Controversy over Tradition & Defilement #1

Introduction to the Controversy and Passage Overview

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, November 10th, 1985, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us turn together to the Gospel according to Mark as we continue our consecutive expositions of this portion of God's holy and infallible word. I shall read a rather lengthy passage this morning because the passage is a unit, and it is my intention to give an overview of the passage this morning

0:41 before returning to more detailed exposition and application, God willing, over the course of the next two Lord's Days. Mark chapter 7, and I shall read the first 23 verses. The entire seventh chapter is taken up with the incident. The incident bounded by these verses, and then the healing of the Syrophoenician woman, and the cure of a deaf mute.

1:09 Those are the three incidents included in Mark's Gospel, chapter 7. And there are gathered together unto him the Pharisees and certain of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, and had seen that some of his disciples ate their bread with defiled, that is, unwashed. For the Pharisees and all the Jews, except they wash their hands diligently, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, except they bathe themselves, they eat not.

1:47 And many other things there are which they have received to hold, washings of cups and pots and brazen vessels. And the Pharisees and the scribes ask him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition? Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with defiled hands? And he said unto them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

2:22 But in vain do they worship me, teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men. You leave the commandment of God and hold fast the tradition of men. And he said unto them, Full well do you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother, and he that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death.

2:52 But you say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, That wherewith you might have been profited by me is Corban, that is to say, given to God, You no longer suffer him to do anything for his father or his mother, Making void the word of God by your tradition, which you have delivered, And many such like things you do. And he called to him the multitude again, and said unto them, Hear me all of you, and understand, There is nothing from within the man that going into him can defile him, But the thing,

3:34 The things that proceed out of the man are those that defile the man. And when he was entered into the house from the multitude, His disciples asked of him the parable. And he said unto them, Are you also without understanding? Don't you perceive that whatsoever from without goes into the man cannot defile him, Because it does not go into his heart, But into his belly, And goes out in the normal processes of bodily elimination.

4:12 This he said, making all needs clean. And he said, That which proceeds out of the man, That defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, Evil thoughts proceed, Fornications, Thefts, murders, adulteries, Covetings, wickedness, Deceit, lasciviousness, And evil eye, Railing, pride, foolishness, All these evil things proceed from within, And defile the man. Let us again bow before God, And ask that by the Spirit,

4:56 We may be given to understand this portion of his word. Our Father, recognizing that the human heart is the same in every generation, And that your word is timeless, We pray that that word will come to our hearts With a searching and pressing relevance That will cause every man, every woman, every boy, every girl in this place this morning To know that these words of Jesus Are not merely a historical record of a controversy of two thousand years ago,

5:40 But that they are indeed your living word to our hearts Here in this place, in our circumstances, in this hour. Speak then, O Lord, with clarity and with power. We plead through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

The Reintroduction of the Pharisees and Scribes

6:04 Now when I say the word Pharisee and Scribe, What comes to your mind? Well, surely if you have any acquaintance, With the word of God, The words Scribe and Pharisee Conjure up thoughts that are unpleasant and perhaps even loathsome. And it is to this group of religious leaders and teachers That our Lord spoke some of his most concentrated and scathing words Of denunciation and condemnation To be found anywhere in the word of God.

6:47 It is this group whom our Lord charges As being instrumentally responsible For his own murder at Jerusalem. And in the course of our consecutive expositions of Mark's gospel, We've had no contact with this group of people Since chapter 3 and verse 6. When we last encountered them, We read of them, chapter 3 and verse 6, That the Pharisees went out And straightway with the Herodians Took counsel against him How they might destroy him. And from that point onward,

7:30 Their hearts were set upon nothing less Than the destruction of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now at this point in the record of our Lord's ministry, Mark reintroduces them to us In the very lengthy passage, Read in your hearing. The same spirit who guided Mark To give us the vivid and thrilling accounts Of the mighty works of the Lord That have formed the basis of our study In recent months Is the spirit who has recorded in great detail This controversy between our Lord And these religious leaders

8:12 Called the Pharisees and the scribes. Let us come to the passage Therefore in the confidence And the expectation of faith Believing that what is recorded here Is as much profitable For teaching, reproof, correction, Instruction in righteousness As have been the records Of the thrilling miracles Of our Lord Jesus. And what I propose to do In the time allotted this morning Is first of all to give you a broad And hopefully And absolutely Accurate overview Of this entire passage. A broad overview Of the entire passage

Framework of the Controversy: The Pharisees' Challenge (Mark 7:1-5)

8:55 And then with hopefully Ten to fifteen minutes left At the end of that overview Simply to focus upon the central message Of the passage And then come back to it As I've intimated God willing Over the next two Lord's days For more concentrated application. First of all then In seeking the message of the Lord In seeking to obtain A broad overview of the passage It's vital to note That the passage has two major sections The first extending to verse 13 And the second from verses 14 to 23 And calling these two sections

9:37 The framework of controversy Verses 1 to 13 And then the fundamental issue involved In the controversy Verses 14 to 23 First of all then Let us consider the framework Of this controversy As set before us In verses 1 through 13 Units of thought Number one We have the introductory statement In verses 1 and 2 There are gathered together unto him The Pharisees and certain of the scribes Who had come from Jerusalem And had seen that some of his disciples Ate their bread With different kinds of bread

10:21 And defiled that is Unwashing hands According to Mark By their own choice Certain of the Pharisees and scribes Came up from Jerusalem Into the Galilean region Where our Lord was presently ministering The text according to Mark Might give the impression That only some of the scribes Had come up from Jerusalem But in the parallel passage In Matthew 15 and verse 14 It is clear That the main bulk of the contingency Both of scribes and Pharisees Had made the journey From Jerusalem Up into the Galilean region

11:06 For Matthew tells us Then there come to Jesus From Jerusalem Pharisees and scribes Saying So this group that As recorded in Mark 3 and verse 6 With their hearts In faith Flamed with the unholy Passion of murder Though they had not been Dogging his steps To the same degree Up in the Galilean region As John's gospel records Their dealings with him In the Judean area Earlier in his ministry They were nonetheless Obviously keeping tabs Upon our Lord Now for some who are new

11:50 To the Christian faith And new to the teaching of the Bible Perhaps just a brief word Of explanation As to the identity Of these scribes and Pharisees Is in order One author has very succinctly Described their identity this way The Pharisees were that Jewish sect Or party Which laid utmost stress On the strictest outward observance Of the law Including the tradition of the rabbis And the regulations Which professed To build Formidable protecting hedge About the law Utterly self-righteous

12:35 And cultivated a hollow formalism That was showy to a high degree Especially in observing ceremonies Such as fastings Almsgiving Long prayers Tithes Etc. Jesus repeatedly exposed them As errant Of them in our consecutive reading In Luke 3 and verse 6 In Luke chapter 18 So that's the Pharisees The ultra-strict religious group With all of their emphasis Upon keeping the minutia The details of rabbinic tradition Living a great life Of obvious show

13:19 As Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount Loving to make long prayers In the public places To show off when they gave Abs were the professional students Of the Old Testament And they were admitted To the fraternity of scribes After due examination They were considered the experts In the exposition of the law Most prominent of their number Were members of the Sanhedrin The ruling body of the Jews Matthew 2 and verse 4 This present delegation Was sent up from the capital That is Jerusalem To spy upon Jesus In order to discredit him

14:03 With the people And to find cause For legal action against him The fact that they came to Galilee From the capital city Shows that the authorities there In Jerusalem Kept their hostile eyes on Jesus Although he avoided Jerusalem They naturally also Had greater prestige Than the local Galilean Pharisees and scribes So in this introductory statement We have a description Of this contingency Of Pharisees and scribes Who come up from Jerusalem Into the Galilean It is not long

14:47 Before their critical And squinty eyes Observe something That they can fasten upon As an irregularity Verse 2 in this introductory statement We are told that Soon after they come up Into that area They observe some of Jesus' disciples In a practice Of eating their bread And indulging their common meals With defiled That is Unwashing hands Now they did not come From Jerusalem to Galilee As the health inspectors To see if people Were a threat To public health The disciples

15:31 Was not that they were Coming to the table With grimy Dirty Germ-laden hands The problem was That they were not going through The ritual washings That were the laws That were the laws Established by the rabbis And imposed by the scribes And Pharisees Upon the people That leads us very naturally You see to this Parenthesis Verses 3 and 4 The second unit of thought Explanatory parenthesis So from the introductory statement Verses 1 and 2 We have the explanatory parenthesis Verses 3 and 4 Since Mark was writing

16:16 Primarily to Gentile readers He wanted to give An explanatory comment Much as I did With the scribes and Pharisees And this is what he tells us For the Pharisees And all the Jews Their hands diligently Do not eat Holding the tradition Of the elders When they come From the marketplace Except they bathe themselves They do not eat Many other things there are Which they have received To hold Washings of cups And pots And braids And vessels Explanatory parenthesis Mark is telling us What lay behind the thinking Of these supercritical scribes And Pharisees

17:01 From Jerusalem He is telling us That they were constantly Holding to what is called In verse 3 The tradition of the elders Now it was this tradition Of the elders Which being held fast Led them to the tradition of the elders Led them to indulge In all of these various Ceremonial washings Both of themselves And of their brazen vessels And of their cups Whose tradition

17:44 They were holding fast Well they were the old And the venerable rabbis Whose rules and regulations Had been passed on From generation to generation Listen again To one commentator Who has very accurately Summarized their identity In the tradition of the elders The Pharisees held firmly To these ceremonial washings As part of the tradition Of the elders An expression occurring Only here And in the parallel passage In Matthew Tradition designates The teaching that is passed on From teacher to pupil The elders does not

18:28 Denote the elders of the Synodog Or the members of the Sanhedrin As the upholders of this teaching But rather the noted Jewish teachers of the law From the past Whose judgments were regarded As binding And their interpretations Diligently passed on to others By the scribes To enhance the binding character Of this oral tradition The claim was sometimes advanced That God had delivered These very teachings to Moses Who passed them on Orally to the elders During the day of Jesus This tradition was orally transmitted But was later codified And embodied in what is called The Mishnah

19:13 The development of these traditions Was motivated by the commendable purpose To preserve the integrity Of the Mosaic law By guarding against Any violations thereof This tradition was built up As a fence around The law The intention was to keep The actual law from being broken By adding many Minute stipulations Around it Which must be additional requirements Made the religious life A grievous You'll notice according to verse 3 In this parenthesis Which gives us an explanation

19:57 That not only were the Pharisees Holding to these traditions But the vast majority Of the Jews In Jerusalem In general as well For the text says The Pharisees At their hands Diligently And I could give you a whole history Of the race of commentary On trying to ascertain The meaning of that word It would not be unto edification They will not eat Why? Not because God In the law of Moses Had required ceremonial washing To precede eating But because the tradition of the Determined that

20:42 That was the way That should be so And when they came From the marketplace That is a place Of public concourse They went even further Than diligently washing their hands They actually took a complete bath They baptized themselves Fearing that somehow In a place of common concourse They may have come in contact With the breath of a Gentile Or with some of the atomized Uh Uh Uh , bodily fluids When a Gentile sneezed They wanted to be sure That they were truly ceremonially clean And so they would take a complete bath Before they would sit down to eat

21:27 And many other things Mark tells us I'm not going to weary you With all the details But with that kind of a mindset They had a whole rubric of rules To washings and cleansings Extending not only to their people But to their utensils Cups, pots, vessels That these rules were made originally To be a fence around God's law They felt that if God's laws of purification Were to be kept Then they had to spell out in great detail

22:09 All of the things of the keeping Of the overview of the first section We not only have the introductory statement The explanatory process But then the question raised By the Pharisees and scribes Verse 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes ask him Why do your disciples Not walk according to The tradition of the elders But eat their bread Defiled They have a real cause So they come to Jesus To pick a bone with him

22:52 And here's the bone that they pick Why do your disciples These people Over whom you claim To exercise an influence By instructing them How is it That they are blatantly Appetently In defiance Of the tradition of the elders I have seen them on several occasions Coming right out Do not go To the fathers And fixed in the tradition Of the count

23:34 A terribly lawless Response of our Lord To their question Verses 6 to 13 And notice how our Lord Responds He responds first of all By indicting them as hypocrites Whose attitudes and actions Perfectly fit the description Of the hypocrites in Isaiah's day They ask a question Jesus responds with an indictment And he said unto them Well did Isaiah prophesy of you As it is written

Jesus' Indictment of the Pharisees' Hypocrisy (Mark 7:6-13)

24:17 Who honors me with their lips But their heart is far from me But in vain do they worship me Teaching as their doctrines The precepts A thing our Lord does In responding to their questions Is to indict their persons As being hypocrites And the thing in this indictment Are the two contrasts That he brings into focus If you miss this You will miss the thrust of the passage Again for any visiting with us I make no apologies For making you think Through the passage My task is to labor long

25:00 At the best to understand it To organize it And then to labor in delivering it And yours is to labor To understand it Now the first thing he does Is to indict them as hypocrites And that indictment Concentrates upon two points The contrast of lip and heart religion Honors me with their lips But their heart religion Then there is no point The contrast between divine And humanly mandated Religious doctrine and practice

25:43 Worship me Teaching as their doctrines The precepts of men That indictment is vital If we are to understand The thrust of the passage He calls them hypocrites Whose hypocrisy Is to be seen precisely In these two areas A rendering only lip religion And a lip religion And they are engaged In humanly mandated Religious practice

26:21 To divinely mandated response After indicting them as hypocrites He goes on To the heart of their problem This so called offensive practice His disciples Verses 8 and 9 Commandment of God And hold fast In of men He said unto them Full well do you reject The commandment of God May keep you Your tradition In very strong words

27:04 He says that the heart Of their problem Criticizing the fact That his disciples Do not keep Their rabbinic regulations The tradition of the elders That they have left And rejected The commandment of God As the rule of conduct And they have held They have kept Nothing but human tradition Now do you see The strength of the word? You leave The commandment of God And hold fast In the tradition of men

27:46 Reject the commandment of God That you may keep Proceeds to give a concrete example Of precisely how this process Of rejection of God's law And the holding of tradition Was being manifested In their religious life Verses 10 to 12 For Moses said Honor your father in Christ Honor your father in Christ Honor your father in your mother And he that speaks evil Of father or mother Let him die the death Now what is the clear requirement Of the Decalogue? The fifth commandment says

28:29 Honor your father and your mother That commandment Was supported By the legislation that said Anyone in Israel Who spoke evil Of his father or mother Should be put in other words There was legislation In the civil life of Israel That was meant among other things To buttress the sanctity Of the Decalogue And so our Lord takes the word Out of the Decalogue And its supportive legislation And he says to these people Do you want me to prove my allegation That you have rejected That you have

29:12 Support in concrete terms That you can in no way Controvert That you've abandoned living By the law By God's standard And have accepted your own I'll give you an undeniable example The requirement of God's law Is honor father and mother Anything that speaks Of a lack of that honor Be it cursing father or mother Speaking evil of father or mother Was to be punishable by death Now he says You see what you have learned to do Verse 11 and following But you say See the contrast See the contrast Moses said

29:56 But you say If a man shall say To his father or mother That wherewith you might have been Profited by me Is Corban That is to say Give him And you find in the 1901 The words to God in italics They are not in the original It was a kind of a catch word It is given That is set apart As a special gift unto God You no longer suffer him To do anything For his father or mother Making void the word of God By your tradition What was the practice Well here it is Here is a man who has An indigent father and mother They are coming right down To the border of poverty

30:39 And in the light of the obligations Of the fifth commandment This son has the wherewithal To provide for his parents But instead of taking that Which would bring them Out of their poverty And as an expression of obedience To the fifth commandment Supporting them And caring for them Thereby honoring them In that concrete way All he needed to do Was take that amount And say Sorry mom and dad What I was going to use for you Is Corban It is given It is set apart to God It goes to the temple Now whether or not He would actually bring it To the temple is doubtful But all he needed to do According to the rabbinic tradition

31:24 Was to pronounce the word Corban And by pronouncing the word He was utterly released From obedience to the fifth commandment And then he could go on his way Watch his parents Crumbling under the crushing weight Of poverty And have a clear conscience That wherewith they may have been profited Is Corban Given unto God I am released from my obligation And then after giving this Concrete example of precisely How this process Of rejecting God's commandment In order to hold fast The tradition of men Was manifested He delivers his final indictment

32:09 In sweeping summary form In verse 13 He says in so doing You make void You nullify You cancel the word of God By your tradition Which you have delivered And I've only given you He said one concrete example Many such like things you do In other words It is a pattern of your religious life To continually nullify divine mandates By human traditions And he says this is the whole pattern

32:52 And fabric of your existence In the religious realm Now this is the whole pattern of your existence That constitutes the framework Of this controversy The introductory statement Verses 1 and 2 The explanatory parenthesis Verses 3 and 4 The question raised by the scribes Verse 5 The response of our Lord to their questions Verses 6 to 13 But now then Having dismissed them And I just wish I could have been a fly on the wall To see the look on their face After our Lord So powerful And so incisively Exposed them For who and what they are Apparently

The Foundational Issue: Jesus' Sermon to the Multitude (Mark 7:14-16)

33:36 They slinked off For we have a transition now In verse 14 In which our Lord goes To what I am calling The fundamental or foundational issue Involved in this controversy And under this heading The foundational issue Involved in the controversy You have our Lord's summons And sermon to the multitude Verses 14 and 15 And then our Lord's expansion And explanation of the sermon To his disciples Verses 17 to 23 So let's look then At those two units of thought Under that second major heading The foundational issue Involved in this controversy

34:19 Our Lord summons And sermon to the multitude Verse 14 And he called to him The multitude again And he said unto them Hear me all of you And understand He had something urgent to say And here it's difficult for me Not to digress Into a valuable principle of preaching Our Lord did not speak In such a way As to give the impression That whether they understood What he said was immaterial He said hear me all of you And don't fail to grasp What I'm saying Your soul's interest is at stake

35:03 And I say in the spirit of the Lord Jesus Your soul's interest is at stake For you are religious Or you would not be here this morning But in the realm of religion What is in this passage is vital It lies at the very basis Of true and false religion And what does he say With such earnestness and passion To the multitudes? Verse 15 Here's his sermon in a nutshell There is nothing From without the man That going into him Can defile him

35:45 But the things which proceed Out of the man Are those that defile the man Now in the context What is Jesus saying? Is he saying that there is no external influence Impinging upon the man Or that there is no external influence In pinging upon the man Or that there is no external influence On any of our senses That can defile us? Of course not If you look upon a forbidden object You can defile yourself With covetousness And lust and envy He is not making a generalization He's talking in the context Of thinking that you can be defiled By imbibing food with hands That have not gone through

36:29 The proper washings The context is the complaint The complaint is the complaint The complaint is the complaint Of the scribes and Pharisees About the absence of ritual washing Which in their regard and estimation Rendered the disciples defiled Unclean Unfit to worship Unfit to pray Unfit to offer sacrifice And Jesus' sermon to the multitude Is one in which he says no Nothing from without In the way of food Taken in by hands That have been taken And have not undergone Ceremonial washing Can ever truly bring a man Into a state of spiritual defilement

Jesus' Explanation to His Disciples: The True Source of Defilement (Mark 7:17-23)

37:13 It is not the things From without coming in That defile It is the things That are within Coming out Which defile That was his sermon To the great multitude Then we have in verses 17 to 23 Our Lord's expansion And explanation of that sermon To his disciples Verse 17 And when he was entered Into the house From the multitude His disciples asked of him The parable That is that epigrammatic Little sermon that he gave About nothing from without Going in can defile Only the things proceeding out Defile And when he's alone They said to him Master

37:57 We're not sure We've grasped the meaning We heard you say To all of us Hear and understand But master We don't understand Will you explain it to us Then with a measure Of holy disappointment Our Lord responds And says unto them Are you so without understanding also Can't you grasp The heart of what I'm saying So then he expands And may I say Without being coarse Our Lord does not veil anything With euphemisms Now he talks in plain blunt Ordinary language And says now look Here's something you all can observe

38:42 Don't you perceive That whatever from without That is of food Goes into the man It can't defile him Why? Because the food Children when you eat your food Where does it go? Into your heart Or into your tummy It goes into your tummy Doesn't it? Your food goes down this pipe And into your tummy And in a marvelous way A way that causes amazement to us For we're fearfully and wonderfully made The stomach works on that food And breaks it down And all the juices in there work on it And then it makes its way down Through the intestines

39:25 And the body extracts the nutrients And think of it Some of the milk you drink And the oranges you eat And the sandwiches you have at lunch Some of it comes out as fingernails Some of it comes out as hair On the top of your head And some as eyelashes And some as teeth And all the rest of it Just amazing And then what the body can't use Goes out when you go to the bathroom Now that's exactly what Jesus said That's exactly what Jesus said We cover it up with euphemisms But when Jesus spoke in his day That's exactly how they would understand him to speak He says don't you perceive That whatever from without Goes into the man That can't defile him Why? Goes into his digestive system

40:09 And the rest goes out of him In the processes of elimination And none of it settles In the seed of his beast He said making all meats clean A little aside that we'll not go into this morning Now then in verse 20 Notice what our Lord does In verse 20 There is a clear detailed Focusing upon the true source And nature of defilement Having excluded the silly notion Of these scribes and pharisees That you get defiled By what you take in Giving them a reminder In the basic lessons of biology And the process of eating

40:53 And absorption and elimination He says no Now I tell you The true source of defilement And he said verse 20 That which proceeds out of the man That defiles the man For from within Out of the heart of men Evil thoughts proceed Fornications Thefts Murders Adulteries Covetings Wickedness Deceit Lasciviousness An evil eye Railing Pride Foolishness All these evil things Proceed from within And defile the man You see what our Lord does

41:35 He constantly emphasizes The contrasting mentality The pharisee and scribe Thought defilement Comes from without And Jesus says again And again No defilement comes From within Well so much then For the broad overview Of the passage Now in the time That does remain What are the central issues Of this passage And there are two Central or crucial issues In this passage I can only state them In the briefest form This morning And then seek to amplify And apply them In one or two In at least two Subsequent times In sermons

The Two Crucial Issues: Scripture vs. Tradition, Heart vs. Ritual

42:19 And these central issues Are derived directly From the text And from the two major divisions Of the passage Verses 1 to 13 And verses 14 to 23 Now what are the central issues Here they are Number one Issue number one In the passage is this What ought to regulate Our religious thinking And practice Man-made traditions Or the authoritative Word of God That's issue number one What ought to regulate Our religious thinking And practice Man-made traditions

43:02 Or the authoritative Word of God Notice five times In that opening section The word tradition Is found Verse three Holding to The tradition Of the elders Verse five Holding to The tradition Of the elders Verse five Of the elders Verse eight You hold fast The tradition Of men Verse nine You keep Your tradition Verse thirteen Making void The word of God By your tradition Now many of us Cannot hear the word tradition So frequently Without hearing Strains of fiddle Around the roof I'm sure

43:47 And there's an awful Lot of truth Bound up In one of the incidents In that movie For you remember When we were When Tevye asked Why does he wear His skull cap And he says It's our tradition It's our tradition And without our tradition We'd be as unstable As a fiddler On the roof He said I don't know why Don't ask me why Do you know He said I don't know But it's our tradition And we must cling To our tradition He reflected This mentality And the great issue In this passage That comes across The century And comes to your conscience And mine is this

44:30 What ought to regulate My religious thinking And practice Man-made traditions Or the authoritative word Of the living God And from the beginning of time This has been the issue Will God be served And worshipped Will his requirements Be determined By his own self-disclosure In his own In his law And in his word Or will he be served And worshipped By the whims And notions of men That's been the issue From the very beginning We see it in Cain and Abel We see it through

45:14 The horrible lifetime Battle between Israel And the idolatrous nations And the constant tendency Of Israel To conform her worship To the traditions of men We see it in Cain and Abel We see it in its most disgusting form Coming to full flower In the Pharisees And think of a nation That had the scriptures In every synagogue Throughout Palestine There were copies Of the law of God They did not need To be at the mercy Of these who imposed Those traditions upon them Yet they embraced them And the religion of the Jews In the day of our Lord

45:59 Was a religion In which man-made Traditions prevailed And had buried The word of the living God That's issue number one Then issue number two Set forth in our passage is this What ought to be the focus Of our religious concern External rituals Or the condition of our hearts What ought to be the focus Of our religious concern The source Either man-made traditions Or the word of God Then what is the focus Is it external rituals

46:43 Or is it the condition Of our heart And here you'll notice That five times In the latter part of the passage The verb for defile is used What is the source Of true defilement Verse fifteen Twice it's used Down in verse fifteen Verse eighteen Again in verse twenty And again in verse twenty-three And in its agitival form It's used twice In the opening session The great theme Opening section The great theme is What is defilement In what way can I come As a worshipper Purified and prepared

47:27 To offer praise and sacrifice To God That's the great question What ought to be the focus Of religious concern External rituals Or the condition Now I say in closing My dear friends this morning That these are the two crucial issues In every age And if this were not so The spirit of God Would not have given so much space To this section Embedded in the midst of Marx Quick and constant Passing from one scene to another And his graphic detail And his tremendous concentration Upon the deeds of Christ And his relatively short accounts

48:12 Of the discourses of Christ And yet here is a lengthy one Why? Because in a real sense This issue decided From the human standpoint Whether or not The nation of Israel Could tolerate Jesus of Nazareth Or would have to put him to death And on the side of those Who said our religion Will be the religion Of the tradition Of our fathers Religion will be content With external rituals That's the crowd That was thirsty for his blood And could not be satisfied Until he was put to death

48:54 And in every generation Every man Who in the spirit of his savior Be he prophet, apostle Or ordinary preacher of the gospel Who says to any group Of religious people Almighty God Will not be with you In any other way But according to his word And almighty God Is content with nothing less Than the purification of the heart He too will be cast out As the excrement of his generation For men now as then All of the Jews

49:38 I remind you With their Bible as it were Steadfast Chose rather to have religion And practice Under the power of God And the bondage of men's commandments Than under the word of God Why? Because for the simple reason That each step you are removed From direct contact with God's word Leaves you one step further In the direction of being able To maintain respectable religion With a foul heart And the last thing Is to have our hearts laid bare To have the sin of our hearts exposed

Application: The Danger of Empty Religion and the Call to Heart Purity

50:23 To have the sin of our hearts exposed To have the sin of our hearts exposed To have the sin of our hearts exposed To have the sin of our hearts exposed To have the sin of our hearts exposed To have the sin of our hearts exposed To have the sin of our hearts exposed To have the sin of our hearts exposed To have the sin of our hearts exposed To have the sin of our hearts exposed To have the sin of our hearts exposed To have the sin of our hearts exposed to have the sin of our hearts mortified. A ritual that I may salve my conscience, but not the Word of God, that I may purify my heart. Those are the issues, my friends, and those are the issues that press down upon Trinity Baptist Church this morning.

50:46 And the moment a generation comes that says, we'll let man's traditions take us one step away from direct contact, from a loving, submissive, comprehensive exposure to this Word, we've started down the high road of empty, formal religion. And then there will be in these pews peoples whose hearts are a sink of all of these sins. Adultery, pride, railing, foolishness, thievery, self-centeredness, arrogance, and they'll be able to come,

51:31 go through their rituals, lick their lips, saying they've done their duty, and go home feeling just like that Pharisee who could strut into the temple and preen his feathers in presence of his God. Will I serve you? Notice, some of us are determined that no such religious peacockery will be tolerated in this place. Why?

52:02 Why do we read through the Psalms consecutively? Why do we read through the Old and the New Testaments consecutively? Why do we preach through the Scriptures consecutively? Why do we expose you to the Bible, left, front, and center, backwards and forwards, for this reason, we love your souls enough and long that the saving Word of God impact thy life, directly upon us, with no traditions in between.

52:39 And why are we constantly going after your heart? Why will we not be content with mere generalities? Be sweet, be nice, be loving. We'll all go to heaven in a sugar bowl.

52:51 Why are we intent on close, applicatory preaching that takes the searchlight of the Word and goes into the deep corners of the heart and searches out motives and attitudes and dispositions and intentions? Why? Because we don't want you damned by empty rituals that bypasses heart religion. That's why.

53:15 For only the pure in heart are going to see God. We want you to go to heaven. We want you to go bad enough that we'll go after the sin in your heart with all the vengeance with which we first of all go after it in our own hearts. And the day you have any reason to believe this preacher or anyone in this pulpit is not first of all going after his own sin with vengeance then you excuse yourself from his going after yours with vengeance.

53:50 Those are the two great issues of the passage. Will my religion be framed by mere tradition or by the Word of God? And will my religious experience be content with external ritual or with nothing short of a cleanse and a purified heart? Those are the issues of the passage.

Call to Self-Examination and Prayer

54:15 God willing we'll come back next week and focus upon the first issue. See its implications as we view religious systems as we view our own life as a church as we view our own homes and our own hearts and then God willing if the Lord spares us two weeks from today we'll take the second one and we'll see what it is that Jesus is talking about when he speaks of these things that come out of the heart and defile the man. Amen. You see the very way you look forward to these next two weeks will be a real index of where you are spiritually.

54:55 Do you dread them?

54:58 Do you draw back from them?

55:01 Do you? Do you kind of wish maybe we were just in another one of those miracles where the whole thing comes alive and you see the heaving sea and deep? Is that what you want? Or is your attitude search me oh God and know my heart?

55:16 Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. By God's grace that's the path I'm treading in my studies saying oh God whatever there is of man-made tradition in my religious practice and thought expose it by your word. Oh God expose it by your word and whatever there is of empty ritual that doesn't touch the heart expose me Lord.

55:49 Can you say you look forward to that sweet pain of self-disclosure? The true child of God does. Jesus said it's only those who do evil who hate the light. And if you look for some convenient excuse not to be present the next two weeks that's a bad sign that you're running from light.

56:12 And those who run from light are those who end up in outer darkness. And those who will not tolerate the light of the word now will not know the light of his countenance in the world to come. If you want your darkness now you'll have your darkness forever. May God help us to lay to heart his holy word and find our hearts bent and searched by that word.

56:39 And it can only do one thing to those who earnestly pray search me oh God. It will make Christ and his word all the more precious. The cleansing power of his blood and his spirit all the more endeared to us as we resolve as never before to think to act to conduct all of life particularly our religious perspectives by those two great principles God's word not human tradition the heart not empty ritual.

57:27 Our father we thank you for this portion of your word. We thank you for your beloved son and his boldness as a preacher for his direct confrontation of these empty arrogant proud religionists who dared to say to come in their arrogance and pride and pick a bone with the son of God. We thank you for the wisdom and the authority with which he shut their mouths and sent them slinking away self condemned. But we thank you that he took the very lesson of their arrogant question to speak to those of the multitudes who needed to learn these vital lessons.

58:11 And we pray Lord that by his own spirit he will speak them to us afresh. With power and with searchingness and with close application to the deepest chambers of our hearts we pray for those sitting here this morning who know nothing of a religion that grows out of a loving embrace of the word of God. Who know nothing of a religion that has touched their hearts and purified their hearts and made Christ precious to their hearts. Oh Lord give them no rest until they know such experience in union with your son.

58:48 And we pray for us your people and for the many in this congregation who with all their hearts long that every facet of their life be regulated by scripture and who long for the reality of heart cleansing and heart religion who can never be content with ritual and form. Oh bless them and strengthen their resolution to have nothing less than true faith and true religion that is inward and that is regulated by scripture. Hear then our cry dismiss us with your blessing and may we know your gracious presence with us through the remainder of this your special day

59:31 as in loving obedience to your holy commandment we seek to keep this the Lord's day Sabbath holy knowing that it will glorify you and bring blessings to us according to your word of promise in Jesus name.