And please turn in your copies of God's word to Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11, and we shall read verses 45 to 54, and see how the rest of the dinner party went. Luke 11, beginning in verse 45. One of the lawyers answered him, teacher, in saying these things you insult us also. And he said, woe to you lawyers also, for you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses, and you consent to the deeds of your fathers. for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation. From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary, yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you, lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering. As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say. So in God's word, let us ask the Lord for his help now. Lord, we thank you for the light of your word that even is shining now from the words of your page from this pulpit. And Lord, we ask that you would help us to be those who receive the light, and thus that we may be filled with the light. Lord, this key that Jesus says is not to be withheld from the people. Lord, grant us this key now, this key that is the knowledge of Christ, that we may enter into your kingdom and worship your king. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, have you ever been to a dinner party where somebody went against the social norms of polite manners and expectations? Maybe it was a dinner party where someone brought up a topic that was just very off color and kind of made the whole room silent. Or maybe it was a very divisive kind of a topic and it led to a big controversy. Or perhaps they broke some kind of rule of manners, of table etiquette, something you just don't do. I remember sharing a meal with a number of people back in Ireland. This was long ago. It was an international group of all different people, and we're all sitting around the table. And then as soon as the soup was served, the Japanese man began to put his face down into his bowl and began to slurp up all the soup. And all the rest of us were kind of looking at each other in maybe shock and horror. He had broken one of the rules of our Western etiquette, that you don't slurp your food, certainly not like that. And of course what we came to learn is that we were all breaking his rules of etiquette because in his culture that was the polite thing to do, so we were the impolite ones. Well it can all get very convoluted can't it, all of the different cultural conventions about table etiquette. Well, in our passage, Jesus has been invited to a dinner party. And like in every culture, Jewish culture had certain expectations of what one did and didn't do at the dinner table. However, before anyone has even had a chance to take a bite of their food, Jesus has already offended the dinner host with a serious faux pas. It wasn't that Jesus was slurping his soup. It wasn't that he forgot to put on his napkin or use the right knife or fork or spoon that he was supposed to use. No, it was that he never washed his hands before eating. You see, for the Pharisees, hand washing wasn't just a kind of a rule of table etiquette. Actually, it was something much more serious. For them, it wasn't a mark of hygiene, but of holiness. And so by failing to wash his hands, really Jesus was saying that he was unholy. He was not meeting their religious standards. More than that, he was violating their religious standards of holiness. But however much they were shocked by his actions or inaction, they would be much more shocked by his words. Because Jesus began to pronounce woes against their hypocrisy. He compared their ritual of hand washing to the washing and shining up of a bowl on the outside that is filthy within. And what he was saying is that you are that bowl. Your hands may be clean as you sit at this table, but your hearts are filled with greed and wickedness. He went on to pronounce three woes against the Pharisees. And this week, we'll consider his next three woes that are directed against the lawyers. And although this message was first delivered to these religious leaders sitting around this table, these woes have been recorded in Holy Scripture. They have been preserved for our benefit. They've been given to us so that we may be aided in our growth in true holiness, the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. These woes against hypocrisy and legalism are designed for us not to read them and say, oh good, I'm glad I'm not a Pharisee or a lawyer. No, they're designed so that we read this and then we look into the mirror of God's law, which will expose our own hypocrisy and legalism. And thus, God, through this, will lead us to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. With that in mind, let's consider Jesus' three woes against the lawyers. His woe for burdening the people, his woe for shedding blood, and his woe for barring the kingdom. First, there's his woe for burdening others with legalism. So Jesus has just leveled these three woes against the Pharisees. And at this point, a lawyer, who is really offended by Jesus, speaks up and protests against Jesus. You know, he says something to the effect that, you know, Jesus, it almost sounds like you're saying that all of Israel's religious leaders are hypocrites. Surely, good teacher, that's not what you mean. Maybe you should slow down and take a bite of food before you say something you really are gonna regret. He says that in verse 45, essentially. One of the lawyers answered him, oh, teacher, in saying this, you insult us also. Jesus is starting to hit a little too close to home for this man. And like this man, so often the kind of preaching that people want is the kind that never really hits too close to home. It's the kind of preaching that comes as maybe an arrow and it hits right next to us, but doesn't actually hit us. You know, we want the kind of preaching that keeps its distance from us. You know, so many people love the kind of bold preaching that condemns the sins of the nation and the sins of our government and the sins of those people who are out there. The kind of preaching that pits us against them. And that's what bold preaching is. But let me tell you as a preacher, it doesn't take a lot of boldness to preach against the sins of a people who aren't even here in front of you, who are never going to hear your sermon. No, it takes courage to call out the sins of those who are present in your hearing. That's what Jesus does. Jesus doesn't tell these men what they want to hear. He doesn't go on a rant against the sins of the Romans, the sins of Herod. Can you believe this? Herod, what he's doing? No, he tells them what they need to hear. And that's the courageous thing. It's also the loving thing. You know, Jesus isn't being rude here. He's not being cruel. He's not trying to be a bad dinner guest. No, he's applying the law to their sin so that they'll see their sin and repent. despite this man's protests against Jesus' rudeness. Jesus responds, woe to you lawyers also. Now it's important to understand who these lawyers are. We read lawyers and we think, okay, you know, guys, you know, dressed in suits with briefcases that you see coming and walking around the courthouse and the town square there. Well, no, these aren't lawyers in the sense of, you know, lawyers who you hire to maybe defend you in civil court or criminal court. These were Bible lawyers. These were experts, claimed experts in the understanding of scripture and in the law. These were your religious scholars, your theologians of the day. And Jesus makes clear that it's not only the Pharisees, but it's also these lawyers who are guilty of burdening the people with their legalism. Let's look at the whole woe in verse 46. Woe to you lawyers also, for you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. So he charges the lawyers with burdening people with these heavy loads that are so hard to carry or bear. What's interesting is that the word burden here is the same word used in Acts 27, describing a ship's cargo. There, Paul is being, he's a prisoner, and he's being taken to Rome, and the ship that is filled with cargo hits a storm, and the cargo is so heavy, it's weighing down the ship, there's risk that everyone's gonna die, and so they have to throw this heavy cargo overboard. And that's what these Pharisees were doing with the law. They were adding to God's law thousands and thousands of little extra requirements that altogether weren't little at all, but created a burden that no Jewish believer could bear. You know, things like hand washing. Wait, I didn't see you wash your hands before you ate. How unholy of you. Or Sabbath observance. Did I catch you taking a little bit of grain like that? They were teaching the people that if you really want to be right with God, well, you need to do all of these extra things. I think as one commentator observed quite rightly, with all of these extra laws, they weren't helping people love God more. They weren't helping people love their neighbor more. No, instead, by multiplying all of these laws, they were simply multiplying the number of ways in which a man might offend God. They were burdening men and women with a ship's cargo worth of man-made laws that was too heavy for anyone to bear, and people were suffering under this weight. And to make matters worse, Jesus says that not only do you do that, but you don't even lift a finger to help with this weight of this burden. Instead of giving more grace, they simply pile on more laws and more things that are impossible to keep. And you see their hypocrisy in that. They're laying on the law, but they're not even helping others to keep those extra requirements. There are also men who knew all of the loopholes, right? You know, you see that with Jesus' interaction with the lawyer earlier. He knows all the loopholes of, well, you know, sure, I love God and my neighbor, but who's my neighbor, Jesus? That's the thing. They were, they were, they tell the people to, an extremely high standard of the law and to their own laws, but for themselves, well, they knew the precedent. They were lawyers. They knew the traditions and the religious heritage. They knew the examples of, well, at this time, this allowed for this exception. So actually, it doesn't apply to me the way it applies to you. And so what we find is that these men were not ministers of Christ, certainly not. They were not ministers even of the covenant. They were not ministers of God's word, no, they were ministers of their own dead legalistic traditions. And this stinging rebuke by Jesus serves as a warning to all of those who are leaders in Christ's church. This is a warning to myself and to all of my fellow elders and to anyone who teaches in the church. not to demand more of believers than what God has required in his word. Jesus' review got to make us take a step back and look in the mirror and examine ourselves and ask, are there ways? Whether it's in our personal counseling, whether it's in our preaching or teaching, it's in our policies, Or it's simply the cultural expectations that's in the air that we're all breathing and we're all contributing to. Are there ways that we are burdening the shoulders of believers with that which Christ has not commanded? Let us make no mistake as elders, we have the authority to bind your consciences to that which the word of God does command. Even now as I'm preaching the word, I am binding your conscience and I make no apology for that. That is the authority God has given his ministers. But we have no authority to bind anyone's conscience to anything that is either contrary to scripture or not necessarily contained within scripture. Again, this is something we confess as a church. I read it last week and it's worth reading again. God alone is Lord of the conscience and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his word are not contained in it. So that to believe such doctrines or obey such commandments out of conscience is to betray true liberty of conscience. And the requiring of an implicit faith and absolute and blind obedience is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also. May God preserve our leaders and this church from this kind of burdensome, soul-crushing legalism. Jesus' rebuke against leaders burdening those under their care, I think, can extend even beyond church leaders. I think there's an important principle here even for parents who are leaders in their own home. Parents, can we ever be guilty of overburdening our children with unreasonable expectations? That may look like holding them to a standard of behavior beyond their development, like expecting a one-year-old to behave like a five-year-old or a three-year-old to behave like an eight-year-old. We could be burdening our children with the weighty expectation that they must achieve certain grades or even meet certain sporting or athletic milestones and achievements. And whether we say it or not, we may have created the atmosphere whereby if they fail to meet those grades and those standards of athleticism, we'll be very disappointed with them. All of these things and more can burden and exasperate children beyond what is reasonable for their little shoulders to bear. But we are most like the lawyers and we are most like the Pharisees when we expect of our children Virtues like self-control, patience, gentleness in speech, carefully using your words to work out problems. All the while, we fail to demonstrate those same qualities in our own lives before our watching children. You see, just because we are not there at that dinner table doesn't mean we get to escape the law of God and we get to escape Jesus' rebuke against hypocrisy and legalism. And so then, let each of us examine our own hearts. Let us pray like David in Psalm 139. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me. Period? No, comma. And lead me in the way everlasting. And what David prays is the truth. We don't have to be afraid of confessing our sins to the Lord. because in Christ he will forgive us, and he will lead us in the way of change and sanctification. Although yes, his law is perfect, and his standards are perfect, we are not, and he knows that. And under the gospel, right, we're not under law, we're not under a covenant of works, we're under a covenant of grace. Under the gospel of grace and his covenant, he has provided a way whereby we may follow him in a life of constant repentance, constant confession, and constant endeavoring after new obedience. And so, beloved, go to him. confess your sins, repent of your hypocrisy, knowing that he is not a harsh taskmaster. Did he not say, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Well next, Jesus delivers his second woe against the lawyers. A woe condemning them for shedding the blood of the prophets. Well now, Jesus really begins to get offensive here. He says, woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they kill them and you build their tombs. Well, Jesus speaks of how these lawyers and religious leaders build the tombs of the prophets. This is a reference to how the religious leaders of Israel liked to show their righteousness before others. And one of the ways they did that is by spending money for the upkeep of the tombs of the prophets. You know, philanthropists do the same thing today, don't they? They, you know, spend money and they support with their finances maybe all these kinds of public works. And then, you know, in return they get the small privileges of having their name plastered in every newspaper and maybe a bust erected of them in the park or a plaque on a park bench. And what better way to show off your religious heritage than to spend money and show that you're the one who's keeping up the tombs of the prophets, making sure there's nice little flowers planted outside and all that sort of thing. Well, Jesus cuts through their hypocrisy by essentially saying to them, you're not honoring the prophets, you're the one making sure they're still dead in their tombs and they can't get out. Jesus is saying, you think that you're in the heritage of the prophets? No, you're in the heritage of those who killed the prophets. That same spirit of your fathers is now in you. Jesus goes on to recall how throughout Israel's history, God sent prophet after prophet after prophet to bring against Israel a case. But Israel's leaders killed those prophets one after another. However, the blood of these prophets will not go unanswered or unavenged. Verse 49, Jesus says, therefore also the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute. so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Well here, Jesus is using the term prophet very broadly, so not so much narrowly the way we often think of prophets, but broadly, really to mean almost any believer, almost any messenger of God. And the history of God's messengers is sad and very bloody. He bookends the entire line of the prophets with Abel on one end and Zechariah on the other end. Abel, of course, is the son of Adam and Eve. He was a man, Hebrews tells us, justified by faith before God, but he was also murdered by his brother Cain. And so Abel, in a sense, is the first Christian martyr, the first martyr of the faith. That's why he begins with Abel. Why does he end with Zechariah? Well, in the Hebrew ordering of their Bibles, the Hebrew ordering of scripture, the last book in the Hebrew canon or Old Testament is the book of Chronicles. And there, in what we call 2 Chronicles, chapter 24, we read of a very sad, and disturbing scene that takes place in the temple. There, Zechariah the priest is basically preaching to the people. He's preaching and applying God's law, saying that you've broken God's law. The people really don't like that. And so much so that the king comes up to the altar and he murders Zechariah right there in the temple and before the people. And the text says, and when he was dying, he's there dying in the temple, having been killed or being dying. And he says, may the Lord see and avenge. May the Lord see and avenge. Jesus thus is demonstrating for us how God's messengers have continually been rejected and persecuted. He shows us this from the murder of Abel in the beginning to the murder of Zechariah, literally from A to Z, God's messengers have been rejected and persecuted. And all of their blood pools together and cries with the same cry of Zechariah as he lay bleeding and dying in the temple. May God see and avenge. And Jesus says, their blood will be avenged. Those who persecuted God's messengers will be condemned. But how can Jesus accuse these Pharisees and these lawyers of being guilty of the murder of the prophets? They weren't there, you know, in the beginning with Cain and Abel. They weren't there in the days of Jeremiah. They didn't kill Zechariah in the temple. Well, Jesus can charge them with this on the basis that they have rejected the final prophet. Recall from the previous scene how Jesus announced that a prophet greater than Jonah has come, one greater than Solomon has come, speaking of himself. And his word is to be received as an even higher word. They are to receive his testimony You see, all of the prophets from A to Z testified about Jesus. They all testified about him. And thus, to reject the word of the final prophet is to reject all of the prophets who came before. And thus, this is how Jesus charges them with being guilty of rejecting and persecuting the prophets. throughout history. Thus, these religious leaders are that wicked generation who will be condemned on the last day. Well, friends, this is another important reminder that there is a day of judgment coming. When Jesus speaks of condemnation and judgment, when he speaks, as he has numerous times in the gospel, of that last day on which all men will be judged, that's what he's speaking of. He's speaking of that day when he will return, not as an infant or a babe, but as the conquering king, as the judge of all the worlds. And all people will be judged on that day. So many people live their lives believing the very same lies as these hypocrites, these Pharisees, thinking that their sin will never be exposed, that they can go on wearing a mask before others, while inside they are filled with darkness and greed and wickedness. They go on thinking that even if there is a day of judgment and maybe if that mask is removed, surely I've done enough good. I've paid for the building of the prophet's tombs. I've cut off a tenth of every mint herb. So what? I treated people poorly. Surely I've done enough good. But make no mistake, on that day, all hypocrisy and all legalism and all antinomianism will be unmasked and exposed for what it is. And on that day, all of humanity will be raised and divided into two groups before the judgment seat of Christ. One group will be sent to everlasting condemnation and judgment, the other to everlasting life. And the difference between those two groups isn't that one was better or that the other one was worse. No, the difference is The group that will be sent to everlasting life are those who received the word of Christ, the light of Christ. They are those who were willing to take off that mask before Christ, to confess their sins, to repent before him, and to trust in nothing else but his blood. The other group will be those who left their masks on, trusted in themselves, and continue to live a life, whether externally or internally, of sin and rejection. of the Lord. Those who stand condemned eternally are those who rejected God's testimony, whether in creation or in the gospel. And so, in light of this sobering reality, let each one of us ask ourselves, are we those who are receiving the light of Christ and thus are filled with Christ's light? Or are we those who are hypocrites, who appear only as light externally, but internally are filled with greed and wickedness and darkness? Salvation only comes through receiving the light of Christ by faith. Let us make sure we are those who have received the light. Well, because these men rejected Christ, they fell under his just condemnation. And so Jesus pronounces his third and final woe in verse 52. He says, woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering. The religious leaders, of course, were expected to be those who were leading people to God. If you wanted to know how to live before the Lord, if you wanted to know the way of salvation, how to be a good Israelite under the covenant, well, you would go to these men and they would teach you. They were the elders of Israel. They were the men who studied theology. They were the men who knew better, or so it was thought. But Jesus charges these men with taking away the key of knowledge. What is the key of knowledge? and equally important, what does this key unlock? Well, what this key unlocks is the kingdom. It is eternal life with God. The kingdom in many places is likened to a city or a door or a gate that needs to be unlocked in order to enter. We don't enter into the kingdom any old way, but we enter only through having this key. The key therefore, very clearly, is the knowledge of Christ. This hearkens back to Jesus' previous interaction with the lawyer who claims to be able to inherit the good portion, inherit eternal life. How? All through his good works, through loving God and loving his neighbor. Jesus showed through the parable of the Samaritan how that was impossible. No, you do not enter the kingdom. You do not obtain the inheritance through your good works. Likewise, it harkens back to Mary and Martha. Jesus commended Mary as the one who chose the good portion. How did she choose the good portion? Well, not through good works, not through attending meetings or doing this thing or that thing, but through simply resting and receiving Christ. That's how she received the good portion. All of this is linked and all of this tells us that the way to eternal life is through faith in Jesus Christ. And thus, by rejecting Christ and by suppressing the knowledge of Christ, these religious leaders were barring the kingdom. They were keeping others from entering into the kingdom, a kingdom which they themselves, Jesus says, they had not entered. It's sad to say that in many so-called churches that we'll meet today, Christ, the key, will be absent from the pulpit. Instead, many will hear messages that instead of exegeting the word of Christ, will exegete the daily news or the weekly forecast of news and political and current events. They will hear messages of, political messages of all different stripes. either for woke or against woke, and that will be the focus. There will be messages that will focus on the earthly and temporal things of this life, like how to be wealthier, how to grow your business as a Christian business owner, or how to be healthy and reach your peak physical fitness. Rather than pastors preaching prophetically on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, many congregants will expect their pastors to be more like counselors or life coaches. And thus Christ, the key, will be absent. And where the key is absent, there neither is any kingdom. But we cannot dictate what others do with their time. We cannot dictate what other churches do. But may we, by the grace of God, never forget that Christ alone is the key to eternal life. to put things in the extreme, you may have made a mess of your finances, you may have made the worst in financial or career decisions, and you may now be living with a whole load of regret over decisions you've made in those areas. You may not have good health, you may have not reached the physical fitness you had desired, or maybe your health is shattered by cancer or some other disease, and yet, if you have Christ, the key to the kingdom, you have everything, and you lack nothing. Conversely, you may have amassed a great wealth, a massive portfolio of land, of dwellings, of stocks. You may have reached a peak of physical fitness with medals and awards to boot, but if you have Christ, you have nothing, and you are poor in the worst way possible. That's why Paul describes his preaching with the phrase, the simple phrase, what is preaching? Paul says, him we proclaim. If we are not preaching Christ, we have nothing worth saying. Him we proclaim, and by God's grace, may we as a church never lose the proclamation of Christ and him crucified. Sadly, it's this very truth, the very reason why every prophet was sent to Israel, that the Pharisees and religious leaders forgot and failed to understand. And so in verse 53, we read, as they went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him to catch him in something he might say. how readily these men join their fathers in the rejection of God's messenger. And as this foreshadows, they will also readily join their fathers in the spilling of his blood. Well, again, as with last week, we ask the question, what hope is there for Pharisees and lawyers What hope is there for hypocrites and legalists? Given Jesus' very serious woes and his language of condemnation on the last day, we might wonder, could a Pharisee ever be saved? Could a man or woman who lives like this ever be forgiven? Could they ever change from their evil Pharisaic ways? Well, there was one Pharisee. whose name was Saul, who describes himself this way, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church. Saul was not an agnostic who sometimes questioned whether God was real and wondered in his heart, well, maybe there isn't enough evidence. No, Saul was the man who went to the stonings of believers and took part in murder, Saul was a man who denied Christ. Saul was a man who hated Christ. He hated anyone associated with Christ. Saul was a false teacher who kept the key of Christ from the people, just as Jesus charges these Pharisees with. Could Saul ever be forgiven or saved? And yet, Christ sovereignly chose to have mercy on this man of all the people Christ could have shown mercy to. Paul wasn't kidding when he said he was the worst of sinners. There, while he was on his way to persecute more Christians, Christ stopped him, and Christ saved him. Christ shone his light, and Paul, or Saul, received that light, and thus became Paul. such that Paul would write. All of those things I accomplished, all of my studies as a Pharisee, all of my law-keeping and mint-tithing and hand-washing, it's all nothing, nothing. I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. But the question that still remains is how, how is there mercy for Paul How is there mercy for you? If the blood of Abel cries out against Paul, and if our sins cry out against us, how can we be forgiven by a holy God? Well, this is not the last time in scripture that we hear of the blood of Abel crying out, is it? No, in Hebrews chapter 12, the author compares the old covenant with the new and says that in the new, we have come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. What is this about Abel's blood crying out? Well, it's what Jesus just talked about. The blood of Abel cries out against all injustice and all violence and against all who have sinned against the Lord and who have rejected his messengers. It calls for justice. But Christ's blood, Hebrews says, speaks a louder word than Abel's, almost certainly that it answers and it silences Abel's call, but it almost overshouts it. Abel's blood, Zechariah's blood cries, Lord avenge them, avenge us. Jesus' blood shouts, mercy, grace. His blood cries, it is finished. By his bloody death, Christ accomplished something that none of the other prophets ever could have accomplished by their bloody deaths. The prophets were sinful men, but men sent by God, men who trusted in and pointed to the final Messiah to come. Christ isn't just one more good teacher or prophet. No, Christ is the final prophet, the one through his bloody death accomplished our salvation. Christ was the atoning sacrifice that every other sacrifice foreshadowed and whose righteousness is given as a cover to clothe those who belong to him. That's why we don't have to wear masks when we go before God. Brothers and sisters, that's why we don't have to wear masks when we go to one another. We are not clothed with masks. We're clothed with the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, such that we can be forgiven before God and we can confess our sins to one another and forgive one another, even as we have been forgiven by the Lord Jesus Christ as brothers and sisters. imperfect, sinful, who sin against each other and yet are clothed with a righteousness not our own. Christ is the key to life. Christ's blood is the means by which we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And even now, this morning, his blood continues to speak that better word than Abel's. And therefore, as Hebrews says, see that you do not refuse him who is speaking. Well, dear friends, is this your hope? Are you trusting in the blood of Christ for the forgiveness of your sins? Have you repented of your sin and all of your attempts at self-righteousness? Listen to Him who is speaking, and may God grant you the grace to do so. that together we may all say with the Apostle Paul, Paul the former Pharisee, who now says, but whatever gain I had, I count it as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ, Jesus, my Lord. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for the one who is our final prophet, final priest, and final king, the one who teaches us and leads us in all things, the one who has made the way for us to be acceptable in your sight, and now the one who continues to subdue our sinful hearts, bringing us closer and closer to you. We thank you that we are close, as close as can be through justification, and we thank you that through sanctification you are continuing to conform us to the righteous image of your beloved Son. Continue this work now and to completion and glory. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.