If you would Please turn to Matthew
chapter 15 Matthew chapter 15 I'm just gonna
read two verses But I got to talk about half a chapter Basically Matthew chapter 15
I want to read verses 10 and 11 and This is the words of Jesus Christ. This is where it says, and he
called the multitude, this is Jesus Christ, and he called the
multitude and said unto them, hear and understand. Not that which goeth into the
mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth,
this defileth a man. That's all I'm gonna read right
now, but we'll talk about some more stuff. I wanna put this
out just for general consumption and just for the TV too. Man is always worried about the
wrong thing. How can I say such a thing? Hey,
don't take my word for it, it's scripture. It's a truth of scripture. Isaiah 16 and seven states that
a man looks on the outward appearance. God looks upon the heart. God
looks upon the heart. Now, as always has been and always
will be, God is right and man is wrong. This is our Lord Jesus
Christ correcting some Pharisees and scribes. That's a audacious thing for
somebody to do. Not for the Lord of glory, it's
not. As a matter of fact, is necessary. I don't know, I thought about
this. I don't know if people are concerned
about this anymore. Mainly because I'm not around
them. They could very well be. I do know this was more of a
big thing when I was about 30 years ago around some other people. People have a tendency to be
worried about what they put in their mouth. But actually, in
truth, they were more worried about what you put in your mouth.
Then they were worried about what they put in their mouth
because they weren't talking. They were talking about you. Now,
I don't know if this is still a thing. I suspect that it is,
and I'm just not around it, not listening to it, not talking
to these people anymore, which is okay. But this is still the
truth of scripture right here, what Jesus Christ our Lord said.
Mostly what I hear nowadays is people are concerned about their
diet for their health's sake, gluten-free bread. That's right,
low-carb diets. High protein diets. They're worried about their health,
but they're not worried about their spirituality. I remember growing up, Catholic
of course, no meat Fridays, which was good and bad, okay? Good
meant no meat Fridays meant for lunch, I got peanut butter and
jelly. That's when I'm a kid now, I like peanut butter and
jelly. The bad part was for dinner we got fish sticks. I don't like
fish sticks, okay? And to be perfectly honest about
it, even when I was a little fella, I didn't know why fish
weren't considered meat. But by the Catholic Church, they
weren't considered meat, so you could have fish. There's a joke
in that from Harrison Keeler, but I'm not gonna get into that. People are always worried about
the wrong thing. That's how this chapter starts
out Then came Jesus scribes and Pharisees which were of Jerusalem
saying Why did I disciples? Transgress the tradition of the
elders they wash not their hands when they eat bread They're worried
about what's going in the mouth and Christ answered him, why do you
transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? You're
worried about the wrong thing. Man's always worried about the
wrong thing. And I'm gonna tell you this, even more so, the religious
are always worried about the wrong thing. I didn't say believers,
I said the religious. But our Lord wouldn't take it
from them. because our Lord spoke the truth
with every word that came out of his mouth. And they named it themselves.
Why did the disciples transgress? The tradition. That's all it
is. It's a tradition. Now, I am not
against washing your hands before you eat. I don't want anybody
to say that, okay? But I'm gonna tell you this.
If not washing your hands before you eat was going to kill you,
I'd have been dead before I was 11. And that's God's honest truth. Because we would eat out in the
garden when the peas came up. Every now and then, we'd dig
off a potato, and we sort of washed it off. But no, this is what these men
were worried about. and complaining to the Lord of
glory, who they wouldn't listen to, about what his disciples
put in their mouth. And Christ told him, you're worried
about the wrong thing. You're worried about the wrong
thing. And I love this statement, and
he called the multitude. He talks to them more. And he
ends up, well he says, these people draw nigh unto me with
their mouth and honor me with their lips. quoting Isaiah to
them. But their heart, their heart,
their heart is far from me. Their heart is far from me. Oh,
they talk a good game. And they'll talk a good game
about what you should do and what you shouldn't do. And Christ
says, you're worried about the wrong things. You're missing
the point. And he called the multitude.
Now, let's be clear. As far as we can tell, them scribes
and Pharisees didn't go anywhere. He just got a bigger crowd. He
called everybody together. There is a message for the multitude.
And it comes from the lips of Christ. What do you mean? Well, I mean,
we do not have a private ministry. We preach publicly. Anyone is
allowed to come in here. Now you're not allowed to disrupt
a public worship service, so don't think about that. But you're
allowed to come, and we won't say, we'll be happy to see you.
And listen to the preaching of the gospel, of his words. It's a public ministry. Our Lord
did things in public. And he called this multitude,
and he said, Three words, hear and understand. Now I'm gonna be clear here,
this was not a request. You can look at it in the Greek,
you know the tenses and all that stuff. I like the online stuff,
I can do this now. And this is a verb and what it's
called is an imperative. You know what that means? It's
imperial. What, from the king. That's who
this is, this is the king of kings and lord of lords. This
is the God of the Bible, God manifest in the flesh and he's
giving an order here, hear and understand. Now where it falls
apart, it's on us. Because we don't hear and we
don't understand. But it's still an order. This
is as much an imperative as when Christ said in Mark, I think
it was Mark 1 and 15, he commanded, he said, repent ye and believe
the gospel. That wasn't a request either.
Guess what? That wasn't an invitation. That
was a command. And if you don't obey it, it's
your fault. And he says here, hear and understand. And what's he mean? He wants
you to hear, and he wants you to understand. We're commanded
to do both. There's lots of people who hear,
but they don't even try to understand. Come on, I mean, you've seen
them, I've talked to them. And you can say, oh yeah, Bible
says that, Bible says that, yes, but I don't believe what you
said. I just said the same thing the Bible said. You understand? People will believe the Bible,
oh totally and completely, I believe everything in the Bible, until
you read it to them. And you read it right out of
their Bible. Then, well I don't believe that,
but I believe the Bible 100%. No doubts, no whatever. They'll
either deny it or they'll want to argue about it. That's what kind of creatures
we are. Then Christ said these words,
not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that
which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. That's my title, what defiles
a man. What defiles a man. I mean, just to begin with, this
is an astounding statement from Jesus Christ to a multitude of
Jews. And I firmly believe those Pharisees
and scribes were still there. They were still there. And what
does he say? It doesn't matter what you put
in your mouth, because not that which goeth into the mouth defiles
a man. You guys are worried about the
wrong thing. Second, I do wanna clear up what
the word defile means. Because literally, this translates
to that Greek word koinos, like the koine Greek, common. That's
the literal translation of the word. You'll be common. But to the Jews, figuratively,
specifically to the Jews, it meant unclean. Because you had
clean animals and you had defiled animals, common animals. It's
the same exact term that Luke wrote in Acts chapter 10 about
Peter when he said, drop down that cloth. He said, no, not
so, Lord. He said, rise, Peter, slay and
eat. And there was all unclean beasts on there. And he says,
no Lord, nothing common or unclean is past my lips. That word common
there is this same word here, defile. That's what he's talking
about. If you eat without washing your
hands, they thought you would make yourself unclean. That's
wrong. That's what Jesus Christ told
him flat out. That's wrong. But he went even further. I mean,
he went even further. Because he starts with a negative
in this statement. See, it's not just me, he starts
with a negative. Not that which goes into the mouth. He'd already
told them they were wrong about washing your hands before you
eat. That doesn't count, you know? And actually, if you would,
look over at Mark chapter seven because he says it even stronger
here as far as what Mark wrote it down. In Mark chapter seven
and verse 15, and this is the actual words that struck me on
this some while ago, because he said in verse 14, he says,
when he had called all the people unto him and he said, hearken
unto me, every one of you, and understand, there is nothing
from without a man that entering into him can defile him. You understand? Nothing. That's tough. That's tough, oh
my. To a bunch of Jews. Come on, we all know about the
Jews' dietary laws. One, you can't eat dirt. That's
the actual context here. You can't eat without washing
your hands. For some reason, you can't eat dirt, you'll defile
yourself. That's what they were saying.
But here's the thing, they weren't supposed to eat pork, they weren't
supposed to eat any unclean animal. During the Passover, they weren't
supposed to have any leaven in their house. Much less eat any. And what does this man, as far
as they can see, a carpenter from Nazareth, shows up and he
says, there's nothing from without that goes into a man that defiles
him. And you know what, that's what
he meant. Now you can fight about it, you can argue about it, all
you want to. Jesus Christ told these Jews,
don't add to the scripture, that's your tradition. That's not a
commandment. Well this words he just spoke
right here, this is scripture also. There's nothing from without
that you take in that's gonna defile you. Don't worry about
that. Now he's gonna give them something
to worry about here in a minute. But you don't have to worry about
this. What about pork? You know those
Jews thought this when he said this. They had to. I mean, because
they were surrounded by people who raised pigs. They know what
pigs were for. And pigs are good eating, I'm
gonna tell you. I like pork chops. I like pork ribs. I have a grill
at my house and I will put charcoal on it, a little bit of wood and
I'll smoke them things and cook them and I'll eat them. And those
pork chops don't defile me. Who says so? Jesus Christ said
so. There's nothing that I eat in. Nothing, absolutely nothing. He let down that sheet in front
of Peter in that dream. They were, whatever was on there.
It's an all manner of unclean beasts and fowls and whatever
was on there. Might have been deer meat. Because
I don't think deer's clean. Doesn't matter. That's not what
defiles a man. That's the point. I'm not saying
go overboard and well, you know, I can't talk too much about gluttony
or anything. But you know, understand, too
much of anything's bad for you. Too much food, too much drink,
too much water can be bad for you. But here it is, that doesn't
defile you. Don't worry about that. Don't
be concerned. I heard a preacher say one time
on the radio, sausage killed my grandmother. Eating pork sausage
killed his grandmother. No, God did. God kills, God makes a life.
and everything in between. Not a sparrow falls without him. It's not without him knowing
it, no, and not a sparrow dies without him. I'm reminded of that old story
of English thing, I've used this here before, where that old fella
starts, because I'm gonna get into this in a minute, he says,
cider drinking killed me, Grandpa. He said, of course it took 84
years to do it, though. That's the way people are. They
worry about what goes in, and they're not worried about what
comes out. They're worried about the wrong thing, and that's regular
people, and that's religious people especially. There are no qualifiers here
by our Lord Jesus Christ. There's no exceptions. There's nothing that goes in
you from without except pork, or except alcohol. You don't
say that. What about it? What about beer?
Nothing. Nothing going in defiles you.
What about whiskey? We're just getting mean now.
What about whiskey? Nothing. Nothing. What about
wine? I was waiting for this. Christ
drank wine. At least on the Passover. This is all they had. And then
he gave it to his disciples at the Last Supper. Anyway, no,
nothing. What's this fixation with alcohol?
Don't you people ever think of anything else? Here's a question. Don't you people ever think of
where sins come from? Alcohol is not a sin. Alcohol
is a drink. It's not a sin. And it doesn't
defile you any more than pork or beef or chicken Or fish, if
you like fish. Because there is nothing eaten
or drinking, is that right, drank, that defiles a man. Absolutely
nothing. Per the word of our Lord Jesus
Christ. You don't have to take my word
for it, that's what he said. There is nothing from without
that goes within that defiles a man. Now that's a fact, you
can argue it all you want, you can debate it all by yourself,
because I'm not gonna help. I'm not gonna do it. I got his
word, I don't need you. I'm not trying to be mean, but
that's just the way it is. And I don't have to interpret
it, because he's fixing to. And it doesn't need interpretation.
I can read, there is nothing from without that goes within
a man that defiles a man. And I will say this, I said it
already, excess is bad. Drunkenness is a sin. It can be bad for your health.
They're after me to cut down on salt and fats and sugars and
everything else that I like to eat. That's what they're after,
my doctors are after me. And actually, it can be bad for
your state of mind. I will say this, getting drunk
may have more to do with what's in you than what goes in you. I want to think about it. Now I understand addiction, and
I'm not talking about that. Some people are more susceptible
to things than others, and they can become addicted to it. I
understand. Don't make it not a sin, but
I understand it. But there are people, sometimes
the reason they get drunk is in their heads. You know? It's not, the alcohol made me
do it. No, your mind made you drink the alcohol, if you wanna
get down to it. I'll get into that in a little
bit. But I agree with Christ, Jesus, all the time, as much
as I can understand him. There's nothing from without,
which is taken in, that defiles a man. Period. Just put the period
right there and stop. What about this, what about that?
Christ said nothing. He meant nothing. What's this all mean? Well he's
telling this multitude the Pharisees are wrong. From the beginning. Because this is what they thought. And what am I saying? I'm saying
the Pharisees were wrong, because Christ said they were. But I'm
also saying that the religious today are wrong, if they teach
this. You understand? I don't know
if they still do it or not, because I always thought this was one
of the silliest things. Now I'm making fun of somebody's
religion, but I won't name the Mormons when I do this. There
are some people who are against brown cola. You can drink Fanta,
but you can't drink Coca-Cola. I think it's caffeine, I don't
know. But I wonder if they drink black tea, because that's caffeine
in it. Don't matter. Nothing. Brown cola, clear cola, orange
cola, grape cola, it doesn't really matter. That's what our
Lord said, and this, Paul tells us in Timothy that
there are those who are forbidding to marry and forbidding to eat
meat. And what, they're causing divisions. This is not what to worry about,
what goes in. Paul states it clearly in Romans
chapter 14. This came from that Of course,
that thing that Moose did. Let's just read it flat out. Romans 14 and verse 17. For the
kingdom of God is not. Okay, it's not. It's not. Whatever you think, it is. This
is what it's not. Meat and drink. I wonder where Paul would get
something like that. Might have got it from Christ. There's nothing
that goes in that defiles a man. The kingdom of God for the kingdom
of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost. That's pretty stout, a statement. It's not meat or drink. It's
not, it's not. How can he say that? Well, if
you go to 1 Corinthians chapter eight. In verse eight. Well, let me
read verse seven. Because this is Paul talking
about things offered unto idols. Meat offered to false gods. That's what he's talking about. Verse four, he says, as concerning
therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice
unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and
that there is none other God but one. There is no such thing
as another God. So if you wanna offer a slab
of pork ribs to this idol over here, you go right ahead. I can
eat it, and guess what? It won't defile me. I know that. Now, Paul does go on to say,
don't offend your brother. If this offends your brother,
don't do it. Don't do it. Matter of fact, I suppose if
you got it from somebody who worships that idol and you know
what it is, I'd say don't do it. Because you don't want to
put your stamp of approval on their blasphemy. But here's the
thing, you could eat those pork chops and they'd be just good
pork chops. They would not defile you. Because look here at verse
eight. But meat commendeth us not to
God. Now, abstaining from certain
things, not eating certain things, may commend you to man. It may
commend you to whole denominations. That's right. But it doesn't
commend you to God. Meat commandeth us not to God
for neither. And I love this part. If we eat,
are we the better? Neither, if we eat not, are we
the worse? Guess what? Whether you eat it
or you don't eat it, it ain't making you any better and it
ain't making you any worse because guess what? You are what you
are. Don't offend your brother. We
know an idol is nothing, but it may bother some. And if it
bothers your brother, don't do it. Because it doesn't matter
whether you eat it or you don't eat it, it's not gonna change
you. And it's good for your brother that you don't offend him. Because
there are those that are weaker in the faith. And don't rub her
nose in it. Be gentle, meek unto those who
are weak. Now withstand to the face those
that be blamed like Paul did Peter because he was leaving
away others. That's a whole nother thing.
He went and ate with the Jews and quit eating pork chops with
the Gentiles. But then that's the negative
part. Nothing that goes in defiles a man. So what does defile a
man? That which comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man. What's Christ saying? He's saying
that which comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man. The uncleanness
of a man comes from within the man. The uncleanness of a man comes
from within the man. You don't got to put it in. It's
already there. It's already there. Here's the
point. It's already there. And uncleanness
comes out of a man. So what's the interpretation
of this verse? Don't need one. Look at Matthew chapter 15 and
what I got here, verse 15. Well, then answered Peter and
said unto him, declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said, are ye yet without
understanding? You know, Jesus said this a lot.
You know why? Because there's a lot we don't
understand until he explains it to us. Do you not understand
that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly
and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed
out of the mouth come forth, what? From the heart. And they
defile the man. There's your answer. What defiles
a man? That which comes out of him.
That's something the religious don't want to deal with. You
understand why? They're dealing with the wrong
things because they don't like this thing. They'll, oh, what was it? You'll
strain in a gnat and swallow the camel. That's what they'll
do. They'll worry about what you
eat and don't worry about what's coming out of their own mouth. Ah, you know what? Religion hasn't
changed in 2,000 years. Because these are scribes and
Pharisees, but I'm dealing with Baptists and Methodists. Guess
what? It's the same thing. It's the
same thing. I suppose if I lived in Utah,
I'd have to deal with the Mormons. But I guess that's why I'm not
in Utah. I'm here. Here we get to deal with Presbyterians
and Unitarians. All I got is the word of God.
It's the scriptures right here, and this is what our Lord Jesus
Christ said. It's not what I said, although
I'll repeat it. Proclaim it to the best of my ability. That
which defiles a man comes out of that very same man. You understand? It's not what comes out of a
man defiles another man. No. So what comes out of me defiles
me. What comes out of you defiles
you. Understand? What's that mean?
We're all defiled. Why? For all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. And he's gonna explain, see,
he's gonna explain why. I give you the short version,
it's in you, and it's got to come out. It's in you, and it's
going to come out. But here, Christ said, whatever
you put in, just comes out. After the body takes what it
wants, nutrients, whatever, the rest is dross. Now I know this
isn't the most flowery illustration, but this is the one our Lord
Jesus Christ used. I got to work with what the scripture says.
And here's the other point, it's true. What you eat, what you
drink comes out. Your body takes what it needs,
or what it wants, or what it thinks it needs, and it passes
the rest away. That's not defiling. No matter
what it is. You know? Verse 18, but those things which
proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they
defile a man. What comes out of a man's heart
defiles a man. What does the scripture say about
the heart? The heart's deceitful above all things. And desperately
wicked. Desperately wicked. Who can know
it? Who can know it? Well it's not
you, it's not you, and it's not me. is him. He's the one that
really knows our hearts. He's the one that's telling us
this. They're all looking for everything else. What goes in,
what you eat, what you don't eat, where you go, how you go,
how far you go on Saturday. Brown Cola or Sprite. They're not looking for what's
coming out. They're not looking at the source of the problem.
They're looking at something else they can blame. Because
we'll blame anything and everything instead of ourselves. That's
the way we are. These things proceed. Matthew
12 and 34, oh generation of vipers. How can you? How can you? These are the words of Christ.
How can you? You bunch of snakes, being evil,
speak good things. For out of the abundance of the
heart, the mouth speaks. Where are we? Where are we? You understand? Out of the abundance
of your heart, the mouth speaks. And he called them a bunch of
snakes. You understand, the heart is
just a hydraulic pump. We know the seed of the thoughts
is the brain. Back in these days, these people
thought it was the heart. They thought your compassion
was in the bowels of compassion. But we know it's in here. Because here it is, the first
thing that's listed, for out of the heart proceed, whoa, evil
thoughts. Evil thoughts. And why didn't
he start with murders? Why didn't he start with adultery?
Why didn't he start with fornication? There's listen. Why didn't he
start with thefts, false witness, blasphemy? And every one of these
things, let me tell you this right now, I look, every one
of these things is in the plural. It ain't just one. Okay? It's not just one evil thought
either. But this is where, Everything starts. It's right up here. You understand? There ain't no
evil actions till there's been an evil thought. Out of the heart, what proceeds?
Out of the mind, proceeds what? Evil thoughts. Jesus Christ,
right here, reveals the source of the problem. It's us. It's
in us. Men will talk about the symptoms
all day, but they won't talk about the problem. They'll talk
about the outward appearance of the problem, but they won't
speak of where it comes from. Man may talk about sins, but
he doesn't talk about the source of his own sin. Or sins. Like I said, it's in you, and
it's gonna come out. And here's the thing, all of
these things he listed here are sins. He talks about defiling
man, being unclean. But this is the thing, all of
these things listed here are sins. And the number one sin,
the first thing he lists is evil thoughts. Why? Because there ain't no murder
without an evil thought before it. There ain't no adultery without
an evil thought before it. Fornication, theft, false witness,
blasphemy, and any other sin you want to name. I understand
what people say when they mean I acted without thinking. What
they mean by that is I acted without thinking about the consequences.
You understand there are involuntary systems in your body. The heart
keeps beating whether I tell it to or not. But you understand
my body doesn't commit adultery or my body doesn't commit a murder
without it being in my head. And don't ever let anybody tell
you any different. Now some people are crazy, some
people are crazy. I'm not getting into that. It's
still a sin whether you're crazy or not. And guess what? It started with an evil thought.
And it's still an evil thought, whether you're crazy or sane.
And I'm not so sure sometimes I can tell the difference. Not
anymore. Not after what I see on television
nowadays. You know, they understand what they say, the majority's
always sane. So where's that put us? Come
on. You can say, I've never done
these. And you might be right. You might
be right. If you are, you're a better man
than I, or a better woman than I. But here's the thing, you
ain't gonna tell me you never thought of anything. Or you can
tell me that, but you ain't gonna tell God that. And that's the
number one thing. You can lie to me. And you understand,
every one of these things, like I said, this is in the plural,
it's murders. adulteries, fornications, thefts,
false witness. Well wait a minute, that's singular.
No, it's plural, I looked. I did, I looked. Blasphemies. You understand, I love this,
I gotta think about this. You understand, you've got false
witnesses and then you got blasphemies, okay. False witness, you know
exactly what you're doing because you're lying about somebody.
That's what they did against our Lord. Okay, you know exactly
what you're doing. But I'm gonna tell you this,
blasphemies could be of ignorance. And guess what? It's still a
sin. And guess what? It comes from
evil thoughts out of your head. And blasphemy is what you say.
False witness is what you say. Murders, thefts, covetousness,
well, murders, thefts, fornications, and adultery, that's things you
do. And they all start with what you think. And that's the source
of our problem, is our very own self, the innermost being. That's
what it talks about, out of the heart, out of what is in your
head. And here's the thing about that
heart, you better hope that Jesus Christ gives you a new one, because
the old one's not ever getting any better. This is as true as
believers, as it is of unbelievers. Now it's not true about the new
heart. It's not true about his spirit, but it is true about
my flesh. Even believe in God. In my flesh
right now dwells no good thing. But in me dwells his spirit if
he's put it there. Because he talks in another place
about a good and honest man out of the good treasure of his heart,
good things will come. Where'd that come from? Well,
if you've got a good heart, it's because he gave it to you. But
you still got this heart. There are those, an evil man
brings evil treasure out of his house. Out of his evil heart. What, an evil heart? Of unbelief. Only those who believe have a
good heart. Can know they have a good heart.
Jesus Christ is telling us that we sin because we are sinners. And that's the thing these Jews
missed. They're worried about what was
going in instead of what was coming out. And they were worried
about the wrong thing. This is what defiles a man. This
is the message to the multitude. That's what he told them. but
only the elect will believe it and understand it. Even though
the rest have been ordered to hear and understand, commanded
to hear and understand. The only way you can understand
is if he gives you an understanding. The only way you will truly hear
it and believe it is if he gives you ears to hear. Oh, what did
Stephen say? You uncircumcised in heart and
ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost. Just like your dads did
back in the old days. Happy Father's Day. Just like
your fathers did. And if you don't resist the Holy
Ghost, it's because he circumcised your heart and your ears. That's
the only thing. Because here's the answer for
being defiled. And we are defiled. And this,
what comes out, is just showing our defilement. We're advertising,
so to speak. But the answer for being defiled,
for being corrupt, for being totally depraved, if you wanna
use that word, well, the answer is not in my works and it's not
in your works, it's in a person, Jesus Christ. Walter preached
it, you preached it last week. God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself. Reconciling his people unto himself. And that's our ministry. Reconciliation
has been made. Eternal redemption has been obtained. Yes, we are sinners with a capital
S. but Jesus Christ came to save
sinners with a capital S. But if you don't know your problem,
you're not gonna want the answer. Ain't that the truth? That's
the truth. That's what psychologists told
me. Once you know you've got a problem,
you're halfway there. That's true. That's true. The
problem is, we are so defiled, we don't know we got a problem.
We're looking at everybody else's problem. Oh yeah, pork chops.
Oh yeah, whiskey, beer, brown cola. I don't know what that
does for you, I really don't, but it's okay. They're looking at the wrong
thing. And they're talking about the wrong thing. And they're
not telling you that man, without Jesus Christ, is lost. So lost, he can't be found except
for by the good shepherd of the sheep. Because he is the Savior. Who is he? He's the one who is
Christ and Lord. Because if he ain't Christ and
Lord, he ain't your Savior. He can't save you. We need his wisdom because we
are unwise. We need his righteousness because
we have none. Not any good righteousness. We need his sanctification because
we cannot set ourselves apart. It's not possible. We must be
redeemed and reconciled unto God because we do not deserve
eternal life. Jesus Christ is all and he is
all we need. Because he has saved and he is
saving his people. Who is that? Defiled sinners. We are sinners who sin, but thank
God We have a savior who saves sinners. Our heavenly father, we're thankful
again for a chance to hear your word, to read your
word, to be blessed by your word. Bless us again. Be with Walter as he comes to
preach your message, your son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and help
us to understand more. In his name, we pray. Amen.