Good morning. Veritas. That was weak. Let's try it again. I'll just be that tacky guy. Good morning. All right, that was better. Hey, my name is Matthew, and it's exciting to come and continue on our series. We're talking about encounters with Jesus. And have been for the last several weeks. And today we want to discuss an encounter Jesus has with religious people. And so I. I want to kind of. I'm just diving in because we got a lot of stuff here to talk about. So if you have a Bible, turn with me to Luke, chapter eleven. Okay. And I want to kind of lay some descriptors out. So we understand kind of who we're talking about. Okay? So when Jesus is talking about religious people. You can about imagine the group of people that Jesus Christ is talking to. Who is Jesus Christ talking to in his culture, in his context? Who do you think it might be? The Jews. And the Pharisees in particular. They were the religious sect that kind of ruled the day. Okay? And it comes back. And for us, we think about the Pharisees. And many of us have heard antagonizing preaching. I have preached antagonizing messages about the Pharisees. But I think the Pharisees are a really relevant group to us today. Because the person that I'm talking about. When I talk about the religious person. Probably isn't the person that gets drunk three times a week, but loves God. I love God. Yeah. I'm talking about the religious person. Who attends church two to three times a month, maybe gets drunk once in a while. And loves country music. Okay? This is the person. Like, I want to raise our concern for a text like this. And the terms that Jesus Christ uses when he talks to the Pharisees. Because hands down, there is no group of people, no sect of people that I read about in the last couple of weeks. That are as righteous in action as the Pharisees. In fact, Jesus says, hey, do what the Pharisees say. Don't do what they do. Okay? These people strove for righteousness like no other person, no other group of people that ever existed. And I think some of us also then flip to this side, like, well, I don't want to be a Pharisee. So I'll just hang out here in Greyland, in the middle. Not going to try real hard. I'm not going to go over there. Oh, my goodness. I wouldn't do that. But I'm just going to hang out here. Because I don't want to be a zealot. I don't want to be a crazy person and that's a tough spot to be in. I came across this quote earlier this week from Doctor Martin Lloyd Jones, a pastor in Britain, who said, you can be religious without being a Christian. As I say, the fact that you're religious may be the biggest obstacle of all to your becoming a Christian. And that's kind of my heart. I think people I've been discovering in the last couple weeks, I think there are people who are called to different groups of people. I've got friends who work in the addiction world proclaiming and preaching the gospel to them. They have more patience than I have, they have an abundance of grace and they're able just to do it. And I'd be like, I'm going to wring my neck, okay? And then there are people, Paul even talks about being called to the Gentiles and then other of the disciples were called to the Jews. Something that's been laid on my heart is a call to the subtly religious people. And I've told you guys this before because I was one of them, I was the religious person I'm describing and I worked at a church, okay? That's why it's concerning to me to tell you, to warn you, to plead with you, to continuously check your heart, to continuously check your heart. There's also an awareness in me that I'm not here to beat anyone up. Some of you might not struggle with these things and we praise God for that. But there's this issue of doing religious things and this tension of being a Christian, a Christ of follower and one of those things we ought to do. And the other one can be great and convenient for those of us around you, but can be tremendously deceiving to you yourself when you think, well I'm just, I'm good, I'm pretty good, I mean I do attend church. I mean I must be a Christian, I must be on the inside. And it seems like the only people Jesus really deals with are the religious people. If you read through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, who does Jesus argue with continuously? It's the religious people. Nowhere in the gospels did I find that Jesus Christ duked it out with a nonbeliever. Nowhere. But it's the religious people who are caught in this minutiae that Jesus Christ continuously presses up against as they nitpick the life of Jesus Christ especially. The challenge is when they know the gospels, they know the law that God had given to them. And so the question I want us to ask ourselves and to legitimately think about, is this, like, as we read and study this text, like, are we living a fake life? Are we living a fake life? Did you do more than dress up for church this morning? Tell the kids, shut your mouth, put a smile on your face. We're going to church. We're doing this now. At some level, that's a practical thing that happens. But what about at the heart level, when you look back over Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, like, how does that fit in with what you're doing now? And you're welcome here. Listen, like, you're welcome here. We welcome everybody here because I want to stir your affections. I hope the spirit stirs your affections to change how Monday looks this week. Okay? I don't want you coming out of here saying, I have to be such and such so I can attend that church. Like, no, we're in the same boat. Okay, but, like, does your weeks look, do they match the worship that you display on Sunday morning, or are you fake? I talked to a guy probably about two or three months ago who told me that he was going back to aa because he felt like he could confess his sins there. And I was glad for him where that dude was at. I'm like, praise God. But my heart broke because in the context of our conversation, he was talking about being able to confess sins at Aaehenhe or the church. And one of those organizations is specifically. Specifically exists for the confession of sin, for the support of people around you to be intimately involved in your life, to encourage you in holiness. But what he realized, even in our church, was that, you know, they're just a little too good for me. I can't confess. And that's the urgency and that's attention. I don't say that to belabor the point. I just say that to be like, are we real or are we faking it? One of the things I've heard here in Urbana is like, man, if so and so comes from that town. They know all about me anyway, and that makes me nervous. That's in the flesh. That makes a whole lot of sense, because maybe they know a lot about you. But how beautiful would it be for them to see the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in you? Sure, they know a lot about you. They might have known you since you were in kindergarten, or they might have been your babysitter back in the day. But how great would it be for them to see the influence of the Holy Spirit in your life changing you? Do we live a separate life outside of church, at work or in our home or to our spouse than we do here. And why is it different? So let's reflect on that, and let's ask yourselves not just about the externals, but what's going on internally. I mean, some of you are here and you don't want to be. And I'm talking about you, too, students, not just the adults. You're here, and I'm thankful you're here. But let's wrestle with that spot that's in your heart that's churning of, like, I could be out doing something, I could mow the yard, I could have caught up on something, I could have watched the show. And it's just like, hey, man, we're gathered here to worship. Why don't you want to be here? And yet, with that tension in our heart, we're supposed to talk about you going to heaven. If you perish this week, there's a disconnect there between life and what's happening in the heart. So turn with me. I mean, it reminds me, actually of Matthew. If you want to, you can turn with me to Matthew, chapter seven, verses 21 23. Jesus says this, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father, who is in heaven on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out demons in your name and do so many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. So you see, there's a purpose and the urgency. There's a purpose in us church. Like, if you're visiting here today, maybe I'm not as much talking about you today, but to talk to us, Veritas, to say, like, how are our hearts? Why are we here? There's an urgency. There's this reality that these people cast out demons in the name of Christ. They prophesied in the name of Christ, and he declares to them, Lord, Lord, I never. Then he says, I don't know you. What? Why are you here? So again, maybe you're not this person, but I would implore you to pray. Like, set up guardrails in your heart, like, guard God. How do I guard myself from becoming this person? How do I guard myself from becoming callous to the truth of your word and being moved by you and being intimate with you? How do I lean in to a heart of worship that glorifies you in everything that we do? Let's go to Luke, chapter eleven. This is where we're hanging out most of today. There is a whole lot of information in here. So buckle your safety belts, and we're going to do this. All right, Luke, chapter eleven. Let's start reading verses 37 and 38. And kind of get a picture of what is going on here. So Jesus Christ is teaching. And while he was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him. So he went in and reclined at table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash his hands before dinner. All right, let's pause right there. Okay, so Jesus is speaking. If you kind of peruse the rest of chapter eleven, it's a good one. Would love for you to take the time to go. If you look at the headings, it's the Lord's prayer. Jesus and Beelzebul. You can't serve one master and do the other thing. Return of an unclean spirit. The blessedness, the sign of jonah. And then he comes, and the Pharisees are listening to him teach as they always are. And they invite him into the home. You see Jesus Christ answering to hospitality. Okay? Going into their homes unworried. Both of what the sinner would do to him if he entered his home, as we LeArned weeks ago. And unworried about the religious zealot. What he would do to him if he entered his home. And jesus christ goes into his home, and he reclines at the table. All right? And so that's the picture of what's going on. And here you see the Pharisee immediately being ticked off or being upset. He's shocked. He is shocked that Jesus Christ has not washed his hands. And this has nothing to DO with bacteria, viruses, the flu, nothing. This is all about religious focus. This is about religious rules. You see, the pharisees and the religious leaders had created rules that were just above the scriptures. They were there to help the people. And I would bet that the Pharisees didn't start these rules necessarily out wrongly. I would bet they'd be like, well, we should be really prepared to eat meals together. Like we should. Like when we're going to get together and we're going to celebrate food and feasts that God Yahweh has given us. We should be clean. Hey, we should wash. We should wash up before we do this. But then the religiosity came into play. And they started like, well, we should write this out. I mean, we just can't. You just can't wash your hands and come in like you need to wash your hands a certain way. And so they came in and probably again, with a good heart, wanted to do this. But these laws grew in their value. They grew in what they were. So much so that these guys are offended that Jesus Christ, you are not following the rules. What are you doing? He was offended. He was astonished. Like, what a word. He was shocked that he would not wash his hands. And naturally, hey, guess what? Jesus knows what he's thinking, right? Let's go to the next verse 39. And the Lord said to him, now, you pharisees, you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools. Did you not know the one who makes the outside also makes the inside? But give as alms those things that are within and behold, everything is clean to you. Jesus calls the Pharisee out. You can about imagine they are reclining at table. We talked about this the other week. There's like a couch, tables in the center. They're laying down. They're around in a circle. Their feet are out to the back. And so in front of them is a spread of probably bowls and cups, right? And I don't know about you, but I know our family has been struggling with dishwashers in the last few years. And generally, on a dishwasher, they do really well at cleaning the outside of the cup, because I don't ever take my mashed potatoes and stick it on the outside of the cup. I stick it on the inside of the bowl or on the plate, right? And when the dishwasher comes along, it's like, you know, I'll leave that for later. He didn't finish his plate. And it's gross. It's disgusting. It comes out crunchy, right? And you're like, you run your fork over it again and you're like, I didn't get clean. What did I just eat? Right? Oh, dishwashers. They're a curse for the Morgan family. But anyways, he comments on them. There's these bowls out in front of them. And, like, you guys do so well on the outside, but, like, on the inside, there's a problem. There's a problem there. It's worse than mashed potatoes. It's worse than dried food on the inside. And the thing is, you think you're getting away with it. This is a concerning thing. Like, I'm getting away with it. I can hide this from you guys. And Jesus brings them to this point of, like, don't you think that we made the inside of the cup, too. Like, we made the externals, but we made the internals. And he's challenging them. Like, give alms of those things that are from within and everything will be clean to you. The problem is, the outside of the cup is being forced to be clean. But the cleaning isn't coming from the inside of the cup. The Pharisees do good at cloaking themselves. They do well. They know the rules, they know the law. They've got it memorized. They can talk about it, they can teach it. But there's something missing. The foundation of their teaching, the foundation of their doing is gone, and the inside is full of dirt and filth, and they're missing it. And you notice here, Jesus has zero tolerance for extra rules. You cannot add to the scriptures, and the Pharisees have added to the scriptures. And he criticizes their hypocrisy, comparing them to the cup and the dirty dish on the inside. They ignore the realities of God. One of the ways I see this often play out. I came from a farm to being a pastor in a church. I went in 2010. I did a year long study to be ordained, and then I was ordained. And so I used to hang out with guys who worked on my concrete crew, hung out with truck drivers at the farm, and they'd bring in corn or potatoes or beet tailings, what we'd feed our cattle, and they'd ask me, what do they do? And they're like, I'm a pastor. And they're like, I better not talk like that then. And undoubtedly at the time, with immaturity, I was like, you're worried about me? And now with maturity, I'm like, you're worried about me? You want to hide your words from your pastor. You don't want to speak that way in front of your pastor. Like, your God is with you all the time. And students, the challenge for you as well. Like, you can hide it from mom and dad husbands, you can hide what you're doing on your phone, and God is with you. Don't fear your pastor, don't fear your spouse, even. Don't fear your parents, fear the Lord rightly. Don't fake it. Christ wants your heart, and your heart motivates your actions. When your heart is in the right place, what are you going to do that's wrong? And when your heart is in the right place, you're going to find yourself with a propensity to say, like, hey, I messed up, my mind is in the wrong place. You end up confessing your sin. And Jesus wants the alms or the gifts of the heart at the core of who you are. Luke, chapter twelve, verses 33 34, says this. Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old with a treasure in the heavens that doesn't fail. Where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And throughout the book of Luke, I would argue, throughout the gospels and the new covenant, you see this pursuit of the heart. In the old covenant, it does seem like he's like, hey, these are a list of rules that will set you apart from people. And in the new covenant, in the New Testament, he's like, let's go to the heart. Let's give you a reason to be generous. Let's give you a reason to be obedient. Let's give you a reason now. There was a reason in the old covenant as well. In the older testament, it was Yahweh. And in the new covenant, we can relate and experience Jesus. Jesus is why we change. Jesus is why we talk the way we do. Jesus is why we act the way we do. One. Samuel talks about it in the old covenant, in one Samuel 15. And Samuel says, has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of rams. The people of Israel had gotten caught up in meticulous sacrificing and sacrificing and sacrificing. And Samuel is like, guys, these sacrifices should be fruit of a heart that's overflowing, a heart that's focused on the Lord. That's why you're doing the sacrifices. You're not doing the sacrifices to do the sacrifices. I think a lot of us get caught up in doing the sacrifices for the sake of the sacrifices and not for the sake of glorifying the Lord. And so Jesus Christ, like, ups the challenge to these pharisees again. He gives six woes or six curses on the pharisees in the next couple verses and really challenges them to the Core. This is why I think we as religious people cannot ignore these. We as religious people, we cannot ignore these. Let's not call the Guy that gets drunk a handful of times a week and says, I love Jesus. Let's relieve him of thinking he's Christiane, and let's come and bring that challenge over to us who attend Veritas church regularly. Let me challenge myself to see where my heart is. Okay? Let us challenge our hearts, Christians. Let's go to Luke 1142. It says, but woe warning to you Pharisees, for you tithe, mint and rue, which is a shrub that they used for medicinal purposes, and you tithe, mint and rue, and every herb, and you neglect the justice and love of God. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. There is the law, the Pentateuch, the first several books of the Bible, which encourage the People of God, the people of Israel, to be set apart from the people of Canaan, or the people, the groups, earlier than Even Canaan. And these guys were to follow that. In fact, if you go to deuteronomy 1422, the scripture declares that you ought to tithe the seed that you get. So that's there. But in the life of the Pharisees, they are judging and condemning everybody. They are neglecting the justice of God. In fact, they are saying to God, hey, we'll judge, you do your thing, we'll take care of judgment. Maybe that's a little extreme, but they behave that way. You bad, you bad, you bad. We are good. And here's my dill, and here's my cumulative. That Dill is ridiculous. We have a jar of it in our house. Can you imagine tithing dill? But this is what God called for them. Nobody else is going to give their God 10% of everything. I call you to give me 10% of everything in the heart of a righteous Israeli would be like, God. Take it. You're Yahweh, creator. This is yours. Thank you for giving me this. That's what's supposed to be at the heart of the tithe, at the sacrifice. But these guys, they majored in the minors, and actually, they kind of totally forgot the majors. They were supposed to do both love justice, love God. But they were condemning, forgetting justice, and they weren't loving God. Let's move on. I kind of want to walk through all these and then kind of address us. Luke 1143. Woe to you, warning to you, pharisees. Woe to you, religious people, for you love the best seat in the synagogue and the greetings in the marketplace. The synagogues were the places of teaching and worship, and they would often have teachers come in, and oftentimes the teachers were fairly known. And so they had become a place of priority, a place of prestige for the religious people. And certainly, again, this is something that probably started out innocently. I want to sit close to the teacher. Hey, I got to know the teacher. He's a great guy. We get along on so many levels. I have to sit next to the teacher. I want to sit next to the teacher. But all of a sudden, it would be like, oh, you know the teacher? Yeah, I sit next to him. We hung out. He came over and reclined at my table. Pretty awesome. Yeah, you are awesome. And it became a heart issue. It became a place of prestige. And so they wanted to sit up front by the teacher. They wanted to engage with the teacher. They wanted to be seen. And then they loved being out in the marketplace, like, hey, aren't you from the synagogue? Like, you are one of the most. You were sitting next to the teacher. You were one of the most holy people out there. Wow. Hi. I'm gonna go get some dill. Okay. Right? They're in the marketplace. They love to be engaged with. They love to be noticed for their cleanliness and their supremacy and their holiness. And Jesus warns them of that. And then 44, woe to you. A warning to you. You religious people. I feel like he takes it up a notch here, for you're like an unmarked grave, and people walk over you without even noticing. They're like, uh, what are you talking about? Jesus. And in Matthew's account, Jesus says, like, you're like a whitewashed tomb blind. That people walk by you. Right? The stone is all polished, and there's death. There's death under there. Now, this would have been interesting in the Pharisees world because of those ceremonial laws that when people engaged with death or were too close to death, they had to do seven days of purification before they could participate in any of the religious services. And you're saying that I'm the guy that's causing the impurity. You're saying that I am death. You're saying that the hours and hours and hours that it took me to memorize the pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible are a loss. And you're comparing me with death? That causes impurity in people. Jesus, I thought you were about love and affection. Jesus has no issue calling these people out. They have added to the text. They have perverted the law of God, and Jesus Christ confronts them with the truth. And that's offensive. And the lawyers who are standing nearby are like, I want in. Insult me too. And probably not, but they're like, dude, look at verse 45. One of the lawyers answered him. Teacher, in saying these things, you insult us. Also. You offend us. Truth offends people. I want to do things my way, and especially when I've created the system, God, don't get in the way. And when God comes in and says, I'm breaking this down and crushing it. We're like, how dare you? The lawyers are offended too. And so Jesus says, I've got a few things to say to you, lawyers. Listen up. And he warns the lawyers. He warns the people. Okay, woe to you lawyers also. This is verse 46. For you load people with burdens hard to bear. And you yourselves don't you don't touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Notice when Jesus offends them, he's not calling them names. I think some of us get caught up in sarcasm and foolishness, and we start calling our enemy names. Jesus never calls the Pharisees names other than hypocrites, which is truthful and a warning in and of itself. He's dealing with the truth when he confronts and he offends them. They've perverted the word of God. They have added and defended laws that don't exist. They have added and defended laws that they don't even follow. They've put these laws on people. And so Jesus continues with the woes. Luke 11 47 51. Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your father killed. So you are witnesses, and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the wisdom of God said, I will send the prophets and the apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute, so that the blood of the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation. From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it would be required of this generation. Now, it wasn't like the Pharisees dads necessarily participated in the murder of prophets. But the reality is their relatives participated in the murder of prophets from Abel on. And there's this tension when you look at Abel because, like, how is Abel a prophet in Genesis, chapter four? But the thing that set Abel apart from his brother Cain is that Abel wanted to sacrifice from his heart. He brought a sacrifice to Yahweh from his heart, where Cain was like, I'm going to give the fruits. I'm going to do it my way. And the threat of the prophets is a submission and a humility before God. And the threat of Cain is selfishness, pride and wickedness. And he drove Cain to kill. What it says here is the first prophet. And if you look in two chronicles 24, you see that Zechariah, who desired to plead, please and glorify God by speaking the truth to the king was killed by a king who said, I will do it my way. And they killed him between the altar and the gate. And then these Pharisees come along. I think about, like a fundraising thing. Like, hey, we're going to make this thing, this tomb. We're going to make it more beautiful. Like, give us your money. We're going to celebrate this great prophet. And Jesus is like, you killed the prophets. And the same heart that you have, the same attitude that you have toward me is going to result in you killing me. And this is going to hang around your neck. And I'm going to judge you for your destruction and killing of the prophets, whom God sent these prophets to warn and beckon the people to come back, they killed. And the Pharisees celebrated. And hear these guys again. That same heart, that same bitterness, that same greed, that same attitude of destruction is going to lead them to kill the great prophet Jesus, the final prophet. Here's the last woe in Luke 1152. Woe to you, lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hinder those who are entering. At the heart of Christ's issue with the lawyers is their false teaching that leads other people astray. The lawyers are often known as the scribes as well, and are defined as such in the next few verses. But what they have done is they haven't just made a law and just had it out there. They've written it down. They've written down the law. And then the lawyers defended the rule. Okay? And these lawyers have participated in writing a law, and it's supposedly for holiness. But then they have also acted out in holding people to the law. In holding people to the law. Let me tell you where I think this first happens in the Bible. I think this first happens in Genesis, chapter one, two and three. Okay, now you go back and study this. All right? I think what happened is in Genesis two, the Lord taught Adam what he should do. He was supposed to have dominion over the animals. He was supposed to name the animals. He was supposed to be the teacher. And then God creates his wife, Eve. And Adam was to teach her, as the husband is the head and teacher in his home. And Adam was to teach his wife the things the Lord had taught him. Okay? And I think Adam and Eve had a really good idea. You know, the Lord says, like, we shouldn't eat of that tree. You know what? Let's not even touch the tree. You know, that'll be super safe right now. Is there anything wrong with that. No, it's a good warning. Like, in case you somehow end up with that fruit in your mouth. Like, we won't even touch the tree. Let's not touch it. And when the serpent approached Eve, what does Eve do? Does she tell him what the Lord says? No, she tells him the rule they made. She preaches to the. To the serpent, a protection, a law, and says, you know, we're not even supposed to touch that tree. And that's a lie. This is why for us in christian homes, like, we struggle with this, because there's lots of good rules. Hey, children, don't run out to the street. And then we say, you know what? To keep you away from the street. Don't even cross the sidewalk. You know, let me say, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I'm talking in theological terms here. Okay, so we do not want to run out into the street because we might get hit by the bus or the truck, right? But we go back and then we say to the neighborhood kids, why are you crossing the sidewalk? Shame on you. And this is what we do with religion. God has called us to holiness. I think it's unfortunate that we move away from words like rules. There are rules in false following Christ, and we shouldn't be ashamed of it. God is calling us to holiness, but we dealing with our own weaknesses, say, I can't drink, therefore I can't go into any bars. Therefore, no Christian can go into any bar ever. You can hold that rule for yourself because of your sanctification, because of where you are at with Jesus Christ. You cannot preach that rule to people who do not have that issue. And I think what we've done with that, we've done it with versions of the Bible. We've done it with styles of churches. We have said, this is what God has shown me. It is good. I'm going to add a little bit of this to help me stay on this path. But when we start preaching what we've added to the people, we enter this area of pharisaism, of hypocrisy. We start preaching a gospel that doesn't exist or a law that doesn't even exist. And Jesus Christ challenges, to say the least, to these folks. Where is this at in your life? These lawyers had created rules that they didn't even follow. Somebody was new and fired up about Yahweh. I believe in Yahweh. And they're like, you need to do this. And then they just kind of take the book and they just chuck it at them. Did you know? Nowhere in scripture does it say, you must stop swearing is the first step of being a Christian. Nowhere I looked. Nowhere in scripture does it say, you must stop it immediately as you become a Christian. But what it says is, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus says, follow me as the first steps of those who become a Christian. Certainly there's a place for let no corrupting communication proceed from your mouth, only that which is pleasing and edifying. Ephesians five, three. I think there's a place to check your mouth. There's a place. Drunkenness is named in scripture as sin multiple times. But the first calling of a Christian isn't morality or to cooperate. It's to follow Christ. Christian is a Christ follower. And these overzealous Pharisees had added to the text. Maybe initially it was a semi innocent, where they were like, let's try to protect ourselves. But it became wicked when they had preached it, when they were angry about it, when they lorded it over other people. The lawyers took away this desire for learning. So what do these warnings mean to us, to the Pharisees, to the lawyers? How are they even pertinent today? Well, I've got a number of questions that I want to ask you that I've derived from these texts, and I want to challenge us with them. Really. When you think about your actions, the good deeds that you do, like, are they coming from your heart? Jesus pursues the heart. Give alms of your heart. Do you major in the peripheral? Or perhaps you own rules? Or your own rules and fail to worship Christ? Some of you need your own rules. You know yourself well. You should not go into the bar. Maybe you can't go down the street. That's good. Do not be drunk. You can't preach that to anybody. Are you hung up on a version of the Bible or you hung up on a style of church or a style of worship? You can have your opinions. You can have what you jive with best. You can't preach what the Bible doesn't say. You focus on the thoughts of others, what they'll think of you, or even what the church thinks of you. Do you want them to see your great family, your great, neat life with Jesus in there somewhere? What motivated you to come to church? The heritage of your family or the desire to worship? Why do you read the Bible? Are you trying to beat someone at the Bible reading plan? Or do you desire to know Jesus? You can chuck the Bible reading plan, and you can just dwell on one chapter for two weeks. Know Jesus, stop looking at people. Fear God honestly, are you spiritually dead inside but demanding other people to walk in holiness church? I think we're challenged in today's world with the sexual confusion that is out there. How many of us will challenge those people who make the news but have relatives and family who are living in heterosexual sin, be it pornography or living with somebody outside of marriage? That is a challenge to us. As opposed to picking on the people who are making the news because both are sinful, both are taking God and saying, you're not providing for me. Are we warning our friends, our children, our family lovingly as much as we're yelling at the tv? Do you reject the teachings of God in all parts of your life, selecting the ones that work for you? I love treating homeless people nice. I'll treat my spouse like trash. That's a disconnect. It's a concerning disconnect. I will pull it together for this meeting, and then we will walk out the door and I will scowl at you. I will treat you low. I will do whatever I want. That's a disconnect. You're not applying grace and mercy and confession and forgiveness in your own home. And do you make it hard for others to follow Jesus? Oh, you're saved. All right. You need to stop drinking. Stop swearing. Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it. What are you saying? Follow Jesus. Let's follow Jesus. I'll read one John with you. And then as things come up, yes, some of that needs to be addressed. I'm not saying it doesn't. Are we just heaping burdens on new believers? Or are we saying, like, let's go. I remember when I was in your shoes, I did a lot of crazy stuff. But as I've grown in who Christ is, he's transformed my life. At the end of this text, the Pharisees continue to reveal who they were for after this convicting, challenging text, where Jesus kind of goes after them, what do they do? We're going to catch this guy and we're going to kill him. He reveals their hearts. Verse 53. As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things. Lying in wait for him, to catch him in something. He said their hearts were unchanged. Lying in wait for people to screw up is not the sign of a heart, of someone who trusts God. So our big idea for today is love for God drives the hearts of christians. Love for God drives the hearts of christians. And I would just add to that. And those actions from that driven heart, they're actions that come out of the heart for a christian right. Love for God drives the hearts of christians, and the actions that come out of those hearts are different. Christians live differently, we judge differently. We see people make incredibly foolish mistakes, and we're like, I get it. I could make that mistake in a heartbeat. Let me talk to you about Jesus. Let me talk to you about true hope. In Christ. There's freedom. You know, some of us. I remember reading the text as I was younger, like, Jesus says, come to me, all of you who are weary and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. And I'm. As a religious zealot, I'm like, I can't rest. There's too many fools around here I got to condemn. I mean, I'm busy trying to be awesome and hide my own sin. There's no rest here. I could never grasp that verse until God saved me. Is that God changes you from the heart, and it begins to permeate the hands and the mouth and the mind. And it's still ongoing for me. I'm not there. But God changes you from the inside out. He gives you the opportunity to stop faking it. Church, how do we respond to this? Well, one, we respond in confession. I know it's dicey in a church to come and be like, I'm struggling. I've said these things, and I do these. The background. Well, we're glad you're here. I hope you feel like you're free to come and say, like, I'm not living it. My heart is not set on worship. This is one of the first steps to getting to the heart of worship is confession. It's so hard to live this way and live this way. In fact, the scriptures say you can't have two masters. You're going to serve the one and hate the other or vice versa. The challenge is to come clean, confess, respond to the spirit asking you to reveal the conviction that God wants you to reveal who you actually are, and then lean into Christ. I know this sounds crazy. Every time you're like, lean into Christ. Pray. Read your Bible. The Bible changes you. It is a living, an active book. It is the. The Holy Spirit moving in you, and he transforms you. Those issues of self control that you have, the issue of addiction that you have would be deeply challenged by reading the word of God, by learning that God is bigger. So you don't have to give your anxiety to alcohol or control. You can give it to this God because you know him better. Lean into the text to respond in confession. Lean into the text. And as much as a churchy answer as that is, it is the answer that God can take care of you. Church let's be a church that confesses and is open. Let's be a place where hypocrites can come and say, I've been a hypocrite. Forgive me. Let's pray. God, you are very good, Lord, and we know, God, that you have made the outside of the cup and you have made the inside of the cup. Father, I pray that we would be free, God, to trust your forgiveness and your salvation. God to be to come clean. God, help our unbelief that you could transform even our lives. In Jesus name we ask these things. Amen.