Subtraction by Addition

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Good morning church family

And welcome to any guests who may be with us this morning

My name is Stefan Wilson and I am the pastor preaching here at Harvest

Let's go ahead and take out our Bibles and open to Matthew 15

As we continue in our series in Matthew, specifically this section of Matthew 14 through 16 in which Matthew is showing us what it looks like for the kingdom of God to advance in the world

As you turn there, I want you to imagine that you have a friend who is diagnosed with an illness

And as a result, you give that friend a bunch of rules to follow to make sure that he or she doesn’t get the illness again

They have to eat different

They have to exercise more

They have to have to get 8-9 hours of sleep

But you don’t actually help them to treat the sickness they currently have

So their life looks healthy because they are following the new rules… but they are still sick.

And all of the rules that you added are actually taking their focus away from getting the treatment they need.

[Hook] I fear that far too often, that is how we think we should deal with sin.

We see this problem called sin in the world and in our own lives, and so we add a bunch of rules for everyone to follow

We think that the added rules are going to solve the problem, but we never actually treat the real problem of sin.

By adding a bunch of rules, we take our focus away from dealing with the actual problem.

And in our passage this morning, Jesus is going to confront the religious leaders of his day for doing the exact same thing

They were adding rules to God’s word, thinking it made people more righteous

What it actually did was prevent them from dealing with the real problem of their own hearts

So, the title of this morning’s message is “Subtraction by Addition”

And he is going to show how adding rules, we neglect to deal with what is really going on inside of us.

If we are going to be a faithful church, we have to stop thinking that our sin problem will be solved by making more rules for everyone

We have to see that the problem will only be solved when we let God’s word correct and instruct our own hearts.

So we need to give these words our full attention

Matthew 15:1–20 “Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ” And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.””

Big Idea: When we add to God’s commands, we subtract from God’s character [7:00 -33]

At the outset we need to all get on the same page about something

The purpose of God's commands throughout Scripture is not primarily to simply tell us what to do and what not to do

The purpose of God's commands throughout Scripture is primarily to show us who God is

And we as people who were created to reflect God, as we obey his word, increasingly reflect who he is

But what happens all too often is we take what God's word says and then we add to it, thinking that the added rules will make us more righteous…

We expand the things that we call sinful

We expand the things that a "good Christian" should do

And when we do this

We distort and diminish the truth of God’s character

The philosopher Voltaire once wrote, “In the beginning God created man in His own image, and man has been trying to repay the favor ever since.”

God made us to live in such a way that we look like him

But when we add to his commands, we are trying to make him look more like us

[Bridge] In our passage, the religious leaders are exposed for adding to God’s word

And Jesus is going to show us three errors that arise from doing so

And we need to see them as errors so that we can repent of them and pursue true obedience of the Lord as his people who he made to reflect who he is

By living according to his word, not our additions to his word

So, if you’re taking notes, we are going to say

“When we add to God’s word…” and then we will see the three errors and how to repent of them.

And I am just going to warn you… this is going to sting for some of us this morning…

So, first…

When we add to God’s word

We deify our preferences (1-2) [10:00 -10]

To “deify” something is to elevate it to the same level as God

So to “deify our preferences” is to take the things that we think and make them equivalent to what God has said

And that is exactly what we see the pharisees do in v. 1-2

Matthew 15:1–2 “Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.’”

Notice, they are confronting Jesus about his disciples not doing something that is found nowhere in Scripture and is, by their own words, a “tradition of the elders”

Something that isn’t in the Bible has become so important to them that they confront Jesus about it as if it were a command in Scripture.

They have elevated the traditions of their forefathers to the same level of God’s word.

Now, where did this tradition come from?

In Exodus 30, God commands Aaron and his sons to wash their hands and feet at the bronze basin before entering the Tent of Meeting or approaching the altar.

God gave a specific command for specific people in a specific context

Then, down the road, religious leaders took that command and expanded its application to include daily life, not just entering the presence of God in the temple.

Now, that isn’t necessarily wrong - There can be wisdom in saying, “Because I don’t want to break God’s commands, I will take extra measures to ensure that I don’t flirt with sin.”

The problem is that they are taking their precautions and making them one and the same with God’s command.

When you and I see ways that God’s word applies to our own lives and then we require other people to apply it the same way to their lives…

We are guilty of something called “Legalism”

Now, that word gets thrown around a lot, so I wrote a definition to help us understand what it actually is:

Legalism: When my application of God's Word becomes indistinguishable from God's Word itself.

That is what has happened here:

The pharisees have confused their application of God’s word with God’s word itself, so by not following their traditions, they are acting as though the disciples have sinned against God.

That word, “Break” in v. 2 - “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders” is rooted in the old testament idea of transgression

Turning away from God

So, in essence, The Pharisees have taken a human tradition and treated it as though it carries divine authority.

They have effectively taken something that originated with them and given it the authority that belongs to God.

[THEOLOGICAL TRUTH]

In my experience, the vast majority of issues and conflict between Christians is rooted in this very issue

We read God’s word, we see how it confronts specific things in our own lives, then we elevate our own application of it and say that everyone else must do the exact same thing to the point that it becomes indistinguishable from God’s command itself.

I know the Bible forbids lust and commands modesty, so I take my own standard of modesty and my own struggles with lust and tell how they have to dress

I know the Bible forbids drunkeness and I abstain from alcohol so I then tell everyone that even consuming any alcohol is sinful

I know the Bible commands instruction of your children in the Lord so I choose to homeschool my kids… and then I tell everyone that sending your kids to public school is sinful

I have chosen to vote a certain way and so I tell everyone that if they vote any other other way, they are not obeying God.

And the result is a bunch of fighting because I am trying to get everyone to look like me, rather than trusting God’s word and trusting God’s Spirit to make us all look like Christ.

Church family, the Lord is not transforming us into the image of one person in this room

He is not transforming you into the image of Stefan Wilson

He is not transforming me into the image of any of you

He is transforming all of us into the image of Christ

So it is worth pausing and asking yourself:

“Where have I confused my own thoughts with God's commands?”

“Where have I created conflict because I was holding people to the standard of my application of God’s word, rather than God’s word itself?”

So we must let Christ be the authority

Let the Spirit of Christ convict you in how to apply his word

And let’s never give our thoughts, preferences, or traditions the authority that God’s word alone has.

[Transition] Because if we do elevate our thoughts to the level of God’s word, Jesus says in v. 3 that we actually cannot God’s word.

Which brings us to point 2

When we add to God’s word…

We distort God’s priorities (3-9) [18:00 -22]

We project our priorities onto God and we thereby distort his priorities

First, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for v. 3

They say in v. 2, “Why do your disciples break our traditions?”

And Jesus responds in v. 3…

Matthew 15:3 “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”

You can just imagine how awkward that must have been

Now, they would have said, “What are you talking about? Our tradition is for the purpose of keeping God’s commands? We added these things to help people obey God.”

And Jesus says, “Yeah, only it doesn’t help… It actually gets in the way.”

Matthew 15:4–6 “For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’

Jesus quotes two commands from Exodus, one is one of the 10 Commandments and then the second is from one chapter later

Now just to be clear, “Honor” certainly includes respect, but it also includes the responsibility to care for parents who are dependent upon their children.

“Your parents cared for you when you needed them

So honor them by caring for them when they need you.”

But here is the problem

The Pharisees had created a tradition that allowed a person to donate their money to the temple and if they did, they don't have to use those resources to care for their aging parents.

Do you see what has happened?

An added rule to be “more righteous” made it impossible to obey God’s actual command.

By making new traditions that people should follow, it promoted a neglect of obedience to God.

And this is not an isolated concern for Jesus. In Matthew 23, he says to the Pharisees, “You tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.”

You priority is to look righteous, but you are actually neglecting true righteousness…

God has priorities for us - His word tells us what we must not neglect

And we must not redefine God’s priorities for the sake of what we want them to be.

Because if we do… look at v. 6

Matthew 15:6 “So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.”

“Made void” - You have emptied it

By adding to God’s word, you subtracted from it… and you distorted God’s priorities.

God is not impressed with our religious acts when it causes us to ignore what he actually said.

God is not impressed by how many hours we serve if we are neglecting our families

God is not impressed by how much we give if we care nothing for holiness in our own lives

God is not impressed by how much we know when we care nothing for the people God has placed around us.

Here is the deal: When we are more about doing things that look religious while neglecting the very heart of God… Jesus has a word for that

v. 7

Matthew 15:7–9 “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

When we have different priorities than God, and expect him to get on board with us… it is simply proof…

That our hearts are far from him

Our worship is empty.

And we are hypocrites

Here is a scary truth: We can be sincerely religious and still be sincerely wrong about what God cares about.

The safeguard to this is to let God’s word inform our priorities

When we are tempted to make external religiosity and outward appearance our priorities, we need to hear the word of God and not add to it

So what are God’s priorities for us?

Deuteronomy 10:12–13 “What does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?”

Micah 6:8 “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Hosea 6:6 “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Matthew 22:37–40 [When asked what the greatest commandment is in Scripture, Jesus says] “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

1 Peter 1:15–16 “but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.””

Do you see what God is telling us our priorities should be?

God cares about what we do, but He cares about who we are becoming.

He cares about our love for Him.

He cares about our love for other people.

He cares about justice and mercy.

He cares about humility.

He cares about holiness.

So, let’s pause and ask: Do we care about what God cares about? Or do we expect God to care about what we care about?

If we expect him to care about what we care about, we will distort his priorities

We need to let him tell us what he cares about, and live accordingly.

[Transition] Now, you notice that the thing Jesus calls out as the cause of their wrong priorities is their heart

You see it in v. 8 - “But their heart is far from me”

This leads us to our final point this morning…

When we add to God’s words…

We disguise our real problem (10-20)[28:00 -12]

There is a lot here in these 11 verses, but it can all be distilled down to two main ideas:

Jesus correction of Pharisees and Scribes

The offense that it creates

Look first at v. 10-11

Matthew 15:10–11 “And he called the people to him and said to them [So he has turned from the Pharisees and scribes - He is no longer talking to them - He is talking to the crowds now] “Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.””

Jesus corrects what the religious leaders have been teaching by flipping it upside down

They have been teaching that the problem is outside of you and you need to do all of the right things to keep the problem from getting in

Jesus says, “No, the problem is inside of you - And when it comes out of you, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.”

Now, Peter thinks Jesus is talking in parables here, so he astutely asks Jesus to explain the parable in v. 15

But Jesus is not telling a parable… He is speaking very literally.

So Peter asks Jesus to explain the parable, and Jesus is like, “Seriously bro?… It isn’t complicated.”

Matthew 15:16–20 “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.””

[Illustration]

If you hold a bottle of water and someone bumps into you… what is going to come out of the bottle?

Water

Why does water come out of the bottle?

And you might want to say, “Because someone ran into you.”

But that isn’t entirely true

Water came out of the bottle, because water was inside of the bottle

All that the bump did was reveal what was inside.

When we get bumped in life by conflict or temptation… what spills out of us simply reveals what was already in there

And if we try to cover it up with a bunch of external rules, we will never deal with the actual problem.

We are so skilled as a society at making everything someone or something else’s fault

And we think more rules for them will make it better for us.

But Jesus is saying, “You don’t get to do that.”

What makes me unclean… what defiles me begins with what is inside of my own heart, and so that…

The things I do

The things I say

The places I go

… simply reveal what was inside of me all along.

But that truth is offensive when you want the problem to be everyone else’s fault…

Look at v. 12

Matthew 15:12 “Then the disciples came and said to him, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?’”

And look at Jesus response

Matthew 15:13–14 “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

Just for free… notice - He is not bothered that they are offended

In fact, he is perfectly fine with it

Their entire system was an offense to God

So he says: Let them be offended if they refuse to change.

And notice, he calls them “blind guides”

In other words, if you think the solution to your sin is to manage everything and everyone outside of you…

You aren't helping yourself, and you aren't helping anyone else.

Now, I want us to be careful not to swing the pendulum the other way and act like nothing is wrong outside of us

There are real things that happen to us that compound the problem.

People really do sin against us.

People really do cause us pain.

There are genuinely evil things happening around us.

But here is the distinction we cannot miss:

Someone else's sin may explain what happened TO you, but it never excuses the sin that comes out of you.

“I know I said something hurtful, but you made me angry.”

No, no - No one has the power to MAKE you angry… Anger is a response of your own heart because of what they did… and everything that flowed from that anger, is your own sin.

Their sin is their responsibility.

My sin is my responsibility.

The anger that comes out of me is not ultimately caused by their sin. It is revealing something in my heart.

The impatience I have with my kids is not their fault… its mine

My insensitivity toward my spouse is not her fault… its mine

My bitterness about my circumstances are not someone else’s fault… its mine.

And when I am tempted to try to fix everything outside of me….

I need to first ask what is happening inside of me… because the real issue of my own sin is in my heart

And no amount of rules will change my heart.

The only thing that will change my heart is Christ

Only through the life-transforming work of Christ can our sins be forgiven and our hearts transformed

Only through the Holy Spirit, taking the Word of God and applying it to our lives, are we conformed more and more into what God calls us to be.

Whatever you are facing right now that is bringing things to the surface in your heart, ask yourself:

What is happening in my heart?

When David committed adultery and then committed murder to cover it up… What did he pray?

In Psalm 51, He didn’t pray, “Lord, if you understood my trauma and you saw how she was tempting me, you wouldn’t hold me responsible. And her husband wasn’t good for her anyway… So you can see how I am actually a victim here, Lord. My sin isn’t as bad as theirs, so I shouldn’t have to change anything.”

No, what did he pray?

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

Whatever you are facing today, that is bringing to the surface the things that were hidden in your heart… How have you been trying to put the blame on someone else?

Are you trying to fix your relationships without confronting your own bitterness?

Are you trying to fix your children without confronting your own impatience?

Are you trying to fix your church without confronting your own pride and control issues?

Are you trying to fix our culture without confronting your own anger?

Are you trying to fix someone else's sin because it is easier than confronting your own?

Sometimes we become so focused on someone else's sin that we stop seeing our own.

Jesus says the problem is first inside of us…

So will we take offense at that like the Pharisees did?

Or will we hear the words of Jesus, and rather than adding to them, ask him to help us diagnose the problem of our own hearts?

You can wash your hands all you want… Only Christ can cleanse your heart

And listen: If you are here today and you are not a Christian, and you have believed that what you need is to just become the best version of yourself… that is not going to help you.

Your greatest need is to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.

You need the Savior who lived the righteousness you could never live, died for the sin you could never remove, and rose again to give you new life that you could never achieve on your own

Only through Christ’s death for your sin can you be forgiven and cleansed

Following a bunch of rules won’t do it

And only through Christ can you be transformed into who he made you to be

[CONCLUSION] 40:00

For all of us, may we not be a people who add to God’s word by our own preferences or rules

May we be a people who seek to take God at his word, knowing that his word is sufficient for all we need and his Spirit will do the work in us to produce in us all that God intends.

Amen.

[COMMUNION]

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Don’t mock the cross

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