in the book of Matthew. In our
last study, Peter had experienced a great miracle, defying the
laws of nature and walking on water. And in so doing, our great
God taught the need for us to keep our eyes on him, even as
we walk through this world, this life that he has put before us. When the waves rail up against
us, when cancer, troubles in the family, troubles
at work, whatever your waves in life might be, look to our
Lord Jesus Christ for our comfort. When we take our eyes off of
our Savior, we can begin sinking in this troubled world. And as
Peter experienced this very thing, the greater lesson was given. In Matthew 14, 31, and immediately
Jesus stretched forth His hand. Peter had taken his eyes off
of the Lord and was looking at the waves around him. Oh no, what am I going to do? This is John Reeves to a T. This
is what I do. Oh, what am I going to do? How
am I going to fix this? How am I going to go about that?
I've shared with you this just recently on how I can't wait
until I can get to a point where I can look at everything. Everything! Just as Pastor Gene had come
to in all the years that the Lord had been teaching them this
very thing over and over again, had come to that very point of,
you know, it's in the Lord's hands. It's in the Lord's hands.
It's in the Lord's hands. Peter took his eyes off of Christ,
but yet Christ never took his eyes off of Peter. He reached
down and caught him and said unto him, O thou of
little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Lord, I believe. Paul said, help thou my unbelief. Our Lord declares that I will
never leave thee, nor for safety. And that's a promise that every
one of His chosen blood-bought children can bank on. In Romans
8.31 it says, What shall we then say to these things, if God be
for us? Who can be against us? Our God
is sovereign in everything, everything, including the will of man, including
my own will. And if He paid for me with His
blood, the perfect righteous blood of
God himself. How would he let anything go? How could anything fall out of
the hands of God? For those who teach that very
thing, then they teach a God that's not real, a God who does
not deserve to be called God. For to be God, you must be ruler
of everything. right down to the very finest
detail, and just as scripture says, every hair on our head
is numbered. That decrypts a God who rules
over everything. How? How? What shall we say to these things,
if God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us, how shall he not with
him also freely give us all things? That's God's Word. That's His
Word to you and I. Our great Lord and Savior will
not lose anything that is His. You say, well, now wait a minute,
John. He created everything, right?
It's all His, right? And that would be true. But we
must not forget that sin entered into creation. Sin came in. Adam chose to sin
against God. And in so doing, that is our
nature. We choose to sin against God.
And for that reason, all things are cursed. Everything's going
to burn up. Everything that was created at
that time was cursed. Cursed is the ground that we
walk on. Everything's going to burn up in the end. He gave it all over to the father
of deceit. Yet there is a people that he
has chosen unto himself, a people that were redeemed from that
sin, from their sin, a people for whom he, by his substitutionary
death, had been restored unto him, restored by his blood, paid
for by his blood. A people for whom He set His
love upon before anything else was. Before He even created a
thing in the stars. Our Lord had chose to love a
certain people for Himself. That's what it means by before
the foundation of the world. Before anything was ever created.
We were predestinated. Chosen. Chosen to be conformed. conformed to the image of his
son. And as the great creator of all that is, in Isaiah 53
11, we read this. He, speaking of God, shall see
the travail of his soul. He shall see the blood that he
shed upon the cross, and shall be satisfied. By his
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he
shall bear their iniquities. Today we go forward to chapter
15 of the book of Matthew, and we continue our learning of this
one called Christ. And may God be pleased
to give us an understanding of the heart. Join me, if you would,
looking at verse 1 through 12. Chapter 15, verse 1. Then came to Jesus scribes and
Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, why do thy disciples
transgress the tradition of elders? For they wash not their hands
when they eat bread." Notice the first thing they introduce
here is, why are they not doing the works that they're supposed
to be doing? They want to talk about works.
They don't want to talk about God being gracious to His loved
ones. They don't want to talk about
the mercy of God to those who don't deserve it. No, they want
to talk about the works. How come you're not washing your
hands? Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of men's? But He, our Lord Jesus, answered
and He said unto them, Why do you also transgress the commandment
of God by your tradition? Why do you disobey God by your
traditions, the traditions of men? Does not our Lord remind
us or warn us? Does He not warn us to avoid
those traditions of men, to beware of them? For God commanded, saying, Honor
thy father and mother, and he that curseth father or mother,
let him die the death. But ye say, whosoever shall say
to his father or his mother, it is a gift by whatsoever thou
mightest be profited by me. And honor not his father nor
his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment
of God of none effect by your tradition, you hypocrites. Well did Isaiah prophesy of you,
saying, these people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth,
and honoreth me with their lips. But their heart is far from me.
But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines and the
commandments of men. And then he called the multitude
and said unto them, Hear and understand, not that which goeth
under the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of
the mouth this defileth a man. Then came his disciples and said
unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees
were offended after they heard this saying? Isn't that interesting? Lord, you know that's pretty
tough stuff you're telling us about this group of people over
here. I mean they work hard to earn
their righteousness. They swing the incense candles. They show up on Saturdays to
do their Sabbath. They get baptized. They come to the Lord's table
once a week. They don't smoke. They don't
cuss. They don't drink. Whatever you
want to put in there, you can put all that in there. Don't
you know, Lord, that you just offended them by saying all that
they did was nothing? And but what they're doing is
actually an offense to you? Folks, this is a fact. You can
take this to the bank. The Word of God offends the world. That's all there is to it. You
stand in front of a group of religious peoples at any one
of these churches within a mile from here, and you tell them
that our God is sovereign even over the will of men, and they
will point fingers at you and chase you off. The world is offended by the
doctrines of truth, the depravity of man, the unconditional election,
the limited atonement, the irresistible grace, and the perseverance of
the saints, the light exposes the darkness, the darkness that is kept in
the hearts of men. People draw nigh, they come close
to honoring the Lord with their lips. I did this in the name
of Jesus. We serve the poor in the name
of Jesus. We go to church on Saturdays
in the name of Jesus. I got baptized in the name of
Jesus. They come close to serving the
true and living God, but they don't come all the way. That natural heart stops them
right there where it comes to who they are and what they're
doing. I'll not have a God who rules
over my heart rule over me is what they say. People draw nigh
and they come close to honoring the Lord with their lips, but
their heart is centered on their decision. Ask them. I've asked them, When did you
start going to church? Well, you see, I chose to follow
the Lord Jesus Christ in 1982 after my wife left me, or something
to that. When I decided I didn't want
to be drunk in the ditch anymore, I decided to follow the Lord
Jesus Christ. Their heart is centered on their
decision, their new life, a life of good works, See how good a
man I am now? I feed the poor. I don't chase
the homeless people out of my yard anymore. Whatever you want
to use, you can use anything you want there. I do this, I
do that, I do this. It's all about I in the world
of men. Their heart is centered on their
decision. Their new life, a life of good
works, of following the rituals of men, following the law of
Moses, whatever their fix is on, but not the true and living
Christ. Dodd Fortner wrote this, he said,
someone said, God's name is taken in vain more often inside the
church than it is outside the church. Let me explain that. Most of what we see in religion
today is nothing less than blasphemy of God's name. the mechanical
use of God's name in repetitious prayers, repetitious songs, and
repetitious rituals while having no thought and no regard for
his honor and genuine devotion to him is taking his name in
vain. I agree with that. Empty religious
rituals and ceremonies, even when the outward form conforms
to the Word of God, is but taking of God's name in vain. And most
religious practices today do not even attempt to be outwardly
conformed to the Word of God. Malachi declares that the offering
of blemished, unworthy sacrifices is taking God's name in vain.
It's in Malachi 1, verses 6 and 7. God will not accept any pretending
worship. Any pretension that does not
arise from a redeemed, regenerate, believing heart. The very sacrifices
of the wicked are an abomination before Him. And you can read
about that in Isaiah, Amos, and Proverbs. Our Lord now gives
a parable to explain what He's talking about. Look at verses
13 and 14. But He, our Lord. And this is
an answer to, Lord, don't you know you just offended these
guys? This is our Lord's answer to that very statement. Every
plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted
up. I won't hesitate there for a
minute, because I want you to take that into consideration. One of the
biggest things that offend the religious groups in the world
today is election. How dare him choose that one
over there in the corner who's down pounding his chest saying,
Lord have mercy on me and reject me over here who's working my
tail end off for him. That's what that's all about. Let them alone, our Lord goes
on to say. Let those ones who are offended
alone. Let them be offended. They be blind leaders of the
blind. Oh, haven't some of us used this
phrase many a times, especially when it talks about people teaching
other people at work? Let them alone. They be blind
leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind,
both shall fall into a ditch. Again, allow me the opportunity
and the pleasure and the privilege to quote Don Fortner, where he
says, without question, these stern words may be applied to
individuals, to all who profess faith in Christ and are numbered
with his people in this world. The wheat with the tares. If our religion is not holy of
God, if our faith is not a God-given faith, if our salvation is not
a God-wrought salvation, it shall be rooted up. It will come to
an end, and that end will be everlasting destruction. No matter
how fair the flower, if the father hath not planted it, its doom
is sealed. It shall not be pruned, but rooted
up." That's what Charles Pershing wrote. It will be rooted up by the trials
of providence, by the temptations of Satan, by the preaching of
the truth. But primarily our Lord was talking
about those. Remember, He was just talking
about those very men that He offended. He was talking about
those who teach and preach another gospel, another Jesus, a weak
being, one who can't do anything unless you let him. The disciples were shocked that
the Lord had spoken bluntly to the Pharisees and had offended
them. But the Master shows us by this very thing that He intended
to offend them. He shows us that those who teach
the doctrines, for doctrines the commandments of men are people
to whom we are to show no mercy and no kindness to. It mattered nothing to Him that
they were planted in high office, that they were privileged people.
If his father had not planted them, it mattered nothing to
him how highly esteemed they were in their own eyes or in
the eyes of men. Now let's pick up at verse 15. Then answered Peter, and he said
unto him, unto our Lord. Remember, we're looking at the
things that are personally attributed to Peter in scriptures. We're
studying how our Lord is teaching Peter the same way He teaches
each and every one of us of who He is, what He has done, and
where He is right now. Then Peter answered and said
unto Him, Declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said, Are
you also without understanding? Are you also without understanding,
Peter? Oh, the weaknesses of Peter. I can relate. Do not yet understand? He had
already fed 5,000 people right in front of Peter. He had already
let Peter walk on water in the very chapter before this. Do
you not understand, Peter? This is God in the flesh. Do
you still struggle with knowing who I am? Yes. Lord, I do. More often than I
want to admit to. Do you not yet understand that
whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly and
is cast out into the drought? It's not what we eat. Yeah, there's
some things that aren't good for us. Doctor tells me I need
to cut back on sugar. Doctor tells me I shouldn't smoke.
Well, I quit doing that, but that was only so I could get
her to let me buy a motorcycle. I did tell you that in doing
so, I also had to buy her one, right? Yeah, okay. See how that
works out? But those things, our Lord goes
on to say in verse 18, which proceed out of the mouth come
forth from the heart and they defile the man. For out of the
heart proceed evil thoughts. You know, I can stop right there. And it's got John Reeves written
all over that. For out of the heart proceed
murderers. I've never killed anybody, but
I can tell you right now there's people who I've wanted to. All you have to do is think it. Yeah. For out of the heart proceed
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies. You see folks, our Lord is teaching
Peter here a very strong lesson. These are the things which defile
a man. Our hearts. But to eat with unwashed hands
defileth not a man. Our Lord's doctrine in this passage
Our Lord's teaching in this passage and throughout Holy Scripture
is this, true religion is more inward
than it is outward. It's not what we put on and go
to Sunday meeting with. It's not getting up and coming
to Bible study on Sunday mornings. What think ye of Christ? What do you think of the Lord
Jesus Christ in your heart? The state of our hearts before
God is the main thing. Do not be content with church
attendance, or religious duties, or your outward behavior. Make
certain, make certain your heart is right in the sight of God.
In Psalms 51.10 it says, Create in me, this is David writing,
Lord, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew,
renew a right spirit within me. In Romans 10.10, Paul's writing
says, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Our Lord
God receives the broken and contrite believing heart. So let us never
forget that our greatest enemy is our own heart. The world and
the devil combined are not so dangerous as our hearts. So let
us keep our hearts with all diligence. And the only way to keep your
heart is to keep it full of Christ. May God graciously keep us so
that we may keep our hearts for him. And remember this, he that
trusteth in his heart is a fool. And that's God's word. Don't
believe me, look at Proverbs 28, 26, amen? You stand with
me?