Mark 7:1-23, What’s the Problem?

Mark chapter 7 be reading verses 1 to 23 Hear the word of the

Lord 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

For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands 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 and the

Pharisees and the scribes asked him Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands 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 do they worship me teaching his doctrines the commandments of men

You leave the commandment of God and hold fast to to the tradition of men 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 honored your father and mother and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die

But you say if a man tells his father or his mother who have whatever You would have gained from me as a

Corban that is dedicated to God given to God Then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother thus making void the

Word of God by your tradition that you have handed down and many such things you do and He called to them to people

To him again and said to them Hear me all of you and understand there is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him but the things that come out of a person are what defile him and When he had entered the house and left the people his disciples asked him about the parable and he said to them

Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him since it enters not his heart

But his stomach and is expelled thus he declared all foods clean and He said what comes out of a person is what defiles him for from within out of the heart of man come evil thoughts sexuality theft murder adultery coveting wickedness deceit sensuality envy slander pride foolishness all these things come from within and they defile a person

And the Lord had his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word. What's your problem?

Say that in the wrong way. It sounds rude, doesn't it? What's your problem? We all have problems what's yours there are many different kinds of problems they talk about first -world problems like slow internet access

TV remote not working Can't find your earbuds Maybe a bad haircut

We joke about those kinds of problems to remind ourselves that a lot of the things we think of as problems aren't

But we still have problems everyone. I know here With some depth has

I know has problems. Maybe a child you're worried about marital problems health problems business problems troubles in the family

We all have the problem of a declining body Young people just aren't aware of it. You can have a serious problem, but not know it

That's why doctors often give us blood tests or look for telltale signs Problems we may not know about not have no awareness of I have to go to dermatologist

At least once a year so we can look me over and see Problems that maybe I'm not aware of I've had three or maybe four have lost count actually of cancerous skin growths

Removed they look like just weird freckles or abrasions Like nothing serious.

I might think a little little lotion on it. That'll solve it. It'll be okay But if the doctor doesn't take care of them, they could grow to kill me

What's your problem? Sometimes our problems are a lot bigger than we think

Once when I was living in Pasadena, California, I was going to drive to the Rose Bowl to run As soon as I turn the ignition on To my car the key as soon as I turn that key the car began to shake for several seconds

Now I assumed I had a problem with my engine Maybe a bad spark plug and I turned off the engine and the shaking stopped

Was it correlation or causation? Hmm Well, I'm not much of a mechanic, but I popped the hood and I looked out it looked at the engine and it looked okay

And I got back in I Turned the car back on again. It started fine this time. No shaking.

I couldn't figure out what it was The radio came on and the announcer said We just had an earthquake here in the

Southland. I Thought my problem was This is my car shaking instead.

It was something much bigger. It was the entire Tectonic plate Well, is your problem bigger than you think and Medicine finding the right problem is key to finding the right solution

You hope it's something small But sometimes it could turn out to be much bigger than you think doctors are intent on finding what exactly your problem is

They even have a special word for it diagnosis when I had my accident about two months ago

We had a little problem with the diagnosis first We went to the Castle Medical Center where they gave me an x -ray and the doctor there

Diagnosed me as having a femoral neck fracture means that part of the upper leg bone near where the ball joint is is broken and We took their x -ray to the

Danville Hospital and at first the doctor there looking at it looking at the very same x -ray Wasn't sure that it was really broken.

He said it doesn't look broken to me and but And I thought well, that's good. Maybe it's not just had a strain something and with some ice and elevation and I'll be okay

I'll be back to normal in a couple of days But they gave me a CT scan to check and yes, the doctor in the

Anseville was right I Had hoped my problem was minor But it wasn't

What's your problem? It's important to get it right. It might be bigger than you think

You could hurt yourself if you think it's a small thing Something that you could easily take care of by yourself with a few changes maybe with ice and elevation, but it's broken

Maybe with a spark plug, but it's really an earthquake Maybe with lotion, but it's really cancer

You need to know what your problem is. We see that here in three major parts first the problem second the response and then finally third the

Explanation the Pharisees and the scribes is the religious people They think Jesus's disciples have a problem and they've come to him some from Jerusalem That's the big city the headquarters to show us that he's become more and more prominent.

He's known now even in even in the big city And they come to check

Jesus out to see if if he has a problem now We already seen this up at the scribes think he does what are these experts from Jerusalem?

What are they gonna think they probably heard good and bad things about him at least False bad things, but they've heard rumors and now they want to diagnose him themselves after all they're the you know

The doctors of the law they're the experts and they say in verse 2 that some of Jesus's disciples eat with unwashed hands

What they consider defiled Now notice they didn't accuse Jesus of that They didn't say

Jesus you eat with unwashed hands, which suggests that Jesus himself Did indeed wash his hands before eating as was the custom with religious

Jews at the time But still some of Jesus's disciples didn't wash Maybe the ones like like Matthew who weren't so religious before joining

Jesus's disciples to the religious leaders That is a problem Since Jesus is their leader

He has a problem. I mean after all he's he's their master He could just tell them to wash your hands before eating and they would have to do it

So when they see Matthew or whoever it is eating without washing they wonder why

Jesus hasn't Taught them to wash the problem is With Jesus they think even if he's personally washing in verses 2 to 4

Mark kind of pauses and describes for us quite helpfully because Mark has written for people like us

Gentiles And he describes for us why these religious leaders were asking this the

Jews do not eat unless they first wash their hands and he calls it a verse to a a Tradition of the elders in other words, it's not something that commanded by God from Scripture There's no verse anywhere in the

Old Testament says you must wash your hands before eating It's a tradition that developed over time to help them keep the law they think

It was what they all building a hedge around the law they saw what the law commanded and then they They made even traditions that did more than the law so you can't even get close to violating

God's law And so when they when they came from the marketplace they don't eat unless they wash because They may have gotten they think they may have gotten defiled there

You can be defiled by touching something unclean or even coming close to a Gentile like like us

Just having the shadow of a Gentile following you was defiling and so you need to wash that off It's kind of like what we do with viruses now this obsession.

You've got to get rid of it get it off It's the same with Muslim halal food. It's not good enough just to not eat

Unclean food like pork To be halal that is legal clean

It has to be prepared with pots and pans and utensils that have it have never even touched I've not touched unclean food less the uncleanness gets on the clean food

Making it unclean and then making you unclean if you eat it now understand their washing wasn't for hygiene

We think everyone now we now we kind of think well washing sure that's a good thing to do Why would they why would Jesus disciples not be doing that keep themselves clean?

We think everyone ought to normally wash our hands to keep the germs off, but here it has nothing to do with hygiene but with holiness

If your hands are defiled and you eat with those hands the uncleanness could go into you and so how you become holy was by keeping

Uncleanness from going into you that assumes that they are from the start

That they are clean That they are not defiled that God accepts them

Just as I am without one plea But that Abraham was the father of me. I Am they thought by default clean

Kind of like a new computer You know, it's brand new right out of the box

Factory settings are good and it'll stay good It'll stay clean as long as it doesn't catch a virus from a from the

Internet or from something some one plugs into it To wash to keep it clean didn't wash or scan everything in coming to stay clean

They assume we're not depraved as we are. We're good as we are Sin is something outside of us that when coming in makes us

Originally good clean people unclean That's what they believe.

And so then the problem is why was Jesus allowing some of his disciples not to wash?

Don't they know that makes them unclean make that makes them sinful second the response from verses 6 to 12

What's your what's your problem? Jesus a response to what the religious people thought was the obvious problem.

Why are they not washing? Jesus's response do you notice It's to ignore that issue at first Jesus will eventually answer that Later, but notice here in response to the question

Publicly to the religious leaders these big shots from Jerusalem Jesus doesn't answer it

He goes deeper than their question who says Who says that that's defiling according to who who says that the disciples eating with unwashed hands are

Defiling themselves by what authority are you claiming that they are being defiled by eating with unwashed hands?

Says who? Well, they would say well the tradition of the elders and Jesus says back here.

This is his response That's not an authority If it contradicts

God's Word Here we see him clearly teaching what we now call in in Latin sola scriptura

Scripture alone. Now if you've ever encountered a Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox defender online or maybe in person

They will almost always say if they kind of been trying to say get trained to say this because they almost always say the same thing

And they're thinking they're they're clever They're thinking they're showing how we're contradicting ourselves.

They will almost always say the Bible nowhere teaches sola scriptura Okay, that word never occurs.

They have the term doesn't but they're wrong It clearly does. He said it in fact right here here and in a similar passage in Matthew 15

Jesus describes exactly What we call now sola scriptura that Scripture alone is the final

Authority if there's a conflict between Scripture and tradition the teachings of men

Scripture wins That's that's what the doctrine means and that's what this passage teaches. That's what

Jesus himself teaches Scripture is the Supreme Court that ultimately decides right if Scripture has issued a teaching it is final

Now there are other authorities that we can appeal to especially when Scripture is silent when it doesn't teach on something we can use reason

You know shall we use electrical lights in? Worship Well scripture doesn't prohibit it.

There's no verse says you shall not use electrical lights and It helps us see so with reason.

Yes, we can do that. There's a place for tradition When shall we serve the Lord's Supper? By tradition we want to do it regularly first Sunday of the month seems like a good time

It's easy to remember so you prepare yourself That's kind of a tradition and again remember here that Jesus was apparently washing his hands or they would have accused him personally

So he was keeping the tradition himself the tradition of washing hands doesn't violate Scripture so you can do it but it's not commanded of God and so you shouldn't impose it on others and Pronounce them unclean if they don't obey it if another church has a

Lord's Supper at a different time than the first Sunday of the Month, well as long as they're having it, that's okay. We can't pronounce them.

You're on biblical You're you're on Christian because you have it the last Sunday of the month or something like that That would be that would be ridiculous

Now some Christians denounced tradition as if it were all bad What really is going on is they're not aware of their traditions.

Everybody has traditions some people have traditions about when to have the offering or how to have the offering and Maybe they'll even have a fancy kind of procession of deacons and ushers coming down the aisle and placing it on the table the offering

Have a traditions about what kind of songs to sing Only hymns, that's our traditions to what we've been doing all the time

How often have the Lord's Supper as I mentioned what translation of the Bible to use? And if you tell those people that's your tradition

They'll say no, we don't believe in tradition. Oh, yes, you do. You're just not aware of your traditions tradition itself is not bad

In fact, they can help you Obey God as possible They can be things made by faithful people at the traditions of my faithful people in the past That have been handed down to us that help us be faithful.

Just know where God's command ends and where your tradition begins Use tradition that is what believers did in the past to help you have faith and be faithful Like them, but don't believe in the tradition itself

By keeping these things these traditions. I therefore obedient to God and I'm pleasing to him.

That's traditional ism Someone said tradition is the living faith of the dead Traditional ism is

The dead faith of the living Well here the religious leaders think the problem is being defiled by not washing but Jesus says the problem is traditionalism

Now we have a tradition here of singing psalms every service that's based on the command twice in the New Testament to sing psalms

Now the way we do it kind of sequentially one by one Through the through the

Psalter to the book of Psalms to the tune of a familiar hymn Well, that's a tradition

Churches should sing psalms. That's God's command how they do it. It's a tradition Hopefully the living faith of the dead

Churches can do it differently than we do We could we could change our tradition on how to sing psalms

We could we're gonna sing another at least part of a psalm Later after this sermon from Psalm 51 you could do it that way a little verses here and there

At least that's partly doing it and that would be okay As long as we are somehow singing them singing only psalms is a tradition because the

Bible doesn't command Sing only psalms if never occurs anywhere in the Bible in 1st Corinthians 14 Paul's Church wasn't singing only psalms

He talks about them singing in the spirit now, whatever you want I don't want to debate what that is, but it's not singing psalms singing

No psalms is a tradition is traditionalism that violates Scripture again, because that is commanded

So many Christians today give so little thought so everything I've just said about kind of about the worship service to many

Christians They look at you. What are you talking about? They never even think about it You just kind of leave the worship service up to pragmatics what works what helps get people in what makes people happy what they want

To hear or tradition. This is what we've always been doing. That's traditionalism They leave it up to that they hardly think about it

And so they're not even aware that there's a problem that they are flouting the authority of God's Word Now here the religious people are condemning

Jesus's disciples and so Jesus himself For defiling themselves Jesus first doesn't deal with that issue, but he gets right to the heart of the problem defiling according to who

What authority says that they are defiling themselves? The religious people just assume

Their tradition was the authority. No said they just assume it They don't give an argument like first.

We got a step you accept our authorities, right? Well, no, they just assume it like it's taken for granted and Jesus won't let them smuggle that assumption in He catches that assumptions.

No, I don't I don't agree with that assumption Often if you want to win a debate by the way want to win a debate just if you can smuggle an assumption in That proves your point then you won

Without having examined it's much easier than actually proving your point kind of smuggle it in Abortion is a woman's right to choose what to do with her body

Hmm. Well, they just assume that the person who was killed by abortion doesn't have a body of his or her own They're just assuming that the baby isn't a person.

They just assume that and state it and If you let them get by with that assumption, well, they win the debate

Here the religious leaders have just assumed that the disciples not washing their hands are defiling themselves

They're just assuming the authority of their tradition They assume its authority that it is the rule and Jesus won't let them let them get by With that assumption.

So notice in verse 5 the question Why do your disciples not wash according to tradition elders, but evil defiled hands

Jesus's response your traditions are wrong You know, they weren't asking about traditions.

They didn't come to Jesus Jesus. What do you think of our traditions? Well, they're wrong. No, why are they eating about washing their hands?

Your traditions are wrong Your assumptions are wrong and even deeper than that What's going on in the hearts of people of religious people?

That they are choosing to believe traditions over God's Word. Why are they doing that?

What's the real problem? Jesus's response in verse 6. Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you?

hypocrites its actors you frauds Looking like something you're not you looking like you're people who believe

God, but you're not can tell by What you're asking what you're believing what you're thinking this people

He's quoting from Isaiah. There's people honors But he's applying it to the people asking this question.

This people honors me God says with their lips with empty words, but their hearts what's the problem?

their heart is far From me their worship is superficial

Yes, they're not even thinking about God at all. The thing about traditions think about people think about themselves their ego

They certainly sang Psalms, but it wasn't from the heart. It was external. It was like washings

It was all about things that could be done or seen it was about performance not love in vain as emptily

Do they worship me? Their worship is is for nothing. It achieves nothing.

It's vain. It's like air nothing there it doesn't please God or transform the worshipers and one expression

Our example of that empty worship, it's all about superficiality It's all about appearances about looks is

Jesus says they're teaching as doctrines as if it's God's Word They're teaching his doctrines the commandments of men like wash your hands before you to keep yourself on the file

They're putting man -made traditions in the place of God's Word traditionalism the dead faith of the living then

Jesus says in verse 8 You leave the commandment of God knows how many times Jesus says that you've a piece at least three or four times here this same idea your traditionalism replacing

God's God's Word with your own made up whatever you think it's convenient your traditions you leave the commandment of God Here's the commandment of God you're leaving that and you're holding to the tradition of men.

Why do you do that? That's the real problem Not how

Matthew or whoever it was is eating that's not the problem doesn't make any difference It's that you care about traditions about the way people around you

About your parents your elders your community Maybe just your own opinion your esteem your egos at stake your community

You care about that you care about what how they've done things about what they approve of You care about all that more than what

God wants God does not even really appear occurring at all into what they want what they're thinking

The people you're interested in pleasing above all maybe yourself Even more than pleasing

God. Well, they only here they want to they want you to wash your hands or maybe today

They only want to sing hymns that were written before they were born the ones they grew up with Or maybe they only want to sing newer songs

Because that's what I and the people around me want to hear the real problem.

Is it new or old? It's why are we more interested in that? Than in what

God wants? Well, Jesus gives an example in verses 9 to 13.

He gives a specific example been sort of abstract Theoretical by now gives a particular example.

You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition That's traditionalism rejecting

God's command Whatever it is like Psalm singing practice church discipline baptized disciples in order to keep what keep doing what you've been doing

What you're comfortable with what you like singing whatever you like You like enabling or ignoring sin baptizing infants or children or even adults have just been manipulated into saying a quick quote sinners prayer and the

Indian and then Rushed at the baptism, but they don't know what it means The practical example

Jesus uses is the fifth commandment to honor your parents It's backed up by the law That says whoever reviles father and mother that is he he curses he hates he denounces them a

Child that does that to his parents must surely die Hmm I think it's kind of ironic the skeptics

Often who score in the Bible for commanding that reviling disobedient rebellious kids be put to death

They'll score in that is the most what they think is the most barbaric and absurd thing they can think of Probably because they raise those kind of kids

That's probably what's going on there with most of them and it is precisely that command that the

Lord Jesus says, you know Your failure to implement it Shows that you believe in your traditionalism more than you believe

God Now here they had a tradition that if you dedicated your property to God if you if you declared your money consecrated to the

Lord Right. Maybe you had got real holy and you I'm gonna give my this bank account. This is dedicated to God and That they had even as particular word for it a term for it

Corban If you did that for some property then you didn't have to use it to support your elderly parents

In fact, you can't it now belongs to God Sorry mom and dad it's

God's you can't use it You have to reserve the money for you know Practically means giving to the temple or the synagogue or maybe here and here where the

Pharisees come in. They love money. They get it Uh -huh. That's why they'd like like this tradition Now this tradition sounds very pious

Godly doesn't righteous We'd be reluctant to criticize it because if you're dedicating your property to God That must be a good thing, right

You know, like you say I'm when I die my house goes to God sell it and give the money to whatever

That must be a good thing, right? But Jesus says no you're breaking the commandment to honor your parents your honoring

Should be practical. That's what he's assuming here, right? You're honoring is practical if your parents are poor you honor them by giving them money

If they need help you honor them by helping they need a place to live you honor them by giving them a place to live

But their traditionalism here their dead faith of living was to tell mom and dad.

Well tough luck. He warm be filled This money here at his house it belongs to God I'm giving it to the religion and Jesus said in verse 13 thus that is in this way

You make void you make empty you make it vain like your worship is vain it is it's meaningless

You make vain the Word of God By your tradition that you have handed down here by the way

Jesus sounds very Chinese You just have to recognize that in this context

Jesus sounds completely Chinese I mean honoring parents means practically helping them.

That's what he's saying here It's not just having a good feeling about them honoring mom and dad doesn't mean well Send mom a card a

Mother's Day and ignore her or less the time not just saying nice words Here with us being cross -cultural can help us see.

Hey, hey my traditions my culture has blinded me to the Word of God Because after all here we see

Chinese culture. I Never let his people get away with a tradition like this

With this tradition that Jesus is condemning here You know when I first went to Singapore now interviewed with a pastor there for a position in a

Bible college and He told me kind of typical interview stuff. But then he said though If you're leaving your mom to take care of herself, we don't want you you go back home

First I thought if I went back home with my mom, I'm gonna take care of you Vic me but you know, whatever that's not my tradition and you might think say well, that's their tradition

That's not our tradition in our culture. Well, maybe but which tradition according to Jesus here is

More in line with God's Word Well the question the problem according to the religious people was why are they defiling themselves by eating with unwashed hands?

Jesus gets to the heart of the problem defiled according to who your tradition. Why do you believe it?

more than God now beginning of verse 13 He'll finally get

To that question. Why are they eating with unwashed hands third part? the explanation the answer is

Because that's not the problem What's your problem? The heart of the problem

Jesus has is the problem of the heart The religious people were misdiagnosing the problem because they assumed that their hearts were fine

That sin came from outside them From something they touched or something. They ate and Jesus finally starting in verse 14.

He clears that up And he calls people to himself probably the same people that heard him respond to the traditionalist

And he says hear me all of you and understand why the eating with unwashed hands

I'm gonna finally tell you I'm not I didn't tell them Because I got deeper with him Pay careful attention.

This is important. He says hear me all of you notice he called Call him to himself understand this is important in verse 15 nothing

Nothing, not a thing Outside a person Did by going into him?

Can defile him that's not the way you become sinful before God Something you eat drink or touch being sinful doesn't come from catching it from others like you catch a virus

Wearing a mask and distancing. Is it going to help? Wash of your hands won't keep you clean of sin

The things that come out of a person or what defile him sinfulness comes from the inside out and That blows apart their assumption that people are clean

Originally and then kind of catch sin like we catch an infectious disease Jesus has no it comes from within you

That explanation is so foreign to them. I just that thought they get they never fathom such a thing

They can't understand it. So they call it. They even call it a parable. It's not really a parable It's not a riddle, but they thought it was because it was something so Out of the expected that they think it can't possibly be literal

He can't possibly be meaning what he just said because they think of course sinfulness comes by By eating or doing certain things after all that's why we don't eat that stuff

That's why we don't eat pork or shrimp To keep ourself from being sinful unclean So they can't understand it.

They're just so saturated in that point of view. And so later Jesus the disciples asked Jesus what it what is that strange riddle mean?

What do you mean that nothing outside of us externals It defiles us

Now Jesus expects them to know better by now. They should know better by now

Why do you disciples? Think I let you eat with unwashed hands If being defiled comes from outside of you these religious leaders

They would have been right that you should eat with washed hands I don't let you eat with unwashed hands because we take sin lightly

It would be after all remember it would be better to cut off your hand than to be made sinful by it if That's where your sinfulness came from But it doesn't

Jesus the response isn't Here what we would call Under you got to understand their culture

Appreciate their culture. He understands our culture pretty well. He just rejects it completely

They should know the heart of the problem by now. So in verse 18, he sounds annoyed with their slowness

Then you also are Like those hypocritical religious people, you know, you also you're just like them after all this time.

You're just like them You're also without understanding. You know, why are you so dull?

Why are you like them why are you misdiagnosing the problem thinking it's a small thing

That you can keep yourself from being sinful just by washing your hands Really you still believe that by now

Are you really that foolish? Jesus asked he's very curt here direct And he says don't you see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him?

That's not the source of the problem It's not as though sin is some ingredient in pork or in shrimp

But it's not in chicken or beef or lamb or mutton goat mutton not in those but it's a pork

It's a trip and if you eat it, then you ingest sinfulness and that's how you get sinful No food just goes to the stomach and then out.

It's it's not the problem and Then mark explains at the end of verse 19

That by saying this look at that phrase at the end of verse 19 Jesus declared all foods clean in Greek is literally thus he cleansed all foods

So you're now free to eat or drink anything Okay Now some are so stuck though the disciples mindset here.

It's just so natural I guess too many people that to this day Many are stuck on the idea that sin that offending

God is about externals It's about eating or drinking or doing certain things that they can't accept this idea

Even though the Word of God here plainly says that Jesus cleansed all foods It's what it says and he means what he says and so he said so we've had throughout church history people have said that Eating this or that or drinking this or that is wrong for for centuries.

It was eating meat on Fridays. That's sinful I don't know why it's not simple on Saturdays, but whatever beginning in the 18th and then into the 19th century

When liquor began to be mass -produced first be able to mass -produce liquor So there's a lot of drunkenness around a big problem with drunkenness

Christians began asserting that drinking alcohol was defiling demon rum

They called it and church covenants like ours had added into them the prohibition

Against drinking alcohol as a beverage. That was the phrase no drinking alcohol as a beverage So to join a

Baptist Church, you usually had to pledge you've been drinking an alcohol as a beverage You can I guess you can take it as a medicine, but not a beverage

And we've had some groups that still teach that we should keep the Old Testament food laws to this day No pork, no shrimp

That kind of thing. It's traditionalism Now one reason many have taught that is because the

King James Version mistranslates the parenthetical statement at the end of verse 19 thus cleansed all foods the

KJV kind of vaguely translated as Purging all meats and what does that mean purging all meats?

It sounds like it's excretion and So some of the traditionalists said thus cleansed all foods is not in some of the manuscripts like verse 16

Everyone look at verse 16. You want to get up and read verse 16? Wait, did you notice there's no verse 16?

skips from 15 to 17 that's because Verse 16 is not in the best manuscripts.

It's not in most manuscripts It was likely added later some later manuscripts verse 16 is if anyone has ears to hear let him hear

Which is what Jesus have already said in Mark chapter 4 verse 23 But it was probably accidentally added sometime way back by some copyist and some say well that explains

That phrase thus cleansed all foods. They'll say that phrase at the end of verse 19 They'll say well some copyist added that Jesus didn't really mean it but that's false that phrase

Thus cleansed all foods is in all the manuscripts Means Mark wrote it.

He's interpreting Jesus for us It's inspired word of God. He cleansed all foods it was only mistranslated by the

King James Version translators and the result being that during those centuries when When that was the major if not only translation available to English -speaking people

Many people didn't know that Jesus cleansed all foods, but he did Prohibiting eating or drinking is traditionalism.

It's the dead faith of the living eating or drinking is Not the problem

What's your problem then Jesus says what comes out of a person is what defiles him in verse 20

Your problem is what comes from within you because sinfulness is Already in you it's in your heart and from out of your heart in verse 21 come evil thoughts

Society doesn't teach them to you. It's not your parents fault They originate with you from your heart

Come sexual immorality of all kinds that is sex out of marriage stealing cheating

Murders, it's unjust killing of all kinds from your heart in verse 22 comes adulteries

Plural as though marriage isn't enough to satisfy your lust from your heart comes greediness

You're living for the dollar that insatiable craving for more money more things in your heart lives malice

That selfish desire to see others hurt in your heart is deceit and cunning and cheating others by false promises half truths

Only telling people half a reality so they buy something from you and then it doesn't work lewdness

Comes from your heart. It's like the thirst for pornography Literally an evil eye looking at others with envy

Wanting what they have and wanting them not to have it the stuff the relationship to success slander arrogance and foolishness

You don't catch those like kovat as if you were a healthy person before you came in contact with someone else who had them and you got it from Them and it's their fault.

No you show them because they're already in Your heart in verse 23 all these evil things

Jesus says all of them come from within and They defile you what's your problem?

the problem of the heart That's the diagnosis the doctors of the law the traditionalist got wrong the great physician got right

So the nature of the problem determines the nature of the solution You don't need to wash your hands or stop eating or drinking this or that now sure

You can suppress the symptoms with enough religion enough hand -washing enough traditions. You can make yourself look holy

I guess to some people but none of those get to the heart of the problem the problem of the heart

Our problem is that our heart is desperately sick and beyond cure.

It's stone -cold dead Before God makes it alive the solution the cure is that we get a new heart

One that's alive that out of that new heart comes faith a living faith

That may last in traditions After we're dead But the solution is not something that can be handed down to us

Like a tradition the solution Is something that God must create?