The fundamental error most prevalently on display among the religious of Jesus' day was hypocrisy. The most accurate description of the sin of hypocrisy in context is given in the prologue to the woes of Mat 23 in verse 36... “They preach, but do not practice”. The Pharisees and scribes made lip service to God, but in reality their religious devotion revolved around themselves. Furthermore, the nature of their crimes was exponentially worse given their influence on others. This record of wickedness is a sobering reminder that no one sins in a vacuum and we can only, and will only underestimate the collateral damage of our unconfessed sin. Thank you Lord for the overwhelming power of redemption in Christ's blood! Our text today is deadly serious. perhaps the following could help provide perspective: For all the abuses we could never endorse documented through history and charged against the heavy handed institutional church, there is one related truth that should not be lost upon us in this age of metastasizing relativism: The seriousness of religious treason presupposed in the burning of actual heretics. Our text today proves that ultimate heretics will inevitably burn whether in this life, or in the next! As each indictment is introduced in Mat 23 with Christ's proclamation of 'woe'... let us be sobered with the shuddering reality of Christ's words. Our text compels the spiritual equivalent of the response to a bombing raid siren sounding under the dull rumble of heavy aircraft and approaching explosions.