. And you believe that after they put him in that tomb, after three days and nights, he rose bodily from that grave. He conquered sin and death. He ascended to heaven and promised to come back. And even people who aren't even Christians know, they hear it all the time about Jesus coming back. The second coming of Christ. The rapture. You know, all that refers to what's gonna happen once the end times are upon us, and I believe we're getting very close. But the religious person, sadly, most of the time, they are trusting in their own works. And so inside that religious facade, you'll see them go to church and they get in their Sunday best. You know, a lot of preachers who put on robes and wear outfits and look real holy, they got nothing inside. They're not even real believers. They've never trusted on what Christ did and they're not saved. So if you see one of those today, that's the equivalent of what Jesus is dealing with, with the scribes and the lawyers and the Pharisees. Hebrews 9.14, that book of Hebrews was written by Paul to these Hebrews who they didn't want to give up the temple sacrifice and the works that made them look good. And they didn't want to trust solely upon the blood of Jesus Christ. And the whole book is confronting that. But in Hebrews 9.14 we read, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Because even your good works, before you are saved, are dead works. Because you've got motive for doing it. You get to feel good. You get a tax write-off. You get detention. Whatever it is, there's something about it that you're benefiting from it, and it's not about God, it's about you. But when you get saved, your conscience is purged from that desire for getting something, and now you just serve the Lord because you love Him. Amen? I hope that describes everyone here who's a born again Christian. But if you're not born again, you are dead inside and full of dead works. And we're not saying that to hurt anybody's feelings. Every once in a while we'll have somebody on live stream tune in who isn't a Christian and they'll get offended. And when they write me, I say, listen, I had no idea you were listening. How could I have purposely offended you? That thing isn't two-way. I mean, you know, you get the pleasure of seeing this face. I didn't get to see yours. It's not a Zoom call. But sadly, that's true about anybody who's not saved. You still need, what happens when you get saved? The Spirit of God comes into you. Not everybody who's a Christian allows the Spirit of God to rule their lives, and so they don't always show it. But you have the Spirit of God in you as a child of God, and you should surrender to that Spirit. Let God work through you. Do things that He wants you to do, and do it for His glory. Amen? I just want to show you this. Scripture with Scripture. Look over at Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2. And verses 8 and 9 are quoted a lot. But let's look at the whole context here in Ephesians 2, beginning with verse 1. I'll have you read with me the even verses. I'll start with verse 1. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not of works, lest any man should boast. Read verse 10 with me. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Don't get the cart before the horse. God wants you to do good works, but He wants you to do them according to His will, according to His Word, and by the power of His Spirit. Amen? And salvation is not of works, lest any man should boast. If you could work and help in any way, saving your soul, then when you get to heaven, you could walk around strutting like a rooster. Yeah! Jesus did his part, but I did mine too.