Alright, good morning. We're
going to be in Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7, and verse 1. Likely just going up to verse
6. Mark chapter 7, verse 1, and likely up to verse 6. Now in
our studies, in 2 Peter and Isaiah recently, we've been warned about
false prophets. Well, in this passage here of
Mark 7, we're warned about false teachings. False teachings. And our Lord warned us in another
place to beware the leaven of the Pharisees. And what he means
by that is beware their doctrine. Beware of their religion. It's very prevalent in his day. It continues to be very prevalent
in our day. It's everywhere. Now, when you're
reading your Bible and you come to a church service, it's real
easy to condemn the Pharisees. You pick up your Bible and you
say, oh, those are the bad guys. Those are the bad guys. We're
one of the good guys. And those Pharisees, they're bad. And so we condemn them as heretics
and the religious practices that they taught. The issue is that
with religious people, with most religious people in our day,
they fail to see, they don't realize that they themselves
are Pharisees. They're just modern day Pharisees
practicing exactly what the Pharisees practice. Maybe under a different
name, maybe a little bit different, but it's still Phariseeism. These accounts and scriptures,
what they're given for, they're not given to us so we can have
this universal hatred of a group of people. These accounts are
given to warn us and to show us what we have need of learning
that the wickedness that's going on in their heart is the same
wickedness that dwells in this heart and we need to be Delivered
from that danger because it's a very real danger and it's a
danger that affects each and every one of us personally Except
the Lord give us light and bring us out of that danger. So the
reality is that We all we ourselves are guilty Pharisees and we all
by nature are Pharisees right and and and we'll look at what
I mean by that but but We we see and our own heart and the
things that we do, we're deceitful. And we like to hide what we do.
And we like to lurk around in dark places and not be found
out. We wanna keep certain things
hidden and keep them to ourselves in our heart. And so it's a false
practice. And Phariseeism is the most natural
religion to us naturally. It's the most natural religion.
We just fall right into it. When someone becomes, religious,
they naturally are drawn to a pharisaical spirit, and that's because it's
a carnal, fleshly, religious work of what we are by nature. There's nothing spiritual about
it. But the true worship of God is spiritual matter and it's
a it's a spiritual work that only God can do because it's
spiritual a man can't just make himself a child of God by his
own choosing Christ said in John 3 verse 7 he said ye must be
born again You must be born again, and no one can make themselves
born again. That's a work that the Spirit
of God did. None of us made ourselves be
born the first time. We didn't choose to be born.
That was by the wisdom and the providence of God that each of
us were born of our parents and came into this world. In like
manner, we didn't choose to be born the first time. We didn't choose to be born the
second time. God does the birthing. God's the one who brings us forth
by giving us his spirit, by giving us spiritual life. Because naturally,
we come forth from Adam dead in our trespasses and sins. So when a person comes under
conviction, they naturally become a Pharisee if all it is is just
a natural conviction. I remember meeting a young man.
I was a young man at the time. And when I was going to college,
there were times when I was a painter. I was a house painter. And so
I met a number of other young men in that profession. And this
guy was really religious. And he wore a long-sleeved shirt.
And he wore a hat in the dead of summer. because he thought
it was sinful to be exposed to sunlight and to burn one's skin,
to treat one's body wrongfully. He wouldn't spit. If anything
came in his mouth, he was very careful not to spit, because
in Moses, in one of the laws, it speaks about not letting fluid
just out of your mouth. So he became, I don't remember
what it was that got him in that conviction, but he became a student
of the law. And that's usually what happens.
We usually start at the beginning of the book, and we read through
Genesis, and then Exodus, and you come to the law of Moses
at Sinai. And so you begin to practice
these things. But all it is is Phariseeism.
You know, we become very intent, we listen very closely to what's
being said, and we start to practice very carefully what's being said
and implement these things, thinking that they do something good for
us. Isaiah says of this sword, of
us by nature, he says, but the word of the Lord was unto them
precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line,
line upon line. here a little and there a little,
that they might go and fall backward and be broken and snared, and
take him. And that's what natural man does
in his natural religion. He thinks, well, I'll just work
a little bit at it here this day, and I work a little bit
over here. And little by little, I improve myself, and I make
myself a nice little ladder to climb up to godliness, to climb
up to a form of godliness that we ourselves have made. But all
it is is dead letter religion. In fact, I remember as a teenager
when I began to seek the Lord, again, as a teenager, having
not the spirit of God, just dead in my trespasses and sins, I
looked at passages like that and thought it was telling me
what to do. Oh, just precept upon precept, line upon line,
I just incrementally get better and better. When I saw where
Paul said, touch not, taste not, handle not, I thought he was
telling me touch not, taste not, handle not. And I thought it
was telling me how to be godly, and I didn't see that he was
actually condemning that type of pharisaical attitude. I didn't even see it, because
I was incomplete darkness, and dead to the things of God. And
that's just what it is. There's no spiritual life in
us naturally. So we might come under conviction.
We might see somebody that we care about die, or suffer, or
have a near-death experience, or for whatever reason, we get
real religious. And naturally, we go to that
Phariseeism. So beware of that when you get
that religious spirit in you. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2
verse 12, he says, now we have received, not the spirit of the
world, because the spirit of the world is what I just described
of a Pharisee where they work for their salvation. But we don't
have that spirit, but the spirit, which is of God, that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God. And see, that's just it. When
the Lord saves his people, he freely gives them salvation,
not because they've worked for it, not because they've earned
it. None of us merit salvation. None of us are good enough that
God looks upon us and says, you know what? This person's pretty
good. I think I'll show them mercy. It doesn't work that way.
In spite of us. When you look at Jacob, it says,
Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. When you look at Jacob versus
his brother Esau, Esau had more character. He seemed like a better
man and Esau was a little weasel, was a weasel of a man and a conniver
and one who would trick and deceive his brother and deceived his
dad. Yet God loved Jacob and he had
mercy on Jacob. in spite of his sin. And that's
how God is with all his people. We're all sinners. We're all
worthy of hell. We're all worthy of condemnation.
And the Lord makes his child to know, Lord, if you throw me
in hell, you're just. It's right. I don't deserve heaven.
I deserve hell. And so we take sides with God
against ourselves, knowing that he's just to do what he does.
And he brings his people to confess that. And to know, I'm the sinner. I'm the wicked one. I need your
mercy and grace, Lord. Have mercy on me. Because I can't
do good enough to please you. Because if it's not perfect,
it's not good enough. And none of us are perfect. And
I trust the Lord shows us that. You know, man looks at religion,
whether it's the Bible or something else, but he looks at it and
says, well, I just need a little help. I just need maybe God to
get me going in the right direction, and I'll take it from here. And
then Jesus just becomes, for example, in most of Christianity,
Jesus just becomes a little cheerleader off to the side, wishing you
well and hoping you do the best. And he did what he could, and
now it's up to you to finish it off. That's not the Christ
of the scriptures. We need a complete Savior that
saves us entirely 100% because we don't add anything to to our
goodness We don't add anything to what God does so That that
form of thinking that we're partnering with Jesus. He's my co-pilot. That's just death. That's just
a natural Spirit of the world talking there that that's what
what we think naturally, but Christ ministers declare that
what God has freely given to them in Christ. Which things,
Paul says, we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth,
but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for their foolishness
unto him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned." And so the scriptures are revealing
to us, all of us by nature are condemned already. We're all
in darkness, we all don't understand, we don't even perceive the things
of the Lord. And that's what we see in our
passage today. That these Pharisees, they betray
that all they are is carnal. They're not true believers. They're
not faithful worshippers of the true and living God. They're
worshipping Him by their own will, by natural, logical means,
by the wisdom of man. It's all of the flesh. But Christ
teaches that the faith that his people have, it's a faith that's
worked in their heart. It's a heart religion. It's a
heart faith that the spirit of God bears fruit in us. He does this work in us so that
it's real. It's not hollow. It's not empty.
It's not fake. Yeah, we still sin. Yeah, we're
not perfect. And we don't claim to be perfect.
But our hope and our trust is in the Lord, that he has mercy
and that he's destroyed the the condemnation that we were under
with the law because we're dead to the law and he destroys the
dominion that sin has over us and he he teaches us that he
he delivers us from the love of sin and he brings us out of
that as it pleases him and as he teaches us and and and sets
our our are standing firmly upon Christ, a hope in Him, and to
let the things of this world go. We die to self by His Spirit. So our Lord said, God is a spirit,
and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in
truth. And that's only something that
God can do for us. So let's look at this passage.
Asking whether our faith is my faith and my hope in Jesus Christ
and in him for salvation Or am I looking to something? I'm doing
or the things I'm not doing anymore in his name. What am I looking
at? What's my hope my faith is it in him? Me in my works, or
is it really in Christ? Am I looking to the day I accepted
Christ and walked an aisle and was baptized in his name? Or
am I trusting in Christ himself and trusting him for salvation?
Because it's very subtle and the natural man is doesn't discern
these things, and he thinks that, well, I say Jesus, I believe
in Jesus, but he's still looking to the things that he's done
or the things that he stopped doing for his salvation and his
hope, not in Christ himself. Our title is Deadly Religious
Practice. Deadly Religious Practice. The
first thing we see is, well, the first point is called watching
others. And by this time, Christ's fame was growing. Most of his
time, I think all his time, was spent up there and around Galilee. He hadn't even gone down into
Judea yet or to Jerusalem. And the Pharisees come up from
Jerusalem, we see in our text. And so the religious establishment
hears of Christ. And naturally, they want to see
if the things that they're hearing are accurate. I didn't say true. They don't care if it's true.
They don't believe Christ. They actually want to find some
reason not to believe Christ. They want to find some justification
for their unbelief and their hatred of Christ. So they find
fault with others. They find something that they
can say, aha. Now that's why I don't go there.
That's why I don't believe what they teach, because they do this
or that. And it's something different.
And naturally, we're all predisposed to that, right? Whoever, the
first place that you went to church, maybe they stand up for
all their hymns, or maybe they sit down for all their hymns,
or maybe they stand up for one hymn and sit down for another.
Or maybe they use a psalter only, or maybe they use choruses only
and not an old hymn book. you know, just how they do it,
how long they speak and things like that. And we have to be
careful not to be prejudiced against those things because
we ourselves can get to thinking that, well, that's not how we
do it. And I don't like the way they do it, because I'm kind
of suspicious about why they do it. And so we can get into
our own mind and our own rebellious thoughts about how things should
be. And so we're careful not to justify ourselves and condemn
others just because they say things differently. And I remember
one time, actually this would be relevant here, one time someone
said, well, we never say two Corinthians. And I just laughed
because I thought, well, you can't say that someone because
they say two Corinthians or one Corinthians or two Timothy is
wrong because brethren, they do say that. And I know brethren
that say that just because I say second or first doesn't make
it right. And it doesn't mean that they're ignorant from it.
It's because that's what they've heard their whole life, probably,
you know, and it's just the way that it is. So we don't don't
be don't be quick to judge people because they do things or say
things differently from how you do, because if you love the Lord,
There's fellowship there, there's sweetness there, right? We love
one another in Christ. So, alright, the first couple
of verses say, Mark 7, verses 1 and 2. Then came together unto
him the Pharisees and certain of the scribes which came from
Jerusalem. And when they saw, note that,
when they saw, some of his disciples he bred with the filed, that
is to say, with unwashed hands, they found fault. So there it
is. One of the primary goals of religious
people is they want to be recognized by others that they're religious.
They want to make it known that, hey, if anybody here is religious,
it's me. Right here, this guy. You know,
they want to show off by making it known, by pointing out the
faults of others, that they're religious and you, you're not
so much. Not so much. You're not too religious
or not as religious as me. And so they do it by, one easy
way is to point out the faults of others. and to make it known
that you're not doing what I do and therefore you can't be a
child of God. So they were watching and they
found what they needed. They saw some of the disciples
eat bread with defiled or unwashed hands. And the other thing is
that religious people, they like to compare themselves to other
people, to make themselves feel better about themselves. And
that's not how we do it. The Lord teaches us, and we remember
that I don't know anything except the Lord teach me. And I actually
forget things, and I need the Lord to teach me and to keep
my heart, because my heart Wanders just like any other person so
the Lord's got to do that Our Savior gave us an example of
a Pharisee praying and he says the Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself It wasn't praying to God God didn't hear him God
didn't care for what he was saying, but he prayed thus with himself
and And he was probably happy with that because others saw
him. God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. And that's just
it. The Pharisee, they're not a sinner.
They're not a sinner. Everybody else is a sinner, but
they're not a sinner. And for the children of God,
that's where the Lord Begins, you know, I've talked to people
who say, you know, I do all these things. I read my Bible in the
morning. I read my Bible at night. I say
my prayers very faithfully. I do my best to attend the services
of God, but I don't get anything out of it. I don't feel anything,
and I don't understand why I don't have any hope or confidence in
the Lord. And my question is, are you a sinner? Are you a sinner? Because when the Lord shows you
that you are a sinner, that you need His grace and mercy, then
what we do, though it's not perfect, our reading and our prayers and
our attendance, though those things aren't perfect, the thing
is that our hope then that God will have mercy upon me. We're
not looking to entrusting in the things that we're doing,
but we're looking to entrusting in the Christ, the Lord Jesus
Christ whom he has sent to save his people from their sins. So
are you a sinner? Because the Pharisee isn't a
vile sinner. They might have a few things that they're still
polishing and working on, but they're not a sinner. And the
child of God is a sinner. They confess it and they know,
I'm wicked and I am worthy of eternal condemnation from God. The Lord Jesus Christ, the reason
why the Spirit convicts us of our sin and shows us that we
are sinners, it's not because God delights in sin, but He shows
us what we are so that our delight is fixed in Christ. We understand
and then know that's why Christ came. Not to help me with salvation,
but to provide full and complete salvation for me because I can't
save myself. That's why he shows us that we're
sinners. In Colossians 127, notice as I read this, to whom Paul
ascribes glory. He gives all the glory to God.
He doesn't take any glory to himself. And he says in Colossians
127, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. And it's a mystery because all
of natural man throughout history has always looked to what he
does, whether it was sacrificing a person, or an animal, or doing
something that they did to justify themselves, or doing certain
good works, or dipping themselves in a river, or doing all these
things. They looked at what they did for their confidence, but
they never saw Christ, that their salvation was in another. And
that's the difference of true Christianity is it's not in what
we do and don't do, it's in Christ. Christ saves to the uttermost
all those that come to him saying, Lord, I'm a sinner. Help me.
Have mercy upon me. And the scriptures tell us that
all who believe in him, all who trust in him and look to him,
they receive remission of sins. They shall be forgiven. and being
forgiven, he gives them his spirit so that they continue to walk
in him. Because many say, Lord, Lord,
and then they kind of do their religious thing, and then they
go off doing what they want to do in this life. But the Lord
keeps them and bears fruit in them by his spirit, keeping them
stayed upon Christ. Paul goes on to say whom we preach
preaching Christ warning every man and teaching every man in
all wisdom Spiritual wisdom that is that we may present every
man perfect in Christ not perfect in themselves Not because we
whip them and beat them and told them what they need to do Do
a little of this do a little of that stop doing this stop
doing that that's not how we save people We point them to
Christ, because Christ saves people. He's the one who laid
down his life. He's the one who purchased them.
He's the one who gives them eternal life in himself. And so, whereunto
I also labor, Paul says, striving according to his working which
worketh in me mightily. See, and there's where the fruit
comes from. It's not the product of the flesh. The fruit is born
in us by the Spirit, the incorruptible seed of Christ in his people. And that's what Peter says in
1 Peter 1, 23 through 25. He says, being born again, just
like Christ said, you must be born again. And Peter says, now
being born again, his people are born again by a spiritual
work, not of corruptible seed. And just so we're clear, The
corruptible seed he's talking about is what's in every one
of us. We all come forth being born of corruptible seed because
My dad was a sinner. My great-granddad was a sinner.
And all the way back to Adam, we were all sinners because when
Adam sinned, he became corrupt. He died spiritually. So when
he plants his seed in the woman and the child is born, they come
forth of corruptible seeds, spiritually dead. That's why understanding
what happened in the garden is so important. We're all dead
spiritually. But he says, we're born again
of incorruptible seed. That's Christ's seed. That's
why when we speak of Christ's birth, it's important that we
emphasize that. It says, that which is conceived
in Mary's womb is of the Holy Ghost. Not of a man. If it's
of a man, we're all dead in our sins. We might as well just fold
up shop and go home and do what we want to do because we're all
still in our dead in our trespasses and sins. But because that's
the Holy Ghost, because Christ is God, he's fully man because
of Mary. But he's fully God because of
the Holy Spirit. That's why we hope and trust
Christ, that he is the perfect man. That's why he was able to
do all things perfect, because in him is no sin. He doesn't
come forth of the corruptible seed. He's of the seed of woman,
not the seed of man. All right, so being born again
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. That's speaking of Christ,
the word of God. Why? Why can't we just do it
ourselves? Because all flesh is grass, and all the glory of
man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. So the Lord gives us life, and
we don't come forth just doing dead religious works just to
make everybody happy. It's not God's not looking for
dead, empty religion. He shows us that we're sinners
in need of His grace, and He creates that hunger and that
thirst for His righteousness that only He can satisfy. And
so He keeps us looking to and coming to Christ. And the Pharisees,
they were offended because Christ's disciples weren't following their
traditions. So look back in our text in Mark
7, verses 3 through 5. Mark 7, 3. For the Pharisees and all the
Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the
tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market,
except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be
which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups and pots,
brazen vessels, and of tables. Then the Pharisees and scribes
asked Christ, why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition
of the elders? but eat bread with unwashed hands. So the problem that they had
with the disciples wasn't because they did something offensive,
something that was breaking the law, but it wasn't according
to their traditions and what they thought was right. And we
have socially acceptable things, and so when we see somebody breaking
what's socially acceptable, it's natural for us to judge them
and to think ill of them, but it's not. Sinful it wasn't necessary. It wasn't simple at all what
they were what they were doing him and yet they were condemning
them and so they take you know They they didn't they despite
they they took it as an offense because they weren't honoring
their traditions and doing things the way they do them and you
know and again as we said earlier we have to be careful of how
things are done and But there are things that we hate. For
example, we hate when they misrepresent Christ, when they speak ill of
Christ, our Savior, and they talk about him as a Savior who's
failed, that there's countless millions of people in hell for
whom Christ died, if only they believed. And so they speak of
Christ as a failure. And we know that the Christ of
the Scriptures isn't a failure. He's a successful Savior, all
for whom he came to give life to, they are given life. They
were redeemed by his blood. He purchased each and every one
of his people, and not one of them shall perish in hell. So we hate that teaching, and
we don't coddle that and say, well, you just see things a little
differently. That we address, and we want to see people come
to knowledge of the truth, but even in that we're patient because
we know that we all were in darkness ourselves. And God was patient
and merciful to us to bring us out. And that's what Paul tells
Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, 24 and 25, that the servant of the Lord
must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. If God,
peradventure, will give them repentance through the acknowledging
of the truth. So let me just even say there
that if there's something that I'm saying that you don't understand,
you're welcome to come to me. My emails on the bulletin. You can get my my phone number.
I'll gladly give it to anybody. And we can talk about these things.
And I'm not going to beat up anybody just because they don't
see or know things the way I see them or know them. But we'll
talk about them over the scriptures. We'll look at the scriptures
together, because that's what we want is to see it in the word
of the Lord. Now the Pharisees, as we said,
they like to be seen of men, and they did things just to be
seen of men. And so we shouldn't do things
to be seen of men. And I've seen it in my own heart.
I've done things just to be seen, knowing that I'd be seen, to
my own shame. And I'm just confessing that
we do things. We want to be seen of people
and seen to be religious or seen to have a walk that that aligns with our
testimony. I like, you know, some people
say, well, I want people to see Jesus in me. And Pastor Fortner
has said a few times, he said they didn't see Jesus in Jesus.
They certainly aren't going to see Jesus in you. And so so don't
do things just to be just to appear religious, but trust the
Lord. I mean, be be good and do do
what is right. You know, don't do anything to
harm somebody because that opportunity may come. And then if all you've
done is Wickedly before certain people when that opportunity
comes to speak the truth. They're gonna wonder well Why
were you like this all your life, and now you're telling me this
thing and so you know we're guilty of that and and so we see our
folly and our foolishness, but It you know the Lord sees the
heart And he sees what's done in secret. He sees the heart,
he knows the heart. And many though, it seems that
they're content, that they think that if I can just convince certain
people that I'm a Christian, that that must mean I'm a Christian.
Do you forget that God exists? God is. He exists and he sees
the heart. It doesn't matter what other
people think about us. The Lord knows them that are
his. He knows the heart. He looks upon the heart because
each and every one of us knows how to put on a show. We know
how to do certain things and avoid other things to convince
people that, yeah, everything's all right. with me, but the Lord
knows the heart. He weighs the heart. In Luke
16, 15, he said unto them, ye are they which justify yourselves
before men, but God knoweth your hearts, for that which is highly
esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. So what
others think about us, that doesn't determine our standing with God. It's Christ alone that justifies
us, and it's Christ alone that condemns us. He either justifies
us or he condemns us because we don't believe. In 1 John 1,
7, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have
fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ
his son cleanseth us from all sin. And that means that we confess
our sins. It means that when, that's why
I stand here and tell you, I'm a sinner. I'm not here because
I'm a super holy person and I've got everything together and I'm
perfect and I have no faults and no sin, no. I am a sinner
and I need his grace and his mercy and he's been gracious
and merciful to me. And that's what he does. He brings
us to confess. He gives us life by spirit, even
when we don't know. Just like the wind blows, you
don't see the wind, but you see the effects of the wind. And
the spirit comes upon us. He gives us life. Gives us an
interest in these things. Causes us to hear what's being
said. Gives us that confession. Allows us to see that I'm the
sinner. I'm the wicked one. I'm condemned.
I deserve hell. He brings us to see that. And
then he brings us into the light where we confess. We don't hide
it. We're not trying to put on religious
airs as though we're not guilty sinners. We confess our sin to
God. And that's to have fellowship
with him because it's the light. It's being brought into the light
by the spirit to see I'm the sinner. I can't hide it. It's
like you go under a bright light. You know, if you're looking at
some mark on yourself, you usually go under a bright light to see
it, like the daylight or something like that, where you can get
a good look at it. Well, that's what it is to stand before God.
He is the brightest light, and every flaw and imperfection is
made known but it's made known to us now for our good not to
condemn us not to not to abuse us and to make us feel terrible
about ourselves we'll know and confess I am a sinner and we
will be ashamed and we'll be brought low but it's for our
good that we confess it in fellowship saying Lord you know you know
I'm a sinner I need your grace and your mercy so he brings us
to see that and in fellowship he shows us Christ that it's
the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, which cleanseth us from
all sin, so that we understand, we're brought to hear through
the gospel that I'm saved not by my works, but by the blood
of Christ. He shed his blood, bearing the
sins of his people in his own body to put them away. He said
in Hebrews, it's recorded from the Old Testament, a body has
thou prepared me. For this purpose, he came into
the world having the likeness of our sinful flesh, having a
body whereby the sins of the people were laid on Him, and
He Himself is righteous and perfect and holy in all His ways. He
is the perfect sacrifice, the suitable sacrifice to stand in
our place and to pay that sin debt, to pay off all that we
owe, that we could not work off because We're not holy and righteous.
We can't do it Anything to improve our standing before God So Christ
did it all and that's what we believe and that's what we teach
that the blood of Jesus Christ his son Cleanseth us from all
sin All right. I'm gonna stop there but the
thing that were to hear is that we are sinners in need of his
mercy and grace and he's provided that abundantly freely fully
in his son Jesus Christ and Has he given you life to hear it?
Do you see that you're a sinner? Do you see your need of Christ? And that he is this the sufficient
Savior able to save to the uttermost all that come to him Confessing
their sins and looking to him alone for salvation. I pray the
Lord would prick the hearts of his people And cause them to
see their sin and that Christ is the Savior. Let's pray our
gracious Lord. We thank you father for The salvation
which you provided in your son Lord, help us to see that we
are completely ruined in the fall, that we all fell an atom
back in the garden, and that there's nothing we can do to
save ourselves. Deliver us, Lord, from that pharisaical
spirit. Help us to see just how deadly
man-made religion is. And show us, Lord, give us life
in your spirit. to walk in Christ, to trust Him,
to see that His blood is sufficient to save us. And give us life
in your spirit to continue to walk in Him. We pray this in
Jesus' name, our Lord and Savior. Amen.