1 00:00:03,080 --> 00:00:07,440 Most people today will tell you that your biggest problem comes 2 00:00:07,440 --> 00:00:12,280 from outside and the solution comes from inside. 3 00:00:14,120 --> 00:00:18,200 The problem could be political oppression or your family's 4 00:00:18,200 --> 00:00:21,720 repressive rules. It could be trauma from your 5 00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:26,840 past or other people's judge mental attitudes and the 6 00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:30,960 solution people will recommend comes from within and many forms 7 00:00:30,960 --> 00:00:32,920 of therapy. The therapist is not an 8 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:36,920 authority telling you what to change or fix. 9 00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:41,560 Instead, they're a guide helping you discover and draw out 10 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:47,200 resources that are within you. Countless movies and shows and 11 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:51,880 songs tell you that freedom comes from finding and living 12 00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:55,960 out your true self within. Throw off tradition, 13 00:00:55,960 --> 00:01:00,400 expectation, repression and let what is inside come out. 14 00:01:00,760 --> 00:01:04,280 No right, no wrong, no rules for me, I'm free. 15 00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:09,160 Philosopher Charles Taylor calls this ethic expressive 16 00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:12,840 individualism. It's the story that our society 17 00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:16,240 lives by. Authenticity is everything. 18 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:21,080 Each of us has our own way of realizing his or her true 19 00:01:21,160 --> 00:01:25,960 humanity, and expressing your truth, rather than holding to 20 00:01:25,960 --> 00:01:30,920 some externally imposed model, is the key to meaning and 21 00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:36,200 fulfillment and happiness. That's what our culture says. 22 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:38,440 Your biggest problem comes from outside. 23 00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:44,440 The solution comes from inside. What does Jesus say? 24 00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:48,040 This morning? We continue our series in Mark's 25 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:51,240 Gospel with Chapter 7, verses 1 to 23. 26 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:53,720 If you don't have a Bible, please raise your hand and 27 00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:56,000 someone will bring you one. Feel free right up here in the 28 00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:58,080 front. Keep the hand of Bible on its 29 00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:01,640 way. In our passage, Jesus disputes 30 00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:06,280 with some influential religious leaders of his day, and Jesus's 31 00:02:06,280 --> 00:02:10,080 position in this debate reveals his answer to these fundamental 32 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:12,920 questions. Where do our biggest problems 33 00:02:12,920 --> 00:02:17,480 come from? Where do their solutions come 34 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:20,480 from? Please follow along as I read 35 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:24,160 the whole passage. Mark 7 verses 1 to 23. 36 00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:32,440 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him with some of the scribes 37 00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:35,800 who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his 38 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:38,800 disciples ate with hands that were defiled. 39 00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:43,440 That is unwashed, for the Pharisees and all the Jews do 40 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:46,680 not eat unless they wash their hands, properly, holding to the 41 00:02:46,680 --> 00:02:49,400 tradition of the elders. And when they come from the 42 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:52,040 marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. 43 00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:55,520 And there are many other traditions that they observe, 44 00:02:55,520 --> 00:02:59,920 such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and 45 00:02:59,920 --> 00:03:03,040 dining couches. And the Pharisees and the 46 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:07,760 scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to 47 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:11,840 the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands? 48 00:03:12,920 --> 00:03:17,520 And he said to them, Well did Isaiah prophecy of you 49 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:22,720 hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me with their 50 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:26,120 lips, but their heart is far from me. 51 00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:31,800 In vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the 52 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:37,520 commandments of men. You leave the commandment of God 53 00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:41,640 and hold to the tradition of men. 54 00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:45,920 And he said to them, you have a fine way of rejecting the 55 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:49,200 commandment of God in order to establish your tradition. 56 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:54,880 For Moses said, honor your father and your mother, and 57 00:03:54,880 --> 00:03:58,920 whoever reviles father or mother must surely die. 58 00:03:59,800 --> 00:04:03,560 But you say if a man tells his father or his mother, whatever 59 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:07,920 you would have gained from me is Corbin that is given to God, 60 00:04:08,920 --> 00:04:12,680 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or 61 00:04:12,680 --> 00:04:17,440 mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition 62 00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:21,839 that you have handed down and many such things you do. 63 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:27,680 And he called the people to him again and said to them, Hear me, 64 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:34,360 all of you, and understand there's nothing outside a person 65 00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:37,320 that by going into him can defile him. 66 00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:42,040 But the things that come out of a person are what defile him. 67 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:46,920 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his 68 00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:50,080 disciples asked him about the parable. 69 00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:54,960 And he said to them, then are you also without understanding? 70 00:04:55,880 --> 00:04:58,920 Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside 71 00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:02,880 cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his 72 00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:06,320 stomach, and is expelled? Thus he declared all foods 73 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:11,640 clean, and he said what comes out of a person is what defiles 74 00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:15,320 him. For from within, out of the 75 00:05:15,320 --> 00:05:18,600 heart of man, come evil thoughts. 76 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:28,480 Sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, 77 00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:37,480 wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, 78 00:05:38,280 --> 00:05:47,440 foolishness, all these evil things come from within and they 79 00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:55,240 defile a person. Verses one through 5 set up the 80 00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:58,360 controversy. The Pharisees and scribes notice 81 00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:02,560 Jesus disciples failing to follow a custom that they regard 82 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:05,440 as binding, so they go straight to the top. 83 00:06:06,040 --> 00:06:08,800 They take Jesus to task for his disciples behavior. 84 00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:13,040 They ask in verse 5, Why do your disciples not walk according to 85 00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:15,520 the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands? 86 00:06:16,280 --> 00:06:17,960 Note that the question has two parts. 87 00:06:18,480 --> 00:06:21,720 Why do they not walk according to the tradition of the elders? 88 00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:24,760 Why do they eat with defiled hands? 89 00:06:25,080 --> 00:06:29,240 Now Jesus is going to respond to those two charges in turn. 90 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:33,440 In verses 6 to 13 he answers the first charge directly addressing 91 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:37,760 the Pharisees. Then in verses 14 to 23 he 92 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:41,880 answers the second charge by first teaching the crowd and 93 00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:44,800 then explaining privately to his disciples what he taught the 94 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:47,280 crowd. So this debate turns on two 95 00:06:47,280 --> 00:06:51,040 issues. One is the relationship of human 96 00:06:51,040 --> 00:06:56,400 tradition to divine revelation, and the other issue is where 97 00:06:56,400 --> 00:07:01,560 impurity comes from. 2 issues, 2 answers. 98 00:07:01,960 --> 00:07:07,360 The sermon will have two points. Where does our biggest problem 99 00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:14,440 and its solution come from .1 versus 1 to 13? 100 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:22,240 Truth comes from outside. Truth comes from outside .2 101 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:27,200 versus 14 to 23. Impurity comes from inside. 102 00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:34,480 Impurity comes from inside .1 on verses 1 to 13. 103 00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:40,800 Truth comes from outside. In other words, God's Word is 104 00:07:40,800 --> 00:07:45,320 and must be supreme over all human traditions. 105 00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:47,800 Look again at verses 1:00 to 5:00. 106 00:07:49,880 --> 00:07:52,760 Now when the Pharisees gathered to Him with some of the scribes 107 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:55,080 who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of His 108 00:07:55,080 --> 00:07:58,160 disciples ate with hands that were defiled, That is, unwashed. 109 00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:00,560 For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not. 110 00:08:00,560 --> 00:08:02,280 Even less. They wash their hands properly, 111 00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:04,240 holding to the tradition of the elders. 112 00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:06,960 And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat 113 00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:08,520 unless they wash. And there are many other 114 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:11,440 traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and 115 00:08:11,440 --> 00:08:14,000 pots and copper vessels and dining couches. 116 00:08:14,680 --> 00:08:17,640 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, Why do your 117 00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:21,120 disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but 118 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:26,440 eat with defiled hands? This group of Pharisees and 119 00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:30,160 scribes had come from Jerusalem into Galilee where Jesus was 120 00:08:30,280 --> 00:08:32,799 ministering. They came to see if this upstart 121 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:37,360 measured up to their standards and played by their rules. 122 00:08:37,720 --> 00:08:40,600 And they noticed that at least some of Jesus disciples ate 123 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:42,240 without washing their hands first. 124 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:46,320 Now we have to clarify right away that the Pharisees concern 125 00:08:46,320 --> 00:08:49,520 was not hygiene. They were not operating from the 126 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:52,800 germ theory of disease or any ancient precursor to it. 127 00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:57,120 Their concern was not health, but holiness. 128 00:08:57,800 --> 00:09:01,320 They were concerned not to prevent the spread of the flu, 129 00:09:01,800 --> 00:09:05,400 but to protect against a ritual impurity. 130 00:09:06,320 --> 00:09:10,080 Throughout the whole passage, we have to remember that purity was 131 00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:14,200 their prime concern. So kids in the congregation, 132 00:09:14,680 --> 00:09:17,680 this passage does not give you a reason to accuse your parents of 133 00:09:17,680 --> 00:09:20,840 being Pharisees when they tell you to wash your hands. 134 00:09:22,920 --> 00:09:25,880 Now this concern for purity is what Mark explains in the 135 00:09:25,880 --> 00:09:28,640 background material he provides in verses 3 and 4. 136 00:09:28,800 --> 00:09:31,200 Mark is a Jew. The original 12 disciples who 137 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:33,320 are eyewitnesses were Jews. But Mark's writing to an 138 00:09:33,320 --> 00:09:35,000 audience is going to include a lot of Gentiles. 139 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:38,120 So he explains these Jewish customs that were influenced by 140 00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:41,880 the Pharisees. The Pharisees practices we 141 00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:46,760 learned in verses 3 and four were based on the idea that 142 00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:51,040 someone's hands could transmit impurity to their food and 143 00:09:51,040 --> 00:09:54,080 thereby to their body. If you went to the marketplace, 144 00:09:54,320 --> 00:09:57,440 you might unintentionally or even unknowingly come into 145 00:09:57,440 --> 00:10:01,760 contact with someone who is in a state of ritual impurity, maybe 146 00:10:01,760 --> 00:10:04,280 through a skin disease or blood discharge. 147 00:10:04,560 --> 00:10:08,120 And if you contracted impurity from them, then on the Pharisees 148 00:10:08,120 --> 00:10:10,680 view, you could pass that impurity to your food or 149 00:10:10,680 --> 00:10:14,240 somebody else's food and become ritually defiled that way. 150 00:10:14,680 --> 00:10:17,040 The same would hold for getting food from someone who was 151 00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:20,520 ritually impure. It could make you impure without 152 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:22,480 knowing it and the consequences for that impurity. 153 00:10:22,680 --> 00:10:25,120 It wasn't viewed as a moral matter or sin, but it could keep 154 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:27,640 you from participating in temple worship. 155 00:10:27,800 --> 00:10:29,760 It could spread impurity to things that were supposed to be 156 00:10:29,760 --> 00:10:31,320 holy. It was a big deal. 157 00:10:32,600 --> 00:10:35,720 Now it's important to notice that in both Marks comment in 158 00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:41,440 verse 3 and the Pharisees question in verse 5, this 159 00:10:41,440 --> 00:10:45,920 practice is grounded in the tradition of the elders. 160 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:49,640 What does that mean? It means oral tradition passed 161 00:10:49,640 --> 00:10:53,560 down from 1 teacher to another, one generation to another. 162 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:57,400 The Pharisees likely viewed this as a kind of oral Torah that 163 00:10:57,400 --> 00:11:00,240 they would have claimed was given alongside the Law, 164 00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:02,960 separate from the law, and then passed down ever since the time 165 00:11:02,960 --> 00:11:06,760 of Moses and Mount Sinai. But note what the Pharisees 166 00:11:06,760 --> 00:11:10,360 don't claim. They do not claim that the 167 00:11:10,360 --> 00:11:13,080 disciples are disobeying Scripture. 168 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:17,520 They don't claim that the disciples are breaking a command 169 00:11:17,520 --> 00:11:20,080 of God. Instead, they accuse them of 170 00:11:20,080 --> 00:11:23,680 disregarding the tradition of the elders, which the Pharisees 171 00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:26,920 and a whole lot of Jewish people along with them hold to be 172 00:11:26,920 --> 00:11:33,680 authoritative. A practice or teaching can be at 173 00:11:33,680 --> 00:11:39,640 one and the same time an old tradition and a recent 174 00:11:39,640 --> 00:11:44,200 innovation. It can be older than us, but 175 00:11:44,200 --> 00:11:47,800 newer than God's law. The fact that a teaching or 176 00:11:47,800 --> 00:11:52,600 tradition is old doesn't automatically mean it comes from 177 00:11:52,800 --> 00:11:55,760 God. So the Pharisees are accusing 178 00:11:55,760 --> 00:11:59,040 the disciples not of departing from God's law, but of departing 179 00:11:59,040 --> 00:12:01,400 from their tradition. That's the charge. 180 00:12:02,040 --> 00:12:03,880 How does Jesus respond to the charge? 181 00:12:04,720 --> 00:12:09,040 Look at verses 6 and seven. And he said to them, Well did 182 00:12:09,040 --> 00:12:12,400 Isaiah prophecy of you hypocrites as it is written, 183 00:12:13,280 --> 00:12:16,200 this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far 184 00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:19,080 from me. In vain do they worship me, 185 00:12:19,080 --> 00:12:22,040 teaching his doctrines, the commandments of men. 186 00:12:23,160 --> 00:12:28,400 Here Jesus cites Isaiah chapter 29 verse 13, and he says that 187 00:12:28,400 --> 00:12:31,920 the great prophet Isaiah himself predicted the Pharisees 188 00:12:31,920 --> 00:12:36,240 particular form of disobedience. Jesus calls it hypocrisy. 189 00:12:36,840 --> 00:12:40,240 Now we often use the word hypocrite to describe someone 190 00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:45,440 who's deliberately duplicitous, someone who preaches one thing 191 00:12:45,760 --> 00:12:49,920 and knowingly practices another, someone who crafts a public 192 00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:53,400 image that's different from private reality. 193 00:12:53,960 --> 00:12:56,240 And that's related to what Jesus charges here. 194 00:12:56,520 --> 00:12:58,640 But I don't think it's exactly what he means here in this 195 00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:00,760 verse. I think the point of Jesus 196 00:13:00,760 --> 00:13:05,640 charge is that the Pharisees have a split between their heart 197 00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:11,160 and their actions. They are outwardly right, but 198 00:13:11,160 --> 00:13:14,200 inwardly wrong. They are sincere in all their 199 00:13:14,200 --> 00:13:19,880 practices, but they are sincerely mistaken for all their 200 00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:23,680 outward religious service. They fail to actually devote 201 00:13:23,680 --> 00:13:26,760 themselves to God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, 202 00:13:26,920 --> 00:13:28,240 which is the whole point of the law. 203 00:13:28,560 --> 00:13:37,640 In the 1st place, how can you detect and diagnose hypocrisy in 204 00:13:37,640 --> 00:13:42,200 your life? One way is by asking questions 205 00:13:42,200 --> 00:13:46,800 that serve to X-ray your heart. Questions that get at your 206 00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:51,560 motives, your loves, your hates, your desires, your cravings. 207 00:13:52,640 --> 00:13:54,840 In his book Seeing with New Eyes, the biblical counselor 208 00:13:54,840 --> 00:13:58,920 David Powerson has a chapter with 35 of these X-ray 209 00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:02,640 questions. Questions like What do you love? 210 00:14:04,440 --> 00:14:08,080 What do you hate? What do you think you need? 211 00:14:09,400 --> 00:14:12,040 What do you think about most often? 212 00:14:13,200 --> 00:14:17,640 What preoccupies or obsesses you? 213 00:14:18,800 --> 00:14:21,640 What does your mind drift to instinctively, when you've got a 214 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:25,640 free moment, your mind is idle. Where does it go? 215 00:14:26,520 --> 00:14:31,480 What do you crave or wish for? All of those diagnostic 216 00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:35,080 questions get at the direction your heart aims. 217 00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:39,880 Instinctively, intuitively, what God demands of us is that our 218 00:14:39,880 --> 00:14:42,680 hearts are devoted to Him. Our hearts are directed at Him. 219 00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:45,800 Our hearts are oriented to Him. None of us do that perfectly, 220 00:14:46,240 --> 00:14:50,720 but wherever the gap between the direction your heart points and 221 00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:54,440 love of God is, that's where you've got the most work to do 222 00:14:54,680 --> 00:14:58,480 spiritually. Now how did the Pharisees 223 00:14:58,480 --> 00:15:02,400 hypocrisy manifest itself? Specifically the prophecy in 224 00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:04,760 Isaiah tells us, quoted in verse seven. 225 00:15:05,840 --> 00:15:10,440 In vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the 226 00:15:10,440 --> 00:15:14,320 commandments of men. God calls their worship vain. 227 00:15:14,680 --> 00:15:17,760 That means futile, pointless, fruitless. 228 00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:20,680 It does not hit the target it aims at. 229 00:15:21,280 --> 00:15:24,560 Now why is it vain? Because they grant divine 230 00:15:24,560 --> 00:15:30,120 authority to human teachings, of course, the Pharisees would have 231 00:15:30,120 --> 00:15:34,160 believed that their traditions enabled them to fulfill God's 232 00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:35,880 commands. They frequently use the phrase 233 00:15:35,880 --> 00:15:37,480 of building a hedge around the Torah. 234 00:15:37,480 --> 00:15:40,160 They were trying to protect observance to the law. 235 00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:45,080 They would not have claimed to set their traditions above 236 00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:49,240 divine revelation. But according to Jesus, that's 237 00:15:49,240 --> 00:15:53,680 exactly what God himself charges them with doing. 238 00:15:55,240 --> 00:16:00,040 Jesus is teaching by quoting Isaiah that divine revelation 239 00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:03,680 and human tradition can conflict. 240 00:16:04,600 --> 00:16:07,120 He's teaching that even traditions that were developed 241 00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:11,760 in an effort to fulfill God's commands can come to contradict 242 00:16:11,920 --> 00:16:16,160 those commands. And he's saying that whenever 243 00:16:16,160 --> 00:16:21,120 divine revelation and human tradition conflict, divine 244 00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:25,880 revelation must win. Jesus is teaching that we may 245 00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:30,360 never claim divine authority for any practice that is of merely 246 00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:33,560 human origin. We can never claim that God 247 00:16:33,560 --> 00:16:38,480 requires something that humans have invented. 248 00:16:39,480 --> 00:16:42,320 From the debates over the right worship of God that consumed the 249 00:16:42,320 --> 00:16:45,800 Reformation in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, this 250 00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:49,240 teaching came to be known as the regulative principle of worship. 251 00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:53,760 Meaning, Scripture regulates how we worship God. 252 00:16:54,560 --> 00:16:58,880 Churches must perform only those elements of worship that God has 253 00:16:58,880 --> 00:17:02,120 required in His Word. To do anything else is to give 254 00:17:02,120 --> 00:17:04,960 divine authority to a human custom. 255 00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:10,000 Jesus here teaches the regulative principle of worship. 256 00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:15,200 In contrast, there are Christian traditions that hold to a view 257 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:19,319 of the relationship between tradition and Scripture that is 258 00:17:19,319 --> 00:17:22,119 remarkably like that of the Pharisees. 259 00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:25,599 Here I'm thinking especially of the Roman Catholic Church. 260 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:30,200 According to official Roman Catholic teaching, tradition and 261 00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:33,920 Scripture are inseparable sources of revelation. 262 00:17:34,760 --> 00:17:37,920 According to the Roman Catholic Church, you cannot have one 263 00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:40,280 without the other. Scripture and tradition always 264 00:17:40,280 --> 00:17:42,960 go together, must always belong together. 265 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:48,520 But Jesus himself teaches that tradition and Scripture can 266 00:17:48,520 --> 00:17:53,240 contradict each other, and where they contradict, Scripture must 267 00:17:53,520 --> 00:17:56,560 win. And all that we do is a church. 268 00:17:57,000 --> 00:17:59,880 We have to work to keep a clear distinction between divine 269 00:17:59,880 --> 00:18:04,400 revelation and human tradition, between divine command and human 270 00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:06,920 custom. One way we try to do that is by 271 00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:09,840 privileging expository preaching in our corporate worship, 272 00:18:10,440 --> 00:18:13,200 expository preaching where we work through whole books of the 273 00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:15,960 Bible, text by text, section by section, and try to give the 274 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:18,000 main point of each of those passages. 275 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:21,400 What is that doing? It's training all of us to 276 00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:25,080 distinguish between human tradition and divine truth. 277 00:18:25,920 --> 00:18:29,120 Expository preaching systematically exposes all of 278 00:18:29,120 --> 00:18:32,920 our consciences week by week to what God himself teaches in 279 00:18:32,920 --> 00:18:35,600 Scripture. That word, conscience, is 280 00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:41,320 important in an ultimate sense. Only God's Word can bind our 281 00:18:41,320 --> 00:18:44,680 consciences. As we confess in Article 15 of 282 00:18:44,680 --> 00:18:49,120 our church's Statement of faith. We believe that God alone is 283 00:18:49,120 --> 00:18:53,000 Lord of the conscience and has designed it to be free from the 284 00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:56,560 doctrines and commandments of men that are contrary to His 285 00:18:56,560 --> 00:18:59,680 Word or not contained in it. That article in our statement of 286 00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:03,880 faith is paraphrasing Jesus citation of Isaiah right here. 287 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:10,120 Pastors can only declare what God's Word commands and requires 288 00:19:10,120 --> 00:19:13,360 and promises. We cannot make up rules that you 289 00:19:13,360 --> 00:19:16,480 have to follow. We cannot command what God has 290 00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:20,480 not commanded. And it's important in that light 291 00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:25,040 to question your own conscience, to hold your conscience to 292 00:19:25,040 --> 00:19:28,040 account in light of God's Word. Are there any things your 293 00:19:28,040 --> 00:19:30,280 conscience tells you might be required that God doesn't 294 00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:32,520 actually require? Are there any things your 295 00:19:32,520 --> 00:19:36,000 conscience tells you might be permitted that God's Word 296 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:39,600 actually forbids? All of our consciences have been 297 00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:44,040 formed not only by Scripture, but by the families we grew up 298 00:19:44,040 --> 00:19:48,480 in, the cultural backgrounds we come from, and the standards of 299 00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:51,640 people around us. If you think something is 300 00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:55,560 required, not just a good idea, not just a personal preference, 301 00:19:55,680 --> 00:19:59,880 but required for you and for all Christians, can you prove that 302 00:19:59,880 --> 00:20:02,360 from Scripture? That's the question. 303 00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:06,960 Parents, there's all kinds of applications for parenting here. 304 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:09,800 Here's just one as you disciple your kids. 305 00:20:10,480 --> 00:20:12,800 It's important to help them distinguish between what God 306 00:20:12,800 --> 00:20:15,520 requires and what mom and dad require. 307 00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:18,360 Parents should help their kids understand the difference 308 00:20:18,360 --> 00:20:21,440 between 3 categories of things that you will instruct your 309 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:24,400 children in. Number one, God's commands. 310 00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:27,840 These have absolute authority. You shall not murder. 311 00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:32,200 You shall not commit adultery. And those big negative commands 312 00:20:32,280 --> 00:20:35,840 have tons of necessary implications that affect our 313 00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:40,840 behavior in pervasive ways #2 family rules. 314 00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:44,680 You could call these in house rules, things like lights out, 315 00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:49,000 time, curfew, what kids can and can't eat. 316 00:20:49,200 --> 00:20:53,240 And when parents have the authority to establish rules 317 00:20:53,240 --> 00:20:55,840 like this for the flourishing and order of their families, 318 00:20:56,120 --> 00:20:58,520 they're like many governments in that way. 319 00:20:59,120 --> 00:21:01,360 And kids are required to obey these rules because they're 320 00:21:01,360 --> 00:21:05,040 required to obey their parents. But these rules are not 321 00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:12,200 absolute, infallible commands from God #3 matters of courtesy 322 00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:16,280 and custom, good manners. These vary from place to place, 323 00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:17,960 culture to culture, time to time. 324 00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:21,720 But we should observe them out of love of neighbor. 325 00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:26,840 Now Jesus really turns the tables on the Pharisees and 326 00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:31,480 scribes in verses 6 and seven. Why don't my disciples keep the 327 00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:33,880 tradition of the elders? Because you're a bunch of 328 00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:36,680 hypocrites. That's pretty bold. 329 00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:39,480 That's a pretty severe accusation because he says 330 00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:43,320 you're teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. 331 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:45,760 OK, Jesus, can you give us an example? 332 00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:48,960 Sure. Verses 8 to 13. 333 00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:52,920 Here's an extended example of how they're teaching as 334 00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:54,400 doctrines the commandments of men. 335 00:21:56,960 --> 00:22:01,760 Jesus says you leave the commandment of God and hold to 336 00:22:01,760 --> 00:22:04,600 the tradition of men. And he said to them, you have a 337 00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:07,080 fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to 338 00:22:07,080 --> 00:22:12,120 establish your tradition. For Moses said, honor your 339 00:22:12,120 --> 00:22:16,840 father and your mother, and whoever reviles father or mother 340 00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:22,200 must surely die. But you say if a man tells his 341 00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:25,120 father or his mother, whatever you would have gained from me is 342 00:22:25,120 --> 00:22:30,800 Corbin that is given to God, then you no longer permit him to 343 00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:34,240 do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the 344 00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:38,200 word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. 345 00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:45,080 And many such things you do. The Pharisees charge the 346 00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:47,680 disciples with forsaking their tradition. 347 00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:52,680 Jesus charges the Pharisees with forsaking God's commands. 348 00:22:53,800 --> 00:22:56,880 Verse 8 you leave the commandment of God. 349 00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:00,560 Verse 9, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of 350 00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:02,600 God. A little divine sarcasm there. 351 00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:06,360 Verse 13. Thus making void the word of God 352 00:23:06,360 --> 00:23:10,200 by your tradition. The example Jesus gives is the 353 00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:12,760 5th commandment. Honor your father and your 354 00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:15,720 mother. God spoke that word to Israel 355 00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:19,360 through Moses. And then Jesus also appeals to 356 00:23:19,360 --> 00:23:23,840 Exodus 2117 to show how serious of a punishment the law held out 357 00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:27,080 for those who refuse to honor their father and mother. 358 00:23:27,360 --> 00:23:31,560 Now, part of the background for this debate is that all ancient 359 00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:36,120 Jews rightly understood that the command to honor father and 360 00:23:36,120 --> 00:23:41,320 mother includes the obligation for adult children to provide 361 00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:46,480 for their parents in the case of illness, poverty, or the 362 00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:50,000 infirmity of old age. There's certainly cultural 363 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:53,960 variation and what it looks like to keep this command, and it can 364 00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:57,720 be difficult to navigate the tension between what aging 365 00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:02,200 parents might want and what seems objectively good for them. 366 00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:08,880 But care for aging parents is included in the meaning of what 367 00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:13,360 God commanded through Moses. So where does the conflict come 368 00:24:13,360 --> 00:24:19,840 in verse 11? But you say, and then Jesus goes 369 00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:22,720 on to describe the practice of Corbin, which is a Hebrew or 370 00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:25,080 Aramaic term meaning given to God. 371 00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:28,800 Corbin was a kind of deferred giving. 372 00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:33,040 It involved designating one's wealth or property as a gift of 373 00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:35,400 God. But that didn't mean you had to 374 00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:40,160 donate it right away. You were earmarking it for 375 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:44,640 divine use. It was only given it death, but 376 00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:49,000 declaring it to be Corbin rendered it off limits for any 377 00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:52,960 other use, such as supporting your elderly parents. 378 00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:56,720 Sorry, Mom and dad can't spare any cash or property. 379 00:24:57,160 --> 00:25:00,800 It's all been given to God. You can easily see how that 380 00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:06,160 could become a kind of loophole. Now, in verse 12, Jesus says 381 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:11,040 that when someone invokes Corbin, you no longer permit him 382 00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:13,240 to do anything for his father or mother. 383 00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:17,520 How would this practice actually prohibit someone from caring for 384 00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:20,960 their father or mother? It's because it was a binding 385 00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:23,720 vow. They took vows very, very 386 00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:25,200 seriously. If you declared something 387 00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:28,200 Corbin, it was a vow. It was sworn before the Lord, 388 00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:32,520 and apparently at least some of the Pharisees of Jesus Day held 389 00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:36,720 that that vow was binding even in cases where one's parents 390 00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:40,120 fell into abject need. So they held the obligation to 391 00:25:40,120 --> 00:25:44,960 keep the vow outweighed the obligation to help your parents. 392 00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:49,200 A good modern analogy for this practice would be to say that 393 00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:52,440 these legal experts were like tax accountants who could find a 394 00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:55,160 loophole that enabled somebody to get by without paying any 395 00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:59,480 taxes whatsoever. So you could give the money to 396 00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:02,200 God, but really keep it for yourself. 397 00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:06,640 That makes a mockery of the God you're claiming to honor. 398 00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:11,000 That's hypocrisy. That's vain worship. 399 00:26:11,840 --> 00:26:17,680 True worship of God leads you to love his commands and seek to 400 00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:21,200 obey them fully in all their implications. 401 00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:25,960 True worship does not look for loopholes. 402 00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:30,280 If you're looking for loopholes, you're not trying to serve God, 403 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:34,840 you're trying to serve yourself. When it comes to how you use 404 00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:39,480 your money, do you look for ways to keep as much as you can 405 00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:41,800 without technically disobeying God? 406 00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:46,840 Or do you look for more and more good ways to give it away? 407 00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:52,960 If you approach God's commands looking for loopholes, to think 408 00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:56,240 that you're trying to get or keep through that loophole is 409 00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:59,440 your functional God. That's what you're serving, not 410 00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:02,680 the true God. A heart that loves God will love 411 00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:05,000 his word. A heart that loves God will love 412 00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:07,560 his commands. The heart that loves God will 413 00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:12,040 discern that God's commands are signposts directing us in how to 414 00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:15,360 love Him and love our neighbor. If you love God, you'll discern 415 00:27:15,360 --> 00:27:18,680 that His commands are guardrails keeping us from veering off the 416 00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:22,000 path of loving God and loving our neighbor. 417 00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:23,960 What are we seeing earlier in Psalm 19? 418 00:27:24,200 --> 00:27:28,520 The precepts of the Lord are right and fill the heart with 419 00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:33,920 great delight. Jesus warns against letting 420 00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:36,480 human tradition contradict God's Word. 421 00:27:37,360 --> 00:27:41,160 How can that happen in churches that mean to obey the Bible? 422 00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:45,360 Here's one example from a little over 100 years ago. 423 00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:49,560 Back before the neighboring towns of Winston and Salem 424 00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:53,280 merged to become the city Winston Salem in 1913, a man 425 00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:58,320 named Sam Morton lived in Salem. He was a Christian, and he 426 00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:01,240 noticed that many of the local children who worked all week in 427 00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:03,960 the nearby mill would just be hanging around outside on 428 00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:05,520 Sunday, kind of like they had nothing to do. 429 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:08,040 They weren't going to the local church. 430 00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:10,760 One of the reasons he found out why they weren't going to the 431 00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:14,640 local church is that these kids were poor and they had no shoes. 432 00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:18,640 And the church had a rule that you could only attend worship if 433 00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:22,320 you had shoes. So Sam Morton decided to start a 434 00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:24,720 Sunday school as an outreach to these kids. 435 00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:27,040 He brought them in. He started gathering more and 436 00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:28,800 more kids. Eventually some parents started 437 00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:31,560 coming and they decided to found a new church. 438 00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:34,560 It was a sort of Sunday school that led to family outreach. 439 00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:38,200 That led to a church plant. That church was founded in 19 O 440 00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:40,280 9. It's called Salem Baptist 441 00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:42,560 Church. They're still doing good gospel 442 00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:44,120 work today in the city of Winston Salem. 443 00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:46,680 I was talking to their interim pastor a few weeks ago. 444 00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:56,160 By the way, the great, great, great grandson of Sam Morton is 445 00:28:56,160 --> 00:29:00,240 here among us this morning. Any guesses as to who it could 446 00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:03,000 be? It's our very own deep North 447 00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:04,880 Carolina roots. Joe Bird. 448 00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:11,640 What was the human tradition? No shoes, no service. 449 00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:17,600 What was Jesus command? Let the little children come to 450 00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:20,680 me. What are some examples you can 451 00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:27,920 think of where human traditions hinder or even contradict God's 452 00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:32,200 commands? What can we as a church do to 453 00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:36,680 ensure that we don't let any developing traditions of our own 454 00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:43,480 contradict God's commands? Jesus is teaching that in order 455 00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:46,000 to rightly relate to God, we need to give His commands more 456 00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:48,720 weight than our customs. We need to give His revelation 457 00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:50,760 more weight than human tradition. 458 00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:53,840 Now zoom Outback up. Why is that the case? 459 00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:59,160 It's because our minds and hearts are unreliable guides to 460 00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:02,120 the truth. It's because sin has distorted 461 00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:05,040 and infected our minds and hearts. 462 00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:07,920 It's because our minds and hearts are darkened. 463 00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:13,760 Our hearts are idle factories and our minds endlessly churn 464 00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:18,360 out justifications to convince ourselves why it's OK to worship 465 00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:22,680 those idols. Our minds are not the ultimate 466 00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:29,000 source and standard of truth. God's mind is the most important 467 00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:31,360 truth. Truth that can set you right and 468 00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:38,480 set you free comes from outside. If truth comes from outside, 469 00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:44,680 what comes from inside? Point #2 impurity comes from 470 00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:49,640 inside. Impurity comes from inside. 471 00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:52,240 That's the burden of the second-half of Jesus response 472 00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:58,600 from verses 14 to 23. Here's Jesus point in a 473 00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:04,320 nutshell. As Israel's system of ritual 474 00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:09,960 purity teaches, moral impurity arises from within a person. 475 00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:13,400 I'll say that again, one sentence summary of the section. 476 00:31:14,320 --> 00:31:21,280 As Israel's system of ritual purity teaches, moral impurity 477 00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:28,440 arises from within a person. Look with me at verses 14 to 19. 478 00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:33,680 And he called the people to him again and said to them, Hear me, 479 00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:37,680 all of you, and understand there's nothing outside a person 480 00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:39,840 that by going into him can defile him. 481 00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:43,760 But the things that come out of a person are what defile him. 482 00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:47,800 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his 483 00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:49,920 disciples asked him about the parable. 484 00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:54,160 And he said to them, then are you also without understanding? 485 00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:57,840 Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside 486 00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:01,480 cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his 487 00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:05,600 stomach, and is expelled? Thus, he declared all foods 488 00:32:05,800 --> 00:32:09,200 clean. Now, I don't think this passage 489 00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:11,800 means exactly what a lot of people take it. 490 00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:14,960 To me, I don't think that in these verses Jesus is 491 00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:17,240 demolishing the foundations of Judaism. 492 00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:20,600 I don't think he's revoking the Mosaic Law. 493 00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:26,280 I don't think he's repealing the entire system of ritual purity. 494 00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:29,400 In other words, I don't think Jesus is changing the purity 495 00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:32,240 laws. I think he's clarifying them. 496 00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:36,920 He's explaining the rationale and the deep significance of the 497 00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:41,320 Old Testament's purity code, and thereby he's proving the 498 00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:44,560 Pharisees wrong. He's demonstrating that their 499 00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:47,760 tradition is not just in addition to Scripture, but their 500 00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:50,440 tradition is actually against Scripture. 501 00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:56,240 What we have here is a conflict between two different systems of 502 00:32:56,240 --> 00:32:58,360 purity. I'll explain the details of the 503 00:32:58,360 --> 00:33:00,880 passage in a minute, but here's an illustration to help us get 504 00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:05,240 the big picture. You could say that tidying and 505 00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:09,880 cleaning are two different systems of household purity. 506 00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:14,360 What is tidying? Tidying is making sure every 507 00:33:14,360 --> 00:33:19,880 object is in its proper place. Shoes, books, mail, coats, 508 00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:22,480 stuffed animals, groceries, you name it. 509 00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:27,320 Tidying is putting stuff away. What is cleaning? 510 00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:34,640 Cleaning is scouring surfaces clear of dirt and dust and grime 511 00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:38,000 and dog hair and whatever else can build up on them. 512 00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:42,640 Now these two systems of household purity, tidying and 513 00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:47,960 cleaning, can coexist in harmony, or they can come into 514 00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:52,560 conflict with one another. For instance, in a marriage, 515 00:33:53,080 --> 00:33:57,200 say, that one spouse might perhaps care more about tidying 516 00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:00,040 and the other spouse might perhaps care more about 517 00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:04,240 cleaning. The spouse that cares more about 518 00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:07,760 tidying might look at a room and just say, oh, this thing's a 519 00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:09,360 mess, What's going on? Where's the other spouse who 520 00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:10,679 cares more about cleaning goes, it's fine. 521 00:34:10,679 --> 00:34:13,639 What do you mean one spouse looks at it and goes, this is a 522 00:34:13,639 --> 00:34:15,560 mess. There's a spouse looks at it and 523 00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:19,000 goes, no, it's not. There's this irreconcilable, 524 00:34:19,159 --> 00:34:23,560 potentially crazy making contradiction between systems of 525 00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:28,760 household purity, something like that. 526 00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:32,960 Competing systems of purity is what's going on in our passage. 527 00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:38,360 Let me explain. Verse 17 calls what Jesus says 528 00:34:38,360 --> 00:34:43,639 in verse 15 a parable. Now all that that word means in 529 00:34:43,639 --> 00:34:46,560 this case is that it's a pithy, proverbial saying. 530 00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:50,120 It doesn't necessarily mean that it's a Riddle or that it has a 531 00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:51,880 deeper meaning hidden beneath the surface. 532 00:34:52,040 --> 00:34:55,280 In this case, I think it's just a short, dense statement. 533 00:34:55,760 --> 00:34:58,920 It's compressed, it's compact. So the disciples asked Jesus to 534 00:34:58,920 --> 00:35:02,760 unpack it for them. What does Jesus say in verse 15? 535 00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:06,360 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him, 536 00:35:06,360 --> 00:35:09,120 can defile him. But the things that come out of 537 00:35:09,120 --> 00:35:13,320 a person are what defile him. Now, we've got to keep a few 538 00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:16,560 things in mind here. The first is that despite their 539 00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:20,880 claims to ancient tradition, the Pharisees were innovators. 540 00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:26,200 Their system of purity wasn't biblical, it was traditional. 541 00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:30,600 And what if their system of purity involve it incorporated a 542 00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:36,680 concern not to let impurity enter from without via food or 543 00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:38,720 hands? You could somehow get the filed 544 00:35:38,720 --> 00:35:41,680 and pass something into yourself. 545 00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:46,480 That's what Jesus is denying. What does he affirm? 546 00:35:47,480 --> 00:35:51,160 But the things that come out of a person are what defile him. 547 00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:55,560 Now, one crucial key to understanding this statement is 548 00:35:55,560 --> 00:35:57,920 actually something we've seen a few times already in different 549 00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:01,560 sermons in Mark, in the Old Testament's teaching on ritual 550 00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:05,200 purity, which chiefly comes from the book of Leviticus. 551 00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:10,600 What causes ritual impurity? There are three main sources. 552 00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:17,200 Skin disease, discharge of blood and other bodily fluids, and 553 00:36:17,200 --> 00:36:22,040 dead bodies. What do each of those cases or 554 00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:23,720 sources of impurity have in common? 555 00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:28,080 The impurity is, as it were, coming from within the body. 556 00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:31,440 It's something inside the body that's coming out. 557 00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:35,280 That's obvious in the case of blood or other bodily fluids, 558 00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:38,880 and I'd argue it's implied in the case of skin disease or 559 00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:41,600 corpses. Jesus is saying that when it 560 00:36:41,600 --> 00:36:45,120 comes to ritual impurity, which is what the debate here with the 561 00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:49,360 Pharisees is about, when it comes to ritual impurity, the 562 00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:51,760 source of that impurity is actually within the body. 563 00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:56,280 So eating food that might have been made ritually impure cannot 564 00:36:56,280 --> 00:36:59,960 make you impure. Jesus is saying that the 565 00:36:59,960 --> 00:37:03,560 Pharisees teaching on ritual purity is not the scriptures 566 00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:07,680 teaching on ritual purity. In fact he's saying that the 567 00:37:07,680 --> 00:37:12,360 Pharisees system of purity systematically distorts the 568 00:37:12,360 --> 00:37:15,080 Levitical system. Leviticus teaches that impurity 569 00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:17,720 comes from within the body and moves out. 570 00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:19,800 It doesn't come from outside the body and move in. 571 00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:23,880 So this is not Jesus versus Leviticus. 572 00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:30,320 Instead this is Jesus explaining Leviticus versus the Pharisees. 573 00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:34,440 And then Jesus illustrates the point first by bringing in the 574 00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:37,800 digestive process as a kind of illustration, verse 18. 575 00:37:39,080 --> 00:37:41,600 Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside 576 00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:44,360 cannot defile him since it enters not his heart but his 577 00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:47,720 stomach and is expelled? Jesus point by way of 578 00:37:47,720 --> 00:37:50,480 illustration is that the digestive process is a kind of 579 00:37:50,480 --> 00:37:53,720 work of purification. For one thing, food doesn't go 580 00:37:53,720 --> 00:37:55,680 into the heart. It doesn't enter the moral 581 00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:59,920 center of a person, but also it goes into the stomach. 582 00:38:00,360 --> 00:38:03,080 Then the body takes whatever it needs from it, and whatever the 583 00:38:03,080 --> 00:38:05,520 body doesn't need it expels and leaves the body. 584 00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:09,400 The body doesn't take in any defilement from food. 585 00:38:11,040 --> 00:38:14,480 Now the end of verse 19 is commonly translated as it is 586 00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:16,640 here. Thus he declared all foods 587 00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:19,400 clean. That would take this phrase as a 588 00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:22,200 comment by Mark about Jesus speech. 589 00:38:22,840 --> 00:38:27,440 But the Greek phrase is literally purifying all foods. 590 00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:30,120 That's how the King James version translated it. 591 00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:32,480 They're they're following William Tyndall who translated 592 00:38:32,480 --> 00:38:35,520 it the same. The King James is purging all 593 00:38:35,600 --> 00:38:38,160 meats. It's a very literal translation, 594 00:38:38,160 --> 00:38:43,080 at least into 1600 English. So in the Greek phrase there's 595 00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:48,000 no verb for declare or say. It's possible this is an 596 00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:51,840 authorial comment by Mark, but I think it's far more likely that 597 00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:55,640 this is actually part of Jesus speech, not a voiceover from 598 00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:56,560 Mark. And if you look at the King 599 00:38:56,560 --> 00:38:59,120 James version, if it has red letters, the King James will 600 00:38:59,120 --> 00:39:01,560 still put this sort of in the red letter portion. 601 00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:05,200 So I think it's more likely part of Jesus speech. 602 00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:09,280 If you read it as simply purifying all foods then it 603 00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:13,400 works as a conclusion to what Jesus is saying the body does. 604 00:39:13,800 --> 00:39:16,720 Now to understand the big issues here we need to distinguish 605 00:39:16,720 --> 00:39:21,840 between 2 categories. 1 is permitted versus forbidden foods 606 00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:25,160 and the other is the issue of being clean or unclean, pure or 607 00:39:25,160 --> 00:39:27,600 impure. All the foods that the Old 608 00:39:27,600 --> 00:39:30,240 Testament told Israelites not to eat were forbidden. 609 00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:33,000 They were prohibited. You weren't supposed to eat them 610 00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:36,320 because God said so. Scripture never teaches that 611 00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:38,520 eating those foods made anyone impure. 612 00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:41,760 Scripture never says that if you eat those foods, they make you 613 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:45,080 ritually impure. Eating forbidden foods is wrong 614 00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:48,280 because they were prohibited, not because they were defiling. 615 00:39:48,360 --> 00:39:53,040 So prohibited, permitted, clean, unclean are two different 616 00:39:53,040 --> 00:39:54,720 categories, two different concepts. 617 00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:58,720 So even if this comment at the end of verse 19 is an authorial 618 00:39:58,720 --> 00:40:01,960 voice over by Mark. I think it means that Jesus 619 00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:07,560 declared all permitted foods clean, not that he declared 620 00:40:07,560 --> 00:40:12,080 forbidden foods to be permitted. To be sure, I think the rest of 621 00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:14,080 the New Testament eventually does teach that. 622 00:40:14,440 --> 00:40:16,320 I think we see that in Acts chapters 10 and 11. 623 00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:19,120 I think we see that in Paul's position in Romans 14. 624 00:40:19,680 --> 00:40:21,800 But I don't think that's what Jesus is doing here. 625 00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:24,920 Jesus and the Pharisees both kept kosher. 626 00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:28,360 That's just not the fight Jesus is picking with them right now. 627 00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:33,080 In other words, this whole debate, including verse 19, is 628 00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:36,800 as if you overheard a conversation between 2 vegans. 1 629 00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:40,600 scholar uses this illustration. 2 vegans sit down to a meal. 630 00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:43,360 One vegan asks the other Did you wash your hands first? 631 00:40:43,360 --> 00:40:46,320 They might have germs on them. The second vegan responds. 632 00:40:46,320 --> 00:40:49,000 I'm not worried about germs. I eat everything without washing 633 00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:51,920 my hands first. If you heard that, you would not 634 00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:55,280 conclude that the second vegan is now saying that he or she 635 00:40:55,280 --> 00:40:58,480 eats meat products. You know the background, you 636 00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:01,240 know the rules that each of those eaters abides by. 637 00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:05,240 So the everything has an implicit limit or qualification. 638 00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:09,720 One last observation in support of this understanding, which 639 00:41:09,720 --> 00:41:12,800 might be new to some of you. The more widespread 640 00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:17,000 interpretation is that Jesus is teaching in verse 15 is a kind 641 00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:20,360 of momentous history shaping declaration. 642 00:41:20,800 --> 00:41:26,480 On that view, Jesus is uttering a speech act, an effective 643 00:41:26,480 --> 00:41:30,000 declaration that revokes the authority of the Mosaic Law and 644 00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:32,800 creates an entirely new religious situation for all of 645 00:41:32,800 --> 00:41:36,800 God's people. If Jesus is declaring prohibited 646 00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:40,160 foods permitted, then he's saying that now as of this very 647 00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:43,400 sentence. They're permitted, but on God's 648 00:41:43,400 --> 00:41:44,880 own authority. They weren't before. 649 00:41:44,880 --> 00:41:47,520 They weren't like 2 seconds before Jesus started talking. 650 00:41:48,040 --> 00:41:50,560 It's only by speaking right now that Jesus makes it so. 651 00:41:51,680 --> 00:41:54,760 There are several problems with seeing Jesus teaching here as 652 00:41:54,760 --> 00:41:57,760 that kind of momentous world changing declaration. 653 00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:01,520 One problem is that if Jesus really was teaching that, he 654 00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:03,880 could have made it a lot clearer. 655 00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:08,000 Another problem is that we don't have any record of any of Jesus 656 00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:11,720 opponents questioning him or objecting to his teaching on 657 00:42:11,720 --> 00:42:14,400 this point. Hey Jesus, where do you get off 658 00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:17,560 contradicting Moses? I thought you were just telling 659 00:42:17,560 --> 00:42:21,640 us to put divine commands above human teachings. 660 00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:25,200 Where do you get the authority to do away with the entire law? 661 00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:30,680 A third problem is that in verse 18, when Jesus rebuked his 662 00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:34,080 disciples for their lack of understanding, how are how are 663 00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:37,560 they supposed to understand this if Jesus just now announced a 664 00:42:37,600 --> 00:42:41,120 revolutionary change in God's relationship to his people? 665 00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:43,920 But Jesus isn't saying something brand new. 666 00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:46,720 I think he's clarifying what they should have known all 667 00:42:46,720 --> 00:42:48,080 along. And again, here's the point in a 668 00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:51,480 nutshell. Impurity doesn't come from 669 00:42:51,480 --> 00:42:56,800 outside, but inside. Now if you're wondering what on 670 00:42:56,800 --> 00:43:01,120 earth can all of that possibly have to do with us today, we who 671 00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:03,520 don't keep kosher, we who are not talking about ritual, 672 00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:07,200 defilement, purity, all this kind of stuff, the key is where 673 00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:10,600 Jesus takes us in verses 20 to 23. 674 00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:17,560 And he said what comes out of a person is what defiles him. 675 00:43:18,400 --> 00:43:20,840 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil 676 00:43:20,840 --> 00:43:24,080 thoughts. Sexual immorality, theft, 677 00:43:24,600 --> 00:43:32,320 murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, 678 00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:35,880 envy, slander, pride, foolishness, all these evil 679 00:43:35,880 --> 00:43:39,080 things come from within and they defile a person. 680 00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:42,720 Jesus is saying that impurity comes from inside. 681 00:43:43,360 --> 00:43:46,560 And there are really close connections to the debate here 682 00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:48,720 that might not be evident at first glance. 683 00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:52,720 One crucial point that helps us get our bearings is that there 684 00:43:52,720 --> 00:43:56,680 are some especially weighty sins that the Old Testament describes 685 00:43:56,680 --> 00:44:00,520 as defiling, making impure those who commit them. 686 00:44:01,160 --> 00:44:04,520 In other words, in the Old Testament, purity is a concept 687 00:44:04,520 --> 00:44:08,400 that has both ritual and moral aspects. 688 00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:14,080 Consider, for instance, Leviticus 1824 to 25. 689 00:44:15,040 --> 00:44:17,640 Just before this, God has given a whole series of commands 690 00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:21,480 regulating sexual activity, rendering all sorts of sexual 691 00:44:21,480 --> 00:44:26,760 acts off limits. Then he says, Do not make 692 00:44:26,760 --> 00:44:31,280 yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these 693 00:44:31,280 --> 00:44:35,400 the nations I'm driving out before you have become unclean. 694 00:44:36,080 --> 00:44:40,680 And the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, 695 00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:43,720 and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 696 00:44:44,760 --> 00:44:48,120 Now, one key point to recognize is that Jesus's list of sins 697 00:44:48,120 --> 00:44:52,240 that defile closely matches a number of Old Testament passages 698 00:44:52,240 --> 00:44:56,400 that describe sins that defile. In other words, Jesus doesn't 699 00:44:56,400 --> 00:44:59,520 contrast immorality with impurity. 700 00:44:59,960 --> 00:45:02,960 Instead, he shows that immorality is one kind of 701 00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:06,280 impurity, and the direction that impurity travels is from the 702 00:45:06,280 --> 00:45:09,240 heart outward. Just like ritual impurity 703 00:45:09,240 --> 00:45:13,440 travels from the body outward, so moral impurity travels from 704 00:45:13,440 --> 00:45:18,520 the heart outward. That's what Jesus list has not 705 00:45:18,520 --> 00:45:23,600 only actions, but attitudes. He talks about not only deeds 706 00:45:24,200 --> 00:45:29,280 and words, but desires. Jesus is teaching that the Old 707 00:45:29,280 --> 00:45:33,600 Testament system of ritual purity is itself a parable. 708 00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:38,120 It's a picture, it's a sign. It's teaching that just as what 709 00:45:38,120 --> 00:45:42,440 comes out of the body defiles, So what comes out of the heart 710 00:45:42,920 --> 00:45:45,960 defiles. And that could not be more 711 00:45:45,960 --> 00:45:49,760 relevant to every single one of us. 712 00:45:51,240 --> 00:45:58,920 Jesus often uses the word person or man in this passage. 713 00:45:58,920 --> 00:46:00,320 It's the same Greek word behind both. 714 00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:03,400 The ESV translation is using the word man in an inclusive sense, 715 00:46:03,400 --> 00:46:06,320 not exclusive. This passage is teaching us 716 00:46:06,320 --> 00:46:11,960 fundamental truths about what it means to be a fallen human 717 00:46:11,960 --> 00:46:16,480 being. Jesus is diagnosing our deepest 718 00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:20,840 problems, and he's teaching that our most fundamental problem 719 00:46:21,320 --> 00:46:28,120 comes from inside, not outside. Your deepest problem is that 720 00:46:28,120 --> 00:46:31,040 your heart is a source of moral impurity. 721 00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:34,760 Your deepest problem is that evil things come out of your 722 00:46:34,760 --> 00:46:38,640 heart. Your deepest problem is not 723 00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:46,440 something you can fix yourself. Our passage here only sets up 724 00:46:46,440 --> 00:46:49,520 the problem, but the rest of Mark's gospel shows us a 725 00:46:49,520 --> 00:46:51,920 solution. Why did Jesus come? 726 00:46:52,720 --> 00:46:56,160 He came to give his life as a ransom for many, he tells us. 727 00:46:56,160 --> 00:46:59,320 In Mark 1045, Jesus became Incarnate. 728 00:46:59,640 --> 00:47:03,040 He lived on this earth. He died on the cross to pay the 729 00:47:03,040 --> 00:47:06,920 penalty, the full price for the sins that come out of each of 730 00:47:06,920 --> 00:47:10,080 our hearts. Jesus came to pay the full debt 731 00:47:10,080 --> 00:47:13,200 of sin we'd racked up by all the things that are continually 732 00:47:13,200 --> 00:47:15,800 coming out of our heart, day by day by day by day by day. 733 00:47:16,560 --> 00:47:19,240 Jesus alone could do that because he is both God and man. 734 00:47:19,920 --> 00:47:22,080 Jesus alone is willing to do that because of his infinite 735 00:47:22,080 --> 00:47:25,240 love for us. And he sealed that sacrifice. 736 00:47:25,240 --> 00:47:28,160 He proved that payment by rising from the dead. 737 00:47:28,480 --> 00:47:31,760 He escaped from death the ultimate impurity, and he 738 00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:34,760 triumphed over it. And now He invites and summons 739 00:47:34,760 --> 00:47:38,040 and commands all people everywhere to turn from sin and 740 00:47:38,040 --> 00:47:40,800 trust in Him. Your deepest problem is your 741 00:47:40,800 --> 00:47:44,600 evil, broken heart. Your deepest problem is the 742 00:47:44,600 --> 00:47:46,880 impurity that comes out of your heart continually. 743 00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:49,600 And you can't fix it. You can't pay off that debt. 744 00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:53,160 You can't clean up your own act. Sometimes people get the wrong 745 00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:55,280 idea that in order to get right with God, they have to kind of 746 00:47:55,280 --> 00:47:57,440 go through a moral cleanse first. 747 00:47:57,440 --> 00:48:00,600 Now that moral cleanse might bring some benefits into their 748 00:48:00,600 --> 00:48:04,000 life, but that moral cleanse will not get them right with 749 00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:06,800 God. You can't get down deep enough 750 00:48:06,800 --> 00:48:10,320 to fix it, and you can't pay the penalty for sin. 751 00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:14,360 Only Jesus can. So if you're not a believer in 752 00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:19,480 Jesus, you need to know that your biggest problem is inside. 753 00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:22,240 The solution can only come from outside. 754 00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:25,680 That's what God sent Jesus to do. 755 00:48:26,760 --> 00:48:30,000 For all of us who believe in Jesus, remember that the same 756 00:48:30,000 --> 00:48:34,920 grace that brings forgiveness of sins also brings in Word 757 00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:38,120 renewal, new birth, regeneration. 758 00:48:38,120 --> 00:48:41,320 When God by His grace enables you to receive the Lord Jesus 759 00:48:41,320 --> 00:48:43,360 Christ, He gives you a new heart. 760 00:48:43,360 --> 00:48:46,400 That's what He promised in Ezekiel 3626. 761 00:48:46,880 --> 00:48:49,520 I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within 762 00:48:49,520 --> 00:48:53,120 you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and 763 00:48:53,120 --> 00:48:56,400 give you a heart of flesh. The new heart that every 764 00:48:56,400 --> 00:49:00,880 believer has is not perfect, but it is really changed. 765 00:49:01,400 --> 00:49:03,560 This new heart loves God and His people. 766 00:49:04,160 --> 00:49:06,520 This new heart loves God's commands. 767 00:49:06,800 --> 00:49:09,360 If you believe in Jesus, you love his commands, and that is 768 00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:14,800 not a love you had before. So here's a key principle to 769 00:49:14,800 --> 00:49:18,440 help all of us apply Jesus teaching in these final verses. 770 00:49:18,760 --> 00:49:22,680 This is where the passage really comes home for all of us in the 771 00:49:22,680 --> 00:49:28,720 Christian life, change doesn't happen from the outside in, but 772 00:49:28,720 --> 00:49:32,960 from the inside out. Growth doesn't happen from the 773 00:49:32,960 --> 00:49:35,720 outside in, but from the inside out. 774 00:49:36,280 --> 00:49:39,520 As a Christian, the way you grow into greater conformity to the 775 00:49:39,520 --> 00:49:43,240 character of Christ is not by merely adopting outward 776 00:49:43,240 --> 00:49:46,280 practices recommended by seemingly holy people. 777 00:49:47,000 --> 00:49:51,840 Instead, it's by having your heart inwardly renewed so that 778 00:49:51,840 --> 00:49:56,600 you have a greater love for God and a greater desire to fulfill 779 00:49:56,600 --> 00:49:59,800 His commands. Now, how does that kind of heart 780 00:50:00,040 --> 00:50:03,560 change happen? Ultimately, it's by God's power. 781 00:50:03,880 --> 00:50:05,520 Ultimately, it's by God's Spirit. 782 00:50:05,720 --> 00:50:07,960 It's not change we have the power to bring about ourselves, 783 00:50:07,960 --> 00:50:11,800 but God has appointed means by which He promises to work. 784 00:50:12,200 --> 00:50:16,880 What are some of those means? This kind of heart change comes 785 00:50:16,920 --> 00:50:19,520 through regular exposure to God's Word through public 786 00:50:19,520 --> 00:50:22,400 preaching and teaching. It comes through regular 787 00:50:22,400 --> 00:50:25,440 participation in all the means of grace in corporate worship, 788 00:50:25,800 --> 00:50:29,160 in what we pray and sing and read and hear. 789 00:50:29,440 --> 00:50:33,400 Our hearts are freshly exposed to the convicting and renewing 790 00:50:33,400 --> 00:50:36,560 power of God's Word in corporate worship. 791 00:50:37,080 --> 00:50:42,080 We lay our hearts bare before God in prayer, and we lift up 792 00:50:42,080 --> 00:50:44,280 our hearts to God together in song. 793 00:50:46,280 --> 00:50:48,320 This kind of heart change happens through privately 794 00:50:48,320 --> 00:50:51,520 reading God's Word and turning what you read into prayer. 795 00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:55,240 It happens through private prayer in which you examine 796 00:50:55,240 --> 00:50:58,440 yourself in light of God's Word and you tell God what you see. 797 00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:01,560 And it happens through fellowship. 798 00:51:02,560 --> 00:51:06,640 As we speak truth in love, in discipling relationships, like 799 00:51:06,640 --> 00:51:08,800 we're talking about in our Sunday School class for the next 800 00:51:08,800 --> 00:51:12,640 few weeks at 9:00 AM. In discipling relationships, we 801 00:51:12,640 --> 00:51:16,880 aim God's truth at each other's hearts. 802 00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:21,560 In other words, what we should constantly pray for and strive 803 00:51:21,560 --> 00:51:26,920 for as a church is not a culture of external conformity, but a 804 00:51:26,920 --> 00:51:31,400 culture of heart change. We can't see each other's 805 00:51:31,400 --> 00:51:34,200 hearts. We should not judge each other's 806 00:51:34,200 --> 00:51:37,120 hearts. We cannot change each other's 807 00:51:37,120 --> 00:51:42,040 hearts. But we can gently, lovingly, 808 00:51:42,040 --> 00:51:47,200 patiently work with each other to pursue heart deep change. 809 00:51:47,880 --> 00:51:51,560 We can become instruments through which God can work to 810 00:51:51,560 --> 00:51:56,280 change hearts, Lord willing. In our evening service tonight, 811 00:51:56,280 --> 00:51:59,000 I'll be interviewing Brian Lonner, who leads a biblical 812 00:51:59,000 --> 00:52:01,280 counseling ministry here in the region called Hope Counseling. 813 00:52:01,520 --> 00:52:03,000 We'll be talking about some of these dynamics. 814 00:52:03,000 --> 00:52:05,640 How can we be that kind of church where we aim at heart 815 00:52:05,640 --> 00:52:08,840 deep change? How can biblical counseling be a 816 00:52:08,840 --> 00:52:15,720 help in that? Impurity comes from inside, and 817 00:52:15,720 --> 00:52:19,400 by God's grace and the work of His Spirit, that's how far His 818 00:52:19,400 --> 00:52:23,840 renewing work reaches. Our deepest problems come from 819 00:52:23,840 --> 00:52:28,040 within, and God's grace reaches every bit as deep as our deepest 820 00:52:28,040 --> 00:52:31,280 problems, and even deeper because He pulls up our sin by 821 00:52:31,280 --> 00:52:34,440 the roots. That's how far God's 822 00:52:34,440 --> 00:52:42,760 transforming grace reaches. Praise God for His saving work 823 00:52:42,760 --> 00:52:46,600 in Christ. He came from outside to 824 00:52:46,600 --> 00:52:50,320 transform what's inside. He came to pay the price for sin 825 00:52:50,320 --> 00:52:53,640 so you wouldn't be condemned. He came to give you His Spirit 826 00:52:53,640 --> 00:52:56,080 so you wouldn't be trapped in slavery to sin. 827 00:52:56,840 --> 00:53:00,080 He came to free you from sins, condemnation and it's inward 828 00:53:00,480 --> 00:53:03,160 corruption. He came to free you from the 829 00:53:03,160 --> 00:53:12,280 burden of sin and bondage to sin, and He will keep working to 830 00:53:12,280 --> 00:53:17,800 transform you until the day when your whole being is perfectly 831 00:53:17,800 --> 00:53:21,680 conformed to His glory when you see Him face to face. 832 00:53:22,480 --> 00:53:29,240 Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that we 833 00:53:29,240 --> 00:53:33,960 would come to see ourselves in light of Jesus diagnosis, that 834 00:53:33,960 --> 00:53:36,040 what comes out of our hearts defiles us. 835 00:53:36,760 --> 00:53:40,280 Father, we pray for anyone who's not trusted in Christ for the 836 00:53:40,280 --> 00:53:42,720 cleansing from sin that he alone can provide, that they would 837 00:53:43,040 --> 00:53:46,320 repent and believe. And we pray that you would grant 838 00:53:46,320 --> 00:53:51,240 us to be inwardly renewed so that the roots of these evil 839 00:53:51,240 --> 00:53:55,040 thoughts and desires are increasingly uprooted out of our 840 00:53:55,040 --> 00:53:57,000 hearts. We pray you do these things in 841 00:53:57,000 --> 00:53:59,640 us for your glory in Jesus name, Amen.