Now Mark 7 verse 1. The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered round Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were unclean, that is, unwashed. The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the traditions of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash, and they observe many other traditions such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles. So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with unclean hands? He replied, Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites. As it is written, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain. Their teaching are by rules taught by men. You have let go of the commands of God and are holding to the traditions of men. And he said to them, 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 your mother, and anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death. But you say, if a man says to his father or mother, what help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban, that is a gift devoted to God, then you no longer let him do anything for his father and mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that. Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said listen to me everyone and understand this nothing outside a man can make him unclean by going into him rather it is what that comes out of a man that makes him unclean. After he left the crowd and entered the house his disciples asked him about this parable. Are you so dull? he asked. Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him unclean? For it doesn't go into his heart, but into his stomach, and then out of his body. In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean. He went on, what comes out of a man is what makes him unclean. For from within, out of man's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean. Amen. Now many of you are familiar with the name of Richard Dawkins. If you aren't, Richard Dawkins was the University of Oxford's Professor of Public Understanding of Science from 1995 to 2008. Dawkins is a biologist and he's a staunch defender of the theory of evolution, earning himself the nickname of Darwin's Rottweiler. I don't know if that's a good nickname but that's what people called him and he seemed pleased with that. He's been described by other people as a fundamentalist atheist. And that's reflected in his book. Perhaps the best known of his book is the book The God Delusion. I know it's quite an old book. It's maybe 15 years old. But it's still sold. You can still find it in places like Waterstone, The God Delusion. And in The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins ignites or reignites the old debate as to whether or not religion is a good thing or a bad thing. And in the God Delusion Dawkins not only rages against bad religion, and that would be a perfectly justifiable thing to do, but he refuses to stop talking when he has finished making sense. And so he goes on and he begins to write off all forms of faith. bloggers put it this way, he says, rather than surveying the countless varieties of religion, weighing up their mixed record and arguing that on balance we would be better off without them, Dawkins is only willing to see the dark side and writes off the whole thing, dismissing evidence that makes his biased conclusions invalid. Now in our reaction to people like Richard Dawkins and books like The God Delusion, we mustn't swing to the opposite extreme, which we tend to do, and say that all religion is good. Because not only would that be trying to defend the indefensible, But it would also go against what Jesus is saying in Mark 7, 1 to 23, the Bible passage we're going to think about this morning. And in this section of Mark, Jesus says something that made the people who originally heard him want to say, hold on a minute, Jesus, did you really say what I thought I heard you say? Could you run that past me again to make sure I picked it up correctly the first time round? Because in this passage Jesus says something quite eye-popping. And what Jesus said in this passage is that there is a certain form of religion that stinks. And that is Pharisee religion. That's what he basically says. He says Pharisee religion stinks. Now, what Jesus says perhaps doesn't shock us because we always think of the Pharisees as the bad guys in the story. You know, we want to boo and hiss and throw rotten tomatoes each time they appear in the story. But people in Jesus' time would have had a completely different view of the Pharisees. They regarded them not only as the good guys, but they regarded the Pharisees as the best guys. The most religious people in town. So when Jesus says here in this passage that Pharisee religion stinks, there would have been audible gasps of disbelief from the ordinary punters in the crowd. So why did Jesus come out with such a damning as well as an out-of-the-box criticism of the Pharisees? Well, in Mark 7, 1-23 we come across three reasons why Jesus says that Pharisee religion stinks. And the first one is found in verses 1-8. And it's this. Religion that stinks puts another source of authority above the Bible's authority. Religion that stinks puts another source of authority above the Bible's authority. Now in verse 1 we are informed that some Pharisees arrived to check out Jesus. And this was a high level delegation because it had come from Jerusalem, the Pharisees power base. And they must have had their worst suspicions about Jesus confirmed when they saw some of his disciples starting to eat a meal before they had gone through the traditional hand washing ceremony, verse 2. Now because he's writing to a largely non-Jewish audience, people like us, who are unfamiliar with all the ins and outs of the Jewish religious ceremonies practiced by first century Pharisees, Mark explains in verses 3 and 4 about the reason why the Pharisees were getting all steamed up. Now, for reasons of hygiene, we wash our hands before we eat. You know, there's notices all over the place, wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands. But what the Pharisees are shouting about has nothing to do with hygiene. Nothing to do with hygiene. It's all about their own petty religious rules and regulations. What Mark calls in verse 5 the traditions of the elders or what Jesus calls later on the traditions of men. Man-made rules. The Old Testament, the Bible, the Old Testament law said nothing about washing your hands before you had a meal. But the Pharisees had placed alongside the Old Testament law, what the Bible said, their own religious rules and regulations. And it was these rules and regulations, not what the Old Testament Bible said, but these rules and regulations that said people should wash their hands before they ate a meal. So when the Pharisees saw some of Jesus, caught some of Jesus disciples red handed, or in this instance dirty handed, not washing their hands before a meal in line with their religious rules and regulations, they were not pleased. So they asked Jesus, verse 5, why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with unclean hands? But did you notice there that their question was really not about Jesus' disciples? They were actually having a pop at Jesus himself. Do you know what he said? Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders. Jesus, you are the rabbi, you are responsible for controlling your disciples and the only reason that they're flouting the traditional religious rituals is that you are encouraging them to do so because you're against them. So there was a clash here. But the clash wasn't that Jesus was going against what the Bible taught. The clash was that Jesus was going against the Pharisees rules and regulations that human beings have made up. Now Jesus' reply goes straight for the Pharisees throat. He just doesn't mess around. He exposes their hypocrisy. Verse 6. Isaiah was right, he said, when he prophesied about you hypocrites. Now, as we said to the kids, in the ancient world, a hypocrite was originally an actor who pretended to play a part. And instead of putting on makeup and costume to disguise themselves, the actors in the ancient theater wore masks that represented who they were playing. And the actor's real identity was hidden behind the mask. And gradually, by Jesus' time, the term hypocrite and the idea behind it came to apply to what we understand it today, although I think we moved even further away from its original meaning, but that's another point. It began to apply to anyone who pretended to be something that he or she wasn't. And the Pharisees gave the outward impression of being very spiritual because they adhered to all these rules and regulations. And they said, you know, if you're really spiritual you do all these rules and regulations. But Jesus is saying that their spirituality was only a sham. It was anything but spiritual because it wasn't in line with God's word. Real spirituality is living in line with God's word. Not with rules and regulations, but they were pretending they were spiritual, but they weren't really being spiritual. They were hypocrites. And their hypocrisy meant that the Pharisees were distanced from God. Quoting God's word at the start of Isaiah 29, 13, at the end of verse 6, Jesus states, these people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They pretended to be close with God. however they were anything but. For them, God was a distant dictator who hemmed people in with lots of do's and don'ts. God was a remote tyrant who terrorised people rather than a loving father who could be trusted. Although they pretended to be spiritual, they pretended to be close with God, God was in reality a million miles away, distant and remote. And the reason why God had distanced himself from the Pharisees was because the Pharisees had done something that God detests and which always causes him to put distance between him and people. They had placed their own ideas above the Bible. Jesus exposes this by quoting the end of Isaiah 29.13 in Mark 7 verse 7. They worship me in vain, their teachings are but rules taught by men. Eating with unwashed hands was against the Pharisees man-made rules and regulations but it wasn't against God's law the Bible. But it was these man-made rules and regulations that mattered most to the Pharisees than the Bible did. What they said, these rules and regulations, was more important to them than what God said. And no wonder Jesus slammed the Pharisee religion, because it set human authority over the Bible's authority. Verse 8, you let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men. The Pharisees were deciding what was right and wrong instead of allowing the Bible, God's word, to decide what was right and wrong. And the term that the Bible uses for that is blasphemy. We're back to the Garden of Eden. Where Adam and Eve decided they knew better than God's word. God said, don't touch, don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And they said, we know better. We're going to decide what's right and wrong, God. Your word, cheerio. Our authority is more important than your word. Bible calls that blasphemy. And these men had commandeered God's place for themselves by setting their own ideas and opinions above God's ideas. And no wonder Jesus says that their religion stinks. So the Pharisees are on the back foot and, sorry, I'm a cricket man, and like the England bowling attack with Jimmy Anderson and Ben Stokes in full flow, Jesus presses home his advantage by highlighting the second reason why Pharisee religion stinks. It's verses nine to 13. And it's this religion that stinks leads to disobedience to God's word. Religion that stinks leads to disobedience of God's word. The fifth commandment is clear, as Jesus said, honour your father and mother. And one way in which people in Jesus' time and people in our time obey this commandment is by looking after their parents when they're older. Sinclair Ferguson in his commentary on Mark makes this comment, he says, as parents grow old and are perhaps in some need, how fitting it is that children should offer whatever help they can to the father and mother who have poured out their lives energy for their children. It's a beautiful thing to see such care and a joy to children that they are able to repay in a different coinage the love of their parents. That's how we honour the fifth commandment. But the Pharisees actually had come up with a really ingenious way of getting round the fifth commandment. It's really brilliant if you think about it. It would cause every scam merchant, con artist and crooked accountant in the world to gasp with a mixture of admiration and envy. They would say to themselves, wow, that's brilliant. And they would say, why didn't I think of that? And it revolves around this idea of korban that Jesus mentions in verses 11 and 12. Korban is an Aramaic word, maybe a Hebrew word, but it means devoted to God. And what happened to this? If someone said that whatever money he had planned to give his parents towards their support when they were old and couldn't look after themselves. He would say that this is Corban, I'm devoting this to God. I'm setting this money aside for the Lord's work. And it wouldn't be available for their parents. And it sounds very spiritual. You know, Dad, Mum, I would really love to look after you, but I feel the Lord's laying it on my heart to set aside this money and dedicate it to the Lord's work. And they gave it to the Pharisees. That sounds spiritual, doesn't it? And so the Pharisee invented Corban arrangement took priority over the obligations of God's word to look after your parents or your father and mother. But there's more and this is why it's a win-win situation for anyone who wanted to disobey God's word. This Corban arrangement was binding and you couldn't be released from it except for one situation and that was when your parents died. So after his parents funeral a man's money was no longer Corban and he could take it all back and use it whatever way he liked. It's ingenious isn't it? See what's going on? The Pharisees scheme was allowing people to avoid obeying God's word. And again, no wonder Jesus slammed that kind of religion. It led to disobedience to God's word. As he puts it in verse 13, you nullify the word of God by your traditions. The Pharisees knew what God's word told them to do, but they were coming up with all sorts of ways to get around God's word. And they even tried to use religion to justify their rebellion against God's clear commands with this idea of Corban. No wonder Jesus said their religion stinks. I don't know but perhaps when this high power delegation from Pharisee headquarters in Jerusalem arrived to check out Jesus they were pretty smug and they thought that they would run rings round this young red necked country yokel whippersnapper. But it was Jesus who was running rings round them and now to change the sporting picture Jesus has them on the ropes and he moves in to deliver the knockout punch. And in verses 14 to 23 he gives a third reason why Pharisee religion stinks and it's this. Religion that stinks avoids the heart of the problem, the human heart. Religion that stinks avoids the heart of the problem, the human heart. Do you know who, I know this hasn't been on the TV for a long time, but do you know who the patron saint of Pharisee religion is? hyacinth bouquet, because it's all about keeping up appearances. And the Pharisees believed that if everything was right on the outside, then everything was all right. And they maintained that the way to become spiritual was to do lots of spiritual things and spiritual sounding things. These rules and regulations sound very promising. But they also believed that it was to not get outwardly contaminated by their environment. That's why they had to wash all these things. Don't associate with the great unwashed people out there, the hoi polloi, the ordinary punters. They're spiritually, whoa. Let's keep away from them. We'll do our rules and regulations but we'll keep away from them. And so the Pharisees avoided contact with people they judged unspiritual and kept clear of unspiritual situations. That's why they thought Jesus wasn't very spiritual at all. It's amazing, the Pharisees thought Jesus was very unspiritual. Do you know why? because he went on a dinner with tax collectors and sinners and lots of other people. Keep away from them. Keep away from them. Once when I was visiting a colleague on Spain's Costa del Sol, I bought Rosie, our daughter, a Gucci watch. Now, real Gucci watches cost hundreds if not thousands of pounds but the one that I bought was from a stall at a street market and it cost me 2,000 pesetas which was about 10 quid. So you've worked out that although it looked like a real Gucci watch and some of her friends at school snobby friends at school, they thought it was a Gucci watch. They said to her one day, oh, do you have a Gucci watch? And she said, oh, yeah. And she said, how much did it cost? It must have cost your dad a fortune. And she said, yeah, about 2,000. She didn't have his pesetas, not a sterling cup. But it looked like a real Gucci watch. But it was a fake. It was a fake. And that's what Farsi religion was like. It looked like the real thing. but it was fake because it was all outward and external. And Jesus makes it clear that true spirituality is not primarily about the outward but primarily about the inward. Look what he said publicly to the crowds in verse 15 and privately to his disciples in 18 and 19. Nothing outside a man makes him unclean by going into him. Rather it is what that comes out of a man that makes him unclean. Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside makes him unclean for it doesn't go into his heart but it goes into his stomach and then out of his body. The heart of the human problem according to Jesus in verses 20 to 23 is not our environment or the people with whom we come into contact. But the problem is our hearts, the human heart. What comes out of a man is what makes him unclean. From within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean. Now, I don't think Jesus could have been clearer to us He's saying that the heart of our problem is the problem of our hearts. Our hearts are the source of our desire to constantly challenge God's authority over our lives and to play at being our own God. He says our hearts are the source of our longing to repeatedly rebel against God and to go to all sorts of lengths to avoid doing what he says. He says our hearts are the source of all the horrible sins catalogued by Jesus and what grim reading they make. Out of our hearts come evil thoughts, which is the warped reasoning that says good is evil and evil is good. Sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, malice, which is twisted pleasure in causing people pain and suffering. Deceit, lewdness, that's plunging into depravity and open defiance of what others think. Envy, that covets other people's possessions and abilities. Slander or bad-mouthing others. arrogance that looks down its nose condescendingly and contemptuously at others, and folly which is the term to describe a person who is morally and spiritually insensitive. The Pharisees just didn't understand this. they didn't see that the heart of the human problem was the problem of the human heart. And that's why, with a large dose of smug self-importance, they proudly worked unappearingly outwardly fine, but deliberately avoided facing up to the uncomfortable fact that they were inwardly rotten. And that's why Pharisee religion stinks. Richard Dawkins does go too far in his blanket write-off of all forms of religion. But there are some forms of religion that deserve to be and ought to be slammed because they do stink, and Pharisee religion is one of them. However, this is where the plane comes into land for us. Because what Jesus says ought to have us sitting up and thinking very carefully about ourselves. Now, I don't know about you, but when you hear that kind of stuff, I can think of other churches that put their tradition above the word of God. I can think of other people who've all sorts of religious sort of twistedness that allows them to sin away and still claim that they're Christians. I can think of churches that say it's okay to practice all sorts of unbiblical things and still say we're obeying the Bible and we're Christian. You can think of them as well. And some of them aren't a million miles away from here. But folks, don't think like that. Because if we're thinking like that, we're thinking like the Pharisees. It's them and out there. What's Jesus saying to us? Now, we all claim one degree and another to be religious people, don't we? We wouldn't be here this morning in a religious building doing a religious activity. if we didn't have some sort of claim that we were even wee bit religious. So, what's our religion like? For example, on what is our religion, and by religion I mean what we think, how we behave and what we love, on what is our religion based? Is it based on the Bible alone? And alone is the crucial word in that question. Is it based on the Bible alone, or is it a mixture of the Bible and something else, our culture, our traditions, our upbringing? And you know what happens When even we say, well, they are equal. The Bible is really important to us. But we need to have these kind of rules. These kind of rules become more important than the Bible. That is just the way our human hearts operate. So what's our religion based on? What's your religion based on? What's my religion based on? The Bible alone? Or a mixture? I don't know. We've got to think that question. Or we've got to ask the question, where is our religion taking us? Is it causing us to submit more and more and more to the authority of God's word in the Bible? Is it leading us to increasingly do what the Bible says? Is it confronting us with the problem of our hearts? Religions that's only outward, like Pharisee religion, folks, it stinks. But heart religion, that encourages us to submit to Jesus and to obey his word, that is what pleases God. So the question is how can we have this heart religion that pleases God? Well we can only have it by coming to Jesus because he alone can deal with the problem of our heart. If we get our hearts sorted out we've got everything sorted out. One result of Jesus' death and resurrection is that people like us who have constantly pleaded God and repeatedly failed to obey God, we can have our blasphemous rebellion forgiven. And another consequence of Jesus' death and resurrection is that Jesus has gone back to his Father's throne in heaven and from that position of supreme and universal authority, he has given us the gift of his Holy Spirit. and it is through the Spirit's activity that Jesus changes our hearts and he takes away our deep-seated hostility to God's authority and he deals with our ingrained unwillingness to obey God's Word. If we want a religion that pleases God, as opposed to one that stinks, then we need to come to Jesus for his forgiveness. And we need to come and ask him to send his spirit to us to change our hearts so that we will submit to the Bible's authority and obey the Bible's teaching. I wonder, have you done that? Are you constantly, daily doing that? Because you see the Pharisees started off really well. They really wanted to please God. They started off really well. But they went to seed. And we can start off well and we can go to seed if we don't daily come to Jesus and ask for his forgiveness and his spirit to help us. Have you done it or are you constantly doing that? If you haven't done it, if you're not doing it constantly, then start today and do it. Come to Jesus. He'll forgive and he'll give a spirit to help us to have that religion that pleases God because it obeys his word. It's from the heart. It submits to its authority. Let's pray for a moment. Lord God, you have brought us face to face with the uncomfortable and painful truth that right at the heart of our problem is the problem of our hearts. They're corrupt and bad and because of this we constantly play at being our own God and repeatedly do anything but doing what your word tells us to do. Lord God, forgive us and transform our hearts. In your overflowing mercy, wash us clean from our guilt. Remove the nasty stain of our failure and purify us from our sin. Create in us clean hearts and continually renew within us our heart that is willing and able to go in the direction of your word. Lord God, hear our prayer for the sake of Jesus, your son, who died and rose again for blasphemous rebels like us. Amen.