As many of you know, I now am a minister in Chino, California, about an hour and 20 minutes from here. And when I have opportunity to preach, I've been preaching through the book of Mark. And this is a fresh sermon, so you get the first whack at it. You probably get a lot of repeats, I suppose, over the last year. But it's actually, I was prepared this for next week where I'll be preaching in Chino. But I've been working through the book of Mark, and we come to the book, to the middle of the book, chapter 7. And if you're familiar with the book of Mark, it's an action-packed, fast-paced book. Jesus is portrayed as doing many miracles, going from place to place, encountering different people. But here, in chapter 7, things slow down just a little bit. There's an extended portion of Jesus' teaching, even as he's confronted by the scribes and the Pharisees. And something else that's unique about this particular passage is the way Mark presents it. Normally, he's a silent narrator, but here he weighs in on a couple of occasions. And as we read that, you'll see his own explanations and as he fills out Jesus' statements. So please turn with me to Mark chapter 7. I'll be reading verses 1 through 23. Now, when the Pharisees gathered to him with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders. 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 in the pots and copper vessels and dining couches. 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? 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. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. And he said to them, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition. For Moses said, honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die. But you say, if a man tells his father or mother, whatever you would have gained from me is Corban, that is, 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. And he called the people to him again and said to them, Hear me, all of you, and understand, 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. And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable, 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? since it enters not his heart, but his stomach, and is expelled. Thus he declared all foods clean, and he said, What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. Thus far the reading of God's Word. Saints of God, have you ever had your mouth washed out with soap? Perhaps moms or dads, you've threatened this to your children. Boys and girls, maybe your mom has warned you that if you continue speaking, with a foul mouth or if you say bad words that she's going to squirt some dish soap in your mouth or perhaps shove the whole bar in and make you bite down on it. I hear the bar is worse but I don't know for sure. Well, this is something that parents threaten and I don't want to take away the thunder of you parents but the truth is that soap can't clean up someone's speech. Soap can't get to what's really filthy You know, the speech that someone or the talk which someone speaks with is really important But soap really can't touch it Because, as Matthew says it's out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks Boys and girls, perhaps you'll be careful about what you say because you know the taste of that soap But your heart's not changed by that soap. Just because your mouth is clean doesn't mean you're going to speak properly or even Christianly. And I share this illustration with you because it's similar to what this passage is getting at. Jesus is confronted here with the scribes and the disciples or the scribes and the Pharisees and they're calling him out. Jesus, why don't your disciples wash their hands? You know, you're a religious teacher. Your disciples should be religious also, and they should follow the ways of the teachings of the elders. They should wash their defiled hands before they eat, lest they too become defiled. But Jesus' point through this whole passage is that the defilement is not external, but the true defilement that people need to wrestle with, need to come to grips with, is a defilement in the hearts. And that's the issue here. It's not external impurity. It's not something that you can get past by ritual washings. But the heart needs to be dealt with. As we look at this passage then, we see that these traditions of these elders are highlighted. So much so that they break the commands of God in order to keep their traditions. So as we consider these and Jesus' explanation following that, I want you to first consider with me the tradition of the elders. Then in the second place, this unique example. Jesus gives this extended illustration of how they break God's commands in order to obey their own traditions. And that second point, the example of Corban. And then in the third place, Jesus exposes the true need and the true defilement. And he calls for you, and he calls for me, to recognize the need for a clean heart. So these three points then this morning, they're tradition of the elders, the example of Corbin, and the clean heart. Again, boys and girls, your parents might tell you before meals to wash your hands. And there's good and healthy reasons to wash your hands before you eat. But that is not what the Pharisees were getting at. They weren't concerned with the hygiene of the disciples of Jesus Christ. They were put off that Jesus' disciples didn't follow the traditions of the elders. You see, the traditions of the elders have been passed down from generation to generation. Instruction by mouth, word to word, from one generation to the next. These ritual laws, this piling up of commands, in order to be pure, in order to be clean, these are the things that you must do. When you go to the marketplace, you're going to run into defiled persons, Gentiles, un-food clean, or unclean food. All of these things are going to defile you. So you must wash. You must go through these ritual purifications. And if you don't do that before you eat, you will become defiled because that dirtiness, that defilement from your hands will then touch your food and that food goes into your mouth and you'll become defiled. You'll be impure. But these are not biblical commands. These are extra biblical commands that the Pharisees have added to God's word. They built up these regulations in all areas of life in Israel and they demand strict and stringent adherence to them. Excuse me. And this is what he is getting at in this passage. But this isn't the first time that Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees and the scribes. All through the book of Mark, as I said, I've been preaching through this, I've noticed how they come after him again and again and again. Early on, they confronted him with eating with tax collectors, unclean people, because they're Gentiles. Or about his Sabbath observance. Again, these Pharisees have set up all these rules about how an Israelite should observe the Sabbath. And Jesus doesn't conform to those rules, so they come at him. Or about how he casts out demons. They say, well, he's just casting those demons out by the prince of demons. So Jesus, again and again, is dealing with these assaults by the Pharisees and the scribes. And now it comes to the hand-washing. Jesus, why don't your disciples wash their hands? Don't you know that they're going to be defiled? And Jesus says to them, in effect, defiled hands don't make someone defiled. You keep these commands, but they're your own laws. These are the traditions of the elders. This is extra-biblical. It's not required of God's people. He says in Mark, you know, you wash cups and pots and copper vessels, even dining couches, in order to maintain this external purity, in order to maintain the front of cleanliness. You follow these laws. You conform your life to these principles. But your hearts are far from me. He brings our attention to the passage from Isaiah and he confronts them flat out. Well, did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites? You know, they're saying one thing. They want conformity to these standards, but really their hearts are somewhere else. 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. You see, they're just doing lip service to the commands of God. They say, well, by these ways, by these ritual purifications or cleansing, we're conforming to God's law. But it's only external. It's only on the outside. Because their hearts are far from God. Their hearts aren't in it. They're not doing it for the purpose of being close to God, even. but to maybe perhaps maintain their own traditions to keep up the front of holiness and ritual purity. And Jesus lays a charge at them as he counters, you charge me with not making my disciples wash their hands, but you, look at verse 8, you leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. These Pharisees and scribes have built up these commands, making these people obey them for an external purity. And all the while, trampling on the commands of God. If you want purity, if you want holiness, you need to obey and conform to the commands of God, not these traditions of the elders. But this brings us to an interesting point. You might be thinking, well, we have nothing to do with ritual cleansing or purity laws now. but where does your purity come from? How are you striving to be pure? Is it only in an external manner? While sin is out there, I'm not going to become defiled by that which is exterior. I'm going to keep away from the sin that's out in the world. Or boys and girls, have you recognized that true defilement is in the heart. Jesus goes on later, and we'll look at this more in point three, to show the depths of human sin. That it's not these externals that cause someone to be defiled, but that which comes out of the heart. Now, there is a certain point where we as Christians need to consider what the Bible says about the sinfulness that is in the world. You know, bad character corrupts, or bad company corrupts good character. We need to be cautious about that, that we're not unduly affected by sinful people, that we are not conformed to this world. But those externals are not the source of impurity. Jesus drives the point home That impurity lies in and rests in the heart of humanity. And no amount, no amount of law-keeping, no amount of ritual purification can deal with that sin. That stain that clings to your hearts must be dealt with in another way. So Jesus is countering them. They lay him with the charge of not obeying the tradition of the fathers. And he counters by saying, well, you may obey the traditions of the elders, but you break the commands of God. And in the second point, he shows that by using this extended example of Corbin. But before we get that, many of you are familiar with what a loophole is. As we consider the example of Corbin, it's helpful to think about, maybe you who are accountants or attorneys, how some people are always looking for a loophole, a way to get the law, go back in the back door, or some way to find an escape. So you don't have to obey the law in its entirety. Well, that's what these scribes and Pharisees are doing. The commands of God are pressed deep into our hearts. And Jesus uses the example of the fifth commandment. You shall honor your father and your mother. And that entails financial, physical help, maybe even resources that they can use. But Jesus says, in your upholding the traditions of the elders, you have this law that you have where you can declare something as Corban, that is something that's dedicated to God. And by dedicating that money or that property to God, you prohibit your parents from using it. You know, this is fascinating that these Israelites would find a way to hoard their money for themselves when the command of God is to honor your parents, to love and respect them with the consequence of death. And yet they trample on that. They push that aside in order to hold up this human tradition of Corban. In a vow, in an oath, they say, well, this is dedicated to God. Mom, Dad, I'm sorry, you can't use it. You can't touch it because it's dedicated to God. And perhaps maybe when that individual dies, it would go to the temple. But in the meantime, the individual has free access to that. And so Jesus says, how can this be? You're just looking for a loophole. You are just finding a way to skirt the law of God. You're like these unwashed tombs, or these whitewashed tombs. You're clean on the outside, but your hearts are corrupt. You're looking for loopholes in the Word of God. You're looking for ways to benefit yourself at the expense of even your parents. Jesus has some strong words for the Pharisees and the scribes, doesn't he? It's easy to follow a list of rules, to follow a list of laws, to conform your life, at least externally, to these things. these commands. He can follow the letter of the law, but there's always a way to get behind it. There's always a way to conform to the letter of the law, but yet still break the spirit of the law. One of the examples is in terms of the Sabbath. You know, again, these Pharisees had this example or this law where you could only travel so far on the Sabbath, and yet they would find these ways to manipulate that. So if they stash some personal possession under a tree or something, they could travel that far within a Sabbath day's journey. And then that was their home in a sense. Their personal possessions are there. They have residence there. And so then they could go a little farther after that. So this is the way they manipulate God's law. Even by maintaining adherence to the commands of man, They're breaking the intent and the spirit of God's law. But how often do churches do this? As we think about the piling up of extra-biblical commands, as we think about God's Word versus human tradition, as we think about the place of the Word of God, Jesus says, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your own tradition. This is what's at stake here. The commandment of God, the word of God versus human tradition. Versus these extra-biblical commands. And we see this in religion today, don't we? Whether it's in the Roman Catholic Church or in the fundamentalist church. approach to God or personal purity is achieved by obeying these extra-biblical commands. Do these things and you'll be okay. Obey these laws and you'll have personal righteousness. But that is not what God commands. God commands obedience to His commands, to the law of God, to uphold His word, Again and again, Jesus highlights in his earthly ministry the place of the Word of God. He'll say, it is written, pointing us back to the Old Testament commands and laws. Even here in this passage, quoting from the prophets, the people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. The written Word of God, Jesus highlights for us. This is what you must conform to. This is what holds priority. So I ask you as a congregation, what, if any, extra-biblical commands are you holding to? Or maybe you as an individual, what are you clinging to for your personal holiness? Are you looking to specific works or acts to provide cleansing for your life? Or are you looking to the blood of Jesus Christ? And that brings us to our third point this morning. And I want to highlight this of all, because Jesus here gets, no pun intended, but to the heart of the matter. So far, it's been an issue of this cleansing from the outside, an outside-in cleansing. And we see this even in our culture today. Many people recognize the need for purity, recognize, even if it's only on a health basis, for cleansing. So we have all sorts of ways to get rid of toxins in our life, right? There's dietary cleanses. There's all these skin care products to get rid of impurity. Our whole culture feels this, that humankind is tainted, soiled, stained. Something needs to be done. So there are all these kinds of external approaches to get rid of the filth that clings to us. People are looking for cathartic moments where they do something so that they might feel clean again. Or maybe even in the movies or something, you've seen after a particularly horrific account The character then is seated in the shower, perhaps fully clothed, just rocking himself or herself as the water washes them and cleanses them. But these are all outside-in approaches to cleanliness and to purity. And in the end, they fail to get at the heart. They can't reach the core of humanity. but at least there's an acknowledgment of that soil. There's an acknowledgment that there is filthiness and sinfulness that clings to us, and it must be dealt with. The Pharisees tried to do that by maintaining these extra-biblical commands and laws. But for them, Jesus has perhaps one of the most fierce criticisms. He says in Matthew 23, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and uncleanness. You also outwardly appear righteous, but within you're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. This external cleansing, this external conformity may be good for a show. It may be good so that you look good in the eyes of others. But it doesn't get at your true need. It doesn't get at the sinfulness and the impurity that clings to you. But this is something, also through the whole book of Mark, that Jesus has been dealing with. Different sorts of impurity or uncleanness. Let me just scan through a few of these for you, just to get a sense of what leads up to these food laws. In chapter 2, Jesus touched and cleansed the leper. Jesus did not become unclean, but cleansed him. In chapter 5, Jesus restored the demoniac, this man who was living amongst the tombs, himself unclean. Jesus restored and cleansed him. Or the woman with a bleeding issue, unclean. Touches Jesus and she's restored to full health. Or the dead girl that Jesus raised. Touching her would render Jesus unclean. But instead he lifts her up from death and gives her new life. Jesus came to deal with the stain of sin. Jesus came to deal with the impurity of sin. And so in this passage, as we see the Pharisees and the scribes complaining about how Jesus deals with what they consider to be impure, Jesus has some explaining to put them in their place. He says, you know, this food that you put into your mouth, it goes into your stomach and then out into the latrine. It goes in and out. It doesn't touch your hearts. has no impact on your true condition. Your hands might be defiled according to the laws of the tradition, according to the laws of the elders. But that has no bearing on the condition of your heart. Mark has a remarkable comment on this. As Jesus is saying this, He declares all foods clean. This is remarkable. I wish we had some more time to look at this. But Jesus doesn't just do away with the Old Testament food laws, which were legitimate, not just extra-biblical commands. But Jesus says, at this point, in effect, the food laws have fulfilled their purpose. All foods are now clean. This is played out in the rest of the New Testament as Peter has this vision of this sheet that comes down and God tells him to get up and eat. And yet it's further worked out when Paul confronts Peter for falling back into this food law condition. Jesus says, it's not the externals that you have to worry about. It's not what's on the outside that is my real concern. What I want you to see, Pharisees and scribes, What I want you to see, you people of God, is that humanity is impure at its core. The hearts are defiled. Material purity is not what I'm worried about. What I'm concerned with is your true moral purity. What's the condition of your heart? And then Mark records a list of vices or sins that Jesus says. These are the things that defile a person. It's not what goes into your mouth and into your stomach and then out in the toilet. That doesn't defile somebody. But it's what comes out of your heart. This is where true defilement is. Let me just read through that list again. What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, Murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come not from outside, but from your hearts. These things are at the very core of your person. And you act a certain way, not because someone forces you to do so, because you're responding to your true heart condition. your actions each and every day are an expression, an outworking of what's in your heart. And that is what needs to be dealt with. The heart issue. The true place of defilement in an individual's life. And this brings us to a call for repentance. The purpose of Jesus' ministry is laid out for us in Mark 1, verses 14 and 15. He has come to call people to repent and to believe that the kingdom of God is at hand. And these confrontations with the scribes and the Pharisees ultimately lead up to Jesus' arrest and crucifixion, where on the cross he paid the price for that defilement of the heart, where on the cross his blood was shed to purify, to cleanse the sin that clings to our hearts. And so when we examine our lives, when we hold up the law of God as a mirror to our lives, and we see the sin that clings to us, there's a call to repent, to acknowledge that this is where our impurity is. It's internal. And that's what needs to be dealt with. And Jesus has dealt with it on the cross. There's wonderful passages in the New Testament that very clearly and explicitly tell us of this cleansing provided by Jesus Christ. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5.21, For our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. It's not by our law-keeping, it's not by our stringent obedience to extra-biblical commands, but it's the blood of Jesus Christ. that accomplishes cleansing and purity. Or 1 Peter 2.24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. His wounds have made you healed. Saints of God, as you sit here this morning and consider the defilement of humanity, as you consider the sinfulness that clings to each and every person, covenant child, elderly person alike. How do we deal with it? Well, the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is God has dealt with it on the cross. When Jesus laid down his life as an atoning sacrifice, his blood was shed to cleanse your heart. There's no soap that can touch your sin. There's no amount of detergent or degreaser that can remove the spot of sin. No bleach can take care of that stain. But only the blood of Jesus Christ. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can wash you internally so that you who were once impure at your very core can now be cleansed and be pure. This is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That you do not accomplish your own righteousness through any work of the law, whether it's God's Ten Commandments or extra-biblical commandments. But your righteousness has been accomplished for you by Jesus Christ. The great high priest who obeyed God's law perfectly gave himself up as a sacrifice for sins and when his blood was shed on the cross 2,000 years ago provided cleansing for your hearts so that if you believe in him, you are pure. this is the good news of the gospel this is what Christ has called us to faith in him for deep cleansing amen let's pray together our dear Lord God and Heavenly Father we rejoice in the deep cleansing that Jesus Christ accomplished by his blood whereby his blood we are purified we are cleansed deeper than any detergent could go. Father, we pray that in response to this we might offer you praise for this great salvation that we have but also that we might live out our salvation and in response to the gospel of Jesus Christ obey your commands that in response to your great love that we might seek to live holy lives, not to accomplish our salvation, but to show to you our gratitude, to bring you joy that your children love you so much as to obey your commands. Father, we thank you for this and we thank you that you have set this day aside that we might once again hear the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, that we are reminded to lay our own works down for they cannot accomplish the cleansing and the purity that you command of us. And that as we rest on this day, we rest in the blood of Jesus Christ who has made us pure. We pray these things in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.