I'm watching all the services
broadcast from here for 15 years. Wednesday night, Sunday morning.
He's the only believer in his family. He's not in a position
to be able to move. But I wanted to let you know
that his house burned down this week. He was asleep and a dog
jumped on his bed and woke him up. He got out of the house.
His wife and daughter were not home at the time. But he suffered
a total loss of his home and all of his possessions. I can't
imagine what that would be like. But he's doing well. He's rejoicing and thanking God
for sparing him. And I wanted to let you all know
that he knows most of you by name. He's heard enough about
each one of you over the years to know who's who. So I know
he'd be encouraged to hear from you if you wanted to send him
a text and just let him know that you're thinking about him,
praying for him. Do pray for him. He's mainly concerned in
wanting to honor the Lord through this trial. Let's, before we begin, let's
have a moment of prayer now and ask God to bless him. Our merciful heavenly Father,
we know that you do all things well. And we know, Lord, that when
evil comes into the city, thou hast caused it. Lord, that in
thy hand, that all thy works are good for thy children. Lord,
thank you for the faith that you've given our brother to believe
you in the midst of this trial. We pray that you would strengthen
him. We pray that you would encourage him. We pray you give him wisdom
and grace to trust you through this difficult
time. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Brother Tom. Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 37 from your hardback hymnal.
Hardback hymnal number 37. And let's all stand together. O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder Consider all the works Thy hands have made, I see the
stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe
displayed. Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! When through the woods and forest
glades I wander And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur, And hear the brook,
and feel the gentle breeze, Then sings my soul, my Savior God,
to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And when I think that God, His
Son not sparing, Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross, my burden
gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When Christ shall come with shout
of acclamation and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow in humble adoration
and there proclaim, my God, how great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Please be seated. Will you turn with me in your
Bibles to Mark chapter 7. And you may want to mark Colossians chapter 2 as well. Colossians chapter 2 and Mark
chapter 7. I've titled this study, Hope
for the Defiled. This teaching that our Lord gave
us in Mark chapter 7 is not addressing the subject of whether a man
is defiled, but rather what is the cause of his defilement. The word defiled in our text
means to be unclean. It means to be not holy. And all men fit that description. All men are, as the scripture
calls it in another place, polluted, defiled. The problem is that
the natural man misunderstands the cause of his defilement. And so he tries to address the
issue with the wrong solution. I suspect that one of the most
difficult things of being a physician is properly diagnosing the cause
of your problem. If they don't properly diagnose
it, they can't treat it. Back during the 18th, 17th century
when the bubonic plague or the black death was killing millions
of people in England, and across the continent of Europe, there
was a period of time when they thought that this plague was
being transmitted by wild alley cats. And so they started killing
all the cats, not knowing that the problem with the plague was
not with the cats. The cats were, in fact, their
first line of defense. The plague was in the rats. And
so it is with men when it comes to addressing the problem of
their uncleanness, their unholiness, their defilement before God. They misdiagnose the problem
and they actually address that which is contrary to the real
solution. And that's what our Lord's addressing
in this in this passage of scripture. You have your Bibles open to
Colossians chapter 2. Look at verse 20, wherefore if
you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why
as though living in the world are you subject to ordinances? Touch not, taste not, handle
not. What a description of man-made
religion. If I can just limit the things
that I touch, the things that I taste, and the things that
I handle, I can solve the problem of my defilement. Verse 22, which are to perish
with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men. Now, one
thing that is consistent across the board is that in man-made
religion, men are always contriving things that they can do or things
that they cannot do in order to solve this problem of sin. unholiness before God. Verse
23, and as I've said, you've heard me say this so many times,
the only difference between one religion and the next. In fact,
Hinduism and Islam and Catholicism and all the denominations of
Protestantism are actually all the same. They're all the same.
They're all based on something you do, touch not, taste not,
handle not. The only difference between one
religious opinion and the next is the rules and regulations
that the men of that particular persuasion have set down for
you to follow in order to solve this unholy problem that you
have with God. That's the only difference. And
the only message of salvation that's different from every other
is based not on what you do, but on what Christ has already
done. That's the gospel. You've heard
me say before, the gospel can be summed up with two letters,
N-E. It's all based on the difference
between what you do and what Christ has done. It's finished. It's accomplished. The hope of
our salvation is not based on touch, not taste, not handle,
not. The hope of our salvation is based on the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the Lord's identifying all
these doctrines of men. The doctrines of men stand in
contrast to the commandment of God. Verse 23 in Colossians chapter
2, which things have indeed a show of wisdom, men are impressed
by it. Oh, you discipline yourself to touch not, taste not, handle
not. You achieve some level of notoriety in your religious group as one who has disciplined
themselves to abstain from certain things and to do other things. You're going to have a show of
wisdom with men of that religious persuasion, aren't you? You're
going to be highly esteemed by the people. That's what the Pharisees,
and we're going to get to our text in just a moment, that's
what the Pharisees were highly esteemed among the people because
they lived such an outward appearance of righteousness that everybody
thought, well now there, they've solved the problem of defilement,
they've solved the problem of uncleanness. Which things indeed
have a show of wisdom in will worship, there's a good summary
of man-made religion, will worship. Men worshiping the power of their
own will, believing that their willpower trumps God's will. I can get myself right with God
if I just will it to be, if I just commit myself. and the neglecting of the body,
well, I'll neglect certain pleasures in order to solve this defilement,
this unholiness, this sin problem that I have with God. Not in
any way honor or not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh.
You see, here's the problem. that regardless of what men do
to dress up the outside, the corruption's on the inside. And
when the scripture speaks of the flesh here, it's talking
about that fleshly nature. It's not talking about the physical
flesh that you can see. It's talking about the sinful
nature that's in the heart. And so all these outward appearances
don't in any way satisfy the lust of the flesh. The flesh
is still the flesh. And what the Lord is saying here
is you want to avoid sin? Lock yourself up in a closet. Lock yourself up in a closet.
I hear people all the time, we're just going to separate ourselves
from the sinful world and that's going to solve our uncleanness.
That's going to solve our unholiness. No, it's not. You lock yourself
up in a closet. You just took your sin with you.
The Lord said to the Pharisees, He said, you whitewashed tombs.
He said, you dress up the outside. You're like a cemetery. You take
that headstone, you whitewash it, you make it look beautiful,
but he said on the inside it's full of dead men's bones. That's where the problem is.
The problem is in the heart. It's in the heart. All right. Go back with me to
Mark chapter 7. We're going to read the first 23 verses
of this chapter. I think you'll see what the summary
of this is. You remember when Samuel was
sent by God to find a replacement for Saul and the Lord sent him
to Jesse's house and Jesse brought all of his sons before Samuel
to interview them as potential kings and they were all kingly
looking on the outside. I mean these were These were
stalwart, impressive looking boys. And the Lord said to Samuel,
he said, no, no, no. Samuel finally turned to Jesse,
he said, you got any more sons? He said, well, you know, I have
this little boy out in the yard taking care of the sheep, but
surely, surely the Lord wouldn't be interested in him. I mean,
look at these men. And Samuel made this statement.
He said, men look at the outward appearance, but God looks at
the heart. And God had given that little
boy out in the yard taking care of the sheep, a heart after him. He was a man after God's own
heart. And the Lord chose that one that didn't look like the
rest of them. And the same thing's true today.
We're so prone to look at the outward appearances, aren't we?
Touch not, taste not, handle not. God's looking at the heart. That's where the defilement is. The defilement's not in our outward
appearances, it's in the heart. That's where the problem has
to be addressed. And if we don't, if the Lord
doesn't address that problem, then we'll just be treating symptoms. We'll just be treating symptoms.
You go to a doctor, you've got a serious cause for your symptoms. You want to just treat symptoms
or you want to get to the heart of the problem and solve the
cause of those symptoms? That's, you know, we'll just
be killing cats. And that's what religion does,
just kills cats. And the problem's with the rats.
So, the Lord said, then came together unto him the Pharisees. Now, you remember what the word
Pharisee translated means? It means separated ones. Separated
ones. This sect of the Pharisees started
in the second century B.C. and they prided themselves in
being separated from the rest of the people by what they did
and by what they didn't do. And they had a whole set of rules
and regulations, traditions of the elders. commandments of men
that they were following because they believed themselves to be
head and shoulders. They were the holier than thou
group. That's who they were. We saw
that in Isaiah, didn't we? Holier than thou. I think there's
an article in your bulletin this morning actually about that. The word holy also translated
means separated one. Now, here's the difference between
the one who is actually holy and those who are pretending
to be holy. Who does the separating? If you
separate yourself and believe yourself to be holier than thou
by what you do and don't do, you've got the touch not, taste
not, handle not down good. You're following the rules and
regulations of men, then you're a Pharisee. But if the Lord has
put you in Christ, not having your own righteousness, which
is by the keeping of the law, but that righteousness, which
is by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you're
holy. That's why the scripture says,
he that sanctifyeth, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one
that separates you. The word sanctified means the
same thing as holy. He that does the sanctifying
and they which are sanctified are all as one whereby he's not
ashamed to call them his brethren. Now God's eyes are too pure to
look upon sin. We've got to be perfect in the
sight of God. And we're not gonna perfect ourselves
by what we do and don't do. God's gonna have to put us in
Christ so that our acceptance is only found in the Beloved. So these Pharisees and certain
of the scribes, the scribes were the lawyers, they were the ones
who had perfected the loopholes of the law. They knew what God's
law said but they had ways around all of God's laws and the Lord
is going to identify one of them here that is so gross, it is
so apparent to anybody with a shred of honesty about them, but the
Pharisees practiced it. Look what he says. They came
from Jerusalem when they saw some of the disciples eat bread
with defiled, that is to say with unwashed hands, they found
fault. Now this passage of scripture
is not about whether or not you wash your hands before you eat.
That's probably a good idea. You want to keep them spreading
germs, you know, keep your hands washed. That's not what this
is about. These Pharisees had a ceremony for washing their
hands. They would wash their hands up
to their elbows. They'd dip it a certain number of times in
the basin. They had a particular way of,
it was a religious rite, the washing of hands was for them.
And here these disciples came out of the field and they started
eating grain that they had picked without washing their hands.
and they found fault. For the Pharisees and all the
Jews, except they washed their hands off to eat not, holding
the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market,
except they wash, they eat not. And many of the things there
be, which they have received to hold as the washing of cups
and pots and brazen vessels and of tables. Oh, they had a ceremony
for everything. A ceremony for everything. Then the Pharisees and the scribes
asked him, why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of
the elders, but eat bread with unwashing hands? And he answered
and said unto them, well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites
as it is written, this people honor me with their lips, but
their heart is far from me. They say the right things. They
actually, they outwardly do the right things, at least when they're
in the company of other people that are watching them. But the
problem is with their heart. Their hearts are far from me.
This is a description of all Pharisees. This is a description
of all self-righteous religionists who are seeking to solve this
problem of defilement by what they do. He, verse 7, how be it in vain
do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men. Do you think your outward performance
is going to somehow make you clean before God? You remember
that Pharisee in the temple who prayed unto himself, Father,
I thank Thee that I'm not like other men. He was holier than
thou, wasn't he? I'm not an extortioner. I fast. I tithe. He was following after the commandments
of men, believing that somehow he was going to find acceptance
with God. And what did the Lord say in Matthew chapter 6 in the
Sermon on the Mount? He said, You have heard it said
of old that thou shalt not kill, But I say unto thee, if you have
ought with your brother without a cause, you're guilty of the
judgment. See, the Lord identified the
problem. It's not actually taking someone's life. It's a problem
with your heart. How many times have we had ought
with somebody without a cause? We were angry with somebody just
because we didn't, you know, we didn't, feel good or whatever
and then he went on to say you have heard that it's been said
of old by your fathers that thou shalt not commit adultery but
I say unto thee if you lust after a woman in your heart you're
guilty committed adultery in your heart you see the Lord's
identifying the source of the problem now does that mean that
outward behavior is not important no it doesn't mean that at all
It just means that trying to dress up the outside doesn't
get to the root of the problem. We've got to be made holy in
the heart. We've got to receive a new heart.
And God doesn't patch up the old heart. You remember the parable
that he told about the wine skin and the new wine. You don't put
new wine in an old bottle. or else it'll burst, you don't
patch up an old garment, or else the tear will be worse. That's
what religion does. It tries to take the gospel and
put it into an old fleshly heart. And the Lord's saying, no, you
need a new heart. You need me to take out that
heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh. Because your heart
by nature is dead, it's cold, It's lifeless, it's hard, it's
rocky. But the new heart, the heart
that beats after Christ, that passage in Colossians that we
just looked at, the next chapter goes on to say that we're to
seek those things which are above where Christ is seated at the
right hand of God. Verse 5, then the Pharisees and
the scribes asked him, why walk not thy disciples after the tradition
of the elders but eat bread with unwashing hands? I'm sorry. So they're following after the
commandments of men. Verse 8, for laying aside the
commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men as the washing
of pots and cups and many such things you do. And he said unto
them, full well you reject the commandment of God that you may
keep your own tradition. Now, the only way to solve this
defiled problem that we have, this unholiness that we have,
is to not follow the traditions of men, but to keep the commandment
of God. Now what is it? What is it to
keep the commandment of God? Turn with me to John chapter
six. Verse 27, labor not for the meat
which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting
life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for him hath God
the Father sealed. And they said unto him, what
shall we do that we might work the works of God? What can we
do? You know, just give us something
to do. Give us a touch not, taste not,
handle not. Give us something that we can
practice so that we can look at it. Those who walk after the
flesh, they do mind the things of the flesh. So if all we have
is our old nature, which these Pharisees, that's all they had,
then all we can look at is the outward appearances. Give us something we can do. And Jesus answered and said unto
them, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom
he hath sent. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the work of God. And it
is the work of God in the heart. For anyone able to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is what
the regenerated heart does. Lord, I've got to have a heart
that's able to believe. I can't believe you if you don't
give me a new heart. There's my problem. There's where my
defilement is. It's not washing the hands, or
the cups, or the ceremonies of religion, or the traditions of
men, or the commandments of the elders. You're the only one that can
address this heart problem. Turn with me to 1 John chapter
3. 1 John chapter 3. Look at verse 22. And whatsoever we ask, we receive
of him because we keep his commandments and do those
things which are pleasing in his sight. And this is the commandment
that we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ
and love one another as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth
his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him. and hereby
we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given
us." It's the Spirit of God that confirms to our spirit that we
are the children of God. It's the Spirit of God that enables
us to know that the Lord has given us faith to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the work of the Spirit. And Spirit's not going to direct
you to look at outward appearances to discern that. He's going to,
what does the Spirit of God do? He leads us to Christ. I've got no place else to go.
All my hope, all my righteousness, all my justification before God
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And apart from the Spirit of
God, I'd be just like these Pharisees. I'd be looking at touch not,
taste not, handle not for the confirmation of my salvation.
You see, the truth is that if you look to your works for either
the cause or the evidence of your salvation, you're not looking
to Christ. And the religionists will say,
well, you know, we know that works is not the cause of our
salvation, but then they'll compete with one another to see who's
more holy by the evidence of their works, won't they? That's not the problem. Problem's
in the heart. Faith, faith is the evidence
of things hoped for. All right, turn back with me.
to our text. Now he's going to give them this
example. Verse 9, And he said unto them, Full well you reject
the commandments of God, that you may keep your traditions. For Moses said, Honor thy father
and thy mother, and whosoever cursed father and mother, let
him die the death. Now that's the law of God. The
Lord Jesus Christ said, I did not come to destroy the law.
I came to fulfill it. I came to fulfill the law. He
honored his father with every step of his life, every thought.
He honored his father perfectly. Are we to honor our parents,
care for our aging parents? Certainly. Certainly we do, best
we can. Do we look to that as having
kept the commandment of God? No. What did these Pharisees
do? They had the scribes had loopholes
in the law. And so they had this tradition
that where the Pharisee was able to publicly identify all of his
possessions as being dedicated to God. It's kind of like this
I-4 eyesore out here on I-4 in Altamont Springs. You know that
guy started that building 20 years ago? And he's collecting
money. He's a religious huckster, and
he's collecting money. He's building the building based
on donations. When he finishes the building,
this is his plan. When he finishes the building,
he's going to rent out the office space. It'll be paid for when
he finishes it. and he's going to rent out the office space
to christian businesses and then he's going to give the money
to jesus and he's got a little statue of jesus in his pocket
that's where he's going to you know that's where he's going
to get guys that he's a charlatan and that's exactly what these
farisees were doing so But you say, verse 11, if
a man shall say to his father or mother, it is Corbin, that
is to say a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by
me, he shall be free. In other words, I've dedicated
all my possessions to God, they don't belong to, don't ask me
for anything, I can't give it to you, it belongs to God. It's
in my pocket, I'm using it, but it's the Lord's. So even if a
parent asks me for something, I can't give it to you because
it's not mine. And you suffer him no more to
do aught for his father or his mother, making the word of God
none effect through your traditions which you have delivered, and
many such things you do." Oh, they had lots of traditions. They thought they were keeping
the Sabbath by what they did and didn't do on the Sabbath
day, and in looking to their works as their obedience to the
Sabbath. Same thing today. They were,
in fact, actually violating the Sabbath. They said, well, you know, the
law says thou shalt not steal. Ought you not to steal? Of course
not. Of course not you ought not to steal. Be honest in business
and with everybody. Well, what did they do? They
used their religion to rob men. Did not the Lord go into the
temple and turn over the money changers tables and say you've
turned the house of prayer into a den of thieves? You're robbing
men? of their means, and you're robbing
God of His glory in this money-changing deal? You see, a person would
bring in a sacrifice, and it had to be checked by the priest.
And the priest would look over, he'd always find something wrong
with it. And he'd say, oh no, that sacrifice, you're about
to buy one of our sacrifices. Robbing They would have said, oh yeah,
the scripture says thou shalt not commit adultery, but that
only applied to women. Didn't apply to men. Remember
when those men brought that woman to the Lord? Where was the man?
And then what'd the Lord say? He is without sin. Let him cast
the first stone. They all left. Why? Because they
were all guilty of the same thing. But here's what religion does.
Religion promotes an appearance of righteousness, and the heart
is rotten. They would say, the law says
thou shalt not kill, and yet they were just about to murder
the Son of God, which they did. The Lord called them hypocrites. You love the praise of men more
than the praise of God. You see, God's the only one that
can look at the heart. We're more concerned about what men
think than we are what God thinks. So we're gonna dress up the outside
and impress one another when the heart is full of corruption.
That's what the Lord said the defilement is. You see, it's
not whether or not a person's defiled, it's what the cause
of that defilement is. And then what the solution is.
The solution is not touch not, taste not, handle not. The solution
for the heart is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the only, that's the only answer. Verse 14, let's read the rest
of this. For when he had called all the people unto him, he said
unto them, hearken unto me every one of you and understand There
is nothing from without a man that entereth into a man that
can defile him. But things which come out of
him, these are they which defile a man. If a man have ears to
hear, let him hear. Do you hear what the Lord say?
And the disciples didn't. The disciples didn't understand
it. They had to get the Lord aside and say, Lord, what do
you mean by that? If any man, and when it entered
into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning
the parable, he said, Are you without understanding also? Do
you not perceive that whatsoever things from without entered into
a man, it cannot defile him? What you eat, what you drink,
I can't defile you. What you apply on the outside
of your body, that's not going to make any difference. Because
it entereth not into the heart, but into the belly, and goeth
out into the draught purging all means. And he said, That
which cometh out of a man, that is what defiles a man. For from
within, out of the heart of men, perceive evil thoughts and adulteries
and fornications and murders and thieves, thefts and covetousness
and wickedness and deceit and lasciviousness and evil eye,
blasphemy, pride and foolishness. All these evil things come from
within. That's what defiles a man. Now,
when you look at your heart, You see any of those things? Are we advocating acting on those
thoughts and intents of the heart? No. No. The problem is that fixing
our defilement is not accomplished by what we do and don't do. The
Lord's got to give us a new heart, a new heart, a believing heart,
a heart that trusts the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and
his sacrificial death on Calvary's cross for all of our acceptance
before God. That's where the problem is.
May God give us the grace to identify the cause of our defilement,
lest we spend our whole life killing cats while the rats run
free. All right, let's take a break. Okay.