Thank you for joining us this evening for another broadcast of The Inspiring Word. We hope that you've had a very blessed day and that you find in your life the presence of God, His blessings, His grace, and His mercy. We're going to be looking at Mark chapter 7 tonight, and we're going to be looking at the Pharisees being rebuked by Jesus, and we're going to be looking at a lot of interesting information, and we're going to be seeing how it applies in our lives today, in the church, and how it can shape us to be more godly, to walk closer to the Lord, and to be a better witness for him. But first, we want to pray. There is a lot that has been going on in my community. A lot of prayer is needed in my community. A lot of families have lost loved ones. A lot of sickness is going on and taking place around us. We just want to remember all of these folks in prayer. I hope you have some that you will share as well. If nothing else, just the need of a prayer request. That's all. just the need that's there. So, without any further discussion, let's go to the Lord in prayer, and we will carry on with the broadcast. Lord God, as we bow before you, we thank you so much for the grace and the mercy that you have shown us. The Heavenly Father is of it back in my life. Lord, I see failures. And I see times where I've disappointed you. But Lord, I also see your grace and your mercy applied to those times. And it leaves me speechless at your love and how it worked and how it has shaped my life and how it has worked in my life. And Lord, I pray for those around me. I pray for all of those that I've been in contact with that are hurting, mourning, grieving. Lord, whatever the situation may be in their lives, I pray for them. I lift them up to you right now. I can't do anything for them, but you can. And Heavenly Father, I just trust you to move and to touch hearts and lives, to draw men and women to you. And Heavenly Father, I pray that your word will not go out and return to you void, but that it will accomplish everything you have purposed it to do. Lord, I pray that you would hide me behind the cross. I pray, Heavenly Father, that folks would not see and hear me. They would see Jesus, and they would hear His words, your words. the infallible, inspired, inherent word of God. We'll be careful to praise, honor, and glorify you through your son, Jesus Christ. For it's in his name I pray, amen. As I said, when we open Mark chapter seven, I'm going to begin reading with verse number one. Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say with unwashed hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees and all the Jews, except they washed their hands off, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not, and many other things there be which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups and pots, brazen vessels, and of tables. Then the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands? He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you, hypocrites? As it is written, these people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. How be it in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men? For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, honor thy father and thy mother, and whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, if a man shall say to his father or mother, it is Corban, that is to say a gilf, and by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do aught for his father or his mother, making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered, and many such like things ye do." The Pharisees came and the scribes came, some of them, not all, but some. It says that they come together unto him, the Pharisees and certain scribes, which came from Jerusalem. So they were following Jesus. Probably through everything we've looked at that has gone on in chapters six and back, through Jesus' ministry and His miracles and everything that was going on in His messages that He preached. The Pharisees were watching from a distance, and the scribes as well, and they were fault-finding. They were looking for something that they could nail Jesus down with, figuratively at this time, in front of the people. They wanted to discredit Jesus. in front of the people. And here the only thing that they could find to complain about was Jesus' disciples eating with unwashed hands. Now we notice that in verse 3 that we are told that this is holding the tradition of the elders. It does not say anything about God's commandments. Neither does it say anything about the teaching of the Word of God, doctrines, or anything that God has intervened at any time and said. It is always the tradition of the elders. The teachings of the elders. And these traditions were many. For example, this particular one. It was something that was put into play that goes way back into the book of Deuteronomy, where God wanted his children, wanted the Hebrews, the Israelites, as you imagine it were, to not eat with unwashed hands, not so much because of hygiene, but wanted them to get into a mindset of being clean before God, before taking food or anything. Much like today, we will wash our hands for hygiene, then we will pray over our meal. We thank God and we glorify Him for the meal that we have, for the grace and the goodness that He has provided. what had happened with the Pharisees they had taken over time all of the things in the commandments of God in the teachings of God and they added to them to the point where they had them all about what the Pharisees expected people to look like what the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Sanhedrin as a whole what they expected people to look like in order to be righteous in their estimation. And that's where we were here. The Pharisees said, by my estimation, your disciples are not holy. They are not righteous because they are not following what we consider to be proper etiquette, proper rituals, proper ceremonies. for a righteous person. Sounds good. Probably looked good in front of people. And the Jews as a whole, they were taught to do this from the time they were little children. The only thing, it isn't in God's word. It isn't something that God expects. Now we can do things in our lives to glorify God that are not in his word. Don't get me wrong. But when we start substituting them, when we start giving them equal weight as the word of God and how it shapes our lives, we run into a lot of problems that are called hypocrisy. Or as Jesus said, Isaiah, or Esaias as he says it here, prophesied of you hypocrites. You hypocrites. Now we hear that word used a lot today. And it means pretenders. It also was used to describe actors. But here Jesus is calling them pretenders. because their life, their inside, their heart, isn't in the same place as their outer actions are. Now we can look at this and we can go on and we can look at how the Jews and the Pharisees and the scribes and everyone else worked through all of this, but It fits and it does have an application in our lives today. It actually has a very big application in the church. We can very easily look at our lives and we can find things in our life, in our churches, and in the way we practice Christianity that would label us as a hypocrite. Things that we hold true to be measures of righteousness, measures of salvation, measures of sanctification, measures of glorification that are all developed and made up by man. And we apply them in everything from the people that we allow to come into our churches to the clothes that we expect them to wear, to the haircuts we expect them to have, to all of these other things. You say, now wait a minute, preacher. We've never turned anybody away because of their clothes. Are you sure about that? Because you allow them to come in and take a seat in your sanctuary, that's one thing. Often have you went to them and spoke to that person, genuinely talked with them, loved them, made them feel like they are a part of that congregation, a part of that fellowship. Let them know that from the heart they are welcome. I recently read an article about the visitors we don't want. And it was written about the people that we bring to church that are in our heart, the attitudes that we have. The attitudes that we have in our heart and that we bring into the church, into the body of Christ, are unwanted attendees, often. Not the person who walks in off the street, unannounced, who looks different, who behaves different, who doesn't know the language of the church. Not that individual. It is the attitudes that we bring in Those often are the hypocrites, that anger that we have toward our spouse, that lust that we carry in our hearts for that person at work, the lust that we have over where we had rather be at that time instead of in church, the location, the object the recreation that we're lusting over? What about that unforgiving spirit that we walk in with? All of these are pharisaical attitudes that we bring in that rub off on the people around us, that isolate us, that isolate them. Jesus talks about the attitude of the Pharisees and how it made them a hypocrite. Why? Because the people honor Jesus with their lips, but their heart is far from Him. We find ourselves in that very spot if we're not careful. We find ourselves in that place because our heart does not meet or match our outward actions. We may have the most beautiful singing voice that God could gift a person with, and it may be a blessing to those who hear it, but the one singing it that has that gift, if their heart is far from God. The only thing that is in it is worshiping. The only thing that is honoring God is their lips. Is that really where we want to be? Because let's look at some things that this very attitude comes down and relates to. How be it? That's a word that's used in the Old English in the King James that basically says because of it because of the heart condition in verse 6 in vain do they worship in vain that's a powerful word it is producing no results. It's an adjective. It describes that individual as producing no results. In vain do they worship. How, how destructive Can you picture it? To be standing before God and the Lord looks at you and says, in vain did you worship me. Because of unrepentant sin. Because of an attitude. Because of a heart condition. you had anger or you had some other thing churning inside, lust, division, deceit, jealousy, envy, whatever it may be. And those things mounted and they built and they mounted and you created an excuse for them. And that excuse turned into a justification in your own life. And from that justification, you wound up sharing it with others because not only does the Lord say they worship him in vain, but they teach for doctrines the commandments of men. So what happens is when we harbor all of this stuff in our heart, we begin to believe it, we begin to justify and then we look for others with that very same situation and in them do we justify it as well. That is teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. That is where they found themselves, the Pharisees and the scribes and we can find ourselves in the church in the very same condition, in the very same situation, in the very same circumstances, because we have things there. What about prejudice? I'm not just talking about race. What about prejudice against poverty? You don't want those poorer people coming in because they might ask for something. What about prejudice of those who are living in a sinful situation? What about prejudice against that man and that woman who are living together and You're saying that you don't want them in your church. How else are they going to hear the truth of the gospel of their circumstance and their situation if they're not sitting in front of the open word of God? Where else are they going to hear it? The same with the LGBTQ and whatever other letters we've got tacked on to the end of it now. or we prejudice against them to the point where we're not even going to welcome them to come in and listen to the gospel. We're not even going to love them in Jesus' name. I did not say, I did not say recognize that lifestyle. I did not say supported i did not say justified i said love them in the way christ would love them correct them and admonish them through the word of god in a way of compassion that will lead them to repentance i hear so much rhetoric about the LGBTQ movements, about the abortion, anti-abortion movements, anti-LGBTQ, these other things that are anti out there by the church as a whole. And I agree with every one of them. What I don't understand is why are we going strictly to the government to try to control it when they don't have the authority or the justification to control any of this. It is a spiritual problem. A spiritual problem. It isn't first and foremost a legal problem. Outlaw it all you want. Make laws all of the laws you want against it. Outlaw abortion. outlaw LGBTQ lifestyles, outlaw the transgender movements, outlaw all of these other things that are going on out there, and you know what? I won't disagree with doing that one bit, but I will tell you, you have stopped short of solving the problem, because solving the problem is getting people born again, saved, getting people to repent of their sin, getting them to confess and come to the Lord and have the Lord change their heart. Because when you outlaw something, it doesn't stop it. All it does is places it underground, covered up, under darkness, so that no one will see it. If all you want to do is hide it from your eyes and your ears, You're not wanting to solve the problem. You're just wanting to cover it up in darkness. And that's not what God wants. God wants His church, His saints, to step out and to be light in darkness. God wants us to be there. with the gospel. God wants us to not lay aside the commandments of God and not replace them with the traditions of men, not reject things of God so that we can keep what makes us feel better and look better on the outside. we should examine ourselves. We should examine ourselves closely under the macroscope and in the mirror of the word of God. We should understand deeply and fully what it really means when Jesus calls these folks hypocrites. Because he is looking at their heart and what they're harboring. Yes, there are people in churches that are playing church that are not repentant, that are not born again. Yes, they are. I know that. They, too, need to hear the gospel so that when they stand before God, they will stand before Him having been told the truth and yet rejecting it, and that's between them and God. Others who live a life that is a life of sin in God's Word, they will be judged of God when they stand before Him as either repentant or unrepentant, as either born again or not born again. God knows their heart. Let God have His direction, and let's do what we are commanded to do, which is spread the gospel, which is love our neighbor as ourselves, which is to treat everybody as if God wants them saved, because God very well may want those very people that we are prejudicing, that we have a prejudice, that we're snubbing, that we're not reaching out to. God may be calling them to repentance, and we may be pushing them away. Jesus goes on to give them an example. Moses said to honor thy father and mother, and whoso curseth father or mother, let him die of the death. one of the Ten Commandments. But Jesus told the Pharisees, you're telling people that if a man was going, if a man would say to his father or mother, it is Corban. That is to say, if. Now that word Corban is very interesting. In this day and in this time, a man that had accumulated something, okay? He had some, maybe not wealth, but maybe he was just successful. He was doing well. His mother and father, being elderly, they weren't, and he could step up and he could help them and he could make their life easier, which is exactly what God would tell him to do. But if he was selfish, If he was looking for a way to not give Mama and Daddy anything because he wanted to keep it all, he could call it Corba. In other words, he said, this is dedicated to God. I'm dedicating all of what I got. I'm dedicating my bank account to God. It's God's. Sorry, Mom and Dad, but this, my bank account's been dedicated to God. And I'm sorry, but I just can't help you with groceries or power bill or medicine. I'm giving it to God. Now here's the catch of the Corbin. At any time, just by saying Corbin again, he can undo that. So he sees something that he wants to buy and he has the money for it. All he has to do is say, well, my stuff is Corban. So then he goes and gets his money. He goes and buys what he wants with it. He comes back. He says it's Corban again, and he puts it back in God's hands. You see, it's a play on words and a twisting of an intent, because the intent of Corban was basically to say, I am leaving all of my estate to God to do with at my death what He will, and they never bother it again, and they live in abstract poverty if they have to, but at their death, all of that goes to do the work of God. But it was being twisted and turned. what Jesus wanted the Pharisees to see. In verse 12, He suffered Him no more to do aught or anything for His Father or His Mother. So you allow Him, you enable Him to do nothing else for His Father and His Mother. Making the Word of God of none effect through tradition which ye have delivered and many such like things that you do jesus tells them that this is an example but there are many more things that you do you take the word of god and you make it of no effect because of your tradition because of your dogmas, because of the way you twist and turn things in your heart, and the way you justify them in your heart, and the way you teach them for others to do the very same thing. We have to be careful, saints. We love to hear that. We love to know that we're called the saints of God. We love that. but here is the thing that goes with that word there is a responsibility there is a weight that goes with it and that weight and responsibility is one that says as we want to wear the the label of a saint we often do not want the responsibility that goes with it of living it out so that other people see Christ in our lives. We much rather develop our own justification of the things that we have in our heart so that we feel better about what we're doing, and we share that same thing with others so that they make us feel better about what we're doing, and we make them feel better about it, and in the meantime, the word of God has no effect. but yet we walk around. We walk around with the title of saint because we've been saved. It is a passage that is very, very sobering. When we look at it and we read it and we really take the moment to understand, we dig into it. It is why I love expository preaching so much. Because it allows us to look at ourselves through the Word of God and we can see how far we're slipping away. We can see dangers that are out there. But we can see by the behavior and the mistakes of others what we need to avoid. God's Word is true. We don't want to get to the point where we, like the Pharisees, and we are said that we make the Word of God of none effect because of the way we live Christianity. neighbors. That's all the time that we have for this broadcast. I hope God's word reaches into your homes, into your hearts, into your lives, and I hope that it shapes you. I hope that it has you looking at yourself. It has me looking for myself, Looking through this, repentance is a beautiful word. It is a word that we use to renew our relationship with God. That's why these passages are in there, to show us what we need to back away from, what we need to repent of, and how we need to renew our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Pray with me, please. Lord, as we bow before you, thank you for the words that you have given. Thank you for how it has spoke to hearts and lives. Heavenly Father, I trust that you'll take this message, your word, and that you will take it around the neighborhood and around the world to bring Jesus Christ into the hearts and into the lives of those whom you see need it and whom you desire to have it. Lord, I pray that this week will be a week that you will bless, that you will strengthen, that you will encourage. Thank you for your word. Thank you for your wisdom. Thank you, Lord, for grace and mercy. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Thank you for being with us at this broadcast. May God bless you is my prayer. So long.