Who's ever heard someone say, I have a problem with organized religion? Have you heard someone say that? I have heard so many people around here say that to me, and as they describe all the religious activities, they were a part of, or the hypocrisy that they observed, I think to myself, you know, I have a problem with organized religion, too. And even more than that, I think Jesus has a problem with organized religion, and he's going to tell us about it in Mark 7:1-13. So, I invite everybody here open up your Bible, because we get to hear the very words of Jesus Christ together here this morning as we're going through the Gospel of Mark.
And I want to welcome all of you to our church this morning. I want to welcome those who are here for the first time. Can we give them a warm welcome here today? Thank you for joining us. And I do want to make an announcement that there will be Saturday night dinner next week, yeah, that's exciting. And then a special Psalms worship time to celebrate getting through book one of the psalms that we'll go through together next Saturday night.
But I want to talk about how people always add their manmade traditions to what God says in organized religion. And maybe you're thinking, well, that's rich for you, a pastor at a church, to act like you're against organized religion. That's real rich coming from you. Well, here's what I want you to think about. What is the difference between people who are really following Jesus with all their hearts and people who are just going through the motions of religious activity? Because in the Scripture there's a vast difference, and God sees it right away. The difference between those two things. And in this encounter that Jesus has with the Pharisees, he's going to make that clear the difference between worshiping God with your heart and doing external religious actions. Listen to what Jesus says. And out of respect for God's Word, I invite everyone to stand up for the public reading of Scripture. I encourage you to give this your full and undivided attention. This is the Word of God, starting in Mark, chapter 7, verse 1.
Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘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.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead, grab a seat. There is a handout there in your bulletin where you could take some notes. We have the whole text printed there for you. And when we talk about washing hands here in this passage, this isn't your grandma telling you to wash hands before dinner. All right? This isn't about physical hygiene. This is about cleanliness, going all the way back to the law of Moses, given to Israel, and that's what this is about. And this idea of being clean, you can see we get parentheses here in verses three and four. So, Mark really wants everybody to understand this. Mark gives us kind of the background to why they would come to Jesus and ask this question, why are your disciples eating to with defiled hands? Because they haven't washed their hands. So just remember Pharisees. By this point, even though we're only in chapter 7 of the gospel of Mark, the Pharisees are against Jesus. This is not a sincere question. This is not like, well, hey, we maybe we could help you guys do it the right way, or maybe you could teach us something about this. They are looking for a way to get Jesus in trouble.
Go back to chapter 3, verse 6, the last time we saw the Pharisees mentioned here in the Gospel of Mark, where they already had some opposition and some questions about fasting and the Sabbath and things that they were coming after Jesus with here in Mark 2 and 3. And look at Mark 3:6, “The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.” So, after their interactions with Jesus, the Pharisees, who represent the organized religion of the day, they team up with the Herodians. Remember King Herod, representing the political leadership of the day, and religion and politics come together, and they want to kill Jesus. They want to destroy him. But now, when we go back to chapter 7, and we just got to know this is an attempt to get to Jesus, because his disciples aren't sticking with the tradition of the elders, okay? And that's what this is. This is tradition, and I want to prove that to you. This is not referring to some command previously in the Scripture where you're supposed to wash your hands before you eat. This is something that has been developed over time by religious leaders among the Jews. It is an oral tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation. They refer to the elders, people from a long time ago who started building this idea. That's what Mark tells you in verses 3 and 4. This was a common thought among the Jews, and he says, “holding to the tradition of the elders.”
So, tradition is the key word that I want everybody to focus on in this passage. I don't want you to focus on the Pharisees, because nobody ever associates with the Pharisees anymore. I went to Israel. I went to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. I talked to a bunch of guys that looked like they might be Pharisees. They wanted nothing to do with the Pharisees. Okay, the Pharisees were so utterly defeated by the surpassing wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ when they tried to stump him, they are one of the most defeated groups of people of all time. No one wants to be Pharisee. But a lot of people still establish their own traditions, and that's what we're talking about here. We're not talking about obeying what God says. We're talking about adding our own traditions on top of what God says.
So, if you've got the handout, circle “tradition” there in verse 3, and this Greek word paradosis is actually used five times in these thirteen verses. So, Mark makes it very clear in his parentheses, this is about a tradition. This is not about something that was commanded. This is how they've developed this thought over time. In fact, in verse 5, they even say that when they ask Jesus this question, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders”? Like you guys aren't doing what basically the elders, the religious leaders before us have all kind of passed down, handed down to us that we're supposed to do. Why aren't you following that? And then look at how Jesus, after he quotes scripture and calls them hypocrites. In verses 6 and 7, Jesus says a summary in verse 8, you leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. So that's why we have this idea of tradition or commandments. Jesus is asking you, which one are you going to follow? You're going to follow traditions that people come up with, or you're going to go back to the original source of God's Word and obey his commandments. In fact, look at verse 9. He gives a specific example. “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.” So, circle “tradition” there. That's the fourth time. And then in the last verse in his summary here, Jesus says, “Thus, you are making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.” So, Jesus, he is exposing that this tradition is actually working in contrary. It's not only added on top of the Word of God, but it's actually now contradicting people from obeying the commandments of God. So, if you've got a problem with manmade religion, well, Jesus has the problem, and he exposes that here in this text. And these kind of traditions are always happening. They have always been.
Think, throughout the history of God revealing himself, whatever God reveals, people who want to be righteous, people who are proud, people who want to be religious, they always add more on top of what God reveals. This has been going all the way back from the beginning, and it's happening to this very day. People establish their own traditions on top of the commandments of God. In fact, the Jews, they were doing this very intentionally. It was an oral tradition passed down, the tradition of the elders. Eventually, it gets recorded in this work called the Mishnah. And in the Mishnah, there's a quote that's very significant, where they say one of their goals in the Mishna is to “put a fence around the Torah.” So, you may want to write that down if you're taking notes. The Mishnah has this idea of making a fence around the Torah. So that's at least the original intention. Hey, God's given us his law in the first five books, the law of Moses given to Israel, okay, well, if we don't want to break God's law, let's put a fence around it with the idea that we'll protect the law by adding more laws, adding more traditions, because then if we add even more rules, then those rules will keep you from breaking the actual rules in the Torah. In fact, eventually, all of this Jewish tradition will get recorded in the Talmud. And in the Talmud there's a quote that literally says, “The words of the scribes are more beloved than the words of the Torah.” Did you hear that the words of the scribes, the words of the religious leaders, are more beloved, more to be trusted, more to be listened to, than the actual words of the law of God Himself? See, that's eventually where the traditions lead. Like you can't even really understand what God is saying. You need the traditions as a lens to even see what God is saying. And so eventually it's like, I don't really read the Torah, read the Talmud, read what they their commentary on the Torah, read the other rules they established on top of the Torah that's even more beloved, that's even better than God's Word himself. So, that's what is happening here in the Jewish culture, among their religious tradition, and Jesus, he comes right after it, and he calls them hypocrites, and he exposes them by quoting Scripture and giving a specific example of how their tradition actually works against what God says.
So, I want to make sure you don't read the Bible like a Pharisee. I used to read the Bible like a Pharisee, and here's what it means when I come to a passage like this where the Pharisees are making such a big deal about washing your hands, and not even just that, we're washing cups, we're washing copper vessels, we're washing dining couches. I mean, we're washing all kinds of things, like you’ve got to make eating this one hundred percent clean experience. See, when I read that, I think there must be some truth to this. See, I don't know the law of Moses super well.
I grew up going to church in Southern California. I'm not a Jew. I don't really know about the Sabbath and the clean foods and unclean foods. I've never really been expected to do that. I've never fully paid attention to that. So then, when I see these Pharisees making a big deal, I assume they have something they're going on. Here's what you need to know. They're making this up completely. This is all tradition. There is nothing in the law of Moses that says somebody needs to wash their hands before they eat food, much less their copper vessels and their dining couches. No.
Let me take you to Exodus 30, verse 17. Everybody grab your Bible and go back to the law of Moses with me. And let's go to the closest command that I could find that would even lead you to think we need to wash up before we eat. And it's not even close to what they're saying about Jesus’ disciples in Mark 7. Everybody, you’ve got to see this with me, Exodus 30:17-21 and this is the instruction that God gives to the priests when he's giving them instruction about the tabernacle. Remember, God is going to dwell in the midst of Israel. There is going to be a physical manifestation of the holiness and glory of God there at the tabernacle in the midst of his people. And that is where this whole idea of being clean or unclean comes from. Because people are going to go and offer their sacrifices at the tabernacle, which represents the very presence of the glory of God himself. And so, that's where the whole discussion about, well, we need priests to intercede for the people and mediate between God and the people, and we need all these sacrifices to atone for the sins of the people. And then there are clean things you can do and unclean things you can do. We're having this whole conversation because God is going to be there in their midst. And so, one of the things he says here in Exodus 30:17, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘You shall also make a basin of bronze, with its stand of bronze, for washing. You shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it, with which Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet. When they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn a food offering to the Lord, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die.” okay? What are these things we're talking about? The Tent of Meeting is the actual tent where there is the holy place, and then the most holy place, because that's the very glory of God dwelling there in that tent. And then these offerings, these are the sacrifices we're giving to atone for the sins of the people. So yes, we're washing before we go into God's presence, or we're washing before we offer God this sacrifice on behalf of someone's sin and we're doing this because if we appear before God in an unclean way, then we will die. And it says in verse 21, “’They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die. It shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his offspring throughout their generations.’”
So yes, the priests at the tabernacle were supposed to wash their hands and feet before they either went into the tent that represents God's holy presence, or before they offered a sacrifice on behalf of the people. And it starts with that. And by the time, you know, hundreds of years later, by the time we get to Jesus and his disciples, you’ve got to wash your hands before you eat. You’ve got to wash the things that you're going to drink out of, or the plates that you're going to eat off of. You’ve got to wash the couch that you're sitting on. I mean, do you see how manmade religion just takes over? Do you see how tradition just gets so radically added? We don't even know how it began, because we've added all these things on top of it. And so, Jesus, he is going off on this, and he's calling these men hypocrites, and he's going after their tradition.
So, let's get this down for point number one, if you're taking notes: “Beware those who add man's ways to God's Word.” Beware those who add man's ways to God's Word. This is something you want to watch out for. This is something we need to be on the lookout for as a church. And people are getting attracted to this and caught up to this as they begin to study church history and as they look back into the past.
You know, our culture in America right now is chaotic, and so a lot of people, they want to have a backlash to all the wokeness that's happened and all that's been going on in America, people are looking for things they can actually believe in. People are kind of looking for truth. And so, tradition, things that go way back into history, things that have been handed down for generations, things that have this origin with people who knew way back in the day, and now it's been passed down. A lot of people are finding this in our culture to be attractive. I'm seeing more people be interested in these kinds of church traditions than I've ever seen before in my life. And so, people are like, that's old, that's ancient, that's a practice that's been passed down. There's a lot of church history behind that. I'm interested in that. I'd like to check that out. These are people we know and love here at our church, they're getting interested in this, and Jesus, he's giving a warning here today. Watch out for that. You don't want to be a part of following these traditions. You don't want to be a part of people who have added on to the Word, and now you're doing something not because it's what God said in his Word, but it's what they said back in the day, and it's been passed down to today. And so, it seems like it has some truth to it, because look how long it's endured, way longer than the United States of America, way longer than many things in our lives. So maybe I should pay attention to that. No, just because it's been passed down for a long time doesn't mean it's from God and so watch out for these traditions. Everybody here, you’ve got to be on the lookout. What are people adding to God's word? It's always happening.
In fact, go with me to Galatians 1:14, look at how Paul talks about these traditions. Let's go to a couple of passages where Paul also has some things to say about the traditions, specifically of the Jews. And here in Galatians, Paul is very strong in his language coming out of the gate here in Galatians, because he says in Galatians 1:8, “Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed, as we have said before. So now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” He's saying, Hey, I preach to you the gospel of Jesus, that Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One of God, that he died on the cross for our sins, and on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead, and everyone who believes in Jesus, you will have a new and eternal life. Turn from your sin, trust in him. Jesus and his crucifixion and his resurrection, Jesus can save your soul. But now somebody's showing up, and they're saying, yeah, Jesus is good, but they start adding things on, and they start saying, but what about this too? Yeah, Jesus, he's fine, but what about something else? And here, this is happening. And so, Paul, he goes back into how he was a part of it. And look at what he says in verse 13, he starts to give his testimony. And here in Galatians 1 about how he met Jesus, and how Jesus called him, and he says in Galatians, chapter 1, verse 13, “For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently, and I tried to destroy it.” He was one of the Pharisees, “And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people. So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.” See how Paul thinks of it. “I was doing what had been passed down to me, what had been happening for a long ago.” But notice how he says it. He wasn't doing the law of God. No, he was doing the traditions. Now, if you know, from the book of Galatians, one of the things that they're bringing up, they're talking about days that need to be celebrated. They're talking about food to eat, whether it's clean or unclean. And one of the things they're bringing up is circumcision, like, maybe you need to be circumcised if you're really going to be a Christian. So, circumcision, this is something that God gives to Abraham that will be a symbol that they are God's people and all of his descendants, all the people who will become the nation of Israel. Circumcision will set God's people apart as a symbol that they're the Jews. They're the chosen nation of God. But see, that's a good thing that God gave Abraham and his descendants. But now here they're starting to say, Yeah, you should believe in Jesus, and you should get circumcised. And Paul's like, that's a different gospel. That's Jesus plus something else. Don't listen to that. Don't get bewitched by that. If you started out by faith, are you now going to be saved by works? Are you now going to make it about what you did, or is it really about what Jesus did? What are you really putting your trust in the things that you do, or the things that Jesus did for you?
Go over to Colossians, chapter 2, where he gets into this idea again. So, this is a common problem that we definitely all need to be aware of. And in Colossians 2, he talks about how they've received Christ Jesus, the Lord, in verse 6, and he says, “Walk in Jesus, just like you received him. You're rooted, and you're built up in Christ. You're established in your faith, just as you were taught, keep abounding in thanksgiving.” So, he's like you've got Christ. He's your foundation. Stay rooted in that and build upon that. And then he says in verse 8, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human” what everybody? “According to tradition.” See, you're starting out with Jesus. That's great. Watch out, they're going to try to add more than Jesus. Don't let them deceive you. Don't let them think that's more religious, that's more spiritual, that's more righteous. Watch out for that. He says, you’ve got to look out, or they will take you captive by their philosophy and their “empty deceit, according to the human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” Let's talk about Christ for a verse here, verse 9, “For in him,” in Jesus, “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority.”
Can we all agree here this morning that Jesus Christ is God? Can I get an amen here this morning? All right, so, hey, we don't need more than Jesus. Jesus is the one. Deity dwells in him. He has all rule. He has all authority. You don't need to follow anybody else to get to Jesus. You can go straight to him. Don't let people take you captive. And then he says this in verse 11, “In him, also, you were” what? “Circumcised.” And people are probably reading this thinking, but I wasn't circumcised, yes, with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ. In Christ is all you need to be made righteous. In fact, you don't have any righteousness that you bring to it, you bring to it your sin, and you receive by faith as a gift of grace. You get the righteousness of Jesus. He's the only one who has righteousness. And it is imputed, it is credited, it is freely given to you on the basis of your faith, not based on anything that you do.
And so, he goes, right after here, circumcision was the big work. Now, circumcision is not there. It was a real thing. It was for the Jews. But see now we're saying even people who aren't Jews need to do this to get in with God's people. And he's saying, no, no, no, you already have all that you need in Christ. So, take anything that God says to do, give it time, and people will start adding importance to it or adding more to it. What does he go to right after this, in verse 12, “having been buried with him in” what everybody? “Baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead, baptism, that great symbol that you have died with Christ and that you have been risen with Christ.” Well, what are people going to start saying about baptism? Baptism was great when John the Baptist was doing it. Baptism was great when Jesus did it. Baptism, everybody gets it in the book of Acts. Oh yeah, we're repenting. We're putting our faith in him. We're letting everybody know about it. Add Time, and what are people going to start saying? Oh, well, actually, you have to get baptized to be saved. Who's heard that one? That's religion, that's adding on. Jesus didn't say that. The apostles didn't say that. No, somebody back in the day said that. And then it started getting passed down, and it started to become the tradition. And all of a sudden, you can't just take Lord's supper at your church. No, Jesus, when he said, “Do this in remembrance of me,” well, now you need to do it every week, and now you need to do it like this. And in fact, do you know that when you take Lord's Supper, that that bread actually transfigures into the body of Jesus, and that that cup actually becomes the blood of Jesus. Jesus never said that. When Jesus was there with his body, with all of his blood inside of him, saying, “This is my body,” he wasn't thinking that they would think that bread was actually his body. He was showing them this bread is a symbol of the sacrifice I'm making for you with my flesh. But see, people, they add on to baptism, they add on to the Lord's Supper. Give anything that God says time, and people will find a way in their mind to make it more righteous, to make it more spiritual. That's what happens.
In fact, one of one of my favorite examples of this is the bronze serpent. If you're taking notes under point number one, write down the bronze serpent. Do you know about the bronze serpent from numbers 21 four to nine? This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible, one of my favorite things to talk about with the kids. When the people of Israel are complaining against God and against Moses, God sends fiery serpents among the people. You want to talk about a powerful illustration, probably for anybody, especially kids. Hey, kids who's been complaining, okay, how would you like it if I released snakes in the room right now? Right? That has changed some dinner conversations at my house over the years, right? How would you kids like it if I brought a snake in here, right now with all your complaining, right? So, this is like a horror movie. If you've ever read Numbers 21:4-9, it is terrifying that snakes are now biting people, and the poison from these serpents has got like this burning sensation, and people are dying, and the people are running to Moses, and they're saying, we were so wrong for our complaining. Please pray for us. Ask God to forgive us. And so, God tells Moses, put up this bronze serpent, and if people get bitten by one of the snakes, if they look at the bronze serpent, they will not die, but they will what? They'll live. And so, Moses puts up the bronze serpent, and everybody's getting over there, crawling, whatever they’ve got to do to look at that serpent and Jesus later on in John 3:14-15, he says, just like the bronze serpent was lifted up, so I will be lifted up. And everybody who looks at Jesus, you won't die in your sin, but you will live. You know what they did with that bronze serpent? Later on, they kept it, and eventually they started offering sacrifices to the bronze serpent.
In fact, write this down, 2 Kings 18:4, King Hezekiah, who's one of the kings that actually does what is right in the sight of the Lord, he goes, and he breaks the bronze serpent into pieces because they have started offering sacrifices to the bronze serpent. That's how people are. That's how religious people get. God does something. He gives us a beautiful symbol. He gives us a clear command. And we want to make it about something we can do in our own idea of righteousness. And so, you’ve got to be aware of this. You’ve got to watch out for this. If other people are going to bring this to you, you’ve got to watch out for this in your own heart. Go back to Mark 7, because that's really the issue. Look at the Scripture that Jesus uses here. Jesus, when he speaks, it's like a sword to your soul. It cuts straight to the thoughts and intents of your heart. Right when they ask the question, Jesus knows what this is really all about. And he says here in verse 6, well, “Did Isaiah prophesy of you?” And he quotes Isaiah 29 verse 13. And what does Jesus call these Pharisees who are asking them this question? He calls them hypocrites right away.
Now, he doesn't interact with their question like it's a serious or sincere question. He calls them out right away. He quotes Scripture, and he calls them hypocrites, this idea of actors, this idea of mask wearers. You guys don't really care about what my disciples are doing. You guys are just trying to get to me. And you know all these traditions that you do, that you think make you right? Well, did Isaiah say of you, you have look at verse 6 there, when he quotes this Scripture, “This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” This is always what Jesus cares about. Jesus doesn't care about the external actions, the way things would appear to us on the outside. Jesus is always seeing straight to your soul. He always cares about what's going on in your heart. I know you guys. You guys say so many things, but your hearts are not for God. Your hearts are not for me. In fact, he goes on to say, “In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” All that you guys think you're doing to worship God, it's empty, it's meaningless. It's vanity, because you're actually teaching manmade organized religion, rather than the actual words of God himself. You say it with your lips, but your heart's not into it. You act like you're worshiping, but you're just following your own teaching and tradition. And he calls them out here in Isaiah 29:13. If you go back to Isaiah 29, it's very fascinating. If you go to the verses right before Isaiah 29:13, it talks about a vision to the people in Jerusalem. And then some of the people, they act like they can't see the vision because it's in a book, and the book is sealed. And then other people act like they can't see, they can't read it, they can't read the book. So, you have some people saying, the book is sealed, we can't share it, and other people saying, oh, we don't know how to read the book. And so, you can see that associated with this idea of commandments of men and this tradition of the elders, is people all of a sudden can't hear God's words in his book. It's like the leaders are acting like, well, it's sealed. It's not for everybody. You don't need God's Word. Just come to me, I'll tell you what to do. And then the people are like, oh, we can't just read God's Word, we’ve got to have something else.
And so, what happens when people start following traditions? The traditions become the lens that you need to interpret Scripture. And if you don't go through the traditions, then it's like you can't even understand what the Bible says, and you can't interpret it. You can't obey it, you can't do it. It actually has this very disturbing effect whereby choosing the traditions, it cuts you off from actually obeying God and reading his Word and knowing him. And so, that's what Jesus goes after here. Look at verse 8. He says, “You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” It's not just like you're neutrally adding things on top of what God says, no, by getting into those traditions, you actually stop obeying God's commands. You leave the commands and end up with only the traditions, instead. And so, then Jesus here, he wants to give this example. And so, in verses 9 to 13, he brings up a case study a specific way that this is happening among the Jewish people. And he says, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.” So again, I want everyone to observe that Jesus is acting like your choices, these manmade traditions or the commands of God, which one are you going to follow? And then he says, verse 10, “For Moses said,” going back to the law here “honor your father and mother. And whoever reviles father and mother must surely die. But you say, If a man tells his father or his mother, whatever you would have gained from me is corban, that is given to God that you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother. Thus, you make void the word of God by your tradition that you have passed down.” So, the first verse that Jesus quotes there is Exodus 20:12. This is one of the ten Commandments, and let's just review that commandment to honor your father and mother. “That is a commandment with a promise that it may go well with you, that you may live long in the land so after it says to honor your father and mother.” This isn't a command for little children to obey their parents while they're growing up, although that's also a good command. This is for adults, because the next commands are, “Thou shall not murder and thou shall not commit adultery.” There's not a lot of adultery going on on the elementary school playground. Okay? So, these commands are for adults. Adults are supposed to value and respect their mother and father, and really the idea behind this command is there may come a time where your father or mother need you to care for them and financially support them and come alongside of them at the end of their life, like they raised you up at the beginning of your life. So, Honor your father and mother, and what is the level of value and respect we should have for our parents? Well, then he quotes here Exodus 21:17, “Whoever reviles father and mother must surely die.” You curse your parents. That comes with the death penalty. If you read through Exodus 21 it also talks about, if you strike your father or for Mother, you must surely die, like that kind of disrespect towards your parents cannot be tolerated among God's people, is the idea that it gives.
So, God, he has these commands that should really shape the way we all value our father and mother. We should all think about our parents in light of what God says here. But see, what they've done is they've said, well, there's this idea of corban. And what corban is is you can say, which sounds very nice when you hear it first, like, all the money that I have, all of my possessions, they all belong to who? Well, they belong to God. And so, I'm going to make this oath to give all this corban, to give all that I have, it's ultimately going to God. Now, that sounds religious, that sounds righteous, that sounds like, whoa, that person, they're really spiritual, but actually, what Jesus says is they're doing that, so they don't have to give money to their parents when they need it. So here they are acting like it all belongs to God. But then here's their father or mother, who needs help, who needs to be honored? Oh, sorry, Dad, sorry Mom, I've already said corban, I've already made an oath to give it all to God. I can't help you, and Jesus is like you are disobeying what God said to do with your parents in the name of your tradition, something you made up, something you handed down. And so, Jesus is exposing that when you add on to God's commands, it actually becomes a trap that takes you away from what God says, and you don't listen to what God says, and you're not trying to do what God says, because you're caught up now in a whole different tradition.
So, let's get that down for number two: “Beware those who say you can't interpret or obey what Scripture says.” Beware those who say that you can't interpret or obey what Scripture says. If there's ever somebody that you meet and they're trying to say, well, you don't really need to go straight to the Bible. You need to go through this person. You need to go through me. You need to be aware of that. You need to watch out for that, because now they're setting themself up as the authority, rather than God giving me authority through his Word, rather than Scripture being the authority this person or this tradition or this church now becomes the authority. You should watch out for that. You should be very wary of that. In fact, I would strongly encourage you to be wary of any man on planet earth who calls himself a priest. Where did they get the idea that they should be a priest? We have priests. That's how our sermon began. Priests are in the tabernacle, the Levitical priests of Israel. They're washing their hands and feet before they go into God's presence, or before they do a sacrifice. Okay? But then later on, who is our great high priest, who comes to bring us to God? What's his name, everybody? When Jesus dies on the cross, what happens in the temple? Does everybody know there's a massive veil separating the holy from the most holy place, and at the moment that Jesus dies, it just so happens that at that same exact moment in time, this veil rips from the top to the bottom, this massive tapestry in the Temple rips right down the middle, and there it is now the holy of holies wide open like anybody could go into it, because Jesus, he is the priest. He is the sacrifice. He fulfilled the law of Moses, and he offers everybody here direct access to God.
And guess what? The book of Hebrews doesn't say, so we should reestablish the priesthood. It says, no, we have a great high priest. In fact, Peter even acts like we're going to be a whole kingdom of priests, a whole nation of priests. So how did we even get to priests again? Have you ever thought about that? Where does that even come from? It does not come from the Scripture. It comes from the tradition of the church, the only people who were priests in the Scripture were the Levites. And where do we get this idea of celibate priests? Have you ever wondered about that? Because the Levites, they were around for generation after generation after generation. So where does that idea even come from? It's not from God. It's manmade religion. It's organized religion. It's a breeding ground for massive hypocrisy.
I don't want anybody here at this church to ever call me teacher, to ever call me father. You don't even really need to call me Pastor Bobby. I know a lot of you guys like to do that. Bobby is just fine, even brother Bobby would probably be better than Pastor Bobby, or even just Bobby, that would be nice. I'd like to hear just Bobby, yes, put me in my place. I'm just one of the bros, right? If you ever see me come out here like, well, me and the elders have really been praying, and we've really been thinking, and we have decided that this is what you need to be like, bro, listen, I was there that day. You said you wouldn't do this, right? Like I have no authority here. There is no authority in and of me. The only authority that I have is one hundred percent derived straight from the Scripture of the Almighty God. It's all coming from his Word. And what we can do here at this church, and we will die on this hill. This is compass Bible Church. We can open up this book together. We can study and interpret what God says, and we can obey his commandments by the power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus really does make people new creations where the old is gone and the new has come. He put gives you a new heart. He puts His Spirit within you. And now your eyes are open to the revelation of God. Now you can hear and now you can do what Jesus tells you to do. You can obey the commandments of God by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, working in your life. We can really do this together. We don't need traditions. We don't need something else. It's from God, through Jesus, straight to us. That's what we're here to do.
And don't get deceived into thinking, but they've got this long standing tradition over here. They've got more to say over here. Well, that priest, he says it's supposed to be like this, and he quotes this person who's not one of the authors of Scripture, who says it's supposed to be like this. Don't be deceived by that. Beware of that. In fact, why is this guy even calling himself a priest? The presence of the glory of God is not right now, currently dwelling in any one particular place, the Spirit of the Living God is dwelling in each one of us who have believed in Jesus Christ. We don't need a priest going into the holy place. We're not doing sacrifices anymore to atone for sin. There has been a once and for all sacrifice in Jesus Christ. So, all of the things that the priests were doing have been fulfilled in Christ. So, what are these priests even doing? If you start thinking about it, it makes sense that if you have priests, they're going to need something holy to do, and they're going to start making things very spiritual and very religious, because that's what the priests were for. But why do we even have priests today? That's something that we really need to think about, and we need to pray for and be concerned for those who are starting to follow the traditions that are not of God, but they are of man.
Now go back to the quote again from Isaiah 29:13 that's in Mark 7:6, when he calls them hypocrites. I want to just bring everybody's attention to what he says. This is the heart of the issue. “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” When you came here to church this morning, my question for you is, does Jesus have your heart? Because even if we don't add on to what Jesus has told us to do, we are commanded to assemble in the name of Jesus. We are commanded to preach the Word in season and out of season. And even if we're just doing what we've been commanded to do, you could still do it in a way where you're just going through the motions. Is that why you're here today? How many of your if you are here today because a family member brought you to be here? How many of you are here today because this is what you do. You go to church on a Sunday morning. This is your routine. This is your regular, expected activity. Did you come here today because you want to offer your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ? Did you come here today because you want to worship him based on all that Jesus has done for you through his death, through his resurrection, how he's with you always to the end of the age, how he's radically transformed you from the inside out? Are you here to give your heart to Jesus, or are you just going through the motions?
Anybody can become a religious person. You just start doing moral, good things and acting like it's making you righteous, just by good doing it, just by going through it, all of us can become a part of the problem of manmade religion. Oh, I go to church, oh, I read the Bible. Therefore conclusion, I'm a good person. Everything's fine with me. The only way that any of us can be right with God is only through Jesus, and the only logical response is to give our whole lives. We are the sacrifice, and we give him our heart. We give him all that we are. Did you come here today not because you're a part of some religion or you're trying to do good things, but did you come here today genuinely because you love Jesus from your heart? Go to Mark, chapter 12, and they're going to keep asking Jesus questions. They're going to keep trying to take Jesus down and stump him. And in Mark 12, you get a bunch of these questions. And then eventually this one guy comes up in verse 28 Mark 12:28, “And one of the scribes came up and he heard them disputing with one another. He sees the arguments going on here between the Sadducees and Pharisees, and seeing that, he answered them well, he asked him which commandment is the most important of all?” So, this feels like this guy who comes up and asks Jesus after everybody else has been trying to stump Jesus. Perhaps this man asks like a sincere question, hey, Jesus, out of all the commands, which one is the greatest? And maybe you've heard the answer verse 29, Jesus answered, “The most important is hear O Israel,” quoting Deuteronomy 64, sometimes referred to as the Shema, “Hear O Israel The Lord our God. The Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your” what everybody? Oh, he wants all of you, your soul, your mind, your strength. What does God want? He wants you.
God doesn't delight in sacrifices and burnt offerings. God delights in your obedience. What did Jesus say over and over on the last night before he died, to his disciples? “If you love me, you will keep” what? “My commandments.” See. When you really have a heart for God, you're ready to hear what God tells you to do, and you actually want to do it out of your love and Thanksgiving, and you just think God is so worthy. Jesus, what he did for you, it's changed everything about you. Of course, I want to do what Jesus says, See, is it really about loving God with all your heart? And then he says the second verse, 31 is this, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There's no other commandment greater than these. And the scribes said to him, ‘You are right, teacher.’” Look at this guy. He's like, wow, that was a great answer. Jesus, you have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, to love one neighbors as yourself, it's much more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices. So not only are people adding all these traditions, but let's go back to what God said, back when God did want offerings, and he did want sacrifices. Is that what God really wanted was people just to go through the motions of these sacrifices, or did God want them to confess and repent of their sin and to really turn to him with all their heart? That's why one of the main things that God says throughout the Hebrew Scripture is to obey is better than sacrifice, because you can go through the motions, but where is your heart? And look when this guy says that, look what Jesus says in verse 34, “When Jesus saw that, he answered wisely. He said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’” Hey, this guy right here, he gets it. This is one of the few people that Jesus interacted with that wasn't making it about the external actions of religion, but the internal reality of your soul. Who are you on the inside, just between you and Jesus? He already knows it right now. Jesus knows if you're an actor. Jesus knows if you're wearing a mask here on a Sunday morning, or Jesus knows if you love him from the heart. And I wonder how many of us sing songs where we honor him with our lips, but our hearts are far from him. He already knows about it.
Go over to Hebrews, chapter 10, that the book of Hebrews really tries to take people out of the Old Covenant, or out of the traditions of Judaism, and bring them into the New Covenant through Christ. The New Covenant, Hebrew says, is greater. It's superior. And so he's showing them that Jesus is the priest. He's showing them that Jesus is the sacrifice. He's showing them that in Jesus we find the Sabbath rest. He's saying all these things that the law was about, they were pointing to and fulfilled by Jesus. He's the one you need. And then, after making this clear, especially in Hebrews, chapter 10, he says in Hebrews 10:19, if everybody could look at these verses with me to conclude, Hebrews 10:19, “Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.” Okay? Jesus, pure and righteous. Blood is what redeems us. He is the sacrifice. And so, notice what it says. “We can enter the holy place by the new and living way that he opened for us, through the curtain,” through the veil, through the massive tapestry that was ripped, “that is through his flesh.” And since we have a great priest over the house of God, we don't need a priest. We already have a priest. “Let us draw near with a true” what, everyone? Do you realize that you don't need to go to a place. You don't need to follow a liturgy. You don't need to go through rituals or routines. You, in your own heart, can go right up to the throne of grace, because Jesus Christ is your priest who intercedes for you, because he was the sacrifice. You can go right to God and worship him at any time. And we can do it when we come together to worship, but you can worship now in spirit and in truth. You don't have to go to a place. You don't have to be led by some other person. It's between you and God. Jesus has opened up a new and living way.
And so, we want to beware of the traditions. We want to watch out for what Jesus exposed, but we don't want to miss the main point that Jesus made, which is what's going on in your heart. And I want to ask you, on Sunday, October 5, when you did a religious thing to assemble with a bunch of other believers and to worship, were you just going through the motions, or did you come here today to give Jesus your heart? Because it is in Christ alone that we have direct access to the holy presence of the living God, and you can draw near to him with a true heart, with full assurance of your faith. And so, I encourage you to worship God right now, all because of Jesus. Give God your heart. Let's pray together.
Father, I thank you so much for everybody here that you would bring us together this morning. And God, I thank you for this warning that we got from Jesus today, a warning that is timely, that is needed here at our church. God, I pray for some of our brothers in Christ who might be considering following the traditions of church, the traditions of religion. I pray that they could hear the words of Christ. And I pray for all of us that we would be wary, that we would be on guard, that we would not think, Well, I do the good things. I do the right things. I go to church. I pray that we would never find some kind of false assurance in the things that we've done or the things that our church does. I pray that all of our assurance would be fully in your Son, Jesus, Father, we just pray that you would put the name of Jesus on all of our hearts. We pray that you would lift the name of Jesus high in Huntington Beach. We pray that we could see what happens when he died on the cross that day, that there was the pure and perfect sacrifice paying for all of our sin. There was the curtain ripping opening the way to you, and there he was the resurrected Lord, the one who's at your right hand and the Majesty on high, the name above every name. There he is, Jesus, the priest that we have right now. And Father, we know that you are hearing this prayer because Jesus is interceding for us. He's mediating between you and us. He's bringing us into your presence. God, I thank you that you could hear this prayer when we're all together. I thank you that anybody who believes in Jesus can go and pray to you even when they're all alone, and they can go right into your holy presence, all because of what Jesus has done. Father, I pray that we would never put glory or credit or righteousness in anything else other than the name of Jesus and him alone. It is in Christ alone our hope is found. And so May Jesus have our whole hearts, and may he get all the glory in our lives and in our church. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.