Unchanging God. Unchanging God. And He makes the strength of that stability available to us through great and precious promises, upon which our life can be built through a salvation that can save us to the uttermost, never change, never be lost, offers us eternity with Him, and His grace will never Fail, falter, because He is an unchanging God. So many truths, so much of our hopes is built upon just that simple truth that this God of ours never changes. The same yesterday, today, and forever. Want to turn to God's unchanging, reliable word this evening. And that actually will come up a little bit tonight as we read our text in Matthew 14. If you want to read along, we're going to start at verse 34. We're going to go into chapter 15. There's just a few verses left at the end of chapter 14. And we're going to go into chapter 15 here. And the title of our thought tonight is Hiding Behind Clean Hands. And just to remind you of what we've been talking about, Jesus fed the 5,000 after he had crossed over the Sea of Galilee and then sent his disciples to go back across the sea, sent the crowds away. He went to the mountains to pray. There was a great windstorm that came upon the waters. The disciples were unable to move. and make progress. They were stranded in the middle of the Sea of Galilee and then Jesus came to them walking on the water. Of course, that's when Peter asked, can I come out too? And Jesus allowed him, bid him to come and he walked and then he faltered. But through all of that, Peter was willing to step out of the boat. And so We're gonna see now they've come back to the area, to the side of the Sea of Galilee from whence they originally left to go get away from everybody. And they land in this area called Gennesaret. And we read just a few verses here, three verses that talk about what happened when they landed back in Gennesaret. So if you wanna read with me, I'm gonna start here and we're gonna read down through chapter 15, verse nine. And just so you know, I'm gonna stop at verse nine, but what Jesus is saying in that whole situation in chapter 15, continues on down to verse 20, I just felt the need to break it up a bit. So anyway, let's start reading here, Matthew 14, starting in verse 34. And when they were gone over, okay, going back over the sea, they came into the land of Gennesaret. And when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they sent out into all that country round about and brought unto him all that were diseased. and besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment. And as many as touched were made perfectly whole. Chapter 15. Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honor thy father and mother. And he that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition." You hypocrites. Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people draws nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. And we're going to stop our reading there. We're going to go back and talk about this first part just briefly here, the healing from the hymn of his garment here. Back in chapter 14, just these three verses. Gennesaret, as we're looking here about Jesus going and his disciples coming to Gennesaret and people saw him, they recognized him. This was not far from his home base in Capernaum. Capernaum was kind of where Jesus resided. It was the the home base and he bounced from there to different places during his ministry. And Genesaret was just a little bit south of that there on the western coast, northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee. And so he's gone back into Herod's territory. And of course he's recognized because he had done so much ministry around the area. And when people heard about Jesus coming, they told everybody, they said, look, Jesus is here. And everybody came, everybody who was sick. And what was going on, they just said, just let us touch the edge of your garment, just the fringes of the garment down there. And Jesus, there's no reason to doubt that Jesus didn't wear a traditional Jewish robe, which would have had the tassels on the bottom as prescribed in the Old Testament law. Just touching the end of those tassels, they would be healed. of their infirmity. And how? How healed were they? It says they were made perfectly whole. If you look at the end of verse 36. They were made perfectly whole. Now this sounds kind of mechanical. Sounds kind of impersonal. But we understand from reading about the woman who had that infirmity for all of those years. Was it 12 years? A long time. Right? Jesus knew when she touched Him. He said, you know, virtue has gone out of me. And so there's no reason to think that this was impersonal, but that each of these interactions was personal. But that's all that it was taking, simply touching the fringe of his garment. And you see the faith growing in the people about what Jesus could do. Now, we're going to transition to chapter 15, which is going to talk about the washing of hands. And you say, well, how is this related? Why would this be here? Just kind of take note that the stricter groups of the Jews, like the Pharisees and the Essenes, they counted it an abomination to rub shoulders with people in a crowd. You never knew what ceremonial uncleanness you might contract from all of these unclean, sick people. Being around people like that made you ritually Unclean and Jesus was no doubt as disciples were getting touched and rubbing shoulders with all sorts of unclean and impure people and So we go now to the next chapter chapter 15 and these first two verses says then came to Jesus Okay, so it sounds like he's here in Genesaret area then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem Now these are the folks who will eventually be working to have Jesus killed, okay? They're not quite there yet, but they're coming to Jesus here in this area when he's in Galilee and they ask him a question. And it's a loaded question. Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. That word transgress is serious. Your disciples, that are people following you, your influence that you're having on these people, they sin against, they break the tradition of the elders. And they don't wash their hands before they eat. Now, as we think about what they're saying, and I want us to kind of ask questions and think about what's going on here. What is their source of authority? Where are they coming from? They argued from the tradition of the elders. So what is that exactly? What are they talking about? At this point in time, I'm going to probably mispronounce it. I'll try to pronounce it as well as I can. It's the Jewish halakha, okay? It is their oral tradition. that had been passed down and built upon over generations from around the time of Moses. And it just grew and it grew and it grew as the people faced different issues and new things came up. All this, they started building this oral tradition about what was right and what was wrong and how to apply how to apply God's truths to life, and what it should look like in flesh and blood. At this point in time they had an oral tradition. It would eventually get transcribed in what we call the Mishnah today. You can actually go and read that, and you can read about some of these things we're talking about here. But in Jesus' day it wasn't all written down yet. It was the oral tradition of the elders. And when they would cite a rule, They would say, you know, it is unlawful to eat with dirty hands, as says Rabbi such-and-such, and Rabbi such-and-such, and Rabbi such-and-such. They would cite the different teachers, the Jewish teachers who taught that rule. So when they learned the rule, they didn't just learn the rule, but they cited back to some famous names of people who they all trusted as authoritative. And so this all had built in over time. And here, the specific tradition was all Jews, all good Jews, should wash their hands before eating. Well, what did the law say? Like the law, like God's law. What did God's law say about hand washing? The only place you can find it in the Old Testament really is in Exodus 30. Verses 19 and 20, I'm not gonna read it, but the priests, the priests were supposed to wash their hands when they went into the temple and when they were about to approach the altar to serve. They were to wash their hands and their feet, actually. So hands and feet. But there was no requirement for the priest or anybody else to have to wash their hands before they ate. Period. It's just not there. So what then was the point? What was the point of the tradition? Why did they develop this rule? Well, they didn't understand all that we understand about being sanitary. And believe you me, I'm all for washing your hands. I'm down with that. And especially after shaking hands. I love, when I go out to Mexican after Sunday morning, I clean my hands before I get here and I go there and I'm like, I gotta go wash my hands because I've been shaking everybody's hands. And I love to shake your hands. I just don't want to eat what's on your hands. Okay. So I am not against washing my hands. Okay. But this is not about being sanitary per se. It's much more in their minds about being ritually pure. It's much more in their minds about purity. Because these Jews now were living amongst the unclean, the Gentiles, the heathens. They were living amongst the sinners, the impure. People like the publicans, the tax collectors. And they were concerned with being contaminated by all these ungodly, immoral, impure people. by which they had to be surrounded. They couldn't get away from them. In fact, you say, well, how do you know that? Well, look ahead. I told you this doesn't end in verse 9. Jesus continues on teaching. If you just look ahead at verses 10, 11, and 12, Jesus goes on and he teaches. He calls the multitude together and says to them, hear and understand, not that which goes into the mouth defiles a man, but that which comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man. And so Jesus says, You eating with unwashed hands is not going to make you morally unclean. It's the stuff that's coming out of your mouth that you're saying and doing that's what's making you morally unclean. But then his disciples came and said to him, knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying? The reason they were offended is because Jesus hit the nail on the head. I mean, that's exactly what the whole thing was about. Like, I'm living amongst all these sinners. I'm around these people. And just being around them, I don't want it to rub off on me. Right? I don't want them to rub off on me. I'm certainly not going to eat after I've been around these people. So that's what was going on. But what's the point of asking the question? I mean, they came up from Jerusalem, right? It wasn't just like they were kind of there hanging out and saw it and they're like, oh, what's going on with that? No, no, no, no. They came up from Jerusalem and they had this question. I mean, they came loaded. What was really behind this? I believe they were asking Jesus, why don't you submit to the authority of the elders? This is clearly an attempt to pull rank on Jesus. You are not falling in line with the elders. Are you and your disciples going to submit to the tradition of our elders or not? And I believe that is why Jesus reacts so strongly in the following verses. Because if it had been an innocent and sincere question, I think the way he responded would have been different than this. Because he comes back right away with pointing out their sin. In fact, Jesus and his disciples had committed no sin here. But these Pharisees who came up from Jerusalem had sin. In verse 3, he answers. He said to them, why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? You ask me a question, let me ask you a question. Why will you sin against God's Word by virtue of your tradition? So when they came up to Jesus, they introduced the authority. They said, here's the tradition of the elders. Jesus said, well, here's my authority, the commandment of God. Thus says the Lord. So here, Jesus is tying himself to what? To God's holy inspired word, written down, preserved, the same word that was read in their synagogues and at the temple every single week. And what was Jesus' claim? that their tradition, at least at some points, violated the commandments of God. Some of these traditions are actually working counter to what God has said should happen. And what was Jesus' point? They had elevated their traditions to a higher plane than God's Word. They made it more important than what God had said. And here's the practical effect. Rather than leaning upon God's Word, they were leaning upon their own understanding, as we're told not to do in Proverbs 3.5. Rather than being nurtured in the Word, they were becoming vain in their imaginations, as it says in Romans 1.12. Or excuse me, 121. Rather than building their lives upon the Word, they were building on the sand. As it says in Matthew 7, 26. Their whole source, their whole basis, what they were trusting in was not what God had said, but what their elders had said. And Jesus goes on and He gives them a specific example. And He doesn't talk about the washing of hands. What he talks about is another one of their traditions that fell in the same category of rules that they kept. Jesus gives the commandment first. He said, here's the example. Verse 4, for God commanded saying, honor thy father and mother. And he that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. And so Jesus lays out, here's what God's word is. I'm going to start with the foundation. And he cites two passages, both in Exodus. One's Exodus 20, verse 12, from the Ten Commandments. Honor your father and mother. The other one's in the next chapter, Exodus 21, verse 17, where it says those who curse their parents should die. So he quotes two passages. And then he said, but here is your tradition. Your tradition, but ye say, here is the tradition of the elders. Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, it is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, and honor not his father or mother, he shall be free. Now I just kind of put these things back to back for a second. I know it's maybe a little bit unclear what this means. But Jesus says, God's word said, whoever curses father or mother should die. You're supposed to honor them. And then here you have this tradition of the elders, which allows you to do something contrary to your parents and you're free. You're okay. You're counted as good. You're counted as righteous. These things don't work together. Your tradition is contradicting God's commandment. Now, what exactly is their tradition? This is the Jewish tradition of Korban. And you can go back and read about it in the Mishnah. And if you go back and read, it sounds like, perhaps even in reaction to Jesus pointing out the clear contradiction with the word, they may have lightened it up a little bit since Jesus' day, but we understand what was happening in Jesus' day with this Jewish tradition of Korban. What you could do as a good faithful Jew, you could dedicate some of your assets, your land, some of your money, your fields, whatever, You could dedicate your assets or portion thereof as a gift to the religious establishment to go into the temple treasury prior to your death. And that would be given over when you die. Until then, it's yours. Use it however you want. Do whatever you want with it. But when you die, you've made a commitment because you chose to do this willingly, freely, that when you die, it's going to the temple treasury. Well, what does that do? Well, you can do whatever you want with it, but say mom and dad came along and they've fallen on hard times and they need help. And the Bible says, honor your father and mother, not to curse them. And I know a lot of you, I mean, this is the South here. Y'all are pretty good about taking care of your own, aren't you? You understand the importance of taking care of your family. Be in their form, whether it's your mom or dad or your kids or whoever. Y'all understand that, the significance of that. Well, at this time, if you had dedicated your assets to the temple, you know, and it would cost you something to have to help them out, you can say, I'm sorry. You know, if I gave you money, if I took care of you, if I did this, then it's going to be less for the temple when I die. So I'm free. And the Jewish establishment said, that's good because you've dedicated it to them when you die. And yeah, but you could still go do what you wanted to with it. You could keep growing your fruit and using that for yourself and your fields and your house and all that stuff and not sacrifice anything personally, but not have to give to anybody else. Because when you die, it's gonna go to the temple. That was their tradition. And it was binding unless they were released from it by a rabbi. As an aside, who do you think oversaw the temple treasury? The Jewish establishment, the ones who were making the rules. So they had a little skin in the game here to be able to maintain those things, those assets that were dedicated. Well, what was the result? As Jesus said, thus you have made the commandment of God of none effect. by your tradition. God's Word that says honor your father and mother and the one that curses his parents should die. You have said, doesn't count, doesn't matter, you're free from it. You don't have to do that because our tradition says and you have done this and so you are free. And Jesus said, do you see what you are doing? You have ruled God's Word to be null and void, to be unlawful. while your tradition stands. Maybe that's akin for us to rule the Constitution to be unconstitutional on substantive grounds, like there's a real reason to say that part of our Constitution is unconstitutional. I mean, it's just not something we typically do. But that's kind of what they were doing to the Word of God through their tradition. And as a little aside, in Galatians 3, I thought this was interesting as I was studying, the Apostle Paul is speaking about the promise made to Abraham, the covenant made to Abraham. And he's talking about the promise given to Abraham and of course the law that came to Moses 430 years later. The law revealed of course that Abraham's descendants and all of us are sinners and we fall short and we are not what God has called us to be. But as in regard to that covenant that God made to Abraham, I just want you to see what it says. Paul said, in this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of God and Christ, the law, which was 430 years after that promise, the covenant to Abraham, it cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it's no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise." There's kind of two points here, and I want to say it. According to Scripture, Scripture can't even trump Scripture, even if it were unscriptural. Does that make sense? According to Scripture, like what Paul's writing in Galatians 3, Scripture can't even overrule Scripture, even if it were unscriptural, which it's not. God's Word cannot be made null. Now, Paul goes on to explain the promise to Abraham was that a promise, a promise made upon grace, not based upon law. So therefore, the law doesn't annul God's promise. So he explained why it's not unscriptural. But he starts off by saying, look, you can't undo one scripture with another. They stand. It stands. Our problem that we run into in this passage is that these people were exalting their authority over God's. They were lifting up their tradition over what God's Word said. And Jesus goes on in these last verses and he says, you hypocrites, you hypocrites. I mean, a hypocrite is the one that's saying something and doing another. They were portraying themselves as servants of God, but in reality, they were not serving God. And then he quotes Isaiah. Well did Isaiah prophesy of you? He said, there's a passage in Isaiah he wrote all those hundreds of years ago, it's about you. He said, this people draws nigh unto me with their mouth, and they honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain, for nothing they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Here you have declared God's Word to be null and void. And God is saying, your worship is null and void. You cannot overlook, overturn, ignore God's Word and still maintain a sincere and pure worship. For then what are you worshiping? It's pretty serious, isn't it? In fact, I want to look at this passage from Isaiah. I know it's a lot of words up on the screen. It's just two verses. This is what Jesus was quoting. The Lord said, because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men. So what their fear of me, the way they try to worship me is something that they teach of themselves, not of me. Therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder, and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden. So there was the prophecy. Because of this, I'm going to do amazing things around them, and then I'm going to prove them to be very, very foolish. What was going on when Isaiah wrote this in the context of it? Israel was worshiping God continually as if everything was all good, but it really wasn't. So God promised distress. God promised destruction upon the nation because of their sin. And the judgment was going to be spiritual blindness and spiritual deafness. They would be unaware of what was right in front of them. Like Jesus. And he explains in that passage in Isaiah that their worship was a form of manipulation. They were trying to worship God by going through the motions, trying to manipulate God that if I do all these things and I give you lip service and I look like I'm trying to be a good Christian or a good Jew to them, then you're gonna give me all the things I want. But it didn't deceive God, because he saw right through the external things. And the promise at the end of that passage was that the unexpected, miraculous work of God, the unexpected gospel of Jesus Christ would confound and overcome and expose them. And this was the day. This was the day. that this prophecy was coming to pass. And many other days surrounding this, but this day right here, they came to Jesus with their wise people from Jerusalem, the capital, the center of their worship of their religious leaders. And they came to talk to Him about whether He's going to submit to the authority of the elders because they know all of these things. And Jesus just blows them up with a few words and shows the foolishness of their tradition. What's the result? Their hands were clean, but their hearts were not. The hands were clean, but the hearts were not. The outside is clean, but the inside is putrid. Their worship was empty. It was null and void. It was worthless. Why? Because they were exalting the traditions of men above God's commands. They were hiding behind their clean hands. They felt like they were being good and observant, going above and beyond, but in all their efforts to go above and beyond, they were neglecting the very basis of what God desires. Because what is worship? Worship is about esteeming God. And you can't esteem the God of your imagination and truly be worshiping the God of the Bible. He is the one who has given us His Word, and He is the one who has to dictate the thoughts, and the directions, and the motives, and all the things of our heart. It's going back to Him and what He wants. That's what worship truly is. And their twisted worship, what it revealed was what they really worshipped themselves. They worshipped their authority. They worshipped what they could do and what they were trying to accomplish. And so their rules became the most important things. And their attempt to go to Jesus and enforce their tradition just reveals that they were trying to get Jesus to bow the knee to them too. Not a lot different than Satan with Jesus in the wilderness. Saying, I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world if you will simply bow down and worship me. And probably these Jews would say, Jesus won't let you alone and will support you as long as you will bow down and submit yourself to the tradition of the elders. But Jesus would not because He worshipped God alone. He worshipped the God of Scripture. He worshipped the true and the living God alone. And these Jewish leaders, their fear of losing control is exactly what Satan would use to incite them to murder Jesus, because Jesus threatened their authority, their control. And as I mentioned, Jesus isn't done with this issue. He's going to pick it up in a moment. But as we move to close, I want us to think about just a couple things about what this means to us. We need to build on the rock of truth. As we think about how we need to take this truth and apply it, we need to be a people who stand upon the word of God. And it's such an easy thing to say. I mean, every church everywhere in America that considers themselves in any stretch religiously conservative would say that they believe exactly what the Bible says and that's what they're practicing. whole lots of different denominations, a whole lot of different people that we would not agree with on a whole lot of things would say, we're doing exactly what the Bible says. And so it's really easy to say, we're going to do what the Bible says. And everyone says, amen. And the Jews would have said the same thing. That's why it's important. It's important for us to be a people who know how to get into our Bibles. People who know how to read the Word. Not just to educate ourselves, but to be able to go and to hear God speak. To hear what God would say to build and to want to build at the youngest ages all the way up as we think about this. We've got this new Christian Education Committee and one of the phrases that we're using a bit is biblical literacy. We want to teach from the youngest all the way up, people to be able to understand and know the word, to be able to go to it, to be able to hear the voice of God themselves. Yes, it's important to hear preaching. Yes, it's important to come and be part of teaching, and that's a big part of it. But it's God's desire that each and every one of his children can be edified from the word. That's another reason we're spending time as a church, Wednesday nights, and I know it's been a year, and we're gonna go on, on our doctrines. It's important for us to have doctrinal clarity, and not just to say what we believe, but to be able to show where we get it from. to be able to look at scriptures, and not just one, but multiple, and show how they tie together, so that when we say we believe this, we can understand that it's because it's what God has said. That we can read this and say, that is a reasonable interpretation of the word. Because we can say we believe a lot of things, but if it's not what God's word is really saying, it's not worth anything. That's only what's going to stand as what's based upon God's word. And so we need to understand what we believe. We need to understand that it's coming from this, but we also need to understand why it's important. That's what's going to build convictions in our hearts and convictions in the hearts of the youth so that they're not blown around by every wind of doctrine, as the Bible warns us of. That's part of the job of pastors and teachers, right, Brother Randy? We are to help to grow a congregation so that all y'all and us are not blown around by every wind of doctrine. We need to be a people who meditate upon the Word. that are nurtured by it, and not given to vain imaginations, but are really strengthened and built upon this. Because what is it at the heart? It's a matter of esteeming God above every other tradition, or opinion, or creed, or invention of men. That's at the heart of why we need to spend time in the Word and in prayer daily, because it's about esteeming God. And God desires to speak into our lives. I mean, I mentioned it this morning, but it's just so fresh to me and some things that have been going on and working through. just in times of prayer and calling out, crying out to God. I mean, just pouring my heart out to God about some things, asking for help, asking for wisdom. And then, you know, just like immediately after sometimes, I mean, he does it on his own time. I'm not saying it's always immediately after. Most instant circumstance this week, it was. But he just immediately took something that I had studied and read, and he just started lighting it on fire in my heart. And not just that, but just illuminating me about how to apply this and to and to use it in this situation. And it just to me, it was just like I was just praising God because this is something I'd read and whatever a hundred times and I'd use it. I taught it and I preached it. But God was shaping it about what I need to do right now in this situation to be able to do the best thing that was needed. And I didn't want to screw it up. And it was there. And it was exactly what I needed. And it was just so precious to me. So precious. But I don't think that I'm the only one he wants to talk to. And I know I'm not the only one he's talking to here. I know others of you are in the word. And it's such a precious thing. And the second point of application is we need to be a people who prioritize what really matters. We need to be able to recognize the truth versus the tradition. We've got to be able to recognize what tradition is, not to change it all, but to ensure that tradition is always serving God's purpose rather than hindering it. Does that make sense? I'm not looking to change every tradition. Just because it's a tradition. But when we understand that it's a tradition, we should understand why we have it in place and make sure that that is always serving the greater good and purpose. And that it's not something we do just to do it. And that it takes on a life of its own. You all have heard probably a hundred times the story about the ham, right? Little girl was being taught by her mom how to fix a ham. And mom cut the end of the ham off. And the little girl said, mom, why do you do that? She's like, well, that's the way my mom taught me to do it. And it's the right way to do it. And then that woman then goes and asks her mom, why did you cut the end of the ham off? What's the point? My daughter's asking me. She said, it's because the pan's too small. I had to fit it in the pan. That's why I cut the ends off. If you've got a bigger pan, you don't need to cut it off. But as that woman had watched her mom growing up, she just saw her cut off the ends of the ham. She never asked why. She never sought to understand it. She just thought that's how you fix a ham. And so she continued to fix the ham that way and tried to teach it to another generation who was taught to keep cutting the ends off the ham. And they didn't need to. And that's the kind of thing that we need to grow past. Because if we are a people who are anchored in God, and in his truth, we're going to have and experience such freedom, a freedom kind of like the apostle Paul had, to truly worship God and to truly serve other people. You know, Paul said, look, I make myself all things to all men that I might win the more. I know how to live among the Jews. And I know how to work among the Gentiles. I can serve God in a full heart and spirit any place that I'm at. I think about Brother Jeff Elliott a bit like this, because that guy can just be like a chameleon. He can be in Pakistan, or he can be in Belize, or he can be here, or he can be there. And of course, he always kind of sticks out, right? But he can just make himself at home However, people are worshiping, if they're up dancing and clapping, if they're sitting down like this or whatever, he's going to find himself there. And he just doesn't really care about all the different traditions and stuff people can get so caught up in because his focus is so much just like on the good that can be accomplished there for the Lord. And I think that I feel those instincts in much of this church. that we can be that and we can do that, because my friend, that's going to free us to really make sure our worship is directed toward the God of the Bible and not just the traditions of the past. But it's also going to free us up to be able to love and serve all sorts of people, because wasn't that truly the problem with those Pharisees who were so tied up in tradition? They weren't loving God, nor were they really loving anybody else. They were just loving themselves. And Jesus here is exposing that kind of thinking to show us a way that our hearts can truly be given to love him and to love others in the way they need to be. My friend, one day there's going to be every tribe and tongue and nation on the earth gathered together, worshiping the Lord. And it's gonna be so good and it's gonna be so beautiful. And I bet you all think they're gonna be singing out of the Heavenly Highway hymns. Maybe we'll be singing that new song. I don't know. But the point is it's gonna be good. It's gonna be good and it's gonna be real and it's gonna please the Lord. And that should always be our aim in all things. That's our message tonight.