Turn to Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15. I'm sure
it won't bother you if I don't shake hands after service. I'm
not going to go back there and go back. The title of this message is Heart
Worship or Lip Service. or lip service. Our Lord exposes false religion
for what it is. It's nothing but lip service.
It's nothing but outward show. In verse 9, he said, You worship
me in vain. It's empty. It's useless. There's nothing to it. This is
what our Lord is going to show us here. True worship, true worship
of God comes from the heart. It's the heart engaged. It's the affections engaged in
worship of God. That's what it is. It's that
inner man in adoration of God Almighty. It's also an act of
faith. He that comes to God must believe
that he is, that he is who he says he is, that he is as he
has revealed himself in the scriptures, and that he is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. It's impossible to worship God
without faith in Christ. And then it's done with understanding.
We understand what we are doing here this morning. We understand. We understand something of who
God is. The Scripture says, The Son of
God hath come and given us an understanding, an understanding
of who God is, an understanding of how God can be just and justify
someone like me, and we can worship We can truly worship God in Christ
from the heart. Now, I'm not saying that outward
worship has no significance. I'm not saying that. We do gather
together here. Scripture says, forsake not the
assembling of yourselves together. We do pray publicly. We sing his praises. We keep
the ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper. But you know we
can keep every one of these as they ought to be kept and God
not be worshipped from the heart. These things can be kept properly
and yet God be absent. It can happen. Without the heart,
worship, what we are doing here this morning is an abomination
to God Almighty. If our hearts are not engaged
in this, it's a wicked service. If our hearts are not engaged
in worshiping Him, standing in awe of Him, it's nothing more
than a wicked service. Look over in Proverbs 21. Proverbs
21. Let me see if I've got the right
verse written down. Proverbs 21, let me see if it's verse
7. No, that's not the right verse. I've got the wrong verse written
down. Let's turn to Proverbs 15.8. Let's see if I wrote that
down right. The sacrifice of the wicked is
an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is
His delight. To do this without the heart
is an abomination to God. That's what it is. Now, these
Pharisees and these scribes came to our Lord, and they came to
Him not to learn, Not to sit at his feet. They came to find
fault. They came to straighten him out. Self-righteousness breeds nothing
but arrogance. They came to straighten him out
and straighten his disciples out. They came to find fault
with him. A fault that was not a fault.
But by their traditions, something they set up. And they've turned it into a
law. You know that to eat, I was reading this, I think it was
John Gill, to eat with unwashing hands, they attached a death
penalty to it. That's how bad it became. Their tradition, they
held it above the commandment of God. And so here they come
to find fault with our Lord by something that was not a fault.
It was their tradition. They made it a fault. but it
was not a fault, not at all. We have to be careful. We must
be very careful, especially from this pulpit down, not to introduce
tradition in worship, not to introduce our tradition
into worship in the place of God's Word, in the place of God's
revealed way of Don't add anything to it. Don't put anything to
it. We worship him. We sing his praises. We pray
unto him. We take his word and we preach
from it and we worship him. We give him all the glory that's
due unto his name. Let's be careful that we don't
add traditions to it. Something that we've made up
or somebody in the years ago has made up and it's stuck. That's
what happened here. The elders set aside God's commandment. The elders took the commandment
of God that God had given, and they set it aside in order to
promote their tradition. And our Lord deals with this,
and he deals with this by asking them a question. You notice he
didn't answer their question. It had no significance to it. He's not going to get caught
up in talking to them about something that's useless, meaningless.
But he asked them a question. Why do you transgress the commandment
of God by your tradition? Why do you do that? Why do you
break God's law in order to keep your tradition? What is a tradition compared
to a commandment of God? What is it? It's nothing. Absolutely
nothing. What is an elder? What is an
elder compared to God who gave the commandment? Nothing. God gave the commandment and
it's not to be set aside. You see, here's the command.
Here's the commandment. God gave the commandment for
children to honor their parents in their talk and in their conduct
and in their old age. It was to take care of them.
The children, that's the way God set it up to be taken care
of. It didn't set up the government to take care of them. Families
took care of families. That's the way it was set up. It was
set up that they were to help them in their old age and help
supply their needs. God gave that commandment. But
the elders, oh religious people, don't they
make you sick? The elders found or they made
a way around this commandment. You know, here's a commandment
that has attached to it me taking care of my parents. So they're
going to find a way around this. Just say this, here's what we'll
do. Here's what we'll do. We'll say that this money I have
laid up here, this money that mom needs, let's just say It's
a gift to God. Well, that'll do it. It's a gift
to God. I've dedicated this money to
God. I can't help you, Mom. I can't help you, Dad. I've dedicated
this to God. And by saying that, the elder
said, now you're relieved from this commandment to honor your
mother and father, to take care of them. Just say it's a gift
to the temple. That sounds real spiritual, doesn't
it? That's about as evil as it gets.
Those elders have figured out a way to raise money for the
temple. They figured out a way to get a hold of that money that
was going to be used for the parents. They figured out a way
to get a hold of it. And they released them from this here
commandment to honor your mother and father. And it has, over
in Exodus 21, it has a death penalty attached to it. Let he
that honors not his mother and father, let him die the death.
It has a death penalty attached to it. But they released him
from it, so they thought, by coming up with this tradition. Well, nobody, nobody sets aside
God's commandments. No one can do that. We can never
nullify God's word by our man-made laws and rights and traditions
and We can't do that. It can't be done. God's word
is God's word. He said, by your traditions,
you've made the commandment of God of non-effect. By your traditions,
you've made nothing of it. You've made it to be nothing
but empty, meaningless. It's just like this. Here's basically
what he's saying. The scripture says, the commandment
says, I am your father and mother. And you're saying, well, so what?
So what? That's the attitude they had.
That's literally the attitude they had. Well, so what? He said, you can't do that. You,
by your tradition, have made the commandment of God meaningless. But the Lord uses the word of
God to reveal their true character. There in verse seven, he said,
you And he says this to their face in front of everybody, you
hypocrites. Well, did Isaiah prophesy of
you saying, this people draws nigh unto me with their mouth,
they praise me with their mouth, they pray unto me with their
mouth, they call upon me, they speak of me with their mouth.
And they honor me with their lips. They love to stand out
in the corners and pray. Like a Pharisee in the temple,
they make a lot of words. But the heart. He said, their heart. I know
their heart. God knows my heart. He knows
your heart. He says, their heart is far from
it. Their heart is not engaged in
this. Their heart is not engaged. The heart is fire for hypocrites.
A hypocrite is one who has no heart for what he's doing. A
hypocrite is a pretender. It's a pretender. It's like Hollywood. They're all actors playing parts
that they're acting like something else or someone else. They're
pretenders. It's all an outward show. He
said there's no heart in it. Now, when they looked at those
Pharisees, you know that when the common people looked at those
Pharisees, they saw very religious people. They saw people who were
just dedicated to the temple. They saw people who were very
strict and moral. I mean, you could not have convinced
them that a Pharisee was a devil. But he was. Because their hearts, their hearts
were never changed. Their hearts were never in it.
And the Lord said, the Lord said, your heart is far, far from me. Your lip service, you've got
a lot of lip service going on. Very little heart service. No
heart, they pretended as all out were show. There's no heart
conviction of sin and no heart faith in Christ. That's a hypocrite. Salvation is Christ. It's the
Lord Jesus Christ enthroned in the heart, ruling in the heart. Salvation is Christ in you, the
hope of glory. And that's not pretense. He says here in verse 9, But
in vain they do worship me. In vain they do worship me. They
play like they're worshiping They go through the motion. It
looks like they're worshiping, doesn't it? He said, but in vain
they worship. It's empty. They draw an eye
with their lips, but there's nothing there. Nothing there. God said in Proverbs, Son, give
me thine heart. Give me thine heart. If you have someone's heart,
you have them. If God has your heart, if He
has your heart, He has your worship. He has you and He has yours if
He has your heart. He has all of it if He has your
heart. Salvation is an inward work of
God in the heart. Look over in Ezekiel. We've read
this many a times. But look over in Ezekiel 36.
Ezekiel 36, 24. For I will take you from among
the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring
you into your own land. Then, it is in verse 24, verse
25. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness, and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." That's that
new creation, that new man. And I'll take away the stony
heart out of your flesh, and I'll give you a heart of flesh,
and then, listen, we say, then I'll put my spirit, I'll put
my spirit in that new spirit. And that's how they're one. And
I'll put my spirit within you. cause you to walk in my statues,
you shall keep my judgments and do them." That's what happens
when God saves a sinner. I give you a new heart. I write
my laws in it. And I'll be your God and you'll
be my people. And you'll be my people willingly.
You'll worship me willingly. And you'll worship me from the
heart. This will not just be a drudgery. This will not be
something we do on Sunday. It's something you want to do.
It's something you look forward to doing. To gather together
with God's people and hear the word and worship him with his
people. Now in verse 10 here, after he
says this to these Pharisees, he calls the multitude. And of
course, as the multitude comes to him, the Pharisees back off.
You see, they are afraid that they may touch somebody or someone
may touch them and then they will become unclean. So they
just back out of the scene. They back off. And the Lord calls
this multitude of sinners to them. He calls to him some people
that are teachable. These Pharisees were so arrogant.
They were so learned that they would not even listen. He said,
having eyes they see, they see not. Ears they hear, they hear
not. They already know it. You can't teach it. So he passes
by the learned and he calls this multitude of sinners to himself.
And he's going to teach them this truth, this truth. The problem, the problem is not
dirty hands. It's a dirty heart. This is why
he's teaching the problem. And don't be fooled by this outward
show of religion. Don't be fooled by this outward
show of morality. He sees the heart. It's not dirty
hands. It's not eating with dirty hands.
I've eaten with dirty hands. And you have too. He said that's not the problem.
The problem is a dirty heart. And the disciples said, Lord,
don't you know this offended them? The disciples came to him and
said, Don't you know that the Pharisees, they are offended after they
heard this saying. They think they know you're talking
about them. He didn't hide it. He didn't
talk behind anybody's back. He talked directly to their face.
He said, You hypocrites. You set up your traditions and
you've done away with God's word. That's what you've done. And
they said, Don't you know it made him mad? I'll tell you this
truth. Truth will offend a liar every time. Truth will offend
liars every time you tell it. That's why they were offended.
The truth was told. They were offended. And the Lord
says, don't worry about them. My heavenly Father will root
them up. He said every plant that my heavenly
Father has not planted, He will root it up. He'll root it up
with truth. He'll root it up at the end of this world. and
do away with this false religion. All this false religion we have
now, one day will be gone, and there will only be one true religion,
and that's the oneness of a God, and that's the worship of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he said to his disciples,
you don't ever want this to be said concerning you. Leave them
alone. Leave them alone. over in the Old Testament. He
said Ephraim is joined to his idols. Leave him alone. There comes a time when the Lord
says, Leave them alone. Leave them alone. Don't court
their approval. Don't waste your time trying
to straighten them out. And I think that's probably what
he was saying to Peter when he said, Peter, do you love me?
Peter said, you know, I like to feed my sheep. Don't get caught
up fighting with these Pharisees. That's a battle that will not
end. It will not end. You're trying to straighten those
Pharisees up all the time. You're just going to be fighting
with them all the time and the sheep are not going to get fed.
Feed my sheep. He said, leave them alone. Don't
court their approval. Yeah, they're offended and they'll
be offended when they stand before God and He says, depart from
me, I never knew you. They'll still be offended. But leave them alone. Don't court
their approval. They be blind leaders of the
blind. And if the blind lead the blind, if the spiritually
blind lead the spiritually blind, here's what happens. Both will
fall into a ditch of error. Both will fall into a ditch of
lies, and they'll continue that way until they meet God in judgment.
Leave them alone. And Peter said, Lord, declare
and tell us this parable. Explain this parable to us. And
he does. And here's basically what he's
saying. Nothing, nothing that you eat. Nothing outside of you
can defile your soul. Well, if we get rid of this,
and if we get rid of that, if we straighten up the environment, nothing outside of yourself can
defile your soul. It's what's in you that defiles
a man. It's what's in the heart. He
said that's what defiles. Eating with dirty hands? That cannot touch my soul. Nothing
outside of me can defile me. The only thing that can defile
me is the heart. It's what the heart is. He said food goes into the stomach
and it goes out. It goes in, it goes out. It nourishes
the body, but it doesn't nourish the soul. The food I will eat
after I leave here will not nourish my soul. He'll nourish my body.
That which nourishes my soul is the Word. It's Christ. It's the bread of life. But these natural things don't
touch my soul. They don't touch my soul. That which defiles a man is what's
in his heart. For out of the heart, he says
in verse 19, out of the heart proceed first evil thoughts. There's never been an action
where there's not been a thought behind it. It always starts with a thought. Out of the heart, out of the
heart proceed evil thoughts, murders as to hate your brother
without a cause. Somebody says, well, I haven't
done that. I haven't committed murder. To hate your brother
without a cause. The Lord said it's murder. adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things
which defile a man. That's what makes him vile and
wretched is his heart, who he is, that nature that he's born
with. But to eat with unwashed hands,
that's not going to hurt anybody. That's not going to hurt anybody.
It's good to wash your hands. Really, it's good to wash your
hands before you eat. My doctor said, you shake a lot
of hands? I said, yes. He said, well, you
better go wash them. He said, after you get done shaking
everybody's hands, hurry up and go to the bathroom and wash them.
It doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt to wash your
hands. But it has no effect on my soul. It's just hard. It's just hard. This shows our need of a new
heart. You'll never convince anybody
to believe God until God gives them a new heart to believe with.
Until then, it's all show. But when God gives a new heart,
He has that man and everything belongs to that man. His heart's
engaged in it. It's engaged in it. This shows
the necessity of the atonement. What can wash away my sin? What can wash away evil thoughts? What can wash away murder? What
can wash away adulteries? What can wash away fornication?
What can wash away thefts, false witness, blackmail? What can
wash that away? The blood of the Son of God. That can wash
it away. It's gone. It's not as if it
didn't happen. It didn't. It's gone. It's washed
away. Not a trace of it left. There's nothing more deceitful
than the human heart. Scripture says it is desperately
wicked. Who can know it? Who can know it? Even when God
reveals to a sinner his wretchedness, his sinfulness, he still has
never really seen the real wretchedness that's there. Couldn't handle
it. Could not handle it. We could not handle a full-blown
revelation of what this heart is that we're born with. It's
natural. It's nature. Not that pump in
there that pumps blood, but that nature. The core of my being. If there was a full-blown revelation
of it, couldn't take it. Couldn't take it. The Lord had
that in the Garden of Gethsemane. When He swept great drops of
blood. I don't think it had as much to do with the punishment
as it had to do with being made sin. He knew the very core of
evil. The heart, he says, deceitful,
desperately wicked. Who can know it? We need a new
one. I need God to give me a new heart. Our only hope, our only hope
is for Christ to save us from our sins. Wash us in His blood. and robe us in His righteousness.
Make us righteous in Him. That's our hope. That's our hope. He is the only one who can present
us thoughtless before the throne of His glory. He's the only one. Oh, I tell you, I do. I pray.
Lord, give us a heart to worship You.