Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.northharris.freechurch.org/sermons/77817/29625-am/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] Good morning, everyone. A warm welcome to the service this morning and a special welcome to those! It's good to have a number of visitors with us today and you are very welcome. There's tea and! there's coffee at the end of the service in here so if you're able to stay behind please do so and you will be made very welcome there. The one or two intimations one or two notices I don't know if they were on the screen or not but I'll just run through a couple of them for this morning. The first is to say that this evening at six the service is the monthly Gaelic service so that service is at six o'clock. It's taken by Callum MacLeod I think this evening and after that about quarter past seven there'll be an informal English fellowship so be encouraged to come to these services. For this morning service if there's any visiting children I don't know if there are I don't think there are but there's a creche over my shoulder so feel free to use it if you need to. [1:02] This evening as well no it's okay I'll scrap that one. Next Sunday the services will be taken by myself morning and evening. [1:15] I'm all over the place in terms of days here so bear with me. Tomorrow we would normally have a community lunch but that is not going to be happening tomorrow with the holidays and lots of different things going on. We won't have the community lunch but everything else in the course of the week prayer meeting, road to recovery, ladies bible study, these things will be happening as usual. The last thing to say is that we are hoping to have a holiday club this year as we've had in years past. 6th to the 8th of August it will be, that's a Wednesday to the Friday and it'll be morning about 9 o'clock till 12. We're looking for volunteers, people who can help, there's lots of different jobs to do. You may not be standing at the front so fear not if that's what you're worried about. There's lots of things that need to happen for a holiday club to work well so any age, any stage, if you're available then it would be great to have you involved in that ministry. [2:18] So 6th to the 8th of August if you can help, speak to Stuart or to Joyce at the end of the service and they'll give you a wee bit more details. These I think are all the notices I need to share just now so let's begin this time of worship and we'll sing to God's praise from Mission Praise 1008 and the words are on the screen as a paraphrase of Psalm 23. The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want. [2:45] And we'll stand to sing in just a moment. The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want. He makes me lie in pasture's green. [3:17] Meet me by the still, still waters. His goodness restores my soul. And I will trust in you alone. [3:35] For your endless mercy follows me. Your goodness will lead me home. He guides my ways in righteousness. [4:02] And he annoys my head with joy. And my comfort overflows with joy. And he's done his pure delight. [4:23] And I will trust in you alone. And I will trust in you alone. And I will trust in you alone. For your endless mercy follows me. Your goodness will lead me home. [4:51] And I will trust in you alone. And though I walk the darkest path. I will not fear the evil one. [5:06] For you are with me and you're broad and soft And the comfort I need to know And I will trust in you alone And I will trust in you alone For your endless mercy follows me Your goodness will lead me home Let's draw near to God in prayer Let's close our eyes and speak to God Our Heavenly Father we thank you [6:13] For the privilege that we have To come into your presence this morning To be still And to know that you are God And that you are with us We thank you that that's your promise That where two or three meet together in the name of Jesus You would be here And we thank you that not only are you the God who is with us But you're the God who is for us Not against us You're the God who loves us We thank you for the verse that we read last Sunday morning with the children That we are so familiar to us For God so loved the world That he gave his only son That whoever believes in him In Jesus Will not perish But will have everlasting life And we pray [7:15] That we would know that life We pray that we would Each one of us This morning Not only come to church But that we would come To the Lord Jesus In faith Turning away from our sin Confessing Our sin As we do so now As we think about Our own hearts And our own lives In the last few days We confess that there are things That we have said That we shouldn't have said And things that we should have said That we left unsaid We confess that there are things That we have done And not done That all Are sinful And so Lord We don't hide that from you We can't We can hide it from each other But we can't hide that from you So even in the quietness Of our own hearts now We We tell you We confess Our sin And ask that you would Cleanse us In the blood Of Jesus We thank you That Jesus [8:15] Is the good shepherd The one That that psalm pointed to The one who laid down his life For his sheep And we thank you That when We trust in him We have a friend Who sticks closer Than a brother We have that contentment Through life As we walk close With you Lord Jesus We have safety When we come to death And pass through death's dark veil When you are with us And we have life That is everlasting A home In the Father's house Forevermore So we thank you For the blessing For the wonder Of the good news About Jesus The gospel And we ask Lord That it would be good news For each one of us That we would believe That we would come To Christ That we would have Our sins forgiven That we would know That we are your children And that we would know [9:17] The comfort And the hope Of that Eternal life Promised To all who believe We pray for those Who are in particular Need this morning We ask Lord That you would comfort Those who are grieving Every week As we meet together We are conscious Of others In the community Or those connected With us Who have passed From this world And we pray For the families For those who feel That grief Most acutely And we pray For the family Of Rory Fraser! [9:56] And we ask Lord That you would comfort them We think especially Of Myrick Who has been through So much Over these last few years And we bring her To you In particular But we pray For all of the family And we ask Lord That they would know Your presence with them Wherever they may be Just now And that you would be Ministering to them And to all who grieve At this time We pray for those Who are sick Some who have come back From hospital And recovering at home We pray that you would Speed their recovery That if it's your will That you would lay your hands Of healing Upon them And that they would know Even though they may not Be present here today That they are remembered By us And that they Would be ministered to In the power of the Holy Spirit By you Lord And we pray for Those who may Wake up this morning And who may be Fit and healthy Physically But in their hearts [10:57] And in their minds Who feel sad Cast down Without hope And we pray That they May see that There is hope in Jesus And we ask Lord That you would help us If we are believing In Christ To tell those Who don't yet believe That there is a Saviour Who will never Push away any Who come to him We pray for the Children Amongst us Those who have Gone from us As well As we think of Camps that have Started And those that will Start in the next Few weeks We pray Lord That where The children gather For SU And Free Church And Faith Mission Camps That they would hear The gospel message Simply That they would believe That they would know Fun and fellowship And that You would Be at work In these different Attempts to reach out To the young ones And we pray Just for the normal Week by week Preaching of your word [11:57] In different places We thank you for those Visiting with us today We pray for the Churches that they May be connected with And we ask that Where services Are held As we Meet together In different places Across the world That whatever The gospel is preached That many Would come to believe That the church Of Jesus Would grow And we pray now Lord that you would Continue with us That you would Go before us Lead us and guide us That we would be In the spirit Of worship On the Lord's day And we pray this In Jesus name And for his sake Amen Boys and girls Would you like To come out please Over you come Quite a few Quite a few Not of you But quite a few Of the boys and girls Are away today [12:58] But it's good to Have you guys With us Are you happy Are you happy You happy You should be happy It's the holidays It's the beginning Of seven long weeks Of holidays In the house All day Every day With your mum And dad Mums and dads Are you happy Seven weeks Of holidays So I've got Two volunteers Lined up Already this morning I've got them Organised So can I get My two volunteers To come up here Just now Please Thank you very much Boys So What we're going To do today Is We got given A present Last night There was Some of us Were in church Last night For pizzas And ice cream And Vala At the shop Gave us A big box Of flakes Chocolates That you put In the top Of the ice cream So we only [13:58] Had a few Last night There's lots Of them left And they were In my car And I thought Will I just Take them home What do you think Well they're not For me So I thought I better Take them back So The flakes Are somewhere In this church Slightly under A chair And your job Boys Not yet Is you're Going to get Them And then you're Going to take Them to the Sunday school And the Sunday school Will decide How many flakes You get each To eat during The morning service Five Michael Maybe we'll see You can Ten okay You can do The calculations So that sounds That sounds quite Easy doesn't it So one of you The older one I think Finley You're going to Lead Benjamin And then You're going to For the first time In your life You're going to Lead Benjamin And you're going [15:00] To get the flakes And you're going To take them Back here And then we'll Take them to Sunday school Now Finley you come Over here a wee Second I'm going to Tell you where They are So you wait The other wee Second Benjamin So Over here Right down This is just Between him and Me so just You look at Someone else Right Can you See you Turn down Turn down Right Crouch down Right Crouch down Can you see At the very Back wall Can you see At the back Wall You know The camera There's a Camera And there's The window Just beside The window In the chair That's where They are Okay Okay So Finley Do you know Where they are You know Roughly where They are Yeah Okay So So you know [16:05] Where they are Finley You know Where they are Good So you're Going to lead Benjamin To where they Are Does that sound Like an easy Job Yeah Here's the Trick You're Going to go Like this And you're Going to go Like this Too So come Round here I'll just Take you Round here For a second Round this Way Benjamin You come Round this Way Take my Hand Watch the Step So you're Best going That direction So off you Go That way And you Can get The boxes Excellent job Boys That's exactly What I wanted To see Is it hard Is it very easy To find someone [17:05] If you can't See No it's not At all is it But see You've got your Eyes Do you think You can go And find them Now Off you Go Finally You can See You can Find them And take Them Back here Good job Here we go We'll put Them down There Thank you Very much For being Good helpers Now The point Of that We exercise Is to show You Something that Was going On in the Bible In the Passage That I'm Going to Read Today With the Older Ones Jesus He's Speaking He's Preaching He's Healing People And then There was These guys That came Along To Jesus And they Started Trying to Have an Argument With Jesus About all [18:05] Kinds of Things And they Were saying To the People Because the Crowds Like imagine Imagine a church Service like this But much Much bigger Out in a Massive Big field And all These people Were there And they Were listening To Jesus And Jesus Was telling Them the Truth And then These men Called Pharisees And scribes They came Along And they Started Arguing With Jesus And they Were saying To the People Don't Listen To Jesus Listen To us And then They started Talking All kinds Of stuff About how To wash Your hands And all Rules And regulate And they Were saying You have To do What we Say And you Know what Jesus Said He said To them You guys Are like Blind Guides He says You're like People who Can't see Anything And you're Wandering along And you can't See anything And you're [19:05] Telling the People to Go with You And When you Can't see Anything You end up Bumping into All kinds Of things Don't You And if There's A hole At the Side The Road You Trip Over And fall And so Jesus Said He said To the Guys You're Like blind Guides And he Said to The crowd Don't Listen To them Don't Follow Them Follow Me Said Jesus Because Jesus He is The way And Jesus Is The one Who Tells Us The truth The real Truth And Jesus Is The one Who Can Give Us Life Life That Begins Here And Lasts Forever So Boys And Girls What I Want You To Remember Today For All Of Us Not Just The boys And Girls Is We Are To Keep Our Eyes On Jesus We're To Follow Jesus [20:06] Because He's The one Who Can Give Us Life So Let's Pray Will We Lord God We Thank You That You Sent Your Son Jesus Into The World And We Thank You Jesus That You Are The Way The One Who Shows Us The Way To Get To Heaven You Are The Truth The One Who Tells Us The Truth About Who We Are And Who You Are And You Are The One Who Gives Us Life If We Come To You And Walk With You So We Pray That You Would Help Us Lord Jesus To See You To Believe To To Follow You And Not To Follow Anyone Or Anything That We Would Keep Our Eyes On Your Son And That We Would Know The Life That He Gives We Pray That For The Boys And Girls We Thank You For The Holidays We Pray That They Would Have Good Fun On Their Holidays That They Would Be Safe And That They Would Be Thinking Thinking About You And Trusting In You And [21:07] We Ask Lord That You Work In Each One Of Our Lives That We Would Have That Childlike Faith That Comes To Jesus And Stays Close To Jesus And If We're Far Away Just Now Maybe Comes Back To Jesus And We Ask All These Things In His Name And For His Sake Amen We're Going To Sing Now And We're Going To Sing Mission Praise Help! [21:43] Help Help Help Amen. Amen. [22:44] Amen. Amen. [23:44] Amen. Amen. [24:44] Amen. Amen. [25:20] Matthew chapter 15, and we will read from verse 1 to verse 20. This is God's Word. Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? [25:40] For they do not wash their hands when they eat. He answered them, Why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, Honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die. [25:56] But you say, If anyone tells his father or mother what you would have gained from me is given to God, he need not honor his father. So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the Word of God. [26:09] You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. [26:22] And he called the people to him and said to them, Hear and understand. It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth. [26:34] This defiles a person. Then the disciples came and said to him, Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? He answered, Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. [26:48] Let them alone. They are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit. But Peter said to him, Explain the parable to us. [26:59] And he said, Are you 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 this defiles a person. [27:15] For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. [27:27] But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone. Amen. And may God bless that reading of his word to us. We're going to sing again now to God's praise from Psalm 119. [27:41] Psalm 119 from verse 89 to verse 91. Two stanzas of the psalm. We sing in Gaelic. I'll read the two verses in English. [27:54] Thy word forever is, O Lord, in heaven settled fast, and to all generations thy faithfulness doth last. The earth thou hast established, and it abides by thee. [28:06] This day they stand as thou ordainst, for all thy servants be. These two verses of Psalm 119. We remain seated to sing in Gaelic. They stand as thourud des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des des! [29:15] rud Thank you. [30:15] Thank you. [30:45] Thank you. [31:15] Thank you. [31:45] Thank you. [32:15] Thank you. Thank you. [32:47] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. congregations like us that meet to study your word just now and we ask that you would be working in them as we pray that you would be working here we pray for Gordon as he preaches in Carloway this morning we ask Lord that you would speak through him guide him lead him and be with him and Julian and the family as they step out in obedience to your call that you would go before them and that they would follow you as we pray each one of us would and we pray also for Scott and Copebridge and ask Lord that as he preaches this morning and evening that you would that you would speak through him that you would bless him as he seeks to serve you and that the congregation would know the blessing that we have known as he has been amongst us so bless him and Fiona and the family as they also seek to follow you in service and ministry so hear our prayers we pray for other denominations as well around us close by connected with us through the visitors today and far removed from us we recognize that across the whole world that our believers here are meeting some in safety some in great danger but we ask that wherever Jesus is lifted up that many would be drawn to him and we pray this in Jesus name amen throughout Matthew's gospel and in the passage that we read we see people coming to Jesus but what we can note as we move from Matthew 14 which we were in last week through into Matthew 15 this week we can see that people come to Jesus for different reasons with different motivations and this morning I'd like us to look at three groups of people who come to Jesus and as we see them we can maybe be asking the question of ourselves have we come to Jesus yet it's great to come to church it's a different thing to come to Jesus we can come to church and sit in the chairs all our lives it will do us no good it'll actually do us much bad if we don't come in faith to Jesus so have we come to Jesus yet are we coming to Jesus today and if we are for what reason why are we coming three points three groups that we'll see the first thing we'll see is the sick came to Jesus for healing we're going to just rewind to chapter 14 for a moment to recap and get the context the sick come to Jesus for healing the second point is the Pharisees and the scribes came to Jesus to heckle they came to cause trouble to shout out to disrupt and the final thing we'll see is that the disciples came to Jesus for help they were continually coming to Jesus for help to understand so first of all the sick came to Jesus for healing and if you just glance back at chapter 14 and verses 34 to 36 it says there and when they had crossed over remember there was a storm we studied when they had crossed over they came to land at Gennesaret and when the men of that place recognized Jesus they sent word around to all that region [36:49] and brought to him all who were sick and implored him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment and as many as touched it were made well I was reading online a week or two back about a shop that was opened in Glasgow the shop was called Maniso or Maniso I'm not sure how you say it but it was obviously some hugely popular shop because on the day it opened people traveled from all across Scotland and the queue in Buchanan Galleries stretched the whole length of the shopping center because the people were desperate it seems to buy the toys, the homeware figurines, plushies I don't know what these things are viral blind boxes I've got no idea what they are either but these are the things the shop was selling and these were the things that were in such great demand that it caused people to queue for hours to get in the door and spend their money and the picture in Gennesaret in some ways was similar people came, verse 35 from all over that region far and wide to see Jesus and the people who were sick and who weren't well enough to come themselves they were brought to Jesus why? [38:21] well because we're told in verse 36 that Jesus could make them well and the wellness that Jesus was offering that he was promising it wasn't something that had to be bought he freely gave it to all who came to him and it strikes me as this is such a simple illustration of the gospel Jesus offers to take the sickness forgiveness of my sin away he offers to heal our hearts he offers to to make us well and it's a free offer all we have to do is come to him now we sang last Sunday evening that well-known hymn [39:30] I heard the voice of Jesus say come unto me and rest lay down oh weary one lay down thy head upon my breast I came to Jesus as I was weary worn sad I found in him a resting place and he has made me glad we sang it but are we living it have each one of us come to Jesus for heart healing have we come to him for the rest for the soul satisfaction that only he can give today if you're hearing this there's the opportunity to come there may be a day when that opportunity is gone so come now [40:38] I think we think in our minds we can come to Jesus whenever I'm going to snooze today I've got stuff to do in my life my life is busy I'll push him away for now I'll come another time we assume there will always be the opportunity to come to Jesus but there may come a day where there's no opportunity just as in a week's time we can't go to Brian's shop and buy from him what we would buy in the past who would ever have thought it we're going to miss we're going to miss it so much we couldn't ever have envisaged that and yet there is that day there will come a day this is a serious thing where we who sat here week by week and heard the offer may not be able to respond our ears may be closed the time is gone so today [41:45] Psalm 95 if you hear his voice if you hear him calling you to receive that that forgiveness that heart healing come to Jesus the crowds came to Jesus for healing the second point which has taken us into chapter 15 is the Pharisees and the scribes came to Jesus to heckle they didn't come to sit and take in the truth of the words of Jesus and they didn't expect to receive a blessing from Jesus they were there simply to disrupt to heckle I remember hearing a true story this is about a minister known to some of us who many years ago went to a political conference in Edinburgh I won't tell you his name but he went to this conference and he went in disguise he dressed up although he was probably [42:53] I guess in his 20s or 20s at this time I guess he dressed up like an old bottoch a big heavy overcoat and beard and the flat cap and he was heavily disguised with a stick as he hobbled into this political conference and was shown to a seat by those who had more strength than they perceived he had and he sat down in the conference and he was appearing to be listening but the first chance there was to speak he was up on his feet and he shouted out in his broadest Hebridean accent you politicians you politicians you you you sail around the world in your fancy yachts and you're not even giving us a rubber dinghy to get home to Razzie and there was gasps of shock and very quickly this this old bottoch was shown at the door and taken out of the the conference suite the point is he he went to the thing but he wasn't interested in what they had to say he simply went there to heckle before he was a minister [44:12] I assume before he was a Christian and when we see the Pharisees and the the scribes coming into the scene here they are coming to to Jesus to heckle the Pharisees verse 1 and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders for they do not wash their hands when they eat now I think most of us would know but just in case we're not sure who are these Pharisees and scribes well these are the religious and the political leaders of their day these were men of authority they had come specially they'd been sent from Jerusalem HQ out to Gennesaret which was the Styx it was Gentile country and they arrive they wouldn't have had much difficulty going to the place where the crowds were gathered so they could locate Jesus and they tracked Jesus down because they have a problem with [45:15] Jesus and his disciples what was the problem well the problem was or the problem that they were presenting on that day too was that Jesus' disciples did not wash their hands properly so what were the rules for hand washing well the rules for hand washing were complicated to say the very least one commentator gives us a description of what was considered to be acceptable hand washing according to the scribes and Pharisees so I'm going to read you out this quote it's slightly long it's very complicated that's the whole point of it so William Bartley giving us a description of the hand washing process said water jars were kept ready to be used before a meal the minimum amount of water to be used was a quarter of a log which is defined as enough water to fill one and a half eggshells the water was first poured on both hands held with the fingers pointed upwards and must run up the arm as far as the wrist it must not drop from the wrist for the water was now itself unclean having touched the unclean hands and if it ran down the fingers again it would again be rendering them unclean the process was repeated with the hands held in the opposite direction with the fingers pointing down and then finally each hand was cleansed by being rubbed with the fist of the other a really strict [46:51] Jew says Bartley would do all of this not only before a meal but also between each of the courses I doubt they ever had hot food but that was the process and the problem the scribes and Pharisees had was that Jesus disciples they weren't doing that at all so we now have to ask the question well why did they have to wash their hands in this way you know was there a pandemic like we lived through a few years ago was that the reason for such such OTT hand washing well no it wasn't a pandemic it wasn't anything to do with hygiene it was a religious requirement so now we have to ask the question well if it's a religious requirement which part of the Bible demanded this kind of hand washing and the answer to that question is no part of the [47:51] Bible these rules were man made rules they were found in a collection of Jewish traditions that were published in a book called the Mishnah so it wasn't actually a commandment of God that the disciples were breaking it was a tradition of man and so the Pharisees and the scribes they came to challenge Jesus over the breaking of their rules not God's rules and their traditions and yet as we read on we can see that the scribes and Pharisees who were so enthusiastic about keeping the traditions of men were a whole lot less strict when it came to the commandments of God and so Jesus as he responds to their charges he calls them out on their refusal to keep the commandments of God [49:00] Jesus answered them verse 3 and why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition for God commanded verse 4 honor your father and your mother and whoever reviles his father or mother must surely die but you say if anyone tells his father or mother what you would have gained from me is given to God he need not honor his father so for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God so what was all this about well I suppose what we would call this is it was creative religious accounting the scribes and the Pharisees they had a religious accounting practice that they described as a as Corbin it was called you can read about it in Mark chapter 7 as well and so Corbin money was money that had been declared to be a gift to God but not a gift that we're going to give today or maybe not tomorrow or maybe not even next year but sometime in the future this money this Corbin money it will become a gift to [50:15] God and meantime that money that they had declared to be Corbin money it just sat in their bank accounts well you know what I mean it sat with them so they might have had say 50,000 pounds in their bank accounts their savings accounts but they would say well it looks like 50,000 pounds but there's only actually 2,000 pounds that's real money 48,000 is Corbin money it's a gift to God when are you going to give it well let's not talk about that today it will be given sometime so the scenario was there would be an elderly struggling parent in that day and age there was no pensions no state pensions no social security so parents once they were not able to earn money through labor they just had no money they were given no money and they depended on their children to look after them so you have the scenario of parents who are struggling to eat they're struggling to make ends meet and they speak to their children and their child says well I'm really sorry [51:35] I would very happily have helped you out financially but all my money is Corbin money so you're going to have to struggle on and so Jesus says to them you want to talk to me about traditions let's talk about your tradition this Corbin tradition this tradition that you have developed that both dishonors your parents and disobeys the law of God what do you have to say about that then Jesus says so bluntly you hypocrites you're double-minded you're two-faced you hypocrites well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said this people dishonors this people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me in vain do they worship me teaching us doctrines the commandments of men so these hecklers who came to shout [52:45] Jesus down are silenced by Jesus and we might ask the question well this is very interesting some are finding it interesting some less so but for those who are finding it interesting you may say well this is very interesting but what on earth does this got to do with me how does this apply to me in Harris in 2025 what's the lesson for us today well I think in application one thing here that the Pharisees show us and Jesus teaches us is that it's very easy for us to get hot and bothered about the wrong things we see these Pharisees inscribed they come at Jesus they're furious they've made a long journey to confront [53:48] Jesus because they're furious about things that didn't matter that much and it's just as easy for us to get furious to get wound up to go to war about the wrong things for the Pharisees and the scribes on that day it was hand washing for us it would be different things to think back over the course of ministry and think about some of the things that people have got most furious about in different places over the years sometimes it's what people wear to church people get mad about what do you wear to church whether you're in the congregation or whether it's a minister collar robes or not collar robes people get furious about these kind of things doesn't really matter it could be where we sit in church or what we sit on is at pews or chairs people have gone mad over these things what does the Bible say about it? [54:59] nothing doesn't really matter it could be what book we sing out of in church what type of instrument can be played or not played in church it could be any manner of things that preoccupy us and send our blood pressure spiraling and very often our strongest opinions are more about tradition and what we like than they are about what God has said in his word the Bible so what Jesus is teaching is that our traditions relatively speaking are not that important my preferences are not that important what is important is what [56:08] God has said in the Bible so if you and I want to get worked up stirred up enthusiastic fired up about something get fired up about the gospel love the word of God love the Lord Jesus love the gospel love the lost reach out to them these are the things to get enthusiastic about says Jesus traditions will come and go but the word of God endures forever Peter said that having learned the lesson 1 Peter 1 25 so the Pharisees and the scribes came to Jesus to heckle the crowds the sick came to [57:08] Jesus for healing finally the disciples come to Jesus for help to understand verse 10 and Jesus called the people to him and said hear and understand it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person but what comes out of the mouth this defiles a person so what Jesus does here as we draw things to a conclusion is he summarizes what he said to the scribes and Pharisees so that the whole crowd could understand and he doesn't go into the detail of hand washing and offerings he gets straight to the heart of the matter which was actually the matter of the heart and Jesus for paraphrase says it's not hand washing that makes you clean it's heart washing that's needed it's not more laws and external rules that you need says [58:19] Jesus to the scribes and the Pharisees it's new life that you need it's inward renewal that is needed says Jesus and he says it not just to them he says it to the whole crowd and we can imagine the faces of these very important religious leaders the most powerful men of their day we can imagine their faces getting darker and darker as Jesus puts them right in front of everyone they would have been furious and it seems that they actually were furious because the disciples verse 12 come to Jesus and said to him Jesus do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard what you were saying and it just strikes me this is so contemporary this is so 2025 [59:25] Jesus did you did you hear actually what you said has offended somebody in the crowd now today if somebody says I'm offended they expect everybody to back down immediately you're offended well let me retract everything that I said let me affirm you in whatever nonsense you might actually believe the last thing we want is anyone to be offended but Jesus even though he knows he's offended the Pharisees and the scribes he doesn't back down he actually turns the volume up Jesus answered every plant that my heavenly father has not planted will be rooted up let them alone they are blind guides and if the blind lead the blind both will fall into a pit so the [60:33] Pharisees are and the scribes there with their dark faces in a fury because they're offended disciples are understandably nervous the most important men in that area are offended their lives are about to get difficult they're giving Jesus the opportunity to go and try to pacify the Pharisees and the scribes and Jesus does none of it he doesn't run after these men he says leave them alone these people may have collars and robes says Jesus but they are not called by my father into ministry they were not planted by my father they may be self appointed guides they may be Satan appointed guides but they were not sent by God says Jesus and these are incredibly strong words and we have to ask the question why is [61:40] Jesus so blunt remember this is the most loving man whoever walked the earth this is the man who is pure love he is God the son God is love and yet he speaks such strong words why is he so brutally honest in this situation and the answer to that question is because he cares for the souls of the people more than he cares about the feelings of the Pharisees more than he cares about his own popularity he loves the people and he doesn't want to see the people being led astray by the scribes and the Pharisees so he is straight down the line he calls them out [62:41] Peter said to him verse 15 explain the parable to us wasn't actually a parable at all but Jesus answers in verse 16 are you also still without understanding do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled it's not a difficult thing to understand but what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart and this defiles a person for out of the heart come evil thoughts murder adultery sexual immorality theft false witness slander these are what defile a person but to eat with unwashed hands as he takes them back to the beginning does not defile anyone end of lesson so put simply what is Jesus saying well he's saying if we want our hearts to be made well it's not about the foods that we eat it's not about the way that we wash our hands it's not about the religious language that we may become skilled at using it's not about the rules and traditions that we manufacture and try to keep and try to push on to other people it's about following [64:13] Jesus it is all about following Jesus because only he can cleanse our hearts and as Jesus was speaking remember he's on a journey to a cross where he knows that his blood would be shed so that our hearts could be cleansed if you follow the scribes and Pharisees warns Jesus they will lead you into the pit it's a picture of death it's a picture of hell but if you follow me says Jesus I will lead you into life Peter was slow to understand he gives me great encouragement because of how slow he was to understand but he came to [65:29] Jesus for help and Jesus helped Peter understand and Peter followed Jesus and so the question we finish with today is what about you and what about me will we follow Jesus only Jesus can save us from sin only Jesus can make us well in our hearts only Jesus can save us from death from the pit of hell only Jesus can give us life and take us to heaven and he is calling us to come to him to follow him will we follow we'll pray heavenly father we thank you for your word we thank you for the lessons that we can learn from this tense encounter that we read of in this passage we confess that we are people who often stray from the simplicity of our relationship with you we are often those who are prone to wander into legalism rules regulations and all manner of things that can be a distraction and can take us off track we pray that today we would have eyes to see [67:25] Jesus that he would be our vision and that we would come to him and if we have wandered from him whether through religion or irreligion we pray that you would draw us back and that we would experience for the first time or maybe for the first time in a long time the life that is found only through walking closely with the Lord hear our prayers take away our sin help us to follow you in Jesus name amen we sing to conclude the words of the hymn on the screen your grace that calls the sinner home from death to life forever the to life forever and sing to the song of righteousness by blood and not by merit you place the nations far and wide to every tribe and nation has brought my heart to enter in the joy of your salvation by grace I am redeemed by grace I am restored and now I freely walk into the arms of Christ my Lord grace that I cannot explain not by my earthly wisdom the prince of life without a slave was traded by grace I am redeemed by grace I am restored and now I freely walk into the arms of Christ my Lord my soul my soul my soul preserved forever for grace will see me welcome welcome to walk beside my Savior by grace I am redeemed by grace I am restored and now I freely walk into the arms of Christ my Lord by grace I am redeemed by grace I am restored [71:26] and now I freely walk into the arms of Christ my Lord and now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God the Father and the fellowship of God the Holy Spirit be with us all now and forevermore Amen