I invite you to turn in the Scriptures this morning to the Gospel of Mark. The Gospel of Mark, as we are continuing our study in the Gospel of Mark. And we will read together and consider the first 23 verses of Mark. I wanted, oftentimes this is broke up as there are a few different sections here, but I really think it's important to see the whole picture and how Jesus corrects the problem that is here. in Mark 7. So Mark chapter 7, beginning at verse 1, this is the word of the Lord. Now when the Pharisees gathered to him with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders and when they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash and there are many other traditions that they observe such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches and the pharisees and the scribes asked him why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands and he said to them well did isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites as it is written this people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me in vain do they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men you leave the commandment of god and hold to the tradition of men and he said to them you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of god in order to establish your tradition for moses said honor your father and your mother and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die but you say if a man tells his father or his mother whatever you would have gained for me as corbin that is given to god then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother thus making void the word of god by your tradition that you have handed down and many such things you do. And he called the people to him again and said to them, Hear me, all of you, and understand. There's nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him. And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him? Since it enters not his heart, but his stomach, and is expelled, thus he declared all foods clean. And he said, what comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual morality, theft, murder, Adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. Well, in the last section, Jesus had come to his disciples, you'll remember, walking on water. It was a glorious section of Scripture. And we know that when this happened from Matthew's record of it, this was a big moment in the Gospels, for it says that when they saw this and they saw the wind cease, they declared openly, truly, you are the Son of God. And it says for the first time in the Gospels that they worshipped Him. They worshipped Him. It had been a lot of long-suffering, taken a lot of long-suffering and patience on the part of our Lord to bring them to this place. And I asked that last sermon, what is us that keeps us from truly coming to the Lord and worshiping Him the way that we should as we've been trained about this, as we've learned now this long work of the Lord in the hearts and lives of the disciples to truly see Jesus? What keeps us from that? What holds us back from that? What are the things that hold us back this morning even though we've come, even though we're here, even though we're in the house of the Lord? What could it be that would hold us back from truly worshiping Him today? It would be interesting to get the answer to that question if I surveyed this morning. And I wrestled to apply this. I thought we could be here and not respond to Him in faith. What would keep us from doing that? And then I opened up Mark 7 this week, and I thought, well, voila, here it is. Here's the answer to that question. There was something that was introduced to us back in chapter 2, if you remember in our study, that Jesus was criticized constantly, and there was a big moment in chapter 2 when Jesus was criticized for eating with the tax collectors and the sinners. Remember that? And Jesus said, I didn't come to call the righteous to repentance but i came for sinners i came for the messed up i came for those who have the problem but then we went on to study and we saw that jesus continued then to break the traditions of the pharisees and the scribes and certain things that he was doing and it was showing us and introducing us to a problem that was somewhat put on hold in mark's gospel explaining to us the ultimate reason that people, religious people, are blinded to truly worshiping the Lord. This is the crux of the matter this morning. This is the heart of Christianity this morning as we come together to worship and think about this. We come to, in our study of Mark's gospel, one of the most dangerous and things well-meaning, church-going, religious people can fall into and it's way more real way more prevalent way more common than we give enough attention to what is the issue well i thought about capturing this in a single sort of way this morning and i couldn't help but get away from the way that jesus used the old testament here to make his point you'll notice that in verse six as he quotes the prophet isaiah and notice the particular verse out of that big book of isaiah that he chose to quote this people honors me with their lips but their hearts are far from me and what does he go on to say teaching as doctrines in vain do they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men what a verse to bring out to the jewish community what was the issue well it was worship it was worship wasn't it the great purpose for which we were created when we think about why do we exist why are we here the great privilege that we have to come into worship and then fulfill the very design for which god made us why what do we do to glorify we glorify god and enjoy him forever we say the westminster confession says what is the chief end of man but something terrible had happened along the way and jesus says plainly right here it gives us indication of what he's after here as he quotes isaiah and he says what he's after in worship is what the heart the heart very important this morning something had happened something had gone wrong so that the entire religion of the jews had become a shield to the true and proper worship of god from the heart which he was always after and i plan to show you that from tonight's message too i want us to think about uh what is the question here for church going people the great question of how are we to draw near to the lord how are we to come before his presence how do we know it's worship that god expects how do we know that what we're doing is something that God receives and that is what Jesus tackles here it has everything to do with the reason he came and that's why this is such a blistering and such a big fight between Jesus and the religious leaders of the day in breaking this down we have three things that happen here Mark shows us if I were to break this down really in the first section the problem for the pharisees and their worship what really burdened and concerned the pharisees and the scribes for worship then you have jesus's sweeping indictment uh of their worship and what the problem is and then he leaves us with our great need for true worship to happen he expresses that need so notice that there in here the problem for the pharisees jesus indictment of their view and then jesus's explanation of our greatest need as we open up chapter 7 this is what we come to in chapter 7 verse 1 now when the pharisees gathered to him with some of the scribes who had come from jerusalem they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled that is unwashed it's really remarkable the scribes who were great interpreters of the law had come all the way up from jerusalem had hooked up with the pharisees and in this all these miles traveled they remember they're walking 80 miles their travel to find jesus and to deal with what has certainly for them become a growing problem and something that they now need to deal with what is clear here is that jesus's fame has spread everywhere we've been studying that in mark it's been a powerful thing to look at but something has set off the spiritual leader something has ignited anger and frustration and the issue really comes down to jesus seems to have little regard for their observances and i mean none when i say little the core of the problem is highlighted in verse 3 as mark gives further commentary on the problem with jesus that he broke ready the tradition of the elders i counted five times tradition is used here the holy spirit has something to say about tradition tradition of elders tradition of men we'll look at these as we come through so here they come from jerusalem and they're observing jesus and the first thing they notice as jesus is eating and as his own disciples are eating is that he's not instructing them properly in their regulations they are not washing their hands before they eat you'll notice the indictment that comes out in verse 5. And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands? Unwashed hands. You stand back from this and you think how ridiculous, right? Well, maybe not. I mean, we have all sorts of antibacterial stuff everywhere, right? Is that what he's after? Is that what they're after? What kind of emotion comes over you when you read this? Think of all the concern that Jesus has been demonstrating over sheep. Think of all the people with problems that have come to him. Think of the serious burdens that people have been carrying. Thinking in the previous chapter that he looked at them scattered on the hills. He looked at them as sheep without a shepherd. and here we are all those concerned now jesus seems to have no and total disregard for their tradition in fact everywhere he went he seems to be breaking it you'll remember that back in in chapter two when when they come to him and they hit him hard over not fasting on the appointed jewish fast that came right on the heels of him sitting with the tax collectors and sinners eating and drinking. And it wasn't grape juice. On their fast, he's holding the wine glass with them. How dare he do that? And we have to appreciate this just for a moment of exactly what had happened in Israel. We misunderstand the scribes and the Pharisees. They had a good passion and zeal for what was right they understood and viewed themselves as gatekeepers for israel and protecting israel from air they understood in the past that god had severely chastised israel remember this god had severely chastised israel for breaking his law and if you want the long history the short of it you remember what happened to um to the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom both had been carried away for a disregard of god's law both of them had been judged and the sad judgment of the northern and the southern kingdoms is the story of the old testament is what we study in the nation of israel being rooted out of the land because of their disregard for the law of god so that when the captives were brought back from babylon you remember in nehemiah's days that ezra gets up and the first thing that he does is pull out the law of god he gathers everyone around and they start reading the law and there was massive repentance this was the moment of israel's return to the lord so the pharisees and the scribes saw themselves as gatekeepers of the law those who were going to keep the law so that these the kinds of things that happened in the past would never happen again we're going to do what we can to prevent these terrible departures from God's law it's a good motivation isn't it sure it is but there was something that went terribly wrong you can imagine maybe and appreciate this challenge with an example I had a question the other night from one of our college and career students in our group and it was asked something like this if I recall right pastor it seems that we have now in the Escondido URC a more positive view of who we are and what we believe. Our confessions, our three forms are taught in the catechism classes, and it seems to be a much more positive experience that's happened in the church. What's changed? What happened? Because what I've heard in the past and what I've heard for many of us is that the experience wasn't so good. That was the question i got from one of our our young people i thought great question i can't speak for the escondido urc but i can't speak for my from my experience growing up in the tradition um growing up and then of course ministering up north for a period of time i have my theory when church splits happen for various reasons when you see a clear rejection of god's law people casting down what is clearly expressed in the Bible, which is a terrible thing, those who stand up against that, those who actually have the courage to stand up against that, are generally going to make a very rigorous return to the Bible. That's what happens. It's a good thing. It's a time when you ratchet things back up. It's a time when you nail things back down. I've noticed though in the whole process and standing back and looking that in that whole sort of zeal to again go back and protect what you have and what you've recovered you tend to sort of develop only what you're against for a period of time so that what happens in reaction is is that you get angry and the more you tighten it back down the easier it is to really start pushing more rules and laws on people because we got to maintain the purity of the tradition we got to keep the purity of what it is less this awful thing that happens ever happens again and in the process what you get is some real ugliness no joy no appreciation again for uh things that are positive and right if you will in the right way you create a kind of atmosphere you can of a bunch of grumps thus my sermon title grumpy who are always ready to fight and they're always about the rules and the regulations. Fighters. Now, before you jump on sides here and think, oh, well, that's what we do or that's what anyone else does. Before you start doing that, remember, this is a humanity problem. You're living it right now in the government. We have ISIS. We have a crumbling economy. We've got a moral crisis. Everything is falling apart. And you want to oppose bathroom laws are you kidding me we keep getting regulated to death more rules more rules more rules more this is regulation time that's what's going on right now because people are in a panic meet the pharisees meet the scribes we're maintainers of the tradition you see so that when they sat down to do this they said look we are not ever going to let this stuff happen again to Israel God's word as helpful as it is we need to be a lot more clear for people we need to help people out so that things aren't left open for wrong interpretation the bible where it's not been as specific as we want it to be we got to buckle it back down we got to tighten this thing back up so that if we leave things too open it's going to create religious chaos if we leave things too open you're going to get lawlessness you're going to get all of our young people running around and doing whatever they want to do so we got to have some good interpreters of this so in the process their interpretations of the law begin to suppress the law now stay with me on this and you'll see what we do so that the law itself was no longer the focus or concern this is so important the law itself was no longer the focus or the concern but now their traditions and their interpretations these groups would get together and they would study and they would memorize and they would analyze the law and they would analyze and they would analyze and they would study and they would they would write down the proper meaning of the law and then all they did was quote each other it was a mass collection of quotes of the writers of the traditions all they did this infuriated them about jesus because he quoted the bible it became a practice to sit around and memorize the law to the degree that the highest honors would be given to those who were the most famous rabbis and the famous doctors of the law thus gamaliel right and all these accomplishments would be badge badges and positions and lines and best seats and greatest tassels on the robes you just get the best position but in their zeal to protect the law to make sure that the law is kept what essentially had happened was they had began to build a fence around it that they would never let this happen again so they interpreted and they interpreted and they interpreted and in doing this they simply amassed an unprecedented amount of writings that became known as the tradition of the elders it's quoted here and so this big oral body of interpretations and tradition so enormous that the tradition of elders was finally put into writing and would later become known as the mishnah then came all the commentaries on the mishnah and then came a fuller collection of commentaries on the bible and then they put it all together and it became known as the talmud and then came the midrash this was volumes and volumes and volumes of stuff all the thoughts of all the rabbis on all the laws endless musings you could never get through but the body of tradition grew and it grew and it grew new laws new commands and all of a sudden everything became required so the tradition of elders became the authority. So that in the Talmud, and I quote, it said, words of the scribes are more lovely than the words of the law. Attend to the words of the scribes more than the words of the law. Look, do I need to put together history for you? You don't think this would be a reoccurring view in history? When people tell me as a pastor not to be hard on Rome, I can tell you Jesus would make you nervous about how he would speak to Rome. This is exactly what they did. Now, I have to say that not all tradition is evil because I know some would hear that in this sermon. There's the apostolic tradition, isn't there? Paul would say in Thessalonians, look, keep the tradition we hand to you. That was the inspired tradition. Something that our Reformation wanted to recover in the apostolic tradition. to give you the Word back. So all tradition is not evil. But all tradition, even creeds and confessions, are always subservient to God's Word. Always. Now do you see how dangerous this could be? Even if it comes with the most well-meaning of intentions. That's why our Belgic so beautifully even says, we don't consider the writings of men, however holy these men may have been, equal value with the divine scriptures now this is the sort of play that's going on here in the battle that i want you to see where when jesus addresses this he says down in verse 11 for moses says and then he says in verse 11 but you say and in matthew's account when matthew records this same event he doesn't use but moses says he says but god says and you say there's a doctrine of inspiration right there that moses had been writing under inspiration of the spirit but you'll notice here even and this might help you a little bit with the sermon on the mount when you come to sections and jesus began often by correcting the tradition of the elders when he said it has been said but i say to you he was drawing a very clear contrast and then he would often follow up by saying either it is written but i say as opposed to it has been said he's contrasting the tradition and he's contrasting the word of god with the tradition now in our particular section the issue of hand washings which the mishnah had 30 chapters of washings of pots and pans and vessels and a whole volume on hand washing it's exciting stuff isn't it you can get degrees for that back then the reason that this was such a big issue was not for the issue of sanitary cleanliness this had nothing to do with that may have sort of coincided they were so concerned about defilement jews when you went out into the marketplace and bumped a gentile or your skin touched a gentile or you held one of the pots and you ate off a you received a pot that a gentile had i mean this is endless and all that stuff was considered defiled and so they had to ceremonially cleanse whatever jesus is eating here whatever his disciples are eating it was viewed as defiled their hands had become defiled now so in a zeal to protect something notice this notice what's happened they created a buffer zone and then around all of this no one got to enjoy it they had heaped up all these traditions and all these bad attitudes then followed when with these walls when the intention was to protect god's word and that's the point layers and layers and layers of tradition buried the word of god so that no one got to it isn't that sad oh the devil does this so well he knows exactly how to do it he's been doing it for thousands of years now jesus here is noticed being charged with violating the tradition of the elders not the law they didn't come and say you're breaking the law of god nobody said that to him isn't that something you're breaking the tradition of the elders and jesus won't even use it when he responds and he says no you're holding the tradition of men let's make this real clear the law had become buried in secondary the traditions were a joke and this was the heart of the fight in the gospels if you want to know why it's often so intense and hard and brutal in the gospels which seems like a knock down drag out fight you got the issue so the scene is the disciples are eating and jesus is asked why are they breaking the tradition of the elders to which i pause and i i uh and so far in studying mark you say you know he had all sorts of time for the worst people he would sit and dine not only the tax collectors and sinners but think of all these lepers who were coming up and he's touching them and they're touching him think about that everyone who was regarded as the absolute worst of society jesus is with compassion help care love but i can introduce you to the thing he hated the most. And I want to show you why. They come to him. Why are you transgressing the tradition of the elders? You know what Matthew says right after Jesus said that? It's not recorded in Mark, but it really helps to know how he initially responded. Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? Hypocrites. Basically, he says, you ought to talk. You have a fine way of breaking the commandments. You have a fine way of breaking the commandments of God. He says to those who looked at him, these were the ones in line. These were the ones, if you looked at their lives in the community, straight, picture perfect, looked nice, did everything to a T, did not depart from the tradition. They were in church twice. You would look at them, you would never ever dream that this was going on. They're the righteous. And Jesus says, that's the problem. That's the problem. They had created an entire system of their own righteousness. But the paradox was, in all of their conservatism, and remember, Pharisees and scribes were the conservatives. In all of their conservatism, they were worse lawbreakers than the Gentiles. Now I taught a class at Westminster Seminary this past semester on preaching and I told them don't use movie illustrations, but I'm going to use one right now. In my favorite movie, Hoosiers, the coach enters the small town of Indiana and the old farmers are there and they're challenging his way of coaching. He goes into the barbershop and the cigars are out. It's a great scene. and as all the smoke fills the room they ask him they say listen I've used this once before but I have a different point with it they said listen what are you going to play man-to-man or zone defense listen zone defense is all that's worked in the past it's all that's going to work in the future he laughs later on of course as he's playing man somebody asks him what's wrong with the team, coach. And he says, they're raw and undisciplined. I thought about that. A small farm town in Indiana, good old America, just what we think made America great, hard workers, idolized basketball, the right sport, by the way. Coach comes in, conservative country, and what does he observe? They are raw and undisciplined, furiated the whole town. That's the paradox of legalism. It presents itself as hitting the mark. It presents itself as that which is right. It shows itself as the model upstanding, correct way, the moral way. But it's lawless. exposing that the religious formalist has created his own piety and a system of his own righteousness as a disguise of keeping the law of God. But that's not what he's doing. Jesus says, what you've done is you've found a loophole to disregard the law. Now here's how crafty this whole thing is, and this is where it'll help you for today because most people loosely say, and I'm sure there's some here who have said it, and I've said it, well, that church is legalistic. Why do you say it? Does it come down to the issue of conviction? Anyone with conviction is regarded as being legalistic. But if you say, you know, what if I said Padres are playing? We should care about the Padres. People do. I'm not a Padre fan. Hey, it's Sunday. he should be in worship. But I saw, you know, you're down at the Padres game and you're Christian. That's legalism, man. Don't you dare tell me what I should be doing and shouldn't do? But the Bible says you shouldn't neglect the assembling of yourself with the body. Would you consider that legalistic? My guess is some would. But that's a command of God. But I'm going to hit anyone who actually does obey the law of God by calling it legalistic. So I have a way now out of honoring the law of God myself by calling it legalistic. See it? Jesus has made me free to break his law. So the claim that is legalistic is now a new legalism which is anti-law, which is chaotic and lawless. unruly, which has created an undisciplined Christianity. Legalism and obedience aren't the same thing. Jesus hated the practice of religious formalists for two reasons. And here's what they are. First, by setting up their own rules, they wreck the design of the law of God. This is so important this morning. He gives an example. And believe it or not, in God's providence, this is exactly where I land in Exodus 21 tonight. So I'll be glad to see you guys there. He uses the example saying, honor your father and mother and he who curses his father and mother shall be put to death. But you say, whoever says to his father and mother, whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God. Then he doesn't need to honor his father and mother. Thus you've made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. Hypocrites. In other words, the Pharisees found out a way when they made their money of saying, Korban, it's God's. And thus they found out they didn't have to help their parents who were in that day hurting and needy in their old age. So you have made the commandment of God of no effect for the sake of your tradition. What was the intention of the law of God? We've been studying this. The intention of the law of God was to show people their sin. To make people drop the knee. To make people confess their sins. The Old Testament had a goal in the Old Testament and the goal was to lead people to Jesus. Proper Judaism would have led people to the Messiah as the need to be a savior. But in zeal to correct all the problems of Israel, these gatekeepers of the tradition did something damning to Israel. The fence kept Jesus out. That was what happened. their fence kept jesus out and now you see how serious this is what was the purpose of the law of god to bring broken and contrite what hearts it should make the righteous unrighteous and jesus says to them you don't know what you've created in israel so imagine this scene he gathers them all together these people away from these destroyers in israel and he says listen well actually in the next section in front of them he says you guys are fulfilling what Isaiah says that you honor me with your lips but your hearts are far from me in vain do you worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men what you've created is an outward form where you go through the motions and you say with your mouths that you love me but that's a byproduct of dead hearts doing dead worship you've created a religion of performance devoid of heart reality and you've created an outward form of godliness that denies its real power as Paul would say I mean imagine this didn't Israel know this when you come to me Isaiah 1 to appear before me in worship who's required of you this trampling of my courts bring no more vain offerings incense is an abomination to me new moon and sabbaths and the calling of convocations i can't even endure iniquity in the solemn assembly your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates they become a burden to me i'm weary of bearing them when you spread out your hands i will hide my eyes from you even though you make many prayers i will not listen your hands are full of blood it wasn't that the practices were wrong law commanded some of those things was what they did to it absent hearts even they tried to create the outward form of it and that's why he says come it's a reason together though your sins are like scarlet i'll forgive them you're the ones said jesus who justify yourselves before men but god knows your heart i love the example of one pastor he said this is like a man who's in adultery coming back comb and his wife knows it and waving flowers in front of her you think that act is pleasing your wife why would you think this would please god if your heart is full of idolatry and doing your own thing see why it's a big issue with jesus it's satan's way to keep him out so in verse 10 he calls the multitude to himself and he says listen i'm going to correct this and i'm using the word i don't feel bad i'm correcting this crap right now there's nothing that enters a man from the outside which can defile him but things which come out of him these are the things which defile a man he who has ears to hear let him hear it's not defiling what goes into you and notice mark takes a hit on those who think and hold their rules about all the foods today nature teaches you this in your bodily functions you know when it comes out it's unclean so jesus just said nature gives you a good example of the problem what he said in a nutshell is this there's nothing a man can do to cleanse himself from the outside and all of your religious acts and all of your devotion and all of your keeping of your traditions and keeping the tradition of the men to a T, all of your church attendance, day and night, 60 years, all of your good and external upright life, and whatever you have deemed is the best way to honor God yourself, going even beyond the law of God, taking the higher step, being so model, none of them ever will have the ability to cleanse you. Not one. You can't take those acts inward. because the problem is inward. Do you have ears to hear that, says Jesus. So you see how silly this all is. We're going to do all of our acts and think that by all of our rules, we're going to be right with God. Listen, when Psalm 24 said, who may ascend the hill of the Lord, who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands, as they misinterpreted, how in the world are they going to get a pure heart? Jesus says, are you also without understanding to his disciples who ask him about it? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him since it enters not his heart but his stomach and is expelled. Thus he declared all foods clean. And he said, what comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man comes. And look at this list. I mean, he could keep going. Everything. All these evil things come from within. They defile a person. If I were to stand up today as a cultural preacher, I would run around thinking, well, I'm going to preach against the worst city in the United States. What would it be? What's the worst place in the United States? You'd all say Las Vegas. It's your heart. The worst place in the United States is your heart. It's so contrary to the whole society telling you your heart's good. It's just unbelievable, isn't it? You see why it matters? What a tragedy to think that we could come and stand before God and it's because we're good model, church-going people who've entered the kingdom because we've kept the Reformed tradition. You don't enter the kingdom because you've kept even the Reformed tradition. You've got to be washed. And that's what this comes down to. If you bury the Bible with your traditions, you'll never get to God's intention for you. Jesus told His disciples, He washed them by the what? Word that He spoke to them. You're sanctified and cleansed by the washing of the Word. It was the promise of the Old Covenant that through the proclamation of the Gospel, He would do what? The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength that you may live. To make it a little more plain, Nicodemus, you need to be born again. And I'll do that by sprinkling the blood of Jesus over your hearts. That's what baptism signifies. It's interesting, there's a contrast here. They would baptize tables. It's the same word. Baptizing tables, I'll baptize hearts. That's what he wants. Aside from an act of mercy, the best you'll ever give Him is a dead heart in worship going through the motions, but your heart will be far from Him. And so I hope then that's what drives you to be here this morning. Worship is a deep desire from the heart to hear the Word which cleanses you. Washing you with the Gospel. I hope it's not out of a heartless approach of going through the traditions and the motions because it's just always been as we looked at last time the tradition of the family to be here those who are here to worship him as he desires have come with a broken and a contrite heart those who understand this are prepared not to look to themselves but they come here looking to jesus who with clean hands and a pure heart walked up golgotha paid the penalty so as you receive him by faith alone you have everything you need we hold to the apostolic tradition because that's the message that the reformation recovered but we do not hold the human tradition the tradition of men that departs from the law of god i close today with this familiar little parable and then we'll go to our lord and pray he also told this parable to some who trusted themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt two men went up to the temple to pray one a pharisee and the other tax collector the pharisee standing by himself prayed thus god i thank you i'm not like other men extortioners unjust adulterers or even like this tax collector i fast twice a week i get tithes of all that i get but the tax collector standing far off would not even lift his eyes to heaven but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Aren't you so thankful Jesus came to fight to set you free so that you can hear his word and gospel today? That's why this is ugly and that's why it needed to happen. but that's how much He loves you, so that you would hear the truth and the truth would set you free. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God remains forever. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we ask for forgiveness that we have often tried to erect our own ways of confidence and right living before You as a way of entering Your kingdom. And we see what the danger is of what can happen here, Heaping up ideas and traditions of men that show no joy, but only creates a grumpy, miserable place of rules and regulations that never sets anyone free. The blind lead the blind and both fall into a ditch. But we're so thankful that our Lord cared to fight this fight. To disregard what was damning to people's souls. And to show Himself in the riches of His glory and Gospel. As the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation proclaims Him, may we have, as we come to worship, that kind of response that comes to receive this implanted Word, which is able to save to the uttermost and give life to dead hearts so that we were born again by this Word of truth. May that be for all of us today. And may we love Your Word and love to worship you in spirit and in truth with hearts that confess you sincerely from a sincere love from the heart. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.