Matthew 23, and I'll just read verse 33 for our beginning, and we'll look at the context of Chapter 23. Matthew 23, 33. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape? the damnation of hell. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? And I want to preach this morning on the subject, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? The text, of course, is a very solemn text, the very solemn question that our blessed Savior asked. And we find in the context of Matthew 23, the last public sermon of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It says here in verse 23, chapter 23, verse 1, Then spake Jesus to the multitude and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. All therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do. But do not ye after their works, for they say and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi, for one is your master, even Christ, and all. Ye are brethren, and call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters, for one is your master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant, and whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. For you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. And Jesus Christ continues this sermon, if you will, through the remainder of this chapter. He gives eight woes to these Pharisees and these scribes in this text. And as I said, it's the last public sermon given by our Savior, Lord Jesus Christ. It says in verse 39, For I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. So here he gives this sermon. It's a public sermon. I don't believe it's a public sermon in a building. It's a public sermon outside a building. It appears to be given in Jerusalem. And he gives this sermon and his disciples are there. There's a great multitude that have been following him there and there. And so this is the way it is. There are those who are believers that are following Christ. There are those who just out of curiosity want to hear what he has to say. And so they're gathered around. And of course, in this crowd, there are scribes and there are Pharisees, religious leaders of the day. And so this mass of people around and Jesus begins to preach to them. And he preaches this. He says, that there are those that are in authority, religious authority, and sit in Moses' seats, and because you're Jews you have to obey what they say, but don't do like they do. And then he goes on down and gives his indictment against these religious people. He tells them in the conclusion that they are a bunch of serpents, a generation of vipers. We find, as I said in this text, that it is a sermon to a multitude and a sermon to disciples. In verse 1 it says, Then spake Jesus to the multitude and to his disciples. We this morning, no doubt, have here those who are the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, and there are those here this morning who do not know Jesus Christ in the full pardon and forgiveness of their sin. And so in that sense, there is a multitude here. There is a mixed multitude here this morning. And we all should examine ourselves to find out what class we're in, whether we be in the class of the scribes and Pharisees who are religious but lost, or whether we be genuine disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we're true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is our Savior and He alone is our Savior, and that we're trusting in nothing else. but the merits of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We find in this sermon, it's a very interesting sermon, our Savior gives many sermons. There's many sermons recorded of him in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Jesus is portrayed by the world in much religion as someone who's kind of soft and effeminate. You'll see what they think of, you'll think of a picture of Jesus Christ, which is really not Jesus Christ, but they have long hair and they have this idea that Jesus Christ always went about promoting love and peace and goodwill. That's not the Jesus Christ of the Bible. Now, Jesus Christ, of course, is the God of love, and the Bible says God is love, so I don't want to give an indication that I believe that Jesus Christ is not love, but Jesus Christ was a somber man. In the book of Isaiah, he's called a man of sorrows. You'll never find recorded in the Word of God where Jesus ever laughed one time. Never one time did he laugh. And when God laughs in the Bible, it's not by way of joke, but it's by way of having people in derision. It's as if He's going to laugh at their calamity, as you look at the book of Isaiah. So Jesus was a very somber and solemn man. He was a man of sorrows. He had the weight of all of the sins of all of His people upon His life. And here Jesus comes to this solemn sermon, and He is heartbroken. You'll notice it says in verse 37, as he concludes this sermon, he says, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee. If you back up in verse 34, you find, Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets. So Jesus Christ is the God of the Old Testament that sent the prophets to the nation of Israel. He said, I send to you prophets. And He says here, I have sent to you prophets. I've sent. And He sent many prophets in the Old Testament. He sent Moses and He sent Jeremiah and Isaiah. And He pled with the people to repent of their sins, but they would not. And he tells Jerusalem as he weeps over this city, as he looks upon his nation, his own nation, the nation that he created, the nation that he set his affection upon, the nation, beloved, that these men, these religious men, had taken for themselves and captured and had taught a way that is against God. He says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together Even as a hen gathered her chicks under her wings, but ye would not. And of course this is again an indictment against the religious leaders. He says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, speaking to these leaders, how often I would have gathered thy children, that is the nation of Israel. I would have gathered them under my wings like a hen would gather her babies and protect them from the enemy. But ye, that is these religious leaders, ye would not. You would not. You would not have me rule because you wanted to rule. And of course, this is an indictment against religionists. It is an indictment against those who are self-righteous and would have their way as opposed to having God's way. We find in this sermon his warning, an open rebuke of self-righteous religionists. Verses 2 through 12 are a warning about them. He says, verse 4, they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay on men's shoulders. They laden men with all kinds of rules and regulations that they can't even bear themselves. The Jews in the days of Christ, not only did they have the law of God, which in itself is a burden because of the flesh, They had the law of God, but they had added laws upon the laws, and upon those laws, more laws. And even today, among Judaism, there are laws upon laws. In Orthodox Jews, if you're an Orthodox Jew, you'll have two refrigerators in your house. One refrigerator for your milk, and one refrigerator for your meat, because they can't be in the same refrigerator. That's a law upon a law. They take an Old Testament law and then they add a law upon that law to make sure that they're very careful to meet the regulations of that law which they think they're trying to meet. And this is the way of the religionist. He always adds to God's Word and always makes the righteousness of God more rigorous And by doing so, not attaining it unto themselves, not capturing it themselves, as the text says here, it says, but you will not move one of them with your fingers. You can't, you don't even lift a finger to do this because ultimately man can't keep the law of God and he cannot even keep his own regulations. And so 2 through 12 is a warning about them. It says, these are those folks that go into the city and they say, oh, rabbi, rabbi. And they're the men who like to be called rabbi in the city. Oh, there's doctors, so and so. He's so smart religiously. This is the idea. And Jesus warns against there. He says, they like to be called father. They like to be esteemed and put in high places. And he says, don't do that. Don't do that. So he warns about this. And then not only does he warn about them, then he starts warning them. He goes from telling his disciples what to watch out for and begins to rebuke those who are doing those things. For it starts in verse 13, but woe unto you. And so I can see Jesus as this crowd is gathered around him, as his disciples are there, and this multitude is there, and these religious leaders are there, as he begins to point them out. And he'd say, woe unto you, scribe, Pharisee. Woe unto you, scribe. Woe unto you, lawyers. Woe unto you, religionists. And then He breaks them down piece by piece in this sermon. This, beloved, is what they needed. They did not need to be told how good they were and how pretty their robes were and how great their law was and what a fancy doctorate that they had and how many D.D.' 's or B.A.' 's or M.A.' 's they had behind their name. He needed to tell them the way they really were because He knew their heart. And this, beloved, is the desperate kind of preaching we need in our days. Men are full of themselves and religionists are full of themselves. And our country is going to hell in a handbasket. And we are and the religionists are leading them that way, telling them that they're good and everything's OK with everybody and and how to have, you know, how to have a happy life and live in peace and prosperity and never mentioning sin, never mentioning hell. never mentioning judgment, never mentioning the things to come. You know, Jesus rebuked them about that. He says in verse 23, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithes of men and annas and cumens. You know, they're big on tithes and big on giving. And you don't have to listen to the television evangelists very long for you'll find out they're really big on giving, really big on giving. But he says, you have omitted the weightier matters of the law. What are the weightier matters of the law? Judgment first, mercy second. You can't have mercy unless you understand judgment. You cannot have mercy unless you understand your need of mercy. And so we preach the law and the judgment that comes with the law, mercy and faith. You know, there's judgment, and then there's mercy, and then there's faith. And that is the order. God exposes you for what you really are in your sin. Then He gives you mercy, and you're extended to you through the Lord Jesus Christ, and you experience faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the order. And of course, He says you ought not to leave the others undone. There is a place for giving. But that place is not the paramount place. The place of judgment is first, and mercy, and faith. And so He warns them. And then our text that I'm looking at this morning here in Matthew 23 and verse 33, he climaxes with this great warning. As he goes through all the warnings that are given here, he climaxes with this great, great warning. And that is this in verse 33. Ye serpents, ye generations of vipers, Now, he's getting ready to lose his crowd. I guarantee you that right now. You know how Joe Oldstein could empty that church building he's got there in Texas? You know how he could do it? Start telling people like they really are. If he would just start preaching and saying, this is the way you really are, that you're self-righteous, that you're full of yourself, that you've broken God's law, he could empty that building in a Sunday morning. I guarantee you that right now. He said, ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them ye shall kill and crucify. If you can get a hold of me, you'll do it to me. And guess what? That's what they're going to do. You just read the next chapters and you'll find out, if you read this in combination with the other Gospels, after this message is when they went together and said, we've got to put an end to this man. The crucifixion, part of the crucifixion was about putting an end to Jesus Christ and his message, his message of the judgment of God. They hated the righteousness of Jesus Christ. They hated His demands, and they hated what He represented. He is the righteousness of God revealed from heaven. They hated that, so they crucified our blessed Savior. And of course, if we'd have been there, we'd have done the same thing. Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them you shall kill and crucify, and some of them you shall scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city. And the book of Acts is full of this. Where the Jews would persecute the Gentiles, and the Jews would persecute Christians, and they would run them from city to city, and they would kill them, and they would burn them, and they would stone them and leave them for dead. And this is the history of genuine Christianity. Genuine Christianity is not about promoting the world's business. Genuine Christianity is about how that God saves sinners and how that God is angry at sinners. And apart from Jesus Christ, sinners won't be saved. And the narrowness of that message makes people angry. The narrowness of that message has called thousands upon thousands upon thousands upon millions of Baptists, and nonconformists to lose their head and be burned at the stake in these last 2,000 years of Christianity, pure Christianity, true Christianity. It causes people in Dafar, even this very day, to have acid thrown on their face because they will not deny the name of the blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It causes people down in South America, even today, to be shot to death because they will not deny the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, the son of Barchias, who ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily, I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation. And then he begins to cry because of this. But he gives the climax here. Who, how, how can ye escape? the damnation of hell. It is a solemn warning, beloved, the damnation of hell. Now, there's some truths that we find in this passage. First of all, we find the truth that Jesus Christ taught, and that is the truth about a place called hell. You know, Jesus spoke of hell more than he spoke of heaven. The Bible speaks of hell more than it speaks of heaven generally. It speaks of more of judgment than it does of mercy. And the reason it's so is because there is a need for men to fear the judgment of Almighty God. Men generally do not fear the judgment of Almighty God. And Jesus Christ, He understood the judgment of God. Number one, because he's God. Number two, because he came in the place of sinners and experienced as a man the judgment of God. That's what Calvary was about from the divine side. God the Father poured out his wrath upon Jesus Christ on the cross. You know, the agonizing that Jesus Christ experienced on Calvary, though it was great, The agonizing of the crown of thorns and Him being nailed to the tree and Him being whipped before that and all the humiliation that He experienced bodily was not the greatest of the emotions that He went through and the suffering that He went through. The greatest was when God the Father laid upon Him the sins of His people and God poured out His wrath on them, on those sins, on the Lord Jesus Christ, and turned His back on His beloved Son. That's the great agony of soul that Jesus experienced. We learn again, as I said, that hell is a place. He says here, ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell? This is the place that the rich man lifted up his eyes being in torment in. It was not the grave. It is a place of perpetual and eternal torment judged by a righteous God for sin. It is a place of torment. We learn that hell is a place of damnation or a place of judgment or the execution of judgment. Damnation is the execution of judgment. And damnation has degrees in the book of Mark chapter 12 and verse 40. Mark 12 and verse 40. Again, speaking about the Pharisees. It says concerning them which devour widows houses, Sounds like a lot of religionists today. Let me just stop here. I was at the hospice with Miss Brown this week, and we were watching the television, watching a religious station. She wanted to hear some music or something on there. And there was one of these charlatan preachers on there, and he was talking about planting seeds. And he wasn't talking about beans or corn either. He was talking about greenbacks. He said, you planted some greenback seeds, you know, money, you know, dollars. He said, you plant a thousand dollar seed and the Lord is going to give you increase on that thousand dollar seed. And he is kind of saying, you may not have it. He said, you can charge it to your credit card. You may not have it, but you can believe that God is going to give you that back. Telling people to get in debt, which, by the way, is not a biblical concept. The Bible says, owe no man anything but to love. And so there's just one passage, many passages against debt in the Bible. But here's a man telling people to get into debt, to send him money. Poor little widow woman may be have swiped her card that day and called the number. And the Bible says, which devour widows' houses. But I digress. Let me get back. And for a pretense, make long prayers. And then he did make a prayer. And he said, Lord, bless their faith this morning and help them to send thousands of dollars in seed money. But anyway, these shall receive greater damnation. There's my point I wanted to get to. There are degrees of damnation. Some receive lesser damnation. Some receive greater damnation. Now, if hell is the grave, as some would have us believe, Is there degrees of degrade? I mean, when you die, you're dead. You know, it's like a woman being pregnant. She's not a little pregnant. She's not a lot pregnant. She's either pregnant or she's not pregnant. And a person's either dead or they're not dead. There are not degrees of death, but there are degrees of damnation and hell. You understand, beloved, that hell is a real place of perpetual torment that there was a man, a rich man, that lived with up his eyes in. And the Bible says here that they shall receive greater damnation. There's a greater degree of damnation or judgment for some people in hell than there are for other peoples in hell. And I only point this out to make my point. It is a place of damnation. It is a serious place, a place where men shall be executed in judgment. Damnation is the execution of judgment, and there are degrees of this judgment. And then we learn a blessed truth, and oh, I thank God for this truth. And that is, we learn that the damnation of hell can be escaped. Oh, my beloved, that God would provide a way of escape from the damnation of hell. Now, it's very carefully He doesn't say that you can escape hell. He doesn't say, how can you escape hell? Because you can escape hell. But you can escape the damnation of hell. In other words, you can escape from being judged in hell. You can escape hell. Listen, beloved, once you're in hell, you're there. I don't care what religionists tell you. I don't care if they tell you you can be prayed out of hell or you can be prayed out of purgatory or you can be prayed out of limbo. I don't care what they say about those places. Jesus said he's the authority. You know, God created hell. The devil didn't create hell. God created hell as a place of judgment for sinners. And God, who created hell, is the only one that can give us the authority. That is, the authority of his word is the only thing that we can go on about what hell is like and what it's not like and how you get there and how you can keep from going there. And Jesus says, you can escape the damnation of hell. As I said, hell is a place that you cannot escape. In the book of Luke, chapter 16. I don't want you to believe me this morning. I want you to believe the Word of God. Matthew 16 and verse 23, it says, And in hell, speaking of the rich man, in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment. and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." And verse 26, speaking of this place called hell, it says, you know, this man wanted to get out of this place. And then he wanted somebody to go back and tell his brother. He said, send Lazarus down here and just a little drop of water on my tongue, just something to satisfy me, to help me, just a little bit of relief. I'd love just a drop of relief. He said, you can't have it because And besides all this, between us and you, there is a great gulf fixed, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence. They can want to, they can, it says, would come. They can want to, they can desire to, but those in hell can never be in the paradise of God. So the text says, here Abraham, if anybody knew Abraham old enough, and Jesus is giving this account, a real literal account of a literal man, the rich man and a literal man named Lazarus, and they were in a literal hell, and it was a literal place of torment, and it was a literal place of judgment, and this man was suffering there, and he said, I'd like to get out, and if I can't get out, send Lazarus here just with a drop of water to leave my, just a little bit of comfort. He said, I can't do it. He can't go to you, and you can't come here. Even if you would do it, there's a great golf fix that you cannot do it, cannot get out of this place. called hell. So we learned that hell, that hell cannot be escaped from. But the damnation of hell can be. You can escape from the judgment of a coming hell. And that leads me to my text again. Jesus says, How can you escape the damnation of hell? Listen, beloved, I don't care what men say, but I do care what Jesus says. You know, for you this morning here, you may claim to be a Christian. You may have been baptized as a baby. You may have been confirmed. You may have God parents. You may have Christian parents. You may even be a member of this church. I don't know your condition, your heart. But you claiming to be a Christian, do you know, beloved, that you ought to be more concerned about what Jesus says than anyone else says? After all, you claim to be a follower of Jesus. Don't listen to everybody else. Listen to what Jesus says. Jesus says, How can ye escape the damnation of hell? And that should be a question that burns into your heart and into your mind this morning. How can I? See, it's a personal question. How can ye escape? Personal question. How can ye escape the damnation of hell? First of all, I would have us know that there are ways that will not lead to your escape. In the sermon that Jesus gives, he lays out the roadblocks. He sets them up and he said, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help you, this won't help That's how he lays out this sermon. It's a beautiful sermon. The master sermonizer. He lays it out in detail. He goes down the road. He says, woe unto you scribes, woe unto you serpents, woe unto you Pharisees, woe unto you lawyers, woe unto you religionists. You cannot. You say you do this, but it won't help you. The first thing he mentions is law keeping in verse four, for they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men. All these works, these works, these law works. The Jews were people of the law. God had given them the law, and as I said, their leaders took the law of God and perverted the law of God. You know the law of God was given to show them the way of righteousness. It wasn't given to make them righteous. Law keeping has never been about making people righteous. Do you know why? Because we can't keep the law. There's not a person in this building, from the smallest baby to the oldest greyhead in here, that has ever kept the law of God perfectly. Everyone in here has broken the law of God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. The first law. Have you always put God first in your life? Now don't lie and say you have because then you'll break the other commandment that says thou shalt not lie. Because you know you haven't put God first always in your life. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. That means you, that means your family, that means your career. Don't you put anything ahead of me. The second law is likened to the first law. Don't make graven images. And that is, don't create in your mind and work with your hands your own God. This is the law-breaking of the religionists. They have set up for themselves all kinds of gods to get them favor with the God. Or think that these gods that they've made, these graven images that they bow down to and kiss and worship, And all the pagans all over the world, and even some among Christiandom, bow down to statues and images, and worship them, and prostrate to them, and kiss them, and do homage to them, and obedience to them, and obedience unto them. The commandment says, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images. Exodus chapter 20, verse 3. Believe me or believe me not, that's what the word of God says. Law keeping. Law keeping will not save you. If you could do it, it couldn't save you, but you can. The book of Romans. It doesn't matter if the image looks like what someone thinks God looks like or not. It doesn't matter whether it's a snake, a stump or St. Joseph. Doesn't matter. He says no graven images are to be bowed down to or served. Well, I just have to read it because I don't know whether you agree with me or not. Exodus chapter 20. And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. This is the first commandment. Thou shalt know that God is before me. The second is like unto it. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth, thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God. God wants praise and worship and adoration as the only one and true God. He doesn't want you to worship a piece of wood. He doesn't want you to worship a tree. He doesn't want you to worship the sun, the moon, the stars, yourself, your husband, your family, your job. He wants all worship. And He demands it. And He will get it one way or another. Law keepers. In Romans chapter 8, In verse 2 it says, "...the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus had made me free from the law of sin and death, for what the law could not do, in that it was weak..." Not because God made it, because God makes things strong, but it's weak through the flesh. Our old nature, our Adamic nature, what we were born with, the one you came out of your mother's womb speaking lies with, that nature. That nature that's a rebel against the law of God. You're weak. You can't keep the law of God. God demands thou shalt not, but you do. God says thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not bear false witness. But you do. You do it in your heart. When in your heart rises up, I'd like to kill that man. Jesus says you've murdered them in your heart. When you look at someone to lust after them, you've committed adultery with them in your heart. God says you've broken His law. And so Jesus says in this text, oh, you've got your law and you add things to it and you make everything so big and say, look at me, look at me. That won't get you out of the damnation of hell. That's what he says in this text. Secondly, you cannot escape the damnation of hell by self-exaltation. Verse 10. Matthew 23 and verse 10, Jesus says, Neither be ye called masters, for one is your master, even Christ. Verse 9, And call no man your father upon this earth. And this is talking about a religious sense. The whole context is religious. These are religious people. The scribes, they were the people who wrote the book down, the Bible, and wrote all the laws. And they transcribed. They didn't have printing presses back then. These men wrote it down and copied copies of copies of copies. Scribes. That's what a scribe is. And Pharisees. They were a group of religious people. Lawyers. Those are the people who discussed, sat around and discussed the Word of God. And not only the Word of God, but laws that ran into the Word of God. And they sat around. Well, this is this and this is this. And they would converse about doctrine. Nothing wrong with doctrine, but they would converse about their doctrine. Could have never changed their lives. Religious people. He said, don't call them father and don't call them master. Neither be ye called masters, for one is your master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whatsoever shall and whosoever shall exalt him shall be a self, excuse me, whosoever shall exalt himself shall be a base and he that humbled himself shall be exalted. Self exaltation. Will not help you escape the damnation of hell. These men had self-exaltation down to a fine art. They knew how to praise men and get praise of men. We live in a society where men love to be praised and are taught to be praised. The hellish doctrine of self-esteem which is pride. It's all it is, is pride. The hellish doctrine of self-esteem that's pumped in our public schools. Why are students the way they are at school? Well, I mean, after all, if you tell them that, first of all, they tell them they're animals. That's right, because they've come from monkeys. I mean, listen, if I came from a monkey, then I'm an animal. That's what they teach in school. Public school systems teach that. And then they tell them they're great. You're great! Don't let anybody tell you you're the greatest thing that ever happened. But God says, Jesus says in our text, but he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. You see, the Word of God is totally opposite from the world. If the world has it one way, God's Word has it another way. In the Bible, the way up is down and the way down is up. Humility brings exaltation. In the world, step on everybody and you'll get to the top. In the Bible, let everybody step on you and you'll get to the top. This is the way of the cross. What does the cross for? A cross is for execution. Jesus says, take up my cross and follow me. Jesus was humiliated and humbled and we're to follow Him. But those who are seeking satisfaction through self-exaltation will never find it. You will be brought down And then thirdly, in this sermon, these are ways that will not lead to your escape. You cannot escape the damnation of hell by religion. This, beloved, is the way of Satan. It is his counterfeit to true salvation. I plead with you this morning. I plead with you not to turn to religion. Here are those who had religion down to an art. They still have it down to an art. They go through the motions. Passover, I don't know if it's, I guess it's this week or last week, sometime right around this time, they'll have Passover. The Jews will have Passover. And a great bunch of Christians will have Easter. And they'll go through all kinds of motions. All kinds of motions. And they'll think that they've done God a favor by going through those motions. They really will. But beloved, God doesn't need us. We desperately need Him. This is the truth. Jesus tells these Jews of His day, these leaders of His day, Woe unto you. Look at these. Religious titles won't help you. Verse 8. But be not ye called rabbi, for one is your master, even Christ, in all your brethren. being called master and being called father, having a religious title slapped to your name, being called Baptist or being called Catholic or being called Mormon or being called whatever, will not save your soul. Religious titles and religious ceremonies never saved one person from the damnation of hell. This church that I love, The church of the Lord Jesus Christ that he purchased with his own blood has never saved one soul from hell. I, a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, have never saved one soul from hell. All the popes and potentates of Catholicism have never saved one soul from hell. All the Methodist bishops and all their prelates, wherever they may be, they've never saved one soul from hell. You see, beloved, religion just won't do it. Even if it's a good religion. There is pure religion and undefiled that's to visit the fatherless and the widow and to keep a man unspotted from the world. But that won't do it. Jesus says here, this will not do it. He gives us indictment. You do these things, but how are you going to escape the damnation of hell? Long prayers will not do it. Verse 14, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Making proselytes won't do it. Verse 15, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye can pass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Making men religious. And becoming religious won't help you. False piety won't help you either. Verse 16, Woe unto you, you blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing. But whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor. You can, Jesus said, Jesus is saying here, you can say all you want to about the temple. You can say how beautiful it is. You can swear by it. You can say that it's this. This is God's temple. You can do whatever you want to, but that still won't save you from hell, from the damnation of hell. You see false piety. These men, these men were so much so corrupt that their mothers would be hungry and they say, they say Corbin. And what that meant is they gave their money to the temple. I can't help you mom, I gave my money to the temple. The whole point is, is that religious exercises will not help you. Coming here this morning will not help you escape the damnation of hell. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're listening to the Word of God. It is the greatest thing you need this morning, the Word of God, to hear from God. But I and this church and this people and you singing songs and praying prayers cannot save you. Giving tithes will not save you. Verse 23, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithes and men rue. Manus, you do all these things. But he still says, how can you escape the damnation of hell? Verse 25, outward morality. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within you are full of extortion and excess, thou blind Pharisee. Outward morality. You can clean yourself up. You can put on a suit and tie. You can come to church. and still in that old heart's dead man's thoughts. How can you escape the damnation of hell? Beloved, this should cause great fear upon you. The essence of the message of Christ is that nothing you do, nothing you do will deliver you from the clutches of judgment. And so he says in Matthew 10, 28, Matthew 10, 28, this, fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him. God, fear him, which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. But Jesus concludes this message, and so shall I, with a way of escape. How can ye escape the damnation of hell? Not by law-keeping. even the good and holy law of God, because you've already broken it. You've already broken it. It's like running a stop sign and telling the officer, well, I won't do it again. Or shoot somebody and go before the judge and say, judge, I know I murdered you, but I won't ever do it again. You've already broken the law of God. Not by self-exaltation and not by religion. Those three things, beloved, will damn your soul forever. That's what Jesus says. I just took His sermon and broke it down. Those three things will damn your soul to hell forever. If you rest in, take refuge in, law-keeping, self-exaltation and religion, You're in the wrong place for refuge. So where is it? Right here in our text, verse 37. Jesus cries. He weeps over Jerusalem. He says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together? You see, beloved, the way of escape from the damnation of hell is not water baptism. I'm a Baptist, but the water doesn't save anybody. Not church membership, not religion, not the Lord's Supper, not sacraments, not the Mass, nothing! But Jesus Christ saves people from the damnation of hell. Jesus says in Matthew 11, to those that are burdened down with their sin, they have felt the weight of the law of God pressing them, showing them, you're guilty, you're guilty, you're guilty. They have felt the legalism of the Pharisees that have weighed them down and said, here, here's another law. Here's another law. Here's another law. If you keep this one, then you'll get it. And then you've got to keep this one. And then you've got to keep this one. And if you can do this, and if you can do this, then finally one day, maybe, maybe. I talked to Jehovah's Witness at my house for three hours one day in the hot Florida sun, 100 degrees outside, near a valley. Felt like it. And he told me about his religion. And you know what he told me? That even when you get to the new earth that they believe is going to happen, you can still lose your salvation. What kind of refuge is that? What kind of refuge is there to a place that even when you get to heaven or you get to the new earth or wherever it may be where God is, that you still don't know. It's sad enough that there are thousands upon thousands upon millions of people in this earth, deluded by religion, trusting, grabbing for straws, trying to hold on to something that will not materialize. Jesus says, come unto me. He pleads. Come unto me, Matthew 11, verse 28. Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He doesn't say come unto church membership. He doesn't say come unto baptism. He doesn't say come unto sacraments. He doesn't say come unto anything but me. If you go anywhere else, you will not escape the damnation of hell. Jesus says, Come unto Me. Come unto Me, Matthew 11, 28. Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest for your souls. Rest. Eternal and everlasting rest. You see, beloved, you can rest in Jesus because of the great sacrifice that he made on Calvary. You see, there was an exchange on Calvary. God the Father laid all the sins of those that ever come to trust in Christ on the Lord Jesus Christ. He took them. He claimed them as his own. He said, there are my sins. He says in the book of Psalms that my sins are more than the number of my hands. And Jesus never committed a sin. But He took them to Himself. And He bore the wrath of God for them. See, God's not going to let sin go unpunished. It must be punished. So Jesus had to go through the damnation of hell. And when He got finished doing His work, When he cleared the debt for his people, he cried, it is finished, and he died. He was buried, and three days later God the Father said, yes it is, and rose him from the dead. And it was a once for all, Hebrews says, once for all work. It's not a perpetual work. He's not dying today. He's not bleeding today. Jesus died once. His sacrifice was sufficient. It's only those who have an insufficient sacrifice that have to offer it all the time. I have a sufficient sacrifice. I have found refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to read you a psalm and I'm going to close. It's Psalm 91. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, not I will say of the church, not I will say of saints, not I will say to Baptists or to Methodists or to Catholics or to Presbyterians or to Episcopalians or whoever, but I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge. Not that I will say of good works or self or religion. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress. He's where I'm hiding and He has great defense. My God, in Him will I trust. How shall ye escape the damnation of hell? And beloved, it is a damnation to escape because it's coming. The damnation of hell is coming. It's moving towards you and you're moving toward it and you will not escape apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't trust in your works. Don't trust in yourself. And don't trust in religion. no matter what the religious people claim, no matter if it means that you have to go against your mother, or your father, or your brother, or your sister, or your aunt, or your uncle, or your best friends, you take up with Jesus. They won't be able to help you in the day of judgment. Jesus will. Come unto me, me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, And I, Jesus says, I, he's the only one that can, will give you rest. Let's pray.