Tradition

Good morning. Good morning. Would you all stand? I want to welcome you to Calvary Chapel this morning. You're in Arc City and those of you online with us, we welcome you. Would you bow your heads and pray with me? Father, we thank you for this opportunity to gather this morning to worship you in song and to study your word, Lord. We praise you for who you are. You are worthy of

our worship. We thank you for your grace, your loving kindness, your mercy, your sovereignty, Lord. Your providence, the way you work in the affairs of man, humanity, doing supernatural things in a natural way, Lord. We thank you for that. We thank you for your guidance. Father, we ask that by your Holy Spirit, you will move this morning on our hearts fill us afresh we ask we thank you lord yes lord you may be seated father

you are a good good father to us oh we can trust you in every area of our life we thank you so much for that lord your love your grace lord oh and the times in which we're living may we always focus on you lord and all those times we get down when we get pushed on lord may we look to you the author and finisher of our faith you're so good to us lord never fails me i'm in hell until i lay my head i will see of the goodness father in the morning in the noontime in the evening may we just sing of your goodness pray and thank you for your goodness lord and father we do know that each of us have those times of feeling weary feeling concerned about in general so we just want to look to you or give us strength mercy two or

three are gathered in the midst you're right among us of course you're always among us that's just enough omnipotence all presence and all knowing we thank you Lord we thank you for what you did on the cross for us my jewel help us to honor you you do and say how we live we ask Lord would you stand Oh Father we're all really of like passions face various similar things maybe in different ways and different situations but we're mere flesh and this flesh and we deal with the devil in the world can be a challenge sometime but we thank you that we can look to you are the author and finisher of our faith we thank you for your word that is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path may we desire

to hide in our hearts Lord we won't sin against wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his ways or woman or what by taking heed to thy word oh we thank you Jesus praise you Lord Jesus we have a reason to express to those around us that you are God you sent your son Jesus to die on the cross for us owes that third day he appeared to his disciples of some 500 folk who are Jesus ascended those apostles saw you go up back their eyes were just like whoa this is like that gaze is like you're at a theater really getting involved in some movie and so as he slowly goes up in those clouds and in white there the angels they said what you fellas doing you know this is paraphrase you're gazing up there huh the same way you saw him go off he's

gonna return that second coming when he comes sets up his kingdom the father this world's not our home we're just passing through may we be good servants for you and just love you with all of our hearts knowing that you are working in us both to will and do of your good pleasure and we give you thanks in Jesus name good morning glad you could be here this morning if you would go and locate your seat grab a bulletin we'll go over some announcements as always all the things on the left-hand side of your bulletin are happening as usual this week so find some spots to get plugged into if you have any questions on those you can talk to me afterwards over the middle section of your bulletin a few things that are coming up first of

all we have a prophecy conference coming up at Calvary Chapel of Emporia June 9th through the 11th so it will start that Thursday evening June the 9th and will end about midday on June the 11th so take note of that we also have the servants conference coming up Saturday June the 4th at Calvary Fellowship in Wellington so that's going on as well and then save the date because VBS is coming soon and it always comes faster than I anticipate that it's going to but July 6th through the 8th again I think very soon maybe next week I'll have some info if you want to get involved in that with helping out so should be a good time those are the things that are going on at least that I'm aware of at this

point in time if you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced and for our response we'll be right back with the next episode of the VBS is coming soon so we'll be right back with the next episode of the VBS is coming soon so we'll be right back with the next episode of the VBS is coming soon so we'll be looking at the new American Standard for this responsive reading portion if you need a copy there should be one in your row and as Pastor Allen is coming up if you would stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses Psalm 142 a mascal of David when he was in the cave a prayer

I cry aloud with my voice to the Lord I make supplication with my voice to the Lord or out my complaint before him I declare my trouble before him when my spirit was overwhelmed within me you knew the path in the way where I walk they have hidden a trap for me look to the right and see for there is no one who regards me there is no escape for me no one cares for my soul I cried out to you O Lord I said you are my refuge my portion in the land of the living give heed to my cry for I am brought very low deliver me from my persecutors for they are too strong for me and read verse 7 with me bring my soul out of prison so that I may give thanks to your name the righteous will surround me for you will

deal bountifully with me and father we come before you and do thank you for being our refuge our strength Lord in the one that we can come to with whatever is going on in our lives and so Lord we come to you this morning as we get ready to approach your word with a desire not only just to learn new things about what your word has to say Lord but to see you more clearly and so Lord give us a fresh vision of you a fresh moving of your Holy Spirit and that you would move on our hearts as you see fit this morning we just thank you father in Jesus name amen you may be seated and if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 15 Matthew chapter 15 as we move into chapter 15 the first 20 verses are going to cover

one word and I bet you I know what movie for some of you is going to come to mind and that word is tradition right how many all think about fiddler on the roof right now this is a generational thing so some of you have no idea what I'm talking about but those of you that have seen fiddler on the roof you know exactly what I'm talking about and I'm going to cover one word and I'm going to we're going to talk about tradition this morning because that's what Jesus is going to encounter when he talks with the Pharisees because they are going to take issue with Jesus and tradition and so we're going to see first of all that not only does Jesus deal with their traditions but what he does is he gets

back to the heart of the matter so really we could have entitled this tradition in the heart because Jesus is eventually going to deal with the heart behind the tradition and so we pick up in chapter 15 verse 1 and it says this then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders for they do not wash their hands when they eat bread and he answered and said to them why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition for God said honor your father and mother and he who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death but you say whoever says to his father or mother

whatever I have that would be my father or mother and I would be his father or mother and by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition you hypocrites rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you this people honors me with their lips but their heart is far away from me but in vain do they worship me teaching as doctrines the precepts of men now these 20 verses are going to break down into basically three verses in the chapter 15 verse 16 we're going to see all of the conversations that Jesus has we're going to see his conversation with the religious leaders we're going to see his conversation with the people or the crowds and then we're gonna see his conversation with the disciples the first little section that

we read there is his conversation with the religious leaders and the first thing that we find is that there had been a delegation that was sent from Jerusalem it says it right there it says some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem now we should ask ourselves why on earth would they have from Jerusalem. At this point in time, remember we said when we moved into chapter 14, that Jesus was sort of withdrawing with his ministry. He was concentrating most of his ministry at this point in time in the region of Galilee, away from the heat of the religious leaders, away from the heat of some of the governmental officials, sort of to pull away and really train up his disciples. And so

he's ministering in this region of Galilee. And as he's ministering in this region of Galilee, the religious leaders have more questions. They want to examine Jesus to see how they can find a way to trip him up. And so as they're observing the things that Jesus is doing and observing the things that his disciples are doing, they took note of something. And that

brought about their question. The thing that they took note of was this. They said, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders for they do not wash their hands when they eat bread? Now, we have to understand, that what they're talking about is ceremonial hand washing. Over the last two years, we have learned the importance of washing our hands, have we not? I feel like I've washed my hands more in

the last two years than I did in the previous 40. So we learned that that's a really important thing to do. However, what the Pharisees are concerned about has nothing to do with hygiene. It has everything to do with ceremonial cleansing. Now, before we get into their interpretation of the ceremonial cleansing, we must understand something. Ceremonial cleansing is absolutely

something that God prescribed in the Old Testament. As a matter of fact, there's a handful of things, if you look at both Exodus and Leviticus, that you see that there are ceremonial cleansings that were supposed to take place. For instance, if you came in contact with a dead body, you had to go through a process to be separated from the camp for so many days, and then when you came back, there was a sacrifice that was to be made, and there was a ceremonial cleansing that was to take place. If you came in contact with someone with some sort of a physical uncleanness, same sort of thing.

You had to go through a process, bring a sacrifice, and then go through a ceremonial washing. The priesthood had a very intense ceremonial washing that they had to take part in. However, the Pharisees and the scribes began to do what we often do. They saw something that was good, and they figured out a way that they could make it better. They developed some traditions. Now, these traditions were really, really important to

the Pharisees and the religious leaders of the day. As a matter of fact, what they traditionally believed, sorry, I couldn't leave that one sitting there. What they traditionally believed is that after Moses gave the written law on the tablets that he delivered to the nation of Israel, he began to give them oral commandments. Things that were never written down, but things that were very important. And those oral commandments were

passed down by word of mouth. And those commandments were passed down by word of mouth. From the elders to the different generations. Most of the scribes and Pharisees of this day believed that while the law was weighty, the words of the elders had greater weight. They believed that the traditions of men, that the words of men, the laws of men were even more

important than the laws that were put down on stone tablets. As a matter of fact, for us to get a little bit of a better understanding of this law of ceremonial cleansing, I think the best thing that we can do is to get a little bit of a better understanding of this law of ceremonial cleansing. It's a look at the commentary that's given to us in the book of Mark. Turn over to the book of Mark, next book just to your right, and I want you to look at chapter 7, which tells this exact same story. Mark chapter 7, and I wrote verses 3 and 4, but what the heck, let's start in verse 1. You

knew I was going to do that anyway. Mark chapter 7, verse 1. If you can't get there in time, just write it down, but this is what it says.

He had seen that some of his disciples were eating bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. Now is where it's important to pay attention to, this little parenthetical commentary that's given to us by Mark. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves. And there are many other things which they have received

in order to observe, such as the bread of the Lord. And they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves. This is the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots. This is the tradition that was being spoken of at this point in time. Again, not what's given to us in Scripture, what has been handed down by word of mouth from men. Traditions are kind of interesting, are they not? Having grown

up in a Calvary chapel, we're about as non-traditional in a lot of things as just about any church that you come across. As a matter of fact, I was sharing this with somebody the other day. I remember the first time somebody asked me, to give an invocation, right? Which is a very traditional church thing to do. And I remember when they sent me the message, hey, would you be able to give the invocation for this event that's

coming up? I said, I would love to. What's an invocation? Because I didn't understand that tradition, right? Because that's not a part of the way that I grew up. However, even within Calvary chapels, you find that there are certain traditions that we keep. Certain traditions such as we always sing songs first, right? Have you ever noticed that? We've never not begun a service without

the singing of songs. Can you imagine the day that you showed up? And the day that you show up, I decide that we're going to do worship at the end of the service instead of the beginning of the service. And the first thing I do is get up here and give announcements. Listen, I bet for some of you, that's the last day you show up at this church, right? Because that's not the tradition

that we keep. You guys didn't laugh at that. I'm not serious. I think you're still going to show up next week. Man, lighten up a little bit. But that's a tradition that we have. Another tradition that we have is we always do a little reading. Those are traditions that we have. And what we have to understand about traditions is that traditions are not inherently wrong. Neither are traditions inherently right. They are what

they are. They are traditions. And so with all of the traditions, I think that there's actually three questions that we ask ourselves to make sure that the traditions that we have are things that we should continue doing. Number one, is it anti-biblical? I like to think that there's no tradition that we have in this church or that you have in your life that's completely opposed

to the Word of God. As a matter of fact, what these guys are upset about isn't necessarily opposed to the Word of God. It's actually going to deal with the next question. But as we look at the traditions that you have in your life, in your family, or in a church, you should ask, does this go against what God's Word has to say? And I would tell you that in the church in general

right now, throughout the United States of America, there are some traditions that are anti-biblical and should be questioned. And I would tell you that in the church in general, the second question you should ask yourself is, is this tradition extra-biblical? In other words, it's not necessarily wrong. It's just not given to us in Scripture. It's not something that we

should be bound by because it's something additional to what Scripture has to say. That's what I would call this ceremonial hand-washing. Was there anything wrong with showing up and doing a ceremonial hand-washing every time that you eat? No, because it's not anti-biblical. It's just extra-biblical. Extra-biblical. You can't require other people to do it because it's not commanded in the Bible.

And then the third question that you ask about your tradition is, if it is something that is of man, are we holding it above what the Word of God has to say? Is it something that we have put in the place of God's Word instead of where God's Word rightfully belongs? And so those are questions we should ask ourselves with our traditions. And so those are questions we should ask ourselves with our traditions.

And really, that's what Jesus was doing with these traditions. Because Jesus, I love Him. He did not mind bucking the system, right? I always appreciate that little bit of Jesus that's just like, well, that's not actually what the Bible says, so I'm going to, well, not do it. And you're going to have to be okay with it because that's just tradition. I was watching a great little

documentary again this week. It's called The Jesus Music. If you haven't watched it yet, if you have spent any time watching it, I would love to hear from you. I would love to hear from you. I would love to hear from you. I would love to hear from you. I would love to hear from you. I would love to hear from you. But if you have any time growing up in the church, you should watch The Jesus Music because it's a

fascinating little documentary, and it takes you all the way back to the beginning of what we would call contemporary Christian music, even though I don't really like that phrase because that even kind of sounds old to me, but whatever. Modern Christian music. And it takes you back to the beginning, back in the late 60s, early 70s, really with the Calvary Chapel movement, and then all of a sudden introducing these evil things like guitars and drums because the tradition of that time was to only play organ music. And so many of us are going to be like, well, that's not really churches were so upset that these kids were coming in with long hair because that wasn't

traditional. You were supposed to have short hair, wearing jeans and t-shirts, which wasn't traditional because you should have worn a suit and jacket, and singing songs that were not out of a hymn book, which was not traditional because everything that we ever did was out of a hymn book. After all, it says in First Opinions that every song should be out of the hymn book, right? But First Opinions 1-1, that's what that says. And so, there was a real issue of tradition that

they dealt with back then. Jesus also did not mind bucking the traditions when they didn't line up with what the Word of God had to say. And so, as Jesus so masterfully does when he's asked a question that is seemingly ridiculous, he answers it with a question. Verse 3, Jesus confronts them with this question. He says, Why do you yourselves transgress? Can I just say that's a dagger blow to just about anybody who loves the Word of God

and yet holds their tradition above the Word of God? Because did you take note of the way that they worded their question to Jesus? Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? And Jesus said, Why do you violate the Word of God? Isn't that great? It's like he goes, Well, I'll see your debate, and I'll raise you one a little bit higher. Why are you violating what God's Word

has to say? By your traditions. Man, what a great moment for Jesus. That immediately, can I say, set the Pharisees and the scribes on the defense because they would have thought, What's he talking about? Jesus then begins to give an example. He says, For God said, Honor your father and mother, and he who speaks evil of father and mother shall be put to death. So far, they're probably right

there with him. Darn right. Honor your father and mother. We believe that wholeheartedly. It's the fifth commandment. It's in the law. We're with you. Then Jesus goes on to show how they violated it. But you say, Whoever says to his father or mother, Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God. He is not to honor his father or his mother. And by this, you invalidated the Word of God for the sake of

your tradition. Now, for those of us that don't understand what's going on here, which is probably anybody that hasn't spent all week studying this because we don't understand the traditions that went on back then. This was a common thing to take place among the religious of this time. You see, at this point in time in history, it was customary for the kids to make sure that the parents were cared for as they got older. I'm not saying it's not customary now. It still is. But it was very much customary at

this point in time. Some of these religious leaders had gained pretty good wealth for themselves. And as they were looking and seeing aged parents, they started thinking, I'm going to spend all of my wealth taking care of my parents. How can I get around this? I know that that's a terrible thing to do, but unfortunately, that sort of greed is in the heart of man. And so they'd come up with a way. They said, well, what we'll do is

we'll make a blanket statement that says everything that I own is, the term used in other gospel accounts is, it's all korban. In other words, it's all dedicated to the Lord. Now, here's the fun thing. You could say it all belongs to God, but that would not take effect until your death. So while you say everything that is mine belongs to God, the temple couldn't take it. The religious

leaders couldn't take it. It could not actually be dedicated to the work of the Lord until you actually died. Therefore, you could in all good conscience preserve your wealth and say none of it can be used for my parents because it all is to be given to God. And through this legal, traditional loophole, you could keep everything for yourself. Meanwhile, watching your parents

suffer financially through whatever health issues, they were going through. Jesus says, let's talk about real violation. Why do you violate God's command? You should honor your father and your mother with this greedy tradition that you have of saying everything that I have belongs to God. I just can't give it to you. I've already dedicated it to the Lord. And in so doing, he just cut past all of the time. He just cut past all of the time.

And then he goes on from there. He says, by doing this, you have invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. That word invalidated means to strip power from. He said, you have completely stripped the power from the word of God to keep your tradition. And may I say, when we do this, we are not going to be able to keep the word of God. We are not going to be able to

keep the word of God. We are not going to be able to keep the word of God. We are not going to be able that. When we hold our little traditions higher than what the word of God has to say, it's as if we look at God and say, your word means nothing to me. My tradition is more important. My self-righteousness is more important. Well, if it wasn't offensive enough, right? At this point in

time, I, being a people pleaser, would have stopped and said, okay, I've offended you enough, but not Jesus. Because he knew, listen, he knew, that they still were not fully convicted of their sin yet. And I think that that's an important thing for us to pay attention to. You see, there's a difference between being offended and being convicted. Being offended means you said one thing that made me mad. Being convicted means you've said

enough to where I'm completely devoid of my own righteousness. And so Jesus isn't done with them yet. Notice what the next thing he says is, you hypocrites. Right? He nails them on this. He says, you hypocrites. Now, we don't always understand the, full depth of this word. When we hear that someone is a hypocrite, we think of somebody that shows up in church and says the right thing then. And then, you know, we think of something

a little bit that doesn't have quite the power that this word has to it. This word literally means an actor on the stage of life. You see, when people were in the theater at that point in time, they only had so many people that were good at that role and could play those roles. And so often they would play more than one role. And so what they would do is they would have several different masks. And all depending on the role that they

were playing, that's the mask that they would put on. Isn't that a powerful word when you look at it like that? He said, you actors on the stage of life who wear masks depicting something that you're really not. I want to speak just a short word about this word hypocrisy. I want to speak something hopefully as a word of conviction, but also something as a word of comfort to us.

As a word of conviction, I want to say that, the most dangerous thing that we can be and the thing that Jesus seemed to be the most angry with any time he was dealing with the religious leaders was hypocrisy. Because he wearied of people that would not be transparent, people that would not be who they really are, people who would not say what was really going on, people who would put on a face of righteousness in front of the right people and then wear the face of the world when they weren't in front of those people. And it wearied Jesus. He hated it.

And as someone who has lived a life of hypocrisy in the past, may I say, it's the thing that I hate the most about myself. And it's the thing that Jesus wants us to lay aside, to lay aside our hypocrisy and simply be transparent before him and to be transparent before each other. If you're going to live the life of the world, that's fine. Stop pretending to be a Christian.

If you're going to live like the rest of the world is, that's fine. That's between you and the Lord. Stop pretending. Stop pretending to be a Christian because you're hurting the rest of us. If you're going to live a life that is self-righteous, judgmental, and condemning towards other people, that's fine. Don't tell people you're a Christian because it just hurts the rest of us. That was the word of conviction.

Now, the word of comfort is this. We are all a bunch of recovering hypocrites because it's who we are by nature. As a matter of fact, you know who the very first hypocrites ever on the face of planet Earth were? Adam and Eve. You know how I know that? Because what did they seek to do with themselves? They sought to cover themselves. Why? Because they did not want to be transparent before God

with the sin that they had committed. And ever since then, that has been deeply ingrained in each and every one of us. I hear people say all the time, I don't want to go to church because of hypocrites. And all I can think is, then you're not ready for church. Because we're all hypocrites. I've told people this for years. I've told a bunch of, a group of kids this several years ago. I'm like,

we are all a bunch of recovering hypocrites. You know, we should really just call ourselves hypocrites anonymous. We'll call it HA. Right? That's just, that's who we are because that's who we're all recovering from being. And so if that's you and you're like, man, I've been the person that's condemning and judgmental, meanwhile, pretending to be someone who is full of love and

grace. Well, then today's the day for you to set it aside. Today's the day for you to become a recovering hypocrite. And become someone who comes and says, I still struggle with this, but I know I need God's grace. Please be patient with me and I'll do the best that I can to be patient with you. And so Jesus calls him out and says, you hypocrites. And then he goes on to say,

rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you. And then this prophecy from Isaiah is given. It says, this people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines. The precepts of men. These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Let me give you a little bit of an example. Every morning at the Ark City Christian Academy,

we do the pledges, right? You do the pledge to the American flag, the pledge to the Christian flag, the pledge to the Bible, and the pledge to ACCA. I've never fully understood the fourth one, but it is what it is. We do them. And here's lip service, okay? And it's from me. If they're ever out of order, I probably can't do them. Matter of fact, my students and I had this

conversation the other day because somebody laughed in the middle of a pledge and I went, we have to start over again because if I don't start from the beginning, I can't do all four pledges together. Now that is exactly what lip service means. It means nothing is going on in my heart with these pledges. It's all lip service because I just have to say it. And it's one thing

when it's a bunch of pledges. It's a whole other thing when it is our relationship with Jesus. It's a whole other thing when it's our relationship with the Lord. Because in our relationship with the Lord, sometimes you can show up on a Sunday morning and you can be singing the words, but your heart and your mind are somewhere else. You can be reading your Bible, but your

heart and your mind is somewhere else. You can be claiming the truth when in your heart and in your mind, you are somewhere completely different. Brothers and sisters, it is so our tendency to give lip service. It's so our tendency to say, yes, that's what I'll do. It's like having my youngest daughter clean her room, right? I go and I say, okay, Nora, you need to go clean your room.

You need to do X, Y, and Z. And she's like, okay, Dad. And so she goes and she's in her room for a really long time and she comes back out and she goes, I did it. And I'm like, okay, well, let's go look. And I walk back in. I'm like, you didn't do anything. And she's like, what was I supposed to do? And I'm like, you're supposed to clean your room. Pick up this, that, and the other.

Well, I thought I did it. See, she gave me lip service. Her mind and heart weren't in it because all she wanted to do was get done. She just gave me the lip service. And sometimes that's what we do in our relationship with the Lord. And so Jesus tells these Pharisees and these scribes, he says, the prophet Isaiah called you out perfectly when he said, you honor me with your lips.

You honor me with your lips by bringing all of your sacrifices. You show up to the temple. You show up to the tabernacle. You do all of the right things. And as far as anybody around you is concerned, you're doing the right thing. But there's no heart behind what you're doing because it's just become tradition. It's just become what we do. And then he goes on from there to say, in vain do they worship me because they teach as doctrine

the precepts of men. So Jesus confronts these religious leaders. As they question him, he turns the tables on them and begins to question. That was the first conversation. Now, the second conversation that he has is with the crowd. Notice what it says in verse 10.

Jesus has this desire to teach, right? And after he's just had this conversation with the Pharisees, after he's just had this conversation with the religious leaders, he looks at the crowds and he goes, they don't probably understand what I'm talking about right now. And I want to make sure that they do. You see, he had the distinct understanding that all of the people in the crowd were probably held down by the same traditions that these religious leaders were held down by. They were probably living their lives in guilt because sometimes they didn't keep the

traditions that the religious leaders told them that they had to live by. And because Jesus is a teacher and because Jesus is one who wants to set people free, he's not going to do that. He's not going to set people free. He wants to make sure that they really understand what's going on. And so he looks at the crowds and he says, hear and understand this. It's not what enters into the

mouth that defiles the man. We don't realize this because it's not pointed out in this gospel account, but this is an earth shattering statement that Jesus makes. This will begin a process of completely changing the way that people will view the Old Testament. The Old Covenant. If you don't know very much about the Old Covenant, let me give you just a quick

little background. In the Old Covenant, there was an incredible amount of what we would call dietary laws. It's the most fascinating portion of Leviticus you'll ever read. That's not true. But there's all, some of y'all sat with me through this on Wednesday nights. Lord bless you, right? Special blessing in heaven for you. But there were these dietary laws. They were given

not only for health purposes. They were given not only for health purposes, but they were given for the purpose of separating the people from the culture around them. And so the Jews had to maintain all of these dietary laws. But what Jesus begins to say right now is going to begin the process of setting them free from dietary laws. Matter of fact, go back to Mark chapter 7 with

me real quick. And I want you to look down at verse 19. And this time I really do just want you to look at verse 19. In verse 19, it says this same verse, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach and is eliminated. And so Jesus goes on to say, it's not what enters the mouth that defiles the man. Instead, what is it? What proceeds out of the mouth.

This defiles the man. We'll go into more detail on that in just a moment. But what Jesus is attempting to do with the crowds right now is set them free from the bonds of legalism that they have lived under. And it's going to be a slow process. As a matter of fact, such a slow process that it's going to take years for these people to get out of it. And it's going to take years for these people

to be set free from the bondage of legalism. Matter of fact, when you get into the book of Acts, you find that the Jewish people are still having to be set free from the bondage of legalism. And I don't know why, but I feel like I'm supposed to tell somebody here that you have been set free from the bondage of legalism. God wants to deliver you from that because you're still being held down by the bondage of legalism. You're still being held down by thinking that you need to keep a

list of rules and a list of do's and don'ts. The Lord wants you to know you have been set free and it's going to take time. But that freedom is coming. And so that's what Jesus does with these people. And we'll explain just a little bit more in a minute. But now he has to have a conversation with his disciples. This is the third part. Jesus and his disciples. Notice what it says.

Then his disciples came and said to him, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement? But he answered and said, every plant which my father, my heavenly father, did not plant shall be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit. Peter said to him,

explain the parable to us. He said, are you still lacking understanding also? Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and those that are not are not. So he said, are you still lacking understanding also? Do you not understand the man? For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,

thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man. I love the first question that the disciples come to Jesus with. They're like, hey, Jesus. So BT dubs, pretty sure you offended the Pharisees by saying that, right? That feels like a 2022 statement, doesn't it? Do you know that you offended someone by

saying that? Yes. I know that every time I talk, I offend someone, okay? I am well aware of that by now. I showed my class a movie the other day. We finished up the entire book of Genesis in a year. I figured that earns them some mindless movie. And I said, what do you guys want to watch? And they said, we want to watch Nacho Libre. And I was like, of course we do. That's the funniest

movie I've ever watched in my life. Let's watch Nacho Libre. It is hilarious. And I got to tell you, I want to go watch Nacho Libre. I want to go watch Nacho Libre. I want to go watch Nacho Libre. I want to go watch it again now because I laughed so hard in that movie, just like a 15-year-old kid. But as I'm watching this movie, all I thought was, how is this movie still on? Like, that is the

most offensive to certain cultures movie I've ever watched. And yet it is so funny. Anyway, he says, do you know that you offended these people by this? Do you know you offended them? And I love that Jesus wasn't like, man, I didn't mean to be offensive. I'm just trying to tell the truth. No, what does Jesus say? He goes, that plant shall be uprooted. He goes, I'm not worried about that. I'm here to uproot things

that aren't from God. I'm here to start pulling things up that aren't from him. One commentator said this. He said, we could aptly say it like this. Every system that has not been put in place by God will be uprooted. What system had been put in place that was not from God? The traditions of the elders. He said, all of those things will be uprooted. Do you know what I've noticed about

traditions that aren't very godly and a church that is very godly? They end up getting uprooted and that's okay because they need to be. People and churches that are seeking after the things of God will continue to ask God, Lord, is this something that you want us to do? Because if it's not, I want it to leave. Or if it's run its course, I want it to be gone. If it's become simply wrote

to us, then I want it to go away. Because every system that's not in there by the heavenly father will be uprooted. And he goes on, from there to say, let them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. Why does he say that? Why does he say, just let them alone? At this point in time, if we were in today's culture, Jesus would have gone on an anti-Pharisee campaign, right? Well, let's deal with, let's make sure that we go and

expose every Pharisee that's out there and make sure we go on an anti-Pharisee campaign. Jesus doesn't do that. What does Jesus continue to do? Jesus continues to teach the truth. Why? Because the truth sets you free. And if you know the truth, then you can identify a counterfeit. And so Jesus says, let them alone. If you will, he puts into play exactly what he had said in

the parable of the wheat and the tares. Remember what he said in the parable of the wheat and the tares? The workers came and said, somebody planted tares in the field. Should we go uproot them? Should we go start pulling them out? And he goes, now, leave them alone until the day of judgment. At that point in time, that which is wheat will be put into the barns.

That which is tares will be taken off and be burned. You see, we don't have to go on an anti-anything campaign. We should go on a campaign to make sure people know the truth. And that's what he tells these disciples that they need to do. He goes, let them alone. They're blind guides leading the blind, okay? Instead, start opening up people's eyes to the truth. Well, that leads

to a question from Peter. And I always really appreciate Peter because if you've ever sat in or if you've ever sat in a class where somebody's explaining something and nobody in the class understands, right? Have you ever been in a class like that? I took chemistry my junior year of high school. I still don't know anything about chemistry, right? One of my students was talking to me about

their chemistry class. I'm like, I have no idea what you just said. I'm completely lost on that entire thing. However, in the middle of class, there was always one girl that was willing to ask the questions. Her name was Kelsey Kinch. Smartest girl I've ever been around in my life. And every time all of a sudden, she said, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what you're

talking about. I don't know what you're talking about. And every time all of us didn't understand, we all did one thing. We'd go and we'd look at Kelsey because we knew he liked her because she was smart. She could ask the question, right? You always have to have that one person. That's always Peter. It's not necessarily because he was the best student. It's because he was the one that

was willing to ask. So Peter asked the question. You can just picture all the guys going, you ask him. I don't understand what he said. Peter, Peter, you do this all the time. You say dumb things all the time. You ask him. Peter's like, fine, because I want to know too. Could you explain that parable to us? Now, did y'all catch a parable in there somewhere?

I didn't either, but they didn't understand what he said. So Peter's like, this must be one of them parables, right? That's a, I don't understand what he said. It's a parable. Jesus explained that. I don't know why Peter got Southern there for just a minute. He did. He was South Galilee, maybe. Anyway, and so Jesus said, he said, are you still lacking in understanding also?

Man, Jesus said, I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't understand. He sort of calls him out a little bit on this one, right? Because every now and then we should maybe be a little further than we are. And while Jesus is still patient with us, because he's still going to explain what's going on, there's still kind of that, maybe you should be farther than

you are by now. But it reminded me of something. Do you remember the very end of the chapter on parables? Jesus said, do you understand? And they're like, yes, we understand. And I think that they meant it. I think they really were picking up on some of the things that Jesus was putting down. And yet now Jesus is explaining things to them again and teaching them how to

again. And they find themselves going, I don't get it. You're going to have to explain that one to us. It just reminds me of a principle in life, okay? This is the principle that God taught me a really long time ago. We live our lives in Christ slowly but surely, oftentimes taking three steps forward and two steps back. And that's okay. Because I find that in my

understanding of God's word, in my understanding of how I obey God's word, and in my understanding of how I obey God's word, in my understanding of who God is, I will take three giant steps forward and go, wow! And then I'll find myself going, huh? Right? Because that's how we are. That's how we grow. And you can be patient with yourselves with that. Because even though Jesus is kind of like, hey, you guys should probably be picking up on this by now.

He doesn't just say, and so I'm not going to explain it to you. Because He's still patient with them in their lack of understanding. And we can really be blessed by God's patience in our lives. Amen? Amen. He's still lacking in understanding. He says, He says, He says, He says, He says, I appreciate that Jesus almost practically told a poop joke here, right?

Like, that's what He does. I get mocked all the time. They're like, hey, you should be older than this by now. You should be talking about that all the time. You shouldn't find it that funny. And yet, here Jesus is, talking about the natural things of life. He says, don't you understand exactly how this goes? That food does nothing to your body. Or it does nothing to your spirit.

He said, it's the things that come out of the mouth that defile you. Why? Because the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart. See, the greatest revealer of what's really in our heart is oftentimes what comes out of our mouth. And may I expand this just a little bit farther? I think I can do this without getting too far outside the bounds of Scripture.

It comes out in our actions. The mouth is just simply one of those actions that it comes out in. I always say, you know how you can tell whether you're in a bathroom or a kitchen? Smells are way different, right? Same kind of thing. How can you tell? Hey, Jesus did it, right? How can you tell what's really in the heart? You can tell what's really in the heart by what comes out of you.

By what flows forth from you. You know, there's times where I think to myself, man, I'm doing really good. I'm really on track. I'm doing the things that I'm supposed to be doing. And then all of a sudden, something comes out and I'm like, where'd that even come from? Right? I get angrier at people than I used to. I get more annoyed with things than I used to.

And I'm like, where does that come from? I'm getting older. I should be getting better, right? I should be getting closer to Jesus, not more annoyed with people. Well, here's the thing. Your flesh never gets better. Because that evil that is in the fleshly part of your heart is always there. If you want to really know what's in your heart, you'll just pay attention to the things that come out.

You'll just pay attention to the fruit of your life. In the book of Jeremiah, chapter 17, verse 19. I don't remember if I had them put it up there or not. You don't need to turn there. It just says this. The heart is desperately wicked above all things. Who can know it? And so as Jesus begins this conversation with him, he says, you have to understand it's not what goes into you that's the problem.

It's what comes out of you that's the problem. Because those things that come out of you. They come forth from an evil heart. Notice the things that are all deep down in our heart. Did you catch note of that? It starts off with evil thoughts and then murders and then adulteries and then fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. All those things are deep down in your heart.

I bet you're sitting there going, no, they're not. I don't have murderous thoughts. Yes, you do. I don't have adulterous thoughts. Yes, you do. I don't have slanderous thoughts. No. Nobody says that. I don't have all that going on on the inside of me. Yeah, you do. Because it's what's deep down in the heart of all of us. And oftentimes it comes out in the things that we do or the things that we say.

And that's what defiles a man. See, Jesus is so good because he never just deals with the external. He always gets down to what's really going on in our hearts. To what's really happening in the heart of us. Because all of the traditions, all of the actions, all of the activities are all wonderful. But if they're not done from the heart, if there's still an issue in your heart,

then eventually that's going to show itself. And eventually you're not going to do all the good things any longer. You see, I bet you that there's some people that show up to church on a Sunday morning that are only here because they have to be here. Your parents drug you here. Your wife drug you here. Your husband drug you here. Whoever it was. You got brought here by somebody against your own will.

And you said, fine. I'll do it. But your heart's not here. Jesus knows that. Because you see, you can keep all of the traditions in the world, but those will never change your heart. Only Jesus can do that. And he says, all of those things are what are in your heart. And that's what defiles a man. He says, these, verse 20, are the things which defile the man.

But to eat with unwashed hands. That doesn't defile anyone.

Well, over these last few minutes as we wrap up, I have a question for you that'll come with three statements that I think that hopefully will have a little bit of a searching effect on us. Because isn't it kind of interesting that we started off by talking about traditions and we ended up talking about what's really in our heart? It's almost like every time we study God's word, he eventually gets to the things of our heart. So my question for you is this.

How is your heart today? How's your heart? As I've gotten a little bit older, every time I go to the doctor, they check out more things on me than they used to, asking me questions about things like my heart. I remember when they sent me home with the first paper that said, you're getting older now, you need to keep track of your heart. And I was like, thank you, and I will.

But it's absolutely true of us as believers in Jesus Christ or people that don't know Jesus Christ. And so as I ask you that question, there's three things that go along with it. Number one, what is coming out of it? What comes out of your heart on a consistent basis? I'm not talking about the things that I can see. I'm not talking about the things that all the people that you go to church with see.

I'm talking about the things that come out of your heart when no one's around. I'm talking about the things that come out of your heart when it's only those friends who understand you. And they understand that this Jesus, this thing is great, but it's not the only thing in your life. I'm talking about what comes out of your heart when all of the religious people aren't watching and when you think God isn't watching.

What's coming out of your heart? Is it some of those things? Is it evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, slanders, theft? Is it all of those kinds of things? Because I think those are probing questions that we oftentimes need to ask ourselves. Just general little heart checkups. What's coming out of our heart? The second thing that I'll say is this.

An undefiled heart begins with a right heart. An undefiled heart begins with a right heart. Because if we want our hearts to be correct, if we want our hearts to be right, then they need to be undefiled. Well, how do they become undefiled? Well, they become undefiled by making our hearts right with the Lord. Now, if someone has never, invited the Lord into their heart to forgive them of their sins,

that's where that begins. You see, you can, again, try all you want to to try to make your heart right before God. I'm just not going to do that stuff anymore. The problem is it's still inside of you. And while you may not act on it, you still entertain it. Therefore, your heart is still defiled. Therefore, your heart is still your issue. And so, your heart has to be made right with God.

Well, that initially takes place. You get positionally made right with God by asking Jesus to become your Savior, by confessing all of your sins, to the Lord, asking for His forgiveness and accepting what He did for you on the cross. It begins with a right heart. But for those of us that are believers in Jesus Christ, it begins with a right heart by confessing our sin to the Lord.

You see, as we examine ourselves to say, what's coming out of my heart? It's time to start confessing some of those things that have come out of my heart. I don't necessarily need you to confess them to me or to any other human being, but I do need you to confess them to the Lord. Because, as you see those things coming out of you, you need to confess that you have done wrong.

Confess that, Lord, this is what's going on in my heart. These are the things really taking place in my heart and I need that cleansing, that cleansing that only you can bring. Because, as we walk in the light, He continually cleanses us from unrighteousness. His blood continues to cleanse us. But that can only take place if I'm making confession. And some of those things

can be a little bit hard to confess. They can be a little bit hard to say out loud to the Lord. Because once you put words into it, it becomes really real. However, an undefiled heart always begins with a right heart. And then the third thing is this. An undefiled heart is cleansed by the Word. An undefiled heart is cleansed by the Word. Psalm 119. If you've never read

all the way through Psalm 119, just take it a little section every day this week. Because all of Psalm 119 is about the importance of God's Word in our lives. That's where the verse that was quoted at the very end of the worship service came from. How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed to your Word. Your Word, O Lord, have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you.

See, our hearts, as they become very sinful, begin to form certain truths. Truths in our brain as well. It begins to form these things called neural pathways. Have you ever heard the term neural pathway? It means that more that you make a decision, just like a river begins, just like water begins to make a little groove in the ground, your thoughts begin to do the same thing.

It begins to form neural pathways. So the next time that sin, that temptation comes up, you're more likely to follow that path because you've already formed a little groove. And pretty soon, if you've done that for years, that neural pathway is really deep. And that's the natural bend. Towards everything that you do. So how do you overcome that? How do you get past things like that?

By taking heed to God's Word. You see, God's Word, we're told in the book of Ephesians, is like water. And it washes us. It washes us clean. How do we get rid of those neural pathways? How do we get rid of that natural bend towards constantly choosing sin in our lives? How do we gain an undefiled heart by allowing God's Word to continually cleanse us? By reading it,

by meditating on it, by praying through it, and by memorizing it. All of a sudden, you'll find that your heart and your mind begin to become undefiled by the things of the world. Your natural bent will be towards obedience towards God. Your natural bent will be to think biblically instead of worldly. How's your heart today? What's coming out of it? Is it right with the Lord?

And is it being washed? Is it being washed by the Word? Because God's less concerned with our traditions and He's much more concerned with our hearts. Amen? Let's all stand.

Would you bow with me? Father, we come before You. Lord, I thank You that that You are so good at stripping away all of the things that are not important and getting down to what really is. Lord, getting down to what's really in our hearts. And Lord, as You did with the religious leaders, as You did with the crowds, and as You did with the disciples, would You peel away the things

that we think that are important, the traditions that we hold on to, and would You get straight to the heart of what's going on in our lives? Father, I pray that You would continue the work that You've done in our hearts this morning, that You would continue that work of cleansing us and drawing us near to You. We thank You for who You are. We praise You for another day and another week.

In Jesus' name, amen. Be blessed. Wish what concerns me today Anything that comes my way Concerns me today Thank You, Lord Jesus. We know that You are able and we trust You, Lord. We can't do it alone. We know that in and of ourselves, Lord. May we yield to You. Day to day with You, Lord, we give You thanks. In Jesus' name, amen. Lord bless y'all.