Receive God's Word That Cleanses Within

Now, neither, none of these problems are preferred or better. To be more licentious or to be more legalistic. The key is, Christ is the one remedy to help us out of either of these problems, both of these problems. To have a right view of God and his justice and his mercy. to have a right understanding and a right understanding of self.

Again, if we go back to Christ, who in this very chapter said,

the humble will be exalted.

Humility is not defeated. Humility is not self-pity. Humility is seeing yourself rightly in the face of God, according to his word. Humility is seeing who you truly are in Christ and seeking to walk in his ways.

This morning, we're going to continue with woes. It's a rainy day, why not have some woes? Warnings and judgments. He's speaking to Pharisees, real judgments of who they are. For us, we're gonna wrestle with them as warnings for who we can easily become. We're gonna hopefully see there's two ways to live and the blessing of God and the happy life that Christ came to die to accomplish for us and to rise again to give us. or in our own way, which one way or the other ends with woefulness, worry, anxiety, fear, unhappiness. If we look at the Pharisees and what has preceded, they have a problem with discernment.

They haven't truly judged what's valuable. Remember, what's greater, the temple or the gold in the temple? They don't have a proper judgment. More to the point was they don't understand what's weightier. They tithe the herbs, the smallest thing, down to the minuscule moment in weight, but they ignore the weightier things of justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

They've taken up the seat of Moses. They're supposed to be the leaders, but they themselves lack real judgment of what's good, what's weighty, what's true. Today we go back to that first declaration. They themselves preached from a practice to the point here that they're only focused on what the external appearance is. They have not dealt with the true internal matter of the heart.

They've not sought an inside-out religion. They are merely external, which is, again, a key part of why Jesus says your righteousness must succeed that of the Pharisees in Matthew 5. It can't just be external. It must be internally believed, trusted, and practiced. If we look to these next woes, again, we're picking up where we've already been. Woe to those who slam the door. They don't let others in the kingdom. They can't because they themselves are not in the kingdom. Woe to them that misunderstand the greatness of the right promises and keeping those promises.

Pursue purity in our heart

The weightier matters now. We continue with the woes, and if you're taking notes, for us, I'm going to challenge us, we must pursue purity in our heart. That is the opposite of what they're doing. We must pursue purity in our heart. Woe to you who only clean the outside. I believe these next two woes need to go together, just like that first group of woes, I believe, created a pair. Here, these two woes regarding internal cleanliness versus the external appearance.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisees, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

These two go together because they really capture their inside out problem. They're clean on the outside. They appear a certain way on the outside, but internally, where Jesus can see them, they're corrupted. They're full of greed. They're externally tithing down to the mitt, which looks like they're meticulous in their religious expression. But internally, they're full of greed and self-indulgence. That's a very scary picture.

They've been charged with two basic big titles here, or big accusations. They're hypocrites and they're blind, and these two go together in the diagnosis. They preach but do not practice. And when they do practice, it's for their own praise. Now blind hits hard. They're supposed to be leading God's people to trust God's word and the ways of God. But they're blind. They do not see God, therefore they cannot make him see. They do not know God, therefore they cannot make Him known. They prefer to be praised rather than know Him, who is truly praiseworthy.

Blind refers to their own self-condition, what they're doing to themselves. See, blindness, if you repeat a lie enough, the danger of it, you might start believing it. If you repeat a lie often enough, you actually become part of it. If you repeat a lie over and over again and you find others who are going to help you repeat that lie, you might end up forgetting it was a lie. They blinded themselves with their own self-deception. This is why they're not to be followed. They are unable to lead you into the light because they do not have the light. These next woes, these two woes, are the spiritual nature that they're bringing about their own destruction.

The first one is about a cup and a plate. You clean the outside of the cup and the plate. First clean the inside, then the outside's clean. We can see it's a real practical illustration. You only clean the outside, not the inside. Important question, where does the food go? The inside is the more important place. It's pretty gross if you think about what he's talking about here.

Let's just pretend you have a main dish that you always use to serve at your table for your family and any guests that comes. There's a main plate that any food you serve is always that dish. And every time after dinner's over, all you do is clean the outside of that bowl or dish. What happens over time?

Bacteria builds up. the food particles just keep growing and then they grow other things. It's a pretty disgusting picture. I'm giving it to you now so you have time to get over it before we eat together in just a little bit. But if you don't clean the inside of the bowl, that means every time you put new food in it, it's corrupted and gross. You keep adding to the corruption. The hypocrites.

They present themselves as righteous on the outside, they're meticulous in demonstrating their religion, but on the inside, they're nothing but self-indulgent and greedy. These two descriptions, that's unhealthy self-love. Self-indulgent and greedy is the kind of self-love that really becomes self-abuse. To be very clear, we all love ourselves. These two ways of loving yourselves are self-abuse. Delighting in our own desires over against God. Delighting in our own instincts and our own indulgences over against what God said.

Let's just think about this word greedy. The danger of being greedy. First, greed is unsatisfiable. Greed by nature is unsatisfiable. It means you want something for the wrong reason or you want something more and you'll never have enough. You're seeking to get something for an end in which it wasn't designed to be. It's woeful. It's unsatisfying. You get more and it just makes you more unhappy because you always want more.

There's a judgment for this kind of self-indulgence. This is not the flourishing human life. Okay, what could you be greedy for? All right, the first instinct most people would say is more money. Greedy for more money is a root of evil. That's more buying power. But you can also be greedy for other things. Greedy for power? Greedy for influence? Greedy for popularity? Greedy for more friends?

You have to understand, greedy has a cousin named Envy. Greedy says, I need more. God, why aren't you doing a better job? Envy says, why are you giving him more or her more? Envy just looks at the other person next to you and has greed. Greed is a declaration against God. You're ultimately grumbling against God and saying he's not gracious enough. He's not giving enough. Greed is a form of idolatry.

Well, greed goes along with self-indulgence. Self-indulgence says whatever my desires are, whatever my heart says I want, I should have. This is just good old-fashioned hedonism. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. We have an appetite to be obeyed. This is the diagnosis that their God is their belly. Their hunger and thirst is not for righteousness, but it's for whatever their heart produces. Inside, they live for themselves. And I doubt they're really greedy for money. I think they're greedy for power, authority, influence.

If we go through the Gospel of Matthew, they're constantly upset that his teaching is received more than theirs. They're saying his teaching has more authority than theirs. They're greedy for the influence in the seat of Moses. That's why they can't stand Jesus, because he's the prophet that was promised to Moses that would come after him.

Their hearts have turned inward, and anytime the heart is turned inward, it's corrupted. Calvin calls the heart an idol factory. He diagnoses our basic human problem as a heart that's turned in on itself for only loving the desires that we produce. The goal of worship and sanctification is to bend your heart out from focusing on you, but back to God.

First clean the inside

The diagnosis in verse 25, you're gross and greedy. On the outside, you have righteousness, but internally you have gross Self-indulgence, and you're greedy. But verse 26 gives us a prescription.

You blind Pharisees, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside may be clean.

All right, children, if you're doing dishes, that doesn't work, okay? All analogies break down. We said that in the marriage class. You gotta clean the inside of the out.

Here, speaking of the human, speaking of the Pharisees, speaking of you, Christian, when you cleanse your heart, it transforms your actions. We are an inside out people. What we think about and what we desire, ultimately, is lived out in righteousness. Whatever we are changed and transformed and sanctified internally, Our hearts are renewed, our minds are transformed by the very grace of God so that we are then living out as a sacrifice. The whole idea is we're supposed to be living from inside out against the Pharisees who are merely outside and nothing inside.

Clean the inside. Our heart's desires can be changed is the good news. Our heart's disposition and leanings, they can be changed. But how challenging is that? Your desires really are what define you most. And that's what needs to be changed. That's hard to do. This is why we sing songs and pray prayers.

Create in me a clean heart.

Purify me, O great God. Purify my heart so I may be blessed to see you face to face. There's something challenging here because I don't have access to my heart to brush it and to wash it with soap and water. But God has access. God is able to enter into who we are in our most inner being and place seeds of life to start cleaning and purifying that will then lead to a joyful love and obedience that is expressed outside. If you find your heart, as anyone who really asks, what kind of legalist am I? What kind of sins still entangle me? You see there's still deceit in that heart. There's still pain in that heart.

That's why we look to Christ. His blood was shed to wash us. to purify us inside. As we were taking the cup a little bit later, we're reminded that that bloodshed isn't just to forgive us legally, but it's shed to restore us internally. Again,

blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God.

To live under the generous, gracious God, who doesn't just give us new rules to follow, but gives us new hearts, gives us new eyes so we can see Him, opens our hearts so that we might know him. The second woe continues this same argument.

Verse 27,

woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within You're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Now this one is more gross in my evaluation. Dead tombs. You're dead inside. Not just filthy with greed, but truly dead with the corrosion and corruption of a body in a tomb. I believe it even hits harder for them because if you remember, The Jewish people live under clean and unclean laws, and you're like a dead man. You can't touch the dead without becoming unclean. He's not just saying you're filthy and gross, but you're unclean. You're unfit to be in the presence of God. You appear righteous, but you're full of hypocrisy. You can't approach God. You can't help others approach God. You're unclean.

Now, they're not delighting in the law because they're dead inside. They're simply performing kind of religious actions that help them feel better themselves and help others think they're doing okay. They're lawless. They're living, but they're dead. It's a deadly form of life. Be very clear, we back up and we remember God is the God of life. He created all life. He created us to live. He's not the God of the dead.

Some of you are still ready for that. Good for you. They're only doing what's necessary for appearances. They're not seeking to walk in the newness of what God has given us. Christian, are you living inside out? Are you going through emotions in a way that you know the heart isn't being changed? You're simply going from step to step without any real order and control as to what you're doing and why you're thinking that way.

It's too easy to get in patterns where we either just follow what we have been doing and we don't have that same focus of love and devotion to Christ. The whole Christian life is meant to transform all of you, your soul, your heart, your mind, your body, what you think about. We desire what you do. The whole of the Christian life is to love the Lord your God with all your soul, your mind, your body, your strength. The life he's living is woeful. It's unhappy. It's under judgment. We think we need to be free from God and his law and others to really become who we want to be. That's a lie.

To quote Luther,

Christian, you're the most free and the most bound.

God set you free from sin so that you can be bound to Christ and his righteousness. You're never free. You're bound to either sin and the greed that enslaves you and abuses you, or you're bound to Christ who uplifts you and gives you joy. free and kind of do our own thing in our own way, but you're just choosing a different kind of slavery that's abusive and deadly.

Christ has come to give us the cleansing inside. Christ has come, and remember, when he touches the dead, he doesn't become unclean, he gives them life. He has come in the resurrection power to make sure you're not like that tomb that's merely beautiful outside, but you have true life inside. Now, as we're looking at this inside-outside, there is a spirituality that's been prevalent in our culture in America that's, well, it's merely an internal religion, it's not an external religion. No, it's very important, it's inside-out. It's what we do inside that then must be lived out.

Faith must be practiced

So as I wrestle with this, I wondered, somebody might ask, should you do what is right when you don't internally feel like it? Should you be externally obedient when you're not fully authentically and sincerely feeling like being obedient? Guess what my answer is? David Ashcomb's shaking his head yes, he is correct. If you're doing it to be seen by others, no. If you're doing it for your own praise, no. But if you're doing it because you know it's right, you know it's good, you know it's true, Being obedient because it's what you know God said to do is right, you do it. Because your heart can catch up to it.

I do counsel folks regularly that they're waiting to feel sincere before they act. You'll never do it. Corruption is fully in the heart. We're never gonna have this perfectly sincere, authentic worship until we see Christ face to face and sin is no longer present. Faith must be practiced or it's dead.

Don't use this text as an excuse not to do that obedience you know you should do until you've internally figured it all out. The beauty of the church is we come together and we practice and help each other understand by faith as we pursue holiness together. Christian, work out your faith. Ask God to help your unbelief while being obedient.

As we also look at this text, I want to say nobody wants to be selfish or greedy. Nobody wants to be known to be selfish, greedy, or self-indulgent. That's unattractive. Everybody understands that kind of life is dangerous. But we have to recognize our culture has become more and more prone to enabling this. We've coined it as expressive individualism, one theologian has.

Or you could hear this and be true to thine own self. Just be true to what you believe and how you feel and all things will work out. Well, that's a lie. It's assumed that there's something good about you internally outside of what God is doing. My main concern is a church culture that's promoted that it's okay. You just desire and do what you desire. And the church is here to kind of give you a validation for what you believe.

Now, the reason we come together is to be conformed together into the image of God. We seek to be changed internally. Oh, the songs we sing are meant to lift up the heart that's drowned out in sorrow, to help us to see the sin that we can repent of, to hear the grace of God. That's always true.

As we consider this inside out problem, we have to go back to Matthew 15, where Remember, Jesus has challenged that his disciples don't wash their hands. He tells me, it's not what comes from outside that defiles you. It's inside. This inside-outside problem comes back to what defiles you. Your problem comes from within you. The solution comes from outside. Everything about our culture is opposite of that. We need to find the solution inside for all those problems outside. The gospel of Jesus Christ is very clear. The most dangerous attack you have is what's from inside your own selfish greed or your own condemnation.

Receive God, his word, and his son

The help comes from the Word of God, the Son of God, the Holy Spirit outside that heals that heart. That's helpful for us to understand because we now transition to how they approach the very Word of God. If you're taking notes, that was one point. Second, receive God, his word, and his son. Receive God, his word, and his son.

And again, this is flipping over the woe. The Pharisees are woeful. They're unhappy. They're under judgment because they've hated God's prophet, because they've hated God, and they will hate his son. So the encouragement to you today is to receive God, his word, and his son. Verse 29,

woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, if we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. Thus, you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?

Let's pause there. We'll finish that text out, Lord willing.

They like to make big ceremony and show for the prophets who have been martyred. They build tombs, they decorate those tombs. They like to say, if we'd have been in that day, we would not have murdered those prophets. We would not have been like our fathers, and they're speaking there of their forefathers, we would not have killed those prophets.

Now, we have to do some hard work here in terms of the way we normally think of ourselves and others before us. There is a biological father-son genealogy. I don't believe that's what we're talking about when it comes to fathers here. I believe he's speaking of a covenant connection with these fathers. The key is, verse 30, they're saying if it had been us, in the day of our fathers, we wouldn't have acted like those fathers. We know better, we are better, we wouldn't have murdered the prophets like Our fathers did.

Jesus then turns this against them in verse 31.

Thus, you witnessed you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.

By your own declaration, you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. I believe here he's speaking of sonship in a covenantal way. We have to go back to Genesis 315, where God said to Satan,

I will put enmity between your sons and the sons of Eve.

They're sons of death, and they're sons of life. They're sons of those who rage against God and his elect, and they're sons of God and his elect. He is putting them in the place of being sons of Satan. If you want to have more clarity on that, he calls them serpents, a brood of vipers.

That's Satan language. Their father is of Satan. And if we can trace the line of scripture that Cain is the first son of Satan who murders his innocent brother. That's why he says, you will be guilty of the blood of Abel all the way to Zechariah. Those are all the righteous prophets murdered by the sons of Satan.

This is a covenant of framework that's fairly foreign to us because we think we're individuals. No, you're either a child of Adam in sin and death under Satan, child of Satan, a child of murder and a liar. You're a child of God and life and righteousness and truth. This charge has a weight to it theologically.

Your fathers murdered the prophets and you think you're better, but no, you are sons of those men. You're in the same line as those men. You would have murdered them. You are murderers. Which brings us to verse 32, which is a pretty odd statement out of that context.

Fill up then the measure of your fathers.

Earlier I read from Hebrews chapter 1, in former days God spoke through the prophets who their fathers murdered, but now you've spoken through your son.

If you go back to the parable of the vineyard, the owner of that vineyard put tenants in that vineyard. And he sent servants to go get the fruit, and they abused those servants, and they murdered those servants, those prophets. And so the owner said, I'll send my son, surely they'll honor him. But the student said, as they saw the sun coming, if we kill him, we'll get the inheritance. These Pharisees are the fulfillment of that vineyard parable.

He's saying here, you're going to be just like your father, Satan. You're going to be just like Cain. You're going to be just like your fathers, only you're gonna do the worst task. You're not just gonna kill a prophet, you're gonna kill the son. You're going to fill up the measure of Satan and all the nations that rage against God and his elect. You are going to kill me, Jesus says.

You serpents, you brood of virus, how are you gonna escape the sentence of hell?

Now he's asking the question that should be a moment of reflection here. He's argued using their own words that you yourself testify you're sons of murderers. That accusation is the same as John the Baptist. There's a moment here hopefully of reflection. There is something important if we repent, God will relent of his judgment. That is a rule throughout scripture. I trust there's a God of grace who would let these people repent, but they, they're going to kill them. We know that coming up. They're serpents. Again, this goes back to Genesis three. They're workers of evil. They're deceivers. They're murderers. It's significant.

If you look at this, the high point of Satan's evil and rebellion is seen on the cross. the son of God murdered. That's also the high point where we see God's love for this world that hates him. It's a high point where we see God's mercy take place. Verse 34,

therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify and some of you will flog in your synagogue and persecute from town to town.

So that, significant purpose clause,

On you may come all the righteous bloodshed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Now, this is where we have to see there's a collective identity. Again, that covenant identity.

We're not individuals standing by ourselves. They did not kill Abel with their own hands. They did not kill Zechariah with their own hands. But they're part of that same movement and covenant identity with Satan that hates God and his elect. I believe what Jesus is speaking of there in verse 34 is after his resurrection. They're going to kill him. That's what 32 refers to. That's focused on the cross. They will fill the measure of their fathers when they crucify the Son of God. I believe 34 is referring to after his resurrection, he's going to send prophets, wise men, and scribes.

I don't think these are new offices for the church that the church did not get in Acts. I believe he's using their categories to help them understand, I will send people who will speak God's word, and you will continue to hate God and his word. The significance here, they don't want to hear God's word.

If you go back to 23, at the very beginning, they've put themselves in the seat of Moses, where they have no right to be there. Moses, the prophet. Moses, the author of the law. Moses, the prophet who all the prophets are just mimicking and repeating. They who are supposed to be the teachers of the law, hate the law. They would have murdered the prophets, they're gonna murder the son, and then they're gonna murder prophets after him.

Their inside-out problem that we looked at first relates first and foremost, they have a problem above them. They don't trust the word of God. They don't believe they need God's word from outside of them to help them, fix them, heal them, purify them. They believe they're fine with their own greed and self-indulgence.

Christian, this is why we come together regularly. That's why we repeat God's Word regularly. That's why we're constantly seeking to speak the truth and love regularly, so that we hear what God's Word has to say and how it can transform us. It has to correct us to transform us. It has to be heard to be listened to. It has to be listened to to be believed. It has to be believed to be trusted and obeyed and lived out. What is your relationship to God's Word? Do you delight in it? Do you love it? All right, you're supposed to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul. That's the commandment. We don't know who God is unless he's told us who he is. We're a book religion. He's given us these sacred words so that we know who he is and what he's always revealed.

Do you love his word? I must say there's no neutral relationship with God's word. It's either delighted in or you will despise it. It's either delighted in or you will despise it. You might think by keeping yourself distant from God's word, it's okay because it's in neutral.

No. God has spoken in a way that all people hear and we suppress it and we do not honor him. God's given us this word so that we can delight in it and delight in him. Christian, are you seeking to feed upon what God says? Not just by yourself, with other people. It's amazing. We take for granted, only for 500 years have people had their own copy of scripture. What an incredible, incredible blessing that we take for granted, that centuries of Christians before us would have longed for. We read this on our own. We read this as a very life of God given to us in words. And we come together and we speak of it together.

Hear and receive Jesus

Their inside-out problem is really a God problem first. This is the last woe because it's the most significant in that they hate God and his word. Therefore, they remain corrupt. Lastly, His declaration that flows from that last woe, but here's the third point, hear and receive Jesus. Verse 37. He backs out and he's flowing out of all these woes, and he looks at his city.

Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your Children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing See your house is left desolate For I tell you you will not see me again until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord

Clearly it's it's flowing out of this last. Whoa It's not just the Pharisees now, it's the whole city the city of David Jesus, the son of David. The royal city where the temple is.

This is supposed to be the central part of who God's people are. And God's people are only God's people because God said so. You see, the importance of the word of God defining who they are and what they're supposed to be. But what marks them is that they kill the prophets. They stone those who are sent to it. They're supposed to be the city of light. a sit on a hill for all their nations to see, but they themselves have hated God. They refuse to be who God said they should be.

That second half of 37 is worthy of your meditation to see a picture of Jesus.

How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings?

There's two kinds of people in this passage. The brood of vipers that hate God and his word and his son. And the brood of this hen who's gathered under Christ and loves God, his son, and his word. There's two ways to live.

The picture here is that I would gather you. Although the wings spread out. with healing in the wings. He himself is declaring here as the son of David, the true king, how I would have gathered you, put you under my protection, under my nurture. I would have cared for you. I would have given you everything you need. What was wrong? You were not willing. You were not willing.

And we could go through all kinds of wrestling with will and free will. I'll just say it this way. You have free will to reject God all day long. You have free will to reject God all day long. By his grace, if you hear his voice, you can come to Christ and he'll gather you, restore you, and save you. This is where your responsibility is. And this is the scary part. You were not willing. When we refuse and refuse and reject and reject, a very scary phrase in scripture should come to our minds. God gave them over to their sin. God has never made you sin. God cannot make anyone sin. In our own free will, we sin. Here, what keeps them from coming to the God of healing and life is they're not willing.

If you hear his voice today, don't reject him. Don't slide further into sin. If you hear him saying, repent of your sin and come to him, he will gather you and give you life. Another verse that repeats this, Romans 10.

All day long, I hold out my hands to a stiff neck and obstinate people who are not willing.

Our God speaks. He speaks the word of invitation. Come to him who has come to save you. If you're not a believer, it's simple as I believe in Jesus Christ. He alone has died for my sins and he rose again to give me new life. Help my unbelief. Stop persisting. Stop rejecting him. Come to him. Verse 38, he says,

your house was left desolate.

This could mean a couple of different things. It could mean house as in household, a lineage. I believe he's referring to a real house. I believe he's referring to the temple. I believe he's referring to AD 70, ultimately, whenever that temple is fully destroyed.

The glory has left the temple. The glory left the temple, and the temple stopped functioning when Christ died on the cross. Because when he said it is finished, the curtain was torn in two. That's no longer the place of worship. The place of worship is in the presence of Christ, in his name, as we get to go to the Father in the name of the Son. The temple is left desolate because the people of God rejected him. And now a new and better way is provided by Christ and through Christ.

He finally tells them, and he tells us,

you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

That's referring to his second coming. He will come again, and there will be no confusing who He is. He will come with absolute glory and power and justice. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Everyone will say that, whether they're redeemed or not. He is the Lord. He is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. That will be professed one way or the other. It's either in salvation or in judgment.

As we conclude these woes, the danger is they preach but do not practice. They practice but only be seen by others. They make the wrong promises. They try to find ways out of their promises. They do the small and meticulous, but they ignore the matters of the heart, justice, mercy, faithfulness. They hate God and his word. They're greedy inside, not cleansed inside.

Blessed be our God who's come to cleanse us fully. Again, our minds, our hearts, our action. There's the woeful life of self-righteousness in greed, and there's the blessed life of Christ. Jesus has come to give you the blessed, flourishing, happy life. You must believe in him.

Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for this warning of who we can easily become in our own selfishness. I pray we would know how to see our selfishness by looking at your law rightly. Help us look into a mirror and see who we are so that we can see all the ways that Christ has saved us. Pray we know how to speak these truths, Pray that we rejoice together now as we partake of the Lord's Supper, rejoicing that we have all been saved by the same blood, washed by that same blood. Pray that we would know how to walk in your ways and rejoice in your ways. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.