The Commandments of Men | Mark 7:1-13 | Pastor Micah Stephens

0:00Well, I'm blessed to be here again like I said as I have, you know, a sermon to preach. I'm trying to, you know, scroll and make sure I, and everything is changing and, you know, every hour there's a new update, every minute, there's a new update. But I did have to lock in because I am really excited by this sermon that the Lord has put on my heart from this last anchored reading. We have been in the book of Mark, which is the second gospel, and the second book in the New Testament. And we're going to be in Mark chapter 7. If you need a Bible, you can raise your hand and our, our ushers will hand you one. Last week, I preached a sermon on fasting, and I've heard many testimonies of how God has already been moving and working, and speaking to people through their various different fasts, I pray that you have been blessed, pray that you have applied what you learned from last week, and if you were waiting for something

1:07to fast about and fast for, this is one of those things. You can fast for the protection and the guidance of our leadership. You can fast for the war. You can fast for resolution, and these are things that bring great peace to the heart of the believer, and collectively the church at large. And in Mark, you know, Mark is really cool because it's short. It's very condensed. It's the most condensed of the gospels. It's like the, you know, the YouTube shorts of the gospels, and if that maybe, that doesn't resonate you, you don't know what a YouTube short is. Maybe you're like a millennial, or like you're old like me, like a millennial. Then it's the, like, the cliff notes version of the gospel. That might resonate. You're like, I don't even know what cliff notes are. Maybe you're, you know, Chat X, you know, and greater,

2:10baby boomer. Okay, it's the Reader's Digest version of the gospel. You're like, oh, God, I got it. That makes sense. That makes sense. Covered all my, you know, all my bases, my generational bases here, just so we're all on the same page. But it is. It's the most condensed of the four accounts of Jesus' ministry on earth as death barrel in resurrection. And because it's so condensed, there is a lot. There's a lot covered, and a very short amount of time in just a few chapters. So we're only in chapter seven, but man does mark fly through. And, and before we get to the place in scripture, and now we see, as you've been reading along this past week, in the book of Mark that Christ is going, all right, he's performing all kinds of miracles. And he's, he's doing, he's doing his earthly ministry. And one

3:11miracle that stands out is one that Pastor James taught on last week at the Saturday night service and the 1 p.m. service. I assume that most of you didn't see it, but it was an amazing, amazing sermon. And I encourage you to go listen to that online. It was titled Healing in the Wings. And Pastor James took us through this, the story of the woman with the issue of blood. And how she reached out and touched the hem of Jesus' garment and this word for, for, for hem. It doesn't, the prophecy and the, the, the Christophony in here in this story. And, and you see it in the old testament, the woman with the issue of blood, she, she reaches out in this word for hem. As Pastor James breaks, breaks down, it, it's the canoff, canoff. Or the corner, which means the wings, the

4:16wings of the garment. And, and this is where the tassels hung. And it's, you see this beautiful a fulfillment of prophecy and, and Malachi 4 2 where the prophet declares that the Messiah would come with healing in his wings, canoff. And it's such an amazing picture that, that same Hebrew word. And in this healing account, we, we see that it wasn't Jesus's, you know, magical clothing that healed this woman of her issue. It was, it was faith rooted in messianic prophecy. It was faith rooted in, in this woman truly believing that Christ is who he says he is. That Christ is who, who, the, the Old Testament prophesied him to be. This is truly the Messiah. This is truly the Son of righteousness. And from that faith, the healing flowed from Christ and who he was. And the tragedy is that while a desperate ceremonially unclean person recognized this woman

5:26recognized and she acted in that prophecy, many of the religious leaders, the actual experts in the law, the actual experts and, and the studiars of the prophets, they stood face to face with that same Messiah and they missed it, missed him entirely. And what we find in our text today is, is the religious leaders response to the healing of Christ, to the miracles of Christ. The Pharisees that they knew, they knew the commandments of God, but they were so caught up and so blinded by the pride and practices of their religion that they had forsaken true authentic worship. They, they elevated and exchanged. They took the holy commandments of God and

6:28replaced them and elevated the commandments of men above them. And we see when that happens in not just Judaism, but in our own lives, it gets shaky. And so this is going to be our challenge today. Rooting out our own, a Phariseeical, legalistic tendencies so that we don't miss the miraculous works of the Messiah, staring us in the face. And so we're going to be in Mark chapter seven for our study today, the commandments of men. We're going to start at verse one. Here at God's speak, we stand for the reading of God's word and then we sit for the word of the teacher. So I'm going to invite you to stand with me now. Mark chapter seven, verse one. Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to him having come from Jerusalem.

7:32Now, when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pictures, copper vessels, and couches. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands? And he answered and 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, and in vain they worshiped me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. For laying

8:37aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, the washing of pictures and cups, and many other such things you do. He said to them, all too well, you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition. Moses said, honor your father and mother, and your mother, and he who curses father or mother, let him be put to death, but you say, if a man says to his father or mother, whatever profit you might have received from me, it's a corbon, that is a gift to God, then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother. Making the word of God of no effect through your tradition, which you have handed down, and many such things you do. This is the word of God, let's pray. Father, we thank you for this text. We ask that you would convict our hearts, Lord, that you would bring us to our knees in humility, Lord, that we would

9:43be introspective that we would see what you're trying to say that I wouldn't get in the way, and my words wouldn't get in the way of what you're trying to say to your church in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Amen. Would you take a seat? The Pharisees, some of the scribes, they came together to them having come from Jerusalem. Raise your hand if you've been to Israel. It's awesome. Probably maybe quarter of the room, maybe a fifth of the room. It's great. It seems like every year we plan our Israel trip, there's some kind of gnarly, geopolitical old craziness happening, swirling, and everyone's like, are we still going to go? And like this answer is the same every single time. Like if they let me on the airplane, I am going, that's it. If the air space is open, we're going to go. And what better place to be? And so if you're signing up, if you're wondering, yes, we're going in November, if we can, if we are allowed to go, we will go. And if you've been there, though,

10:47this scene is so clear, because when you're in Israel, one of the most glorious moments is when you ascend to Jerusalem. And here's the thing about Israel, it doesn't matter where you are coming from. You can be coming down from the north to Jerusalem. You are still ascending to Jerusalem. If you're coming from the east, it doesn't matter. You are ascending to the holy city, because that is what it was and what it is. Jerusalem, the epicenter, the epicenter for the one true God's people, this place, spiritually significant. This is where the Pharisees and the scribes, they work and they taught and they studied, this is where all of the spiritual people were. And the picture of this here is so clear, if you see it, if you'll lean into it, because at this point, the fame of Christ, it's unavoidable, what the disciples and Jesus were doing, the Pharisees,

11:54they had to address and they had to confront this. And we see here the religious leaders, the spiritual people, they descend. They descend from their literal, moral, spiritual, high ground. The epicenter of worship, not necessarily to see with a pure heart whether or not Christ was actually God, but to try to figure out how they can use this for their own gain, how they can ultimately come against this Christ. They put down their books studying, see this, they put down their books studying about the coming Messiah, they stepped down from their man-made temple to come and judge the one who stepped down from his heavenly throne to earth. The audacity of the human heart. I'm going to go judge God. This isn't the first, certainly not

12:58the last time the religious leaders disputed with Jesus. They had to dispute with him over eating with sinners. They had to dispute with him how he observed the Sabbath. They had to dispute with him because he touched a leper, because he healed the demoniac that wandered inside of the territory of the tombs that was ceremonially unclean, dispute with Christ on fasting as we saw last week, how he fasted and his disciples did or did not fast. The overarching theme of this confrontation is that this man is doing amazing things by the power of God, but it's making us uncomfortable and less profitable, so we choose to reject it. And the heart of the Pharisee, the heart of the Pharisee, this is not a judgment cast, the heart of the Pharisee, the love of the Pharisee is

13:59something that can be present in all of us and is. The Pharisees loved being religious more than they loved the thought of actually being with God. They got some of the wires crossed along the way. They loved what it looked like to the people around them to see them worshipping God more than they actually loved the worship of God. They loved appearing clean more than they actually loved being cleansed, truly cleansed. And out of all of the things in this scenario, what is their bone to pick with Christ? Their bone to pick with Jesus Christ, the Messiah, how God is washing his hands. See, when true religion, actual true religion, religion is not a bad word, but when true religion is lost, you end up with really crazy rules. Because this is a true

15:06religion fills a God-shaped void. And that God-shaped void, you just start throwing stuff into it to see what sticks and things get weird. The washing of hands. Now, they saw some of the disciples, again, saw some of the disciples eat bread with the file that is with unwashed hands. They found faults. They found fault with God and as followers, Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hand in a special way. And boys, it's special. Holding it to the tradition of elders. They take their hand washing very seriously, very seriously. If you've been to Israel, if you've hung out with practicing Jews, you know this. You've seen this. They don't mess around about washing their hands. They don't mess around about washing things, about cleansing things. And you see this people laboring over things that really cosmically don't matter and it should ignite in you a compassion and a passion.

16:10Ignite in your heart a desire to want to see these people actually understand the freedom of Christ that a true cleansing can bring. Jesus is not here. He's not criticizing them for keeping the written law. He's not. This is not just the biblical prescribed Old Testament washing of hands. This is something extra. R.C. Sproul says this, there are forms of virtual cleanliness set forth by God in the Old Testament, but they are few. And they are easy to follow. But what the Pharisees and the scribes did over the centuries, the rabbis who interpreted the law of God, they kept adding to those ritual requirements, one after another so that their regulations far exceeded the regulations, the law of God imposed on the people. They didn't just rinse their hands before eating. This is not it. They kept it. It was a special jar, a special stone jar. A ordinary water was not good enough. It might be ceremonially unclean. The ritual requires a

17:12very specific measured amount of water. And they measure it in eggshells, one and one half eggshells, poured in a very specific prescribed direction, specific rubbing motions, each palm, and second pouring of water in the opposite direction. It's very detailed. It's very regulated. What's n is. It's not only before the meals, but between each course, they were dead serious about this. Still are. There was a story of one rabbi that failed to perform the ritual washing. He's excommunicated. Another rabbi, he's imprisoned by the Romans. He used his ration of water. This is the embodiment of just trying to be as spiritual as possible. He had his ration of water and he used it for ceremonial cleansing instead of drinking. He nearly dies. And he's regarded as a hero for the sacrifice. And these things on the surface, to the Jews seem extremely spiritual,

18:18very spiritual. But when you pull back the veil, you realize that it's not rooted in the actual word of God. It's rooted in the commandments of men. And at this point, you might be thinking like, how can they possibly get there? Man, it's very easy. You do it, too. How can they stay there once they're confronted? It's very easy. It's easier than you think, and it happens more often than you think in our own lives. These things are actually built upon sound spiritual logic. And David Guzic, he does a really good job of taking you through this kind of line of questioning. And you can trace this from truth, actual truth, and how the path that it moves along to more of into actual heresy. We look at this line of questioning in regards to specifically the washing of hands. Does God want us to honor him in everything we do?

19:20Yes. Absolutely. These don't have to be rhetorical questions. You can answer. Did God command the priests to wash their hands before serving him? Yes. Yes. Should every faithful follower of God have the same devotion as a priest? Yeah, I think so, right? And you can see like, where does this shift? Where is the shift? Yes. Isn't every meal sacred to God? Yeah, I thought I mean. Yeah. Shouldn't we take every opportunity possible to make ourselves pure before the Lord? It doesn't God say who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Right? Who may stand in this holy place? He who has what? Clean hands. Clearly, this is important to God. You can see that what starts as a very specific command for a priest

20:25in a temple, for a very specific reason, to wash his hands and cleanse before he served God at snowballs into a law imposed on anyone that wants to be in right standing with the Lord. It's very easy to answer these questions with a series of yeses until you've agreed with a spiritual logic supporting an unbiblical man-made tradition. If in the end, though, you end up with a commandment of man in contradiction, whether that's adding to or taking away from the Word of God, you have heresy. The spiritual logic is void. And unfortunately, we see this in the church, a lot of people who are interested in Christ, they are turned away, not by the Word of God, but by man's rules disguised as God's rules. We have to be good ambassadors. We have to be good representatives of true religion,

21:30true religion. Look, it's okay if true religion is rejected by the world. It's actually a good sign that you're doing it right. It's okay if Christianity and Christians are rejected because of God's Word. It's promised to us. But what an absolute tragedy if Christianity is rejected because we are upholding a false man-made doctrine not prescribed in the Word of God. It's really easy to give grief to Judaism when Christianity is just as guilty. Unbiblical expectations, unbiblical standards may be started with a sound spiritual logic, but ended up in the commandment of man. Standards on what clothes are acceptable in church, extra biblical standards and rules and regulations on drinking alcohol that are not prescribed in the Bible regarding music in general

22:32and worship music on top of that, regarding tithing. Regarding baptism, that's an unnarly one. Where is the line? We have to be rooted in the Word of God or we get wacky. Tithing, this is a good one. Look, is it better to give than it is to receive? Yes, absolutely. Does God call us to give our first fruits? Yes, for sure. Should generosity mark the life of the believer? Absolutely. Where's the shift? Without Scripture as the foundation. Should church membership require some kind of financial threshold? Like, if this is a mark of a Christian, I promise you some of you say yes. I know it. I know it. Like, it might seem foreign to you because

23:34maybe you grew up non-denominationally, gripping a cover chapel, but this is not weird. Should someone be disciplined by the church for not hitting 10 percent? It's not as uncommon as it sounds. Should pastors be monitoring and confront the individual giver? There is a section of our CRM that we use to manage the volunteers that is called donor development. Should I be developing my donors? You get a call from Pastor Tony. He's like, hey, look, how's it going? First of all, how are you? Because part of church membership, you let us know how much your household income is. It's the end of the year. I thought maybe you

24:34might drop a big end of the year gift that would cover, but now it's February. I haven't seen that yet. Looking at your household income, it's this. In 10 percent of this is this and what you ended up giving, it's not there yet. I just want to check in on how you're doing. Is everything okay in your home? This is spiritual manipulation. This is coercion. This is evil. You move from biblical generosity to this spiritual unhealthiness, but it's rooted in biblical logic. You take it far enough in the area of tithing and you end up not with structured giving, but you end up with not generosity, but you end up with indulgences. Do you know what that is? And indulgences were payments made to the church that were said to

25:37reduce the temporal punishment of sin. Hey, so I know that you think maybe Aunt Mary is in purgatory. I heard that. There's someone that you know. Here's the giving link. We can do it. I'll have the priest do what they can. Get her out of there. It is funny. It's funny, but it's not fabricated. It's not fat. I didn't make it up. This is the abuse that stirred a German monk named Martin Luther to publicly challenge the practice. Look, this is not rooted in the Word of God. This is bad. This is the start of what became the Protestant Reformation. It's all centered around recovering the authority of the

26:39scriptures. The truth that salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone, not in paying the church enough money to get out of hell. Without the anchor of Scripture, it is frighteningly easy to move from what God commands to what man enforces. We lose this. Second Corinthians 9.7 says, let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity. God doesn't need your money. I don't need your money. If I can develop the donors, I don't deserve donors. That's the point. God loves a cheerful giver that the only development of the donors that is needed is from the Word of God. I heard one not one person clapping. I heard one clap. That one's fun. How about alcohol? That one's the how about that one? Alcohol. We do this. It's

27:45another example. Does God clearly warn against drunkenness? Yes. The Scripture condemns being controlled by alcohol being ruled by it. Absolutely. Our believers commanded to be so reminded. Absolutely. Can alcohol destroy families? Absolutely. Is it dangerous? Yeah. Does it require a lot of self control? Absolutely. Wouldn't it be safe to just avoid it entirely? Some of you are like, yes, absolutely. One clap again. That's going to be a new trend that God's speak. I agree, but I don't want anyone to hear where the clap came from. So I'm going to hit him with a single. Boom. Wouldn't total abstinence eliminate all risk? Wouldn't

28:49stronger rules create stronger Christians? Shouldn't we then forbid? Forbid? What could potentially lead to sin? You're going to have to forbid a lot more than alcohol. How about thinking? Before long, what started with a good spiritual logic, good biblical warning ends up being extra biblical. Did Jesus turn water into wine? Absolutely. Did Paul tell Timothy to take alcohol for his stomach ailment? Absolutely. Descripture, call drunkenness as sin, but not moderate use itself as sin. Absolutely. You have to hold this intention. You have to look to the word of God if God condemns it, but does not forbid all drinking. We have to be careful not to forbid what God has not forbidden. Amen. Once we really start elevating a wise personal conviction into a binding spiritual

29:55law that everyone needs to follow, we step beyond scripture. We take off our Bible hats and we put on our Pharisee hats and the Pharisee hats are prettier, but they're useless. God tells us to dress modestly to not cause our brothers and sisters to stumble. Does that mean that the only appropriate attire acceptable attire to wear to church is a suit and tie and a long dress? No, certainly not. You can go down the litany of questions and see a biblical commandment of God ends in a Phariseeical commandment of man. Why? Why do your disciples not walk in the traditions according to the traditions of the elders? See, the Pharisees were not confused. They knew exactly the difference. It's not like they woke up when they were like, look, this is the Bible. Look, the Bible is different now. No, they knew. They are not accusing it. They're accusing Christ and the disciples of not walking according to the tradition of the elders. They know. They held these traditions

31:03that had passed down. They held them on par with and even elevated above the sacred scriptures of God. We can repeat the same thing if we're not careful. We end up repeating the greatest theological failures of history. I get it. There are things attractive about Catholicism. There are things attractive about Eastern Orthodoxy, the structure, the tradition, the dogma. I get it. It's been there. You must remember why. Why are you Protestant? If you don't know why then you won't be. Is the reason why you're Protestant to cast off all tradition? No. No, that's not the point. The reason why is ultimately because we believe that scripture is the only infallible authority in our lives. Not the only authority. Amen. Not the only authority. Not the

32:13only spiritual authority. Not the only godly authority. Not the only steamed highly authority. The only infallible authority. The only authority without failure. I am an authority that you trust me. You've given me some authority over your life, spiritually. But am I infallible? Absolutely not. No. Amen. Okay, stop. Okay, let's try not to. Okay, I got to lock in here because I got to be careful how I got to lock you. So in Roman Catholic theology, divine revelation is understood to come through scripture and sacred tradition. Both are interpreted by the

33:16Magisterium. There are conditions that the Pope may define doctrine, ex-Kathedra. Have you heard of that before? Ex-Kathedra? Only a few of you. Ex-Kathedra means from the chair. From the chair. At the end of the day what this means, Catholics believe that the teaching, this teaching, ex-Kathedra, this teaching from the chair is preserved from error by the Holy Spirit. The doctrine, this is the doctrine of of papal infallibility. Infallibility. It's formally defined at the first Vatican in 1870. These two examples of ex-Kathedra definitions are the immaculate conception, which teaches that Mary herself was conceived without original sin and the assumption of Mary, which teaches that Mary was taken bodily into heaven. Here is the

34:20reality. We reject, we holy reject these dogmas, which best case scenario go beyond the word of God and what the word of God reveals, especially according to the immaculate conception. Absolutely flies in the face of the orthodox understanding of what scripture says specifically about sin. The issue is not, whether or not, Catholics love Jesus. Many do. The issue is the system made by man outside of the confines of scripture. When fallible man starts defining doctrine as infallible, apart from clear biblical understanding, the conscience of the church becomes bound where God

35:25has been silent or spoken against even. This is the 11 of the Pharisees. No rabbi is infallible, no bishop is infallible, no cardinal is infallible, no pope is infallible, no pastor is infallible. All of humanity, all has a sin nature. We are inevitably subject to error. Romans 3.10 says there is none righteous, no not one. Romans 3 says for all, everyone say all, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This here is our safeguard without this. We find ourselves wandering down the rabbit hole of religiosity and we end up with all of the religious bells and whistles, all the smoke and mirrors and beautiful buildings and windows seemingly spiritually like we are transcendent

36:35and we end up worshiping God in vain. That's how Jesus responses this question. Well, did Isaiah prophesy? Well, people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me and vain they worship me. That should really be sobering to you. It should be. Worship directed at the right God the wrong way. That's possible, that should be sobering to you. Worship directed at the right God with the wrong heart, that's possible, should be sobering to you. It's not a how or a what? It's a why. It's a motivation. Why are you here, Christian? Why do you come to church? Why do you read your Bible? Why do you worship? Everything that the Pharisees were accusing Christ and the disciples of not doing all of those things. There were things that just the culture of the time had come to view as just essential parts

37:39of being a spiritual religious person. It's just a part of Christian identity. It's just what Christians do. That's why we do it. In vain they worship me. The posture of their heart, he quotes this prophecy in Isaiah. It's easy to make discern about spiritual legalism, bash the Catholics, bash the legalists, but it's really spiritual legalism and spiritual liberalism. You can't do things that the Bible doesn't say that you can't do and you can do things that the Bible doesn't promise. Both of these are the opposite ends of the spectrum centered around the same thing and that is the heart, the same issue, the heart of the worshipper. A heart of the worshipper. For Samuel 167, of court of this many times, the Lord does not see as man sees. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. You have to think about

38:40this seriously. Can Christ say the same to you? They sing during worship, but their hearts are far from me. They read their Bibles, but their hearts are far from me. They show up to church at 9 a.m., but their hearts are far from me. They volunteer, but their hearts are far from me. You can pretend to all of us, but not to God. Well-meaning Christians who do not know their Bible, they get caught up in what man says and what man thinks and they think they're worshiping God and they think they're bringing honor and glory to his name, doing what he desires, but they're deceived. Christ doesn't accept worship in his name with the wrong heart. You don't believe me. Matthew 721 says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, this is the right words of the wrong heart.

39:46She'll enter the kingdom of heaven. So the right optics with the wrong heart. There was a, he gets us ad during the Super Bowl, and this was a few years ago, and you might remember it was one where there's a woman that's presumably coming out of an abortion clinic or going into an abortion clinic and a young girl coming out of or going into an abortion clinic sitting down and then there's another woman washing her feet. And then there's the evil protesters over on the side. Like this is, like this is what Jesus would be doing. He'd be washing the feet of the one. He'd be washing the feet of the, and it sounds, it sounds right. He wouldn't be pro-ta, he wouldn't be standing against the murder of the unborn, he'd be washing the feet. I understand it looks right, it looks compassionate, it looks Christ-like, but if the messages look

40:49here is true love, washing the feet and not confronting the sin, we've missed the point of love. We've replaced biblical righteousness with just cultural religious optics. This is Mark 7, Jesus is not impressed with the symbol of the washing of feet, washing of feet symbolizes repentance, turning away. Yes, yes, absolutely loving, but you must be obedient, you have to speak the truth, the Pharisees, they had, they had these religious symbols, they thought would cleanse them. One of those symbolic things was this is this idea in these last few verses, it's the idea of Korban. This is how they got around, actually spiritually, the way that God designed this commandment to honor your mother and your father, how they got around it while still looking spiritual, Korban. They got around honoring, they got to feel like they're honoring God's

41:56law and God's commandment while not being financially, you know, as on the hook and then the religious leaders gained financially from it. Instead of actually helping their parents, all they had to do, they just had to say, look, Korban, in other words, I have what you need, mom, dad, I get it, I know I have the resources that you need, but I've already dedicated those resources to God, so I'm not required to give them to you. The Pharisees are like, yes. And then the person is led astray and not actually following the commandment of God, and mom and dad don't actually get the benefits of what scripture commands, religious optics divorced from the heart of God. It reminds me of what can be the most hollow Christian phrase on the surface, it sounds super spiritual, but oftentimes it's just there to get you out of what you know God has already called you to do, and that's, I'll pray about

42:56it. I just really need, I really need help in this area. I'm just praying that someone would help me move. I'll join you in prayer for that. I'll pray for you. You know that there's some things that God clearly commands in scripture that you don't have to ask him whether or not you should do it. Should I take care of this orphan? What? Should I have more kids? Sorry. What? Should I get married? Like should I marry this girl? What? What's wrong? What are you talking about? There's some things you just look God says to do it, so you do it. Your friend doesn't need to just tell them that you're praying for them. Yes, pray for them, please, but if they actually need your help, don't just say that you're praying about it or for them to get out of what God's actually trying to put in

43:59front of you. Like, hey, be the hands of feet of Christ. I put you in this person's life to help them, to pray for them, yes, but to help them. Try to shift that in your mind when you're talking with people. Yes, how can I pray for you, but like, how can I serve you? Like, what can I do? How can I help you? I'd love to pray with you right now, but let me know if I can actually help. We hide behind sounding religious so that we don't have to actually be religious. Check the box. I don't want my heart to be far from Christ while presenting the optics of being religious. I don't want all the benefits of looking like a Christian without all the liabilities of actually walking with them. You post a picture on Instagram. God is great. Throw in some prayer hands. Rub some dirt on your face, some ashes. How about risking actual criticism for the gospel?

45:04How about taking a stand using your platform? Stand for the unborn. Take a stand for something that you know is not culturally popular. Amen. You know it's not popular, but you know it's biblically true. Flip the script. True worship from the heart. It costs something. Might cost you everything. It costs the disciples everything. It costs Jesus everything. If you're trying to figure out how to worship God in the least sacrificial way, the most public way possible, you've missed the entirety of the gospel. Talked about fasting last week. We talked a lot about the mechanics of fasting, but in Matthew and the sermon on the Mount with Jesus is talking about, I use it opportunity to teach you about fasting, but the heart of fasting is outlined in Matthew is Jesus saying, look fast, but don't fast like the Pharisees fast. They fast because they want people to see them fasting. They want people to know they're fasting so that they might appear

46:05spiritual, but you, you fast, you clean yourself, take a shower, fix your face, and in secret, in secret, and Father who sees everything will reward you. It's not about the smallest amount of sacrifice with the largest amount of recognition. It's about complete sacrifice while giving all recognition to Jesus, vain worship, and cheap grace, cheap grace. Dietrich Bonhoff talks about cheap grace. Cheap grace versus costly grace, and I think it's such a good place to land. We try to wrap our heads around the purpose of this life that we live in faith. Cheap grace. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal

47:10confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living, and incarnate. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field for the sake of it, a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble. It is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin and grace because

48:13it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it costs God the life of his son. He were bought at a price and what it costs God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his son to dear a price to pay for our life but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the incarnation of God. Cheap grace, this isn't bond offer anymore so it is not going to sound as cool. Cheap grace gives us clean hands and unchanged hearts. They are scrubbing your hands for days. It doesn't matter how well you do it, it won't change your heart. What is interesting about this word defiled as used here in the

49:13scripture, defiled hands. It is not what we think when we think defiled. Why are you eating with the defiled hands? You think covered in dirt and gross because you have just done mucking the stalls and it is disgusting. No, no, defiled simply means common, just not spiritually good enough. It is not good enough. It can be good. It can be great. It is not good enough. That is man's religion for you. It is not good enough. You can try as hard as you want. It is not good enough. You can scrub your hands until your skin falls off. If you are relying on how good you can clean yourself to get right with God, there is nothing. There is nothing that you can do to make yourself clean enough to stand in the presence of Almighty Yahweh. They washed their hands spotless and pierced his and failed to recognize that blood that flowed from Christ.

50:25That was the costly grace. That was the thing that could actually cleanse them. Don't miss it. Don't miss it. At the end of the day, I don't want us to become really good at looking Christian while our hearts slowly drift away from the Lord. The Pharisees didn't wake up one morning and go, how do I, you know, today I think is the day that we abandon Scripture and oppose the actual heart of God. They just kept choosing tradition. They just kept choosing cultural religion and elevating it over biblical religion. It was a subtle motivation change away from, look at how much God has done for me. Away from that heart into a heart of, look at everything I can do for God. When in reality, apart from Christ, there is nothing that you can do for God. Isaiah says that

51:28your righteousness is like filthy rats. If you could clean your hands enough to appease God, you wouldn't need him. And man, do we need him? Amen. This is communion. This is one of those things. This is how we approach the throne of grace. And this is why we approach the throne of grace. The heart of communion is important. Paul says, look, don't mess around when you do this. Don't miss the heart of God in this. This is not just a ceremony. This is not just like washing your hand so that you might appear clean. This is partaking, identifying with, recognizing, remembering, the costly grace. The price paid for the remission of your sin, our sin, collectively.

52:32Gratitude for what he has done for us on the cross. Join me as we take the bread together, Lord. We're so grateful. We don't take this as just a symbol of Christianity. We'll take this as a recognition of who you are and what we need. How we are cleansed. How we are actually cleansed, Lord, I pray that that would be at the forefront of all of our minds going into this week that we would remember how we are made clean. It's not through a performance. It's not through a ritual. It's not through saying the right passcode. Lord, it's from believing in our heart and confessing with their tongue that you are Lord, that you are supreme. It's that faith, that faith of the woman with the issue of blood that just

53:41knew that there was healing in the wings of God Almighty and reaches out and touches the one. The only one, the only one that can actually cleanse me of this thing, the physical element, Lord, just a picture of the spiritual one. God, we thank you for what you've done for us. We thank you for the cross. We thank you for your body broken for us. In Jesus' name, we take the bread together. The blood, Jesus, this cup we hold in our hands. We recognize now what it costs. We recognize now that you said, Father, if there's any other way,

54:50not my will but yours. This is your will, Lord, to experience the pain, the pain that you did on our behalf. God, we're so grateful for this this blood that we recognize it's culturally counterintuitive that something as able to stain as blood could wash us clean, but it does. Or do you turn our death into life? Lord, you cleanse us. Why does it know? It might look rough on the outside. That's the beautiful thing is that it looks like death on the outside, but would you never really cared about the outside? Or it is the cleansing, the spiritual cleansing of your blood in our lives that brings us near to you that allows us to be in your presence.

55:58So we take the cup together in Jesus' name. Lord, as we sing this last song, would it not just be words, would it not just be us doing something to do it? God, it would be an outpouring of our hearts, the posture of our hearts to glorify you, to worship you, not to put on a pedestal all that we have done for you, but to simply acknowledge all you've done for us. We are so grateful in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.