Whitewashed Tombs
About this sermon
Dean Odle applies Jesus’ condemnation of whitewashed tombs in Matthew 23 to churches and leaders who appear successful or righteous while excusing ongoing sin. He contrasts a megachurch pastor’s claim that confession does not require stopping sin with Jesus’ command to the adulterous woman, Proverbs 28:13, Romans 6, and other passages that join mercy with forsaking iniquity.
Chronological teaching outline
Select a section heading to play the sermon from that moment.
Matthew 23’s whitewashed tombs describe religious leaders who appear righteous but are inwardly corrupt. Odle says Jesus exposed men confident of their standing with God and warned that their treatment of later messengers would reveal continuity with those who killed the prophets.
A clip from a megachurch pastor says people can get right with God without stopping their sin. Odle argues that this separates confession from repentance and gives habitual drunkards, adulterers, and others permission to remain in the very conduct Scripture condemns.
John 8’s woman caught in adultery receives mercy together with Jesus’ command to stop sinning. The sermon presents this union of forgiveness and changed conduct as foundational Christianity, not an optional demand added to grace.
Proverbs 28:13 and 1 John are used to distinguish honest confession from concealing or continuing sin. Odle warns that tolerated wrongdoing affects families and churches, while corrupt companionship can normalize what believers should resist.
The message revisits the pastor’s teaching and places it alongside allegations of institutional cover-up and compromised leadership. Romans 6 answers the claim that believers cannot stop sinning by teaching that sin must no longer reign as master over the body.
Odle uses a physical illustration of yielding to direction to explain cooperation with the Holy Spirit. He then rejects offerings that deprive one’s family of necessities, arguing that caring for dependents takes priority over manipulative religious fundraising.
Proverbs 30’s horseleech—continually crying “Give”—becomes a picture of ministers who solicit more money to fund extravagant lifestyles. Odle says prosperity teaching exploits covetous desire by promising that gifts to a ministry will produce personal wealth.
Odle acknowledges temptation but says love for Jesus, his wife, his family, and the church gives him reasons to refuse it. Paul’s self-discipline in 1 Corinthians 9 supports the warning that preaching to others does not exempt the preacher from perseverance and accountability.
The sermon contrasts the deadness of compromised religion with the discomfort produced by truthful preaching and the Holy Spirit’s conviction. Like an animal resisting a handler or Paul kicking against the goads, resistance can reveal that God is pressing a person toward repentance.
The conclusion urges hearers not to mistake outward church identity or past experience for present obedience. Odle prays that the Holy Spirit will convict those bound by sin and give them courage to leave compromising situations and do what is right.
Open each passage and read it in its complete biblical context.
Read and follow along
Read representative excerpts here, or open the complete indexable transcript to search every timestamped section.
Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
- 0:06:16
Lord praise this morning. Glory to your name, Lord. Glory to your name, Lord. We thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for all you have done. We thank you for all that you're going to do. We thank you that you died on that cross and shed your blood and rose from the dead, Lord, to deal with our sins. You have the keys of hell and death, Lord. We thank you that you are the one that can give forgiveness of sins and eternal life if we will repent, turn away from our sins and follow you. Lord, I thank you for the truth of your word. Lord, I pray for the anointing today upon your word. Lord, thank you for everyone here today. Those watching this and touch every heart change every life. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. You may be seated this morning. Good to have everybody here. Wow. Ah, we may have to rent another place before we can even get something going. We're running out of room in here, aren't we? Um, there are a few seats couple up here to a three if you need them. Y'all get to be in the front row. All right. Well, anyway, welcome everybody to Fire and Grace Church this morning. Um, of course, we're having our Thanksgiving fellowship afterwards, so I will take as long as possible. Keep you just dreaming about that food down there. Um, I hope you have your Bibles with you this morning. Let's turn to Matthew 23 this morning. Uh, this is almost a continuation, I think of last week. Um, I was sent something this morning that just confirmed to me what I need to talk about today. But if you remember where I started out last week talking about the Pharisees and what they represent to us. And remember, in Matthew 23, Jesus said that the Pharisees sit in Moses seat, therefore observe and do what they say. And I explained to you that the old covenant was still intact. It wasn't old at that point. It was still the covenant in which they were walking under. And Jesus was saying to the people, he was saying, Yeah, they sit in the place of authority. They are the teachers of the law. And if they teach you what Moses said, then you observe that you do that, he said. But they say and do not, right? And he started exposing them for what they were. Now he said part of it, he said, they their works they do to be seen of men, all their works they do to be seen event, right? They pray in the marketplaces. They they just wanted to be seen. So they were about really, they got into religious pride thinking they were better than other people. Um, it's just sad. They thought that nobody could know the scriptures like them. They were marveled at Jesus and the apostles because they knew the word, but they hadn't been to
- 0:09:18
their schools. Um, everything we see in the scriptures about the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Now, what's interesting, the difference between those two groups is that the Pharisees actually believed in the supernatural. They believed in angels and demons. They believed in miracles. They believed in the resurrection of the dead. They believed that it says the Sadducees did not believe in the supernatural. Isn't it interesting that we have Christianity? We have segments of Christianity that are the same way. We have parts that believe in the supernatural and parts that don't. They think God quit doing those things, right? Cessation ism. Uh, that's one of the biggest errors that there is. God has not changed. The power of God is still for us today. Um, but even though Jesus looked at the Pharisees and he said they sit in Moses seat, he said, observe what they teach you from the scriptures, but don't do like they do. Now I want to get to this scripture where you could like I said last week, I could preach this whole thing and take. I could do a series of about, you know, eight weeks through this. Just this one chapter. But I want you to go down with me and let's put up verse 27 and we're going to read a little bit there through there. Actually, we're going to read through verse 36. Okay, gonna read a little bit. All right. He says in verse 27. He says, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Somebody say all uncleanness. Mm hmm. Even so, you also appear or outward. You also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. He says, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous and say, if we had been the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. He says, Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are children of them which killed the prophets. Fill you up then the measure of your fathers, you serpents, you generation of vipers. How can you escape the damnation of hell? See, these are people who were convinced they were right with God, but they were not convinced. I mean, absolutely, positively convinced that they were on their way to heaven. And Jesus said, How do you think you're gonna escape the damnation of hell? He says, 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 shall you scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous able unto the blood
- 0:12:20
of Zachariah, the son of Barakiah, whom you slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation. So the judgment of God, he says, gonna come upon you. Now think about what he's saying to these men who absolutely thought that they were righteous, that they were right with God, that they were on their way to heaven. And he tells them, No, you say you wouldn't even partake of what our fathers did to the prophets. We're, we're better than our fathers. And he goes, No, you're not. Because I'm going to send you prophets, and wise men, and scribes, and you're going to crucify them, kill them and persecute them from city to city. And you're going to prove who you are. Now, what blew me away this morning, I want to back up to the scripture here where he says, woe unto you scribes, verse 27. One to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, pretenders, actors, for you alike unto whited sepulchres, tombs, graves, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all and cleanness. You appear beautiful outward. Oh, Lord. You know, Matthew seven, in fact, let's just hold your place here in Matthew 23. Let's leave Matthew seven real quick. I got a video clip for y'all this morning. Y'all ain't gonna believe Matthew seven, and go down to verse 15. Now, this is Jesus again, we're still in my Bible, it's in the red. So right, we're reading the red and praying for the power. That's what one of my pastor you say read the red and pray for the power. Jesus said here, beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly, they are raven wolves. Now again, what's he trying to tell us? There are going to be people who come to us who appear on the outside to be righteous. They appear on the outside to be sheep, part of the body of Christ. He's not saying the wicked world. He's not talking about that wicked world out there. He's talking about the church world. And he says, beware of this. That means pay attention. Have some discernment. Look beyond what's on the outside. What's really at the root? What is inside? What is be what is hidden in there? And here's how you know what is hidden in some of these fake whitewashed tombs that they call churches and pastors out here today. Here's what they they this is what Jesus said. He said out the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks,
- 0:15:21
right? So eventually, and I say this all the time, eventually a wolf who's dressed up like a sheep will have to start doing wolf stuff. They have to. It is their nature. So it has to leak out every now and then. And that's why he said we have to pay attention. And I'm going to show you something today because I don't I don't even know what to call this today. Whitewashed tombs, mega death, because let's get that clip ready. Just have it ready. It's only 17 seconds may have to play it twice. Well, let me just go ahead and tell you we've had, you know, first, Timothy four talks about the judgment will begin at the house of God. And you know, with this church and we believe that we're getting very close to the second coming of Jesus. And so judgments are beginning to fall. And if you said judgment must come first to the house of God, what will the end be of those who do not obey the gospel? Right. Well, how many of you heard of this rash of these big time ministers falling, getting busted? Well, I tell you what, let's just put up the picture. We'll start with the Robert Morris Gateway Church, one of the largest churches in America. I got two pictures of him here, but he molested a 12 year old girl, tried to cover it up for years, lied about it. When the girl finally grew up, became a woman and was dealing with all that pain and demonic stuff that he did to her, that went on for some time, actually, but between the time she was, I think 12 and 16, he manipulated her. This was a friend's family. That's not him. Robert Morris, the white. Oh, this guy right here. We'll deal with him in a minute. Let's go in the order. They'll get it in a second. It's a picture of a man and a woman there. So there's the situation. Of course, he had to step down. You can put up the news clip from, I think it's NBC News. Lawyer for mega church pastor, blame 12 year old girl for initiating inappropriate sexual conduct. Now, if you did something
The complete timestamped transcript is published as a crawlable reading page so every sermon topic remains searchable without making this video page unnecessarily heavy.
Read and search the complete transcript