The Rules of God not Man.

Intro:

Well, good evening everybody my name is Zak. I am the student and young adult Director at The River Grand Blanc.

Really excited to be with you guys and I just wanted to ask you what you've been learning about in Marc-E what are some things that you recall from chapter 6

I try to be conversational within growth communities so if you have thoughts, ideas, questions please feel free to mention those

But in Marc-E chapter 7, we see it open up with a discussion between the Pharisees and Jesus.

And we're gonna be looking at the idea of the law of God versus tradition of men.

But some things to understand is that the religious leaders of the day would take the law of God, and then they would create traditions based upon that law

But the issue within the text is that the traditions are placed above the law.

So let's go ahead and open up the text and then go to God for guidance.

Mark 7:1–23 ESV

1 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, 4 and 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 and dining couches.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 And he 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; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ 8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” 9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” ’ (that is, given to God)— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.” 14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Pray:

Amen.

Within this text, what things stand out to you?

What do you see?

I see the theme of legalism versus relationship

External praise with internal apathy or contempt

We see the picture of the Pharisees, which is a ancient religious leader

But this is a person who looks good on the outside

One commentary painted a great picture of What we would view a fairy as in today's world:

Exalting Jesus in Mark The Deadly Lures of Legalism (Mark 7:1–23)

Let me introduce you to a prospective church member. He will attend every service, including special events. He will go on mission trips with a passion to convert the heathen. He will tithe, sing in the choir, read his Bible daily, and memorize Scripture. He will be happy to pray in corporate worship. He is thoroughly orthodox in his theology. He is an inerrantist and believes in heaven and hell. He never gets drunk, is not addicted to porn, never uses profanity, is a family man, loves his country fervently, weeps on July 4, and votes the right way. His reputation in the community is stellar. If any man ever earned the right to go to heaven, it is this man. His religion is certainly something to admire.

Sadly this is a man headed for hell. I have just introduced you to a twenty-first-century Pharisee! A Pharisee in the first century was not scorned as a legalist. No, he was looked up to as a model citizen and a person of piety and religion. Unfortunately Pharisees had, as Paul says, a “zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” (Rom 10:2). Amazingly we can have a passion for God yet not know God. We can be deceived, captured, and enslaved by the deadly lure of legalism. Tragically, those who have been raised in the church are the most susceptible to this deception. Our pride in our religious rituals, church practices, and cultural traditions blind us to both our great sinfulness and the great Savior who alone can rescue us from our sin.

The 21st-century Pharisee doesn't look like a stuck up snob but somebody who knows the Bible wow but does not know our Savior well.

It's when we learn all about the things of God instead of learning about God himself and knowing him and having a personal relationship with him

So these fairies are well respected men, according to their society and their friends and their family

But Jesus looks past the external and sees the internals of their hearts

And today I want us to look in our own hearts and ask the Lord if we have areas of pride and legalism that we need to surrender to him today

Do we know God on a deeply intimate level or do we just know a lot about God?

Mark 7:1–23 (ESV)

1 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem,

2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.

3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders,

4 and 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 and dining couches.)

5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

Something I find so interesting is that the Pharisees come to Jesus just after he had healed so many people by the power of God

He had walked on water and healed many of sickness, just by touching their garments at the end of chapter 6 “as many as touched him were made well”

But after all this, the fairies come up to him and don't ask him about the miracles, the blind their self to those

And they go and say, why aren't your disciples honoring the tradition of the elders?

Why are they washing their hands before they eat?

Now I want us to realize they did not know about germs at the time, but this was a tradition that disciples were not holding themselves too.

So they asked Jesus why??

What interests me is the fact that they're pointing to traditions of the elders. Not specific scripture or command.

And it's something that we should take in consideration in our own lives when we have a theological position on something is it based within the text of scripture or is it based within the opinions of man?

I remember when I was in (Pastors Academy) there was a discussion about the Neflin

Which is talked about in Genesis just before the flood and I had a specific opinion that was different than everyone else else's

So when IAnd began to defend it I was referencing people like RC Sproul rather than scripture

And my teacher called me out… I was allowing the tradition or opinion of demand to supersede the work of understanding the scripture.

What are some common ways that we follow tradition of men rather than basing our decisions in God and his word???

Can you think of any examples?

One example I can think of is praying before every meal. There's nowhere in scripture where it says we have to pray before every meal.

There's nowhere in scripture that says we have to pray before we leave the church event to drive

Of those things bad now, as long as we do them with the proper heart posture towards God

Because often times we can do things because we have always done things and we lose the purpose of them

If our prayer before every meal is Lord, bless his food thank you for amen then I wonder if we have the right heart posture.

Because I don't think Jesus is saying it's wrong to wash your hands. Also don't think it's wrong to pray before events or pray before meals.

Our problem is when we become robotic and no longer have a heart that reflects the words that we speak

Which is what Jesus causes the Pharisees out on in the next verse

6 And he 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;

7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

Again, talking about the modern day fairy from before you and I can look so good on the outside but the question is where is our heart?

When people's hearts are not in what they do or what they say, you can almost see a mask over their face

They pretend like everything's OK but the reality is their heart is somewhere else

For the Pharisees they put on this religious show and the worst thing is they believed it, and they worshiped themselves in their hearts

You see the religious, spiritual, disciplined life of a believer is the result of salvation, not a pursuit of salvation

So some questions I have from this section is to be worship God in vain or do we worship God in truth?

Because I don't think Jesus is expecting us to be perfect, but he's expecting us to realize we are not perfect

And we worship God out of the knowing of that truth that we need a savior and we have a savior

Our worship, our lifestyle our actions our works is a result of our love for our Lord

What are some thoughts that you guys have?

Have you ever had a moment where you realized you were doing something as if it was a command of God, even though it's a tradition or command of man?

Now, how do we keep ourselves from falling into this legalism?

I believe pride is one of the greatest reasons for legalism and self-deception.

Pride is something that we recognize in other people, but we hardly recognize in ourselves

What pride does is that we put ourselves on the throne of our heart instead of God

How do we protect ourselves against this self deception?

And how do we know that God is on the throne of our hearts?

Romans 10:9 ESV

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

James 4:8 ESV

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

I believe the answer for us if we find ourselves in the place of the modern-day, Pharisees is surrendered to God

It's the realization that apart from him we can do nothing, which is what John 115 says

John 115 is all about abiding in God and through the abiding we see fruit

Because legalism is trying to produce the fruit without the abiding

But relationship is resting in God, asking him to supply what we need, and by his power, he produces fruit within us because of our surrender

It's not by our will not buyer might, but by our god that were able to not be legalistic, but also not be lax when it comes to sin.

Because the Pharisees chose the things of the law that were easy or the traditions that were easy rather than looking at the laws that were difficult

They would make a tradition for the tradition and then make a loop pull around scripture mandates

And we see that in the next section, they avoid honoring their mother and father, by saying what I would've given to my parents I give to God

They just want the easy way out to look spiritual

How often do we want the easy way out to look spiritual

It's easy to love the people within our community. It's hard to love the people that don't love us.

So an easy way out is to never be around the people that we don't love

To avoid uncomfortable situations and try to sidestep the command to love and the command to go evangelize

Well, I would share the gospel, but I'm teaching growth communities

I would share Jesus with other people, but fill in whatever excuse you want

All of us are called to share the gospel and we can't make traditional side steps or compromises to avoid this

And we see the Pharisees trying to do that in verse nine.

9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!

10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’

11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” ’ (that is, given to God)—

12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,

13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand:

15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable.

18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him,

19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)

20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.

21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,

22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”