Woe, Woe, Woe Luke 11:37-54

Opening Worship, Announcements, and Prayer for Israel

So it's great to see everybody here this morning, some new faces and visitors. And it's always good to be with folks, to be with the Lord together, and to celebrate and to worship his name. That's why we gather, as I've shared before, it's kind of a time to practice before we get to heaven.

And it's gonna be about 1 ,000 times better than we can ever imagine, something really to look forward to. Just some announcements, prayer meeting tonight at 6 o 'clock. Men's breakfast and Bible study will be this Saturday, November 4th at 9 o 'clock.

The next day, next Sunday, time change. So this is fall, so set your clock back. Bible study will be twice a month on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month. The next one will be November 8th. And we'll be studying the book of Ruth, and all are welcome to join that.

And there will be an online option, and that's pastor leads that. There will be no biblical counseling. It'll start again Saturday the 9th at 9 to accommodate the ladies women's tea later that morning.

And December 23rd, we'll go back to Saturday at 9 .30 at the new regular meeting time. And again, women's tea is at the 9th at 10 o 'clock. And missionary months are Jack and Bev McMahon, so you can. I think that's it today.

I know we have heavy hearts for the people of Israel and all that's gone on. And it's just, to me, it's to see the depth and depravity of what, how far, how deep a human heart can go without the Lord, and without his presence.

And so we need to pray for the folks in Israel, of all that's gone on there, for the missing, the people who are still in being held hostage, and just, it's brutal to concede. We can't comprehend it. We have the blessing of living in this country, but we thank the Lord that we can be here together, but let's always remember them in prayer, okay?

Opening Prayer and Worship Songs

And with that, I'm gonna open in a word of prayer. Please join me. Lord God, we thank you, Father, that we can gather together as believers, that we can come before you as we sing songs, as we're edified, Father, by your word.

We pray for pastor, Father, as we can hear scriptures taught and preached. And may it strike a chord in our own hearts, Father, as we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us and to convict us of things that are important for us in our growth and in our walk with you, Father.

God, we pray for folks that aren't here today, Lord, that we know there are many that cannot come in because of health issues and concerns, Father, we just thank you for them. Father, we also pray for comfort and for your healing hand on them, Lord, that they would be encouraged if they're watching this service, Father, that they would be encouraged in their own walk with you in the quietness of their heart, Father, as they pray to you.

So God bless them, we pray. Father, we pray for the body of this church, Lord, that we know people come with many hurts and difficult things happening in their lives, Father, but you can comfort them, you can shepherd them.

And Lord, we pray that you would just watch over them, Father, as they go through some difficult trials, Lord. But Father, you are present, you are always there with us. We never are alone, and we thank you, Father.

So God, today we pray for the folks in Israel and all the travesties and the atrocities that have gone down there, Father, and the war that continues on now. Lord, we pray that you would bring peace to that region, Father, that your name would be proclaimed in the midst of even all of the things that are going on there, Father, because we know that you are aware of every little detail that's going on, Father, but you can save and you can redirect.

And so God, we pray for peace, we pray for your son's name to be proclaimed, Father, ultimately. So we thank you for this morning. We thank you that you've brought us together here today, Lord. May we honor you and give you glory in everything that we do.

We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Amen.

So the first song we're gonna sing is To God Be the Glory, and this was written 150 years ago, but then it was brought back in the 50s by the Billy Graham Crusades. They became popularized again and kind of had a rebirth in the 50s in those crusades to bless that ministry.

So let's stand together. We're gonna sing To God Be the Glory.

I have a liaison who's been gracious in sharing the piano music with us today.

So praise God for you, gentlemen.

Thank you.

Next song is I Surrender, and when we surrender, we are submitting to the will of God. We are giving ourselves to him, and that should be our focus as we worship together, that we are giving God our all and we wanna do things according to his purpose, his ways, and not our ways.

Good morning.

This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Amen.

Ezekiel 34 and the Failure of Israel’s Shepherds

Reading of the scripture today is Ezekiel 34, verses 1 through 6. Ezekiel 34, 1 through 6. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds, Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves, Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?

Yet ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool. Ye kill them that are fed, but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, Neither have ye healed that which was sick, Neither have ye bound up that which was broken, Neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, Neither have ye sought that which was lost, But with a force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.

And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd, And they became meat to all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, And upon every high hill, yea, My flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, And none did search or seek after them.

May the Lord add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his holy word.

For our next piece, it's There is a Redeemer, and it's always interesting to look back at some of the history of some of these songs and hymns, and Keith and Melody Green composed this back in the late 70s, early 80s, and they called themselves Converted Hippies.

I thought that was kind of interesting. She was of Jewish background and converted Jew, Christian Jew, and so it's, and later in their life, Keith in 82, the year we were married, died in a plane crash with both his children with him, two of his children of the four.

So it's quite a tragic event, but Melody went on to kind of commandeer, kind of lead the pro-life movement. I was not aware of that, and she carried the torch to churches all over the country. So anyway, There is a Redeemer.

He is our Redeemer, and praise God that he is. Let's stand together and sing There is a Redeemer.

Jesus’ Woes Against Pharisees and Lawyers in Luke 11

Please turn to the book of Luke, the gospel according to Luke chapter 11, verses 37 through 54. The gospel according to Luke chapter 11, verses 37 to 54. And he spoke. A certain Pharisee asked him to dine with him.

So he went in and sat down to eat. When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed before dinner. Then the Lord said to him, now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness.

Foolish ones, did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But rather give alms of such things as you have, then indeed all things are clean to you. But woe to you, Pharisees, for you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs and pass by justice and the love of God.

These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. Woe to you, Pharisees, for you love the best seats in the synagogues and greeting the marketplaces. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like graves which are not seen and the men who walk over them are not aware of them.

Then one of the lawyers answered and said to him, teacher, by saying these things, you reproach us also. And he said, woe to you also, lawyers, for you load men with burdens hard to bear and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets and that your fathers killed. In fact, you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers, for they indeed kill them and you build their tombs.

Therefore, the wisdom of God also said, I will send them prophets and apostles and some of them they will kill and persecute. That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundations of the world, may be required of this generation.

From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation. Woe to you, lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge.

You did not enter in yourselves and those who were entering in you hindered. And as he said these things to them, the scribes and Pharisees begin to assail him vehemently and to Christ examined him about many things, lying in wait for him and seeking to catch him in something he might say that they might accuse him.

This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we come before you knowing that even those who appear to be holy outside may be filthy wicked on the inside. And we pray that we would not become one of those who would care more about the outward holiness to ignore the inward purity, which matters even more.

And Father, we pray that you would prevent any of these false teachers from guiding your sheep away from your son, Jesus. In his name, we pray. Amen. So after establishing the importance of responding to Jesus in the last passage, we see that the very people we may expect to respond faithfully to Jesus failing to do so, right?

This is a big irony here. We have a very negative notion of the Pharisees because you have grown up reading the Bible. The Pharisees are the ones that Jesus often condemned and rightfully so, he's the judge.

However, in ancient Judaism, the Pharisees were very popular among the Israelites because they were very devoted to the whole Old Testament, right? The whole Old Testament, the same Old Testament that we have, the Pharisees were very devoted to them.

And even though they were a minority in the Sanhedrin, that's the ruling council, the religious leaders of Israel, and they would decide very important things. Even though they were a minority, they had a huge influence because the people loved them so much, right?

They were the holy teachers, the scribes or lawyers. It goes back and forth in this text, right? Scribes and lawyers are interchangeable and they're not lawyers of this day, right? We have no respect for our lawyers, right?

There are jokes about lawyers. But back then, lawyers or scribes were highly regarded because they were copying down scripture, right? Over and over again, and they knew scripture very well, right? So, we need to actually refocus who they are, right?

Imagine you have never heard about the Pharisees or scribes before. They were very well respected. And Jesus comes to their dinner and says those things, right? It was a shocking dinner. Now, to Israelites, if anyone was right with God, it would have been a Pharisee or a scribe, right?

In our days, we might be thinking, just plug in pastor and elder or a deacon and elder, right? And you'll get the same message here. Now, this passage, however, paints a starkly different portrait. The Pharisees and scribes' word are now painted as the unfaithful responders to God's message because they don't receive Jesus and his word.

Now, Luke divides this passage by showing us three woes to the Pharisees and three woes to the scribes, very evenly. A woe is the most powerful prophetic declaration of doom. It was the highest level of condemnation you could possibly say.

I wouldn't even say the modern equivalence in the pulpit lest it gets misunderstood, right? It's that bad. For those who receive woes have only one, only most torturous and excruciating pain to look forward to on the judgment day.

It was that bad. As this passage shows the lack of response to Jesus, it also provides a pivot point for the future passages we read. Luke makes a distinction between following Jesus and following the existing religious establishment, the namely Pharisees and the scribes here.

This is crucial because a Jew at this point during Jesus' ministry would have thought Jesus and the Pharisees were on the same side, right? They both know scripture well, right? Jesus is quoting scripture like all the time.

Well, so are the Pharisees. And they talk about God. They both talk about God. They both talk about the importance of holiness and purity, repentance, right? And after this encounter, however, Luke will show that following Jesus is no way close to following the Pharisees.

In fact, following Jesus will lead you to God, but following the Pharisees will lead you to hell. The modern comparison, as I've mentioned, are really the pastors, leaders, teachers, deacons, elders, longtime members, and even cults who claim to follow Jesus.

Yet they hide Jesus from their followers and they build up their public image at the cost of their inner purity. That is one of the most heinous form of spiritual abuse. Instead of presenting Christ as the most important and relevant being in everyone's life, a pastor may narrate an interesting story about himself and give a life advice on how to live a happy life.

Now, the audience, the people actually leave feeling good instead of experiencing a transformation in the heart. They had the thousands, had the privilege, almost an opportunity to repent and be right with God by believing in Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice.

Yet the pastor or so-called pastor talks about himself and just tickles the ears of the audience to give them an inspirational message that has no power to transform. The scribes, think of them as the cults or certain Christians who push regulations that are beyond the scope of the Bible.

While scripture verses may roll off their tongues, they portray following Jesus as following strict rules and that they have been themselves following for decades. Maybe they might not have been following them that strictly either, but they will push it upon someone else to do so.

For these people, despite the appearance of religiosity and holiness, not rewards, but only condemnation awaits. They're putting extra burden on God's people that's preventing them from actually truly knowing God because they are depicting God in the wrong light.

Now, the main question of this text is, who will be condemned on the judgment day for rejecting Christ? Who will be condemned on the judgment day for rejecting Christ? First, Jesus condemns all who chase the perception of purity while their inside is filled with wickedness.

Now, this is not a comprehensive list of who will be condemned, but what's important is and shocking is that these people are precisely the ones that everyone thought would be rewarded by God. But what Jesus is saying, even they are condemned.

So, this passage starts with a dinner invitation and we will see on that it's not a private dinner, but there are many in audience, right? They're watching. It seems friendly at first, but Jesus will pronounce woes to those in attendance.

Verses 37 and 38 introduce the context of the condemning passage. As Jesus is teaching a certain Pharisee asked to dine with him, Jesus accepts the invitation. However, the focus is, of course, not the dinner.

We don't know what they're eating because that doesn't matter. Scripture doesn't tell us, but what will soon follow, the words of Jesus' mouth will be the focus. The conflict arises in verse 38. When the Pharisees saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed before dinner.

You can tell the Pharisees were already watching carefully. For example, if you, when you have someone over for dinner, really, you don't really look for whether they're washing their hands before dinner or not.

It's, it's, it really doesn't matter. It's none of your business, right? But the Pharisees, they were watching closely of what every move that Jesus was doing because they wanted to see what kind of person he was.

Is he on our side? Can he be controlled? Now, you can tell, right, the Pharisees' amazement at the Jesus' lack of washing is actually that of a judgment, right? Amazement here is not a, oh, wow, what a great thing to do.

No, this amazement is a shock. How could he? It's to say that Jesus is not all that holy and pure because he didn't wash his hands or wash his body, right? And in the Jewish tradition, people did wash before eating.

This, this was not, uh, out of the ordinary, uh, to expect someone to wash. For example, in Genesis 18, Abraham brought out water for the three special guests to wash before that great feast. However, it is important to know that washing before a meal was not a command from God.

Jesus did not break God's law by not washing before the meal. Jesus didn't sin. That would be preposterous. He merely broke their existing tradition. By doing this, he directly challenged their tradition.

Although the Pharisees did not speak up, right? Their amazement was, you know, not verbal. Jesus responds to his silent reaction. Then the Lord said to him, now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward parts are full of greed and wickedness.

Jesus' first response is an illustration of kitchenware. It is problematic to have dishes and cups that are filthy on the inside, yet shiny on the outside. The moment you pick it up to use it, you will put it down into the sink.

You picked it up because you thought it was good. It was washed. Yeah, it is shiny on the outside. I don't see any gunk. But the moment you look, you don't dare to use it. That's the illustration. Now, because the Pharisees were only concerned with the external cleanliness, how they are viewed, Jesus shows that they're actually truly lacking what's more important, inward purity.

Just as a cup that is dirty on the inside, but clean on the outside is just useless for its purpose. The Pharisees who appear to be squeaky clean on the outside, yet are filled with wickedness and greed on the inside are useless to God.

There are two significant points here to Jesus' comment. First, Jesus knew their inward thought to speak up like this. Second, because Jesus was able to know their inward thought, he could see their inward heart.

That was full of greed and wickedness. And I guess third, Jesus is not just a normal human here. He has access to knowledge that's beyond human capability. He's divine. Now, verse 40 rebukes them for not caring for both of which God has made, the inside and the outside.

That's what verse 40 means, right? God has made the inside and outside. Why are you only taking care of the outside? Why are you ignoring God's command? And Jesus charges them with hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is the inconsistency between their inner life and their external life, their public life.

They seem to be holy by others, yet Jesus can clearly see and smell the gunk inside that's putrid. To the Pharisees, the appearance of purity was more important than the reality of purity. They cared more about how they are viewed.

Rather than who they truly are. After the general rebuke, Jesus exhorts them with an example of unhypocritical life. What would it look like if you lived correctly? But rather give alms of such things as you have.

Then indeed, all things are clean to you. Alms here are the financial giving to the poor. This may be odd to us, but giving to the poor was a great example of inward kindness in Judaism. After all, when you give to the poor, you don't expect a return, right?

It's not about selfish gain. It's not by the external profit here. Second, it has to be intentional, which means it comes from the heart. Giving to the poor starts from the heart, the inside. It is also non-transactional, right?

You didn't give to the poor to earn something back. It wasn't about you in the first place. It was about the poor who were getting helped. And concern for the poor was notable because that is where God's heart is according to the Old Testament, right?

All throughout the Old Testament, God's inner being cares for the poor, the widows, the orphans, and the foreigners. The ones who can't take care of themselves, so God will. And even through the law, God will, right?

Such as cleaning, right? Don't pick off everything. Leave something for the poor, right? That's God's heart for the poor. Hence, giving alms was a tangible example of an inner purity heart, right? Heart that's pure.

By doing so, the giver reflected the loving kindness and mercy, which are God's characters. So, according to Jesus, kindness and generosity toward those who can't repay is the palpable picture of purity inside.

Therefore, if the Pharisees actually got their inner life together, all things would be clean to them. They have no problem with the external cleanliness. Not gonna lecture you on that. You're fine. But inner, hmm.

Jesus declares that the inner purity is far superior to the external appearance. This rebuke is astounding, right? Because if anyone is acceptable to God, if anyone is clean before God, it would have been the Pharisees.

Yet, Jesus is saying even the Pharisees are part of the evil generation from the previous passage. The evil generation that rejected Jesus, even though someone greater than Jonah is here and is preaching.

And someone greater than Solomon is here and he's the wisest being of all. And you've rejected him. That evil generation are those who need to respond in repentance, right? That's the given command. What this shows that even the holiest or seemingly holiest of Israel stood guilty before God.

In fact, those who publicly appeared to be the purest were the most condemned of them all. What that means is there's no one who is not, who's no one who is scot-free before God. Everyone has to repent.

Everyone has to come before God with their inner wickedness. The following three woes concern the Pharisees misplaced emphasis on the external cleanliness while they neglected what's truly more important, the inner purity.

The first woe condemns their external obedience at the cost of the internal obedience. But woe to you Pharisees, but you tithe mint and rue and all men are averse, right? Here tithing was actually part of the Old Testament where you give 10 to God.

This is not true for those of you who are in the church because you're a new covenant people. You're under different covenant. You give generously according to how God leads you. You don't have to stick to the law here, right?

The law has been fulfilled by Christ. So you obey him. Now the Jewish tradition went beyond just the money and livestock. When I say tradition, it's not in scripture. Tithing mint and rue and all sorts of herbs is not found in scripture.

Herbs and plants are included too according to the Pharisees. When they tithe, it would have been public. So all who are watching would be amazed by their faithfulness as they bring all these greens, right?

Oh, they brought the livestock, but they're bringing the greens? Yeah, they are. Wow, they even tithe plants too. They're going above and beyond the law. They're so holy. While they meticulously coordinated how they are viewed, Jesus shows that what they missed.

And pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. While they painted a rosy picture of the purity on the outside, they missed the truly important part of the law, justice and love of God.

In fact, that's what God says right in Micah 6. You've missed it all. It's about justice, mercy, love. They pass by it. What this means is they're just walking away from God's command, right? They're walking away from God's justice and love.

The critical part of the law. In order to keep up their public image by keeping man's traditions, they abandoned to follow the core of God's law, love and justice. The Pharisees were the opposite of the good Samaritan that we saw in chapter 10.

The good Samaritan, a Jewish apostate, right? Samaritans were not really the squeaky clean Jews. They were mixed blood, right? A Jewish apostate, the good Samaritan, ignored the proper poise of not dealing with the Jews to follow justice and love to save the one who is dying on the road.

The Pharisees, the pinnacle of Judaism, clung onto the proper poise to abandon justice and love,.

According to Jesus.

That is a huge pronouncement of woe. The second woe condemns their wicked desire for public recognition. Woe to you, Pharisees, for you love your best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.

Notice their love is for how they're viewed by others. It's really narcissistic to want to control how others view you. And that's what the Pharisees are. I want to be regarded as the best. The best seats in the synagogues were reserved for them, right?

And when they come for their seat, it would have been noticeable. Oh, that seat's going to be taken. Or if someone else tried to sit down, oh, no, that's saved. That's not for you. That's for the Pharisees.

They're coming. Greetings here were not just a simple hello, but rather a long, lengthy conversation because they were that important. Everyone who saw them had to stop. And I would say, waste their time in greeting the Pharisees.

Their presence made others drop whatever they were doing to greet these Pharisees, right? This narcissistic desire for worship is specifically what was despicable to Jesus. To the Pharisees, the synagogues no longer existed to worship God, to love God.

That's the core of gathering together God's people to worship God, to focus on God, to love God. But notice what they love instead, the seats, their recognition. They are the center of worship, not God.

The fact that they love even the greetings rather than the people they meet in the marketplace shows that they have gone against the greatest commandment. The two parts, love the Lord and love others.

Love your neighbors. Because their love, their desire is pointed elsewhere. It's pointed to themselves. The third woe condemns how their appearance of purity is, ironically defiling. Woe to you, Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like graves which are not seen.

And the men who walk over them are not aware of them. This may be confusing at first, but let me explain. Jesus is calling the Pharisees an unmarked grave. An unmarked grave would mean that there was a dead person inside.

An unmarked grave with a dead person inside means that it's both unclean and unnoticed. Both of the traits which the Pharisees try to cover with their public image. An unmarked grave would actually, unfortunately, make anyone in contact with it impure.

You walk over that, you just became unclean. And remember in the Old Testament, anything that resembled or connected to death made you unclean before the God of life, right? What this was, it was a teaching lesson for the Jews.

The holy, pure God of life, right? God is the God of life because He's the one who gives life. He's the one who spoke everything into creation, right? He's the one who raises life. Well, if you're gonna be coming before the holy and pure God of life, well, that God cannot dwell among unclean people who are constantly in contact with the dead.

And the dead could be so many things. It wasn't just the dead person, literally. Of course, it counted, but it could have been pork because pigs eat dead things. That's really close to death. You can't, you have to be more than one degree away from death, right?

That's why they mainly ate herbivores. They don't eat dead things. They don't eat plants. They don't eat dead blood animals, right? So what they're saying, what Jesus is saying now, for someone unknowingly walking over the unmarked grave would still be defiled even if it had been an accident.

Jesus is telling them that the traditions of Pharisees that purport to make followers clean and pure in reality defile them. Pharisees, you're telling your followers that if you want to be pure, follow me.

No, you're an unmarked grave. You're actually, anyone in contact with you is defiled because of you. Following them is like touching dead people.

That's what Jesus is saying.

But you're also unmarked because you know what? You're not that special. You think you're all special with that external concern for purity. You're an unmarked grave. No one remembers you. Ultimately, Jesus is showing that the way of the Pharisees.

Led to death.

The Pharisees believed their teaching guided others to life. In reality, they were leading others closer to death. And people who are in the church and they do not know the gospel, right? And when those people, so they're not actually saved.

When those people tell others how to be close to Jesus, they often in error tell them just be good. Just be good. Avoid drugs, sexual immorality. And you're right with God. Don't watch these shows and avoid these people who do.

And you're good with God. Now, these are not bad advice, right? Yeah, avoid drugs, right? Don't commit sexual immorality. However, if they're the only things that are taught and talked about in the local church, people will go to hell.

Because they're not hearing the true saving message of the gospel, right? They're not hearing that you're not good. And in order to be right with God, it's not about what you do, but what Jesus has done on the cross.

What he has done to take your sin, all of it, not part of it, all of it. And he suffered God's wrath on your behalf. So that when God sees you, he doesn't see the record of sin that you've committed because it's been paid for and he's risen.

Now, if they don't hear that message and they only hear just be good, just a list of things to avoid, things to pursue, people will go to hell. And they are pharisaical if they do that. Commands without God's grace is pharisaism.

And on the last days, these people will stand before Jesus during their exit interview. And they will list out the wicked things they avoided and the good things they pursued. However, they will still stand in their own sin, unjustified and impure because they did not actually believe the savior who took away their sin by dying on their behalf and rising from the dead.

In the end, all these appearances of purity were not pure enough to cleanse away their sin inside because only Jesus can do that. The second type of people that Jesus condemns are all who create obstacle for others in following God in order to keep up their appearance of purity.

Religious Burdens, Rejected Prophets, and Blocking Access to God

Jesus condemns all who create obstacles for others in following God in order to keep up their appearance of purity. After hearing these condemning words from Jesus, a lawyer jumps up in protest. Teacher, by saying these things, you reproach us also.

This lawyer knew that they were not off the hook because the lawyers or scribes, depending on your translation, supported the same people. They were the followers of Pharisees. Well, you condemn the Pharisees, they're condemning us.

They were also on the chopping block. Now, Jesus does not hesitate to pronounce the woes against them. In fact, he just starts. First, woe to you also, lawyers, for you load men with burdens hard to bear and you yourselves do not touch the burden with one of your fingers.

The word burden here in other texts is actually used to describe a ship's cargo in Acts 27. That's heavy, a ship's cargo. I don't know how many of you have seen a massive transportation ship that's transporting the goods.

Cargo ships, their cargos are heavy. Humans can't lift them. They have to be lifted by machines. And what Jesus is saying, that burden's really heavy. They're adding difficult religious duties to the law and making it harder for people to actually obey the core of the law, love and justice.

And what's more evil is that they put the burdens on the people who are already struggling, but they themselves don't even help out. They don't put a finger on it. By keeping up their external appearance of purity, they were making it harder for God's people to actually encounter God.

These rules became a checkmark and a badge of honor rather than the exercise of mercy and justice, reflecting the compassionate heart of God. Instead, the failure to follow these rules disheartened the people who feel that God is now unreachable.

They could not see how God could ever accept them if they couldn't quite follow the traditions of the scribes. For example, in Roman Catholicism, the doctrine is that sins are only forgiven when they're confessed to priests.

And this is because they, like the Pharisees and lawyers, hold traditions equal to scripture. Now, this practice is nowhere found in scripture. There is no text in which you have to confess to priests.

In fact, I can give you texts in which you don't confess to priests and you confess to Jesus, right? First John 1, 9. If you confess your sin to Jesus, he is righteous and faithful to forgive your sin and cleanse you of all unrighteousness.

There's no footnote or any text existing manuscripts that says priests. If you confess to Jesus through the priests, that's not there. Second, this is an undue burden of God's people. All of a sudden, people who want to know God, people who want to be close to God, have to seek out priests whenever they sin.

The Catholic priests are adding themselves into the equation to the person's relationship with God. Now, it's all of a sudden, you, priest, God, no longer you and God. That's an undue burden. After all, what if the people are not available to see priests?

Are they just living in that guilt and sin? Until the next time they see a priest. Well, what if they are on their deathbed and the priest does not make it on time? Their last thought is that their sin is not forgiven and they're going to hell or purgatory to suffer.

The feeling of guilt on the Catholic church followers is actually tremendous. There's some of, there's some of the people who hold on to shame and guilt like no other. They're like magnets to guilt and shame.

That's a burden. That's a huge burden.