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[0:00] Good morning and a warm welcome to the service this morning. It's good to see all of you and it's good to see some visiting with us as well and you're especially welcome to the service today.

[0:11] There's tea and there's coffee at the end of the service just served to my left so if you're able to stay behind please do so at the end of the service. The intimations you have on the white sheets have been on the screen also and if I could highlight just a couple of these.

[0:26] Firstly to say that the service tonight is at 6, 6 till 7 as we probably finish the studies that we've been doing in the book of Joshua.

[0:39] The Kirk session will meet tomorrow, that's Monday at 7pm and on Tuesday night at half past 7 there will be a meeting which will be taken by Open Doors, the organisation that reached out to the persecuted church.

[0:55] Mark from Open Doors, can't give you his full name because of the sensitivity of travel arrangements and restrictions that that could put on going in between different countries.

[1:06] But he's going to be, he heads up the work in Open Doors and he's going to be having a joint meeting across the presbytery and on Tuesday at half past 7 here. So please make a note of that.

[1:19] In the course of the week you can see various things happening which are usual and I'll leave you to read them at your own convenience. And then the services next Sunday at 11 and 6 will both be taken by the Reverend Rory Morrison.

[1:33] I have been required to go to Bach to preach for vacant charges. Ministers on the presbytery are instructed to take their turn and to go and I was told that I'm the last person who hasn't yet been to Bach so I'll be in Bach next Sunday.

[1:50] So we'd appreciate your prayers for taking the services over there. Two more informations which aren't on the sheet. First of all, cleaning rota. It's time for a new rota.

[2:02] So if you're on the rota and would like to be removed or if you're not on the rota but would like to begin serving in this way by cleaning the church but once every six weeks, please speak to Mary.

[2:15] So those who are on, if you want to come off, there's a chance to come off if there's people who would want to do this but aren't currently on a rota, speak to Mary and you don't marry. The last thing is we hope this Saturday night, which is the date of what, the 18th?

[2:33] We hope this Saturday night to have an hour or so where we speak about the work that we were involved with, that you were all involved with in Romania.

[2:44] We were very conscious that people back here were praying for us in the work that we were engaged in out in Romania. We had a great time. There was a lot done. It was tiring.

[2:55] It was fun. There are stories. stories, but I will try and limit the storytelling on Sundays to not too much, especially today. And we'll have the chance to speak on Saturday.

[3:10] So we'll have a meeting Saturday night from 7 till 8 or so. There'll be tea and there'll be bacon. If you're able to help with that, please speak to Peggy, who's probably here somewhere.

[3:22] Oh, I can't see her right now. We did think about having an evening where we'd have Romanian food, but I thought perhaps the prospect of goulash and pickled cabbage might put some people off rather than draw some people out.

[3:37] So we'll have tea and tray bags and we'll show you some pictures and we'll tell some stories. Not just me, but all those who were out there. So that's this coming Saturday, the 18th, 7 o'clock here in the church.

[3:51] And these, I think, are all the informations. So let us worship God. Nurse Marion. Nurse Marion from our congregation is out in Malawi.

[4:01] And I got a text just last night from her saying, Hope the team from Romania is at home safely. It's very hot here. High 30s.

[4:12] We have had a busy week visiting the villages. Many of our women are still in the camps. Condition in some camps are poor. Please pray for these women, she says.

[4:24] We are so thankful for God's daily provision and protection. Pray that you will continue to bless the work that has been done here. God bless from Marion.

[4:34] So let's unite our hearts, I pray, and let's remember Marion also as we do so. Thank you. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this, your day.

[4:48] And we thank you for another opportunity to come as we are called. To come in worship. To come to the God who has promised that when we come in the name of Jesus, we will not be driven away, but we will be received.

[5:06] We thank you that we can come as those who acknowledge and confess that we are sinners. And yet we come to the risen Savior.

[5:18] The one who died and who rose. So that our sin could be forgiven. And we who once were far from God, because of our sin, could be reconciled with God.

[5:31] Because of the blood of Jesus. So we thank you as we sung that great hymn to begin this time of worship. We thank you again for Jesus, our Savior.

[5:45] We thank you that we can echo the words of Wesley all these years ago. As we ask the question, how can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood?

[5:56] Died he for me? Who caused this pain for me? To him to death pursued? And Lord, we thank you that the answer is yes. And we can say from our hearts, Amazing love.

[6:12] How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? And Lord, that is the foundation. That is the very substance of the faith that we stand on, we hold on to.

[6:29] If we were to try to make an approach to the Holy God this morning, in our own name, and trusting in our own righteousness, we know that we could not come, we could not be received.

[6:43] We would have no hope for time, we would have no hope for eternity. But we thank you that we come this morning in the name of Jesus. We come thankful once more for the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news about Jesus, the fact that he came from time, from eternity into time.

[7:05] That he came from glory into a world that he knew would despise and reject them, and yet still he came. We thank you that he lived that life, which we could never live, a life without sin, and he did it for us.

[7:21] We thank you that he went willingly to a cross, knowing that he would go there to make an end of our sin. And we thank you, Lord, that that's what he did.

[7:33] We thank you for Jesus. We thank you, Father, for sending your son. We thank you that he has accomplished everything that he was sent to do.

[7:45] We thank you that he has done everything necessary for us to be saved. We thank you for the words that resounded from the cross.

[7:57] It is finished. As he laid down his life for us. And we thank you that if we are trusting in him, we are assured that our sin is finished.

[8:11] We are assured that death is finished. We are assured that the devil, the enemy of our souls, ultimately he is finished because of what Christ has done on our behalf.

[8:25] So give us eyes to see that, we pray, if we don't yet see the wonder of the gospel. Give us ears to hear the voice of Jesus calling us to come to him for rest.

[8:40] And give us hearts, we pray, that would be awakened so that we would come in the very epicentre of our being, our hearts, to trust in the Lord, the one who alone is able to make us fit for heaven.

[8:59] So Lord, we thank you for this hour of worship. We thank you for our being here in this place. And we ask that, as you have promised, that you would be near to us.

[9:10] We pray for every congregation that is connected with all who are gathered here this morning. We thank you for those visiting with us. And if they go to churches elsewhere, we pray your blessing upon these churches.

[9:24] We pray for the churches that gather around us in this community and in these islands. And we ask that whatever the gospel of Christ has preached, that you would add your blessing and that you would build your church.

[9:37] And we thank you that we can join together with brothers and sisters across the world, even as we come in prayer just now. We thank you that we can be involved in our work in Malawi. With Nurse Marianne, as she serves you out there.

[9:52] We ask that you would give her strength and protection in all that she does out there as part of that team. We pray for the women that she's spoken of who are struggling in poor conditions in these camps, especially after the floods that have ravaged that land.

[10:09] And we ask, Lord, that you would be at work in Malawi. And we pray for Romania also, with some of us having been there and thinking back a week to a small congregation of two where the pastor asked that we would pray that the church would be filled.

[10:28] And so we pray for your people in Romania and those who are not yet your people, that you would awaken and that you would draw many people to trust in Christ. We pray for Roddy, who was here last Sunday morning and the work in Helmsdale.

[10:43] We ask that you would bless and use him in that place. And we ask, Lord, that you would be at work throughout all of the world, opening eyes and ears and enabling people to see and hear and come in faith to Christ.

[11:00] We pray for those who are absent from us this morning, some who are sick, some who are tied up with the responsibilities of work and life.

[11:11] And we ask that you would bless those who would desire to be here, but who are unable to be here for one reason or another. May you draw near to them, we pray, where they are. And for others, Lord, who have opportunity to be here, but no desire, we ask that you would touch their hearts and that you would awaken an interest that will lead them to Christ.

[11:35] We know that we do not decide in our own being that we will follow Jesus. You are the God who calls us. And so just as you have called us to be here this morning, we pray that you would call many more to come to Jesus.

[11:51] Hear our prayers. Take away our sin as we confess it freely. Wash us in the blood of Christ and enable us now as we continue to worship you in spirit and in truth.

[12:05] And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Boys and girls, would you like to come forward, please? How are you all today?

[12:34] Good. Good, good. I don't think this wee microphone's working. So I'll just stand a bit closer up here. Oh, well. It's just for you, really.

[12:45] I'll speak louder so they can hear. Now, what was I... I've got lots of stories to tell you. I've got lots of stories I can tell. After a week in Romania, I've got stories coming out of my ears.

[12:57] But I'm going to start at the very beginning. And I'm going to start in Uist. Because last Monday morning, last Sunday I was in...

[13:09] No, two Sundays ago I was in Uist. And I had to catch the ferry from Uist to Harris to get the bus to be able to go off to Romania. So one of the men that were on the ferry, I know him a little bit, and he was asking me where I was going.

[13:26] And he was saying, Are you going to manage to get there in time? And I said, Well, I hope so. If you drive this thing fast enough. And he says, Well, up you come to the bridge.

[13:38] You know, the bit at the top of the ship where they're doing the steering and all that. And the captain was having a cup of tea. So the man that I knew said, The captain's just asked me to take the wheel. Do you want to come up?

[13:49] So I said, Yeah, I've never been up at the bridge before. And have you ever put your hand up if you've ever been on the ferry over to Burnham? A few of you?

[14:02] Well, if you've been on it, it zigzags all over the place. It's going this way and that way and that way and this way. And I always wondered, How do they know?

[14:13] Because it's very shallow, so how do they know? So I think I've got a couple of pictures. So you come this way. I'll just show you one or two things. So, there's the man who was at the controls and that's at the top of the ship.

[14:36] And if you see over here, there's the screen. So he's got a window and he's looking out and you can see everything out into the sea and the ocean.

[14:49] But you can't see where it's deep and you can't see what's shallow. So, he has this screen and the screen shows him if there's other boats because there's another boat off on the right-hand side and it shows him if there's things that maybe he can't see that he needs to watch out for.

[15:08] And, see when you see that screen, how do you think he knows which way to to direct the ship? Anyone, is there a little yeah?

[15:24] There's lines. We'll have the next slide. Can you see that? There's a screen that's a bit closer. And what do you see in the screen? Put your hand.

[15:36] Well, come on boys, you're up to you. You lost your voice in a week. What do you see in the screen? Dots. Dots and lines. And, he was just sitting there and he had a cup of tea and he was as relaxed as you like and he was moving the, the, what's the right word for the meal?

[15:58] It's a joystick. Joystick. That's Frank's character. He's moving the ship's joystick.

[16:10] I'm thinking about seeing a mega drive. And he would move it a wee bit this way and it would go along a bit and move it a wee bit that way.

[16:23] It's a wee fraction. Straighten up. Move a wee bit left again. And what he said to me was, as long as I stay exactly in these lines, I'm on the right course.

[16:41] Now, if he decided one morning, oh, I'll switch this screen off. I think I'll just take a different route. What do you think might happen? A crash.

[16:52] A crash. Because that bit of, that bit of, it's called the siren, isn't it? And there's sandbanks and in some places it's quite deep and in lots of places it's very shallow.

[17:06] So if he decided, I'll just go my own way, then who knows how long it will take, not very long, probably before he grinds the ship and gets into difficulty.

[17:17] So, he says, we always keep the ship in between these lines. Now, boys and girls, how do you and I know which way God wants us to go?

[17:34] Do you think he has a plan for our life and a route for our life? Do you think God loves you? Yeah. So if he loves you, do you think he has a way that he wants you and I to live?

[17:48] Yeah. A way that will be the best way? Yeah. So how do we know? Because he hasn't given us, he hasn't given us a screen in our phones that says go a little left, go a little right, walk on straight, go backwards.

[18:05] So how do we know the way that God would have us live in this world? The Bible. The Bible. And how do we know the way to get from this world to heaven?

[18:23] The Bible. And who is the one who said, I am the way to heaven? Jesus. So boys and girls, if you and I want to live in a way that pleases God, if we want to live in a way that's the best way, the safest way going through this world and a way that guarantees when we come to the end of our time in this world, we're going to heaven, then we need to be following God as he speaks to us in the Bible and we need to be trusting the one whom we find on every page of the Bible, Jesus.

[19:08] So, let's remember, just like they switch on the screen every morning and say, right, we're going this way, let's remember to open our Bibles and come to God in prayer and ask that Jesus will be our saviour and the one who will lead us and guide us every day that we're given.

[19:26] And we'll ask him to do that. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you that you love us. We thank you that your way is the best way.

[19:41] We thank you that you're the one who made us and you know what's best for us and we ask that you would help us to listen to you every day. We thank you that you haven't left us to find our own way where you've given us the Bible and you've shown us yourself in the Bible and you've shown us the way to be saved in the Bible and we ask Lord that you would help us whether we're boys and girls or whether we're a bit older.

[20:07] Help us, we pray, to be opening the Bible. Help us, we pray, to be fixing our eyes upon Jesus and help us, we pray, to be trusting the one, Jesus, who said, I am the way and the truth and the life.

[20:22] No one comes to the Father except through me but we thank you that that promise means that everybody who comes to Jesus has promised that they will come to the Father in heaven when we die.

[20:34] So help us, we ask Lord, to trust you, to listen to you, to look to you and we ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you boys and girls. We're going to sing now and the words will be on the screen.

[20:48] It's Psalm 139, I think. And verses 1 to verse 10. It's a psalm where we ask God to search us to make sure that we're going his way and it's a psalm where we ask God to direct us in the way that he would have us go.

[21:08] Lord, thou hast me searched and known, thou knowest my sitting down and rising up, yea, all my thoughts afar to thee are known and will stand to sing to God's praise.

[21:18] So if you wise and girls move a wee bit this way and we'll stand and sing. You can see the speakers. O Lord, thou hast me searched and known, thou knowest my sitting down and rising up, yea, all my thoughts afar to thee are known.

[21:56] my footsteps and my lying down, thou compassest always, thou also most entirely art, I've went with all my ways.

[22:25] for in my tongue before I speak not any word can be, but all together, O Lord, it is well known to thee.

[22:53] I am to thee behind me for thou hast be set and laid on me thy hand, such knowledge is too strange for me to hide, to understand.

[23:19] To hide, to understand. From thy spirit where shall I go or from thy presence ride, ascend thy hand, O thou art there, let it in hell I lie.

[23:55] Take I the morning wings and dwell in the that rose with and diamonds aboutoline i shaman Amen.

[24:27] Okay, boys and girls, if you head to Sunday school, as they go, remember to be praying for them as they go. We've been studying through the gospel for Mark.

[24:43] And we come to Mark chapter 7. We'll just read in from Mark 6, 53.

[25:02] It's not on the screen, don't worry. This is God's word. When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret, an anchor there. As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus.

[25:15] They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages, towns, or countryside, they placed the sick in the marketplaces.

[25:27] They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed. 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.

[25:48] The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition 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.

[26:08] 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?

[26:19] He replied, Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites. As it is written, These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

[26:31] They worship me in vain. Their teachings are but rules taught by men. You have let go of the commands of God, and are holding on to the traditions of men.

[26:42] 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, Honour your father and your mother, and anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.

[26:56] But you say, That if a man says to his father or mother, Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is corvin, that is a gift devoted to God, then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother.

[27:09] 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.

[27:22] Nothing outside a man can make him unclean by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean. After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.

[27:37] 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.

[27:49] In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean. He went on, What comes out of a man is what, he went on, what comes out of a man is what makes him unclean.

[28:00] For within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, rudeness, envy, slander, arrogance, and fault.

[28:16] All these evils come from inside a man and make him unclean. Amen. And may God bless that reading of his word to us.

[28:29] And as Aleph will now lead us in prayer and gather. I'll better be home any other than that.

[28:46] You are in MBA now, how you gave up, how you gave up, for an art babe, for those who loved the garden and loved their Ctrliles to come.

[28:56] You evenosphatlimbbeva. The vernal truth to this is what the moon spreads.

[29:12] I have the love for you now to take your joy, There was a long time ago, five days ago.

[29:40] Soup luxe and improvement was been exercised in the last time after the notice. our friends and heels of mudway to the hand experiencedarthness Ooh black damn let Voilà orange my

[30:47] There are denominations that start mixing this great will cly начals which happier.

[31:06] You place the faith of these aspects seem like a retreat, Let the tierra și are with Brad, Saiz Co touch screen to see oh, is burning the heavens the earth and need to squeeze Let the waters relax and while it is on wine کی-o Oh no fe and Him not him diskut And then later Вон In the Holy Spirit.

[31:54] We also know what He then Gia equal to Twitter Adam written poppo.

[32:29] I am the Lord of the Holy Spirit, and I am the Lord of the Holy Spirit, and I am the Lord of the Holy Spirit.

[32:59] I am the Lord of the Holy Spirit, and I am the Lord of the Holy Spirit.

[33:29] a room table the to転 she Well you know we're gonna go the next song at with this and because of the spirit of fearing one, another expressions of musicampa you have seen that much of curiosity and the meaning »

[34:31] The Spanish Englishman. Thisanya himself. Amen. We sing again to God's praise.

[35:06] It's the last two stanzas of Psalm 139 in Gaelic. Verses 22 to 24 is remarked in the English. With perfect hatred, then I hate my foes, I then you hold.

[35:21] Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, my thoughts unfold. And see, if any wicked way there be at all in me, and in thine everlasting way to me a leader be.

[35:33] These two verses of Psalm 139 in Gaelic. And we remain seated to sing in Gaelic. Toe emela, toe, migaj, to be a, an eikje, neem a mes.

[35:49] O God, and know my heart. Who can be a, and put the hair down in Gaelic.

[36:03] Thank you.

[36:33] Thank you.

[37:03] Thank you.

[37:33] Thank you.

[38:03] Thank you. Thank you.

[39:03] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[39:15] Amen.

[39:47] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[39:59] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[40:11] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[40:23] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[40:35] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. The image I have on my mind's eye is that of Farreker McLeod here.

[40:49] And he was looking as dapper as he always does. He was immaculately turned out, highly respectable on the outside. But when he stepped through the X-ray door, you know, in the airport, alarms sounded, lights flashed, people shouted out, and Farreker was called off to the side, and before we knew it, we saw him there with his hands up and two people around him, patting and tapping and searching for bombs and guns and drugs and the like.

[41:31] He has got a bit of a capone kind of look about him. Just for the record, there were no bombs, guns, or questionable substances found on Farreker on that occasion.

[41:43] It was probably the metal pin, he said to me, after he came out the other side. It's probably the metal pin that some years ago in surgery was put into his finger.

[41:55] Can't be seen on the outside, but the X-ray machine picked it up immediately. In Mark chapter 7, we see people making an approach to Jesus.

[42:11] And on the outside, these people, they looked to be highly respectable. They were the most thoroughly religious people in that place.

[42:23] They were the kind of people that you would expect to meet with the approval of God. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law are the terms that Mark gives to describe them.

[42:38] We've met them on various occasions so far in the Gospel. But these people were the experts in the Scriptures. They were the experts in the Old Testament. They knew it themselves.

[42:52] And not only did they know it themselves, but they were qualified and instructed to teach others. And so everybody thought that they were God's people.

[43:05] But when God the Son, when Jesus, looked not at the outward appearance, but at the heart, he saw big problems.

[43:20] And that's what I'd like to look at today. I'd like us to look today at some of the presenting symptoms that indicate a problem of heart.

[43:38] When we go to the doctor, we go to the doctor with presenting symptoms. Sometimes these presenting symptoms reveal something that goes deeper. We sang just a few moments ago, O Lord, thou hast me searched and known.

[43:55] And that's what we pray God will do each time that we come to Scripture. And especially this morning, we pray that he will search us, not the person next to us, but us.

[44:08] That he will search us, our hearts. And he will show us if we have a heart problem. Not to depress us and crush us, but so that we, when we see our problems, will come to Jesus, the great physician, for treatment.

[44:31] So I want to look this morning at three failures. Three failures that indicate problems at heart level. The first is a failure to see the glory of God the Son.

[44:47] We'll spend a fair bit of time on that. The second failure is a failure to give God's word its proper place. And the third thing is a failure to live close to God.

[45:02] So these are the three failures that reveal problems in my heart. A failure, first of all, to see the glory of God the Son. Secondly, a failure to give God's word its proper place in our lives.

[45:16] And thirdly, which really brings the two together, a failure to live close to God. So if we start in verse 1, a failure to see the glory of God the Son.

[45:27] It says there, the Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were unclean, that is, unwashed.

[45:43] Then we're giving the comment here, the Pharisees, and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing holding to the tradition of the elders. Now, maybe I should just say that term, the tradition of the elders was a technical term whereby the scriptures, the word of God, the word of God was written about by some of the elders.

[46:10] So there were those who were commissioned to comment on the word of God and they made comment on the word of God and these comments were published and they became something that would accompany the word of God.

[46:25] This would be the teachings of the experts and then the experts in the next generation wrote again. So we have the word of God in the centre and then we have the teaching of the experts and then we have the teaching of the new experts on the old experts on the word of God and all that is encapsulated in this term, the tradition of the elders.

[46:48] It's much more than the word of God. Verse 4, 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, pictures and kettles.

[47:05] Now, just to sort of grind us in the truth of what was going on, let's remember what was happening in the last chapter. If you glance back in your Bibles just to Mark chapter 6, what we see is Jesus doing the most amazing, miraculous things and people being drawn to him.

[47:26] We read that last wee bit of Mark chapter 6 but if you go back just a little bit more we see that Jesus has just performed a miracle like they've never seen before.

[47:39] 5,000 men likely 10,000 women and children as well and Jesus fed them with a small boy's lunch. It was a miracle of creation.

[47:50] It was something that was unquestionably supernatural. What Jesus did in this scenario that's just happened was nothing short of glorious and one would think that the people and especially the religious experts those who knew the Old Testament one would think that as they saw Jesus as they held up the scriptures with one hand and they looked upon Jesus with their eyes one would think they would join the dots and see that this man is the God man.

[48:30] This man who is doing all these things and speaking with such authority surely he is the coming Messiah. That's what one would think.

[48:42] We would think that they would see the glory of Jesus. We would think that in light of all that he was doing they would believe in him and they would worship him.

[48:58] But that's not what happened. What did the Pharisees and the teachers of the law? What did they see? It says in verse 2 they saw the disciples eating food.

[49:14] That's all they saw. They saw the disciples eating food with hands that should not be used to eat food. Not that they were dirty hands but they just hadn't been washed according to their traditions in that particular way.

[49:30] if you've got a King James version what it says in the King James version is they saw some of his disciples eat bread. And the Greek for eat bread is actually eat the bread.

[49:44] And what Mark is probably referring to here is the bread that was left over the 12 baskets of bread that were left over from the feeding of the 5,000. So you'd think that they would say we've heard about all that happened with the feeding of the 5,000.

[50:01] Is this the actual bread? Can we see it? Can we taste it? That was in the interest of them. They didn't see that.

[50:14] They just saw that the disciples had not washed their hands in the way their tradition demanded. Not the way the Bible demanded but the way their tradition demanded.

[50:32] And when the hand washing was not being done according to their passed down traditions they were furious. And they made the journey from Jerusalem all the way here so they could take issue with Christ because of his disciples because of the hand washing.

[50:54] And the point is this they fixated on the minutiae and they failed to see the glory of Jesus the Messiah.

[51:09] Mary's parents tell a story she's not here so I can tell them. They tell a story about when Mary and her brother were we. They were in America and they were visiting various places and one day they decided they would go and visit Fort Knox this amazing wonder of a building.

[51:29] And they spent the best part of the day travelling and eventually they arrived at Fort Knox and they parked the car up and got out and there's this awesome building in front of them and Mary's parents just looking out thinking you know Mary and Neil how privileged they are to see this amazing building.

[51:53] and when they looked out Neil Lachey wasn't actually looking at the building at all. He got out of the car and immediately he was on the ground looking at bugs.

[52:07] And when he was checked he said well I don't see all the fuss about the building. These bugs are amazing. and the tragedy here is that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law they were in the presence of God the Son.

[52:31] They were in the presence of the one whom the scriptures pointed to them. But they saw no glory in it.

[52:44] And rather they were obsessed with the trivia of the religious rules. And that's the first symptom of a heart problem.

[53:01] We can become fixated on the peripheral details of religion and we miss the glory of Jesus.

[53:15] You know it's possible to come into a church and see maybe even be irritated by the clothes that people are wearing.

[53:29] It's possible to come into a church and see and be distracted by the way the chairs are set out. It's possible to come into a church and be just taken up with how quiet or how not quiet the children are.

[53:49] Or how good or how bad the coffee is. How acceptable the songs we sing are. How agreeable to your own personal taste the version of the Bible that's being read is.

[54:05] We can see all that. We can become obsessive over all that. And yet as the Bible is read and the hymns and the Psalms are sung and the preacher preachers whoever the preacher might be it's possible to be engaged in all these things and see all these things and yet fail to see the glory of Christ.

[54:33] And fail to be amazed by who he is and what he has done for us on the cross. we sang and can it be that I should gain an interest in the Saviour's blood.

[54:55] Died he for me who caused this pain for me who him to death pursued amazing love. How can it be that thou my God should die for me?

[55:10] Now that's what should stir us. That's what we're here to see. We're here to see the glory of the person and the finished work of Christ.

[55:29] And if we miss that and we see all the minor things we have a heart problem. that's the first symptom, a failure to see the glory of God the Son.

[55:49] The second symptom we see here is a failure to give God's word its proper place. First five. So the Pharisees and the teachers of the law ask Jesus, why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders?

[56:07] why don't your disciples live according to all the rules that we've accumulated over these years? All these booklets that speak about God's word, why don't they live according to that?

[56:20] Instead of eating food with unclean hands? I told you before the story about the wee boy and this wee boy, he's been on the shore all day with his father.

[56:39] His father's been working on the shore and the wee boy's been alongside him doing what he can. And by the end of the day, he's tired and he's hungry and he's got two handfuls of shells.

[56:52] He's been collecting shells all day. And on the way home, which was a long walk home, they stopped him past the house and the father went to the house and he started to speak to the man who was in the house and the man looked at the wee boy and he says, are you hungry?

[57:09] He says, yes, I'm hungry. He says, wait a little minute. Went into the kitchen, big hunk of bread, lashings of butter, a big dollop of jam and he appeared with us at the door and he holds it out to the boy and he hands it out and he offers it.

[57:27] And the wee boy is asked if you want it and he wants it. But his hands are full of shells. So he looks at the shells and he looks at the piece and he looks at the shells and he drops the shells, worthless shells.

[57:43] and he takes hold of this nutritious, delicious jam piece. It's a no-brainer.

[57:57] Now what was happening here was that in reverse. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law, they were letting go of what was of great worth, the word of God.

[58:10] and they were hanging on for dear life to the worthless shells of their religion.

[58:22] They were letting go of the commands of God. They were pushing away the Son of God because they wanted to hang on to the empty shells of the religious traditions.

[58:36] Jesus says to them in verse 8, you have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men. And the washing of hands was just one of these traditions, but then Jesus goes on and he gives another example of the kind of things that they were doing.

[58:54] Verse 9, Jesus 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, honour your father and mother, and anyone who curses his father and mother must be put to death.

[59:09] But you say that if a man says to his father and mother, whatever 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.

[59:21] Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down and you do many things like that. Jesus is saying, this is just one worm, there's a whole can of worms that's opening here.

[59:35] Now what was happening? Well in that context it was possible to pledge money to the Lord's work, or more accurately it was possible to pledge money to the work of the temple and those who were managing the temple.

[59:57] And the technical term that was used for that money that was sort of set aside for that purpose was corban. And that was a tradition that came into the religion.

[60:10] It wasn't a command of God. You couldn't find a verse in the Bible that said this is what you must do. It was a design, it was a tradition of their elders.

[60:23] So in some cases you would have the scenario where elderly parents in a time where there was no state system, there was no social care, elderly parents were beginning to struggle.

[60:37] And there's children who were doing better than they were financially, they may look to them. So in order to keep the command to honour your parents, when your parents were struggling, it would be right and it would be something that you'd want to do, you'd want to help them.

[61:02] But what was actually happening was that sometimes children were going to the Pharisees to try to release some of the money that they pledged to the work of the temple and the Pharisees would say, no you won't.

[61:20] That money is for God, that money is for the temple, that money is for our wages, that money is Corban. So the traditions of which Corban was just one were being upheld by the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.

[61:40] and God's clear, revealed will to honour your parents and to take care for them was being swept aside. They were failing to give God's word and his law priority over their own traditions.

[62:00] And Jesus, he called them out on it. He knew how much this would upset them. he knew how much this would get him and his disciples into trouble, but he called them out.

[62:17] He says in verse 13, thus, you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that, he says. And partly started.

[62:29] And what it showed was that there was something wrong in their hearts towards God when they would put the rules of men over the clear, revealed will of God.

[62:53] they would rather comply with the rules of men and have their boxes ticked and have people give them their thumbs up than actually do what God has said he wants them to do.

[63:11] And it was a heart problem. And this is something that is still a clear indicator of a heart problem.

[63:23] if we think about our nation once regarded as a land of the book, when we as a nation, when we set aside the Bible as deliberately and as determinedly as we have done and are doing, in favour of creating our own rules, our own laws, that go so contrary to the Bible, then it shows a problem in the heart of our nation.

[64:07] If a church, whether we're talking about the church back in Mark chapter 7 or of any generation, if a church says we will go against the Bible to follow our own rules, our own commissions, our own assembly decisions, it shows a problem at the heart of the church.

[64:28] And we must never think that we are immune to such problems. ourselves. And when we as individuals, when we don't take time to be in our Bibles, or when we go to our Bibles and hear what God has said to us with the sign that we will do something different, it shows a heart problem.

[64:58] so there's a failure that we see. First of all, to see the glory of God the Son and it reeled a heart problem.

[65:16] Secondly, there's a failure to give God's word its proper place. And again, it showed a heart problem. And the final thing here, briefly, is a failure to live close to God.

[65:31] And really, this is the key. For the Pharisees of that day, it wasn't that they had drifted from God.

[65:44] They'd never come to him. They'd never come to Jesus for cleansing of their hearts. They'd never come to Jesus for salvation.

[65:58] They didn't understand or accept grace as a doctrine. They were trying to save themselves by their own works religion. And although they were working hard at it, their works were not gaining God's approval.

[66:15] Their works were actually an offence to God. Verse 6, Jesus' words, these are probably some of the strongest words that he ever spoke. he spoke them to the church, to the religious people.

[66:31] Jesus said, Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites. As it is written, these people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

[66:43] They worship me in vain. Their teachings are but rules taught by men. And if we go from them to us, very quickly here, you know, if we're trying to save ourselves, if we think our regular church attendance or our church membership is enough to save us, then we're veering it to the territory of the Pharisees.

[67:13] If we think that the good works that we do, if we think that the boxes of religion that we tick are our grounds for salvation, if we think on the day that we stand before God, we can hold up a scorecard with all the number of days that we were in church, and we can hold up a portfolio of all the old ladies that we helped across the road, and all the good things we have done over the years, if that's what we think is going to save us, then what Jesus said to the Pharisee, he says to you and I, these people, honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they worship me in vain, and if having seen this, we determine that we will persevere as the Pharisees did, in failing to bow the knee before Jesus, and failing to come to him for forgiveness, failing to trust him as Lord,

[68:22] God, then our heart problem would be a terminal one, it will be an eternal one, so what do we do as we finish?

[68:39] We've heard the problems, we've seen the failures in them, and we see them in us, we've asked God to search us, and show us what we need to see, so now as we see what God wants us to see, what do we do?

[69:01] The answer is simple, we come to Jesus, we do what the Pharisees wouldn't do, we get on our knees, we come to Jesus, we ask him to save us by his amazing grace, so if we've been like the Pharisees working hard to make ourselves acceptable, you know what we have to do this morning?

[69:33]  We have to down tools, throw them away, we need to admit that we cannot save ourselves, no matter how many sermons we hear, or even how many sermons we preach, these are not grounds for salvation, no matter how many verses we can recite, no matter how many good works we can chalk up, it will never be enough, but the point is this, Jesus is enough, he has completed the work of salvation, he came to live for us, he came to die for us, and having done that, he as he cried out that he has finished, completed the work of salvation, and he has promised to receive and not to push away those sinners like us who will come to him, so come to him, you want to pray, to pray, well we're giving him, rock of ages,