The unmasking of those who bear the Scriptures while dead in the sin of unbelief. They uphold the law as their justification, yet deny the righteousness that is by faith. Clothed in the appearance of holiness, they stand as ministers of light, yet their hearts burn with pride, self-glory, and the idolatry of their own goodness. The Lord Jesus Christ pronounced woe upon their kind — whitewashed tombs, full of dead men's bones. They shut the kingdom of heaven against others, and neither enter in themselves. This is the religion that fills hell. Revered by men. Cursed by God.
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00:00amen amen father we thank you lord allow us to come to your house and give me strength to be here
00:08pray for your blessing pray for the unction of the holy spirit
00:13father these words are not my words they're your words and pray that you'd give me the
00:20unction to preach it teach it and get it out as you want it out we pray for the people that
00:25are here and those that will hear it in your holy name amen all right well good to have you good to
00:32have every soul i think her brother's already mentioned if there's anybody visiting and i don't
00:36see anybody and uh but whatever you're we're glad you're here we try to make a big deal about
00:43visitors let them know they're welcome it'll be hard to believe this but i've been in churches
00:47and i'm telling the truth where uh i had a distinct feeling they didn't care if i was there or not
00:54just assume me get out of the way and that's not really a good feeling that's not good
00:59ought not be that way well i'll tell you what if you have your bibles turn the book of revelation with
01:05me
01:06chapter number eight in verse number 12 revelation 8 12
01:12revelation chapter number eight in verse number 12 when the fourth angel sounded and the third part
01:22of the sun was smitten the third part of the moon and the third part of the star so as the third
01:28part of them was darkened and the day shone not for a third part of it and the night likewise and i
01:35beheld and lo and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven saying with a loud voice
01:41woe woe woe to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the
01:48three angels which are yet to sound father bless this word now thy name amen and of course if you
01:56continue reading you'll find the ninth chapter of the book of revelation literally has the pit of hell
02:02open on this earth and these creatures come up from the bottomless pit abaddon and apollyon and this of
02:11course is going to happen where this is located i do not know but i do know that hell is in the heart of
02:17this earth according to the scriptures and so it's not good what's going to come on the earth the
02:23scripture says except those days be shortened no flesh should be left alive i call your attention to
02:29the woes woe woe woe to the inhabitants of the earth now this of course is a word a term that means
02:37in this text sorrow sadness pity and woe and that's exactly what you've got the english word today
02:47doesn't quite carry the biting meaning that you'll find in the book of revelation but the word woe in
02:54the new testament shows up in a lot of different context and so this is what's important about what
03:00i'm going to say tonight i want you to turn over here with me now if you will in your bible
03:04to the book of to the book of matthew chapter number 23 and verse number 13
03:09the lord jesus christ used the term woe also but it's very important to remember where he directed
03:20that term woe i cannot find in the new testament a place where the lord jesus christ ever said
03:29woe to you fornicators or woe to you thieves or woe to you liars especially when they approached him
03:38i don't find that now in the old testament it has much to say about drunkards and so forth but here
03:45we have a situation where the lord is telling people that we have to be very careful or we can become
03:53a block a hindrance to the people coming to the lord now for example if someone comes into this house
04:02and uh you know that they're not uh somebody that's been coming for some time you know telling
04:07where they came from and there's no telling what they're carrying when i say carry i'm talking about
04:13in the heart what kind of life they're living where they are the last thing i want them to feel
04:19is like the lord jesus christ is their enemy i don't feel that because he's not i don't feel
04:27like that he is indifferent to them because he is not i don't want them to feel like that uh that you
04:34know that uh that that he doesn't have time for them uh that they need to come uh they need to i
04:39guess suppose uh they need to be prepared to be brought into his presence that's religion when the
04:47lord was here two thousand years ago uh he said some things in matthew chapter number 23 to the
04:54pharisees that the truth of the matter is are quite disturbing because he never spoke just to a sinner
05:02the way he spoke to these pharisees in matthew 23 the reason he didn't is because he was not
05:08necessarily speaking to the pharisee and so much as the individual pharisee as he was to the pharisee is
05:14what he represented because the pharisee represented a religious system and this religious system
05:21was corrupt to the bone and religion can get that way truth of the matter is that down through the
05:28years i've observed how that demons demons religious demons like to come into a church
05:35they like to gather around the people and they can quote scripture they can they know all the
05:40cliches they know how to talk they know how to act but the truth is that you don't judge a tree by what
05:45it says you judge it by its fruit yes you do and you can find someone's reputation go back and follow
05:53them back 10 15 20 years and find people who knew them churches they'd been to and you'll begin to get
06:00a picture of what kind of a person you're dealing with and sometimes it's very alarming
06:05so uh when he's he declared woe he would not say uh someone were coming to him woe to you
06:15you know you filthy dirty stinking reprobate what are you coming to me for and this is the attitude
06:25that i get from some preachers and some people they get this elitist holier than thou attitude
06:32and folks let me tell you something i believe one of the worst sins that you can have is
06:39self-righteousness self-righteousness will separate you from god and put a wall between you and the lord
06:44yes it will it will do the job uh if you'll notice he said i must need to go through samaria
06:54you remember that and there was only one woman a samaritan one woman and he met her at jacob's well
07:01so we know the location and of course we know what happened you've read it many times in john chapter
07:08four uh it's it's remarkable how that he went aside because it was out of his way to go to samaria
07:17and of course normally socially he wouldn't go anyway because he's a jew and he wore the attire of
07:25a jew this is how she knew he was a jew and uh but the bottom line is you say well now it was a lost
07:33soul that needed him yes she needed him but i'll tell you right now that village needed him
07:38don't you think
07:40see if you ever ask yourself this question well then why did he choose to go to samaria
07:46just for one woman of course you know her testimony and what happened later a bunch of people get saved
07:51i believe it's this john the apostle is going to write about it and you're going to have it in
08:00your new testament and it's going to be in the gospel of john chapter number four i believe he knew who
08:06was going to write the scripture when the scripture is going to be written and what was going to be in
08:09that scripture what was going to be in there you see everything in the bible is in there for a purpose
08:15there's a lot of women at the well right now they need to meet him there's a lot of nicodemuses out
08:22there who says we know thou art a teacher come from god no man can do the things thou doest except
08:27god be with you we know that we know that we know that every person in the new testament has their
08:33living counterpart today yes they do in fact the matter is in the whole bible
08:38uh good study on your part is to go through scripture and try to find yourself throughout
08:44the bible how many's ever done that oh i'm all over it you wouldn't believe lord's got a lot to say
08:49about me the truth is though if you're honest with yourself you will be surprised at how that all the
08:57way back to abraham or in fact is all the way back to adam men really haven't changed have they
09:02nothing has really changed so the lord jesus christ is what a sinner needs you really believe that
09:14this is why paul said i came not to to you know perform miracles or baptize but he said i came to
09:21preach the gospel and the gospel of course is christ to make christ known i was on the porch this morning
09:30praying praying and god gave me what i'm going to give to you tonight and i hope that what i give to
09:35you tonight will be a help and a blessing to you because it was to me and it was something that spoke
09:40to me and of course he has what he does is he he reaffirms reinforces the things that he's burning in my
09:49soul there's so much time wasted with a bunch of nothing there's so much nothing preaching going on
09:56empty nothing empty nothing the truth of the matter is you get an awful lot of human wisdom
10:03human wisdom wrapped up in religious garb you're not really getting what god says you're getting
10:12man's perspective on it but he tries to legitimize it by quoting scripture wrapping up in the bible
10:18making biblical applications to it when the bible says plainly lean not into thine own understanding
10:25in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths there's only one name tonight that is
10:33really needed to be preached that's the name of christ amen that's his name i remember
10:40linda when we first started coming to the independent baptist church we came out of the southern
10:47baptist church i was licensed to preach in the southern baptist church i was saved at third creek
10:52and uh and then we came into the independent baptist church and i was as green as that grass over here
10:59on the hill i didn't know anything i just knew i was saved and the first thing that we got struck
11:06with was all of these great men we didn't know all these great men until we got into the independent
11:14baptist church yeah i mean i've been going along all this time and didn't know any of these great men
11:21are you following me and it didn't bother me a bit and since then i've watched it and this is i'm an
11:32i'm a baptist i'm a i'm a christian and a pastor of an independent baptist church and i you know i have
11:38firm convictions about things that have developed from for from decades of the ministry yes i have
11:45and there's no question about that tonight but i do believe that we have a problem with some of our
11:50independent brethren who are too men oriented and not god oriented they're too much about men
11:57and not about the lord and what in the world is the lord going to do when so and so passes away
12:03he'll do what he did for thousands of years before they ever showed up that's what he'll do he'll get
12:09along just fine he doesn't need me i need him and really desperately i need him but in matthew chapter
12:18number 23 the lord pronounces woes upon these pharisees and in verse number 13 he told them he said you
12:26shut the door in verse 13 matthew 23 warned you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you shut up the
12:33kingdom of heaven against men you don't go in yourselves neither suffer you them that are
12:38entering to go in isn't that the truth isn't that shame isn't that a shame we should make sure that we
12:44don't fall into that trap we should make sure make certain that the door is not our wisdom or our
12:53understanding of how you come to christ i don't worry about how you come to christ my concern is come
13:00to christ come to the lord jesus because you may have to come out of a hole that i was never in
13:06and you may have stuff baggage on you that i never had and so you come to the lord jesus the way the
13:13holy spirit leads you matthew chapter 23 verse 15 he said this about these types of people he said they'll
13:21encompass land and see to make one proselyte and when he is made he's twofold more the child of hell
13:28than yourselves he's called them man he called them children of hell and he said your disciples are
13:35children of hell that's that's tough stuff that's hard did you know he didn't talk to pontius pilot like
13:40that no not at all in uh matthew chapter number 23 verse 17 he said you're blind he said you fools and
13:50blind for whether is greater the gold of the temple that sanctifies the gold and whosoever shall swear
13:55by the altar it is nothing but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it he is
14:02guilty ye fools and blind whether is greater the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift you're
14:11splitting hairs you're getting too technical and we have a tendency and how many of you would agree with
14:18me tonight that we have nat strainers and camel swallowers yes sir straining out gnats and yet
14:27swallowing camels and that's the truth it happens and it happens to the best of people he said this
14:35about him in luke chapter 11 verse 42 he said woe pharisees you tithe they tithed they give a tenth
14:42he said you tithe mint and rue and all manners of herbs but you pass over judgment and the love of god
14:50these ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone woe unto you pharisees
14:57there's a lot of people who would not who would never consciously admit it but they really do
15:05believe that by the money they give god and the tithe they give that they're buying special favors from
15:11the lord they do they do they really do and that's that's sad that you feel that way because actually
15:18if you're giving a tithe you're saying lord you have given me so much you have blessed me so much
15:25this is a small acknowledgement i confess that everything i have you gave me let me give this
15:35back to you that's what you're doing with it that's right you're not buying anything from god
15:39first place god's in the spiritual things are never for sale regardless of how a uh you know some of
15:49these um name it claim it blabbit grabbit crowd will tell you the prosperity gospel uh all you have to
15:56do is just sow your seed and it'll come back to you uh he said in matthew chapter 23 verse 25 he said
16:03you wash the outside of the cup woe unto you scribes and pharisees hypocrites you may clean the outside of
16:10the cup and of the platter but within full of extortion and excess the appearance is all too
16:18prevalent in so many places that's right the appearance how do i appear you see i'm rubbing
16:25shoulders with the the elite uh super duper christians and the great crowd and i have to look
16:32right uh in order to do so the only look that really matters is the look of the heart you get
16:40the look of the heart right and the heart will take you the heart with the power of the holy spirit
16:44will take care of the body that's for certain so cleaning the outside won't do it uh he said this in
16:52matthew 23 and verse number 27 woe scribes and pharisees hypocrites you're like whited sepulchers
16:59now what is a sepulchre it's a tomb right it's a tomb yes it's a tomb you're like a whited sepulchre
17:09in other words you're trying to make death look good you're making it look clean this is what he's
17:15saying so truth is i guess a lot of churches are just nothing but uh whited corpses death
17:22when when the holy spirit is not in a church and he's not working and he's not present
17:28then the vacuum has to be filled in with something that's that's right it has to be filled in with
17:34something and when they do they fill it in with of course something man-made and uh and of course
17:41anything man-made is going to appeal to the flesh and that's what they do of course they do appeal to
17:46the flesh uh and so whited sepulchres whitewashed tombs but then in matthew chapter number 23 and verse
17:56number 34 he said this he says wherefore behold i send you to prophets and wise men and scribes and
18:03some of them you shall kill and crucify some of them shall you scourge in your synagogues and
18:08persecute them from city to city that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from
18:14the blood of righteous able to the blood of zacharias son of baccharias whom you slew between the temple and
18:22the altar these things shall come upon this generation in verse number 49 of luke 11
18:30therefore also said the wisdom of god i will send them prophets and apostles and some of them they
18:38shall slay and persecute at the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the
18:44world may be required in this generation he said that ye are of your fathers in verse 47
18:54the killers
18:56you can get killed in a church you can you can be destroyed and i hope it never happens to you at temple
19:06but you can be destroyed the very people that you trusted and considered to be your friends
19:13and even and even divulge some of your secrets to be very careful how you do that uh they can turn
19:22on you a wise man said one time it is not the nature of a sheep to turn on its pastor sheep don't do
19:31that they don't turn on their pastor they don't do that not in not in the natural world it does not
19:36happen but you can in a church run into religious hierarchies and religious murderers character
19:47assassins and it can happen to you and so what do you do you give it to god you give it to the lord
19:56you trust god with things that you know that you cannot change and leave it in the hands of the almighty
20:03god has blessed temple baptist church in the last um what 15 16 months or so
20:13we had a little issue go on here a few months back and some people left but god has blessed this church
20:22he has blessed this preacher yes he has and i mean that's obvious is that not obvious to any
20:30anyone that's obvious yes it is what does that say well that says for number one that god intends to
20:37keep me here until he's done with me and i'm happy with that number two he's not finished with temple
20:43baptist church he intends to do something in this church and number three in making a difference what
20:50men do god's going to do what he intends to do he's going to do it and he's doing it and i'm thankful
20:56for that amen i am the the longer i live the more it impresses upon my soul that uh i am accountable
21:07for souls i watch for souls that's a big deal to me this is why the scripture calls me a bishop
21:15and you know i'm not trying to take titles tonight and pump up anything but that is what i am
21:20i'm a bishop so what does that mean preacher that means that whether you're red yellow black or white
21:27it is my obligation and call from god to minister to you whether you're a baptist or a methodist or
21:33roman catholic or an episcopalian or presbyterian i'm called of god to minister to you that means
21:40that i make no distinction that if i'm called to go into a place where i carry the word of god as an
21:46ordained minister bishop of the word of god it is my calling and responsibility and privilege to be
21:53able to go to places other people cannot go to god holds me accountable for that and this happens
21:59sometimes to preachers after they've been at it for a while people start blowing them up so much and
22:04making tournament turning them into a fourth person of the godhead they start lacking it and i've
22:10noticed they don't last long god will take one out of here so fast you'll fill the vacuum as they
22:18leave i would you to i would you you'd learn that lesson there are men out there now that are still
22:23worshiping the names of some of these men that have lived in the last 10 20 years get over it
22:28neither he that soweth is anything nor he that water but god that giveth the increase amen that's all
22:37it matters so with that responsibility that i have i have privilege god allows me to come to places
22:45hear things do things say things that he normally would not allow but he watches me am i willing to
22:52come the way i should come humble into the presence of the lord confessing and dependent and saying lord
23:01here i am i'm here because you put me here and then god says yes you're there because i put you
23:08there and you're doing what i put you there to do now let me say this to you tonight when you come
23:15against a bishop you come against a bishop that's where god put him doing what god called him to do
23:23you can pass that off as nothing live on watch it you're on dangerous ground when you come against
23:38a bishop doing what god's called him to do there are men in this town pastoring churches that have
23:45been there for years i listen to a lot of them a lot of them and i pray for them and respect them
23:51because they're men of god i've been here 48 years i have never one time ever picked up a telephone
23:59and tried to call someone going to one of their churches to start anything against any of these men
24:06in any way whatsoever to try to hinder the work that they're in they're in their ministry they're
24:12doing what god's called them to do i'll leave them alone
24:15if they're a bishop ordained just like me then they have the same position i've got
24:22i'll leave them alone you don't mess with a bishop somebody said well what's going on preacher nothing
24:30this is to nip it in the bud before it does
24:37really really it really is it really is nothing there's not a thing that i know of now who knows
24:50but i don't know of anything that's going on thank god at temple but what i am trying to do is to do
24:57what i failed to do before which i should have done and i've had to confess it to god i did not make
25:03it as clear and plain as i should have that if you have a problem you can come to the pastor we'll
25:10pray over it we'll deal with the issue but don't turn against a pastor and try to turn people against
25:17him don't do it don't do it because you're going against an ordained bishop who's responsible and
25:26accountable to god and god won't put up with it and like i say again like i say again just live on
25:37and watch
25:38all you got to do is watch yes just live on and watch and you'll see what i'm talking about
25:47god comes to me and i pray for people i pray for people all the time all the time
25:52and and and and and he really moves my heart sometimes to pray for certain people and certain
25:57things but he never removes the burden i have that responsibility on me as a pastor and as a bishop
26:04i'm 78 years old i mean i could get my fishing gear out and go buy me a little uh 10 foot boat or
26:12what if some little thing and get out here on the river somewhere and fish but i couldn't do that
26:18i couldn't live like that even though i have the burden i've also got the calling
26:25and the reason i'm in this world and the reason i'm standing before you here tonight
26:30is because i know that my election and my calling i have made sure folks i have made it certain
26:37i know whom i have believed and i don't i i'm what how do you say it i'm not complaining i'm just
26:48simply setting forth you the the responsibility that i have i rejoice in the calling that god's
26:54given me and i feel in my soul that as long as he wants me in this world he'll keep me to where i can
27:02do what he wants me to do then when he gets done with me i'll say even so come lord jesus come
27:08be ready to go amen i don't plan on moving into a nursing home anywhere don't plan on it don't plan
27:15on it don't plan on it don't plan on it by the grace of god is to stay faithful to him until i'm
27:22finished and finished my course and uh some will say well we'll see we will see
27:31we will see
27:37father bless you word thank you for the time in your house lord i had a lot of other stuff that
27:45here but i i just don't i don't want to get into it i think i i think i pretty well
27:49said what you want me to say and i thank you lord you know me and i know you i know who you i
27:58know who you are i know what you've done for me you've been right there you've never failed me one
28:03time and i bless your word as it goes forth now bless the people help them i pray every soul in the
28:10house would make their election and calling sure i would make sure that they know the will of god in
28:15their life and they're happy with it they're satisfied with it they're living it they're
28:20living out the life that god wants them to live i pray that would be true tonight for every soul in
28:25the house for those that are watching and those that will watch later i pray for them i pray this
28:31now in jesus name and amen all right well i'm done
28:36okay
28:47you
28:50you
28:50you
28:51you
28:54you
28:54you
28:54you
28:59you