Dear Christian friends:

Man Trinity 7th Sunday After The New Teaching Of Jesusis against the new teachings of Jesus. The Pharisees are typical of the old teachings. They said it was sin to eat without washing your hands. Jesus said it was not. Then Jesus showed them what their sin was. God's new teaching demands a new heart.

Our old ideas are no better than the Pharisees. We think that if we are clean and dress well we are good. When a rich man sins or does adultery people think it is okay. Movie stars and other famous and rich people. But if a poor man does it, we call him a sinner. Jesus' new teaching condemns us as we are in ourselves, verse 13. He must pull up old plants. Nothing in man is worth saving. He is bad tree (thorn tree) and cannot produce good fruit.

The heart of man must be changed. "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." (Matthew 15:19) If the heart is not changed man cannot please God. "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile a man." (Matthew 15:18)

God the Father sent His Son Jesus to live and die for us. Jesus is our righteousness, not our self-righteousness. When we confess our full sinfulness and unworthiness before God and then trust in Jesus blood and righteousness God's new teaching has touched us and made us new men.

We are now God's children and He loves what we do not because all our works are good and perfect, but because we are His dear children through faith in Jesus Christ.

Amen.