If you'll turn with me this evening to Matthew 15, and we'll be starting with verse 10. Matthew 15 in verse 10. Listen here for this is God's word. He called the people to him and said to them, hear and understand. is not what goes out of the mouth that defies a person, but one that comes out of the mouth that defiles a person. Then the disciples came and said to him, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard what you are saying? He answered, every plant that my heavenly father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone. They are blind guides. And as the blind lead the blind, those will fall into the 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 that defiles a person. For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, death, false witness, and slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a person. That's in the reading of God's word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the word that's before us. We pray that you'll teach us through your spirit Be with your servant and he brings the word. May his words be your words. For us in Christ's name we pray, amen. When I was 13 years old, I grew my, and this was back 19, let me make sure I got the dates right, 1971. I grew my hair about here. It's right above my shoulders. And my grandfathers both were concerned, and my father was very concerned. In fact, he came to me, I was in junior high at the time, and he pronounced that we were going to the barbershop. And I, being a 13 year old with no wisdom, pronounced to him that if I got my hair cut, I could no longer go to school. Because everybody at the school was like that. And if you saw my annuals from those years, you would see they were everyone was like that. Everyone. And my father, being a wise man, decided to just let it go. And as the years passed, my hair got shorter and shorter and shorter. And today, as you see, it's very short. Some friends of mine got my camera the other day, my phone, and took some pictures of my back and my head and pronounced that I was going bald. But he was a wise man. He knew how to pick his battles as a father. And I appreciated that. And if any of y'all would like to see after the service, I have a picture of me from those days. Because I keep them in my wallet to remind me I also have a son. And I have to use wisdom with him also. because he and all his friends in a youth group at a church where I was the pastor decided to grow beards down to here when they were in high school. And it looked like our youth group was a bunch of Taliban. But what we're going to be talking about tonight is tradition. It's tradition. The Pharisees, especially the Pharisees, had traditions that sometimes they would let them rise to the point of being scriptural. And so what this requires of us is to look at things with wisdom, like my father did. You know, he didn't really give it a hard try, but he thought, and he thought, you know, it's not that bad. I'm not going out with girls that do things that they're not supposed to do. I'm not stealing things. In the scheme of all things, I was a pretty good kid. And if that means that I could have long hair, that was good, okay? So tonight, we're gonna look at how Jesus answered the Pharisees about their thoughts about washing hands. Now, in Jewish traditions, you're to wash your hands before you eat. It's a way of taking something unclean and make it clean. Now, recently, I have found a YouTuber. Her name is Miriam. She's an Orthodox Jew. And she sort of puts on YouTube what her life is like. And if you ever look her up, it's a real interesting study of what modern day pharisaism is. Because it's incredible what they had to go through. When they buy a new pot, they have to take it down to the mikveh, which is basically a stream of running water. Whether it's dirty or not, that's not the problem. But they dip the pot into the mikveh to make it clean, be able to use. And it's an incredible study in how the Pharisees were and how modern day Pharisees can be. And to truth be known, a lot of Christians, sometimes they get into Phariseeism. They make certain rules and regulations. that are, sometimes you look and you think, well, they're important, but they really are not. We have a church in our presbytery. I wear tennis shoes when I preach, because several years ago, I ruined my knee, my left knee, and my ankle. And when I stand up long periods of time, my ankle blows up. And I can't wear dress shoes anymore, hardly. I can for a while, as long as I'm not preaching. And so I appreciate your allowing me to do that. This church doesn't allow me to preach because I can't wear dress shoes. When I moved up here from the South, I always wore a tie. But our pastor at the church at Oakwood, Dan Kiel, many of y'all know, he doesn't wear a tie. And then I looked around one day and realized I was the only tie in 200 people. And so guess what? No more ties. But a lot of churches, this particular church, is the same way. When they have a preacher come preach, they send a dress code to him. And if he can't meet that dress code, he can't preach. But that's what they decide is important to them. So let's look at here. Pharisees view of what is clean and unclean and where that comes from. First of all, it is what is on the outside that makes you sin. The Pharisees didn't have really a view of the heart like we do. Their traditions were often to to restrict as much outward appearances as you can, whether washing hands, whether doing so much on the Sabbath, and all of that. They took steps to codify them, and they codified them in a book called the Mishnah. Have y'all ever read the Mishnah before? Anybody here? And the Mishnah is just like, you know, how many steps you can take on the Sabbath. And just to give you an example, the way the Pharisees view the Sabbath, you can only take so many steps. And they define those steps as you can only go this far away from home. Well, they also defined home was anywhere you left a possession. So say, for example, if a Pharisee wanted to go to a nearby town on the Sabbath, he would take, say, what we would do, we would take a toothbrush, and he would go so many steps, leave the toothbrush, go so many steps, leave the toothbrush, go so many steps, leave the toothbrush. And so on the Sabbath, he can travel that distance because he never got that far away from home. So he could break the Sabbath really, according to the mission, but didn't break the Sabbath because of the traditions. And that's what we can get into as believers sometimes. The hair, you know, when I was growing up, it was the hair and the beards. Anybody had long hair, they weren't considered Christian. I had a guy, a street preacher come up to me one day and looked at me and said, brother, When are you going to cut that hair? And, you know, God hates a man like you. And if I were not a Christian, I would be totally turned off. I was anyway. But, you know, we ourselves have a lot to decide what is good in the scriptures and what is our tradition. Okay. Some more examples that you'd find in the Bible was the fact that anything like washing of hands, anything that you went out and ate something and didn't wash your hands, then you were unclean. Because the outward appearance is what mattered to them. Now, when I grew up in the South, we had a group like this. They were called the Rays Rites. These are people that were raised right. And they wouldn't go out to local clubs. They wouldn't go dancing. They wouldn't do anything like that. They were people that were SEC football fans, and they did all the right things locally. But at the same time, even though they kept Family values. In fact, they were at church every Sunday. There were things about them that weren't right. Like, for example, there are businesses who would not wait on black people. And I was at the end of segregation. I was born in 58. So I remember that. I remember fountains being only for black people and things like that. And the people that owned those businesses were the elders and deacons at churches or locally. They were Christian folks, but yet they had raised up traditions to keep people out. There were also people that in one moment would say, we're anti-abortion, but they knew where to get an abortion. And there were people that did that. So just like the Pharisees, an outward view of godliness, but not the inward view of godliness that Christ calls for. The outward pillars of Christian community, but not so much on inward view of things. A friend of mine who is a Baptist minister, I think you could have Baptist as friends, and he was actually a Reform Baptist, believe it or not. And we were together in that little town in South Alabama that I talked about this morning. And we had a ministerial association, and most of the guys in the ministerial association were evangelical. They believed the Bible. And we met one time to decide what we needed to do to get more people to church. There were roughly about 2,500 people in town. You took the surrounding area, and you got another 2,500. You got about 5,000 people. And any given Sunday, there were only 300 of those people at church. So there are a large number of people that can go to church. But this was what you would do. You would say you go door to door evangelizing, you go to so and so's door, you would walk up to the door, they would immediately know who you were, because your ministers were known in the community back then. And they would go, oh, I'm a member of the Baptist Church, or I'm a member of the Methodist Church, or the Church of God, or whatever church in the area. And you would talk to them, and you would say, well, I forget, what is your pastor's name? And they wouldn't know the name of the pastor, because they hadn't been in 15, 20 years. So there is a veneer of Christianity out there, but not inward Christianity, Bible Christianity. In fact, this minister once told me this, as we were talking about people like this, he said, you know, Richard, I think in Peralta, we need to get people unsaved first, and then we get them saved. And while he was talking, we got to get them away from that cultural Christianity that was so much part of their lives. and turn them to Bible Christianity, the Christianity that you find in the Bible. And even here in Pennsylvania, if you go down to Lancaster, I've heard guys in Lancaster say the same thing, because there's a good number of good churches down there, but they still run up against people. They're members of churches, but just don't go. And no outward sign of conversion at all. And they think they're going to heaven. That's something that Christ was concerned about. You see, Christ's view was that the heart matters. I often speak to parents when I was a pastor, speak to them about talking to the child's heart. Not necessarily telling them that he's doing bad things, but talking to the heart. Talking to the heart with the gospel. And that's where you have to start. There's a book about raising children, shepherding a child's heart. I forget the guy who did it, but he had it right. You had to shepherd that heart. And as my kids grew up, they grew up preacher's kids, and I always wondered how they'd turn out. Because a lot of times the preacher kids are the ones that are the worst. in a youth group or anything, but they turned out pretty well, and I think it's because we kept a, not a hard hand on them, but a wise hand. We knew what to let go, and we knew what to tackle from the heart, and they turned out pretty well. They both go to church, they're both involved with church, they're both living for Christ today. And I think that's important, that's important, to get that heart. You see, a man is a falling creature and his heart is falling. So it takes a work of the spirit to change that heart. It's not traditions that you need to rely on, it's the scriptures, it's the gospel. I tell my daughter, who's, I believe, 29 now, makes me feel real old. And when she's troubled by something, I will often tell her, you know, pray about it. And then, you know, think about what Jesus will do and what your heart says to do. The heart has been changed by him. And she doesn't always come with the right ideas, but she thinks it through. And that's what you want to happen, to think on their own. The kids that you raise, they can't bear on. And it's also out of the heart that sins comes. In Matthew 5, let's turn there real quick, Matthew 5. In Matthew 5, verse 27 and 28. It says, you have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that whoever looks on a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her heart. You see, you know, it's the heart that matters. It's what the inward being believes and believes is right. It's what matters as Christians. It's not the traditions. You see, the Pharisees had a reaction to Jesus, and the reaction was this. The Pharisees were offended because they see their whole world being attacked by Jesus, being attacked by him. Because if someone didn't have to wash their hands before they ate, and you can argue about whether that was good hygiene and stuff like that, but in the Pharisees' mind, it was something different than that, okay? And suddenly they're seeing their whole world being attacked. That's why the Pharisees hated Jesus so much, because he's telling the people the right way to believe, not the wrong way. And Jesus here uses the example of plants not cultivated by the Father to explain the Pharisees. He says, listen, As the disciples came to him and asked him about them, he said, listen, they're like plants. How many of y'all have vegetable gardens? Nobody? Oh, Mark does. All right, good. Good, Mark. And my grandfather raised me to always raise a vegetable garden. I have tomatoes, peppers, broccoli. and something called, y'all know what okra is? And I said, we love okra, you just can't find it up here much. But you know, when you go into a garden, you prepare the ground, you plant your seed, the plants grow up and they produce their fruit. But what comes along are things that you didn't plant. And right now, I have a plant in my garden that I can't pull up. It's just so invasive. I can't get it out of there. And you know, what Jesus is saying here is, listen, I didn't plant these guys. They're not real. They're like blind guides. In other parts of the scripture, they're called whitewashed tombs. And I think that's a great phrase. But they're blind guides. You have to be careful to not become a disciple of a blind guide. Someone that will lead you off astray for what the truth is. And that's what Jesus was trying to do with his disciples. And the people gathered there, he's trying to say, listen, these guys are making traditions like scripture. Run away from them. I have a friend of mine that's a preacher, Steve Brown. He's getting some age now. He's up in his 80s. And he always used a phrase. He said, they smell like smoke because it's from the pit of hell. And that's true. And that's where the Pharisees were. They would smell like smoke and were from the pit of hell. They were blind guides, unable to see the truth because their hearts weren't changed. Jesus tells his disciples to leave him alone. Now, that in itself is a lesson for us. You know, I am reformed in everything I believe. I'm a Westminster Confession man. I believe in the tenets of John Calvin. I think Calvin sermons, I think you could preach them a day from pulpits and people would know they were from Calvin. Because they're so good. But I tell you, we also sometimes raise up guys who think they can change the world by arguing on the internet. You know anybody like that? I had an elder in my last church that he would get on the internet and argue and argue incessant hours with people. And finally, I called him in my office one day and I said, Jim, I said, tell me how many people have you changed their minds? It was a long pause. And he said, I didn't guess anybody. And I said, you have to realize that some people that you're talking to, it's just like talking to a stone wall. They're not gonna change their minds. And if you were out talking to unbelievers and the people that need the gospel, I think you'd be more satisfied. Because he was getting frustrated over this. So God didn't call you to turn Christianity into the great reform world. And get that, I love reform doctrine and everything, I love it. I used to spend hours late at night with all my buds at seminary with our pipes, and we would sit around. And later on we got rid of the pipes and got cigars. So just laying it out for you people. But it's important to remember that sometimes enemies of the faith just have to let them leave with what they believe. A lot of people on campus, I'll have arguments, I had a Muslim guy, that we debated a good bit over about a year. And you know, the Lord just impressed upon me that that's Neil William Malone. It wasn't going anywhere. I figured out what he was doing. He was listening to liberal preachers on the radio from Berkeley. And he would come back with all their arguments against Christianity. He didn't believe it himself, but he just wanted to argue, to argue. And you have to learn that you only have so much time in this life. But when I get a Muslim over here that he will listen, like we have a guy right now from Bangladesh. And he comes to every Bible study we do. And when we talk about the gospel, he listens. He doesn't try to argue, he listens. And I'm convinced that one day in the next year or so, I'm going to baptize him. And so you have to know when to stop the arguments, to say, listen, that's enough. And you're not consulting anybody to anything. You're giving your best shot. And that's one of the things that we should do. They're like blind guides. And rather than spend a large amount of time on one person, spend a lot of time on five people who don't know anything about Jesus. That's what's so exciting about our work, is that every time we meet, there are people there that know no Jesus. And yet, because of who we are, they like us. And that's half the battle sometimes. They'll listen and learn to go after the people that listen. And understand that sometimes we do in Christianity have apologists who do stuff like this. I have a friend of mine, an old elder friend that is an apologist, and he does a lot of arguing with people and things. And sometimes he's able to persuade. But still, I argued with him one day. I said, you're spending a lot of time on a very little amount of people. where you can go out and impress so many other people with the gospel. So that's just a side note. All right, we also hear the parable explained by Christ. He says anything that comes in the body, outside the body and taken in is eventually expelled. But anything that comes from the heart and comes out of the mouth That's the problem. We have a heart problem. And even sometimes Christians themselves, Christians get areas when they're hard hearted about it. And you have to pray them through that. Show them the grace of Jesus. Show what Jesus has done to them to set them free from having a hard heart. Now that heart is changed from a stone heart to a heart of flesh. You know, and as we do that, as we do that, we see how we can speak to the hearts and see people be converted to Christ. You see the sins that comes from within the heart is what is so bad. All the imaginations of men are held in their heart. And it's a heart that's a bad heart. I have a friend of mine who has a bad heart. He one day had a heart attack, his third one, and they told him that this was it, that they couldn't do any more medically to him except give him a new heart. Well, that afternoon, a young man was killed, and they were able to take his heart and replace his bad heart. And I had the privilege of seeing him finish a marathon. And I also had the privilege of seeing him have a heart attack in class. He's one of my seminary professors. And yet, when his heart was replaced, he went out and started running. And one day, he did the Jackson Marathon, and he finished it. And all of us, our students were there. We just were excited about it, because he had a new heart. And that's what we have to pray for people, is that God changes their heart and massage it. and make it not from that stone-cold hard heart, but a heart of flesh that can hear the gospel and respond to it. You see, Jesus' answer is we need to have a changed heart. And throughout the gospels, throughout the episcopals, we see that a heart is the matter. A heart is the matter. Now, how can I apply all this? First of all, Watch for traditions becoming greater than scripture. It can't happen. In the best of churches, it can't happen. You have to watch out. Now, traditions in and of themselves are not bad. I love certain traditions in the church, but when a tradition trumps scripture in some way, it needs to be done away with. If you struggle with a particular sin, look at your heart and ask the Holy Spirit with his power to change it. If you're struggling with a sin, ask the Holy Spirit, change my heart, change my direction, as Dr. R.C. Sproul used to say to us in class, change my inclination to good, from evil to good. Thirdly, remember in raising your children to speak to their heart. Often, we speak to their behavior. But behavior comes from the heart. Speak to the heart of a child. Fourthly, if you don't know Jesus, it all begins with him. It all begins with him sending your Holy Spirit to come and to change your heart. And that's what all the people need that are around you. One of my seminary professors, He taught us evangelism. He said, sometimes, he said, I wish you could go out and really see people for who they are. Because people have Basque. But always remember this, that we live on the world of walking corpses. Now, this was before zombies and all that kind of stuff was popular. But he said, you remember that we're in the world of walking corpses. And it takes the spirit to change our hearts. And your job is to encourage, to speak the gospel, and to pray that God's spirit falls on them. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the word. We thank you for what you've taught us today. We pray that you will continue to teach us as we come before you. For us in Christ's name we pray, amen.