let’s draw near with a sincere heart in the full assurance that comes from faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and having our body washed with pure water.
From the days of your* ancestors, y’all have turned away from my commandments and have not kept them. Y’all return to me, and I will return to y’all,” says YHWH Almighty. “But y’all ask, ‘How can we return?’
He went out to meet Asa, and said to him, “Y’all listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin! YHWH is with y’all while y’all are with ʜɪᴍ. If y’all seek him, ʜᴇ will be found by y’all, but if y’all abandon him, ʜᴇ will abandon y’all.
Therefore, beloved, since we have these promises, let’s cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles the flesh and the spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
Y’all must throw away all y’all’s transgressions which y’all have committed, and y’all must fashion a new heart and a new spirit. For why will y’all die, house of Israel?
You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for YHWH searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.
and this is a symbol of the baptism which now saves y’all (not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught;
At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A hot wind blows from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse.
So when Pilate saw that nothing was being gained, but that instead a disturbance was starting, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this righteous person. Y’all take care of it.”
Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways. As a nation that did righteousness, and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God.