In the sermon 'The Outside and The Inside,' Jason Dohm addresses the themes of hypocrisy and blindness as Jesus critiques the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus presents eight woes as a judicial proclamation against their hypocrisy and spiritual blindness, highlighting their focus on external appearances while neglecting internal righteousness. The sermon emphasizes that true cleansing must begin from within, as external rituals alone cannot lead to genuine holiness. By exposing the Pharisees' actions as mere stage play, Jesus warns His followers about the dangers of hypocrisy and the need for self-examination and repentance. The sermon also discusses the misuse of ceremonial laws by the Pharisees, who became more concerned with external cleanliness rather than understanding its symbolic meaning. Through examples and biblical references, Dohm encourages believers to seek internal transformation and warns against the futility of superficial religious practices.

The outside and the inside. It's what Jesus is addressing with the scribes and the Pharisees. There are Eight woes that Jesus is pronouncing. It's announcing judgment. It's a judicial proclamation where He's declaring them guilty of appearing to be one thing while they are something entirely different.

And this week is our third week of being in these woes that Jesus is pronouncing. And we'll finish all but one, which we'll finish next week. And primarily, what Jesus is condemning is two things, hypocrisy and blindness. And he's saying it over and over and over again. Of the eight woes, seven of them will begin exactly the same way.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. It's their hypocrisy that he's addressing. That's the nature of their guilt is their hypocrisy. And also their blindness. Last week He called them blind gods.

And then two other times in the text, he said, you blind fools. You blind fools. Who are leading the people into a ditch. In verse 1, we see the context of this, which is that Jesus is teaching the multitudes and His disciples. So it's a direct address to these hypocrites who are leading the people, but it's in the presence of the people.

He's teaching the multitudes and He's teaching His disciples. And so He's addressing these hypocrites. He's pointing his finger at the scribes and the Pharisees and he is pulling off the mask. He is ripping the mask off the scribes and the Pharisees so that the multitudes will see that they are being led by hypocrites. He is taking the mask off.

That's what hypocrite means. It's an actor. It's a stage player. It's one who wears a mask for his own advantage. So Jesus reaches out and he grabs the mask and he pulls it off so that these men are laid bare before the multitudes so that they can see that it's not a sheep, it's a wolf.

He's allowing them to see beyond the outside of these men, the externals of these men. As they've challenged him And as they've tried to trick them, we have come across the phrase multiple times in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus knew their hearts. So they've been able to put on a front before the multitudes, but Jesus has always known. They've never been able to put on a front with Jesus. So we encounter this phrase, Jesus knew their hearts.

So he's exposing what he's always known to the multitudes and showing the people that with these men, with these scribes and Pharisees, that there's a massive gap, a massive gulf between what they appear to be, the reputation that they've carefully cultivated and what they actually are in their hearts. We really are what we are on the inside. That's who you really are. Who you really are is who you are when no one's been around. And you're free from wondering how people will think of you.

You really are who you are in your thoughts, where you've put on a good face, but your thinking is completely disconnected from what you've presented to the world. That's what we really are. So Jesus comes to us with this text. He's not coming to the scribes and Pharisees. He's coming to us.

He's given this to be a blessing to His people to help us understand the things that are in our hearts. So he's given this to his people for two reasons. One is obvious, to warn his people that there are hypocrites. That we would be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. God's people would know that there are many in the world who present one thing to the world but in their hearts there is something completely different so that we would be wise about who we are close to and about who we follow.

So that is one obvious reason why the people of God have been given these woes so that people of God would know that these kind of people are out there. Like Jesus said about the false prophets, they come to you in sheep's clothing, but inside their ravenous wolves they will eat you. And secondly, it helps us identify and deal with our own hypocrisy. I hope you found this to be so in the first two weeks here and in this week, that it's helping us to put our finger on places where there's a big disconnect between what we've presented to the world and what is actually in our hearts. There may be a difference between you and the scribes and the Pharisees if you've been born again.

But you have to know you're made out of the same stuff. You were born with the same nature. Although salvation makes a massive difference in that, you still have a flesh that would incline you towards presenting something else to the world than what you actually are. Now let's look at these verses in pairs. So we'll look at 25 and 26 together, and then we'll look at 27 and 28 together.

Follow along. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup, that the outside of them may be clean also. Jesus begins by speaking about the practice of just cleaning up the outside, and meanwhile the inside is what it always has been. Now, it helps us in these two verses to think of the audience that Jesus is addressing.

He's speaking to the multitudes and his disciples. So he's speaking to Jews and the most meticulous Jews are the target of the woe that he's announcing. So everybody in the picture here is a Jew. And the target is the ones who are the most careful about the external things. The most meticulous about presenting something very particular to the outside world.

Here's what Jesus says in Mark 7 verse 4. When they had come from the marketplace, They do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches. Jesus in Mark 7 verse 4 is talking about these scribes and Pharisees. They are always washing something.

They are washers. They are always washing their hands. They come back from the marketplace and they won't eat unless they wash. They are always washing cups or pitchers or copper vessels or couches. They're always washing things on the outside.

Where does this come from? It comes from the ceremonial law. It actually starts with something that's legitimate. There's ceremonial cleansing all throughout the ceremonial law that we find in the Old Testament. So there does have to be cleansing, but they've taken these ceremonial washings, these ceremonial cleansing from the law that dealt with worship and appropriateness in worship, and they've just brought it over into everyday life without any warrant from the law.

But there were to be ceremonial washings. A woman, after the time of her impurity, couldn't just come in and worship God. There would have to be a ceremonial washing, a cleansing. A leper wasn't just free to come in and worship God. Even once he was cleansed from his leprosy, even when there was no sign of leprosy, There would have to be this.

A ceremonial washing, a cleansing to take place. If you touch the dead body, any dead body, there would have to be a period of time and a cleansing, a washing before you could participate in the worship of God. What was this? It was symbolic. It was a type.

It pointed to something. That's what the ceremonial law is. It points to something. It draws us to Christ. It's a picture to help us to understand.

And These ceremonial cleansings, these washings that we find in the Old Testament, are a symbol, they're a type, they're a picture that God is holy. That there's A God in heaven who can't even look on unrighteousness. And that the unclean can't just amble into the presence of God and worship Him in the way that they want, any time that they want. The unclean have to be cleansed before they can come before this God. That's what all this ceremonial law that the scribes and the Pharisees have built upon, that's what it meant, that's what it's a symbol of, a type of, a picture of, is that there is a holy God in heaven.

An unclean people can't just saunter into his presence as if there's not a problem. They must be cleansed first. That's what it meant. But for the scribes and the Pharisees, the type had become the substance. In other words, it had become an end to itself so that there's a righteousness to be gained from washing something.

So you're always washing your hands and you're always washing cups and you're always washing pitchers and copper vessels and couches because that's a way to be righteous. No, it was a picture of the uncleanness of human beings and the need to be cleansed before you could come before God. And there was a disconnect through the centuries had developed where this thing that was supposed to be something so valuable to teach the people of God about themselves and their need for cleansing had become completely disconnected from the practice. So that you just do it because that's what God requires and there's no connection between the two things. Now imagine a religion, imagine a faith where the rule is this kind of leader.

Not the exception, but the rule where almost all of the leaders have lost a sense that This is what the cleansing means. And so it becomes a completely mechanical, sterile, external thing, all these washings. That's what almost all of the leaders are like. Imagine being in a faith like that. All the leaders have missed the whole point.

So few really know what God intended when He gave these laws. And hypocrisy is the norm among the leaders and not the exception. What a state. What a state. The people of God are in the time of Jesus Christ.

So that these leaders, they Look clean on the outside. They have presented something acceptable to the world externally, but inside they're full of extortion and self-indulgence. That's what the text says. Extortion. NASB renders it robbery.

Robbery. These are robbers. They're cleaned up on the outside, but inside they're robbers. The ESV and the NIV render it greed. They're full of greed.

Self-indulgence. Indulging yourself. That's what these scribes and Pharisees were full of. A complete lack of self-control. And so they're presenting one thing to the world, but on the inside it's all for personal gain, all for personal satisfaction, all serving of self.

Now, this is 180 degrees opposite for what Jesus has been teaching all along, isn't it? Could anything be more further from what Jesus has been exhorting his disciples and the multitudes to than extortion and self-indulgence. Jesus says, love your neighbor. It's the second greatest commandment. Love your neighbor.

They're exploiting widows. They're devouring widows' houses. They're praying on the most vulnerable. How's that for loving your neighbor? How's that for trampling all over the golden rule that Jesus would exhort us to treat other people as we would have them to treat us.

And they are exploiting widows. They are full of extortion. They are robbers. They are full of greed. Jesus says, deny yourself.

They are indulging themselves. Let's just remember what Jesus has taught. Just flip back to Matthew 16. Turn to Matthew 16. Let's start reading together in verse 24.

Matthew 16 verse 24. Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his own soul.

What we have here is an exhortation by Jesus to deny ourselves and to take up our cross. And these are men who are completely different than that. They are full of self-indulgence. Now, What's the nature of denying yourself that Jesus is exhorting us to in Matthew 16? It's to follow Christ.

Deny yourself, take up your cross, and what? Follow me. Christian denial of self is an asceticism. Asceticism is a harsh life, depriving yourself. And it's an end to itself.

You'll find religions that are asceticism, just denying yourself, buffeting your flesh just for the sake of buffeting your flesh because the view is that these pleasures are really sinful. No, That's not Christianity. It is a setting aside of serving yourself so that you can follow Christ and have Christ. Listen to what Paul says in Philippians 3. Philippians 3 verses 7 and 8.

This is what Paul says. But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ." This is not asceticism, not buffeting our flesh alone, but it is a setting aside of things to gain Christ. This is what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 16. This is what Paul is talking about in Philippians 3.

It's not a crushing of ourselves, it's an exchange. It's taking all the things that used to seem precious, used to be of gain to us and saying, I'd rather have Christ. I want to gain Christ. You cannot have the old things in Christ. You can't be characterized by self-indulgence and have Christ.

You have to see that He's of greater value and desire Him. And lay those things aside that you may gain Christ. And the one who does it never says, I got a bad trade. He says, what a deal. What a bargain to have Christ.

Jesus says, blind Pharisee. He's back. He started with, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. And now he's back to the second theme of this section which is their blindness. Blind Pharisee.

Here is what Matthew Henry says, those are blind in Christ's account who are strangers and no enemies to the wickedness of their own hearts. That describes these scribes and Pharisees perfectly. They are strangers and no enemies to the wickedness in their own hearts. Now that's not a Christian. Christians are not strangers to the wickedness in their own hearts.

They see it. They know it. Why is that? Because God presses it on them. God has given them awareness of the wickedness in their own hearts so they see it.

And then once they've seen it, they're not the friends of that wickedness, they're the enemies of it. This is why, going back to the Beatitudes, Christians mourn. Christians mourn. That's what the Beatitudes are talking about. They see the wickedness of their own hearts and it grieves them because they've seen the beauty of Jesus Christ.

And so this wickedness where it got a free pass before, where it was a friend before, it becomes an enemy. And we begin to mourn when we consider the state of our hearts. In verse 26, Jesus prioritized this cleansing. You see that in verse 26? First clean the inside, that the outside may be clean also.

First clean the inside. This is what he tells, says to these scribes and Pharisees. Now, If you don't take time with this verse, you'll never go past the surface. On the surface, we just read over the top of this. When you start to consider it, there's a vital question here that Jesus never answers in the text.

And here's the question, how? Jesus has just commanded, right? It's imperative, he's commanded the scribes and the Pharisees to cleanse the inside of the cup. How are they to do that? Work harder?

Do more? Okay boys, we've identified you've only been focusing on cleansing the outside, the inside is still filthy. Go clean the inside. How are you going to do that? How are these scribes and Pharisees that have been living at enmity with God, had made themselves at war with God.

How are they going to claim the inside of that cup? Is Jesus telling these men to pull themselves up by their bootstraps? Pull yourself up. Clean yourself up, guys. Here's another question.

Vital. Vital. Does God only command people to do things that they're able to do? Now get this settled in your mind. This is a very important question.

When you go read Luther, when you go read Calvin, when you go read the Reformers, they deal with this question extensively. Does God only command you to do the things that you are able to do? An Arminian theologian answers that question, yes, He only commands you to do what you are able to do. Because if it weren't so, then God would be unjust. How could a just God command you to do something that He knows that you are unable to do.

The reformers saw something completely different at work in these commands. Something completely different at work. Consider this one, Matthew 5.48. Therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Are you able?

Even after being given a new heart, are you able to keep that commandment to be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect? I say you are not. I say that you can't, although God has commanded you to do it. What about 1 Peter 1 verses 15 and 16? But as He who called you as holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.

Because it is written, be holy for I am holy. Be holy in all your conduct. Because it is written, Be holy for I am holy. Be holy in all your conduct. Okay, you've been given a new heart, you've been born again.

God has commanded you to be holy in all your conduct. Are you able to do that? I say you're not. I say you're not. What about Matthew 19?

The rich young ruler. The rich young ruler comes to Jesus. He asks this question, what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? What good thing can I do to be saved? What does Jesus say?

Keep the commandments. And then he just starts reeling them off. Don't murder. Don't commit adultery. Honor your father and your mother.

Just going down the list. What is Jesus doing there? What is God doing when He commands us to do things that in other parts of scripture we can tell we are not able. With what happened in Genesis 3 and the fall of man and the defiling of the nature of man We can't do it. Then why is God not unjust?

Because He's doing something else completely different with those commandments. Listen to Isaiah 55 verse 1. Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy, and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Isaiah 55 is an exhortation for those who have no money to come and buy. Nothing to offer, no resources with which to purchase. And yet, God says, come and buy. Come and buy that which is without price. Jesus in the letters to the churches in Revelation, Revelation 3.18, Jesus picks up right from Isaiah 55.

This is the letter to the Laodiceans where they've been indicted as being lukewarm. And Jesus says, repent or I'll spit you out of my mouth. And they've been lukewarm because they thought that they were rich and in need of nothing. And they thought that they were clothed. They thought that they could see.

Revelation 3, 18. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eyesalve that you may see. Those without money are bid to go to Jesus Christ to do what they can never do for themselves, what they are completely unable to do. Come and buy without money. Come buy white garments that you may be clothed.

Come by I self that you may see. This is Galatians 3. This is Jesus confining all under sin. Why the commandments that we have no ability to keep in ourselves? It's the mercy of God.

It's God showing us our inability so that we'll go to Christ to buy white garments and to buy eyesalve that we may see. We don't have the ability to do these things and we have to be taught. The unregenerate man has to be taught that he has no ability to do the commands of God. So God says, do it! And He knows you can't do it.

He says, be holy in all your conduct. He says, be holy just as your Father in heaven is holy. Knowing every second, you have no ability in yourself to do these things, so that you'll be broken and you'll go to Him. So that He'll raise you from the dead and give you the ability that you could never do. The unregenerate man has to be taught that he is completely impotent, that he is completely without the ability to do what is required of him, so that he will repent.

It is the mercy of God, bringing people to repentance. Here's the truth about real cleansing. Real cleansing, Jesus is profiling two kinds of cleansing here, isn't he? One is fake cleansing that just addresses the outside, but real cleansing begins on the inside and then inevitably works its way to the outside. In other words, What you worry about is the inside.

Because if the inside is cleansed, it will always only flow to the outside. It will always flow to the outside. This is James, isn't it? This is the difference between dead faith and alive faith. Alive faith, a cleansing on the inside, a regeneration of being given a new heart, works its way out.

Always works its way out. So that then you can say the opposite is also true. If someone doesn't have any cleansing on the outside, you can say the inside just has not been cleansed. That's fraud. That's hypocrisy.

That's pretending. In the other direction, You can never start by cleansing the outside hoping that somehow this is going to rub off on the inside. This is Jesus' teaching, the complete opposite of that. Real, true, genuine cleansing always starts on the inside and then works its way out, which makes it so futile to just try to clean up the things on the outside. You gain nothing from that.

Would you knowingly drink out of a cup like this? You're approaching it. Everything looks good. Shiny. Polished.

But then you get close enough where you can see it over the lip and you say, What is that in there? And then somebody puts drink in it and puts it in your hand. Are you drinking out of that cup? I'm not drinking out of that cup. Why not?

It's unsuitable. So If the thought of that is repulsive to us, what is it to a holy God that someone would clean up the outside and leave all that filth on the inside? If the thought repulses us of taking that cup in hand and drinking all the way to the bottom. What must it be like to a holy God to see those who have only polished the outside for their own benefit and yet all the filth remains unaddressed. There's no repentance.

There's no turning from it. Brothers and sisters, we have to know what this is like in the sight of God. To just always be working on how we present ourselves to the world, but not repenting and being cleansed on the inside. Let's read verses 27 and 28 together. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.

Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." This is the second comparison. The first was the cup and the dish that had been polished up on the outside. Everything vile. It's still in there, unaddressed. The second now is a whitewashed tomb appearing beautiful on the outside, but inside is the corpse.

It's rotting away. This is about doing everything you can do to be attractive, to be appealing, to be compelling, to present something to the outside world that is compelling, is appreciated, but never repenting, Never being cleansed. We can identify with this analogy. The modern funeral industry has kept this analogy alive and well, pun intended. Have you ever seen anything more beautiful than a modern day coffin?

They're gorgeous. They're art. They're craftsmanship, right? You look at the old little house on the prairie, it was a pine box, not so now. No pine boxes now.

They're shellacked, polished, beautiful, emblems. There's a corpse in there. Guy hasn't looked that good in 10 years. How many times you heard that say, she looks so good. Because people's health has been declining.

They look bad in real life. But then all of a sudden the funeral comes and they look like a million bucks. Well, it's close. It costs close to a million bucks to do that. One millimeter under the surface, there's nothing but death and corruption.

It's all breaking down one millimeter under the suit, under the makeup, under the styled hair. It's all corruption. So We understand this analogy because we do the same thing in our day. God warns repeatedly of this in His Word. Here's one example.

First Samuel 16, God has directed Samuel to Jesse. The next king is coming from his sons. He sees the firstborn Eliab and Samuel says, surely this is the anointed of the Lord. God says, for the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. The Lord evaluates completely differently.

That's why hypocrisy flourishes. Because we're looking for the wrong thing. And so therefore we're so easily duped. God sees differently. God could care less that the oldest son is tall and handsome.

He wants the ready keeper of sheep to be the shepherd of his people. Second example, 1 Peter 3 verses 3 and 4. Do not let your adornment be merely outward. Peter here is exhorting his sisters in Christ. He is talking to women who are in Christ.

And He says to them, Do not let your adornment be merely outward, arranging the hair, wearing gold, putting on fine apparel. Rather, let it be the hidden person of the heart. Let it be. Let your adornment be the hidden person of the heart. With the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.

What is precious in the sight of God is a submitted heart. He could care less about our outward appearance. Now, I appreciate you doing your hair. That's great. But God wants a submitted heart.

God wants humility and repentance. The incorruptible beauty of the gentle and quiet spirit. We look at these scribes and Pharisees who have polished up the outside of the cup, but inside it is vile and putrid. We look at these whitewashed tombs who inside it's all death and corruption. And we say, what kind of a monster is this?

What kind of a monster is this? Turn to Ephesians 2. Paul addresses this in Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2. Turn there in your Bibles.

We're going to start in verse 1. And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who was rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. What kind of a monster is it in Matthew 23? It's your kind of monster. It's simply the unregenerate man, dead, rotting away, no matter what is presented to the outside world, rotting away, filled with corruption, stinking and putrefying and rotting in trespasses and sins.

There are only two kinds of unregenerate people. There's the kind that is at war with God that is dead in trespasses and sins. And they just let it all hang out. It's all out there. You can see it.

And how they live, how they talk, how they treat people. There's no pretense. All that sewage just comes spilling out. And then there's the other kind of unregenerate person, and their heart's exactly the same. But presenting that to the world isn't palatable to them.

And so they clean the outside of the cup and they whitewash the tomb. But the insides are exactly the same. Friends, you either are this or you were this. That's the only two choices. You are Matthew 23 verse 27.

Dead men's bones or you were it. There's no man or woman or child that hasn't been in that condition. So if you are it, you need to see yourself clearly. You've been blind And you've not understood the nature of the problem. Dead in trespasses and sin.

Corrupt and rotting. You don't need a little, you need a lot. You don't need to get over a cold, you need to be raised from the dead. Or, if you've been redeemed, Do you remember what you've been saved from? When we start to presume upon God, and when we start to think that the commandments of God are onerous, And we start to wonder if it wouldn't be nice to go back to Egypt.

We've forgotten that this was us. That that's what we were, and that God, but God, He raised you from the dead. How thankful of a people ought we to be if we were this, but God has made us His sons. That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. How kind has God been to his people to take this and raise us up in Christ.

And He might show His kindness to us. To the end of time. Luke 12 verses 1 and 2 says this. Luke 12 verses 1 and 2. In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together so that they trampled one another, he, Jesus, began to say to his disciples first of all, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. There is nothing covered that will not be revealed. Hypocrites be warned. Hypocrites be warned. There is nothing covered that will not be revealed.

You look like a law keeper, but you're lawless. That's what our text says today in verse 28. Full of all uncleanness and lawlessness. Nobody knows you look like a law keeper but you are lawless. We are back to Matthew 5 again.

Lord, Lord, have we not, have we not, have we not, Jesus will say to them, Depart from me, I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness. Do you rage on the inside when you're smiling on the outside? Have you perfected fooling the rest of us? So that you're so happy on the outside, but you're so discontented with what God has done for you. Where God has placed you in this life.

No contentment on the inside, but on the outside, it's all smiles. Do you go to the speed limit, but curse the king every day in your conversations? Psalm 51, the great psalm of repentance where David is coming to terms with what in the world he has done in murdering a man and in committing adultery. He says, created me a clean heart, oh God, cleanse me, cleanse me, oh God. Don't let me be different on the outside than I am on the inside.

Cleanse me. This is the heart of a Christian. This is the cry of a Christian. Create in me a clean heart. Oh God, cleanse me on the inside.

Let's pray. Father, I thank You for the warnings that there are always hypocrites among the people of God, many desiring to be out front and lead, so that we would be wise and take care who we're close to and who we follow. God, I thank you even more that you're convicting us of sin and helping us to know that we're made out of the same stuff, prone to it. Prone to hypocrisy and blindness. But I thank you that your children, you treat as children and you discipline them.

You put your finger on their hypocrisy and you allow them to buy I salve from you so that they can see. God, may we be a people who see what's really in our heart and it would grieve us and cause us to repent and to turn, to confess and forsake our sins. God, I pray for every unbeliever in the room. They've not seen, they don't know that all they are is corruption, rotting away, dead. And their only hope is to be raised from the dead.

I pray today, God, that you would raise some from the dead. You would call and draw and bring. God, for your people, I pray that You would put your hand upon us, heavily. I thank you that you do not spare us from truth. I thank you that you brought the truth of your word to us, so that we would see and know and repent.

I pray that you would grant us a mighty repentance, a mighty turning away from self-indulgence, extortion, all uncleanness, lawlessness. We would be free from that and living to Christ. Gaining Christ. Making this exchange, this extraordinary exchange, offer to us in the gospel. Giving up the things that don't matter have no value.

To have that which has eternal, infinite, overwhelming value, Christ. Cause us to abide in him. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.