All right, brethren, we're going
to be in Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7, and we're going
to pick up in verse 6. Now, recall that this passage
in Mark 7, it provides a warning against false teachings, false
teachings. And our Lord warned us. He said, beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees. And what he was saying is beware
of their doctrine. Beware of their religion. And the reason is because that
vain false, empty religion, that outward form of religion, it
easily finds a happy home in these hearts of ours, these darkened,
fallen hearts that are ours. Because by nature, we are the
guilty Pharisee, even though by nature, we are sinful. We are sinners, we are corrupt
and evil through and through, meaning that we cannot do anything
to justify ourselves or to cleanse ourselves. to sanctify ourselves
or to purify ourselves. We can't do that. We need God
to do that. Salvation is a spiritual work. That's why Christ said, the Father
seeks such to worship him. He's spirit, he must be worshipped
in spirit and in truth, and he seeks those to worship him in
spirit and in truth, because you can't find one. He's looking,
but you can't find one, and so he does the work. And that's
why Christ came and said, or that's why when Nicodemus came
to him, he declared, ye must be born again. It's a spiritual
work, and until we have the spirit, we can't worship God in spirit
and in truth. We can only, at best, we can
only do a an outward form of religion to try and please him
and it won't work. It won't please him. So he's
got to do that. Now, this week we're going to
return to that previous passage because we didn't get through
it all. And what I want us to do is ask, is my faith and is
my hope and faith in Christ? Am I trusting Him for salvation
or am I still looking to something I'm doing to get comfort and
peace in what I'm doing? Am I still trying to make a righteousness
for myself? Or do I really hear what the
gospel is saying and believe that Christ is my righteousness,
he's my purity, my purification, he's my holiness, he's my sanctification,
he's what separates me unto the true and living God to know and
worship him. The title this morning is Wickedness
from Within. Wickedness from Within. Now,
naturally, We don't understand or comprehend spiritual things,
right? We understand, we've spoken of
this many times that we come forth of Adam's corrupt seed.
When Adam sinned in the garden, we were in Adam. When he sinned,
we sinned in him. And now we come forth of his
seed, right? We come forth of his seed, which
is corrupt. And so we all come forth of his corrupt seed. It's
the spiritual, incorruptible seed of the Lord Jesus Christ
that gives us life. He's the father of his people. Now, look at Mark 7, 14. Mark
7, 14. Notice what Christ says in 14,
and then we'll look at 16, and then we'll look at 18. He says,
and when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto
them, hearken unto me, every one of you, and understand. That's important. Catch that.
He's saying, listen to me and understand. And if Christ doesn't
give us understanding, we will not understand the scriptures.
There's a good verse. If you want to look that up more,
write down Luke 24, verse 45. And it's where we read that Christ
opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. Because naturally, we don't.
we might think we understand them, we might have some thoughts
on it, but they don't reach the heart, and there's nothing spiritual
there until Christ makes us to understand it. And then look
at verse 16. After he concludes what he had
said to them, he says, if any man have ears to hear, let him
hear. So that we must be given ears
to hear what these spiritual words are, that we might comprehend
them and understand them by the Spirit of Christ. Well, let me read the next one,
verse 18. And he saith unto them, speaking to his disciples who
asked him afterwards to explain this parable, or what he had
said, he said, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not
perceive that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the
man and cannot defile him? What these statements should
do is they should shake us. They should bring to our mind,
why does he keep saying that? They should make us aware that
naturally what we're equipped with, when we come forth, it
doesn't matter how smart and intelligent you are, it doesn't
matter whether you have or have not, we don't know and understand
the things of God. It should cause us to question,
why am I really understanding? Am I hearkening to what Christ
is saying? Do I have an ear to hear? Lord, have mercy on me. It should make us make us seek
him and ask him, I don't think I understand. I don't think I
have an ear to hear what you're saying. And I'm not understanding.
I'm embarrassed like these disciples who had to come and ask you,
Lord. And that's what it's supposed to do. It should make us. Realize
wait a minute. Maybe my whole religion is just
a sham and I'm just a Dead letter Pharisee like what we read in
in the text here. So they so, you know his his
sheep Their pride because we were proud to we're proud and
and and and boastful even if you're you're for the most part
Pretty meek and you go along with things there's still a point
at which we can be pushed and and and bite back and push back
as we all have our limits and we have pride. So it should make
us question, why does the Lord keep saying that? What does he
think I am, an idiot? Well, it's not that you're an
idiot. It's that we're spiritually dead. We don't have the spirit
to understand the things that are spiritual. They're spiritual
things, and God's the one that's got to do it. Now, our natural
religion, we can see it talked about in the scriptures. In Colossians
221, Paul writes about that natural religion, which is pretty common
to man, and that is touch not, taste not, handle not. which
are all to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines
of men." So that we see how Natural man's religion is a very external
thing. It's very easy for us to fall
into this external form of religion to say, oh, that's bad? Well,
let me not do that. And let me not keep company with
those people. And let me stay away from this.
And let me not listen to that music anymore. And let me start
listening to this Christian music or something like that, we do
that because naturally we think that it's an external thing that's
causing me to stumble. It's something that I'm looking
at or something that I'm hearing. It's external things. I don't
want to touch that anymore because it's bad. And what the reality
is is that we have a wicked heart. That's why we're corrupted by,
you know, that's why we're corrupted It's from within. God looks on
evil every day. When he looks upon the earth,
all he sees is wickedness and evil and wicked things that people
say. And he's not corrupted because
he's incorruptible. He's righteous. He's holy. It
doesn't corrupt him. Our corruption is within. That's
where it is. Now, yeah, you don't want to
put a stumbling stone before you. If it makes you stumble,
then yeah, don't do it. But that's not the problem. It's
like people who want to get rid of guns in the country because
they think guns kill. It's the person pulling the trigger
that kills or an accident. But I mean, it's in the heart
of the person who uses it with an evil intent to harm. It's
in our evil nature. So when you see a monk, they're
trying to purify themselves. They're trying to eliminate as
much of the external environment as they possibly can so that
they can remain pure. But they don't understand that.
They just carry the enemy with them wherever they go off into
the woods to hide away or in a cave. They have the most corrupt
thing that there is, their own heart. That's what we are. And so Paul says, these things
have indeed a show of wisdom and will worship and humility
and neglecting of the body, but not in any honor to the satisfying
of the flesh. And he calls it will worship. And if you notice the world,
that's their cardinal doctrine. They can be haters of God. But
no matter who they are, everybody likes to talk about their free
will. And man doesn't have a free will. It's bound in corruption so that
our bent, our love, our joy is to do that which is evil. That doesn't mean that you always
do the most evil thing all the time because we have certain
limits, we have certain fears about going to jail or being
punished or shamed for certain things, or it's just not our
thing. And so we don't do those things, but we have plenty of
corruption and evil in here to set us right on fire and keep
us there, because it's all here. And when he says it's not in
any honor to the satisfying of the flesh, And what he's basically
saying there is your heart is evil, and therefore, you always
have that lust of the flesh that appeals to you in your nature. That thing which you like, it
doesn't put it away. You might not touch it. You might
not taste it. You might not handle it. But
when the law comes up and says, thou shalt not covet, oh, your
heart is like, but I wish I could do it. I wish I could do. And
that's the heart betraying that you are a sinner and that if
you could, you would, but there's something preventing you, but
you still have that evil heart. And that's what we need forgiveness.
And that's what we need cleansing from because we are evil. And
we're gonna have that corruption until we die, because this flesh
is corrupt. Until this goes in the grave
and the Lord raises us again with a new body, we have this
corruption with us. And so it comes from within. And the question is, do I believe
that? Am I a sinner? Do I need mercy? Do I need his grace provided
in Christ? Or am I thinking that there's
something that I can do? Because that's the problem, is
that most people think, well, yeah, Jesus is a good help. He's
a good man. He's got some good teachings
and some good sayings, and religion's good for you know, anybody, they
should have a little religion in their life, but they're looking
to and trusting in their goodness to get by and maybe God helps
them out once in a while and gives them a pass here and there.
they're trusting in themselves, and that's not faith. That's
not true righteousness. That's a righteousness that when
you stand before God trusting in something you've done, some
prayer you've made, some aisle you've walked, or some good deed
when you forgave your neighbor for something that they did against
you, when you're trusting in that, that's the kind of righteousness
that's gonna be ashamed when they stand before God because
they're gonna stand there in a dress that's full of holes
and shows their nakedness. We're gonna be exposed and God's
not gonna be fooled. You might fool others, you know,
we might get away with things here, but God's not gonna be
fooled by us, because he's righteous. He's a righteous judge and he
knows. If you look, you know, God said, look over in Isaiah
1. It's a good description of us.
Isaiah is a prophet sent to to Israel and sent to declare to
them the truth of God. And this is what God says to
us, because God says, you are hopeless. There's nothing that
you or I can do to save ourselves. God's not going to accept our
righteousness. He's not going to accept our good works. And
so Isaiah 1, verse 4, When he's speaking here to Israel, he's
speaking this word. This is true of us as well. And
he says, ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of
evildoers, children that are corruptors, they have forsaken
the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One
of Israel into anger. They are gone away backward.
Why should you be stricken anymore? He's saying, why should I even
chasten you anymore for your wicked deeds? Because he asks,
or he says, you're going to revolt more and more. You're just going
to push back. You're just going to be stubborn and hard-hearted
and stiff-necked. You're not going to receive the
instruction. Why? Because the whole head is
sick and the whole heart faint from the sole of the foot even
unto the head. There is no soundness in it,
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, they have not been closed,
neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. And a lot of people
hear that in the flesh. They hear that and they're offended
because they think they're pretty good. But we need to be offended. We need to know that we're not
good. We're not acceptable to God.
He's not impressed with us. He's not impressed with our works
and our character and who we are. It doesn't impress God.
That's the truth and and the who's that hate it they can hate
it But that's the truth and we need to hear the truth Because
that's what's gonna shut our mouths and cause us to fall before
the one who can Give us forgiveness the one who can make us righteous
and holy. It's not gonna be by this flesh
He's gonna receive all the glory and the praise and the honor
for saving his people and we're gonna be glad if we're his we're
gonna be glad and thank him and give him all the praise for it
And say, Lord, you're worthy, and I'm unworthy. Thank you for
your mercy and your grace in saving me. And he even said to
them, you know, he said, your country, in verse 7, is desolate.
Your cities are burned with fire. Your land, strangers devoured
in your presence. And it is desolate, as overthrown
by strangers. He's brought all that desolation
and all that reproof upon them. and they won't hear it. It's
not even affecting them. They're still idolaters, they're
still wicked, and that's a picture of what man is when left to himself.
He still will never get what God is showing to him that it's
because of your sin, your sin has separated you from God. And
man won't hear it because he thinks he's pretty good and God
should be kind and show him a little luck, a little help along the
way. And it's all wicked, it's all
just the flesh. The Lord declares to us that
you can't save yourselves. When he sent his son into the
world, that was as loud of a declaration that we can't save ourselves
as any other declaration, because that's why Christ came. And Paul
said, if there had been a law which could have given life,
verily righteousness should have been by the law. If there was
something that we could do, then God would have made it so that
there's something in the law that we could do to make ourselves
righteous. But clearly, The law can't make a man or woman righteous. It can only declare that you
are righteous or that you're a sinner. And all the law is
saying to us in Adam is, you're a sinner. You've come up short. You know, what was said to Belshazzar
in Babylon is, you know, meanie, meanie, teak, teakle, whatever
it was there, was saying, you've been measured and weighed and
you've come up short. You're found wanting. And that's
us. We are found Wanting we have not the righteousness necessary.
So it's very hard. It's impossible to find a sinner
a willing sinner because That's a work of grace that God does
in the heart to prepare that person to know I'm the sinner
I'm the one who's corrupted my way Lord. You're just all you've
been is good and Righteous toward me you let the Sun rise up and
rain to fall and And all the trouble I have is because of
my own wickedness. And to see that, that's a work
that the Spirit has to bring us to and continue to bring us
to Christ. Not just to see, because some
people see it, right? There's tons of movies out there about redemption,
right? There's so many people out there
that done some evil deed, and now the whole premise of the
movie is them working it off to do something to redeem themselves
and show that, hey, you know, I am a pretty good guy after
all. No, you're not. We're not. That's not what the
Lord's trying to make us see. He's not trying to make us little
good people of the earth. but to break us and to bring
us to contrition and to have a broken heart that needs him
and cries out to him for mercy and forgiveness. And so when
we do that, when we look to ourselves, what we're really doing is we're
exalting man's words and man's teachings. And when you put man's
words and teachings on the same level as what God teaches, when
we come up with little sayings to try and make it better, to
help people be a little better. God helps those who help themselves
and things like that. We think that that's helping
the situation. All it's doing is shutting us
up against God and the Pharisees did that. We'll look in Mark
7 verses 6 through 9. The Pharisees did that and what
they ultimately did was they just left the Word of God. They
apostatized from it. They abandoned the Word of God.
favor of man's teachings because they thought that that perfected
it it was doing even better one up on what Moses said let's let's
really do better and and really what they were doing is they
missed completely what Moses was saying and they went off
into apostasy and left left the Lord and he said there in verse
6 Mark 7, 6, he answered and said unto them, well has Isaiah
prophesied of you hypocrites, as it's written, this people
honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. How be it in vain do they worship
me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying
aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men.
as the washing of pots and cups and other such like things you
do, and he said unto them, full well ye reject the commandment
of God, that ye may keep your own tradition." You know, Israel had at one time
a good testimony, you know, in the sense that God had revealed
himself to the people, and he gave them prophets, and he gave
them his word, and he reveals himself in his word, and then
Christ gives us an example of what he's talking about, how
that, to show them that you're exalting your teachings, and
you think you're doing good, and really you're just you're
emptying the word of God from its meaning. And it says in verse
10, for Moses said, honor thy father and thy mother, and whoso
curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say,
if a man shall say to his father or mother, it is Corbam, that
is to say, it's a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by
me, he's free of that law. And he's saying, you know, if
your parents have needs and they ask you, but you just have the
audacity to say, well, my life's dedicated to the Lord and anything
I do or give. I give it, you know, it's, it's
dedicated to the Lord and I don't, therefore I don't need to help
you or do anything for you. And, and the Lord's the same.
It sounds good. It sounds like, like you're doing
something good and all you've done is just broke the commandment
and you don't even, you don't even see it. You justified yourselves
before men so that if your parents bring it up and say this, my
son isn't even helping me. You could just say, well, it
was Corban. Oh, it's Corban. Oh, that's good. OK, never mind.
You can go now. And that's it. They just sent
the poor away without any justice and no help. And he says, you
suffer him no more to do all for his father or his mother,
making the word of God of none effect through your tradition,
which ye have delivered and many such like things you do. So it looks so good on the outside,
but inside it's just full of death. It's just, it's just full
of death. And we're all guilty of it. I mean, you could see Eve went
into that. I don't know who came up, probably
Adam, but you know, he said to Eve, don't even touch that fruit.
Don't even touch it. It sounds good. And because remember
she said she said to the serpent we're not to eat it We're not
even to touch it. I never said don't touch it. So then she picks
it up and hey, I'm not dead yet Let's just go right on over and
just start eating it. So it just breaks it all down.
The Lord said don't eat it That's that's what he said. Don't don't
eat it, but you see how man adds things to the word so When the
Lord came to Jerusalem, he pointed out this teaching to those in
Jerusalem in John 5, verses 44 through 47. He asked, how can
ye believe which receive honor one of another, and seek not
the honor that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will
accuse you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you,
even Moses, in whom you trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye
would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if ye believe
not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? So they weren't
even listening to Moses, whom they claim that they were strict
adherents to Moses and that they were good followers of Moses,
and they didn't even believe him. They exalted their word
above his words. And so it basically You know, it brought
them so that they missed Christ. They didn't even see him when
he came and they didn't know who he was and they rejected
him just right out of hand because he didn't line up with their
thoughts and their ideas. And so, you know, as we, well,
let me just go on. So now turn over to Romans 1,
verse 16. Romans 1, 16. You know, they,
you know, when, those who would claim to look to Moses' law now
and trust and have confidence in that law, they seek to shame
us who walk by the spirit, who are trusting Christ, who have
such trust through Christ the God word, and they would shame
us because they're saying, well, you're just gonna walk by the
flesh. And no, we're not gonna walk by the flesh. You can see
how those who claim to follow the law walk by the flesh, and
it's just an empty, vain, dead religion. We need the spirit.
and to give us faith that we might walk in faith and in truth. And that's why Paul said in Romans
1.16, he said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Why,
Paul? Because it's the power of God
unto salvation. It's God's means of saving to
the uttermost all that come to him through Christ. To everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the great for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it's
written, the just shall live by faith." So that we can't just
get around what Paul is teaching. Paul was accused of being an
antinomian, just as we're accused of being lawless, but we're not
lawless. We want to honor the Lord. We want to walk in a manner that
we don't wanna bring reproach on the gospel. We feel shame
when we know that we've brought reproach on the gospel and done
something that we ought not to do. We feel that because the
spirit convicts us. The spirit shows us and gives
us a heart and brings us back to Christ to seek him for mercy
and forgiveness. And we have that because that's
what he did. He accomplished our salvation. And Paul said in Galatians 3.12,
the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth then shall
live in them. So if you try to pick up any
part of the law, you're responsible for the whole thing. A man tries
to get around it with separating and dividing the law and having
the ceremonial law. And that's what Christ put away.
And he's got the moral law. And I think there's even another
classification of the law for them. You know, just read 1 Timothy
1, 9, and Paul says, knowing this, that the law is not made
for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient,
for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers
of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, and he goes on
into the next verse listing many more sins. And if Paul was just
talking about if the law is divided, if you can just separate the
law, then what law is he talking about there that the law is not
made for a righteous man but for an unrighteous man? If you
say, well, the ceremonial law is not made for a righteous man.
Christ has made us righteous now. OK, so you're saying that
these thieves and murderers are to start sacrificing lambs and
goats and bulls because they're still under the ceremonial law?
Or is he talking about the moral law as well? all the Ten Commandments
written on stones, because that would make more sense, that the
Ten Commandments are written to shame those that would do
wickedly against the other people. It's for the unrighteous to show
them, to shut their mouths and say, yep, I am a sinner. I've
broken that which is right and holy before God. I've done evil. And that's what it's to bring
us to. That's what he's shown there, that the law, that Ten
Commandments, and all the law, it's not made for a righteous
man, but it's made to bring that unrighteous one to see that they
are a sinner, that they're not doing what's right before the
Lord God. You know, here's a description
of the Pharisees. It says in Acts 15, 5, but there rose up
certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it
was needful to circumcise them, the Gentiles coming into the
church, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. They wanted
them to do the whole law. They wanted everything done,
the ceremonial and the moral laws, they call it. But Peter
stood up in verse nine and said that the Holy Ghost put no difference
between the Jew and the Gentile purifying their hearts by faith. Many would say we should look
back to the law for our sanctification, to purify ourselves, to keep
ourselves pure and to make ourselves more pure. And he's saying there
that The Holy Ghost already is the one who puts the difference.
He's the one who separates. It doesn't matter whether you're
Jew or Gentile. He's the one who purifies their hearts by
faith. so that he gives us his spirit
and he purifies us and separates us to the Lord and gives us a
hungering and a thirsting for his righteousness. He's the one
who grows us in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. He's the one who stirs up these
hearts so that we don't want to bring shame and reproach on
the gospel because we love the Lord and we want others to know
that he is the Lord and we really believe him. And so we don't
want to do those things that are going to betray that that
profession. They may misunderstand us at
times but and we may do things at times but but we're looking
to the Lord to to to reconcile and to heal his people and to
bring them out of darkness into the light. That's our hope. We want to see the Lord's people
saved so that he will come again and gather us up, just as he
said, and bring us home to be forever with the Lord. And he
says, now therefore why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the
neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able
To bear so that you know, the spirit bears witness to that
truth that the light shines in darkness the gospel Of faith
and glory is going forth into the darkness even shining into
these dark hearts But the darkness comprehends it not so unless
the spirit gives life We won't even comprehend what what the
lord is showing us in in his word in the preaching And and
and by the spirit because like like what did Stephen say you
you stiff-necked you always? Resist the Holy Ghost because
that's natural man Oh who he's resisting always pushing back
on the light and if the Lord allows him to do it then it'll
never enter in but the Lord has to has to Shine that light in
and deliver these these corrupted hearts all right now we see how Yeah. We see how the Pharisees,
they spent a great deal of effort on themselves to make themselves
look good and righteous and holy on the outside. And the Lord
says in Mark 7, 15, he tells us, there's nothing from without
a man that entering into him can defile him. but the things
which come out of the man, those are they that defile the man. So the problem the Lord's saying
is it's right here, the seed of your emotions. It's in your
heart. It's in your heart. That's the corrupt and the hard
and the wicked thing in us. It's why the Lord said through
Ezekiel that I'm gonna take out your heart of stone. I'm gonna
take out that adamant, hard heart that all men and women have by
nature and I'm gonna lift that one out, and I'm gonna put in
a heart that hears me, that's soft and pliable, and that I
control and direct to seek me. So there's nothing without a
man that entering into him can defile him, but that which comes
out of him, that's what defiles him. And then in Mark 7, 17,
Later on when he enters in the house and the disciples come
and ask him concerning what he had said, and he says, are you
so without understanding, verse 18, also do you not perceive
that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot
defile him? Those things that you touch and
those things that you eat, they don't defile you. And even when
the Lord sets our hearts and our affection on Him. Even those
things external, that's not what defiles us. What defiles us is
this flesh, it's the heart. Changing your radio station isn't
going to make you holy and keep you holy. The Lord is able to
bless His people. It's not listening to music that
you like isn't going to make you evil. If it does, then stop
listening to it. But if you like it, you like
it. It's all right. Because the reason why is that
it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth
out into the drought, purging all meats. And he said, that
which cometh out of the man, that defileth him. And so that
here's the root of the problem. For from within, verse 21, Out
of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all these evil things. come from within, right, and
all, every manner of sin, even those that aren't listed there,
they defile the man. And so, brethren, our heart,
our faith, it's a heart faith. It touches the heart. It reaches
right in here. It's honest and sincere. It's
not just a fake, phony, outward faith that we have. And if it
is, the Lord will correct us, and he'll bring it to our attention
that what we're doing isn't right, and it's to be repented of, you
know, that fake. Religion because we're always
coming to Christ. We're always coming to Christ. We never arrive
in this flesh We never arrived to that point where we've got
it. So together because as soon as we've got it together That's
when we sin against our brethren We think of ourselves more highly
than we ought to think and the Lord's gonna bring us down and
in his mercy He's gonna bring us down so that we don't stay
there and that corrupting harmful you know, hurtful manner to our
brethren. He's gonna show us, wow, I'm
guilty of the same thing. We've seen it. We've seen it
in others, and we've certainly seen it in ourselves, how the
Lord is able to teach us and to humble us so that we're forgiving. and gracious to one another because
that's what we need to be. We're all sinners and he's the
one who does that. Our Lord had quoted from Isaiah
29, 13, where he says, they have removed their heart far from
me and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men. So that naturally there's no
fear of God. There's no awe of God. There's
no reverence for God. And what happens when there's
no heart for the Lord is that our religious practices, they
become empty and vain, and just corrupt, and just weak, and we
just go through the motions, and there's nothing there. It's
just a false, dead-letter religion that we need to be delivered
from by the Spirit of God. And, you know, in that state
we become good little Pharisees, recognizing what everybody else
is doing that's wrong, and, you know, and harboring that contempt
in the heart against one another. They need to fix that. They need
to stop doing that. And you're so worried and fixated on what
they're doing, and you're not even looking at what's going
on, the corruption working in your own heart. We've probably all said it, we've
seen religion at its finest, and by that I mean its worst,
and we hate those posers, those religious people that put on
a show, and we hate that. And you get to that point where
then you have to ask, but am I the biggest one? Am I the biggest
poser? Am I the worst of the worst?
Am I the one who has no heart for these things? Look over in
Ezekiel 33, Ezekiel 33 verse 31. Because the Lord, this word is
in the word that believers read. The apostles, they captured the
word, these gospels, and we see this because they're for us.
We're believers and we need to hear it and know it. It's not
written in some book for the wicked. Well, I mean, for those
that will never come, but it's written for sinners because we
are sinners and we need to see this and know that there's a
lot of phony religion out there and we don't want to be that
way, but in Ezekiel 33 verse 31, it says, and they come unto
thee as the people cometh, verse 31, and they sit before thee
as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them
For with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth
after their covetousness." And man, that word stings. That word
stings, because we know that's our heart. It goes after covetousness. And the Pharisee says, I hope
you're all listening. I hope you're all listening and
that you hear what's being said, because you guys need to fix
your behavior. But the child of God says, Lord,
that stings. You're right, Lord. My heart
is set on the things of this world. Have mercy upon me, Lord. Forgive me. I'm the sinner. I
need to be cleansed and made whole and washed in your blood. And so the child of God is broken
by that because that's what the Lord does. He shows us. He brings
us to see that we're the sinner. We're the guilty one. Forget
about everybody else. Lord, bless them. Have mercy
on my brother and my sister. They're so good. They love the
Lord and they're so kind to me. Have me. Let me not be the corrupting
cancer in the body, but let me be faithful like they are. Be
pleasing to you, and that's how the Lord makes his people so
that it's honest. It's sincere You know and the
Lord says that people shall be willing in the day of thy power
Willing to confess our need of the Lord willing to confess Lord.
I'm the sinner have mercy upon me Lord and save me from loving
this world and and and Harboring covetousness in my heart knowing
that these things are all gonna be burned up You say they're
all gonna be burned up and they're passing away Save me from the
love of the world and the lust of the eyes and the lust of the
flesh save me Lord have mercy soften this this heart, you know
the When the Lord comes near in His Word and in His Gospel,
the flesh draws back, it wants to slink back into the darkness
and hope that He just passes by so that we could go on another
day harboring our sin, but when He pauses over you and His Word
to you is, more than these, and He melts the heart, and He shows
you that He is most precious, and that He's worthy of our love,
and that He is lasting in the treasure, and He's precious,
and He melts that heart, and that's when we confess, yea,
Lord, thou knowest that I love you, because any love I have
for you It's of you, it's of your grace and mercy and kindness
toward me. Hebrews, I won't read the whole
passage I have here, but Hebrews 4.12 says, for the word of God
is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the
joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. You know, the Lord shows us what
we need to see, and He's the one who separates this heart
and brings us to fall before Him, you know, so He does that
work. Turn over to Psalm 51. Psalm
51. You know, again, religion is
so content with that outward form and washing of cups and
platters and bathing tables and nonsense like that, you know,
the things that it does, The one that's been broken of the
Lord and touched by the Lord prays like David, a man after
God's own heart, a man who God said is a man after my own heart,
and this is his prayer. His honest and faithful prayer,
his sincere prayer, made faithful by the Lord, he says, have mercy
upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according
unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. He's not praying and seeking
to appear righteous to others and to be vindicated before others
for his works and what he does, but he's confessing, Lord, I
have an unclean heart. Wash me, cleanse me. I'm the
sinner, Lord, that needs forgiveness and mercy. For I acknowledge
my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. And then in
verse 17, here we read, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit A
broken and a contrite or sad heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. The Lord's pleased with that.
He's not gonna, people think that they've gotta be righteous.
The natural man in religion thinks, well, I've gotta clean myself
up, otherwise God won't receive me. He's gonna be angry with
me and he's gonna whoop me and it's not gonna be good for me,
so I better straighten up. And missing completely that we
can't straighten up and we can't fix ourselves But this is what
the Lord is pleased with because that's the work he works in us.
He shows us, he reveals to us by his light, through the gospel,
by Christ, he shows us we're the sinner and he breaks us and
we have a contrite and broken heart before him and confess,
Lord, I'm the sinner that needs your mercy and your grace. As
Paul said in Romans 2, 28 and 29, he's not a Jew, which is
one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward
in the flesh, but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly, and circumcision
is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter,
whose praise is not of men, but of God. And that's whose praise
that we want, brethren. We want the praise of the Lord
because it's his work. And when we come to him, in the
salvation he's provided he's pleased with that he's not looking
at us and saying oh you took a shortcut there you came in
through through christ now that's exactly how we're that's the
only way we can come before him and stand before him is in christ
that's why he's provided to come any other way is an insult it's
to put our fist in god's face and say no lord I don't need
that it's to say I'm something when really we're nothing and
the lord will burn that up like grass Look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the high priest. He's the
one who puts away the sins of his people by the sacrifice of
himself. He did it willingly. He did it
perfectly, completely. And all who come to the Father
through Jesus Christ the Son shall find a perfect forgiveness
and shall be made whole in Christ and enjoy fellowship with the
Father. and be brought near to Him. I
pray the Lord will bless that to our hearts. Let's pray. Our
gracious Lord, Father, we thank You that You deliver us, Lord,
continually deliver us from false, vain, outward, dead religion. Let us not fall asleep in dead
religion, but Lord, be merciful. Don't let us get away and slink
away into darkness and not be found out, but have mercy upon
us, Lord, and draw us to yourself in sweetness and in tender mercies,
in the grace and in the provision that you've provided in Jesus
Christ, your Son. Lord, help us. Deliver us from
our sin. Protect us, Lord. Provide for
us. We pray this in Jesus' name, our Lord and Savior.