WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:05.599 And so if you were here last week, we got to kick off our summer sermon series called Summer in the Scriptures. 00:00:05.679 --> 00:00:11.199 So we're going to be spending a whole summer looking at different passages in the Bible and learning from different scriptures. 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:17.519 And so another thing that happens to be going on this summer is the Formula One World Championship is in full swing right now. 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:21.600 And if you don't know what Formula One is, it is the highest level of motor racing. 00:00:21.679 --> 00:00:26.239 And so they travel all across the globe, uh race in different countries, different cities. 00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:28.160 They have the best drivers, best cars. 00:00:28.239 --> 00:00:30.879 It's the top class racing division. 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:34.399 And of course, the most famous team is Ferrari. 00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:36.399 I think all of us know Ferrari. 00:00:36.479 --> 00:00:42.799 We've seen the fast red sports car in the movies, we've seen them pulled over on the side of the highway, and they're everybody's favorite team. 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:49.200 And for Formula One, they have the most world championships, the most race wins, and they're just the most iconic team. 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:52.079 And for them, in the 2010s, it was just a big drought for them. 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:57.200 Other teams like Red Bull and Mercedes were dominating, they were getting all the wins, all the world championships. 00:00:57.359 --> 00:01:02.960 And then it came to 2019 where Ferrari brought in the best young driver named Charles Declare. 00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:06.879 He was a Monaco-born boy, and so he was just ready for the scene. 00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:11.680 So they finally had the driver, and then in 2022, they had the fastest car on the grid. 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:12.480 So there it was. 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:18.560 2022, fastest car, one of the fastest drivers, six races in, they're in the lead. 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:23.280 They have this huge lead over all the other teams, and it looks like it's finally gonna be Ferrari's year. 00:01:23.439 --> 00:01:27.680 They're gonna be back on top and they're gonna get the world championship. 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:33.359 And so in this race, in the sixth race of the year in Spain, Charles Declare is out there, he's in the lead for Ferrari. 00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:38.239 It's looking like they're gonna get another win and take another step towards winning the championship. 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:44.560 But then, about 20 or 30 laps into the race, they cut to Charles Leclerc, and he's out there driving. 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:48.799 He he notices that his screen on his steering wheel just goes black. 00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:52.319 And then he says on the radio, like, oh no, oh no, what just happened? 00:01:52.480 --> 00:01:57.760 And so his team radio comes back to him and they say, Retire the car, retire the car. 00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:00.959 We had a mechanical failure. 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:05.599 So there he was, pulled to the side, out of the race, done. 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:10.639 So that was the first domino for Ferrari that fell in the wrong direction. 00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:18.000 After that, they had multiple other races where their engine just died in the middle of the race and they went on to lose that year. 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:23.120 So for Ferrari in that year, on the outside, everything looked good. 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:28.639 They finally had that fast red car again, they had one of the best drivers, they were in the lead. 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:32.560 But on the inside, not so much. 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:34.400 On the inside, it was a different story. 00:02:34.479 --> 00:02:39.840 They had an engine that just couldn't make it through a whole race without breaking down. 00:02:41.120 --> 00:03:07.039 And so the reason I share that story this morning is that in our spiritual lives, it's possible for us to have something very similar happen where on the outside everything can look good, everything can look great, but then on the inside, like Ferrari that year, we can have a faulty spiritual engine that, if we're not careful, might break down in the middle of our spiritual race. 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:15.919 So today, as we come to Matthew chapter 23, verses 25 to 26, Jesus is going to be addressing exactly this issue. 00:03:16.159 --> 00:03:31.840 And so starting in verse 25, Jesus says this Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:33.919 You blind Pharisee. 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:40.800 First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:47.520 So it probably helps to get a little bit of context here, because if you're not familiar with it, you might be wondering what's going on here. 00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:50.319 Did the Pharisees just have bad dishwashers? 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:53.120 What's going on with these cups and plates that are dirty? 00:03:53.199 --> 00:03:58.800 And so, if you're not familiar with the context here, Matthew 23, Jesus is addressing these groups of people called the Pharisees. 00:03:58.879 --> 00:04:01.840 And so the Pharisees were the spiritual elites of the day. 00:04:01.919 --> 00:04:07.360 They knew all the scriptures, they were the hotshots, everybody looked up to them, but they had this problem. 00:04:07.520 --> 00:04:12.560 They had this spiritual issue, this spiritual pride going on inside. 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:21.759 One of Jesus' most well-known parables is the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, in that two people go into this temple, one a Pharisee and one a tax collector. 00:04:21.839 --> 00:04:28.720 And this tax collector was this sinner, and the Pharisee looks at him and thinks, oh, thank you, thank you, God, that I'm not like that tax collector. 00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:30.639 Thank you, I'm not like him with all his sin. 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:33.120 Thank you, I'm not like that. 00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:35.920 Pharisees were blind. 00:04:36.079 --> 00:04:43.759 They were blind to their sin, to their pride, and ultimately to the dirty cups that they had. 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:49.680 So the temptation is the same for us today. 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:53.199 To have a dirty cup. 00:04:53.279 --> 00:04:56.480 And I think a lot of us might think, well, okay, that's not me. 00:04:56.879 --> 00:04:59.279 I'm not that far off the deep end like that Pharisee. 00:04:59.360 --> 00:05:04.959 I've never come into church and looked down and judged people that harshly like that Pharisee. 00:05:05.519 --> 00:05:13.279 And while that may be true, I think that probably is true for most of us here that we're not quite like these Pharisees exactly. 00:05:14.959 --> 00:05:28.000 But is it possible that in some little ways and subtle ways that each of us have a little bit of a Pharisee creeping out ourselves? 00:05:30.240 --> 00:05:36.240 Or maybe even we too have been slightly blinded to things like the Pharisees. 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:49.040 I know for me for college I went to Liberty University down in Virginia, and my freshman year, I got this electric longboard, and it was my mode of transportation all across campus, and it would just get me to class on time, get me everywhere. 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:51.439 It was a ton of fun, fly around campus. 00:05:51.600 --> 00:06:07.680 And my junior year, I came back and it was about one week in, and I was getting onto my longboard to go around this route that I had done a million times, and so I get out and I go and I'm going through this turn, and I just come through and I turn to the side and I look and I just see this car coming at me full speed. 00:06:07.839 --> 00:06:09.199 And I just I can't I can't help. 00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:10.160 I can't I can't stop. 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:19.839 And so the car nails me, I go flying into the windshield, it shatters, I go soaring through the air, land on the ground, and just all these people come rushing towards me, checking on me. 00:06:20.079 --> 00:06:25.360 Before I know it, I'm in this ambulance, rushing to the hospital, and it was terrifying. 00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:37.279 And then thankfully, God protected me, and all the exams, the x-rays, everything came back clean, no broken bones, and it was truly a miracle that I came out okay. 00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:47.839 But then, two days later, I checked my calendar and I saw that I had a preseason intramural football game. 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:52.319 And so, like any responsible college student, I decided I'm good to go. 00:06:52.560 --> 00:07:04.240 So I suited up, went out for the preseason game two days after being hit by a car, and I was our team's quarterback, and you know, the first few plays went pretty well, threw a couple passes, made some completions, was feeling feeling okay. 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:09.600 And I just remember there was this one play where I drop back into the pocket, I don't really see anybody open. 00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:15.519 So then I start to see these defenders are running at me, and so I think, oh no, I have to turn, I have to scramble, I have to run away. 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:20.240 So I spin and then I turn to run full speed to the left away from these defenders. 00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:37.920 I just remember when I took that first step, I just remember I felt all this pain shooting up inside my entire body, and I just run straight out of bounds, toss the football to the ref and just ride the rest of the game out on the bench and learned my lesson there. 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:43.680 And the problem with me in that story was that I was only looking on the outside. 00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:48.000 I saw, you know, x-rays were clean, no broken bones, no stitches. 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:50.319 I thought I was I was fine. 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:57.040 But then when the rubber met the road, I realized on the inside things were not so fine. 00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:03.040 I was completely blind to what was really going on inside of my body. 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:11.680 Is it possible that maybe maybe you've had that same blindness in your spiritual life? 00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:17.439 Maybe you look at the outside and everybody, all the exams, all the reports, they they check off, look good. 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:28.160 But is it possible there might be some not so good stuff deep down inside the cup of your spiritual heart? 00:08:29.839 --> 00:08:35.679 In Psalm 139, King David writes, Search me, O God, and know my heart. 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:43.919 Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:52.080 God is the only one who truly sees the inside of our cup. 00:08:52.960 --> 00:08:54.000 Others don't. 00:08:54.159 --> 00:08:57.200 We can hide it, we can dust it off. 00:08:57.519 --> 00:09:06.240 Even we can be blind to it sometimes, but God, God truly sees the inside of our cups. 00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:11.200 So let me ask you this morning. 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:18.320 Would you like to allow the spirit to search the inside of your cup this morning? 00:09:18.559 --> 00:09:24.000 Like David, are you willing to say, search me, O God, and know my heart? 00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:33.360 Is the Spirit searching you and bringing anything to light to you this morning? 00:09:35.039 --> 00:09:37.840 Maybe for you it's religion. 00:09:39.919 --> 00:09:51.919 Go to church every Sunday, read my Bible every day, go to small groups, check off all the boxes, yet inside maybe there's this spiritual pride. 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:57.919 Like that Pharisee, maybe you look at other people and think, you don't go to church every Sunday? 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:01.600 You don't read your Bible every day. 00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:08.240 Or maybe there's certain sins. 00:10:08.399 --> 00:10:09.759 Hey, I don't do these sins. 00:10:09.919 --> 00:10:11.360 I don't do these big sins. 00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:14.879 I don't do anything that big, that bad. 00:10:16.799 --> 00:10:24.799 Yet maybe inside there's quite a few sins in there that aren't as big or as well. 00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:41.120 Or maybe it's some kind of phony love where on the outside we we appear loving, we we we say all the right things, we we we do all the right things, yet on the inside there isn't that true, genuine love for the other person. 00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:46.240 It's bitterness, hard-heartedness, and not real. 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:56.480 Or maybe for you, it's just some way that the outside of your cup looks clean, but the inside has some dirt in it. 00:10:58.399 --> 00:11:04.399 So the question we have to ask is what do we do when we see that the inside of our cup is dirty? 00:11:04.879 --> 00:11:07.279 Because if we're honest, we all have that problem. 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:13.519 If we're honest, we all have some kind of problem with the inside of our cup. 00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:19.600 And so too did the author of Psalm 139, David himself. 00:11:19.919 --> 00:11:29.279 And so I'd like us to look at a time in his life where he had an outside of his cup that looked clean, but the inside not so clean. 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:33.279 So here we're gonna be looking at 2 Samuel chapter 11. 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:37.120 At this point, David is the king over all of God's people. 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:40.879 He was the shepherd boy that wrote all those psalms that we love. 00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:49.919 He was the one who knocked down Goliath, and this is what happens next in his life after years of following God. 00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:51.679 Verse 1. 00:11:51.840 --> 00:12:02.799 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. 00:12:03.039 --> 00:12:05.200 But David remained at Jerusalem. 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:26.320 It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful, and David sent and inquired about the woman, and one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? 00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:33.039 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him and lay with her, and he lay with her. 00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:36.240 Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness. 00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:43.039 Then she returned to her house, and the woman conceived, and sent and told David, I am pregnant. 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:51.600 This is quite a low point in David's life here. 00:12:52.960 --> 00:12:54.639 David's supposed to be king. 00:12:54.879 --> 00:12:59.679 He's supposed to be king that leads all of God's people in truth and righteousness. 00:13:00.559 --> 00:13:03.600 He's supposed to be the shepherd boy that we all love. 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:07.759 All those Psalms, the Lord is my shepherd, to taste and see that the Lord is good. 00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:09.200 Same guy. 00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:11.440 He wrote all that before this. 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:19.279 And yet, what is he doing? 00:13:20.159 --> 00:13:24.080 He's taking another man's wife, he's getting her pregnant. 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:26.320 David. 00:13:27.840 --> 00:13:30.080 And the truth is, David should have stopped here. 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:39.679 As soon as he heard the news that Bathsheba was pregnant, he should have seen what he did, knew that it was wrong, turned back to God in repentance. 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:43.919 But he doesn't. 00:13:44.639 --> 00:13:46.159 What does he do next? 00:13:46.879 --> 00:13:49.360 Many of us know the story. 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:53.679 He hears the news, he gets scared. 00:13:53.919 --> 00:14:02.559 He realizes that his reputation of being God's king is about to be attacked because of the sin that he committed. 00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:07.440 The outside of his cup is about to be revealed. 00:14:07.519 --> 00:14:09.279 And so what does he do? 00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:10.240 He decides to cover it up. 00:14:10.399 --> 00:14:12.480 He decides to clean off the outside of his cup. 00:14:12.639 --> 00:14:21.279 He says that he wants to have Uriah sent, sent home, send Uriah home so that it can look like this is Uriah's child and not mine. 00:14:21.679 --> 00:14:26.240 But Uriah refuses, and David decides he needs to finish things off. 00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:31.200 So he sends Uriah out to the front lines of battle where he knows Uriah will die. 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:41.200 There, everything will be cleaned up, and his sin won't come to the light, and his reputation will stay the same. 00:14:49.440 --> 00:14:55.759 David is cleaning the outside of his cup and leaving the inside filthy. 00:14:57.279 --> 00:14:59.600 What is it Jesus said in Matthew 23? 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:08.000 For you clean the outside of the cup and the pleat, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:11.919 Here the inside of David's cup is filthy. 00:15:12.159 --> 00:15:18.799 It's filled with lust, with sinful desires, yet he cleans the outside instead. 00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:32.320 Here we see that even the man after God's own heart deep down had a little bit of a Pharisee living in him, too. 00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:34.960 Even David. 00:15:35.840 --> 00:15:37.120 A seasoned David. 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:40.000 This isn't a 15-year-old David right after Goliath. 00:15:40.159 --> 00:15:44.879 No, this is David after years and years and years of following God and being God's king. 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:53.039 Even he can fail so horribly. 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:11.519 That in some way, like David, you've cleaned the outside of the cup, yet the inside. 00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:16.080 Not so clean. 00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:25.279 So I think we have to come back to the question from earlier of what do we do when we see the inside of our cup is dirty? 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:26.559 What do we do? 00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:37.759 A few years ago, Timothy Chalome and Steve Carell made this movie about a true story about this kid named Nick Schiff and his father, David Schaff. 00:16:38.159 --> 00:16:42.559 And in this story, we see that Nick grew up close to his father. 00:16:42.879 --> 00:16:47.200 He loved him dearly, and they just had this tight relationship every step of the way. 00:16:47.279 --> 00:16:49.679 And it came for Nick to go off to college. 00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:54.159 He graduated high school, it was time to go off to college, and he developed this bad drug addiction. 00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:58.480 He just spiraled farther and farther away from the boy that he once was. 00:16:58.720 --> 00:17:02.879 And it just comes to this one point in his life where he just falls the farthest he ever had. 00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:11.279 He moved across the country, he was making all these horrible decisions, left his family, and it comes to this one night where his friend is taken away in an ambulance. 00:17:11.440 --> 00:17:13.839 He sees all that he has done. 00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:18.880 And out in the middle of the road, he has no other choice but to call his father. 00:17:19.039 --> 00:17:22.720 He calls his father, his father picks up, and he lays it all out there. 00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:24.640 He says, Ted, I know I did wrong. 00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:27.200 I know, I know I screwed up. 00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:29.920 And I want to come home. 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:32.559 You're the one that's going to be able to help me get better. 00:17:32.720 --> 00:17:34.160 I want to come home. 00:17:35.680 --> 00:17:37.839 Nick poured out his heart. 00:17:38.079 --> 00:17:42.319 He poured out everything to his father that night. 00:17:46.319 --> 00:17:51.039 And for David and his life, he reaches this exact same place. 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:55.440 He's confronted by this prophet named Nathan. 00:17:55.680 --> 00:17:58.880 His sin is brought to light, and he sees what he's done. 00:17:58.960 --> 00:18:01.519 He sees the filth of the inside of his cup. 00:18:01.599 --> 00:18:06.880 He sees his sin, and he sees the broken man that he is. 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:13.920 And he brings it and he pours it out before God in Psalm 51, where he writes, Have mercy on me, O God. 00:18:14.160 --> 00:18:23.920 According to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 00:18:24.160 --> 00:18:30.000 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 00:18:32.480 --> 00:18:37.519 In Psalm 51, David finally sees what he was so blind to. 00:18:39.440 --> 00:18:43.279 Finally sees the problem with the inside of his cup. 00:18:43.599 --> 00:18:46.000 And he knows that he can't clean it. 00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:47.920 He knows that he can't clean it. 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:51.200 He tried to dust off the outside and he realized that wasn't enough. 00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:54.160 He could not clean the inside of his cup. 00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:57.599 That's why he cries out, Have mercy on me, O God. 00:18:57.839 --> 00:19:02.880 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:08.799 David is calling out to his God here to clean the cup that he had made so dirty. 00:19:11.519 --> 00:19:18.240 So let me ask you again, is the Spirit opening your eyes to your cup this morning? 00:19:18.559 --> 00:19:22.000 Do you see that, like David, you can't clean your cup yourself? 00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:26.960 Perhaps you've tried and you've realized it just keeps getting dirtier and dirtier. 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:33.279 The truth is, Jesus didn't come for those with a spotless cup. 00:19:33.440 --> 00:19:38.160 Jesus didn't come for those who can clean up their set their cup themselves and come to him. 00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:38.640 No. 00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:50.640 In Luke 5, Jesus said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I have come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. 00:19:51.119 --> 00:19:54.400 Jesus came for those with a dirty cup. 00:19:54.559 --> 00:20:01.279 Jesus came for those who look deep down inside their hearts and see nothing but a broken person filled with brokenness. 00:20:01.440 --> 00:20:02.799 That's who Jesus came for. 00:20:03.039 --> 00:20:05.599 Stop trying to clean your cup yourself. 00:20:05.839 --> 00:20:12.400 See what David did, how he poured it out to his God and he called out to him for mercy and do the same. 00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:15.440 Stop trying to do it all yourself and come to God. 00:20:15.599 --> 00:20:17.440 Pour out your heart before him. 00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:20.960 Jesus Himself is inviting you this morning. 00:20:21.279 --> 00:20:26.880 He is telling you that he has come not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. 00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:28.799 Say yes to that invitation. 00:20:29.279 --> 00:20:39.759 That you are a sinner and you want to come to Jesus, the physician, the only one who can make you well and make your heart clean. 00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:50.079 But so often we find ourselves coming back to this place, don't we? 00:20:51.039 --> 00:21:00.720 Or maybe it feels like we we take two steps forward in our spiritual race, and then that spiritual engine just breaks down again. 00:21:02.160 --> 00:21:05.680 And sometimes maybe it feels like we just we can't get past something. 00:21:07.039 --> 00:21:11.039 You know, and that same story with Nick Sheff, that's exactly what it was for him. 00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:15.519 He would be seeming to be making all this progress, and then he just kept going back. 00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:21.519 Two steps forward, two steps back, and he just couldn't get to where he wanted to be. 00:21:23.759 --> 00:21:29.119 I think that's how a lot of us feel in our spiritual lives so often. 00:21:30.799 --> 00:21:34.160 We just can't seem to get that true lasting change. 00:21:34.480 --> 00:21:37.839 A cup that is cleaned and stays clean. 00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:52.240 So, how can we get that lasting change that is true and real and lasts longer than just a day or two? 00:21:56.880 --> 00:21:59.759 Or we need to look at someone else other than. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:06.319 David, whose reputation was once at threat, like David. 00:22:07.039 --> 00:22:13.200 For David, his true sinful reputation was coming to light, and everyone would see him for who he was. 00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:20.000 But this other person never did anything wrong. 00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:23.519 His cup on the inside and out was spotless. 00:22:24.400 --> 00:22:27.599 Yet his reputation was being attacked by others. 00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:31.200 And this person is Jesus in Matthew 27. 00:22:31.359 --> 00:22:33.839 Jesus had lived a perfect, sinless life. 00:22:34.400 --> 00:22:36.480 He's arrested unjustly. 00:22:37.039 --> 00:22:41.519 He's put on this trial where people are hurling these false accusations against him. 00:22:41.680 --> 00:22:47.359 He's accused of being this blasphemer, even though he's not, he's the true Messiah. 00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:54.960 And this is what we read next in Matthew 27, 11 to 14. 00:22:55.759 --> 00:23:01.359 Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, Are you the king of the Jews? 00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:03.839 Jesus said, You have said so. 00:23:05.279 --> 00:23:09.680 But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. 00:23:10.240 --> 00:23:16.160 Then Pilate said to him, Do you not hear how many things they testify against you? 00:23:16.880 --> 00:23:18.799 But he gave him no answer. 00:23:19.039 --> 00:23:22.160 Not even to a single charge. 00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:28.160 Jesus is being accused of having a dirty cup here. 00:23:30.079 --> 00:23:33.119 Do you not hear how many things they testify against you? 00:23:35.200 --> 00:23:40.240 And yet, what is Jesus' response to being accused of having a dirty cup? 00:23:42.640 --> 00:23:44.480 But he gave him no answer. 00:23:46.319 --> 00:23:54.720 Jesus is silent when his reputation and his cup is being attacked. 00:23:58.160 --> 00:24:00.000 I think the question we're all asking is why? 00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:01.920 Why doesn't Jesus speak up? 00:24:02.400 --> 00:24:04.799 Jesus knows that he's never done anything wrong. 00:24:04.880 --> 00:24:07.119 He knows that he is sinless and spotless. 00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:10.319 Why does he not speak up and tell people who he really is? 00:24:10.480 --> 00:24:14.160 Why doesn't he stick up for himself and say, no, I'm not a blasphemer? 00:24:14.319 --> 00:24:16.319 Why doesn't Jesus say something here? 00:24:21.599 --> 00:24:24.720 It's because Jesus wasn't standing there for his cup. 00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:29.039 Jesus wasn't being accused for his cup. 00:24:31.599 --> 00:24:35.039 He was standing there for David's cup. 00:24:35.680 --> 00:24:40.160 He was standing there being accused for David's cup. 00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:48.799 And the truth is, he was also standing there and being accused for your cup as well. 00:24:50.160 --> 00:24:56.079 Jesus knew how dirty David's cup was, and Jesus knew how dirty all of our cups were. 00:24:56.640 --> 00:25:03.119 And Jesus came down here to live a spotless life and to have a perfectly clean cup. 00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:06.720 And to give that up for us. 00:25:07.039 --> 00:25:14.640 To be accused of having a dirty cup and to take the punishment for a dirty cup in full on the cross. 00:25:14.880 --> 00:25:17.440 That is what Jesus came to do. 00:25:17.839 --> 00:25:19.519 Lift your eyes up from your cup. 00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:21.200 Stop trying to clean it yourself. 00:25:21.359 --> 00:25:33.359 Stop looking at how you keep stumbling and falling back in the same old thing over and over again and lift your eyes up at something much, much better and see the perfect spotless cup that Jesus had and how he died on a cross. 00:25:33.519 --> 00:25:45.680 And if you have trusted in Jesus Christ as your King, your Messiah, your Savior, and believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead, that perfect spotless cup Jesus had on the cross is now your cup. 00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:47.920 And that cup is now your new identity. 00:25:48.079 --> 00:25:51.839 You don't need to look at your old filthy, dirty inside of your cup. 00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:54.160 You can now look at a much more pleasing cup. 00:25:54.319 --> 00:25:56.000 That is the cup of Jesus Christ. 00:25:56.079 --> 00:26:11.440 And it's from that place, it's from that cup, that you can live a holy, clean life that honors and pleases the Lord in a way that lasts, that doesn't break down after 15 laps of our spiritual life, but lasts on and on and on. 00:26:11.599 --> 00:26:17.119 That is what Jesus came to do, to give us his cup and to give us new life. 00:26:17.279 --> 00:26:21.680 I have come to give them life to the full, abundant life. 00:26:21.920 --> 00:26:23.599 That is what Jesus came to do. 00:26:23.759 --> 00:26:31.759 Look to the cross, see what he did, and live in that new freedom, in that new identity. 00:26:35.440 --> 00:26:40.319 So as we close this morning, I'd like to invite the worship team up for one more song. 00:26:42.799 --> 00:26:59.039 And as we close, I'd like to look at one more part of Matthew 23, and may seem like somewhat of an odd verse to close on, and it's verse 26, where Jesus just simply says, You blind Pharisee. 00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:03.519 You blind Pharisee. 00:27:04.640 --> 00:27:08.319 The problem with the Pharisees in Matthew 23 was that they were blind. 00:27:09.920 --> 00:27:13.440 They were blind to their own pride, they were blind to their sin. 00:27:14.720 --> 00:27:23.440 But ultimately, the Pharisees were blind to Jesus, the one standing right in front of them. 00:27:24.559 --> 00:27:26.960 And the temptation is the same for us. 00:27:28.160 --> 00:27:36.000 To allow our eyes to be blinded in some way and to not see Jesus right in front of us. 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:44.640 So I want to encourage you this morning to lift your eyes up and to see Jesus on the cross. 00:27:44.960 --> 00:27:49.839 See him hanging up there for your dirty cup. 00:27:50.160 --> 00:27:52.240 See the love that your God has for you. 00:27:52.400 --> 00:28:03.279 How deeply the Father loves you, that he would send his own precious son to save you, to take the full punishment for your sins. 00:28:04.640 --> 00:28:06.240 And live in that freedom. 00:28:06.480 --> 00:28:09.440 Live in that new life. 00:28:09.759 --> 00:28:16.799 See the one who died for your dirty cup to give you his spotless cup. 00:28:17.119 --> 00:28:18.480 Would you pray with me? 00:28:21.839 --> 00:28:27.599 Father, we come before you this morning and we see our cups, Father. 00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:29.759 We know that we can't clean them on our own. 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:31.759 We we need you. 00:28:32.240 --> 00:28:35.839 Like David, Father, we all cry out, have mercy on us. 00:28:36.400 --> 00:28:38.000 Clean our hearts. 00:28:38.319 --> 00:28:46.400 So, Lord, this morning, as we come to worship you, I pray that all of our hearts may be open to the glory of your Son on the cross. 00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:49.119 Fix our eyes on you this morning. 00:28:49.279 --> 00:28:58.160 I pray that we may all bring our hearts to you and worship you together as the body of Christ. 00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:00.799 Lord, we thank you, we love you. 00:29:01.680 --> 00:29:04.480 We come to worship you this morning. 00:29:05.279 --> 00:29:05.920 Amen.