Turn with me to chapter 15 of
Matthew, please. Matthew 15, let's read verse
1 and 2. Then came to Jesus, our Lord
Jesus Christ, scribes and Pharisees, these strict, ceremonialist,
legalist, moralist, intellectuals, of the temple synagogues, which robbed Jerusalem, saying,
Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? They wash not their hands when
they eat bread. These men were such strict Sabbatarians moralist, legalist,
religionist, went through so many washings and ceremonies,
their whole, their lives was in what they did outwardly, and
before they touched food or put it in their mouths, they went
through a ceremony of washing their hands so as not to be depiled
by this particular food. And they asked the Lord, said,
Your disciples eat bread without going through the traditional
ceremony, without doing what the Father said that we ought
to do. And our Lord answered them in verse 3. Now note what
they said. Your disciples transgressed the
tradition of the elders. They transgressed the ways of
the religions. And our Lord answered them, verse
3, and He said, He said, why do you also transgress
the commandment of God by your tradition? My disciples are guilty
of violating your tradition, but you're guilty of violating
the Word of God. These disciples are violating
your traditions, your religious ceremonies, and your customs,
but you men He said, you religious leaders are violating and transgressing
the very commandment of God by your traditions. And he said,
I'll give you an example. Verse four, For God commanded,
saying, Honor thy father and thy mother. And he said, He that
curseth father and mother, let him die the death. And no question
about that. A man to honor respect his parents
and care for them in old age or in sickness or in poverty,
that's commendable to God. That's what God commanded. And
Paul repeated that in 1 Timothy. If you'll turn there in your
Bibles, I want you to see this. 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter
5. In 1 Timothy 5, verse 4, Paul's talking about the church
taking care of widows who are in need. Verse 3 says, honor
widows, respect them, care for them, provide for them, that
are widows indeed. But if any widow have children
or nephews, let them learn first to show piety, kindness at home,
and to care for their parents. This is good and acceptable before
God. And verse 8 says, But if any provide not for his own,
especially for his own household, those of his own house, kindred,
well, he's denied the faith. He's worse than an infidel. Now, get the picture here. These
were proud religious men. These were influential, powerful,
and wealthy, to some extent, men in religion. And they complained that the
disciples were violating their tradition, not doing things according
to the way that the elders prescribed them to be done. And Christ said,
you fellows are practicing a cover-up operation, while my disciples
do violate your traditions and your customs. You, by your traditions
and customs, are violating the very Word of God. For example,
he said, My father said, Honor your father and mother, care
for them, take care of them in their old age, in their poverty,
in their need, and their want. Now look at verse five and six. But you say, Whosoever shall
say to his father or his mother, It's a gift, it's Corban, by whatever thou mightest be
profited by me, whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me. Here's
what he's saying. These men had their livings,
they had their wealth, they had their possessions. But what they
said, we're in God's service, and what I have, my wealth and
my possessions and my material possessions, have been dedicated
to God, to be used only for God, to be used only in the service
of God. It's corban, it's a gift, it's been given to God, it's
been dedicated to God. Therefore, I can't use it to
help you." This was the way they sneaked around that commandment,
you know. What I have has been dedicated to God. It's Corban.
It is dedicated to the service of God. And therefore, I can't
help you. And he said, what you've done
is you've made void the Word of God by your tradition. You've
let a man have a loophole around his obligation. That's the way
we do in income tax. We give men loopholes. We get
them around their obligation. to their government, to society,
and to other people by giving them loopholes. And that's what
these fellows found. They found a way to get around
doing what God commanded them to do. We found a way around. Verse 6, And you honor not your
father and mother, he shall be free. He's made free by our tradition. Oh, no. You've made the commandment
of God of non-effect by your tradition. You've found a way
to get around your service and obligation to your parents by
saying that what you have belongs to God. Belongs to God. Verse 7, you hypocrites. You
hypocrites. Well, did Isaiah prophesy of
you saying, these people's religion is in word and perfection. You
know, a fellow said one time, how amazed we'll be when we find
that men, not only may be very strong and zealous in religion,
and not know God. But that religious tradition
may be so strong in them and upon them, even to making the
word of God of no effect. And he says here in verse eight,
Isaiah said, You draw nigh to me with your mouth. Not everyone
that says, Lord, Lord, is going to enter the kingdom of God.
You honor me with your lips. But your hearts are far from
me, and in vain you worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men. Your worship is vain. It's unacceptable. We love in word, not in deed,
and it's unacceptable to God. And your doctrine, their doctrine,
was nothing more than the rules and standards of men set up to
satisfy men. And he had nothing more to say
to them. Nothing more. Verse 10, and he called them
out to him. Now, this is very significant. Here are these men of renown
and human respect. In fact, the disciples said one
time, well, if the Pharisees are not saved, who can be saved? These men were somebody, Bob.
Somebody. And they came to the Lord in
defense of their tradition, their custom, the way they worshiped
God, the way they did things, the way they taught, their customs
and traditions. And they were upset. They were
genuinely upset with His disciples because they weren't doing the
things the way they did. And if you don't think that we're
bound today by traditions and customs of religion, you go somewhere
and conduct a service and not give that altar call at the end
of the service and sing. They come rushing down the aisle.
You didn't give an invitation. You didn't give anybody the opportunity
to be saved. If you don't think we're bound
by traditions and customs, you try to conduct a funeral a little
different from the way everybody else conducts them. That's right. If you don't think we're bound
by traditions and customs, you try to conduct a service without
a lot of whoopee and raising of the hands and And these preachers
say, well, the service was dead, the Holy Ghost wasn't there because
nobody was shouting. Shouting is no evidence of the
Holy Ghost's presence, but these are traditions and customs. I
could go on the rest of the service talking about religious traditions
and customs that have bound us, that have put us in a bondage
today, and you try to skip a Sunday morning service sometimes. Just
say, we're going to meet Sunday night, not meet Sunday morning.
What? What? What? You've got to meet on Sunday
morning. Why? Well, that's what we've
always done. Tradition. Tradition. Bound by
tradition. And the disciples, they just
reached and got something to eat, and these Pharisees said,
hey, you can't do that. Why can't I do it? You're supposed
to wash before you eat. Where does it say that in God's
Word? But that's our tradition. You can't violate our tradition.
You can't do it differently. You can't do it. Christ said
what you've done. I'll tell you what you fellas
have done. By your tradition, you've found ways to go around
this book. You've found ways to get around
God's Word. And I'll just give you an example, he said. Some
of you are neglecting your old parents. You're not giving them
what they need, taking care of them, and you've got plenty.
And you're defending your position with the fact that it's dedicated
to God. It's Corban, and that's a tradition of your elders. And
I'll tell you what you fellas are. He said, you're a bunch
of word worshipers. You're men who are rendering
to God lip service. And your hearts are not in God,
of God, or with God. And then he just turned away
from them. They were standing there talking to him, questioning
him, and he just turned away from them, and said to the crowd
of people, the crowd of people were listening, the people weren't
making any contribution. These guys spoke for them, you
know. They weren't making any contribution. The average person,
you go to them, ask them what they believe. They say, you'll
have to ask my preacher. Spurgeon asked a fellow one time,
he said, what do you believe? He said, I believe the same thing
that my preacher believes. He said, what does your preacher
believe? He said, he believes what I believe. But he said,
what do both of you believe? He said, same thing. That's a
true story, the same thing. Tradition. And so he just turned
away from them. And he turned to the multitude
and he said, listen, verse 11, Don't you know it's not that
which goeth into the mouth that defileth a man? It's not going to defile you
to shake hands with a prostitute or to ask her to come to church.
You walk down the street to go cross over to the other side
to keep from rubbing shoulders with her? That's not going to
defile you. It's not going to defile you
to go in a place and eat dinner where they serve alcoholic beverages. That's not going to defile you.
You don't catch anything. He said it's not what you eat
and drink that defiles your soul. It's not what a man puts in his
mouth that defiles him. What defiles us is what comes
The fact that I wouldn't speak to her, that's what defiled me.
She, touching her, shaking hands with her, welcoming her into
my home, having her eat lunch with us, that wouldn't defile
me or anybody in my home. But the very fact I'd ignore
her and look down with disdain upon her and consider myself
better than her, that defiled me. That's what whipped me. What
came out of me. That body, you could drink a
bottle of beer, you're going to hell. I don't understand this
kind of religion. What you put in your body is
not going to touch your soul. It won't touch your heart. It'll
go into the body, it'll be digested, whatever's there. It may defile
your body now. Intemperance in anything will
kill you. But even intemperance is not
going to touch your soul. It's going out the draft, down
the sewer, and that's it. I wish we could get rid of sin
by taking an enema, don't you? It can't be done. And that's
what my Lord said. These guys don't understand it.
And these silly preachers around here don't understand it either.
They spend months and months and thousands of dollars trying
to keep liquor out of the I wish they'd spend months and months
and money to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. That'd solve
our problem. It's not that which... He said
he gave up on the preachers. He just turned his back on them.
He just gave up on them. He can't help those burdens. Now, one reason he can't help
them is their living's involved. Their salary's involved, that's
one reason you can't help them. Bound by tradition, locked in
a false refuge, making, encompassing sea and land to make one proselyte
for their religion, and their proselytes become two-fold more
the child of hell than they are. Their religion consists in do's
and don'ts and rules and regulations and staying out of this place
and going to that place. and not having anything to do
with this person or that person and so forth, and Christ turned
to the crowd, and He said, It's not what a man puts in his mouth
and defiles him and corrupts him. It's what comes out of his
heart and his soul. It's what he is by birth and
nature and principle and attitude and spirit. That's his damnation.
That's his rottenness. I know some folks right now in
church. I know some sisters and brothers-in-law
that aren't speaking. Not in this church. The church
where I've been, they're just not speaking. You know why they're
not speaking? Got upset over something in their
mama's will. And one of them didn't handle
it properly, and the other one got mad about it, and they're
not speaking. It'd be better if they got drunk. I'd have more respect for him,
I'll be honest with you. But this thing, I'm not even
talking about years. Won't shake hands. I'm not talking about
one week or one day, I'm talking about years. Won't speak. Won't shake hands. Sit on opposite
sides of the chair. That's hell, that's what that
is. Hell in the heart. An unforgiving spirit and an
absence of grace. And that's what my Lord said. Then his disciples came and said
to him, don't you know that the religious leaders were offended
when you said that? And you talk about offending
this religious gang around here. If I went out and publicly got
to preach what I'm preaching to you this morning, they'd be
offended. There you go, telling people
to go do what they want to do. I'm telling people to do what
their hearts want to do, yeah. What do you want to do? You want
to serve God and love Christ and walk with Christ? I do. People are regulated by a relationship
with Christ, not by rules and regulations. If I'm kept out
of a place because of fear or rules, and that's where I want
to be in here, I might as well be there. But what keeps me out
of a place and from doing a certain thing is not your rules or laws
or regulations, it's because I love Christ. And I'd rather
be with Him and in fellowship with Him than in fellowship with
the world. Does that make sense? Well, they were offended when
they heard what he said. And he said in verse 13, he answered,
Well, I'll tell you this, every plant which my Heavenly Father
hath not planted shall be rooted up. God's trees are the planting
of God's choice. By His grace in Christ, they're
like trees planted by the rivers of living water, and they shall
never die. That's election right there. That's God's divine covenant,
grace and choice. He said, My heavenly Father has
trees in His kingdom, in the forest of His love, and He chose
them and planted them Himself. And every one that's a tar that
was planted by the enemy shall be rooted up and destroyed. And then he said in verse 14, now
watch this, leave them alone. Leave them alone. Ignore their
rebukes and their reproaches. Don't listen to them. Listen
to God. Leave them alone. Have nothing to do with them.
Have nothing to say to them. Ignore them. Because they're
blind leaders of blind people, and if the blind lead the blind,
they both will fall into the ditch. And then Peter said to
him, Lord, declare unto us this parable. What were you talking
about when you said, it's not that which goeth into the mouth
that defileth a man, but that which comes out of his heart.
Declare unto us the meaning of this parable. And Jesus looked
at them and he said, now here's, listen to this, are you without
understanding of this? You whom I have chosen, whom
I have called, are you without understanding? Are you still
apprehensive about this thing? Does this religious tradition
and custom and this religious world and these religious television
programs with their fears and threats and rewards and crowns
and judgments and all of this sort of thing, does this still
make you uneasy? Are you without understanding?
Is Christ not enough? Is His Word not enough? Are you
uncertain about your foundation? Are you uncertain about your
hope, huh? Are you without understanding? Verse 17, do you not yet, do
you, do you, do ye, do not ye yet understand that whatever
enters the mouth goes into the belly? Whether it be a wafer,
or a cracker, or a wine, or what it is, whether it be this, that,
or the other, it goes into the belly. Anything that's touched
outwardly, or taken outwardly, or done outwardly, goes into
the belly and is cast out in the draft. But those things which come out
of the mouth, in words, those things which come out of the
mouth, they come from the heart. They're produced in the heart.
They're produced by an attitude and a nature. And they, that's
what befouls us. For out of the heart proceeds
evil thoughts, evil thoughts of God and evil thoughts of men. Out of the heart proceeds mergers
of hatred, bigotry, bigotry, racism, adulteries, lust, fornications, covetousness. That's thefts. I want what I
don't have. I want what you have. I want
what God hasn't given me. False witness, lies, gossip, blasphemy. These are the things
that defile a man. But to eat with unwashing hands,
defile is not a man. And then the next verse says,
Then Jesus left them, just left them, and departed unto the coast
of Tyre and Sidon. He's a Gentile. He didn't go
down into this country, but he went to the coast, went to the
border. I want you to see something here.
He went to the border, and behold, a woman of Canaan came out of
the same coast. This was a Gentile woman. Evidently,
she had heard of Christ. This is an illustration or an
example of what he's just been talking about, the freeness of
God's mercy to the heart. This is an example of what he's
been talking about. Then, this woman, she's a Gentile, she was
out of Towerside, and she'd heard of Christ, she'd heard of his
power, heard of his greatness. Her daughter was very ill, and
she came to the house. Now, Mark said he went into a
house. He says he came to the coast of Tyre and Sidon, and
Mark says he went into a house for seclusion, for rest, to get
away from all these people, all these religious folks. He went
into this house. And this woman of Canaan came
out of the same coast, and she came to Christ. Evidently, she
came right into the house. Now watch what she said, "'Have
mercy upon me, O Lord!' The first thing this woman did was recognize,
here's authority, here's lordship. This is like the leper in Matthew
8. Lord, if you will, you can make
me whole. The thief on the cross, Lord, you're coming into the
kingdom. Lord, she says, thou son of David. You know, a lot of times when
preachers preach on these subjects, they give the impression that
these people whom he healed were just totally ignorant people
out of the woods. Listen, listen to Rahab the harlot. Down in Jericho, the spies came
in and she said, we know how the Lord dried up the Red Sea.
That was 40 years ago. 40 years ago. She said, we know
how that you destroyed the Amorites and the Hittites. That's 30 years
ago. This was no dumb woman. She's
in a dumb profession, but she wasn't a dumb woman. She knew
about these things. And this girl, this woman here
from Canaan, she called him Lord, and she called him what? Son
of David. You know what son of David is?
That's the Christ. That's the Messiah. He asked
the Pharisees, said, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?
They said he's the son of David. Son of David. She knew. who Jesus
Christ was. She called him Lord, she called
him son of David, and she said, my daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. She called upon him for mercy. And I'll tell you this, she came
to him as he is, as he is. Now watch this next thing. Watch
how her faith meets with difficulties. and how her faith cast these
difficulties aside. Every obstacle that's thrown
in her path, and every trial that he brings her through, how
her faith dealt with it. Now watch this. She said, in
the right way, Lord, O Lord, Son of David, I'm asking for
mercy. The next verse said, He answered
her, not a word. Did he not hear her? He heard
her. Did he not pity her? He pitied her. Did he have not
compassion on her? He had compassion on her. Did
he despise her? Certainly not. What's he doing? Trying her faith. Faith must
be tried. Too many people are speaking
comfort too quickly to too many people. Too many folks are speaking comfort
too quickly to too many people. This woman came to Christ legitimately,
Lord, Son of David, have mercy upon me. And he never even replied. So the next verse says that he
answered and his disciples, evidently she went outside to his disciples
and tried to get them to help her. And they came in the house
and they said, This woman's worrying us to death. She's crying after
us. We can't help her. Send her away. Ask her to leave
us alone. She's persistent. Men can't help
us either, can they? And he said to his disciples,
now watch this next. And I'm sure she's listening.
She's there to know it. She's a persistent woman. She
wants mercy. And he said to his disciples,
he said, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. Here are covenant mercies, here is discriminating grace.
Our Lord does not hide nor conceal his sovereignty in salvation.
I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And even in the face of that, what's this next verse? Then
came she and worshipped him She came to him, she worshipped him,
and she cried, Lord, help me! Help me! She believes Christ
to be the fountain of all mercies. Yeah, he said he was sent to
Israel, but he's here. Yeah, he came to save the lost
sheep of Israel, but he's here, and I'm here, and I need him,
and he's the only one who can help me. No one else can help
me. But he turned to her and threw
another obstacle in her path. Now watch this carefully. He
threw another obstacle in her path. He said, it's not right,
it's not right to take the children's food and give it to dogs. Now
what our Lord is doing here is drawing a picture. Here's a painter
sitting around the table. Here's the father at the head
of the table and the mother and the children. And here's the
family of dogs. There's one over here and one
over there. They're sittin' there just watchin'
the family. The mother's prepared the food,
puttin' it on the table. Dogs are sittin' there watchin'
the family eat. And the father takes the meat,
slices the meat, puts it on a plate, takes some potatoes, puts it
on a plate, some beans, some corn, and a roll. And he puts
it down for the dogs. I said, that's not what you do.
That's not the way to do it. You don't give the children bread
to the dogs, you give to the children. Now watch what she says here.
What he's doing is he's putting her in her place. And I'll tell
you, this is such a traumatic experience when the Holy Spirit
of God, through the Word of God, puts us in our place. Turn over, if you will, to Ephesians
2. Let me show you something here. Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians 2. We all, because
we've been brainwashed into this fatherhood of God and brotherhood
of man, we have ourselves sitting at the table. We have ourselves already children
of God, and we're not. We're children of wrath, even
as others. And Ephesians 2 verse 11 says this. Remember in times
past, Gentiles, remember being in times past, Gentiles in the
flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called a circumcision
in the flesh made by hand. At that time you were without
Christ, aliens, not even citizens, strangers from the covenant of
promise, having no hope, and without God in this world, really
and truly dogs. Dogs. And here she's come to
the master. And the master, trial after trial,
he first didn't even answer. And then he told his disciples,
said, I'm sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And then
she said, Lord, help me. He said, it's not right to take
the bread and the food for the children and put it down for
the dogs to eat. And she said, that's true, Lord.
That's absolutely true. You are the Lord, and I am the
dog. That's true. And the bread is
prepared for the children, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which
fall from their master's table. In other words, the daddy sits
there, and after the children have eaten, he'll take a chicken
bone. They've eaten all the meat off
the chicken, and he'll put it down to that old dog. And that
old dog will be so glad to get it, just a bone. And here's a
piece of cake that they didn't eat. He takes it and puts it
down for the dog. And the dog just wags his tail.
He's so happy. That's his portion. He's glad
to get that bone. He's glad to get that little
old piece of cake. He's just thrilled with anything that the
Master has placed to get. And that's what this woman said.
I'd just be happy and pleased and delighted with anything off
your plate, crumbs or whatever, or bone or whatever. See how different from these
Pharisees, these men coming with their traditions and the defense
of their customs and the way we do things, and I'm defiled
by not washing my hands, by regulations and rules. And here comes a woman.
Here comes a woman that's willing to take her place at his feet
as a dog and be satisfied not with the best, but the leavings,
just anything from his hand, any mercy, any grace. And our
Lord answered and said, O woman, O woman, O woman, great is thy
name. Faith that would not be denied, faith that would receive the
Word of God, whatever He said, however He said it, whatever
He did, no matter how He did it, just, that's right, I don't
deserve anything, I'm not worthy, I'm nothing. Be it unto thee
as thou wilt. Be it unto thee as thou wilt."
And from that moment, her daughter was made whole. Oh, for a faith to trust Him,
to believe Him, to love Him, a real heart faith, a living