Clean Hands, Dirty Hearts: The Necessity of Inner Transformation

• Religious Externalism vs. True Relationship [00:33:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that one can be religious, near Jesus, and still be far from Him, contrasting external rituals with internal reality.
• The 'Bible Belt' Challenge [00:33:34 ▶️ 📄]
  > He uses the cultural context of the American South to illustrate how equating regional culture or routine with Christianity can distract from a genuine walk with God.
• Deconstructing Preconceived Ideas [00:30:59 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor challenges the congregation to abandon popular or self-imposed lists of 'do's and don'ts' that they believe earn righteousness, urging them to see Jesus as He truly is.
• [Mark 7](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+7&version=KJV) Exegesis [00:41:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > He begins a detailed walkthrough of Mark 7, focusing on the Pharisees' criticism of hand-washing traditions to highlight the conflict between human tradition and divine command.
• Tradition vs. Commandment [00:42:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains how the Pharisees added 'fences' around God's law, elevating human traditions to the status of divine command, which Jesus condemns as hypocrisy.
• Spiritual Hypocrisy [00:46:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using Isaiah's prophecy, the pastor describes religious elites as 'drunk' on self-righteousness, honoring God with lips while their hearts are far from Him.
• Modern Application of Legalism [00:50:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor lists modern examples of man-made rules (diet, dress, music, politics) that people mistakenly equate with spiritual closeness to God.
• The Korban Loophole [00:53:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > An explanation of how the Pharisees used a vow to God to avoid caring for their parents, illustrating how religiosity can be used to bypass God's core commands.
• Source of Sin [00:59:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that sin comes from within a person's heart, debunking the idea that external factors like Satan, family, or circumstances force sin, citing Mark 7 and James 1.
• External Rules vs. Internal Heart [01:00:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the Pharisees' external legalism and 'fences' with Jesus' teaching that God cares about the heart, stating that external religious performance without internal love is insufficient.
• Transformation of the Heart [01:04:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that superficial changes (like stapling an apple to an orange tree) fail; true change requires a complete transformation of the 'root' or heart through planting one's life in Christ.
• Traditions and Hypocrisy [01:09:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor distinguishes between helpful traditions and dangerous legalism, warning against judging others by personal standards and calling for a move from hypocrisy to freedom in Christ.

• Sermon Illustration [00:35:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the story of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, specifically the character Judge Claude Frollo, to illustrate 'religious externalism': a person who appears clean and righteous on the outside but is internally at war with sinful desires and pride.
• Sermon Illustration [00:36:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > He cites C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia (The Last Battle), describing the ape Shift who dresses a donkey in a lion skin to impersonate Aslan, using this twisted religion to gain power and control over other animals.
• Sermon Illustration [00:37:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > He mentions Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, specifically the 'Grand Inquisitor' scene, where the corrupted Spanish church arrests Jesus because His teachings contradict the church's established laws and regulations.
• Sermon Illustration [00:44:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of the Grand Canyon to explain how the Pharisees added 'fences' around God's law to avoid sin, eventually creating barriers that replaced the actual relationship with God.
• Sermon Illustration [00:48:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor compares the spiritual state of the Pharisees to a person who is 'drunk' or 'hammered,' unable to realize how far they have drifted from God despite their religious observance.
• Sermon Illustration [00:55:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the 'Korban' tradition as a form of estate planning where one commits assets to God to avoid using them to care for aging parents, highlighting how religious rules can justify neglecting family duty.
• Sermon Illustration [01:03:02 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses an analogy of an orange tree: trying to staple an apple (love/generosity) onto an orange tree (sinful nature) results in the apple rotting and falling off. He further illustrates that cutting the tree in half results in an orange tree growing back. The point is that superficial behavioral changes fail; one must change the root (the heart) by planting it in Christ to produce the correct fruit.

• Pastoral Charge [00:29:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > Follow along in personal Bibles during the scripture reading.
• Pastoral Charge [00:32:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > Engage in silent prayer to listen to God.
• Pastoral Charge [01:10:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor leads a prayer calling the congregation to repent of hypocrisy, stop judging others by personal standards, and seek a transformed life rooted in love for Jesus rather than legalistic rule-keeping.

[00:00:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:09] Welcome to Eastside. I'm glad that you can get a peek into one of our services and join us in this way.
[00:00:17] My name is Tom. I'm the pastor here at Eastside, and I am so looking forward to our service this morning.
[00:00:24] We're a gathering of Christ followers, and we want to make Jesus known, the glories of our God known in everything that we do.
[00:00:34] And I hope that you can catch some of that in this service.
[00:00:39] If there's anything that we can do to help you, please reach out.
[00:00:45] Our service will begin shortly.

[00:00:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:47] Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful moms in the audience this morning.
[00:02:53] I'm super excited and grateful to be here this morning to worship with you guys.
[00:02:58] So let's go ahead and stand and worship and let's thank His mercy as more.

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:03:02] Thank you, Mom.

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:06:06] Thank you for holding our dreams, holding our tears, for holding it together, especially in those teenage years for holding our hands when we lost ourselves when we didn't know where to go they say to love is to give and you gave us more than we'll ever
[00:06:27] know you are cherished you are loved you are God's kindness to us and yes with time we understand Not everyone can really celebrate today, but for those who can, we should.
[00:06:46] We thank you, Mom, for the sacrifice.
[00:06:49] We thank you for everything you've done and everything you do.
[00:06:53] We are grateful for who you are, and we thank Jesus for you.

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:07:19] To celebrate all the amazing moms in the room, can we give the moms a round of applause this morning?
[00:07:27] So I wanted to start off the announcements this morning with talking about the Youth Pelican Snowballs Night.
[00:07:32] I think we have a slide with that in the back.
[00:07:35] It's up here on the screen.
[00:07:35] It's going to be next week, May 17th, from 5 to 7 p.m.
[00:07:40] And it's for any teens, 6th through 12th grade, that would love to join us.
[00:07:44] We will have a Bible study here at the church, and then we'll be taking the van to go get some snowballs.
[00:07:50] So we're trying to get the snowball rolling on that.
[00:07:52] So if your teen would like to join us, have them fill out one of these waivers.
[00:07:57] They need this waiver filled out in order to go on the trip.
[00:08:01] So if you are a parent in the room with a teen that does not have their waiver filled out, please come see me at the end of the service, and I can help you get that filled out
[00:08:09] so your teen will be able to go.
[00:08:10] Thank you so much.

[00:08:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:08:14] Thank you, Caleb.
[00:08:15] We need to get him like a hi-hat or something so we can do that with his jokes.
[00:08:20] I'm glad that you're here this morning, and I'm glad that we can have some fun and laugh at some bad jokes. I'm glad that we can celebrate mothers today. This is a special day so I hope that you've already taken time. Hopefully it was
[00:08:34] more than just a text message but at the very least I hope you reached out and told your mom happy Mother's Day and then later today give her a call, take her out to lunch, give her some flowers.
[00:08:44] whatever is special for your mother I hope you have an opportunity to do that we will have a gift for all of the moms that are here this morning so after the service as you leave we've
[00:08:56] got some flowers some chocolate and I believe a devotional for you so stop by on your way out and that is our gift to you and we do have plenty so if you know a mom if you want to take one to
[00:09:08] your mom or you know a neighbor that would appreciate having that feel free grab one of those on your way out, and we want to be a blessing to you. So happy Mother's Day. I will say our
[00:09:19] message this morning is not going to be focused on mothers or mothering. We're going to continue in our See Jesus series, but we do want to celebrate our mothers as well. So take advantage of that. Some announcements before we come back and sing some more. We have some exciting things
[00:09:36] coming up. One of those is in September. So this is a ways away, but I want to put it in front of us and let you begin planning for it. The last several years we've been doing a marriage retreat
[00:09:47] and September is our next one and I am so looking forward to this. The last two years have been an immense blessing and I know this year will be as well. A gentleman named Chris
[00:09:58] Nanniken, Dr. Chris Nanniken is coming to be our speaker. So he'll be doing our marriage retreat Friday and Saturday and then Lord willing we're also going to do an outreach dinner with him Saturday evening, and then he'll preach for us in our service that Sunday morning. But couples,
[00:10:15] husbands, wives, be planning for September. This doesn't have to be like, oh, my marriage is terrible. We need to go to a marriage retreat. This is for everyone. And it doesn't have to be, oh, my marriage is awesome, so I can go to a marriage retreat. This is for those who are
[00:10:30] struggling and those who are rejoicing and those who are somewhere in between. This is for newlyweds And this is for those of you that have been married for possibly longer than I've been alive.
[00:10:42] This is for the people of God.
[00:10:45] If you desire to invest in your relationship with your spouse and your relationship with God, I would really encourage you to put this on your calendar.
[00:10:56] So it'll be September, and we'll be giving more information as we get closer.
[00:11:01] The cost will be $200 per couple.
[00:11:04] So that's $200 for both of you, and it is going to be a blessing.
[00:11:09] So please do mark that down and be planning towards that.
[00:11:12] And then also, we've got some pictures of the bathrooms over in the other building.
[00:11:16] We've gotten some great work done on those.
[00:11:18] So this is what, well, one of them still looks like this, but this is what the bathroom did look like, and now what it looks like.
[00:11:25] We still need to move some lighting overhead.
[00:11:26] We need to get some mirrors and some decorations, but already you can see there's a pretty drastic difference, and we're not even done yet.
[00:11:34] So thank you to Richard and Roland.
[00:11:36] They came in this past week and helped put those new dividers up.
[00:11:40] And that took them a little while, but it is looking so, so good.
[00:11:43] So thank you to those of you that have contributed and worked on that project.
[00:11:47] And we're looking forward to getting both of those bathrooms done.
[00:11:51] If you want to see the contrast, walk over there after the service.
[00:11:55] And for about another week or so, you can look at the old bathroom and look at the new bathroom.
[00:12:00] And then pretty soon, we're just going to forget what the old ones look like.
[00:12:03] and maybe just look at the beautiful new ones.
[00:12:07] And then also last week, I had several people ask me about the book that I referenced during the message.
[00:12:13] I referenced the crazy busy book during the message last week.
[00:12:17] And some people asked, so I actually went out and got some.
[00:12:20] There's two on the table in the back.
[00:12:22] Those are completely free.
[00:12:23] And if you will read it, if you will be blessed and learn from it, grab it on your way out and leave.
[00:12:29] If we need more than two, if you're like, oh, I wanted one of those, but they were gone by the time I got back there let me know and we could get more but that book is very helpful
[00:12:37] so if you are interested in it grab it on your way out and that is completely free to you and then also coming up this summer I've been mentioning this a few times in three weeks we're
[00:12:46] going to begin our summer series we're going to take a break from the gospel of Mark we're going to come back to it it has been so powerful I've even heard from you that the see Jesus series has
[00:12:57] been helpful and a blessing. But we're going to take a break for eight weeks and look at this series, Who Am I? Where does my identity come from? Do I manufacture my identity? Do I have to figure
[00:13:11] out who I am? Or what does scripture have to say about that? It'll be eight weeks. We're going to bring in four special speakers. So it'll be three weeks as I lay a foundation for us and show us
[00:13:23] what God says. And then we're going to look at it very practically and personally in five areas of our lives. And it will be very, very helpful. So plan to be with us this summer. If you can't
[00:13:36] be here for some reason, go back. I encourage you watch it on YouTube after the fact. It will be a blessing. And then this is also a great opportunity to invite a friend or a neighbor,
[00:13:49] maybe one of your kids who's been struggling or wandering this is an opportunity for all of us to come and say who were we created to be how is life meant to work who am i so i really encourage you
[00:14:04] be praying for that but then also plan to be here with us for it and then a prayer request i found out right before the service, our brother Alejandro, his brother in Guatemala, Gilberto, passed away this past week. So please be praying for Alejandro and his family, both here
[00:14:26] in the U.S. and also in Guatemala. And then many of you may know already, but last week, Ken and Nancy Trask, their son committed suicide. And so they're not here this week. They're back in Texas. So pray for these two families, both Alejandro and his family, and then the Trass and
[00:14:45] their family as they grieve the passing of their loved ones. So let me pray for these two families and then we'll come back and we'll sing some more. Lord, I am grateful that we can come and gather
[00:14:58] together and celebrate mothers, that we can worship Jesus, but Lord also that we can come and bring our burdens bring our suffering bring our needs and i pray that you would be with these two
[00:15:12] families specifically i know there are other things going on in this room i know there are other prayer requests but lord i pray specifically right now for alejandro for his brother's family for the family here in the u.s that cannot make it back for the funeral and also the family there
[00:15:31] in Guatemala. Then Lord, I also pray for the trasses there in Texas. Lord, draw your people around them to comfort, to strengthen. Lord, put your arms, give them the gift of the comfort of the Holy Spirit. And God, you would do even greater beyond what we can do. Draw them close to you.
[00:15:53] And I pray, Lord, that you would love them and strengthen them. Be with them in this time.
[00:16:00] Help us as we love them during this time.
[00:16:03] And I pray it all in Jesus' name.
[00:16:05] Amen.

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:16:10] All right, our next song here is Be Still.
[00:16:13] What a joy it is to know in Jesus that we can be still in his name.
[00:16:18] Let's sing together.

[00:16:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:16:19] Our passage today is Mark chapter 7, verses 1 through 3.

[00:25:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:25:54] The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled.
[00:26:06] That is unwashed.
[00:26:08] The Pharisees and all the Jews did not eat unless they gave their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of elders.
[00:26:16] When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.
[00:26:19] And they observe many other traditions, such as washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles.
[00:26:26] So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, why do why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands he replied isaiah was right when prophesied about you hypocrites
[00:26:41] as it was written these people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me they worship me in vain their teachings are merely human rules you have let go of the commands of god
[00:26:54] and are holding on to human traditions, and he continued, you have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions. For Moses said, honor your father and
[00:27:06] mother, and anyone who curses their father and mother is to be put to death. But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corbin, that is devoted to God, then you no longer let them do anything for their father or
[00:27:24] mother. Thus, you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down, and you do many things like that. And Jesus called the crowd to him and said, listen to me, everyone and
[00:27:35] understand this, nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them. After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his
[00:27:47] disciples asked him about the parable. Are you so dull? He asked. Don't you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them for it doesn't go into their heart but into their
[00:27:59] stomach and then out of their body and saying this jesus declared all foods clean he went on what comes out of person is what defiles them for it is from within out of a person's heart that
[00:28:12] evil thoughts come sexual immorality theft murder adultery greed malice deceit deceit um deceitfulness, envy, slaughter, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside

[00:28:28] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:28:28] and defile a person. Thank you, Caleb. That was a little bit of a longer passage this morning, but I believe it's going to be such a powerful blessing to us. And I hope that we never get
[00:28:47] tired of the reading of God's Word. This is why we're here. God has revealed himself through scripture to us and we need it. So I hope that as he reads, whoever's up here on Sunday morning,
[00:29:01] I hope that as they read that you follow along in your own Bible and that you can hear from God as we learn and grow together. We are continuing in our Mark series, See Jesus. So before we go any
[00:29:15] further though, let me pray as we come to hear from God. Not from Tom, not from any one of our ideas, but we desire to hear from God. So let me pray for his help this morning. God, I am grateful
[00:29:31] that we can gather together. And I am so incredibly grateful that you have revealed yourself through scripture but even more you revealed yourself in your son Jesus Lord I pray this morning as we come
[00:29:51] to your word as we read about Jesus as we see his life as we see his teaching we see truth Lord I pray that you would transform us to convict our hearts of sin you would encourage us
[00:30:06] of the hope of transforming righteousness, that you would draw us closer to you. And Lord, help us to see Jesus. And I pray this in his name. Amen. We've gone through this See Jesus series. We're
[00:30:22] seven chapters now into Mark. We're almost halfway. Mark is 16 chapters, so we're right about this halfway mark. And we're going to take a break right here at the halfway point. We'll do our series, summer series, Who Am I? Then we'll come back and finish the second half of the Gospel
[00:30:38] of Mark at the end of the year. So as we've walked through the book of Mark, I've really, I've challenged us that so many times, whether we're new believers, whether we're long-time Christians, you've come to church your entire life perhaps, or whether you're just walking into our service
[00:30:59] this morning that so many of us walk in with preconceived ideas about Jesus and often those preconceived ideas are not who Jesus truly is and so as we've walked through Mark I've said this over and over again our desire is not to repeat those ideas my desire is not that we would know
[00:31:32] what some popular bestseller or what somebody always said to us about Jesus. I truly want us to see Jesus as he has revealed himself to us. And this morning, we are really going to be
[00:31:48] challenged. Some of us are going to be confronted. Some of us are going to be encouraged because Mark 7 is very blunt. In fact, in some ways, it's similar to what we did last week. In Mark chapter 6,
[00:32:02] If you remember the message from last week, it showed us that you can be very religious.
[00:32:08] In fact, you can be in very close proximity.
[00:32:11] You can be near Jesus and still be incredibly far away.
[00:32:17] And in Mark 7, we're going to see this once again.
[00:32:21] So I want us to actually take a moment and I want you to pray.
[00:32:27] Every Sunday, I open the service in prayer.
[00:32:30] I pray for us.
[00:32:30] I pray for this opportunity to hear from God's word.
[00:32:33] But I actually want you to take a moment.
[00:32:35] I want you to pray that Jesus would remove any barriers, that he would help you to hear clearly from God's word.
[00:32:44] So I'm going to shut up and I'm going to give you a moment.
[00:32:47] And would you pray that God would speak and that you would hear?
[00:33:04] Lord, I pray that you would help me to hear.
[00:33:07] and I pray that our church would be transformed as we see you. Mark 7 is going to show us that it's very easy to be religious and miss out on what truly matters. We live in the south,
[00:33:34] the great, great region of our country called South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, just this whole region of the South. And it's well-loved, it's famous, it's infamous.
[00:33:49] And another name for it is called the Bible Belt. Why is that? Because there's churches everywhere, which is an immense blessing, and it's also a challenge. Because sometimes we equate southerness with christianity and sometimes we equate religion with a relationship with jesus
[00:34:18] christ church i want us to see that we can get so caught up in routines and we get distracted from what truly matters and that often comes at the expense of first our own walk with god but then
[00:34:37] also it has deep impact on the people around us, including the ones that we love the most.
[00:34:45] And we're going to see it here in Mark 7. But this isn't new. Jesus confronts this in Mark 7, and then we also see it all around us. In fact, I would suggest that you can think of examples in
[00:34:58] your own mind. But let me just give you a few from popular culture. So have you ever heard of the story of the hunchback of Notre Dame. Disney redid it, right? It's actually an older story,
[00:35:10] but what is that? It's religious externalism, as I've got to look up the guy's name, Judge Claude Frollo. He's the main antagonist in the story, but he is incredibly clean and righteous on the outside. But if you know the story internally, he's at war with his own sexual
[00:35:36] desires. He's at war with his own sinful pride and self-righteousness. And the whole story is the conflict between the one who looks ugly and yet truly has a heart of gold, and then the one
[00:35:50] who looks good and yet is corrupt on the inside. Or C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia. If you've ever read the Narnia series, the last book, the last battle, the very beginning, it's kind of a
[00:36:04] weird start to the book, but there's this ape that talks. If you've never read the books, they have talking animals, and there's this ape called Shift, and he can talk, and he found this lion
[00:36:15] skin, and so he gets a friend who's not very bright, but he dresses this donkey up in the lion skin and pretends that this donkey in a lion skin is really Aslan, the god of the Narnia trilogy,
[00:36:33] the one with all the power. But Shift uses this supposed god to get more power, to put laws and regulations on all the other animals so that he can get what he wants. He uses religion
[00:36:52] and he twists it for his own advancement. But then, I mean, I actually, as I was looking for this, I found so many examples. I just chose three, but The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky. It's a
[00:37:05] classic. Many of you might not have read it. In fact, I haven't even read the whole thing, but in there, there's a scene called The Grand Inquisitor. It's in the past. It's in Spain and
[00:37:17] the church has become so corrupted they're very religious but Jesus the story is told comes back to the Spanish church and he begins teaching much like in the bible but the Spanish church arrests Jesus and tries to kick him out because he's teaching against what the church teaches
[00:37:41] don't don't say anything don't raise your hand don't shout it out but do you know anyone that is incredibly religious and incredibly self-righteous, where God's laws and their laws don't always line up. In Mark chapter 7, Jesus confronts the Pharisees because the Pharisees
[00:38:12] are good at this. God has given a law and yet they came in and they said, we need to do more.
[00:38:22] So what is true relationship with God?
[00:38:25] We're going to be confronted with it in Mark 7 as we truly see Jesus.
[00:38:29] But some of us come in and we think relationship with God looks like this.
[00:38:35] Or it looks like that.
[00:38:36] I must do.
[00:38:37] I must not do.
[00:38:38] So is relationship with Jesus bound up in external symbols of religion?
[00:38:45] Is relationship with Jesus all about the do's and the don'ts?
[00:38:51] do Christians all have to look the same? Can we do anything that we want? What's going to keep you out of heaven? As I said a little bit ago, oftentimes we walk into church with these
[00:39:08] preconceived ideas. So already I've set this up so you know that we're going to get challenged from scripture this morning. So you're probably going to answer this question differently. But if I had come up to you earlier today and said, what would keep you out of heaven? And you said
[00:39:24] something like, oh, sin keeps me out of heaven or not believing in Jesus. But if we begin to push deeper and we begin to ask questions about what truly matters, I would propose that for every
[00:39:38] single one of us, there's a tendency to carry with us laws and commands that we think gain us righteousness with God, make us more religious, make Jesus love me more, get me a better standing
[00:39:53] spiritually that have nothing to do with actually who Jesus is or what he says.
[00:40:01] And so this morning, I said it earlier, let me remind you, I really do desire that some of us are confronted. And then I desire on the other side that some of us walk out encouraged because
[00:40:12] the weight that we've been carrying, the weight that someone else has laid on top of you is not the weight that you need to carry. And then some of us, we need to get rid of our self-righteous
[00:40:27] pride. We need to stop acting like the Pharisees and begin looking more like Jesus. So what happens when Jesus rips off the facade, the camouflage of do's and don'ts? Isn't that what so much of
[00:40:49] religion and what many people's version of Christianity is? It's a list of do's and don'ts.
[00:40:54] In fact, if you want to grow spiritually, let me give you a list that you have to keep.
[00:41:00] I can tell you everything that God cares about the most.
[00:41:04] And as long as you keep this list, then you'll be okay.
[00:41:08] Isn't that what religion is?
[00:41:12] Mark 7, Jesus rips that off and he confronts the religious hypocrites and he shows us truly himself.
[00:41:21] So let's look at it.
[00:41:23] Mark chapter 7, we just read through the entire passage, but let's walk through it once again.
[00:41:28] Mark 7, verse number 1, the Pharisees were gathered to him with some of the scribes. So the Pharisees and scribes, these are the religious elites. They had it all figured out, and they're the ones that
[00:41:38] set the guidance, made the rules, set the standards for all the other little people, right? So the scribes gathered to him with some of the, the Pharisees gathered to him with some of the scribes
[00:41:52] who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of Jesus' disciples ate with hands that were defiled.
[00:41:59] That is, they hadn't washed them. And then I love this parenthesis in verse number three. It shows us that Mark is not writing to Jews. If you remember all the way back, it's been months ago,
[00:42:09] but we started by saying the gospel of Mark was not written to the Jewish people. It was most likely written to Romans in Rome, possibly believers, possibly seekers, and it was written to show who Jesus is. That's why we want to see Jesus. And so in verse 3 here in Mark 7, he gives
[00:42:27] us a little parenthesis. Any Jewish reader would know exactly what Mark was talking about. But he has to give a little pause and say, why are we talking about washing hands? That doesn't matter to a lot of people. So he gives them a parenthetical. Verse 3, he says, for the Pharisees and all the
[00:42:45] Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the traditions of the elders.
[00:42:52] cleanliness when they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash and there are many other traditions that they observe such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels dining couches now in 2026 we all desire cleanliness in fact i i hope that you wash
[00:43:09] your hands with some frequency and that you're a clean person and i hope you like clean your house and clean your pots if i'm going to come eat at your house i hope you clean your stuff if you
[00:43:19] don't, I might not want to come eat at your house. So we appreciate this, but that's not actually, they're not talking about cleanliness for food. As we go back into the Old Testament, we find those
[00:43:32] passages where it's in Exodus 30, Exodus 40. God actually given this spiritual cleansing ritual to the priests and the prophets. And before they would come in and worship God as priests in their function, in their role, in their job as priests, God had said you must cleanse yourself in a certain
[00:43:55] way. And except for in times of like bodily discharge, these laws were not laid on the entire nation of Israel. But what happened? These scribes, these Pharisees, these religious elites had decided that what was good for them, what commands had God put on top of them, should really
[00:44:19] be put on top of everyone else also and if you go back and read the rabbi's writings these rabbinical writings actually describe it as putting fences around the law of God they say okay we know
[00:44:33] that God said don't do this but I don't really want to get even close to that so I'm going to back up and I'm going to put a fence over here so it's almost like it's almost like a cliff so if
[00:44:45] you go to the Grand Canyon, you go and look out and it's this expanse and it's deep. And so if you go and if you just decided, hey, this is not a big deal. I'm going to go jump off the edge of the
[00:44:57] Grand Canyon. Not with like a bungee cord or like a parachute or one of those wing suits. But you just decide, I'm just, I'm young. I'm indestructible. I bounce pretty good. And so you go and you jump
[00:45:11] off the edge, you're not going to bounce. And so what do you do? You go to the Grand Canyon and they have these barriers. Makes sense, right? So the Pharisees said, okay, God said, don't do this.
[00:45:25] Let's back up and let's put a fence. And then they're like, well, I don't really want to get close to that either. So let's back up and put a fence here. And over time, you can read about it
[00:45:36] in the Old Testament and Jesus confronts it strongly. But over time, they began adding fences and fences and fences to God's word, to the place where it was no longer about knowing and loving God. It was all about what you do or you don't do. So here we go. That was just a little break.
[00:46:00] Verse five, the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders. So they know this isn't God's command. They don't say, why don't they obey God? Why don't they keep God's laws? They say, why aren't they keeping all the traditions?
[00:46:21] Why don't they walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands? And Jesus said to them, well, did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites? As it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines
[00:46:42] the commandments of men. These traditions had gotten to the place where they supposedly showed the closeness of your relationship with God, and yet they had nothing to do with God. In fact, they were one man putting commands on another man so that they could somehow feel
[00:47:00] more spiritual. And the Pharisees were good at this. In fact, they laid as many laws as they could on top of others and it made them feel better because I can keep them but oh look at
[00:47:09] that guy he can't keep that I'm obviously better than he is and then Jesus looks back at them and says you are hypocrites in another passage he compares them to a whitewashed tomb on the
[00:47:25] outside there's a fresh paint fresh coat of white paint and on the inside rotting bones Jesus here doesn't use that example, but in Mark 7, he actually goes back and quotes from the Old Testament, which the Pharisees knew well. They'd memorized all of the Old Testament.
[00:47:45] So he goes back to the prophet Isaiah, and he chooses a specific passage, which is very interesting. If you were to go back and read Jesus' quote in its context from Isaiah, you would actually see that Isaiah 29 is a judgment oracle against Jerusalem and against Israel. God, through
[00:48:03] the prophet Isaiah talks to his people and says, you have gotten so far from me, but you don't even realize it. He actually says in Isaiah 29, it's almost like you're a drunk man and you're so
[00:48:15] loaded, you're so hammered, you're so wasted on your own drunkenness that you don't even realize how far from God you are. Can you imagine the face of those scribes and Pharisees? They walked up and
[00:48:32] they're like, hey, hey, why don't your disciples wash their hands and keep the traditions like everybody else? And Jesus looks at them and says, you're so loaded drunk, you don't realize how far from God you are. Church, I'm afraid that God's word knows us better than we realize. Because
[00:49:00] there's a lot of people in the world, there's a lot of people in the south, and I would suggest there could even be people in this room that are so loaded with the do's and the don'ts that you
[00:49:17] think you're close to God when in reality you're full of self-righteous religion and Jesus has nothing to do with you. How do we do this though? Let me just give you a few examples. I mean we
[00:49:39] could do so many more. But guys, can we put up that next slide? Things like, these would be some modern examples. And again, this is not exhaustive. And we do it for singleness and marriage. And
[00:50:13] there's great strengths and there's some challenges with both. Some people say that you cannot eat certain foods. And if you do that, it makes you more spiritual. And God says that everything is a gift but gluttony and addiction is sin. Some people say that you have to dress a certain way
[00:50:35] and if you don't if you don't wear certain things then you're obviously not walking with God.
[00:50:43] Scripture says modesty is biblical but that's interesting it doesn't go far beyond that.
[00:50:54] Some people argue about musical styles and they believe that for a person or a church that if you don't listen to a specific music style, either in church or even as you're driving back and forth to work, that you obviously are a horrible person. And scripture says that we
[00:51:10] should value good music. We should sing songs that give praise to God. And yet there's some room there. There's political associations and we should be good citizens. There's strict rules for Sabbath observance or Sunday. If you don't go to church, if you do this, if you don't go
[00:51:32] three times a week or if you, hmm, what does the Bible say? Jesus says that Sabbath should be a day of rest and worship. Scripture never gives beyond that. Some people get really upset about Bible
[00:51:51] translations. And there are incredibly good translations, and I will say there are poor, faulty, and even heretical Bible translations. And yet, there's room there. And we could keep going. Some people say technology is sinful. Some people say no movie theaters, no dancing,
[00:52:10] no facial hair. I mean, the list can go on and on and on and on. The funny thing is, when you actually come to God's word, all of those things begin to fall apart.
[00:52:30] Dancing is in scripture. Facial hair is in scripture. Talks about marriage. All of these laws that I'm sure many of you are familiar with, these fences that we would add to God's law, we find in scripture and the fences are getting confronted and the people that place them are
[00:52:54] being called hypocrites. So in Luke chapter 7, I'm sorry, Mark chapter 7, Jesus continues on.
[00:53:09] He said, sorry, verse 8, you leave the commandment of God and hold true the traditions of men. And he said to them, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your
[00:53:19] own tradition. For Moses said, honor your father and your mother and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die. That's a pretty stark verse on Mother's Day. You hate your mother.
[00:53:38] Verse 11, but you say, if a man tells his father or his mother, whatever you would have gained from me is korban. Again, a parenthetical. He needs to explain it for his audience. This korban is
[00:53:52] given to God. Then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down and many such things you do.
[00:54:04] So let me back up and give us a little bit of context. Jesus is walking with his disciples.
[00:54:09] They walk through a field. Somebody picks an ear of corn or picks an apple and they take a bite and the scribes and Pharisees see his disciples do this and they come up and they're like, Jesus,
[00:54:19] Jesus, don't you realize how wicked your disciples are? He just took a bite of an apple without washing his hands why don't they follow the traditions of the elders don't they know this is what they're supposed to do and jesus looks back at him and he says isaiah prophesied exactly
[00:54:37] what you're doing and you're a hypocrite you're drunk on your own self-righteousness you think you're close to god when you're really far from him and you're oppressing others with your rules he says you even do it with your own family he said okay do you remember back in the old testament
[00:54:55] that God, like the creator God, the one who made all of life, the one who designed the way life should work, he said you should honor and love and care for your father and mother. And that's one of
[00:55:08] the most basic commandments. In fact, it's part of the 10 commandments. Just very baseline, love and honor and care for your parents. But you've come up with this way to get out of even caring for
[00:55:21] your parents. The ones you should care for the most. The ones that bore you. The ones that brought you into this world and raised you up. And you should have this natural human love for them.
[00:55:33] But you came up with a way around it. And they come up with it. It's called Korban. But it was this spiritual thing. It's kind of like setting something into a will to give to someone later.
[00:55:46] So I'm committing this to God. But I'm allowed to use it while I'm alive. But it means I also can't give it to mom and dad. It's kind of like estate planning that locks other people out of it
[00:56:00] so that you can be comfortable and not have to care for someone close to you. And Jesus says, don't you see that your spiritualness, your religiosity is actually, you're finding ways to work around what God desires. You're actually finding ways to make your life more comfortable.
[00:56:23] You're actually finding ways to make you look good even while others suffer.
[00:56:29] Jesus says, I hate that.
[00:56:35] And church, I want them both sides.
[00:56:37] I want to confront us and I want to comfort us.
[00:56:42] Church, if there have been people, if there have been teachers, if there have been anything that has put commands on your life that are not from scripture and you've been carrying this weight, I want you to see in Mark 7 that Jesus destroys them.
[00:56:59] But church, I know, because I know me, I know my own propensity to do this, and I know others, that it's so easy to be on the other side as well.
[00:57:12] To take something that may or may not be a good idea.
[00:57:16] Maybe it's a good idea to put a fence next to the Grand Canyon.
[00:57:20] But instead, to take my fence and put it on someone else's life and make that the standard of goodness.
[00:57:26] To make that the standard of righteousness.
[00:57:29] to make that the standard of how close they are to God or if they're gonna get into heaven and if they wear this or sing this or drink that or, and that's not what Jesus said.
[00:57:45] Verse 14, Mark chapter seven, verse 14, he called the people to him again and said to them, hear me all of you and understand.
[00:57:55] Jesus' desire in all of this is not to simply destroy people.
[00:57:59] He desires for us to hear and learn and understand.
[00:58:02] hear me all of you and understand verse 15 there is nothing outside of a person that by going into him can defile him but the things that come out of a person are what defile him and when he had
[00:58:15] entered the house and left the people his disciples asked him about this parable they were confused wait Jesus what were you just talking about and he said to them then you are also without understanding do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him since
[00:58:34] enters into enters not his heart but his stomach and is expelled and then again another little parenthetical which we're not going to spend time on but is interesting thus he declared jesus declared all foods clean he keeps going verse 20 and jesus said what comes out of a person is what
[00:58:52] defiles him for from within out of the heart of man comes evil thoughts sexual immorality theft murder adultery coveting wickedness deceit sensuality envy slander pride foolishness all these evil things come from within and they defile a person church let's be really clear
[00:59:23] about something your sin comes from inside of you no one's making you do it satan made me do it my brother made me do it my parents made me do it my boss made me do it you don't know the buttons
[00:59:43] they pushed church in mark chapter 7 jesus says there's nothing outside of you that will defile you that billboard that porn site that conversation with somebody i don't care what it is there can be
[01:00:00] temptations, but sin comes from within. James chapter 1 says the same thing. It says that temptation comes, and then it's how we respond to it. And when it grows, then it begins to destroy.
[01:00:17] Church, let me be clear. Sin does not come from outside of you. Sin comes from your own heart. So the Pharisees, they put these fences, they put these rules, they put these laws trying to keep themselves as far away. But in reality, they're pushing themselves deeper into sin in
[01:00:35] other ways. Their self-righteousness, their pride, their condemnation of others is actually equally sinful in God's sight. So Jesus looks at them, he calls the crowd together, and he says, I need you to understand something. That sin does not come in from outside of you. He uses the
[01:00:54] illustration of food. He said, when you eat food, it doesn't go to your heart. That's significant.
[01:00:58] It doesn't go to your heart. It goes into your stomach and then it comes out the other end.
[01:01:02] Jesus had a sense of humor. He says what comes out of your heart is what matters. So guys, that next slide. Jesus says that defilement, sin, wickedness is so far more serious than a list of external
[01:01:18] do's and don'ts. What you do or don't do is not what gains you favor with God, is not what makes you. A Christian is not what gets you into heaven. It's not about that. It's actually far
[01:01:30] deeper. And he points to our hearts. This next slide is going to be a diagram. I hope you can see it. Hope you can see all of it. That there's a lot going on here. I use this often in counseling.
[01:01:47] It's going to grow the exact same thing back. But no, no, no. I want something different. So I know if I take something off, I need to replace it with something, right? So I go up to the tree
[01:03:02] and I grab that orange of anger, that orange of covetousness and greed, and I pull it off and I'm like, I got a great idea. I'm going to take an apple. I'm going to take it up there. I'm going
[01:03:14] to staple it to my tree. It's the apple of love. It's the apple of generosity. It's the apple of caring for others. It's going to help things. I know this is really stupid. Play along with me.
[01:03:28] what happens if you staple an apple to an orange tree it's going to rot it's going to fall off and what's going to come back oranges i know this is not super complicated what happens if you cut
[01:03:52] the tree off in the middle man you know what i i finally figured out that oranges grow from orange trees so i'm just gonna take an axe get my chainsaw i'm just gonna cut that tree off right
[01:04:03] in the middle. Given enough time, what grows back? Orange tree. If you want something different, you've got to get all the way down into the root, and you've got to totally change that tree.
[01:04:30] So there in the diagram, you see that it comes down to me, and we don't have time to really just go through all of this. Let's jump to the other side. Let's say we rip that whole
[01:04:40] tree out, and we're going to start with a new life. Jesus, as he came and as he began teaching the kingdom of God. He said, repent of your sins and be forgiven. And he said that we would be
[01:04:52] transformed. In fact, the Bible literally uses the phrase, we would be made new. A completely new creation. There's nothing left from what was old. It's all brand new. So Christian, church, visitor, men, women, everybody listening to me, pulling that orange off of your tree is not going
[01:05:22] to do anything. But when you plant your life in Christ, he wants your heart. That's what he desires. He says it here in Mark 7. He says it's the heart that matters. So when you plant your
[01:05:43] life in Jesus when God is at the the focus it's not that God is one of your priorities it it is God is everything and a new tree begins to grow what fruits come from this tree the Bible talks
[01:06:02] about the fruit of the spirit love joy peace patience and the list goes on and so instead of ripping off oranges and stapling on apples or trying to find a banana to fit on there. And
[01:06:17] instead of trying to do and don't and put fences, Jesus instead calls us to see that the heart is what matters. Church, the Bible Belt, in the South, really we could expand it into the whole
[01:06:35] world. In every human life, it's very tempting. It's much simpler to say, give me a list of do's and don'ts. I can achieve that, or I can work hard at achieving that. And if I'm good enough,
[01:06:54] I might even add a few to make me look better than the guy next to me. It's a little more nebulous.
[01:07:03] It's less cut and dried. It's less clear when Jesus says, I want your heart. But do you see how much more powerful your heart is? What you love flows out of you. When it's about your heart,
[01:07:23] when it's about your love, when your passion is focused on Christ, then everything else in life is going to fit around that. And no longer is it a list of do's and don'ts, but rather it's a
[01:07:33] relationship with a transforming, loving Savior. It's no longer looking down on others and taking my fences that have nothing to do with God's word. I just feel like it's a good idea and it makes me
[01:07:45] feel good about myself. And so you should believe the same thing I believe and you should look like I look because obviously I have it all figured out and I'm right. And we take all of that and
[01:07:55] we lay it on top of someone else. And we literally begin to work our way around God's commands to make me better. And in Mark 7, we're confronted. Men, there's one last slide.
[01:08:18] Church, as we finish, can we put that last slide up there? As we finish, I want us to walk away realizing, both being confronted and encouraged. I want us to understand that Jesus here in Mark 7,
[01:08:32] can I show you Jesus? So many times we walk into church and we have this preconceived idea about God. I have to look a certain way. I have to do certain things. I have to show up to church for
[01:08:44] God to love me. And yet Mark 7, Jesus shows us it's all about our hearts. Church, this doesn't mean that God doesn't care what we do. It actually means God cares deeply about what we do, so much
[01:09:00] so that he's confronting these pharisees about how they even live with their own families about how they arrange their finances but church do you realize there's a big difference between external religious legalistic rule keeping and a heart that's in love with jesus there's a difference
[01:09:26] between traditions which southern christianity has a lot of traditions don't we there's a big difference between keeping the traditions of men and knowing and loving Jesus. Traditions are not automatically sinful. They might be helpful. They might also be incredibly dangerous. The question
[01:09:52] is, where's your heart? Let's pray together. Lord, I pray that you would help us this morning as we come to you. Lord, help us to stop feeding our own self-righteousness. Lord, help us stop tricking ourselves that I must be good with Jesus because I do all these things when really
[01:10:17] we're far from God. We have no love for God. We have no love for his word, but we're good at keeping a list. Lord, stop us from oppressing people around us, whether it's in our own family,
[01:10:33] whether it's our neighbors or co-workers. Lord, help us to understand, help us to see with new eyes, that when I place my standards, not God's standards, but Lord, help us to see when I place
[01:10:47] my standards on others and judge them by my standards. I'm a hypocrite. Lord, help us to step out from under these things and find the freedom and joy that is in Christ. Lord, I pray
[01:11:05] that we would know your commands, that we would love you with our hearts and follow you and do what you desire for us to do but not from do's and don'ts but Lord from a life transformed
[01:11:16] Lord help us to repent of our hypocrisy to love and know Jesus help us to walk in freedom and joy and I pray this in Jesus name Amen

[01:11:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[01:11:31] Please stand with us as we sing the final song Just As I Am

[01:11:40] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[01:11:40] ...line today and I hope

[01:14:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[01:14:59] the service was a spiritual blessing to you. If we can be a help in any way, please reach out to us. And if you would love to learn more about our church, you can find us online at visitebc.org. Visitebc.org. You'll find our
[01:15:18] website. You can also find us on social media and on YouTube. And then also, if you're in the Mooresville area, I would love to invite you to come join us in person next week, and we can
[01:15:29] worship the Lord together. God bless.