Well, it may be helpful for us just to remember here that Mark's gospel is not a collection of random events that took place in Jesus's life.
Now, we've said this many times throughout this study, and from time to time, it's just good to be reminded of it.
Because when we come to this particular passage, it seems like it is placed oddly in Mark's gospel, right?
I mean, it just, it kind of sticks out a little bit.
And as we're going through, we know that Mark isn't dealing with things in a strictly chronological way.
But he's just finished up this section where he's really dealing with the disciples a lot,
and these events that surround the disciples and them beginning to see that he is truly the Son of God, that he is divine in his nature.
And then he's about to move forward to some other miracles.
This passage contains no miracles.
There is actually some very important teaching.
But it just seems odd that it would be placed here.
Like, why not put this back in chapter 3 when he was already dealing with the Pharisees and the issues over the Sabbath and those kinds of things?
But, of course, we understand that it is not here by any kind of mistake.
It's actually here for quite an important purpose.
When we're looking at the overall timelines here of what's happening in Jesus's life,
remember, in these last few verses in chapter 6, Jesus's popularity has probably reached its peak in Galilee.
That's where he spent most of his time up to this point, especially in Capernaum.
And then there's this issue of the feeding of the 5,000, and then they're following him everywhere, and he's going through Gennesaret.
His popularity in Galilee really kind of reaches its peak.
But then remember, the very next day, after the feeding of the 5,000, John tells us that most of Jesus's followers left him.
And then what's he going to do at the end of this passage?
If you've read ahead, you know the places that he goes to next are not in the Jewish regions of Galilee.
He spends his time among the Gentiles now.
What does this passage help us understand in that transition?
It helps us understand why.
These men, these Pharisees and scribes, represented the apostate nation of Israel.
And it was necessary, as we'll get to in a couple of weeks,
it was necessary for Jesus to first go to the Jews.
And he even instructed his apostles to do the same thing.
But it was never meant, the gospel was never meant to be exclusive to the Jews.
It just began with them.
And in their apostasy, and perhaps even to reveal their apostasy,
Jesus spends this time in Galilee.
He exposes these Pharisees and scribes.
And then from there, he moves on.
You remember what they're doing.
They're seeking to destroy him.
And so Jesus leaves that.
Maybe you would think, if maybe you're new to the gospel books,
and you're looking at all of these really amazing things that Jesus has done,
and you think, everywhere Jesus goes, everybody that's sick is all of a sudden well.
Like, that's amazing.
And he's controlling storms with his words, and he's feeding people,
thousands of people, with just a few pieces of fish and bread.
And we think, why would anybody be against that?
Like, who in the world would see that and have a problem with Jesus?
Well, then Mark gives us this little example of why these people had a problem with Jesus.
They basically ignored all of those things of his identity and what he was doing
because they were so deeply offended at his lack of regard for them and their rules.
And that's what we're really going to get into today.
It may be a temptation for us, as we look through these verses,
to focus so much on these three parentheticals
that we actually end up missing the real issues here
and the main point of the passage itself.
This is a popular passage in modern times among modern Christians,
at least here in the United States,
because there's almost like this generational war that happens in churches.
There is one generation that are used to worshiping or doing things in one way,
and then there is another generation that wants to change all of that and do different things.
And this becomes somewhat of a battleground passage among some people
where those who want to change all the stuff that has traditionally been done
will come to this passage in verse 7,
and they'll just look at those parentheticals.
And they'll say, well, you're just a Pharisee because this is what they were doing.
They had all of these traditions that they did,
and then there was this Corbin thing, and look what this is,
and then look what Jesus declared was all of a sudden fine.
And they use this, they focus on the parentheticals to say,
tradition is bad, Jesus says we can do whatever we want,
and that kind of becomes their synopsis of the passage.
Okay, they may prove their point in pointing out the dangers of traditionalism
and certainly the dangers of legalism,
but in the process they may actually miss the point of the passage.
There are two major issues at stake in this confrontation that Jesus has with the Pharisees.
These are so important.
In fact, if you'd like to keep notes, you should probably write these down.
This is what's going to guide our conversation, our time of preaching today, okay?
The first one is this, the authority of Scripture.
The authority of Scripture is at stake here.
That's an issue.
It's not just about the Pharisees had a way of doing things
and others had a different way of doing it.
It's not just about that.
It's about the questioning of the authority of the Bible.
Then there's the way of salvation.
The gospel is implicated here,
and we're going to deal with that mainly next week.
Both of these are interwoven in both of these sections, okay?
They're interwoven all throughout.
We're going to deal with them both ways.
But this section that we're dealing with today
is going to have more of a focus on the authority of the Bible,
the authority of Scripture.
Next Sunday is going to have more of a focus
on how what the Pharisees were doing
was actually distorting the gospel,
and they were perverting a true gospel.
The great danger of Phariseeism,
listen, especially those of you who are like me
that just sometimes like to go against the grain
on purpose to aggravate people, okay?
The danger of Phariseeism
is not that they limit
your freedom to do what you want to do.
That's not the danger here.
The danger of true Phariseeism
is that it ultimately denies the authority of the Bible,
and it presents a false gospel
that cannot save you.
That's the point.
That's what we want to understand
as we go through these verses, okay?
I've broken this section today,
1 through 13, into just three statements.
Maybe they'll be helpful for you as well.
The first thing that I wrote down
for the first four verses is this,
developing tradition.
Developing tradition.
Look with me at 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.
And so we understand
that religious leaders
are seldom presented in the gospels
as friendly to Jesus.
And this passage is no exception to that.
And remember, the Pharisees and the scribes
played a very significant role
in the life of Judaism,
especially in the first century.
Now, these men considered themselves
to be the holiest of Israelites,
but their understanding of holiness
was very superficial.
It was all external.
And they established themselves
as the religious authorities of the people.
They demanded that all the people
listen to them
and follow their regulations
that they had developed.
And they were the type of individuals,
as we studied through the gospels,
that always had an ax to grind.
You know those type of people, right?
You probably work with people
like that sometimes,
that you can't actually have
a conversation with them
without them bringing up something
that they don't like
about what you're doing
or how you're doing it.
You know those people.
The Pharisees were those people.
And it wasn't just with Jesus.
It was with everybody.
They always had an ax to grind.
There was always something
they were picking apart
about everybody else.
And by the way,
when it came to their traditions,
it seems like they were actually
pretty good at keeping their laws.
But they were also very open
to condemn everybody else
for not keeping their laws.
And so Mark records
that a group of these men
come from Jerusalem again,
and they have surrounded Jesus.
Look at verse one again.
Now when the Pharisees gathered to him,
the implication here in the language
is that they have encircled him almost.
That's kind of the picture we get.
Jesus is with people.
The Pharisees kind of stand
in between that.
They encircle Jesus.
Why?
In order that they may trap him.
That's what they wanted to do.
And their accusation on this day
seems so silly.
What they were upset about
was that some of Jesus' disciples
ate some food in front of them,
and they didn't wash their hands first.
And they've determined
that because the disciples
didn't wash their hands,
that they're going to surround Jesus.
They're going to bring an accusation
against him,
and they're going to cause a problem.
Look at verse three.
Here's the parenthetical.
For 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.
So Mark gives us a little explanation here
of this is why they were bothered.
This is what was going on.
And so the first thing obviously
has to do with them washing their hands.
And then he says,
this is what the Jews do.
They do not eat unless they wash their hands.
And there's a way that they would do this.
This was regulated by the Pharisees.
They had to do it a certain way.
They took some water
and they first held their fingertips up
so that when the water came down,
it would drip off of their wrist.
And then they would immediately
turn their fingertips down
and it would run off the other direction.
And then they would take their fist
and they would kind of like
scrub their hands with their fist.
In fact, your Bible may actually
have a footnote here
that says that a literal interpretation
of this Greek phrase
means that they washed with a fist.
And that's what they're doing.
They're scrubbing their hands.
Now, this was just to eat a meal.
And then Mark tells us
that there are other things like this
that they did.
In fact, when they went to the marketplace,
they would take a bath afterwards.
And we can see archaeologically,
there are all these mikvahs
that are around Israel
that would be commonplace
and around many homes.
And basically, they were so concerned
with being defiled in the marketplace
because you never know
who you're going to bump into there.
You may bump into a Gentile.
You may bump into an unclean person.
Remember the lady with the issue of blood?
She presses through the crowd.
Nobody knows she has an issue of blood
until Jesus actually brings attention to it.
And then all of a sudden,
all of them are defiled.
They're all unclean.
And they got to go home and take a bath.
And they got to take a bath
so they can have a meal.
And there were these laws
in regards, not God's laws,
these were pharisaical laws
that according to washing pots
and cups and all these things
is really, it got quite extensive.
And that's really what Mark
is describing here.
And so the offense of the Pharisees
and scribes here
had to do with breaking
the tradition of the elders.
So this was developed over time.
Remember, there's a 400-year gap
between the return from Babylon
and Jesus' birth.
And in the midst of this time,
it started as a noble reason.
They began to develop these laws
that would help them
obey the Lord better
because it was disobedience to the Lord
that got them in the mess with Babylon.
And so they developed these things.
There is, in the 3rd or 4th century BC,
the Mishnah was developed.
This, if you were to have a copy of it today,
it's about 1,000 pages.
And basically, the Mishnah
is a commentary on the Torah.
The Torah is God's law.
That is the Old Testament scriptures.
The Mishnah is this really long book
that describes how you are to go
about obeying God's law
in various circumstances.
And then probably the 2nd century AD,
a multi-volume set comes out
called the Talmud.
And the Talmud is a commentary
on the Mishnah.
So think about this.
God's law is hard enough.
It's demanding.
And then these men,
over the course of all these years,
have developed hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of more laws
that God did not require,
but they required.
And they developed this tradition
that became known as
the tradition of the elders.
Now, the motivation behind
the development of these traditions
may have been noble,
but they were fundamentally flawed
from the beginning.
And here's why.
The reason they developed them
is because they considered
God's given word
as insufficient
for them to know
how they were to live out their life
in various circumstances.
They did not believe
in the sufficiency of scripture.
So even if they just did this
so that they could try to keep
God's laws the best
that they possibly could,
their assumption was that
God's word wasn't enough.
Now, we need to acknowledge
that tradition
is not intrinsically evil.
We know that, right?
We all have traditions.
Our day-to-day life
is directed by tradition
that we don't even recognize
that we have.
The very structure
of our service today
is not based on something
that God has told us to do.
He didn't say,
this is what your service order should be.
This is based on tradition.
It's the things that we have gathered
and this is how we do it.
And if we change it,
it bothers me.
We don't like to do that, right?
But there's nothing intrinsically evil
about tradition.
Perhaps the way that we see this
most clearly
is in the celebration of holidays.
But at the same time,
we should acknowledge
that tradition
has this unique way
of creating division
and conflict.
There is a particular tradition
that my family has
that Julie and I
have fought about
for 12 years now.
And it has to do
with birthday celebrations.
Now, my family,
my mom especially,
since I was born,
I would imagine
even since before I was born,
even going back
to my brother's birth,
everybody's birthday
gets a birthday cake.
It doesn't matter
how old you are.
Now, this is a common tradition.
I recognize that.
But every year,
it doesn't matter
how old you are.
It doesn't matter
how you're related
to the family.
You may get no gifts.
We may not even get together.
But mom wants to know
that on my birthday,
I had a birthday cake.
And the birthday cake
is not like
whatever you want it to be.
It's a quarter sheet cake
that you get
from the grocery store.
It's white cake.
Don't even bother
suggesting chocolate.
It's not that
we don't like chocolate.
We're blanking ships.
We don't eat chocolate cake.
That's not what
we do on birthdays.
We didn't even get
marbled cake.
It's white cake,
buttercream icing.
Don't ask for the whipped stuff.
Buttercream.
It doesn't matter
what the design is.
It just has to be
a quarter sheet cake,
white cake
with buttercream icing.
And then to go along
with that
is there's candles
that correspond to age.
I know that's
a common tradition as well.
And then when it comes time
to sing the happy birthday song,
what my family does,
the right way to do it
is that
you blow the candles out
first.
And that is what signifies
to everyone in the room,
okay, it's time to now
sing the song.
It's like,
it's like the maestro
of an orchestra
saying, all right,
here we go.
And then he brings
everybody in.
Okay, the blowing of the candles
is bringing everybody in.
All right.
Julie comes along
and my sister-in-law,
Kathleen.
And together they decide,
I don't want sheet cake.
I want cookie cake.
Like some kind of barbarian.
They want cookie cake.
And it gets worse
because they don't blow
the candles out first.
They sing first.
And then they blow out candles,
which is so weird.
Why would you do that?
That's a tradition
that we have.
All right.
It bothers me
when we don't follow
that tradition.
Cookie cake is weird.
I like cookies.
But then on a birthday,
you don't have cookie cake.
That's not what you eat.
Okay.
Now,
it would be one thing
for me to just acknowledge
I have a preference
with birthday cakes.
I have a preference
and Julie has a preference
and we just agree
that we have different
preferences on it.
Okay, that would be
one way to handle it.
Another way to handle it
would be to say,
Julie,
so long as you are committed
to breaking this tradition,
you will never be
a real blink and ship.
Right?
That would be another way
to process that tradition.
Here's what began happening
with the Pharisees
and the scribes.
They developed these traditions.
They developed these regulations.
And they essentially said,
if you don't follow these,
you are not a true child of God.
You are not a true Israelite.
You are not pleasing to the Lord.
Neither are you acceptable
to the Lord.
And it's not that
the tradition was wrong.
It's not that having things
that help guide what you're doing
is a bad thing to do.
That's okay to do.
The problem was that
they were turning their traditions
into something that it wasn't.
And they ended up denying
the authority of God's word.
And they ended up teaching
that outward conformity
to their rules
was actually necessary
for salvation.
And it produced this fear.
Think about these Jews
that would go to the marketplace.
They're so worried
about being unclean
because they accidentally
touched somebody
that is ceremonial unclean
that all of a sudden
they're not acceptable
to God anymore.
And so they have baths
outside of their house
in order that they can clean up
as soon as they come back
from the marketplace
so that God doesn't get angry
with them.
That's what,
it developed this fear.
Now listen,
I don't know what kind of environment
you've grown up in.
And I don't know
what kind of traditions
you've been taught
throughout your life.
And again,
there's nothing wrong
with traditions
in and of themselves.
But if you're living
by traditions
to the extent
that you think
if I don't hurry up
and fix this thing
that I messed up,
God's going to be angry with me,
there's a problem.
So first we see
developing tradition,
then we see
elevating tradition.
Verse five,
and the Pharisees
and the scribes
asked him,
why do your disciples
not walk according
to the tradition
of the elders,
but instead
eat with defiled hands?
Now this is not
an example
of a genuine inquiry
on their part.
They're not asking
a sincere question here.
This is an accusation.
Remember,
they were not Galileans.
Mark says in verse one,
they came from Jerusalem
and there's one reason
that they came.
They wanted to entrap Jesus.
They were trying
to find a way
to accuse him
in order that they might
destroy him.
In fact,
just flip a couple of pages
back to chapter three.
We've seen this already.
Mark chapter three,
look at verse six.
Jesus has just healed
the man with the withered hand.
They were unhappy
that he did that
on the Sabbath.
And here's what happened.
The Pharisees went out
and immediately held counsel
with the Herodians,
which were their enemies,
and they held counsel
against him
how they might
destroy him.
That's months
before
this takes place,
or at least in the way
that Mark presents it.
Months before.
Now there are
these delegations
of Pharisees
and scribes
coming to Galilee
from Jerusalem
for the sole purpose
of finding a way
to accuse Jesus
so that they might
destroy him.
And why did they
want to destroy him?
It wasn't because
he broke God's law.
It wasn't because
he was doing bad things.
It was because
he broke their law
and their tradition.
Their anger
was not due
to any violation
against God.
It was their own pride.
They had elevated
their traditions
to a place
of equality
with God's word.
So they were
deeply offended then
whenever Jesus
and his disciples
disregarded their rules.
Now think about this.
Their hearts
were so hardened
to the truth
that they refused
to consider
all that Jesus
had done and taught.
They were so filled
with pride
that they sought
to destroy
to murder
the one
who walked on water
and healed
the multitudes
and fed
thousands of people
and all these things
we've seen Jesus do.
They didn't care
about that.
They were blind
to that.
Why?
Their own pride.
And what their pride
had caused them
to do was elevate
their tradition
to the place
of God's word.
Now this question
also reveals
another problem.
This question
that the Pharisees
and scribes
asked Jesus.
And it's not only
that they denied
the authority
of scripture
but it actually
begins to reveal
their false gospel.
So by elevating
their rules
to be equal
with God's word
they linked
acceptance
with God
with conformity
to their laws.
And essentially
this is what
their question
was saying.
You can't be
right with God
if you're
not obedient
to us.
Do you see
the link
that's being made
here?
This is a legitimate
link.
They're saying
if you break
our law
it's as if
you are breaking
God's law
therefore the one
who is really
offended right now
is not the
pharisaical sect
but it's God
himself
is displeased
with you
not because
of his law
but because
of our law.
And so
we begin
to see
their false
gospel.
Their gospel
that they're
purporting
is that
you are
right with
God
based on
how you
fulfill
the law.
It was
self-righteousness
had nothing
to do
with God's
grace
had nothing
to do
with mercy
had nothing
to do
with faith
it was
totally
antithetical
to everything
Jesus was
teaching
was true.
And they
said no
eternal life
and acceptance
with God
is based
on how
good of a
Jew you
are
and not
only how
good of a
Jew you
are
but how
well you
follow all
of these
other things
as well.
They had
elevated
their
tradition.
And this
is the
very
definition
of
legalism
isn't it?
That's the
word that
we most
often use
for this
is legalism
and we
can be a
little too
quick to
label someone
as a
legalist
simply for
having a
particular
standard
and that's
really wrong
of us
to do
but
true
legalism
is when
outward
conformity
is linked
with
acceptance
with
God
in
eternity.
That's
true
legalism.
It
perverts
the
gospel
and
it
diminishes
God's
word.
Now I want
to be
careful
I'm going
to illustrate
this and
I want
to be
careful
how I
do it
because
I don't
want
to be
disrespectful.
Julie
and I
both grew
up in
some
environments
that
leaned
this way
in some
areas
and Julie
I think
more so
than me
and we
know people
who have
put such
an incredible
amount of
emphasis on
external matters
like what
you wear
and in an
attempt to
guard against
immodesty
and inappropriate
dress which are
good things to
guard against
they developed
these particular
traditions and
rules that
they would try
to enforce on
others and
it was a
noble reason
at heart but
what they ended
up doing was
falling into
this pharisaical
trap and
let's be
honest I
have plenty
of those
things in
that I'm
guilty of
doing as
well and
have been
now
there was a
particular thing
that they
felt was
especially
egregious
and that was
for a
woman to
wear pants
and I
don't mean
this in a
funny way I
mean this in
a real way
this is this
and they still
live this way
they believe
this in this
way that a
woman shouldn't
wear pants
now if that's
a standard that
you have that
bothers me not
in the least
bit I think
that's fine my
mom for the
most part
lives that
way and
there's no
problem there
but what
they would do
is this would
work itself
out in many
kind of
unreasonable
ways what
they would
do is they
would quote
this passage
in Leviticus
that says a
woman should
not wear that
which pertained
to a man and
a man should
not wear that
which pertained
to a woman
and they would
say well pants
really belong to
a man so for
a woman to wear
pants that means
that their
femininity has
been diminished
and they're
actually becoming
more masculine
in that process
and then when you
say well explain
to me how that
works and they
would point to
restroom signs and
they say well how
do you know which
bathroom to go to
and so you only
know because the
ladies restroom has
a symbol with a
woman with a
skirt and a
men's restroom you
only know that
that's the men's
not because it
says men's but
because there's a
symbol of pants
and that and they
honestly that's that's
what they would use
they would they
would describe it in
this way there and
there were funny
things that were
outworkings of this
whenever Julie
growing up in her
youth group whenever
they would go on a
ski trip from time
to time they they
were it was
necessary their
particular regulation
was to wear culottes
if you know what
those are they're
kind of unusual but
they're I think
they're popular I
think they get
popular again aren't
they but this they
were popular anyways
they would wear these
culottes well they
would wear ski bibs
and you know what
ski bibs are they
may basically make
you look like
brightly colored
marshmallows coming
down the the ski slope
like they're just
massive like they're
puffy those kinds of
things they would have
ski bibs they
weren't allowed to
just wear ski bibs
they had to wear
culottes over top of
their ski bibs and
they called them ski
lots is what they
called them and which
is just a silly way to
see how this begins to
be an outworking of of
this tradition now if
that's a tradition you
hold fine no problem
the problem becomes when
they begin to link
conformity to those
regulations to the
sincerity and genuine
nature of a person's
heart for Jesus none of
none of my friends in in
that in that particular
situation would ever say
that salvation comes
from anything except for
the grace of God but but
it would not be uncommon
for a woman to come to
church in a pair of
pants and then leave and
then the statement after
they walk out is can you
believe they call
themselves a Christian and
they would dress like that
to church now we can
apply that to a lot of
different things in my
my experience there were
movie theaters was a
problem you couldn't do
that there there were
other things drum sets
and lots of like silly
things okay silly things
washing hands and
washing pots those kinds
of things and the problem
is not that they had
these standards the problem
is that they judged a
person's heart for God on
the basis of their
conformity to their rules
not actually their genuine
heart to obey God and
worship him and love him
according to the
scriptures you understand
the problem here the
difference I'm not saying
that it's problem to have
rules or traditions that's
fine that may be helpful
but we must be careful and
before we condemn people
like I just illustrated
let's stop and think about
all the subtle ways that we
may be doing the same thing
how quickly we may judge a
person's heart with God based
on the way that they look or
or some things that that they
may do that really just break
our cultural standard more
than it actually breaks God's
law we have those things don't
we I can think of those things
in my own heart I know you can
too and it may not be quite as
silly as ski lots but we need
to beware of this I have more
preferences than probably you
could bear to listen to my
preferences always need to be
subservient to the truth that's
the emphasis here what is it
that matters God's law not
Jared's law so have your cookie
cake and wear your ski bibs and
bang your drum Kyle and less
obedient to the Lord finally
idolizing tradition developing
tradition elevating tradition and
then Jesus exposes it as not
merely elevating it to the place
of scripture but he exposes it as
a form of idolatry you can sense the
righteous indignation in Jesus's
words here that we're about to read
he responds to them with passion it's
emphatic even in English there's a
place where they reveal this the
emphatic nature the language I'm
putting an explanation point on I
think it's verse number nine they put
that here because Jesus's words here
are so forceful he's seeing he's
seeing more to this than what is just
a misplaced tradition they become an
idol verse 6 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
they worship me teaching as
doctrines the commandments of men you
leave the commandment of God and hold
to the tradition of men so on the one
hand the Pharisees were denying the
authority of scripture by elevating
their rules on the other hand Jesus
was affirming the authority of
scripture by using Isaiah's prophecy to
say this is who you are Isaiah was
talking about you that everything looks
fine on the outside it looks like
you've got it all together and you're
wearing all the right things and you're
saying all the right things and and
nobody's gonna be more pious than what
you are but your heart is far from him
and Jesus goes on to say that means that
your worship is worthless in vain you
worship me why because you teach as
commandments the doctrines of men he
says you're a bunch of hypocrites what
does he mean by that he doesn't mean
that they have moments of weakness where
they fall short of their own standard
that's just called being human okay this
this word is it comes from Greek theater
it has to do with putting on a mask in
fact I think that's might be a more
literal translation is to put on a mask
whenever they would have these three
theatrical shows in Greek culture they
would have mask attached to sticks
perhaps and they would that would show
which character they were performing as
in that moment okay now the mask was
one thing the person behind the mask was
something completely different and
that's what Jesus is saying you're like
these people in the theater on the
outside this is what you say and this is
what you do and and you've got this this
exterior functioning as if you are a
a great child of God and a great
Israelite but in your heart you
couldn't be further from that you're
completely different person it's not
really who you are they honor God with
their lips but they didn't genuinely
love him with their hearts in the
process of all of this lawmaking they
failed to follow the most important law
Deuteronomy 6 5 you shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your
might and you may want to write down
Isaiah chapter 1 verses 10 through 18
we'll go there now but you may want to
read that later God's problem with
Israel in those moments was not that
they weren't doing the feast and they
weren't doing the sacrifices his problem
actually was that they were doing it he
said I'm tired of your feast I'm tired of
your sacrifices because they don't have
your heart and Jesus concluded this
charge against them by saying they had
rejected the word of God in order to
hold to their traditions so that their
tradition quite literally had become an
idol and by enforcing their laws in the
place of God's word they ultimately made
themselves gods this is what Sinclair
Ferguson said they had replaced God's
love with self-love God's law with man's
tradition and having made themselves
their own gods they were insisting that
others follow them or perish now they
would have never said that but that's
essentially what they were doing verse
9 Jesus gives an example 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 as Corbin that is given to God then 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
handed down and many such things you do you
can imagine the shock on their face when
Jesus makes the charge and then he gives this
example of what they were actually doing it
was emphatic and you need to remember here
that their tradition was initially developed as
a means of keeping God's law but what Jesus
was now condemning them for was intentionally
rejecting God's law he said you have a clever
way of rejecting the commandment in place of your
own tradition now this example that he gives has
to do with this tradition called Corbin and
basically the way that it works it kind of gets
convoluted but the way that it works is if a
person wanted to designate their possessions for a gift
to God or to God's service a pharisaical tradition was
that they would pronounce Corbin over those possessions
and they would remain in control of those things but
they weren't allowed to be used for other purposes or
given to other people okay so they they say I want to
give this to God I'm going to pronounce Corbin over it and
at the end of my life it goes to the church or goes to the
temple goes to whatever okay that's essentially what is
happening here and there's a couple of reasons that people
may do this the first reason is a genuine devotion to God and
there's nothing wrong with that the Bible talks about making vows there's
no problem with making a vow to the Lord we need to make sure we're very
mindful of how we do that but essentially they would say I want to
please the Lord I want to give this to the Lord and so they pronounce
Corbin and the situation that Jesus presents is as if a young man has
pronounced Corbin over a certain amount of possessions to be given to the
Lord and then some point down the road his aged parents have a problem and
they need assistance and they come to him and they say we need some help can
you help and and care for us as Moses has commanded that we do
and they go and they say okay I want to help and then the Pharisees stop them and
say no you can't do that you can't use these resources to help your parents
because you pronounced Corbin over those those issues and look at Jesus's
language in verse number 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his
father or mother in other words the Pharisees and scribes were saying no you
can't help them because you did what we said about the Corbin thing you said the
Corbin thing you're stuck that's coming to us buddy you can't help your parents and
Jesus says what you're doing is you're rejecting God's law and preventing people
from being obedient to God in order that they would be obedient to you it's not
just that you've elevated your tradition to the position of Scripture you've
actually made your tradition greater than Scripture it's an idol it's an idol and you
have made yourselves little gods that determine who is right and who is wrong
who will live and who will die there's a second reason somebody may do this
D.W. Manson said that this this would have been a regular practice that a Pharisee
perhaps might would decide you know I've got this thing against my parents I know
that they're getting up in age and I don't want to have to give my stuff to
them because they they were rude to me about whatever whatever happens and they
say okay I'm gonna pronounce Corbin over my stuff and it's not so much in
order that I can give it to God I just want to keep it away from them so there's two
things happening here but it all boils down to the same thing Jesus is saying
you're breaking God's law to do your own thing and so do you see the hypocrisy in
all of this they claim to love God they came to want to claim to want to keep his
law but in reality they were idolaters Jesus said many such things you do they
were actively engaged in this in a multitude of ways and it's no different
than the fundamentalist that emphasizes their rules over grace it's no different
than the Roman Catholic that insists on the church's authorities and traditions
it's no different than the church of Christ congregation that preaches baptism as a
means of salvation they all deny the truth of God's word while trying to
maintain an external veneer of holiness and loyalty to God am I making sense you
understand let me finish it this way
acceptance with God is found in the person and work of Christ not in obedience to
religious ideas and regulations listen please hear me
your ability to conform to God's rules for that matter your ability to conform to God's rules
is not enough for you to be accepted by God
because you can't do it it's not possible
our acceptance with God is on the basis of the person and work of Christ because he did it
he did it he fulfilled the law perfectly God's law and in fulfilling it perfectly he dies on a cross
in order to absorb the wrath of God on our behalf and we keep coming back to this passage so much
recently and when we go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 or 1st Corinthians chapter 5 and it says he
made him to be sin who knew no sin that in him we might have the righteousness of God
Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law because we can't perfectly fulfill the law we will never be accepted
by God based on how good we are you can't you'll never be good enough his his standard is perfection
absolute perfection and even if you do pretty good you'll never reach that standard but Jesus did reach
that standard why because he's not just a man he is God in the flesh and he lived a sinless life and so
when he died on that cross he died not because he deserved punishment for sin he died in your place
literally in the place of sinners he absorbed God's wrath and in return there's this imputation
that takes place where our sins and the judgment against them is imputed onto him on the cross and
then his perfect righteousness is then imputed onto me who is undeserving of any grace of God
that's where your acceptance comes from it doesn't matter if you wash your hands don't wash your hands
hands before lunch it doesn't matter it doesn't matter wear pants I don't care eat cookie cake maybe
eat cookie cake
eat all the sheet cake you want it won't matter it won't matter if you don't know Christ if you don't
know Christ it doesn't matter acceptance with God is on the basis of who he is not on the basis of who
you are because at the end of the day you're nobody and neither am I
thanks Abby
remember Romans 10 what is it that I'm supposed to believe in all of this what is it that I'm
supposed to believe in order to receive this salvation because salvation is not something you
earn by doing it's something you receive by believing you believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God
believe that his death on the cross was a sufficient atonement for your sin
that he rose from the dead to prove his power to give you life and that he is the Lord of all
to whom we should lovingly submit and serve and remember Romans 10 if you confess with your mouth
that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved
for with the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved
and one final point of application as Christians we struggle with how to govern our behavior and
practice we do this a lot it's it's easy to blur the lines isn't it we all struggle with this
Alistair Begg you know I listen to him a lot and he said something in preaching on this passage that I
found helpful for me and it was this that which is in conflict with the Bible
or or not in conflict with the Bible nor commanded by the Bible may be permissible provided
it's not enforced upon people as essential and particularly essential to acceptance with God
and we need to be careful that in developing our traditions we never diminish the sole authority of the Bible or the
extraordinary sovereign grace of God we're the beneficiaries of that grace why in the world would we ever again bind ourselves or anyone else to the bondage of the law in Christ we are made free from that not to disobey it but to actually finally truly genuinely obey it
in Christ
sometimes even in our evangelism we have all the things right for salvation and then once somebody gets saved we have this way of strapping on the bondage of Phariseeism to them all over again why would we do that
don't don't diminish the grace of God
don't diminish the authority of the word
have the highest possible view of God's word you can
and be the greatest proponent of God's grace
that anyone in your family or in your place of work has ever seen
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