Clean Inside and Out

 N.T.#263 "Clean Inside and Out"

March 14, 2024

Matthew 23-Part 5

LET IT GLOW 

Don't we like to wear clean clothes and have taken a shower or bath to remove dirt from our body? Yet more important is our heart and soul. Are we concerned with keeping sin out of our mind and soul? Do we daily confess our sins to Jesus? Some men had this problem. Check it out.

We are finishing the 8 woes Jesus gave to the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees. Jesus saw their hearts and they were unclean. 

7. They were like whitewashed tombs-beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity. Those guys looked like righteous people outwardly, but inwardly their hearts were filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness. (NLT) Oh, they appeared clean, pure, holy, and spotless, yet their heart had a stench of death and corruption. (verses 27-28)

Tombs were regularly whitewashed to make them stand out. Accidentally touching or stepping on a grave caused ceremonial uncleanness. (Numbers 19:16) (MacArthur)

No matter how much you decorate the exterior of a grave, the interior still contains death. The Pharisees seemed righteous to People on the outside, but on the inside they had wicked motives and desires. (Evans)

Are we clean from the inside out? Does our heart match our appearance?

LET IT GROW

8. The last woe to the scribes and Pharisees who built tombs of the prophets and decorated the graves of the righteous. (verse 29) They claimed that THEY would not have joined with their forefathers who killed the Old Testament-era prophets. Yet at the same time, they were rejecting the Messiah and planning to murder Him. They were just like those who had gone before them and murdered the prophets. (verse 31) (Tony Evans)

What a ridiculous claim to self-righteousness. How sad the influence those guys had on the people. Folks wee bullied all their lives by the man-made rules enforced by guilt and shame. They learned to hate rather than love the things of God. These were the strongest words Jesus ever delivered during His 33 year ministry. He confronted those whose influence reached well beyond His number.

Are we wearing a mask, pretending to be a Christian, with a clean heart?

LET IT GO

Cleanse my heart O God, make it ever pure. Cleanse my heart O God, may I be like you.

Thank You Jesus for providing a way to heaven, a way to live pleasing the Father, a way to show others love You have for them.

Show us our sins and help us admit them.