The Perils of Self-Righteousness

We have been going through the Gospel of Mark.

We have seen that the Gospel of Mark opens up with the baptism of Jesus,

and he is driven into the wilderness, and then Jesus comes back on the scene,

and in verse 14 and 15 of chapter 1, it says this,

Now that after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee,

proclaiming the Gospel of God and saying,

the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the Gospel.

That repent and believe in the Gospel, the Gospel of God,

we saw, I think it would be week 1 or week 2,

that the Gospel isn't just a get-out-of-jail-free card.

It's not just a means by which we avoid hell.

The Gospel, the good news of God, is actually Jesus himself.

That Jesus, the person and work of Jesus Christ,

his life, his death, and his resurrection, that is good news.

And what Mark is doing throughout the Gospel is he is leading us on the way to the cross,

and we get to see, progressively, just little bits more of who this Jesus really is.

What he has come to do.

Who he truly is.

Where his authority lies.

What his identity is.

Last week we saw that a part of this good news and this identity of who Jesus is,

is there's this forgiveness of sins.

This deep authority to forgive sins.

Jesus, he forgives this man's sins, who is a paralytic,

and just to validate his authority,

he tells the paralytic to get up, to take his mat, and go home.

But Jesus has authority to heal.

That same authority is also to forgive sins.

And that he also cleanses a leper, a leprous man, completely.

The leprosy is gone.

We start to see that this Messiah figure is a cleanser.

He is a forgiver of sins.

And we're starting to see bits and pieces that, hold on a second,

Jesus does the things that only God can do.

This morning, this afternoon, we continue on,

and we're going to see another aspect of who this Messiah is, who Jesus is.

The good news of God.

We're going to take a look at Mark chapter 2, starting in verse 18.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

And we're going to see that what Jesus does, what the gospel is,

is it's complete freedom from self-justification.

From trying to right our own wrongs.

That in fact, what Jesus does on the cross is he justifies us.

He makes us right with God.

No longer do we have to strive for any kind of work that would put us in right standing with God.

And we're going to look at two interactions that Jesus has.

With very religiously pious people.

Really stand-up people in their day.

And in both of these accounts, Jesus, what he does is he deconstructs their false understanding of piety.

And I use that specifically because that is a buzzword in the past year, year and a half, two years.

That is a thing that seems to come up, whether it be in the church or whether it be in just regular society.

Jesus, what he does is he deconstructs, but the right kind of deconstructing.

And he does it from, he deconstructs a false understanding of piety.

Showing the true way to salvation.

So if you have a Bible, join with me.

Mark chapter 2, starting in verse 18.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

Again, if you don't have a Bible at any time, you can get up.

Grab a Bible by the glass doors at the back and follow along.

So here's the first scene.

Jesus has disciples now.

And the Pharisees and John the Baptist, he has disciples as well.

They come to Jesus and they say, hey, what's going on?

We pious folk, we are the ones who are showing our piety.

How are we doing that?

By fasting.

I thought, Jesus, I thought you are this righteous man.

Why aren't you fasting?

Why aren't your disciples fasting?

Take a look with me in verse 18.

Halfway down.

Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast?

But your disciples do not fast.

Jesus responds to them and says, can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?

And we'll pause right there.

Both John's disciples and the Pharisees, like I mentioned, are actually very pious people.

We talk about the Pharisees as if they are the scum of the earth.

If you have been at church for a while, they get this bad rap.

And to be honest, they fail to see Jesus and they are the antagonists in the story, for sure.

But one thing about the Pharisees is that they genuinely had a desire to please God.

They did.

An improper understanding of how to do that, but they had this desire to please God.

And the disciples of John likewise, they were following the ministry of John the Baptist.

They were righteous people.

They were held in esteem.

Remember, John the Baptist, he is the forerunner of Jesus right in the beginning of Mark.

The prophecy says in verse 3,

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.

John and his disciples, by extension, they are all about seeing the Messiah come.

They all want to see this Messiah come.

The Pharisees, on the other hand, are just so smitten by the law as if the law, the Torah, the books of Moses,

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy,

that is precise adherence to the law.

That's what's going to get us saved.

That's what's going to make us right with God.

See, both of them recognize the need for God and to be made right with him.

But both of them are going about things a bit of the wrong way.

How do we know this?

Because of what they asked Jesus about his disciples.

Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?

Why aren't you doing the religious things?

Why aren't you doing the very things that we know will make us righteous and pious people?

Why aren't you practicing piety?

And the thing about Jesus is that he doesn't somehow say,

listen, you got piety all wrong.

Fasting, or you have fasting all wrong.

You're not allowed to fast.

Why would you cease from fasting?

Jesus doesn't say that at all.

He says, can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?

And here's the little bit.

As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

What's implied is one day they'll be able to fast.

One day they'll be able to engage in a form of piety.

But not right now.

Now, the disciples of John, they are so concerned with religious acts, same too with the Pharisees,

that they're failing to see the whole purpose of being righteous, of piety rather.

They're failing to understand that for John's disciples,

everything that they are doing is for the purpose of the coming of the Messiah.

And he's come.

And the Pharisees are looking intently into the law and into the books of Moses,

finding ways to just please God with every last inch of their life.

And yet God is right before them.

Sometimes we can be so preoccupied, and I say this to us, to me,

with doing right things, with being a pious person,

that we fail to see the end of why we're doing that.

It's like we're being pious for the sake of being pious.

We're being righteous for the sake of being righteous.

We're doing the religious acts for the sake of just doing the religious acts.

And the danger here is that, like the Pharisees and John's disciples,

our gaze so quickly turns from God to ourselves.

Jesus.

Jesus.

I mean, if you take a second, take a step back,

how outrageous of a question is this?

Hey, Jesus.

Messiah.

And of course they didn't quite understand who he was,

but to ask Jesus,

why do your disciples not practice religious life the way we do?

We are the religious ones.

You see, what Jesus is doing here is he is deconstructing what true religion is about.

Because true religion, we'll see, is not about doing the outward signs for the sake of doing them in and of themselves,

but it's to draw closer to the Lord.

The end of religion, and I don't mean like the end of it, like it's going to die,

but like the very end, the telos, or the purpose of religious life,

is to know God and to be known by him.

Not to just do religious things.

You know, we have this problem in a more of a liturgical church, like an Anglican church,

where we do things like read the Bible in the midst of the congregation,

or light candles.

We actually don't really like candles,

but if that's a caricature, that helps in your mind.

Lighting candles, or certain rituals, so to speak,

that have a place that, at their best, can communicate truths to us,

but we can do them in such a way that makes us feel really good about ourselves.

Or if they're not done, it's not a real church service.

It is not a real church service unless there's candles,

or unless I'm wearing a collar, or something to that effect.

But you know, it works the same in just regular, evangelical,

non-denominational churches as well.

Well, we have this tendency as people to do religious things,

to gain God's approval, and then be really smug about it.

To do things to please Jesus, and really we're doing it to please ourselves.

And we see this in the text.

These folks are questioning Jesus,

the very person that all of their piety is supposed to lead them to,

and they're asking him,

Hey, what gives?

Why aren't you telling your people to be like us?

Their gaze is not to God, it's to the self.

Friends, where is our confidence?

Is our confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ?

Or is it in doing the religious things?

Or maybe, or maybe,

you're just not good at doing religious things,

and you're constantly in a bout of guilt

for not doing the things that you think you ought to do.

And by the way, doing religious things, it's important.

Coming to church is important.

Partaking in communion is important.

Praying is important.

Reading your Bible is important.

But those things,

those things,

can so easily become idols in and of themselves.

Things that take the place of Jesus.

The very things that we put our hope in,

our eternal hope.

It's very, very easy to take our eyes off Jesus.

It's very easy to scoff at the Pharisees

as a Pharisee yourself.

In both cases here,

a religious observance

that seeks to make one self-righteous

is the very cause of spiritual blindness.

Jesus, like I mentioned,

has no quarrels with the fasting.

And he says,

listen,

essentially,

the bridegroom is here.

And you can't,

you can't fast.

You can't do a,

kind of a penitential,

downcast thing

when it's a time of celebration.

Jesus, this is what he says.

As long as they have the bridegroom with them,

they cannot fast.

The days will come

when the bridegroom is taken away from them

and then they will fast in that day.

I'll pause there.

All of the Bible,

all of prophecy,

all of history is pointing to Jesus coming.

To the Messiah coming.

That God would come

and dwell amongst his people

and save them from sin

and evil and death.

And to fast during that time,

to be downcast

or to withhold something

from our lives,

rather than celebrate

the fact that God

has fulfilled his promises

and all the wrongs

would be made right.

I try to find

an illustration of this

and it really is apples and oranges

because there is no better news than this.

But imagine it's Christmas time.

Maybe you're the kid

or maybe you're thinking

about your own children.

And there's just hype

around Christmas time.

Or maybe it's a birthday

or something.

But something where

it's months out.

this child

is just so excited

and so pumped up

for Christmas time.

The excitement

is just building,

it's building,

it's building anticipation.

The night before,

okay,

it's the day of,

and

the parent says,

no,

it's chore time.

You have to do your chores.

There is no opening gifts,

there's no celebration,

there's no Santa Claus,

there's no nothing.

You have to do chores.

By the way,

you also have to clean the bathroom.

Scrub the toilet.

Imagine,

no,

it's Christmas time.

It's not the time for chores

or cleaning the toilet.

It's time to celebrate.

There's nothing wrong with chores.

There's nothing wrong,

obviously,

with cleaning the bathroom.

But it's just not the time.

It's not the place for it.

And Jesus is saying,

this is not the time to fast.

This is the time to celebrate.

All of creation,

all of the scriptures,

they have been waiting

for this moment,

and it's here.

It's here.

The good news is here.

Remember,

the good news isn't just

Jesus getting us out of hell.

It is himself.

And he is here.

It's not the time to fast.

The Messiah has come.

Everything has changed.

Nothing will be the same again.

How do we know this?

Turn with me again

in verse 21.

Jesus says this,

No one sews a piece of untrunk cloth

on an old garment.

If he does,

the patch tears away from it.

The new from the old

and a worse tear is made.

And no one puts new wine

into old wineskins.

If he does,

the wine will burst the skins

and the wine is destroyed.

And so are the skins.

But new wine is for fresh wineskins.

Something has changed.

Jesus has arrived.

All of the scriptures

are pointing to this time

and he's here.

And it's going to be better,

actually,

than anyone could have ever thought.

The Messiah hasn't come

just for the Jewish people,

the nation of Israel.

He's come for all mankind.

You don't have to convert

to Judaism.

You don't have to be

of a specific ethnicity.

He has come for all people

from all ethnicities.

The good news has arrived

and we are not going back

to an adherence to the law

in the same type of way.

The law is good.

It is, in many ways,

it leads to human flourishing.

King David in the Psalms

constantly is talking about

how good the law is.

The law is a beautiful thing.

But the law can't save.

It can't.

Only God himself can save.

We can't do enough pious acts

to somehow make God look down

and say,

you know what?

Sin, pious acts.

Okay, I'll let him in.

I'll let him in.

We can't do enough.

He wants perfection.

So the law is good,

but it can't save.

Only God can save.

Only he can expunge,

cleanse,

forgive.

We saw that last week.

Only he can do that.

Nothing is the same again.

You can't just say,

and this actually plays out

in the Acts of the Apostles.

You can't just say to

the non-Jewish people,

hey, listen,

you've got to keep the law.

You need to get circumcised.

You need to go to temple

all the time.

Keep the fasts.

You have to do all that.

Oh, by the way,

only then can you have faith in Jesus.

It doesn't work that way.

That would be like

sewing a new piece of cloth

onto an old, shrunken garment.

It just doesn't work.

It's incompatible.

It's like pouring wine

into a wineskin

that is old.

The wine is going to ferment.

The wineskin is going to burst.

It's not compatible.

Something new has come.

It's beautiful.

It's wonderful.

And Jesus here,

he uses the imagery

of a bridegroom.

And what's kind of interesting

in all of this

is that in verse 19,

Jesus says,

can the wedding guests fast

while the bridegroom is with them?

As long as they have

the bridegroom with them,

they cannot fast.

In verse 20,

the days will come

when the bridegroom

is taken away from them.

Then they will fast in that day.

At a wedding,

even in a wedding

in Bible times,

the bridegroom

isn't taken away.

The bridegroom shows up,

a wedding happens,

festivities happen,

and then all the other people

go away.

The bridegroom isn't taken away.

It seems bizarre.

But Jesus here

is alluding to the fact

that he will be taken away.

That he will die on the cross.

That he will be killed,

not for his own sins,

but for the sins

of everyone else,

so that if we put our faith

and hope in Christ,

we actually become

the bride of Christ.

Scriptures continue on

to talk about how

Jesus goes away,

he ascends into heaven,

and he is making a place

for us in his father's house.

He will come back

for his bride.

And then the culmination

of all of history,

all of history,

will be,

and we looked at this

in Revelations 19 last week,

will be the marriage

supper of the Lamb.

Where the bridegroom

will come back

for his bride,

and we will be

with him forever.

It's a beautiful,

beautiful picture.

And like a bride

and a bridegroom,

infidelity isn't an option.

The mistresses have to go.

You can't be married

and have someone

on the side.

You can't sew

a new piece of cloth

onto an already

shrunk garment.

And this isn't just to do

with religious Jewish people

that come to faith in Jesus

and still try to balance

this keeping the law

and keeping Jesus.

It affects us today.

What are the things

in your life

that you are

adding Jesus to?

Jesus plus

whatever.

Are you trusting in things

apart from Jesus

for salvation?

For righteousness?

For purity?

Are you trusting in

the work and labor

of your own piety?

The good deeds

you might do?

The charity work?

All really good things

but you're putting

your hope in that?

That somehow that

will justify you?

Are you doing that?

Are you putting

new wine

into an old wineskin?

It doesn't work.

It's incompatible.

Christ is calling us

to fidelity.

Complete abandonment

for Him.

And it is hard.

And in many ways

it is impossible

to do it perfectly

in this life.

But Jesus says this

and I read it already

but I'm going to come back

to it throughout

our time in Mark.

In verse 15

the time has come

and the kingdom of God

is at hand

and this is what He says

repent and believe

in the gospel.

And that repenting

and that believing

is a continual repenting

and a continual believing.

Continue to repent.

Continue to believe.

In who?

In this thing

that's going to get you

out of jail?

No, in a person.

In Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ.

We will mess up.

The history of Israel

is full of infidelity

to God.

And it's interesting

that Jesus calls Himself

the bridegroom

when the only person

in the Old Testament

in all the imagery

of the Old Testament

when it talks about

the bridegroom

is God Himself.

That God Himself

is the husband

to Israel.

That Jesus

is God.

And we will mess up

because we are fallen people

and we are growing

and growing

and growing

but we stumble.

So the Christian life

is repenting and believing.

And that's not like

repenting

and believing

to get re-saved.

It's not like that at all.

It is saying

I throw myself

at your mercy

once again.

I need your help.

Jesus, I believe.

Help my unbelief.

But that's not the only

parable Jesus uses.

He also talks about

the Sabbath.

Or this isn't the only instance

rather,

not parable.

But He also talks about

the Sabbath.

He's also questioned

about the Sabbath.

If you look with me

in Mark chapter 2

Mark 2 · chapter mention

starting verse 23

it says this,

one Sabbath

Jesus was going

through the grain fields

and as Him

and His disciples

as they made their way

His disciples

began to pluck

heads of grain.

And the Pharisees

were saying to Him

look,

why are they doing

what is not lawful

on the Sabbath?

It begins

almost the exact same way.

Jesus is questioned,

His disciples are questioned

for what they are doing.

And I just,

it's a bit of an aside

but I think it is

a wonderful aside.

In both cases,

Jesus defends His disciples.

He doesn't say,

hey listen,

these guys are kind of right.

You should probably

answer for yourself.

Jesus is the one

who defends His own.

He's the one

who answers

on their behalf.

And this is what

Jesus does for us.

He defends us.

when the enemy comes,

when our own hearts come,

when the world comes

and condemns us,

says you are not,

you are not truly His.

You are a sinner.

You are full of,

you are hopeless.

He defends us.

It really is wonderful

that we don't have to

defend ourselves anymore.

And we,

and He defends us

not as somebody

who is weak

or somebody

who is somehow

equal to

the ones,

the powers

that are accusing us.

No.

We saw

in chapter 1

Jesus casting out

a demon

and it's all

the power of hell

is cast aside

by just the word

of His tongue.

There's no power

greater

than Jesus

and we can have

confidence

that if He will

defend us,

He will do it

perfectly.

This is a beautiful

picture.

When even your heart

condemns you,

He does not condemn you

if you are in Him.

These are promises,

I'm telling you,

maybe this isn't an aside,

maybe this is like

the real gusto bit,

but hold on to those

promises,

white knuckled.

Even when your own

heart condemns you,

hold on to the promises

that if you are Christ,

He will defend you

to the end.

It's a beautiful truth.

So it continues on.

Jesus talking,

defending His disciples.

In verse 25,

excuse me,

Jesus said to them,

Have you never read

what David did

when he was in need

and was hungry,

he and those with him?

How he entered

the house of God

in the time of Abiathar,

the high priest,

and he ate the bread

of the presence

which is not lawful

for any but the priest

to eat,

and also gave it

to those who were with him.

Jesus here is,

He is quoting

from 1 Samuel,

where King Saul

is on the run from Saul.

King, sorry,

King David

is on the run from Saul.

And,

and King David

is this picture

of Israel's greatest king,

and how the Messiah

would be,

he would,

he would be

in the line

of King David,

the Messiah would.

And Jesus,

what He is doing

is He is drawing

their attention

to the fact that

the law

isn't meant

to bind us

and put us

in a straitjacket

so that we

can't move,

we can't go

left or right,

we can't

do life,

we're constantly

fearful that we're

going to mess up.

The Pharisees,

like I mentioned,

they had a great love

of God

and the law,

but the problem is

their desire to keep

the law,

because that's how

they thought they'd be

made right with God,

it calcified.

It ceased being

a way to show

their love for God,

and instead,

He said,

there's a prohibition

not to boil

a kid in its mother's milk.

So let's build

a fence around that,

so people will never

ever do that.

So how are we

going to do that?

You can't eat milk

with meat.

You can't do it.

Nowhere in the Bible

does it say

don't mix milk

and meat,

but the Pharisees,

what they've done

is they built

a fence

around the commandment,

and they called

the fence

the commandment

itself,

the same authority.

So by the time

Jesus comes,

and especially

afterwards,

there's this

intense

built-up structure

of what you can

and could

and couldn't do

on the Sabbath.

Like down

to the minutiae,

and even today,

for Orthodox,

religious Jewish people,

the Sabbath

is a day

full of keeping rules.

And sure,

you can keep

the rules.

I have family,

some of you may know

I come from

a Jewish background,

and I have family members

that are deeply religious,

and it is exhausting

on the Sabbath

to be with them.

You cross the street,

you press the crosswalk button,

all of a sudden

you've broken the Sabbath.

If it rained the night before

and you walk through

the field,

it's like plowing,

and that's breaking the Sabbath.

You can't plow.

I'm not trying to be mean

or just ripping

on our religious Jewish friends,

but just to say that

if our goal

is to keep the law,

then what we'll end up doing

is we will either

give up completely

or we'll live a life

that does not look

to God himself,

but it will look

to our own ingenuity.

And this is what's

happening here.

See, what the disciples

are doing,

they're just plucking grain

on a Sabbath day.

They're going out

for a walk.

Maybe,

to the Pharisees,

they're breaking

the prohibition

to not travel

on the Sabbath

or to not reap

on the Sabbath,

but they're going

for a walk.

They're picking grain

from a piece of wheat

growing in the field.

Interestingly,

the only other bits

that talk about

plucking wheat

from the field,

it has to do

with hospitality

and charity

towards widows,

orphans,

and foreigners.

It talks about

at harvest time,

don't plow the whole field.

Don't harvest

the whole field.

Leave the edges

so that the poor people

can glean for themselves.

It's a picture

of hospitality.

It's interesting

how the law

has built into it

these beautiful

aspects of charity

and love

to the down and out.

And the Pharisees,

trying to keep

the Sabbath,

totally miss

an opportunity

to show charity

and hospitality.

They are missing it.

Instead of turning

their gaze to God,

they are turning

their gaze

on themselves,

and they are

a stumbling block.

In Matthew 23,

Jesus has this whole

series of woes

to the Pharisees

and the scribes.

If you get a chance

tonight,

give it a read.

It is scathing.

But this is what he says

in verse 23

of Matthew 23.

So Matthew 23,

23.

Woe to you,

scribes and Pharisees,

hypocrites,

for you tithe

mint and dill

and cumin

and have neglected

the weightier matters

of the law,

justice,

mercy,

and faithfulness.

These you ought

to have done

without neglecting

the others.

Instead you,

this says,

sorry,

you blind guides

straining out

a gnat

and swallowing

a camel.

They fail to see

that the end

of the law,

the purpose

of the law,

the telos

of the law

is God himself,

is the Messiah,

is that God

will once again

dwell with his people

and they will dwell

with him.

Their sins

will be no more.

So much so

in this picture,

so I talked about

the bridegroom

and the end

of history

being this beautiful

picture of Jesus,

the bridegroom,

with the bride

forever.

But there's another

picture in scripture

that talks of

heaven and eternity

with God

being the Sabbath

rest of God.

That the Sabbath

was instituted

by God

not to be this

intense,

onerous day,

but a day

that is a gift,

a day of rest,

a day where

we don't have

to strive anymore

and we can recognize

that really

we can work hard

but in the end

God gives us

our bread.

And that sweetness

of that connection

with God

and rest in him,

that is another

picture of eternity.

And Jesus,

what does he say?

How does he finish

off chapter 2?

Look with me again

in verse 27.

The Sabbath

was made for man,

not man for the Sabbath.

So the Son of Man

is Lord

even of the Sabbath.

Jesus Christ

is Lord

of the Sabbath.

The only Lord

of the Sabbath

in the Bible

is God himself

because he was the one

who instituted it

and created it.

And Jesus here

is saying that he,

in fact,

is the Lord

of the Sabbath.

Again,

another declaration

that Jesus is God

and we start to see

an even bigger picture

of who this Messiah

really is.

That he,

yes,

he forgives sin

and he cleanses

the leprous man.

Yes,

he casts out demons

and he heals the sick.

But what does he,

what else does he do?

He saves us

from our own

self-righteousness.

He,

he brings us

into complete union

with him

and helps us

to enter his rest.

And these two things,

whatever you might think,

I would put to you

that this is

the deepest longing

of the human heart.

That all of our strivings,

all the people

in Canada

and in Stittsville

and in Ottawa,

wherever it may be

in Canada,

we are striving

for rest.

Not for a vacation,

but for rest.

That the striving

after money,

after fame,

after belonging,

it's exhausting.

And we want rest.

And we want it.

We still want these things.

We still want belonging.

We still want

a connection

and friendships.

But we can't do it

ourselves.

We can't.

And if you're honest

with yourself,

if I'm honest

with myself,

I'm tired of it.

I'm tired of it.

I'm tired of

trying to make

things look right

and feel right.

And instead,

gaze off of me

and look to Christ.

Friends,

the great,

great truth

of our section

in Scripture today

is that we don't

have to strive

for God's

affection

and his approval

that in Christ Jesus

we have it.

We repent

and believe.

We say,

I can't

keep living

this way.

And maybe

you pray that prayer

until your dying breath.

You say it

and then you

thrust yourself

at the foot

of the cross.

I believe

helped my unbelief.

Let's stand

and pray.

Heavenly Father,

we thank you

so much

for your goodness,

your great love

for us

that we do not

have to

somehow reach

a level of piety

and righteousness

in and of ourselves

to be loved

by you,

to be called

your bride,

to enter

your rest.

Instead,

we just

cast our gaze

upon your Son

and trust in

the finished work

that he has done

on the cross

of Calvary already.

That if we are

found in him,

that we will

be assured

to have a seat

at the marriage

supper

of the bridegroom

when he

has got

his bride

and that we

will enter

his rest

forever

and ever

and ever

where strivings

cease,

where we can

exhale,

and know

sweet,

sweet forgiveness

and connection

and union

with him.

Lord,

open our eyes

to the areas

in our lives

where we are

striving,

where we

are more like

Pharisees

than we'd

like to admit.

Lord,

help us

to repent

and believe.

We pray all of this

in Christ's mighty name.

Amen.