Jesus On Hypocrites

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Hey, everybody. I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. Gospel according to Matthew chapter 23.

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Gospel according to Matthew chapter 23. Powerful moment in scripture.

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Truly, truly is. As you guys open there, I want to remind you as we have moved through the gospel according to Matthew, we've moved from the very, very beginning, unpacking verse by verse.

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We chose to use Matthew as the first gospel to unpack so that we can give everybody a solid acquaintance with the

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Old Testament itself. Because Matthew quotes so often from it. So there's a context to this.

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There's a background. As we talk about sola scriptura, what we see really throughout scripture, that the word of God, the self -attesting revelation of God, is the standard upon which the people of God are supposed to stand.

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It's the thing that we test things by. It is what God called his people to test things by.

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It is the sort of thing, activity, that you see in the ministry of Jesus, where he is confronting the false teaching of his day by standing on the word of God.

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It's the thing you see in Berea, where the Berean Christians are more noble -minded than the ones of Thessalonica.

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Because when the Apostle Paul is teaching, they are searching the scriptures daily to see if what he is saying is actually true.

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It's the kind of thing you're going to see in a moment that the Apostle Paul quotes from in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 6.

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An early Christian creed or tradition about sola scriptura, not to go beyond that which is written.

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When we think about that, that the word of God is the standard, we need to say that we have to let all of scripture speak.

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Amen? Yes, all of scripture interprets scripture. We don't just take little proof texts here or there to try to build something on that we're reading something else really into the text.

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Let the Bible speak. Let the word of God speak. And as we have been looking in Matthew, remember that Matthew is this very

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Jewish -oriented gospel that has familiarity with everything that God has said before.

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God has made promises about the coming kingdom of the Messiah, about salvation, about forgiveness, about Jesus, and Matthew is writing this gospel, giving you this historic narrative of Jesus.

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What did Jesus say? What did Jesus do? What happened in the life and ministry of Jesus? But Matthew is also packing within this signals, signals, that this truly is the

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Messiah. How do we know? Because God says here, and this is the fulfillment in Jesus.

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Matthew is telling us a story about the Messiah that is a story of fulfillment.

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This is not a novelty dropped into history. The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of the kingdom, isn't a novelty dropped into history.

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This is what God had promised from the very beginning, and it's critical to grab hold of that. We understand that about Jesus, the messianic prophecies, that this isn't a novelty dropped into history.

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This is the continuation of all that God had promised in his covenants with his people. This is the faithful God showing up and showing off.

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I was talking to Sage, I think we were going to a movie, and he said something that was really interesting about Jews today who don't believe in Jesus.

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Those who are outwardly Jews, but inwardly don't actually follow the Torah and the

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Tanakh and believe what it says about the Messiah. He said something like, I can't see how they could not believe in Jesus.

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Reading the Old Testament is like reading a Wikipedia article about Jesus. I thought that was a really cool way to put that.

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But in Matthew, Matthew again is telling a story. He's continuing the story of the Old Testament.

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Get this, he's continuing the story of the Old Testament to show you that, yes, God has been faithful, the Messiah has arrived, but Matthew is also telling you his own story in terms of the narrative of Jesus and his ministry, what he was saying and doing, and he's building us to a climax.

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Two things there. One, he's showing you that Jesus is in fact the promised Messiah. He's demonstrating it through the quotation of Old Testament scripture and prophecy.

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He's blending together the themes and the symbols. He's putting it all together, but he's also telling us through divine inspiration his own story leading to a climax.

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And I want to say that we're getting to that climax that is constantly before us as we read the gospel according to Matthew right now.

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So keep that in mind. Matthew's telling us a story and he's giving us now this moment of climax where you're going to see that story come to the predicted end.

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And so we are in Matthew chapter 23. We'll start in verse 13.

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Hear now the words of the living and the true God. But woe to you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces, for you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

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Woe to you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte and when he becomes a proselyte you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

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Woe to you blind guides who say if anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing.

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But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he's bound by that by his oath. You blind fools, for which is greater the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?

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And you say if anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he's bound by his oath.

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You blind men, for which is greater the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.

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And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

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Woe to you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness.

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These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.

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Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray. Father, we come before you,

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Lord, as your people. Humble, Lord, that you would call us to yourself. That you would give us the grace that you have and the mercy to save us from our sins, to give us the gift of eternal life, to give us the knowledge of yourself, that we may know you.

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We just pray, God, with this gift in our hands that we all have before us of your inspired revelation, that,

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Lord, you would cause us now to bow before it in our hearts and minds. Lord, we ask that you would expose within us our inconsistencies.

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We ask for that. Grant to us the grace, Lord, now for those in this room that don't know you.

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Please grant life today. We do pray for mercy and grace in the lives of those who don't know you.

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Open the eyes of the blind. Give hearing to the deaf. Give hearts of flesh where there are hearts of stone.

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And for those of us that do belong to you, we pray that today you'd give us grace, understanding, conviction, change us.

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Lord, expose our pretending. Expose our hypocrisy. Grant to us the ability now to take down our defenses.

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Bring us to our knees in humility and repentance, and please conform us to the image of Christ.

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In Jesus' name. Amen. What a word. Hypocrite.

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Hypocrite. It's a word, whether you're a Christian or not, it's a word we don't like. So for those who don't even know

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Jesus, to be called a hypocrite is a very, very significant insult. No one likes to be called a hypocrite. What's it mean?

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You're a pretender. You're a fake. And it's interesting, even the fallen don't like that word thrown around.

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You're a fake. You're a pretender. Image bearers of God made in the image of the true God know the weight of that challenge.

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You're a pretender. You're not walking in the truth. But for those who know

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God, to be called a hypocrite, a pretender, an actor, that's one of the greatest ways to challenge, to expose.

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And Jesus here in this section talks to people who profess to know God. This is the critical point.

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They were precise, listen, in their doctrine, and Jesus even points out these people were big on evangelism.

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They're big on outreach. They're big on proselytizing. So it's not like they, you know, had no concern for those things.

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They're concerned about doctrine. They're concerned about theology. They're concerned about precision. They had their confessions.

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They knew what they believed and they understood those things and they did evangelism. These are religious looking people outside.

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They look so Christian. They've got all the bells and the whistles. They've got all of the stuff happening in worship, all the symbolism, all the liturgy, all the worship stuff that just screams,

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I know God. I know God. I'm walking in the truth. And yet Jesus, who is

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God in the flesh, the very embodiment of truth, it's part of our catechism.

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We're memorizing this verse, John 14, 6. I am the way and the what? Truth and the life.

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No man comes to the Father, but by me. Jesus is the very embodiment of truth. God cannot lie.

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And when God becomes a man, takes on flesh, tents among us, tents among us, and he walks around with the covenant people, the professing covenant people, he tells them the truth.

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He doesn't pull punches. He calls them hypocrites, pretenders.

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The word hupakrite, that word actually tells us about the old world of acting and in a play, people who are pretending, putting on masks.

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It was obvious for them, they understood what that meant. You're calling me an actor? You're saying that I'm just, this is all theater?

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It's just a play, right? Like I should be selling tickets? Because it was obvious for the hupakrite, the actor, they were pretending.

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They put masks on. It was so obvious that they were not actually the person. They were pretending to be.

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There's a mask there. And that's what Jesus is saying to them. You're just play acting.

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This is all pretend, you fool. You're just pretending. You're not real.

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I'm not buying it. It's all just play acting. This is a theater show for all of you.

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You're just in a costume. All of the signals of worship, all the symbolism, all of these behaviors and activities, all of you're running around trying to be precise about this doctrine or that practice, all those things.

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It's just an illusion. You're all just playing. And when the son of God comes actually now to confront the covenant breakers, he tells them the truth.

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And of course, we live in a day where we are living in actually a time where people are constantly offended, right?

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I mean, that's what we are professionals at in our day. We are living in the time where everybody is constantly offended.

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We have safe spaces even for people who don't want to be offended, right? We have college campuses that actually create safe spaces, right?

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Does this offend you? Is this sexist, racist, or bigoted, right? Well, here's what we'll do for you.

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We'll give you some toys and some suckers and you can sit in a corner over here where you can have a safe space where you don't have to hear these things.

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It was interesting even this last week we went out to the Planned Parenthood protests and the thing they were doing downtown at the

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Arizona State Capitol and it was amazing how you had to just be so cautious because if the wrong word came out of your mouth that they thought was offensive, they immediately got emboldened and angry.

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They would say, watch it! Watch it! Be careful what you say to me because they were so easily offended.

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We live in the offended generation and the danger is that we live in a generation that doesn't want to hear the truth.

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When we're lost, we don't want to hear the truth. We're hiding ourselves from God. We don't want God in our knowledge.

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So obviously when we're non -God seeking, we don't want God's truth presented to us.

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That's natural. And I want to say as Christians in a culture that looks like that, we need to not yield to it.

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We need to be like Jesus and always be willing to tell the truth. Amen? Yes?

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But remember that Jesus is not merely truth embodied. God is love. And when love is embodied, love tells the truth, but love tells the truth in the way that is faithful to the truth, but is not merely abusive.

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Jesus ate with sinners. Tax collectors and prostitutes wanted to be near Jesus. That tells you something about what

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Jesus was doing when he was telling people the truth. Sinners still hung out with him. They didn't see him as merely abusive for abusive's sake.

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Jesus always told the truth, but there's a danger in our day. In the Christian culture, we've adopted really the mindset of the world in terms of offensiveness and don't say things that are harsh or don't say things that will hurt somebody's feelings.

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And so we really have a Christian culture that's afraid to tell people the truth and it tells Christians who are saying things that are true in a loving way.

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Hey, maybe you shouldn't do that. Well, why shouldn't I? Because we don't want to create an uncomfortable atmosphere for those who don't know

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God. We want to sort of ease them into the truth, maybe over a five or ten year period, and then earn the right to preach the gospel to them.

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We have the kind of mindset today that would actually give Jesus a failing grade in an evangelism course in Matthew 23.

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Why? Because Jesus confronts religious people with the truth. He says you're just pretending and I'm not buying it.

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You're a fool. You're a blind guide. Actually on the outside, you look like this beautiful whitewashed tomb, but the moment people step in they're going to see what you're really about.

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You are full of stinking, rotting corpses. So much for the meek and mild surfer

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Jesus, right? Hey, bro. Let's be friends. I just want you to let me into your little heart, man.

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Right? Like we have this idea of Jesus, like he would never do anything to offend the culture around him.

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He would never do anything to hurt somebody's feelings. I want to ask you, when Jesus goes to the covenant people of God and he calls them fools, blind guides, and pretenders, do you think that they were offended?

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Yes, to the degree that they said, crucify him, give us the murderer.

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Don't give us him, crucify him. They wanted Jesus dead.

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Why? Because he told them the truth. Hypocrites. So this moment though is getting in Matthew's story to this climactic moment now that has been anticipated since the very beginning.

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Just a bit of background. Go listen to the old messages where we talked about this. The Old Testament of God tells us not only that salvation, forgiveness, peace with God is coming through this

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Messiah that's going to extend throughout the whole earth. The nations are going to come to God. We know that is a promise of God.

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It doesn't merely tell us about salvation that's coming to the world. It also talks about the impending judgment upon the covenant breakers themselves.

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God promises the Messiah is coming to bring salvation, but it also tells us that when the

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Messiah comes, he's going to bring judgment upon the covenant breakers. When the new covenant arrives into history, there is going to be a judgment upon the covenant breakers.

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We talked about that. Matthew has that in the background. He's standing on that revelation.

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If you're a faithful Jew and you want to know what's coming, you need to read your

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Old Testament to understand this is what God says is coming in the Messiah and his kingdom.

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Salvation, peace with God, forgiveness, redemption, but judgment upon the covenant breakers.

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Matthew knows that story and in Matthew chapter 3, you have now the entrance of John the

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Baptist, the one the Bible said was coming. The one like Elijah calling people to repentance and then of course that revelation of God says, and the

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Lord whom you seek shall come to his temple. There's going to be purification and judgment.

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Here's John the Baptist on time as planned and the first words out of his mouth are repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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Kingdom of heaven is synonymous with kingdom of God. What's it mean? The rule of God is at hand.

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The Messiah's kingdom is at hand and what he says to the religious professing covenant keepers in his day is important to understand in this moment.

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He says to them who warned you to flee from the wrath about to come.

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He tells them to bear fruit in keeping with repentance and he talks about Messiah. His winnowing fork is in his hand.

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He's ready to do it. He's ready. You better repent in a hurry. He says the axe is already laid at the root of the tree.

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That's how close you are to judgment. That axe has already been swung. It's laid at the root of the tree.

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It's about to be taken down. That's you covenant people of God. You're about to be judged.

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See there's something to this story that was anticipated not just forgiveness and salvation but judgment upon the covenant breakers.

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When you understand that you'll understand what Matthew is doing in Matthew 23 and Matthew 24 that's coming up very soon, maybe about another year or so.

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So what's important is to quickly put those foundations underneath you to get an understanding what

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Jesus is doing here. Just going to point you to it. Matthew chapter 3, John the Baptist warning them about the judgment that's about to come upon them.

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Matthew 10 23, I believe along with Dr. R .C. Sproul that this is a promise of the coming destruction of Jerusalem.

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He tells them you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

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Not the final judgment and resurrection, but the coming in judgment of Jesus Christ to bring judgment upon the covenant breakers.

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Matthew 10 23, he tells his disciples you won't finish going through the towns of Israel before the

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Son of Man comes. In pending judgment, it's about to fall. I believe if you go back to our messages, we talked about Matthew chapter 20.

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Jesus tells them he's going to Jerusalem. They're going to crucify him. He's going to be raised again on the third day.

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Jesus in Matthew chapter 21 comes in for the triumphal entry. And of course, they're there laying down all of these things, these trees, these branches and they're saying

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Hosanna, Hosanna. He comes looking for fruit and he's getting these branches.

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He comes into the temple for the second cleansing of the temple, which was required in the law of God.

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A first and then a second and then you dismantle that house stone off of stone.

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He comes in, cleanses the temple. They're not very happy about this. He tells them my house should be called a house of prayer, but you've made it a den of robbers.

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Jesus lodges in Bethany. He comes now and he's hungry and he comes to the fig tree and he finds no fruit on it, only leaves.

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And so what's he do? He curses that fig tree because he's come in now looking for fruit among his covenant people.

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And what's he finding? Only leaves, no fruit, only the appearance, no actual fruit.

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And so all of this for Matthew is very symbolic. Cursing the fig tree, no fruit, cast the mountain into the sea.

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What's he saying? You pray for that judgment to come, pray for it, cast it into the sea.

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Then Jesus, of course, has his epic conflict with the religious leaders in his day.

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Jesus tells them parables of two sons, a parable of tenants, people who have the the authority and the job to actually take care of a vineyard.

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And what happens is the owner of the vineyard keeps sending people. And what do they keep doing? Beating one, stoning another.

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And then they say, oh look, here comes the son. Let's kill him and let's take his inheritance.

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And then Jesus, of course, says to them, he says, what do you think the owner of the vineyard is going to do when he finds out?

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And they're like, well, he'll kill those miserable wretches and give it out to others who will bear the fruit of it.

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And Jesus says, yeah, that's you. That's you.

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And then, of course, Jesus has the parable of the wedding feast where there's a warning there about the invitation going out and they won't come.

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And then, of course, Jesus says the king was angry and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

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Yeah, that happened within a generation of Jesus giving this story. Exactly like Jesus had promised.

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So they know now. So now they come into conflict with Jesus and they're trying to trip him up. Right. So looking so religious.

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They're so hypocritical. They're trying to just lie. Well, hey, Lord, what about paying taxes to Caesar?

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And so they ask about the resurrection and then they ask what the greatest commandment is. And then

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Jesus asked his own question about whose son is the Messiah. And now they're afraid to answer him or ask him any more questions.

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And then Jesus now comes into the seven woes. He is calling down the curse of God upon them.

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Woe to you is a way of saying may the curse of God fall on you. Woe to you.

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Hypocrite, you pretenders. Here is Jesus now in this climactic moment.

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It's been moving along this path now in his ministry. He's coming to contact now with these professed covenant keepers.

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He's confronting them for the covenant breaking for their unfaithfulness. He's declaring woes to them and he's calling them pretenders, religious pretenders.

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Now what's important here as we enter this moment is to put a foundation underneath us.

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Jesus is actually confronting religious looking people. They look so Christian.

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They've got all of the signs of worship. They've got the liturgy. They've got the dress.

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They're carrying their Bibles in a way. They go to synagogue. They're singing the Psalms.

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They're doing all of these things as part of their practice and they're so precise in their doctrine and their their commitment to law -keeping in their own minds.

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But we have to see that Jesus, this isn't his first conflict in Matthew with these religious hypocrites, pretenders.

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And I want to say that as you as you read this, I think all of us have a temptation as we read these things to see the

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Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, to see these first century religious leaders, to see them as the bad guys, right?

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These are the ones that Jesus confronted. I would never be like that. I wouldn't want to be.

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I'm not like them. I'm saved. I'm under the grace of God. I'm regenerate. I know

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Jesus. I would never have it in the marks of hypocrisy in my life like those guys.

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Those are the bad guys. Well, Jesus had conflict with them before. It's not the first time. And you know in Matthew chapter 6, he confronts them for their pretending again.

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Just go there quickly. I'm not going to do a lot of time on it. But I want you just to take a survey of it, especially if you're new to Apologia.

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I want you to know this particular passage. Matthew chapter 6, Jesus confronts them for their giving so that other people see them give.

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I heard a story about a popular word of faith. Don't call it a building near here, where they had a moment where they were raising money for a long time so that God would bless you.

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You know, you give so that God will bless you. So you'll get a Cadillac or whatever else. You know, God wants you to be happy, healthy, and wealthy.

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If you want that, pray this prayer with me. Not the gospel, false gospel. But it is a moment in this church.

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A friend told me they were in the service and after this long working through raising money so that you could become wealthy and the church could take care of whatever it needed to take care of, they had all the people that had donated the most money stand up in the congregation so everybody could applause.

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They were practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.

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So Jesus confronts the hypocrites in his day. You're all pretenders. You're all faking. You're just doing this so that you get the praise and applause of others.

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That's why you're doing this. You just want other people to see you as religious, as faithful, as spiritual people.

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And so Jesus confronts them. You're giving so people see you give. And Jesus says, when you give, don't even let your hands know what they're doing.

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Why? Because if you're truly giving out of a heart of worship, if it's genuine, then you're giving to worship

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God. You're not giving for the praise of others. You're not giving to get from others. You're giving to worship

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God because you love him, because you know God. That's the motivation from the heart.

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And don't you love this about Jesus? He hates religious hypocrisy.

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A lot of times you hear unbelievers talk about how they hate religion. Why? There's so many hypocrites, right?

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They hate the hypocrisy in religion. What I like to say to those atheists is you'd have a very good friend in Jesus because he hates it, too.

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All of the externals, all of what looks on the outside as religious or spiritual, but the inside is decayed.

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It's rotting, stinking corpses. And Jesus confronts people for they're trying to look spiritual on the outside, but nothing is genuine.

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And I want to say this about the Lord Jesus. It's one of the amazing things about Christ that I think demonstrates that he is, in fact, who we claim to be.

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God in the flesh. You would anticipate that God's not impressed with your pretending. You would anticipate that God knows the truth.

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And what he's interested in, what he desires, is your heart. Genuine worship, a genuine relationship of intimacy with him.

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Genuine obedience from the heart. The fact that God is the truth and knows all things,

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I think exactly, precisely gets us to the person of Jesus. I'm not impressed with your pretending.

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I'm not impressed with all this, all these things of worship and ritual and all this stuff of giving and all the stuff of fasting so that other people see you fast.

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Jesus confronts people and he goes to the heart. He does it, of course, in his teaching on the law of God.

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They thought they can merely obey it externally, right? Well, I haven't murdered anybody. I haven't committed adultery, actually.

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And Jesus says, no, if you hate your brother and your heart, you've committed murder in your hearts.

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God's not buying that. And you know what? If you look with lust at another woman, then you've committed adultery in the heart.

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God's not impressed with the externals. They thought, well, maybe just externally I'll appear to be obeying.

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And what you see in Jesus is that he is the truth. He is God walking among us, touching us in the place that we all want to hide.

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We all want to hide it. We all want to walk in here after driving, having an argument with our wife, trying to get our children in the back of the car and come into church with a big smile on our face, looking like all is well.

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We want to pretend like we're not struggling. We want to pretend like we don't need help. We want to pretend like all is well.

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We want everything to look like the white picket fence. We want all the religious pictures in our house.

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We want to look so spiritual, when at times, if you really get down to what's inside of our hearts, we're full of pride.

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We're full of bitterness. We're full of unforgiveness. We're full of jealousy, envy, strife, division.

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And what Jesus does is he comes into the context of religious, very spiritual people, and he says to them,

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I'm not buying it. I don't believe you. You're hypocrites. You're just pretending. Which ought to bring us to a place of hope, that there is hope.

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We can repent of our hypocrisy. We can repent of our pretending. And when Jesus comes in to confront, he's bringing the truth into conflict with error.

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He's bringing a light where there is darkness. And I think it's believers who read this, we need to recognize this ought to be a moment of healing for us.

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If there's this kind of pretending and hypocrisy in us, we need to repent of it. So Jesus confronts the externals in Matthew 6.

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Jesus confronts unbiblical traditions in Matthew 15. If you look in Matthew 15, you'll see that Jesus has a moment of their traditions coming into conflict with the commandment of God.

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I'll just read this quickly. He says in verse 4, sorry, verse 3, he answered them, and why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

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So commandment of God and their man -made tradition. And he gives them an example. For God commanded.

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Who commanded? So what's the standard for Jesus? The Word of the Living God. For God commanded, honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.

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But you say, if anyone tells his father or his mother, what you would have gained for me is given to God. He need not honor his father.

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So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the Word of God. You, and there it is again, hypocrite.

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You actor. You pretenders. Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

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In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Oh, man.

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Let that sit with us as the Christian Church, as the people of God, until Christ returns for the final resurrection.

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This, this probing of Jesus, where he actually confronts their man -made tradition.

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He compares it with the Word of God, and he says that you have made void the Word of God for the sake of your tradition.

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Here's what God says, and here's what your religious tradition is doing and teaching.

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Thus, you've invalidated God's Word for the sake of your tradition. But listen, it wasn't like it was overt.

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Can we get that? Can we capture that? It's not like it was overt. They were trying to be precise in a way to say, no, no, no,

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I want to honor father and mother. I believe what the Torah says about all that, but I've given myself an out.

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I've given myself a spiritual explanation to not have to obey God's law, but looking so dang spiritual.

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Why? Because they're saying, well, you know, whatever I would have given to you, like my obligation to care for my parents and to honor my parents, you know, what

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I would have given to you, that's been given to God. So I'm so spiritual, see? Because, you know,

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I haven't just neglected my parents. I'm actually taking that and I'm giving it to the Lord instead.

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Isn't that so amazing? Hypocrisy, a tradition that looks so spiritual.

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It's not overtly unspiritual. It looks so spiritual because you're saying,

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I've just given it to the Lord. I've given it to the Lord. I can't,

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I can't serve in that way. I can't show you mercy. I can't do that thing. I can't,

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I can't be concerned for you right now because I'm taking time for myself to spend time with the

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Lord and work on me. I'm working on some me time right now. I can't give myself over for you.

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I can't sacrifice in that way because, you know, I need to spend some time with the Lord and really prepare myself, my own heart.

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We look so spiritual at times, not wanting to truly be obedient, but giving ourselves a spiritual out, a spiritual excuse.

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And so Jesus confronts their religious unbiblical traditions. Highlight moment for Jesus. What's the standard for the people of God?

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The word of God. What did God say? Here's your tradition.

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Here's what God says. You ought to know better. You are the people of God.

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You have the revelation of God. You should know what God says and you've made void

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His word for the sake of your man -made tradition. For Jesus, it was sola scriptura.

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Now another example in Matthew 19 of Jesus coming in a conflict with their tradition. In Matthew 19, the divorce issue.

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They had the Hillelite marriage clause and the Shammayite discussion as well.

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There was the any -cause divorce in Jesus' day. And so they come to Jesus. Hey Jesus, please settle this controversy for us.

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Who's right? Rabbi Hillel or Rabbi Shammay? Any -cause divorce for Jesus?

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Where does it go as the standard? What's the bedrock for the Lord Jesus? He could speak on his own authority and he does as God in the flesh.

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But when he wants them to handle controversy, where does he bring them? He brings them back to God's word.

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Have you not read from the beginning? Male and female become one flesh. Leave father and mother.

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Jesus says, here's the standard. You ought to know this. This is the standard. So for Jesus, when he confronts their religious, spiritual hypocrisy, he brings them back to the bedrock, to the standard of God's word.

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You ought to know better. What does God's word say here? He cuts through their religious hypocrisy by bringing them back to the foundation.

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The word of God and, here it is, their hearts. What's behind your obedience?

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What's behind what you're doing right now? Jesus goes to the heart. Now, I want you to just mark this down.

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Those two instances just in Matthew tell us about what Jesus held to as the standard for the people of God.

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He takes their tradition and he says you've invalidated God's word for the sake of your tradition. So what's the standard?

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God's law, not your tradition. Then in Matthew 19, controversy.

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Hillel, Shammai, any cause divorce? Jesus says, what did God say in his word?

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Now, I want to point you just to 1st Corinthians chapter 4 verse 6 to show you that this was something that the people of God understood, not just from the

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Old Testament, not just from the life and ministry of Jesus, but in 1st Corinthians chapter 4 verse 6 in the first century church.

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I'm going to take you there quickly to show you this was the bedrock standard for the people of God in 1st

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Corinthians chapter 4 verse 6.

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It's one of my favorite.

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Start actually in verse 6. Paul says, I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us the meaning of the saying not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against the other.

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The way this is actually constructed is the Apostle Paul is quoting from a saying, a tradition, something that they were confessing in this day.

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They were passing this along to one another. Hey, memorize this. Here's our catechism.

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Here's the saying, not to go beyond what is written. Let's try it. Not to go beyond what is written.

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There's a creed, a confession, and the Apostle Paul is referencing that in the first century, pointing to the standard, of course, not just for the

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Lord Jesus and in the entire Old Testament. It's always going back to what does God say? What did he reveal about himself?

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But in the first century, the early Christians were passing this along, this saying not to go beyond that which is written.

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There's a standard. Watch. I'm saying, why is he bringing this up? That's the standard underneath us as the people of God that will protect us from the kind of unbiblical traditions that Jesus is confronting in Matthew chapter 23.

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What's the standard? The Word of God. Don't go beyond that which is written. It's not to say, listen, the traditions are always bad.

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It's not to say that these practices are always bad, to put them in order, to have them as a standard in a tradition.

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It's to say that if your tradition is in conflict with God's Word, it's your tradition that must collapse.

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It must go. Now back to Matthew 23. Matthew chapter 23, now

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Jesus again in conflict, calling them hypocrites.

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They had a doctrinal zeal and evangelism even. But now he tells them about their swearing falsely.

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And here's what Jesus says as he comes into conflict with them in verse 16.

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He says, woe to you blind guides who say if anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing.

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But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he's bound by his oath. You blind fools, for which is greater the gold of the temple that has made the gold sacred?

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And if you say if anyone swears by the altar, it's nothing. But if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he's bound by his oath.

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Oath, you blind men, for which is greater the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.

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And whoever swears by the temple swears by it, by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

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What's he talking about? Well, Jesus is talking about in his day an attempt to be very precise about the oaths that you make and finding a way to say technically that you've kept your word, but you gave yourself an out.

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What's Jesus talking about here? It's the first century version of crossing your fingers, right?

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You ever have kids do that? Do kids do that anymore? I don't know. Maybe they're not as awful as we were when we were kids, right?

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But you say, yeah, I did it. I did my chores. I did that. Or no,

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I didn't steal that. And like the whole time you're, well, I'm fine because my my fingers were crossed, bro.

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Right? My fingers are crossed, right? Leaving myself an out. Like I kept my word, kind of, right?

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Because I didn't really mean it because my fingers were crossed. Right? What they would say is, well, look,

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I, I'm not really bound by that oath because you see what I swore an oath to was not the thing that really mattered.

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Like if I had actually swore an oath about the gold, well, then I'd, then I'd really have to keep that, you see?

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And so I'm not technically not spiritual or obedient because you see what I was swearing by something lesser, not the main thing.

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So I give myself an out, right? Crossing my fingers. I'm not really bound by that oath because I haven't sworn by the thing that actually matters.

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And what Jesus is pointing out is this religious hypocrisy, this fake spirituality that's just pretending to obey

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God's law, but all along all you're doing is just doing the superficial thing on the outside. So that only appears that you're actually walking with God in intimate relationship and obedience.

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But all the while you've just had your fingers crossed behind you. What's Jesus call his people to?

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Obey God's law. What's God's law say about telling the truth? You shall not what?

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You shall not lie. I love to hear the kids voices. You shall not lie.

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That's the standard. Don't try to find an out. Don't try to find a way to manipulate the truth to make it look like you're telling the truth.

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If you're gonna make an oath, Jesus says you keep your oath. And he says, by the way, you're not fooling

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God anyways, you pretender, you blind guide. Although I love how Jesus does that.

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Blind guide, right? So here's a blind person trying to tell people where things are, right?

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And it's hilarious. It's, Jesus is mocking them in a righteous way.

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You're a blind guy. You're, God, you're toting people around pretending like you know your way around and you can't see anything.

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And Jesus saying, I know what's going on. It's a mask. I see you're not leading anybody to the truth.

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I know who you really are. And he tells them about their false, falsely swearing.

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He says, besides, you can't do that anyways, because ultimately Jesus' answer is that God is present everywhere.

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And if you're making this oath, you are bound by it. You're lying. You're lying.

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You're not gonna get away from God in this technicality. Tell the truth.

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That's what God requires of you. Tell the truth. It's in a way also, you ever, and this is all like stuff

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I remember as a kid, right? The crossing the fingers, I remember were such depraved people.

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Okay, I remember that. But I also remember the cross my heart and hope to die.

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Right? What's that? I put this very special symbol over me. I crossed my heart. Like I put the,

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I put the symbol of the cross over my heart, y 'all. So, you know, I mean it. Why?

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Because it's a cross over my heart and I hope to die. Hope to die? Hope to die.

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Like that's really serious. I put the cross over my heart and I hope to die. Right? You go, whoa.

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Okay, you really mean it, right? I crossed my heart, hope to die. And that's the same kind of thing, like, like elevating the truth -telling, right?

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Like, you know, I really mean this one. Why? Because look, I'm not crossing my fingers. And I crossed my heart and I hope to die.

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And so, you know, I mean it. And the point is, Jesus is confronting and cutting through all that gobbledygook and spiritualizing of lies.

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And he says, tell the truth. Why? Because you're not getting away from God.

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You're not getting away from his presence. And you're not gonna fool God with your being a blind guide and a fake.

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You're a fraud. You're not real. Jesus confronts them because he's the embodiment of truth.

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Now watch, there's two parts though, pause here, because we can all say, I wouldn't ever do that.

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But watch, there's two parts to this spectrum of being spiritually precise.

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We do it as fallen human beings, as sinful people. There's two parts to this spectrum.

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On the one side, you have what Jesus confronts here. And it's the technical precision to evade true obedience.

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This is when people are pretending to obey, but they work out a technical precision to evade true obedience.

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But it looks so spiritual. And the point for them is to pretend to obey without the real obligation or heart to obey.

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And you see that right here with the false swearing by like, well, it's not real because I swore on this thing and not this thing.

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It's not real. It's not a real oath because I swore on this thing, which doesn't really matter. This is the thing that really matters, right?

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Cross my fingers, y 'all. Technical precision to evade true obedience with the purpose to pretend to obey.

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But there's another part of the spectrum. And what is that? It's technical precision to evade true obedience with no intention to obey at all.

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I'll give you an example of how this is used in so -called Christian circles, right? You've got a guy living with his girlfriend outside of the bounds of marriage, right?

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Living together, living boyfriend and girlfriend for say a year or two at a time. And you confront this man and you say, excuse me, you say that you love

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Jesus. You say you're submitted to his lordship, but brother, what are you doing living with your girlfriend having sex outside of the covenant of marriage?

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And what's the person saying? They get technically precise with their doctrine. They say this, oh,

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I'm just a sinner saved by grace. I trust in the

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Lord Jesus and I'm under his grace. I'm not under the law. Now, what did

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I do? I just quoted things that are true doctrinally.

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Are we under grace? Are we under the curse of the law? No. Are we saved by faith in Jesus?

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Yes. Do we have his righteousness? Well, then I can live with my girlfriend outside of marriage, right?

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Oh, here's one. God is long suffering, isn't he? Yes. God is patient with me.

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And so we make excuses for our sin and we get doctrinally precise to do what?

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To on this side of the spectrum, to have no intention of true obedience, and we become very spiritually precise, doctrinally precise, in order to excuse no intention to obey at all.

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Both parts of the spectrum are sinful. Both part are expressions of the fallen human hearts, right?

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I want to look so spiritual, so I find ways to become spiritually and doctrinally precise by saying, well,

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I know it was an oath, but my fingers are crossed because it wasn't a real oath. It was on this thing and not the real thing.

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So technically, I'm still good. I'm still good. I haven't broken my promise, really, because that's not like a high order of keeping my oath.

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And then the other side, of course, the spectrum is, I don't have any intention of obeying, but hey, I know that Bible and it says, judge not, lest you be judged.

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You shouldn't be living with your girlfriend outside of the covenant of marriage. Oh, yeah? Do you have any sin? Right? Don't judge, lest you be judged.

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You ever been there in that kind of conversation? We become very spiritually and doctrinally precise on two ends of a sinful spectrum.

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What does God require of us? The truth. Walk in the truth.

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You shall not lie. Why? Because you're in the image of God.

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Why? Because God cannot lie. Why? Because God is the truth.

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God does not lie. And when he created you as his image in the world, it's

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God in a way reflecting his image into the world off of a mirror to be spread out into the world.

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His image being spread out into the world as a reflection into the world. You've got all these image bearers of God reflecting what lies about God.

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When image bearers of God lie, they lie not just for themselves or for their own detriment.

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They're lying about their creator. When we don't love one another, we are lying about who

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God is. When we abuse other image bearers of God, we're lying about who

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God is. This is why when Jesus comes as the true image of God into the world, he says a new commandment

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I give to you. What is that? Not that the other ones are irrelevant. Here's a new command that you love others as I have loved you.

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Now you see what it means in the flesh. So Jesus confronts the hypocrites, the liars, those who pretend.

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Next, this one's really interesting. Jesus then goes in 23, woe to you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness.

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These, watch, very very critical to hear Jesus here, these you ought to have done without neglecting the others.

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You blind guides straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. What ever does that mean?

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Be honest. Most of us have never looked into it. Like what exactly does that mean?

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Straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. When I first read that, I had an idea of what that meant that was definitely not what it meant.

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Now when Jesus is confronting them here, he's talking to them about their tithe of all these things in their home gardens.

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People who are technically precise with this matter of tithing. Notice, really important thing here,

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Jesus doesn't tell them it doesn't matter. Those things are irrelevant. He doesn't say all that you're doing with the tithe, the mint, the cumin, all those things.

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He doesn't say you shouldn't have bothered with that. It didn't even matter to tithe. God doesn't care about that.

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He actually says, no, you've ought to have done these things without neglecting the weightier matters of the law.

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You're supposed to do all of it, but he says to them ultimately, you've got primary issues like justice and mercy and faithfulness, and you've got the tithe.

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You should do both of them, but don't neglect the weightier matters. This is a secondary issue that you have to make sure you don't neglect the weightier matter.

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The primacy of this justice, mercy, faithfulness. They were making sure in their home gardens, they were very precise about their tithe of the mint and the dill and the cumin, all these things.

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They were very precise. Jesus says, I'm not saying don't do that. You ought to do that, but don't neglect the other thing.

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People who are technically precise, he still told them to tithe, but this is what becomes interesting about this in terms of applying this to us today.

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Many of us don't necessarily have the gardens and we're not tithing off of, by the way, if you start putting dill in the thing, no, don't do that.

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The point is that Jesus is talking about the fact that they're so precise over the secondary issues of the law.

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Jesus says, do those things faithfully, but you're neglecting the weightier matter. If we think about it in terms of our own context, we can think about it in terms of people, particularly in the reformed community, that can be doctrinally precise.

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One of the, one of my least favorite places to go in the world is any reformed online

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Facebook page. It is truly one of my very least favorite places in the world.

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Not because those aren't my people. They're my people. I love them.

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But because what you often see at times when people realize the importance of doctrine, that theology matters.

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When you realize that, at times you have people that are the cage stagers.

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And I think it's actually Dr. White who created that, maybe. And that's the idea that when someone becomes reformed or Calvinist, what we really ought to do is put them in a cage for a little bit of time so they can get it out of themselves and let them out when they're calmed down, right?

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Cage stage Calvinist reform. Why? Because they can be so concerned with doctrinal precision.

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They can be so concerned with their confession says and having everything precise and crossed just the right way and dotted just the right way.

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Making sure that I have everything just precisely where it needs to be. But these are people you would never want over for Memorial Day lunch.

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Ever. You wouldn't want to eat dinner with them. You wouldn't want to go to a movie with them. Why? Because they are mean -spirited, prideful, argumentative people that you don't want around your children.

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Yes. Because we can be in the kind of position where we say, all these secondary things, let me make sure

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I'm very precise on them. Make sure I have them all locked down. Let's make sure our worship service is exactly the way the reformers would have wanted it.

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Let's make sure that we have everything in just the right place here. We make sure all the robes are in the right place. We have everything technically precise.

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Right? And you look into some of these congregations and you wonder how come so many solidly reformed churches over the generations have fallen into apostasy and disrepute.

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Why? Because you are so focused on the secondary matters. You've lost the vital interest in the things that matter most.

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The weightier matters of the law. Justice, mercy. And when it comes to doctrine, the gospel itself, the person of Christ, intimacy and obedience with God.

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These secondary matters, we're not saying they're not important. They're vital, but they're secondary. And Jesus confronts that they're taking this secondary issue of tithing, which is vital, and he says that yes, you ought to be doing that.

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Keep that in mind for us as believers. God is concerned with our faithfulness and our giving. Yes, he cares.

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But he says, but don't neglect the weightier matter. Justice, mercy, faithfulness.

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One point to get you to. Read it later. Isaiah chapter 1, one of the most challenging passages in my own life.

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Just read it later. Isaiah 1, where God confronts his covenant people and he tells them, listen, he tells them,

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I don't want your worship. I don't want it. And they were doing everything precise.

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They had the look of worship. They had all the music and the smells.

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They had everything that was supposed to be. They look like they're worshiping God and he says, I don't want your worship.

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I don't want it. Don't bother. What's he say to him then? All of the external appearance of religion and worship.

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He says, keep it away from me. I don't want it. He says this to his people. He says, here's what

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I want. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice.

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Correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless. Plead the widow's cause.

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He tells them, I'll forgive you your sins. I'll cleanse you and make you white as snow. Though your sins are as scarlet they'll be white as snow.

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He says to them though, he says, cease to do evil. Learn to do good. What is God concerned with?

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The weightier matters. Listen, we can have all the tradition, all the smells of worship, all the appearance of worship, but be full of rotting, stinking corpses.

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We can. Brothers and sisters, we can look so Christian and be so unfaithful.

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I pray God brings us to repentance. But Jesus says, you blind guys straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.

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What's he referring to? Well in Jesus' day, they would often store their wine or even water in vats or vessels, and you had unclean creatures.

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A gnat was an unclean creature. A camel was unclean. And so what

01:00:30

Jesus does here is he actually brings them to an image of something that's kind of cartoonish.

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Right? He says, what you guys do, say with their wine, it's getting gnats, they would put something over the wine and they would strain it.

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And they should have because it was unclean. And they would strain it out and they would strain out the gnats that would get into these vessels.

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Strain out the gnats. Good. Unclean. These little things you're so concerned with, these little unclean creatures, gnats, right?

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He says you strain them out. He says and then you put a camel in your glass and you swallow it.

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So you're worried about the gnat, that unclean little creature. You're straining it out. But then you're swallowing the unclean camel.

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You ever seen a camel? You ever smell the camel? You wonder how do you get camels in the glasses?

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That's the point. How do you swallow a camel? That's the point. It's cartoonish. It's an image that's supposed to show how utterly foolish and stupid we're being as religious people.

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Making sure that we're very precise. Get out the unclean gnats. Making sure that the worship service is just the right way.

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Everything's in the right place. We have just the right traditions down. Make sure there's nothing unclean. Make sure we have precision.

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Get the gnat out and swallow the biggest unclean thing. Swallow it down.

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Choke it down. Jesus says that's you, you blind guide. That's you, you pretenders.

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I see through it. Jesus is

01:02:03

God in the flesh and he comes into contact with spiritual people and it cuts right through to the heart to where true obedience comes from.

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So let's let's think about it, brothers and sisters, for a minute. When you can see in the person of Christ the embodiment of truth, who sees through your religious hypocrisy, all your pretending, he sees through your religious externals, he sees through all of the spirituality you're trying to project into the world, and he sees down to the bottom of you to the place of true obedience.

01:02:46

How does it impact you as a follower of Jesus? To know that when you pray, he wants to hear you and he doesn't want to hear your pretending.

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That when you talk to God, he wants to hear your real voice and your real mind.

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When you pray, he doesn't want you to be concerned about what the person next to you is thinking.

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And when you give, he wants that giving to be directed towards him as a moment of intimate obedience towards him.

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Not for your pastors, not for the church building, not for the person next to you in the pew.

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When you consider the Lord Jesus coming into contact with your heart, how do you consider now your fasting?

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How do you consider your Facebook page? Is it for the praise of others?

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When you post something spiritual on Facebook, is it so that you get a reaction from other people that they'd see you as a spiritual person, as a person to follow?

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Or are you posting it as worship? Are you doing it just out of obedience to God because you love

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God? Is it flowing from a heart of obedience that doesn't even care what anybody else is thinking or doing?

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I love you and I want to worship you. I long for you. When we have this worship service, are we so focused as Jesus condemns here, as Jesus condemns here, are we so focused on the tradition?

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Are we so focused on the liturgy? Are we so focused on the gnats? But we're swallowing camels when we're growing as a body.

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Are we focused in upon the things that God is most concerned with? Because remember, Jesus came into contact here with people who looked so religious.

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They had a profession of commitment to God's word. And they had built up all of the edifice to make it look so spiritual.

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It looked so religious. The smells, the bells, the whistles, the dress, the religious worship, and they were full of dead men's bones, rotting, stinking corpses.

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Let the edge cut you. Jesus used a serrated edge here. We're finishing up on this through application.

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Here's the so what. Let the edge cut you. Don't read this as an appropriate confrontation on first century

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Judaism. This is religious people, period. There are

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Christian communions in history that have collapsed and are apostate now, that still have the edifice, the building, the bells, the whistles, the smells, the clothes, the garb, all those things.

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They still have it. This is what religion does. It's not to say that the traditions are always bad.

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No, don't hear that. It's not true. It's not to say that liturgy is bad. It's to say if there's no life and true obedience underneath it that's driving it, it's meaningless, and we're liars, and we're fools, and we're blind guides, and we're hypocrites, and woe to us.

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So here's the question. Let it cut you. Are you obsessed as a follower of Christ over ritual?

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Or are you obsessed over ritual and are you minimizing the weightier matters?

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Are you obsessed over the external but minimizing the weightier matters?

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Jesus says justice and mercy is the weightier matter. You ought to have done the others without neglecting the justice and the mercy.

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These things matter together. One's primary, one's secondary. Don't neglect the weightier matter.

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So Jesus says justice and mercy. What's justice? Give people what they're due.

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Don't take advantage of them. Question. If you have a brother or a sister do work for you in Christ, are you looking for a handout?

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You know what you ought to do? I think all of us have probably have sin in this area. But what we ought to do,

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I think, is actually pay Christians more. Right? You ever look for a handout from a

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Christian? Now I'm not saying that you can't give stuff away to your brothers and sisters. Like I don't want to get paid. This is me blessing you.

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But oftentimes even as Christians we look like if we have a spectrum of like I can get services and I go but this guy's a

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Christian. I might get a I might get it for free. I may not have to pay him. Why?

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Because they're a believer. We ought to pay people what they're due. Justice.

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Are you taking advantage of people? Do you pay people what they're due? Do you defend the rights and the dignity of other human beings?

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That's the way to your matter. Brothers and sisters, when we go out and do evangelism at the abortion mill, we're not doing it for our reputations.

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You know that. At all. Why do we go there and sacrifice? Yesterday was a huge day.

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The church went out, preached the gospel, pled for the lives of these image bearers of God. Why? Why? Because the way to your matter is justice.

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The way to your matter is justice. If we have a choice between arguing over secondary issues on in a

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Facebook group or going out to rescue the lives of a human being, which one ought we to do?

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The thing that is the way to your matter. Go and rescue the image bearer of God. That's what matters more.

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We ought to be concerned with the way to your matter. And in a sense of mercy, do we go beyond what people are due?

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Do we give people mercy? We can be so theologically precise. You could be able to argue all the points of TULIP, which are biblical through and through.

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Let us be burned at the stake and die for those truths. It's the truth. And you could be an expert at explaining those doctrinal truths.

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But if you're an unmerciful person, if you're a prideful person, if you're an arrogant reformer, then get back in your cage and focus on the way to your matters of the law.

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Love, justice, mercy, those things, faithfulness. Are you concerned with the precise details of secondary theological matters of practice, but you are an internet troll?

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You're so concerned with the precise details of secondary theological matters, but you are an internet troll.

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You spend your time online insulting people, being mean -spirited, and using a serrated edge when it's not necessary.

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Are you concerned about the precision of family worship? How many times a week?

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How long should our family worship be? Yet you are not loving, you are not affectionate, and you are not a devoted husband to your wife.

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Or you're not a devoted wife to your husband. You're so focused in upon whether you can tell another brother and sister in Christ that you have family worship two times a week for this amount of time.

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We're working through these things and we do it precisely on time all the time, but you're generally an unloving husband.

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You're not gracious. You're not merciful to your family. You don't pursue times of intimacy outside of that moment where we did our duty.

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We made sure that we're theologically precise. Mondays and Wednesdays or Tuesdays and Saturdays, we have our moment of family worship, and then it's like, break!

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Don't care to see you again. You see, you can have all the secondary issues together and say, hey, we do family worship.

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We go to church every Sunday. We go to advanced theological training. We go to reach group. But you are generally an unkind, unloving, unmerciful person.

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What's the weight of your matter? What's the weight of your matter? Don't neglect the weight of your matter.

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Are you obsessed about musical style, dress for worship, ritual, or liturgy?

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But you're not intimate with God. You don't preach the gospel, and you're a prideful person most people don't even want to eat with.

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Again, this is not to say, and you can listen to the episode that we did recently on church history, and I think

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Pastor James had some powerful things to say about the arrogance of thinking that you have nothing to learn from brothers and sisters in Christ who are filled with God's spirit throughout history.

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It's not to say that liturgy is bad, tradition is bad. It's to say that if you're obsessed with all the finer details of these secondary issues, but you're not intimate with God, you don't preach the gospel, and you're a prideful person, then what do you have?

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A whitewashed tomb. It'll look good on the outside, but it's full of dead men's bones.

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I've been to Ireland now to go and reach the church out there and to help raise them up.

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Praise God, by the way, I don't know if you guys saw it, that the church now in Ireland and in Scotland is actually on the move preaching the gospel in conflict with abortion because of this body and the work that we've invested in those brothers and sisters out there.

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But let me tell you right now, if you've ever been to Ireland or to Europe and the places where we had faithful Christians in history who were laying their lives down for the gospel, you see all of the remnants, all of the edifices, all of it is still hanging around.

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You can't go anywhere in Ireland without seeing the symbol of the trinity. And what is it? Dead. It's dead.

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All it is now is walking through a museum. Why? Because the weightier matters.

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The truth. You can have all the externals of religion, but be full of dead men's bones.

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And I pray to God that God would challenge me, me, that God would change my heart and my mind so that he is glorified through true obedience and worship and not merely the externals.

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And I beg of God that he would grant us all the grace and the strength to hate hypocrisy, to hate the religious externals, to hate the desire to be technically precise on all these little details while our heart is far from God.

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Ask God to expose in you this week where you're a hypocrite.

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Let's pray. Father, I pray that you'd bless the words that went out.

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I pray, Lord, you'd challenge us, change our hearts and minds. Grant to us, Lord, the strength to glorify you, to worship you, and to honor you.