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Overloaded (Luke 11:37-54) Pt. 2
15 Plays9 days ago
Sunday Message recorded 01 March 2026
by Senior Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church - Columbus, TX, USA
1700 Milam St.
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Legalism
00:00:06
Speaker
Would you open God's Word to Luke chapter 11, verses 37 to 54. Verses 37 to 54. This is part two of a message that I started last Sunday, and it's on legalism. um I think that legalism goes beyond the healthy boundaries of Scripture into what could be called overload.
00:00:30
Speaker
Have you ever felt like you were being overloaded by someone who was a legalist?
The Law: Fulfillment vs. Abolishment
00:00:36
Speaker
You know, the Old Testament law came from God with 613 commandments. were commandments that said, do this.
00:00:47
Speaker
and there were ah three hundred and sixty five who said do not do this And I think it's interesting that Jesus didn't discount all of those things that were written in the Old Testament.
00:01:00
Speaker
I hope that you'll spend time getting to know God's word, both Old Testament and New Testament. But I think in Matthew 5, 17 and 18, Jesus's words tell us how he feels about the word of God as a whole.
00:01:15
Speaker
Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I've not come to abolish them. but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished.
00:01:36
Speaker
Later, the apostle Paul would pick up that torch and say in Galatians 3, 24, so then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.
Pharisaic Burdens
00:01:51
Speaker
You know, in our text, we'll be introduced to a man who was a Pharisee. And the Pharisees built a fence of additional laws, traditions, regulations, and rituals around those 613 biblical laws So they added what you could call extra biblical rules.
00:02:14
Speaker
And those extra biblical rules totaled, get this, 1,500. fifteen hundred So 1,500 extra things on top of what God was saying he required.
00:02:26
Speaker
In Matthew 15, Jesus calls them the tradition of the elders in Matthew 15 too. But in Matthew 15, six, he said, for the sake of your tradition,
00:02:39
Speaker
You've made void the word of God. Because what can happen is when someone is overloaded with so much tradition and so many rules and so forth, they can begin to say, what's the point?
00:02:51
Speaker
So they walk away from God rather than to God. This Pharisee and his friends that we're about to read about, they were used to saddling people with more responsibilities than God had designed for them to carry.
00:03:07
Speaker
In Luke 11, 46, Jesus paints a very descriptive and revealing portrait of legalism. Here's what 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.'" In Matthew 23, 4, it's almost identical, but it's a little bit different. Listen to the difference as you look at what Luke said there. Here's what Matthew 23, verse 4 says.
00:03:41
Speaker
They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders.
Dangers of Traditions
00:03:49
Speaker
You know, as we ah read through Luke 11, 37 to again,
00:03:54
Speaker
Once again, I encourage you to watch and to listen as Jesus pushes back with the truth from a Pharisee who was trying to strap an extra load of unnecessary tradition upon Jesus on his shoulders.
00:04:13
Speaker
Before I read a Luke 11, 37 54, let me just remind you of some great cross-references. If you weren't here last week, I want to make sure i let you know that these same things are talked about in Matthew 15, 1 to 20.
00:04:28
Speaker
Or Mark 7, 1 to 23, it's very similar to what we're about to read in Matthew 23, verses 1 through 36. As a matter of fact, ah here you're going to hear Jesus say the word woe six times.
00:04:43
Speaker
But in Matthew, you hear him say seven woes. So it's sort of like Jesus is saying, don't go that way. Don't move in that direction. Would you stand in honor of God's word? I'd like to read through this text one more time and then we'll finish up the message today.
00:05:00
Speaker
While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him. So he went in and reclined at table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner.
00:05:17
Speaker
and the lord said And the Lord said to him, Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you're full of greed and wickedness.
00:05:30
Speaker
You fools. Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give as alms those things that are within.
00:05:42
Speaker
and behold, everything is clean for you. But woe to you Pharisees for you tithe mint and rue and every herb and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others.
The Heart vs. Rituals
00:06:01
Speaker
Woe to you Pharisees for you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you for you're like unmarked graves and people walk over them without knowing it.
00:06:15
Speaker
And 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.
00:06:29
Speaker
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.
00:06:40
Speaker
So your 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.
00:07:06
Speaker
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.
00:07:18
Speaker
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.
Grace vs. Works
00:07:30
Speaker
And 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.
00:07:45
Speaker
Let's go to the Father in prayer. Oh Lord, I thank you so much for providing for our salvation through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Lord, it would be such a heavy burden if we were going to try to earn our way into your family, to earn our way to heaven.
00:08:04
Speaker
Lord, by our own works. When your your word says to us that our righteousness is actually like filthy rags, we just couldn't do it.
00:08:15
Speaker
We could never be as holy as you. And you saw it and you made a way. and so, Lord, I pray that through this message that we would make Jesus look so good.
00:08:26
Speaker
Because really, salvation in Christ compared to legalism and keeping rules, it is good. It's good news. And so, Lord, I pray for those who have never really tasted of the goodness of God to that today they would realize they are hearing the best news ever in their lives.
00:08:48
Speaker
In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you. You may be seated.
00:08:56
Speaker
What this is basically talking about is choosing a religion about God rather than a relationship with God. If you choose the religion without God, then what happens is it leads to five spiritual loads.
00:09:14
Speaker
So heavy that you'll not be able to bear it. So I want you to listen as I review the two that we looked at last time, and then we will cover the three that remain.
00:09:25
Speaker
First, I think the first load is for those who would say, I wanna focus on the external. over the internal. That's what this guy, the Pharisee that invited Jesus over for a meal, that's what he was doing.
00:09:39
Speaker
He was focused on the fact that not a hygienic washing of hands. So kids, you know, wash your hands like your mom says. Nobody's saying don't do that. But this was something different. This was a ritual.
00:09:50
Speaker
This was a ritual that they thought would cleanse them. And so anyway, This guy was concentrating on something that was washing hands with this ceremony, and it was all external.
00:10:04
Speaker
But what was Jesus focused on? Was he focused on external rules and rituals? No, he wasn't. He says to them, now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.
00:10:23
Speaker
So you see what he was saying? He was saying, you're not even looking at inside because you've already done all the external things. And so he gives him advice in verse 41. We saw that last time. It was wise counsel. And basically in a nutshell, what he's saying in verse 41, when he says, but give as alms those things that are within And behold, everything is clean for you. What he's saying is, start with your heart.
00:10:51
Speaker
Get right with God first in your heart. And you'll be surprised how it will press its way into your life. It'll totally transform your life and change your life.
00:11:02
Speaker
Whereas if you begin with rules, if you begin with rituals and ignore the heart, you'll never get to the root of the problem. Because Jesus continually, constantly was pointing toward the heart.
00:11:17
Speaker
That's why we're told in 1 Timothy 1.5, the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
00:11:29
Speaker
It starts on the inside and it works its way out. So that's why we don't put our focus on the external. We put our focus on the internal. I'm way more concerned about the condition of your heart than what you wear to church today.
Recognition vs. Glorification
00:11:45
Speaker
So let's go to the second thing. Second point we saw last time was some people can be so exacting. I mean, they're so they're demanding about secondary issues while totally neglecting the primary issues.
00:12:03
Speaker
This is the first woe that we see in verse 42. Have you ever seen someone become so intense over a secondary issue and they're neglecting the primary, the more important issue?
00:12:17
Speaker
It's like they're having misplaced priorities. And so the first of the six woes was about someone who would say, you know what? I don't care about that. Here's all I'm concerned about.
00:12:30
Speaker
So the they were neglecting the importance of what should be first. And so don't do that in your life. Say, Lord, help me to put first things first.
00:12:42
Speaker
You know, oddly enough, the Pharisees were obsessive over an infatuation with the best. You see, what was it the best? They said, well, I want to sit in the best seat.
00:12:54
Speaker
I want everybody to say hello to me. And so it was all about self. But what is the best in life? The best that we can do is to say, you know what? I'm here to glorify God.
00:13:06
Speaker
I'm here that everybody would put their focus and everybody would look at the Lord and not me. I just want to be like a signpost that's pointing people to him. Is that the desire of your heart? I think that's what he's getting at in verse 43. That's where they were missing it because they were focused on secondary, not primary things.
00:13:28
Speaker
Jesus in verse 44 pronounces that third woe and he addresses the danger of their influence toward the worst. He said, you know what you're like?
00:13:41
Speaker
You're like an unmarked grave. Someone's gonna walk over the top of it and if it's not marked, they i would have fallen. in They could be injured. People get hurt by legalism.
00:13:52
Speaker
People get really wounded and it could turn someone so far away from God, they never come back. So think about the repercussions throughout all eternity of where legalism could lead.
00:14:06
Speaker
So I want us to look now at the third thing and to say, Lord, okay, we don't want to focus on secondary things. We want to focus on the primary. We don't want to focus on external things. We want to focus on the internal things.
00:14:21
Speaker
But let's look at a third thing. Becoming emotional, but not over the substantial. It's kind of the same thing. In verse 46, we have the fourth woe.
00:14:34
Speaker
If you were to read the book of Acts and the Gospels, they all verify that legalists, they can become very emotional. They can become very, you know, intense, know,
00:14:46
Speaker
But the problem is what they're intense about is not something that's really substantial. Have you ever seen that? Well, look at verse 45 for an example of how that works.
00:14:58
Speaker
You see, here's one of these guys. He's a lawyer, not a lawyer in the sense of an attorney, but he was a scribe is what they called him back then. They spent time, you know, going over and over the Old Testament and writing it and making sure it gets passed down and so forth. But this scribe says to Jesus, teacher, in saying these things,
00:15:20
Speaker
You insult us. Have you ever found that? like It's like, really? I mean, I thought we were talking about optional things. I thought we were talking about something that was a personal preference, not a biblical mandate.
00:15:32
Speaker
And so sometimes those who are into legalism, they feel insulted when told the truth. How are you about truth? I'm not talking about so much tradition.
00:15:45
Speaker
But how about truth, biblical truth? We should always welcome biblical truth, but it's the traditions that are just endless. At least they were in that day, but also notice they felt somewhat insulated to the trauma that was coming from their traditions.
00:16:04
Speaker
So what was happening as they were telling people all of these things you need to do, you need to do, Well, it was causing so many people to be wounded. Verse 46 says, and he said, woe to you lawyers also for you load people with burdens hard to bear.
00:16:22
Speaker
And you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. So these people were saying, we can't do it. We can't keep all of that. And so they were saying, we don't care. Do you remember the quote I shared with you last week from Max Lucado? He's a prominent Christian author and so forth. I think he's from San Antonio.
00:16:43
Speaker
But Max Lucado wrote down and said, you know what? Legalism has no pity on people. Legalism has no compassion. There's no love there. And so we have to say, oh, Lord, help me.
00:16:54
Speaker
Let me tell you something that Jesus said about this kind of legalism that gets emotional but not over something substantial. Get this, Matthew 23, 24.
00:17:07
Speaker
I think that would be a good cross-reference to write beside that verse. Matthew 23, 24. Listen to what Jesus said. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.
00:17:23
Speaker
Strain, what do they talk what is he talking about? He's talking about straining out the little gnat. and ignoring, totally ignoring the large.
00:17:34
Speaker
And so that's what can happen. And it's all inconsistent, you see. and the inconsistency is especially seen when you drop down into verses 47 and 48.
00:17:47
Speaker
You'll see how they can become so emotional and so intense that they're like, oh, let's build these ah nice tombs for those prophets who served in the Old Testament.
00:17:59
Speaker
There's only one problem. Jesus knew the whole story. And he's like, I can't believe that. You guys rejected those prophets and you didn't listen to them while they were living. And now that they're dead, you want to build these elaborate monuments in their name. Listen to what he says in verse 47 and 48. Woe to you.
00:18:19
Speaker
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.
00:18:30
Speaker
And you build their tombs. Isn't that amazing? What a paradox. Because a lot of their ancestors had said, you know what? We don't want you, Jeremiah, to tell us that you know God is against what we're doing.
00:18:47
Speaker
And yet now, here they are, you know, years later, memorializing them after their death. But Jesus can see through it. He knows that they're still rejecting him. He's come from God the Father. He's the Son of God. He's come to tell them the truth.
00:19:04
Speaker
And did the Pharisees like him? Did the legalists like him? No, not at all. The same pattern of rejecting those that God sent. It's still happening, even in their day.
00:19:16
Speaker
And so Jesus said, it's like a show that's void of internal substance. There's nothing substantive there. The Apostle Paul said something about this in Romans 10, verses two through four.
00:19:31
Speaker
Listen closely to what he said. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own They did not submit to God's righteousness for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
00:19:58
Speaker
See what they were doing? You know they were rejecting Christ. They were rejecting what he came to do. And so it's like he was calling them out on it and saying, it's not right for you guys to act like you are the ones who honor the prophets when you're rejecting me, the son of God that the father has sent.
00:20:19
Speaker
I think the fourth thing that we see verses 49, 50, and 51 could be called emphasizing the traditional over the biblical, above the biblical.
00:20:32
Speaker
Just how serious can religious tradition be if emphasized over biblical truth? You realize, don't you, that Christian missionaries around the world are being killed, being martyred.
00:20:47
Speaker
And who martyrs them? You know who it is usually? It's religious people. Religious people are putting to death the missionaries, those national Christians and believers who are placing their faith and their trust
Tradition vs. Truth
00:21:01
Speaker
in Christ. Why are they doing that?
00:21:03
Speaker
Because of the traditions. that they were schooled on from the time they were kids all the way through at adulthood. And so you think, how serious can it all be?
00:21:15
Speaker
Well, I want to walk back through slowly, 49, verse 50, verse 59, 51, and I want to show you what Jesus is saying about how what happens when someone chooses traditional over biblical. Okay.
00:21:32
Speaker
So here's the first thing verses 49 and 50. He says, you know what? The prophets were sent with God's word. So God has something he wants to say to that generation.
00:21:45
Speaker
You know, back then, let's say Jeremiah's generation, God has something he wants to say. So he gives his message to a prophet and says, go and deliver my word, deliver my message to my people.
00:21:59
Speaker
That's the first phase of things. This is good. God's saying, I want you to know what my will is. I want you to know what's on my heart. So this is good. But notice verse 49 and 50.
00:22:12
Speaker
Persecution arose against God's will. Persecution arose against God's will. Now, God knew in advance that his message into those religious areas would not be welcomed.
00:22:28
Speaker
but he still wanted them to know. He wanted them to have the the good news. He wanted them to be able to know what it was he said. and so even today, he wants people worldwide, everywhere to know the truth, regardless of the price.
00:22:47
Speaker
I think that's amazing that our God feels that way because he knows that somewhere in all of those regions around the world, there's somebody that's gonna have an open heart Even though many may come against the missionaries or those that are communicating the gospel, it's okay. Some will say yes to Christ.
00:23:08
Speaker
You know, um he goes on here and 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.
00:23:28
Speaker
Wow.
00:23:31
Speaker
You know, um Matthew 15, 3 says that Jesus asked a probing question of the legalists. And here's what he said. Why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
00:23:47
Speaker
In Mark chapter seven, verse eight, Jesus asked this. He said, you leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of man, rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.
00:24:02
Speaker
So it's like, it doesn't matter how we were brought up. It doesn't matter all of those extra things, those traditions, rituals, rules, whatever.
00:24:13
Speaker
What matters is what has God said? Am I listening to the word of God? Am I aligning my life with him? you remember Cain and Abel? Like there was Adam and Eve and they had two boys, Cain and Abel.
00:24:28
Speaker
And Cain killed Abel. But what was it about? What was it over? Do you remember? was over the offering. Abel's offering was accepted.
00:24:40
Speaker
Cain's offering was rejected by God. And that's why Cain rose in anger, and he killed his brother. Think about Zechariah, the prophet. It tells us in this next verse here, it says, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.
00:25:00
Speaker
See, Zechariah was in the temple. He was worshiping, but that's where he was killed, according to 2 Chronicles 24, verses 20 to almost like if take it's almost like if you take abel and you go to Zachariah, God says from a to Z, I've been watching all these centuries, all these years.
00:25:23
Speaker
I've been watching how people treat the messengers that I send, how they respond to my word. As a matter of fact, you know John the Baptist was one of the most recent martyrs at this time that Jesus was saying these words.
00:25:40
Speaker
But he also gives something else here. He says, 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.
00:25:54
Speaker
You see, before in verse 50, he said that they may be charged against this generation. And so it's like a charge was made, but now the sentence is carried out.
00:26:05
Speaker
He said it's going to be required of this generation. You do realize that those who say no to God, they face the ultimate court when they stand before a holy God.
00:26:19
Speaker
And he says, I made a way for you to come into my presence, for you to have all your sins forgiven. And you said no. And why did some people say no? Because of their religion, because of their tradition, that they wrote they were raised doing it.
00:26:39
Speaker
You know, he says this generation twice. Did you see it? Verse 50 and 51. That generation was given the clearest, the clearest revelation of truth any generation since man was placed on this earth.
00:26:55
Speaker
Can you imagine? Jesus was there. He spoke the truth. He lived the truth. He died on the cross for the truth, the truth of our sins so that we could be forgiven.
00:27:06
Speaker
And so to ignore that, is to face the accountability of God. The prosecution will end with God's wrath whenever it's fine the dust settles.
00:27:19
Speaker
But I want to look close with one more thing, and it can happen so easily.
Legalism vs. Evangelism
00:27:24
Speaker
You know, if you become so preoccupied with rules and traditions and legalism, then you know what you overlook totally?
00:27:34
Speaker
Evangelism. Evangelism. Have you ever seen anyone become become sort of like more and more antagonistic rather than more and more evangelistic?
00:27:46
Speaker
That can happen sometimes. Verses 52, 53, and demonstrate this. Why were the scribes and the Pharisees so antagonistic about Jesus? Why didn't they just see it?
00:28:01
Speaker
Why couldn't they just let it let down all of those traditions and let go and say, I believe you, Lord. Well, I want to give you some closing things here from verse 52, 53, and 54 why I think they were so antagonistic rather than evangelistic, wanting to you know send out men like Jacob Tice so that they could hear the message of Christ.
00:28:25
Speaker
I think one thing is because they had hidden the gospel. did you see Did you hear what Jesus says? Woe to you, lawyers, for you've taken the key the key of knowledge.
00:28:39
Speaker
You've taken away the key of knowledge. I remember when our family used to go to Gulf Shores, Alabama, and we would rent, you know, this, you know, townhouse type thing, and we would be there together, my family, my brother's family, my mom, we had great times.
00:28:54
Speaker
One of my younger brother's things he likes is he loves to eat candy. I mean, he's just a candy lover. So he has a bag of candy that he always brings whenever he goes on vacation.
00:29:06
Speaker
I'll never forget how upset he got when my mom hid that bag of candy. Man, he liked to tore the place up. You know, I'd say, Keith, let it go. We'd go back to the store and get more if it means that much to you. He said, no, all my favorites were in there. I don't know if they got my favorite candies here.
00:29:22
Speaker
But can you imagine if someone tried to hide, someone tried to take away the truth of the gospel? That's a serious thing. They had hidden the gospel, but they also had hushed the gospel.
00:29:36
Speaker
They didn't want to hear the gospel. That's why these scribes, that's why these Pharisees, it's like, no, don't tell me. I don't want to hear it anymore. He said, not only have you taken away the kievna the knowledge key of knowledge, you did not enter yourselves.
00:29:52
Speaker
That's why they didn't want it. They want anybody else doing do it because they chose not to do it. And so it's like they're hushing it and they're saying no. So that's why they also hindered.
00:30:04
Speaker
That's the third thing. They hindered the gospel. He says, Jesus looks right at them and said, you did not enter yourselves and you hindered those who were entering.
00:30:15
Speaker
What a terrible thing to hinder someone who's wanting to go forward and trust Jesus Christ. Also, he says, because they were hostile to the gospel.
00:30:27
Speaker
He said that they began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things. And what were they really trying to do as they were hostile to the gospel? I think they were hunting.
00:30:42
Speaker
They were hunting the gospel. When I was in Alberta, we did a lot of hunting. But lying in wait for him to catch him in something he might say.
00:30:53
Speaker
You know, Bible scholars say there's two words there that are used by hunters, lying in wait and to catch him. There's a trap. Let me close by just asking you some questions that summarize all five of these things.
00:31:08
Speaker
Why would anyone want to focus on an external when the Lord examines the internal heart? Why? Let's go to the second one. Why would anyone be so demanding about a secondary issue while neglecting the primary issue?
00:31:27
Speaker
Why would anyone become so emotional over something that's not really substantial? Why would anyone emphasize the traditional above the biblical?
00:31:39
Speaker
Why would anyone grow so antagonistic to the point of no longer even caring about evangelism, no longer even caring about winning others to Christ?
00:31:51
Speaker
I think when you get down to it, a legalist complicates the invitation to God, the invitation to put your faith and trust in Christ.
Simplifying the Path to God
00:32:01
Speaker
A legalist complicates it, but the Lord simplifies the invitations.
00:32:08
Speaker
Jesus spoke sobering words to an apostate church in Laodicea. He said that they were lukewarm toward him. They weren't hot, they weren't cold, they were just sort of bland.
00:32:21
Speaker
But he confronts them with these words. He said, you say, I'm rich, I've prospered, and i need nothing. But Jesus goes on to say, not realizing that you're wretched people,
00:32:35
Speaker
pitiable, poor, blind, and naked, Revelation 3.17. So after calling them to repentance, Jesus extends this simple gospel invitation.
00:32:48
Speaker
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
00:32:54
Speaker
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. Wow. How simple is it?
00:33:06
Speaker
Maybe you'd say, I know it's simple, but I can't get the door open. You know what? god God ripped the door. There was a veil that hung in the Jewish temple, and the veil was so incredibly thick, and it was really tall.
00:33:23
Speaker
But when Jesus died on the cross, you know what the Father did? He took hold of that veil and it says in two places in the Bible that he ripped that veil from the top all the way to the bottom.
00:33:38
Speaker
And what that veil separated was a holy God in all of us, broken, sinful, messed up people. That's what is separated. And God said, I don't want the separation anymore.
00:33:50
Speaker
So let me ask you, if God's already opened his side of the door, Why not open your side of the door? And your side of the door opens by faith, by saying, I'm willing to turn from sin. I'm willing to put my complete trust in what Jesus Christ did for me on that cross. Have you ever been in a hotel and you get an adjoining room with family? And it's like you got two doors there.
00:34:19
Speaker
And if one of those doors is locked, nobody's getting across. no but There's not gonna be a connection. So God rips the veil of the temple, the veil that was in the temple.
00:34:30
Speaker
And he said, I've made a way through my son, only one way to get to me through Christ. So now we have to say, will I unlock the door, the door of faith and say, I put my trust in you, Jesus.
00:34:44
Speaker
Please come into my life. Please change my life. Please save me of my sin. Please forgive me, Lord. I don't know if you grew up with that. Maybe you grew up with other traditions, and another religion, but I'm trying to tell you the truth.
00:35:01
Speaker
So here's the thing. Will you put tradition over truth? Will you put some kind of a ritual over the gospel? The gospel is the best news you'll ever hear.
00:35:14
Speaker
So let's stand together. I want to give our musicians the opportunity to come and take their place as as we prepare to extend the gospel invitation to any who are here who would say, you know what? I don't know.
00:35:27
Speaker
don't know what you're talking about I don't know Christ. But for some reason, I sense him pulling me and pulling me. it's It's the love of God drawing you to the Son of God.
00:35:38
Speaker
only through him. His life was perfect. He perfectly obeyed the father. And that's why all of us who are broken, we have to trust in what he did for us.
00:35:49
Speaker
So let's pray and ask the Lord to draw any during this time of invitation who need to make that decision to say, you know what? If he's going to open the door for me, I'm going to open the door to him.
00:36:02
Speaker
Let's pray. Lord, I thank you. I really thank you so much that when you sent your son, Jesus, to die the cross, you made the only way, the new and the living way for us to come into your
Conclusion and Prayer
00:36:17
Speaker
family.
00:36:17
Speaker
You want us to know you so badly. You want us to spend eternity in heaven with you, but you are holy. And that's why, Lord, in order for people to approach you,
00:36:29
Speaker
They have to come through the perfect, sinless Son of God. We cannot work our way into heaven. It is only by faith in the finished work of Christ. It's only by grace that we are saved.
00:36:46
Speaker
And so, Lord, if there are any that are here today, we just ask that you would draw them to yourself. Let them know that you've already opened the door. They have to open the door of faith.
00:36:57
Speaker
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
00:37:05
Speaker
is a ministry of first baptist church located at seventeen hundred milam street columbus texas