*music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* All my regrets, all my acclaim, the joy and the pain, I'm making them yours. Sing more than I am. All that I am, all that I have, I've waited down before you, oh Lord.

All my regrets, all my acclaim, the joy and the pain, I'm making them yours. Now, Lord, I offer my life to you, everything I've been through, use it for your glory. Lord, I offer my days to you, lifting my grace to you. As a crazy sacrifice, Lord, I offer you my life.

It's in the past. It's in the past. Things that I'm seeing. Wishes and dreams that are yet to come true. All of my hopes, all of my plans, my heart and my hands are lifted to you. Lord, I offer my life to you, everything I've been through, use it for your glory.

Lord, I offer my days to you, lifting my grace to you. Lord, I offer my life to you, everything I've been through, use it for your glory. Lord, I offer my days to you, lifting my grace to you. Lord, I offer my days to you, everything I've been through, Lord, I offer you my life.

Lord, I offer my days to you, everything I've been through, use it for your glory. All right. Good morning. Welcome to Brink Community Church. There's a newcomer's welcome lunch that's happening at 1 p.m. after the second service. So please come to the chapel. If you want to learn more about the church and meet some of the leaders and the history of the church, that's what they're going to be covering at 1 p.m.

at the youth chapel. So let them know. Again, lunch will be served there. And then FAM245, if you're part of the FAM245 ministry, and if you are newly married since 2023, this ministry is for you. There is a bowling fellowship that's happening on July 5th, which is this Saturday at 11 a.m.

So please sign up for that if you are planning to attend that. And then they asked me to make a push for July 12th at 9 a.m. They are in need of a lot more people to help. We've been so caught up with the VBS that we haven't been able to emphasize this.

But there is a table that are a sign-up table outside. So as you're exiting, if you can visit that table and just let them know that you're able to come. This is July 12th, not this Saturday, but the Saturday after that at 9 a.m. Even if you can come for just a short period, they're asking me that we need to get more people to help.

Because obviously we've used the whole church facility for VBS. They wanted more attention given to kind of getting the church back to where it was and clean up. So they're asking for sign-ups for that. So if you can come, even a portion of the day, please visit the table as you're exiting.

And then next members' meeting is happening on July 27th at 2 p.m. in the main sanctuary. So please mark that. And for whatever reason, if you cannot attend, please let us know ahead of time. And then lastly, our Korea mission team is leaving this Friday on July 4th at night.

We're having a red eye. Most of the team is going to be coming back on the 19th. So we're going to be there for two weeks running two English camps, one for boarding school with high school, junior high school students. And then the second week, we're actually in the universities reaching out to the campuses.

And so it's going to be a really packed schedule for the two weeks. If you can please keep the team in prayer. Again, there's 18 of us that are headed out, and we'll be there for two weeks running two separate camps. So please keep them in your prayer, and that will be on July 4th.

We'll give you updates while we're out in Korea so you can better pray for us, okay? All right, let me pray for the offering. Again, if you have a physical offering to give, our offering box is in the back. All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your continued grace and love that you pour upon us.

We thank you, Father God, that you are a God of love and grace and righteousness and justice. Help us, Lord God, to know you, to love you, to obey you, and to worship you. We pray, Father God, that you will bless the offering that we give, that it would be given joyfully and may be multiplied, Father God, for the sake of your kingdom.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Before we stand up, I have, I forgot to announce, after the worship time, our sister Diana Choi is going to come up, give the testimony, be baptized this morning. Let's all stand up for the, the standing up? No. All right, I'm messed up.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let us all rise and spend a few moments to greet the neighbors around us before we continue. Let us all rise and spend a few moments to greet the neighbors around us before we continue. Let us all rise and spend a few moments to greet the neighbors around us before we continue.

Praise Him for He is Thy health and salvation. All He who hear, now to His temple draw near, praise Him in glad adoration. Praise to the Lord above all things so wondrously rare. Filters me under His wings are so gently sustainable. Amen. Has thou not seen how thy desires have been?

Granted and worthy ordained. Praise to the Lord who taught prosper the work and defend Him. Surely there's goodness and mercy in your daily attending. Surely there's goodness and mercy in your daily attending. Surely there's goodness and mercy in your daily attending. Under anew, under anew, what the Almighty can do, but with His love He befriends you.

Praise to the Lord, praise to the Lord, all and all that lives in the adornment. Oh, I have loved you, I've come now with praises before Him. Thank you, amen, so from His people again, gladly for all we adore Him. Oh, I have loved you, amen, so from His people again, gladly for all we adore Him.

Oh, I have loved you, amen, so from His people again. Oh, I have loved you, amen, so from His people again. There is no song we could sing to honor the weight of Your glory. There are no words we could speak to capture the depth of Your beauty. Jesus, there's no one like You, Jesus, we love You, ever adore You.

There's no one like You, Jesus, we love You, ever adore You, Lord. There is no one like You, Jesus, we love You, ever adore You, Lord. There is no sin of the arms, the infinite stretch of Your mercy. There is no one like You, Jesus, we love You, ever adore You.

There is no one like You, Jesus, we love You, ever adore You. There is no one like You, Jesus, we love You, ever adore You. There is no one like You, Jesus, we love You, ever adore You, Lord. There is no one like You, Jesus, we love You, ever adore You, Lord.

All we have, all we need, all we want is You. All we have, all we need, all we want is You. All we have, all we need, all we want is You. Jesus, there's no one like you. Jesus, we love you. Ever adore you. There's no one like you.

Jesus, we love you. Ever adore you. There's no one like you. Jesus, we love you. Ever adore you. There's no one like you. Jesus, we love you. Ever adore you, Lord. Amen, you may be seated. Hi, my name is Diana Choi, and I have been attending Berean with my husband, Travis, and our son, Archer.

I'm already crying. I was fortunate to grow up in a Bible-believing church, and I became a believer at an early age in seventh grade at a retreat as the speaker shared the gospel. I had heard the gospel before, but this is the first time I was saved by it.

It's the first time I believed that I was dead in my sins, and that I was saved only by the grace of God who sent Jesus to die for my sins. It was a long time ago, over 30 years ago, and it's hard to remember the details, but I remember the feeling of joy and awe that there was nothing I could do to save myself, but that God had provided a way.

I grew up attending church every Sunday, then youth group, then college, and then young adults, and serving every year. I had a group of friends who were like-minded, and even if we went on vacation together over their weekend, we would find a church to worship at on Sunday. We didn't even spend money on Sundays in case it caused someone to work on the Sabbath, but the enemy had a very strong foothold in my life.

I have a younger sister who is the opposite of me, much prettier, more athletic, more popular, and has a big gift with children. And the jealousy in my heart played out in only seeking my dad's approval and in craving male attention. And although you couldn't tell from my public life, eventually that sin in my heart came pouring out.

When I turned 34, I broke. I saw that my life wasn't going to be what I wanted it to be, and that I wasn't going to get what I wanted. And so, I was tired of feeling like the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. It wasn't a conscious decision to turn my back on God, but I went out looking to fulfill the sinful desires of my heart.

I dated whoever I wanted and did whatever I wanted. I begged for validation and approval from people who did not even treat me with dignity. And for the first time, I truly experienced what it means to say that every sin leads to death, even in this life. I was finally getting what I wanted, and it made me want to die.

But through my friends at church and through church discipline, God brought me to repentance. It was a stark picture of the depth of my sin and my need for God in order to live. And it was so painful, but it was from God, and it was the kind of pain that brought me to life.

God continues to pursue me every day. God continues to show me a new depth to my sin and the never-ending depth of his love. He shows me over and over how he has redeemed me. The Bible verse that helps me navigate this most is Proverbs 3, 5 to 6.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. I grew up in a Presbyterian church and was baptized as an infant. It's been odd to think about getting baptized so many years after my conversion, but wonderfully so.

It is another sign of God's intention in my life, and I am excited to be baptized today. Thank you. Thank you. Alright, thank you, Diana. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 11, we're going to be reading from verse 45. All the way down to verse 54.

Luke chapter 11, verse 45 through 54. One of the lawyers said to him in reply, Teacher, when you say this, you insult us too. But he said, Woe to you, lawyers, as well, for you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers, because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. For this reason also the wisdom of God said, I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill, and some they will persecute.

So that the blood of all prophets shed since the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation. From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God, yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.

Woe to you, lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering. When he left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile, and to question him closely on many subjects, plotting against him to catch him in something he might say.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you, Father God, for the power of your word, and as you promised that your word will go forth and will not return until it has accomplished its purpose. So for that end, we pray that you would anoint this time, that you would protect this pulpit, Father God, that only your words and your thoughts will go forth.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I think for most Christians, there's a broad category of people that can be split into two. Either you are doers or thinkers, right? And so if I was to ask you, which category would you fall into? If you are a doer type, everything that you hear, you're going to be asking, so what practical ramification does this have?

How are we going to practice? You can talk about theology all you want, but what are we actually going to do? And so you tend to kind of gravitate more toward what we're doing, and then some of you are thinkers. Thinkers are, well, we're going to do all this stuff, but what does that mean?

And so you love to read books and talk about theology, and so you gravitate toward things where you feel like there's depth. We're going in deeper, right? And so either category, whichever category you may be in, you may have a tendency to judge the other side, right? So if somebody gets too deep into theology, and it's like, wow, you're talking about all the theology, and it'll just make you proud, and, you know, I'm like, what are you doing?

What are you actually doing? And then you have the other side where they're going out and doing all this. Oh, these guys are so ignorant. They don't know the Bible. They don't, they didn't read what I read. And so that makes you proud. And so either side has a tendency to see their strength and then highlight the weakness of the other, and so by doing so, nullifying the other.

Again, the reason why I say this this morning is because oftentimes in the church, the church gets divided, and how you learn and how you listen and what stands out to you in the Bible and what you practice may be determined by your disposition. You gravitate toward one or the other.

The early church and the Corinthians church, they had the same problem. The division in the church did not come because they were embracing sin. The problem that the Corinthians church had was they were, they couldn't agree on who they should follow. Apollos clearly was the better scholar because he understood the Messiah and he was teaching about the Messiah and then Achilla and Priscilla had to come and say, this Messiah that you're teaching, Jesus came.

So he was known as the scholar among the teachers. He was maybe more articulate. Peter was the doer, right? It's like, he was the one who, if Jesus said something, he was the first one who reacted. He saw Jesus at the lake. He said, let me come to you.

You know, and he just jumped out of the boat. He's the kind of guy who measures once and cuts twice. He's a doer for sure. Apostle Paul was a latecomer, right? And then people were still skeptical of him. How can that guy was persecuting and killing people all of a sudden saying that he's representing Christ?

And so the division didn't come because they were embracing any particular sin. It's just that they couldn't agree on the emphasis of righteousness. Where should we put our emphasis? And as a result of that, the church went into utter chaos. And so the rebuke in the Corinthians church, basically Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3, what then is Apollos and what is Paul?

Servants through whom you believed. And even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one, I planted a Paul's water, but God was causing the growth. In other words, you are missing the whole point, right? You're trying to figure out who should we listen to? Who has the truth? And he said, ultimately, he said, these are just servants of God.

The emphasis really should be upon Christ. You know, we're Baptists, and Baptists have a reputation of being doers, right? And the largest mission organization are the Baptists. And so Baptists, again, I'm not saying every church is like this, but Baptists tend to be, if you were to imagine a Baptist is like, roll up your sleeve and let's get to work.

We're going to evangelize and we're going to do this. That's what the Baptists are known for. And then the Reformed camp is known for the thinking. You know, it's like, oh, we read this book. And who did you read? What church father do you know? And making sure that we have the correct theology.

And I think the church oftentimes reflects what we see in the Corinthian church. And don't get me wrong, theology is very important, right? Because theology basically means a study of God. Of course, we are to study God. We are to know the depth of what the Bible teaches of who God is.

Don't get me wrong. Application is important. He says, do not just be hearers of the word, but be doers of the word. They're both important. But when the division comes is when we tend to emphasize one over the other. And we miss the whole point of why we're doing what we're doing.

I say all of this because even in the early church, when Christ was preaching, there were two groups of people. We had the Pharisees and the lawyers. Now, we had other people, like had the Sadducees, but they were liberals. They didn't even believe in the resurrection. They didn't believe in any miracles.

So they weren't even waiting for the Messiah. So they're not even in the picture. They were leading, but they weren't the ones that people were deceiving. Nobody would say, if you wanted to know who God is, where would you go? Sadducees were not in the picture. It was either the Pharisees, the scribes, and the lawyers, right?

And the scribes and lawyers are pretty much two different titles of the same group. The Pharisees and the lawyers were not necessarily two separate groups. The Pharisees was the larger group, and many of the lawyers were part of the Pharisaic group, but these two groups are very distinct, at least the way it is emphasized in the Gospels.

Pharisees were the doers, and their very name means to be set apart, that we're going to be holy. We're going to be set apart. We're going to practice everything that the Bible teaches us, and so they tend to be more of the doers, and then the lawyers are the ones who were dissecting.

They were the experts of the law. If you had any question about any part of the law, that they were the ones you went to, and then they gave you the answers, and then usually the Pharisees would apply the things that they're learning, but the distinction was the lawyers were the thinkers, and the Pharisees were the doers.

All of this as an introduction to the rebuke that he's giving to both parties, where he begins by rebuking the Pharisees, and then the lawyers hear this and say, wait a second. If you say that, it seems like you were kind of mixed in with that. You're right. You were just as guilty as them, and then he breaks into it.

So if you notice carefully the six woes that are given in this text, the three of them were given to the doers, and then the other three are given to the thinkers. There's a danger on both sides if you missed the whole point. Even in this group, I bet there are some people who if I get into deep theology, it's like, oh, yes, thank you for giving us that because I hear it all the time.

Or if I say something and then there wasn't enough emphasis on application, it's like, oh, what is all that for, right? If we're not careful, we can fall into the danger and the pitfalls on both sides. So I want to go over the three, and I got through one last week, so I'm going to have to speed it up, okay?

So I'm going to go through all of it today, right? Yeah, I did one last week. I'm going to do all six today, okay? The first woes. The first woes, and I want to compare the first woe to the Pharisees and the first woe to the Sadducees because I think they correlate, or not Sadducees, the lawyers.

The first woes were an indictment against how they handled the law, how they handled the law. To the Pharisees, he says, you emphasize what is less, and then you completely ignore the weightier laws. In verse 42, you tithe mint and rue and all kinds of garden herbs, but when it comes to weightier laws like justice and love of God, you completely ignored it.

In other words, it was selective obedience. And that is a tendency sometimes of the doers, that whatever it is that you're good at, you tend to highlight that and put that up on the pedestal for people to see, but the things that you're not good at are kind of like, oh, no one's perfect, and we kind of brush it under the rug.

So if you happen to be maybe good at evangelizing, you know, it's like, oh, I evangelize, how come you're not evangelizing? Maybe you're generous. I give, but how come you don't give? I serve, how come you don't serve? And so the Pharisees were rebuked, and you highlight the things you're good at, but the weightier stuff, the things that are more important, not that the other's not important, he said you should have done one without neglecting the other, but why do you emphasize and brag about paying tide of every little thing, every other herb garden, but when it comes to real heavy stuff about loving God and righteousness, that you tend to sweep that under the rug.

You should have done one without the other. Again, that's a tendency for all of us because when we are examined inside and out, we all have things that we fall short of, but when we are active and when we're obedient in certain things, we have a tendency, for whatever the reason, whatever obedience that we happen to be good at, if we're not careful and pride steps in, it turns into an indictment against anybody else who's not doing what we're doing.

I don't know how many times I've seen this. People get into, like, we're going to do homeless ministry, and then they get into homeless ministry, and they want to bring a charge and say, hey, why don't we do this, and we should do this, and they rally people, and then they get discouraged because people are not coming out and helping them out, and then their excitement to serve the homeless becomes an indictment against anybody who's not doing the homeless, and then eventually they give up.

I see the same thing with prayer. I see the same thing with Bible study. I see the same thing with missions, evangelism, that anything that happens, if we're not careful, it turns into, instead of celebrating God, an indictment against somebody else who's not doing that. And he says, woe to you Pharisees, because you have a tendency to highlight your righteousness and the things that are weighty, you kind of sweep under the rug.

And then to the lawyers, the thinkers, he says in verse 46, woe to you lawyers as well, for you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. I want to take a quick look at just a few of these burdens that these lawyers laid on people.

There were 39 different categories of laws that they've divided into. And out of 39 different categories, there are a total of 1,500 rules that they added to the scripture. So whenever they indicted Jesus and said, how come you're not obeying the law? Jesus never disobeyed the law. Remember, he lived a perfect sinless life.

What they were accusing him of is breaking their tradition. What did it mean to obey the Sabbath? What did it mean to them? So they took a teaching of the Bible and then they made the application the Bible. And they didn't distinguish between the two. So the 1,500 rules that they made to them was equivalent to the Bible itself.

Let me give you some of it. A needle could not be viewed as a tool for labor. A needle was viewed as a tool for labor. So if you had a needle on the Sabbath, you were working. So that's the breaking of the Sabbath. The Sabbath day journey was 2,000 cubits.

So you're not allowed to go beyond the Sabbath day's journey or else you break it. It was equivalent to about 0.6 miles. But because it was too hard to keep 0.6 miles if you have to go visit your sister or maybe your wife went into labor and they couldn't break the Sabbath so on 0.6 miles they would place an item of their house at the 0.6 miles and that would extend your boundary.

So at 0.6 you would put something so now that's your home and then at another 0.6 you would place something and now that's your home so they would keep putting something at 0.6 miles so that they couldn't break the Sabbath. This is how ridiculous their laws were. Carrying any object from a private domain to a public domain, any object, carrying a mat and handkerchief or even a fig, whatever it was, if you carried it from private to public, it was breaking the Sabbath.

I mean I'm just giving you three of the 1,500 different laws that they said if you don't obey this you're not a serious believer. You have to do this. And so the Pharisees tried to keep it meticulously and they judged everybody based upon these things. And then the lawyers were the ones who were sitting and calculating what does it mean to obey?

What does it mean to keep the Sabbath holy? What does it mean not to work? And they kept on adding over and over and again. So people had to live under this. If they wanted to be participants in the synagogue, if they want to come to the temple, if they want to move up the religious rank, the people who did this better would be coming up the rank.

And that's what he was accusing them of. He said it wasn't simply that they made up all these rules. He says, while you yourself will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. In other words, you're not there to represent God and help people. You could care less about people.

He said, if you're a leader, I presented it to you so that you can help them come to me. Instead, he said, well, this is what the Bible says, and this is what the Bible says. And it ended up becoming more of a burden. Remember what Jesus says to the Pharisees who accused him?

How come you don't keep the traditions? How come you don't do this? How come you're carrying a pen? Why are you walking? Why are you healing? Remember what Jesus said? you missed the whole point of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for Sabbath. Sabbath was not a way for you to become righteous.

The Sabbath was given as a purpose of rest, to connect with God. But you made it a burden. You made all the laws of God to be a burden. He said, Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath. So first and foremost, even in the way that they approached the Bible, it was a way they thought that they were going to be righteous.

And he said, you missed the whole point. The second woes that are given as an indictment against the way that they use the law for themselves. For the Pharisees, they displayed their righteousness for others to see. Luke 11, 43 says, woe to you Pharisees, for you love the chief seats in the synagogue and their respectful greetings in the marketplaces.

The chief seats in the synagogues were the seats that were reserved for the leaders and that faced the other way. I don't know, some of you may have come from churches and again, I'm not saying that that is all wrong, but some of you may have come from churches where you have the pulpit on either side and then in the middle there's an altar and there's a bunch of seats in the back.

And so I've been at churches where if I'm a guest speaker or I'm praying for something that we would sit up in the front and typically would look outside. And again, this is not an indictment against the form. The problem with the Pharisees, he says, your whole point of why you're doing what you're doing is to be seen.

They love to sit in the seat of Moses and to receive the honor. Your whole purpose of obeying the law wasn't necessarily a godly desire to know God or to bring people to God. It's so that you can have a seat of honor. In Matthew 23, 5, Jesus says to them, everything that they do is for men to see.

Everything that they do. He said, even the way they prayed in Matthew 6, 5, they pray in the synagogue, on the street, on the corner, so that they may be seen. So he tells them, when you pray, don't pray like these Pharisees. He's not saying you can't pray in public.

He's not saying that you shouldn't gather together to pray. He was indicting the Pharisees. He said, everything that they do is for other people to see. So they basically were presenting their righteousness. So they, on the things that people don't see, they're unrighteous. But when the people are able to examine, all of a sudden they're the holiest people.

They said, don't be like the Pharisees. Now we may look at them and say, you know, thank God, we're not Pharisees. But there's a tendency in all of us to emphasize on the things that we can be measured by and the things that they don't know, you know, we don't pay much attention to.

The things that are urgent because people will judge us if we don't. He said, that was the problem with the Pharisee. In fact, in Luke 20, 46, it says, beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes, love respectful greetings in the marketplace and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets.

Think how paradigm shifting this is because if you asked anybody at that time, who's the spiritual leader? Who knows the law better than anybody? It would have been these people. But when Jesus says, beware of them, I mean, this is far cry from follow them, listen to them. He says, no, beware of them.

In other words, they're going to ruin you if you listen to them. They're going to ruin you if you follow them. Beware of them because everything that they do. So if you follow them, you're going to be just as much of a hypocrite as they are. You're going to be just as much of a showman as they are.

You're going to be just as proud as they are if you continue to follow them. So this is an indictment against the Pharisees, working so hard to be holy, all for the purpose of presenting their righteousness in front of other people. There's a reason why the Bible says, do not lay hands hastily.

Some sins are obvious, some sins trail behind them. And the sins that trail behind them, you will see later, so you need to take your time and not to establish hastily. So he says to the Pharisees, be wary, woe to you. Everything that you do was to present your righteousness rather than being righteous.

To the lawyers, for the purpose of time, I'm not going to read the whole thing, but this was an indictment against these lawyers who said, you know what, we come from the line of prophets in the Old Testament. And so as these men who were great men of God, who represented God and preached and did what God told them to do, they venerated them, they celebrated them.

But Jesus says to them, you're not from the line of the prophets. The line that you come from are your ancestors, are the ones who ended up killing them. The spirit that is in you is not from the prophets as you celebrate and think, look, we're like that we received our assignment from the line of the prophets.

No. I mean, this is exactly the opposite of what they were presenting, what they thought that they were. He says, no, you're like your ancestors who ended up killing them, just like they did to Abel and to the other prophets. I mean, think about that, how offensive that is.

When you hear something like that, either you say, if that's true, if Jesus is telling the truth, that means everything that I thought about myself, everything that I've been teaching about other people was completely wrong. I wasn't just off. I wasn't just off. I'm actually hindering people from coming to God.

So either God put them in a place where either you repent or you need to get rid of Him. You see why they felt the need to get rid of Him? Because they were unwilling to repent. What Jesus was saying was so radically different. Either they had to abandon everything that they were thinking and come to repentance like everybody else, or this guy has to go because the more notoriety He gets, the more He begins to talk, nor more He makes us look bad.

He doesn't simply say you're one of many sinners. No, you are chief of the sinners. You're the reasons why Israel is in the state that it is. The third woe is an indictment against them in what they thought that they were producing. To the Pharisees, they were obsessed with being clean.

They were obsessed with being clean. So they were trying to show a pattern. If you want to be clean, don't touch this, don't go there, don't eat this. On the Sabbath, you have to do this and not do this. And so they wanted to be pure before the eyes of God.

But Jesus says to them, woe to you, for you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it. If there's anything that the first century Jews were obsessed with, is being clean. they had to be clean. So that's why they couldn't enter a Gentile's home.

They wouldn't even step foot. Or where the Samaritans lived, because they were afraid of becoming unclean. They wouldn't walk on the same side of the street. They wouldn't eat the same food. They wouldn't use the same plate, because they were obsessed with being clean. And the people who were on the top of this totem pole were the Pharisees.

If we follow them, if we became their disciples, we will be clean. Instead, Jesus says, not only are you unclean, he uses the illustration of a grave, which for a first century Jew, there's nothing more unclean than a grave. And that's why in the first century, every tomb was marked, so that people would know, even before you would enter into a grave site, there would be warnings.

you can't go there, because as soon as you step there, you become unclean. So if you, even by accident, encounter a grave, you would be unclean for a minimum of seven days. And if you were unclean for seven days, it means that you couldn't fellowship, you couldn't go back home, you couldn't go worship, you couldn't give sacrifices for seven days that you are isolated.

And he says, not only are you unclean, everybody who encounters you is going to become unclean. Exact opposite of what they thought they were doing. In Matthew 23, 15, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much of a son of hell as yourself.

You work so hard to make disciples, but the disciples that you are making, are making them unclean and they're actually doing much more damage. Now, let me look at that and say, thank God we're not Pharisees. Thank God that's not us. Because 2,000 years removed, 2,000 years removed, we can easily look with clarity and say, well, here's where they went wrong, here's what they misinterpreted, here's how they misapplied, they didn't get it, thank God that's not us.

Is that true? I think all the people that are in the greatest danger obviously is me, because this is talking about the leaders. This is talking about leadership, and there's a reason why the Bible warns us about not being hasty in establishing leaders. They will come under a stricter judgment, because when a leader fails, it affects a lot more people.

There is a constant temptation when you're in leadership, to present yourself as righteous when you're not righteous, to present yourself as clean, knowing very well that you're not clean. There's all kinds of compromises happening, but then you teach anyway, but you lead anyway, but you present anyway. The warning is against the leadership and the Pharisees, who are selling themselves, presenting themselves as the one, if you follow me, I will bring you to Christ, but he says, not only are you not bringing them to me, they become twice as much of a son of hell as you are.

To the lawyers, he says in verse 52, woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourself did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering. So that's what they were known for, knowledge. Right? These were the thinkers, and they were giving them knowledge.

They were interpreting law. If they wanted to know what the Bible said, they were the ones who were disseminating knowledge about God, and Jesus says, no, not only are you not giving away knowledge, you shut the door to knowledge, and you yourself will not enter. All the teachings that you're teaching them about what it means to enter into the kingdom, not only are you not entering, that because of you, they will be hindered from entering.

In other words, you miss the whole point. I think about that indictment, and both of them, one was obsessed with being clean, and he says, not only are you unclean, everybody's going to become unclean because of you. The lawyers were known to disseminate knowledge, and not only do you not have knowledge, you preventing knowledge, the very thing that you were bragging about, you're doing exactly the opposite.

Now, we can easily dismiss this and say, well, thank God, you know, the lawyers, and clearly they made the mistake, and the Pharisees, clearly they made the mistake. I think the danger is in, even today, that we have one or the other, say, oh, we're the doers, and we're going to do this, and then anybody who gets into too deep into theology, you know, those people, those Pharisees, or you're on the other side, we know this, who are the church fathers, what's the latest book that you read, but in application, you are nowhere near, and so what's put on the pedestal, the things that we're good at, and then we kind of minimize the things that we're not good at.

In 1 Timothy 1.80, it says, the problem was not the law. The problem was not the law. He said, we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. One uses it lawfully. The law itself was not the problem. It's what they did with the law that caused the problem.

So, natural question is, then what is the useful, what is the legal, right? What is the right use of the law? In John chapter 5, 39 to 40, he says, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is these that testify about me.

That if you think that life comes because you found the text, and if you apply it this way, and if you apply it specifically in this way, that you're going to find life. And he says, all of this was about me, and you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life.

everything that he gave was to bring us to Christ. That's why when Jesus, before he went to the cross, he asked the disciples, who do you say that I am? That was the test, to see if they're prepared. Who do you say that I am? I know what they say, but who do you say?

Because the whole purpose of his ministry was to open their eyes about him. He didn't say, are you ready to make disciples? Do you know how to train them? Do you know what to do if they drag you into courts? If anything, Jesus says, don't worry about that. The Holy Spirit's going to give you words to speak.

But the only thing that he said was, do you know who I am? I've been walking with you for three years, but do you know who I am? And then they fail and they come back. Remember the question that Jesus asked Peter to restore him? So not only do you know me, do you love me?

Do you love me more than these? because that was the central point of everything in Scripture. When we are in the presence of Christ to test to see if we have matured, to test to see where we are, he's not going to, are you properly trained to do this and do that?

Do you know all the intricacies of all the different doctrines and that we have done this and that? the central question that he will ask is do you love me? Yeah, I know you know the Scriptures. I know you know the theology. I know you've been applying this and I know you've been working hard and disciplined but that's not the central question.

The central question he asks is do you love me? Do you love me? See, a brand new Christian who may not be able to even open up a certain text to you who is able to answer I love you with all my heart all my soul all my mind all my strength I love you.

He is in a much safer place. That child of God can bear much more fruit as an empty vessel to be used for noble purposes than a man or woman who lived all his life cleaning the outside of his cup and memorizing got a PhD in the latest theology and when asked do you love me he said oh I know you that's not what I asked you do you love me do you love me who am I to you why I know that you're the son of God I know that you're the second person of the trinity I know that you are sovereign I know said no that's not what I asked you do you love me and that was the problem with these Pharisees and Sadducees that all the time representing that they stood between them and God and when Christ comes not only did they not recognize him they said you're you're a child of the devil these are the people who taught about the coming Messiah they represent they were the ones that they went to ask questions and he says no you're demonic how can they have been so wrong was it because they weren't smart they didn't study enough or they didn't try hard no nobody tried harder than the Pharisees nobody studied more than the scribes no scholar of our generation could match the amount of time that they put dissecting every verse of the Bible like they did so clearly it wasn't lack of knowledge or lack of discipline or lack of talent remember what Jesus says in first Corinthians he says the world and its wisdom did not know God so it pleased God to ordain the foolishness of the preaching of the cross to bring people to Christ he deliberately chose what was weak what was considered unwise that he would dumbfound the system that caused other people to be unclean and blind we keep telling ourselves that we need more of this and we need more of that but what we need more than anything else is to be emptied of our pride emptied of our self reliance emptied of our wisdom and to be relying on Christ in Hosea chapter 6 verse 6 it says for I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offering and when you first look at that it says he'd rather have loyalty rather than sacrifice well they were sacrificing because God told them to sacrifice I'd rather have knowledge of God rather than burnt offering God's the one who gave him intricate details about how to give burnt offering but he says I'd rather have loyalty I'd rather have knowledge of God because what God was looking for was not the smell of meat the book of Leviticus is not how to have the best barbecue right God loves beef you know what I mean he loves beef you know and so if you have if you don't can it before beef you can give lamb and if you don't have that pigeon at least we have something no the whole purpose of the sacrificial system was through it to worship God through it to love God through it to know God but what the Pharisees and the lawyers did was they made if we gave an offering if we did this and if we knew this and if we studied this that this is not going to get closer to God he says not only are you not coming to me you are shutting the door for anybody else to come to me because what I want from you more than anything else is to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength you can practice all your righteousness you can know all the truth and be dead wrong if miss this point because the central thing that God desires more than anything else is our love who do you say he is do you love Jesus well I gave I studied I read I disciplined I know my theology that's not what he asked do you love me there's a reason why it says in James chapter 3 1 let not many of you become teachers my brethren knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment because we stand before God representing God and the damage that we do when we are not right because the Pharisees and Sadducees presented a false God I mean at the end of the day they presented a false God because when God appeared they didn't recognize him so who they were worshipping who they were following didn't look anything like Jesus so they presented a false God so therefore they made idols of this false God they used his name in vain so the whole Sabbath was ruined because they were worshipping an idol they broke all the commandments of God because of who they were you contrast that in the New Testament where the church of Ephesus is commended because they tested the apostles to see if they were really of God because their loyalty was not to the apostles the loyalty was to God the Thessalonian church they were commended as being more noble than the Thessalonians because when they preached they examined to see is this really from God because their loyalty and affection was about God not about the apostles not about the people contrast that to Jesus where the Pharisees and the lawyers were trying to use the law to put themselves on a pedestal but Jesus says the greatest among you shall be your servant whoever exalts himself shall be humbled and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted and then the very last lesson that he gives his disciples he gets on his knees and washes their feet remember by the time Jesus is washing their feet they have already made the confession you are the son of the God right you are the son of the God the almighty God you are the Christ the son of the almighty God they already made this confession and yet they saw the Christ the son of the living God on their feet serving them because he knew he knew that the greatest temptation in all of us is to lift ourselves up it's just the avenue in which we do it it's just that the danger in the church is that we get deceived because we have the Bible because we have presentation of righteousness that how much of our righteousness is for men to see and not God and the damage that that did as a warning again the greatest warning is to anybody in leadership that doesn't mean that this doesn't apply to you because this temptation is in all of us but a temptation of wanting to use the name of God and sometimes it's the most deceiving because we're using the name of God sometimes the greatest damage in the church is done with people who are thinking that they're doing God's work these were the Pharisees and these were the lawyers 1 Corinthians 3 11 he said no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid which is Jesus Christ so let me conclude with this God is not looking for gifted men God is not looking for gifted men gifted men ruin the church many gifted men ruin the church God is not looking for educated men many men with PhDs have ruined the church God is not looking for smart men wise men gifted men experienced men what he is looking for more than anything else are broken men broken and contrite men who recognizes his weakness he recognizes his shortcoming which causes us to cling to Christ with all our might I can give you an articulate I've been doing this a long time I've been doing this a very long time so I can pick apart sermons and things I'll say certain stories that I can tell because I have 35 years of data that I can analyze and put together to know where I got the greatest response what's going to cause people to come what's going to get people to be angry I have a lot of data to pull from but I am very aware aware that the power of the sermon does not come from my articulation it's not my knowledge it's not because I studied because I was disciplined it's by the mercy of God it's because God wants to speak to you and what God tells me is to empty yourself of ignoble things so that he can use you it's not my knowledge it's not my experience it's not my numbers of years experience all of that is superficial all of that can tickle your ears but the power to change you only come from the power of God that's not in me so if I'm not praying if I'm not desperate for God if I'm not working hard to make an empty vessel to be a conduit simply to be used for God I will come under the same judgment because all I'm doing is presenting what I know holding on to a form of godliness with no power God is looking for men who are broken and this is exactly what Paul says in Galatians 6 14 may it never be that I would boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world if you want to look at anything to see a qualification of somebody that may need is somebody who has been crucified he says I have been crucified to the world and the world has been crucified to me now why is it so important because I'm no longer chasing the things of this world I'm dead your opinions though I'm human is not going to change my preaching what I pursue how I do things you must be crucified again this is especially important to me and the leaders but to every single one of us what God is looking for more than anything else are men who have been crucified with Christ or dead dead in their passion dead in their pursuit dead in their pride dead in desire to be recognized dead in their desire to be known as something dead in a desire to leave a legacy dead so that Christ may shine so let me conclude with this now we have fourfold vision of the church we have tenfold covenant we have our doctrinal statements and we have all of these things but let me give you a simple explanation of the purpose of our church the purpose of our ministry my single passion in my life is for myself to love God to love God to be able to say to you that I love God and to say it with a clear conscience not simply say it because I'm supposed to not simply say it because I need to because I love Jesus he really means more to me than anything else in my life that's my desire that's my confession and that's my goal and then my second goal is that you would be able to confess the same I don't care how much theology you know if you don't love Jesus I don't care how disciplined you are I don't care how much you give I don't care how much you serve if you don't love Jesus to love God and to make that God known is the passion of our church and I pray that in the midst of all the stuff that distracts us of paying bills raising our children in the midst of all of that that we would take some time to take a step back and ask ourselves who is Jesus to you who is Jesus to you and do you love let's pray father you are worthy of all our praise you are worthy of all our worship you are worthy Lord God of all our lives help us Lord God as we all have a tendency to be like the Pharisees or the lawyers that you would help us Lord to fix our eyes upon Christ to long for him to look for him to wait for him to worship him to follow him that Christ and Christ alone may be exalted in our lives in Jesus name we pray amen let's let's all stand up for the closing praise man man of sorrows man of sorrows Lord what a name for the Son of God who came ruined sinners to reclaim hallelujah what a Savior Savior bearing shaven scoffing blue in my place condemned he stood sealed by pardon with his love hallelujah what a Savior guilty valid helpless sweet smallest name of God was he full of torrent can it be hallelujah hallelujah what a Savior lifted up was he to die it is finished was his cry Hallelujah, the Savior.

Hallelujah, the Savior. All His grace I'm told to bring. Hallelujah, this song we'll sing. Hallelujah, the Savior. Hallelujah, the Savior. Hallelujah, the Savior. Let's sing Man of Sorrows. Man of Sorrows, what a name for the Son of God who came. Ruin sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Let's pray.

Now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, eternal love of God the Father, rest, restore, strengthen, encourage, and challenge us that we may be the light and the aroma of Christ wherever you send us. Amen. Amen. God sent His Son. They called Him Jesus.

He came to love, heal and forgive, heal and forgive, heal and forgive, heal and forgive. He lived and died. To buy my pardon. An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone.

Because I know he wants the future. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives.

And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives.

And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives.

And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives.

And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives.

And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives. life is worth the living just because he lives.

And life is worth the living just because he lives. And life is worth the living just because he lives.