A Renewed Heart (Mark 7:1-23)

Hello, and welcome to Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast.

My name is Pastor Creighton, and I'm delighted that you're joining us.

Newsong Church exists to lift Jesus high in Port Perry, Ontario, as we worship, grow, and serve together.

If you'd like to learn more about Newsong, you can uh look us up.

Newsongchurch, portperry.ca.

Today's sermon comes from Mark chapter 7, verses 1 to 23.

Mark 7:1–23

Lord, our sins they are many.

Your mercy is more.

And so we pray, create in us clean hearts, O God.

Renew within us right spirits.

For Jesus Christ's sake.

Amen.

Please be seated.

What does it take for a polluted, unclean sinner to be acceptable to a pure and holy God?

Let's say you had a friend meeting with a cardiologist this week.

You know this is going to be a big meeting.

So you've been praying for your friend.

And you know their appointment is at such and such a time, so you decide to go meet your friend for coffee afterwards.

And when you do, you sit down with your beverages and you ask, how did the appointment go?

And your friend goes, Well, I went into the doctor's office and she told me to sit down, so I sat down, and she sat down, and she slid the box of Kleenex across the desk and said, The results are in, and I've got bad news for you.

Your heart has all but failed.

In fact, it defies all expectations that you're up and moving around right now.

If you have any hope of survival, any hope of life, it's going to be through an urgent heart transplant.

You need a new heart.

And so this news kind of sits heavy in the air in the coffee shop for a second.

And so you say to your friend, Well, when's the surgery?

And your friend goes, What surgery?

Raises their eyebrow.

See, I think the doctor is blowing things a little out of proportion.

I know a thing or two.

I haven't got a good authority.

That eating salads and taking a couple of walks a week is good for your heart.

I think I'm going to give that a go.

Yeah, I think instead of eating some fried potatoes, I'll eat some greens and I'll be just fine, relatively speaking.

What is it that you'd want to say to your friend in that moment?

I could probably think of a couple four-letter words I'd want to say to my friend in that moment.

What we'd probably want to say is something like this.

I think you don't realize how serious your situation is right now.

You're talking about a couple of external lifestyle changes, and those lifestyle changes might be a positive thing, relatively speaking.

There's something wrong with eating a salad and taking a walk.

But your internal condition is worst-case scenario right now.

It's a worst-case scenario for your heart, and you need a complete renewal from the inside out.

See, it's this dynamic of taking right external actions versus a complete inner renewal that's at the center of our reading in Mark chapter 7.

Mark 7 · chapter mention

Here the Pharisees and scribes have sent a fact-finding delegation from Jerusalem to meet Jesus, who's in the middle of a campaign of preaching and healing, and they challenge him on the basis of a particular outward external action of ritual purity.

The underlying question is this What does it take for a polluted sinner to be acceptable to a pure and holy God, especially if the answer to this question is the answer between life and death?

So, what does that question mean for us?

Gather that news song on August 29.

What does it take for a polluted sinner to be acceptable to a pure and holy God?

I want to suggest that there's two answers we find in our text today.

We find the Pharisees' answer, and we find Jesus' answer.

And perhaps if we're honest enough with ourselves, we can recognize some of the tendencies and thinking of the Pharisees, even within our own thinking.

My hope and prayer for us this morning is that we hear Jesus' words afresh.

And considering the seriousness of our inward condition, we find reason for serious hope in his mercy and grace.

What does it take for a polluted sinner to be acceptable to a pure and holy God?

Here's the first answer that's provided.

It's the Pharisees' answer, and that answer is right action.

See, God's people have been called to be holy as their God is holy.

They're meant to reflect something of God's character outward into the world and be a blessing in that way.

That's what we read in Leviticus chapter 11.

Leviticus 11 · chapter mention

Be holy as I am holy.

And so for the Pharisees, of course, this is a matter of putting that into performance.

After all, places like Psalm 15, our Psalm this morning, asks rhetorically, who can ascend to your tabernacle and who can rest upon your holy hill?

You know, the person who fulfills all these requirements, who puts the right external actions into performance.

It seems to be that if you do the right things, oh, God seems to like it.

That seems to be the answer for acceptance here.

So, the Pharisees want to go about right action.

How is it that they do it?

They go about right action through tradition.

This is where hand washing comes into play.

But hand washing is just one example of many.

There are many other traditions that the Pharisees and scribes observe, so writes Mark in his little parentheses in verse 4.

Where do these traditions come from?

Well, they come from, at least in a derivative sense, the law that God gave his people Israel.

Deuteronomy chapter 4, our Old Testament reading this morning, says, Listen to the statutes and rules that I am teaching you, God, to his people Israel.

Deuteronomy 4 · chapter mention

And do them, that you may live and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

Do the law, and things will go well for you as my people.

So, the question is, how do I know that I'm doing what God requires?

I follow the law.

What happens when the law, or I find myself in a particular situation that the law doesn't speak directly to?

Well, here's the solution: tradition.

The tradition of the elders that we read in verse 3 comes in to speak to those situations in life to which the law doesn't explicitly address.

We find ourselves in this tricky situation or trying to figure out a way forward, so we have it on good authority that this is the right action to take.

Teaching authorities come in to apply God's law comprehensively to all of life.

And over time, these practices were passed along from generation to generation.

At this point in Mark chapter 7, they're passed along orally, and eventually they'll be written down in the second century.

Mark 7 · chapter mention

But these traditions become increasingly elevated in status.

They become so elevated in fact that the holding to traditions and putting them to performance becomes just as important as putting God's law itself into action.

Do the law, things go well.

Do tradition, things will go well as well.

See, the problem here is not the authority to teach, nor is the problem tradition in itself, but rather that these traditions and authorities are elevated so high above where they're supposed to be, so far, in fact, that they come over the authority of God's word itself.

In fact, they come against God's word itself.

And thus we see the warning in Deuteronomy chapter 4 that anticipates this.

Deuteronomy 4 · chapter mention

You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it.

Do the right actions, things will go well to you.

Or things will go well for you.

Keep to tradition, that'll be what pleases God.

So here we find this question, really an indictment against Jesus' disciples.

We eat with well-washed hands, we keep to traditions that we've received around pure ceremonial purity and washing.

Why is it that your disciples, Jesus, don't walk in the tradition of our elders, but eat with defiled hands?

Perhaps the subtext is, Jesus, why don't your disciples care enough about what pleases God to put it in performance?

Now, is washing without precedence in the law?

No.

In fact, if we're familiar with our Bibles, we go to Exodus chapter 30, we read about instructions for tabernacle worship that God has given to his people.

Exodus 30 · chapter mention

The Lord said to Moses, Exodus chapter 30, you shall go and make a basin of bronze and its stand of bronze for washing.

Exodus 30 · chapter mention

You shall put it between the tent of meeting and at the altar, and you shall put water in it, with which Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and feet.

And when they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn a food offering to the Lord, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die.

So notice there is precedence for washing in God's law.

But let's be careful.

What's the context of this law?

The context is that of the tabernacle and the Levitical priesthood.

And when is this supposed to take place?

It's when they go to offer a sacrifice for God's people.

It should prompt us to ask the question: why is washing prescribed by God?

Well, it's a purity ceremony.

That symbolizes the difference between holiness and purity and sin and impurity.

It's only in the context of God's word to his people and by his grace that impure sinners can hope to approach a holy God.

This is the reason for God's commandment of washing.

But instead, instead of a symbol of God's generous and cleansing mercy, the tradition of the elders worked and elevated this tradition into a hand washing practice before every meal and every time they came out of this Gentile marketplace as a means of self-righteousness.

As a mean of performing that which will earn God's approval.

Again, saints, the problem is not tradition in itself, but rather that that tradition is elevated over and against God's word.

When a tradition is elevated over God's word, it becomes nothing more than self-styled self-righteousness that displeases the Lord.

This is important for us to consider even in our own Anglican context.

We've got a lot of church traditions handed over to us.

And from time to time, I don't know about you, but I'll hear the objection that you guys do a lot of things I don't see in the Bible.

I'm going to put on a colorful stole when I celebrate communion.

We're going to celebrate Ash Wednesday, and there's no commandment in the Bible that says, thou shalt celebrate Ash Wednesday.

Or Christmas for that matter.

Why is it that we celebrate these traditions?

Well, we need to be mindful.

There's nothing wrong with tradition in and of itself, but when those traditions become the measure of Christian righteousness, they become the standards by which we measure even God's own word, then those traditions have gone far beyond, far beyond where they're supposed to be.

They become warped, they've become distorted.

Rather than lead us to God in the context of grace and righteousness, they lead us into self-righteousness.

So what does it take for a polluted sinner to be acceptable to a pure and holy God?

Well, the Pharisees would say, take the right actions.

How do I know what the right action is?

Trust in the tradition that's been handed down to you, and it'll save you.

And this is intuitive enough, isn't it?

Do what God likes, at least what you're told what he likes, and he'll like you back.

And perhaps even teach others to do the same.

I just suspect this is just intuitive for us who are religiously inclined.

I'm going to perform the things that God approves of, so that God approves of me.

How does Jesus respond to this thing?

Verses 6 and 7, he says, You hypocrites, play actors, fakers.

He quotes Isaiah 29 and 13, an indictment against Israel's leaders, to say that your external actions of purity and righteousness, they signal nothing else but self-righteousness.

Because your heart is so far away from God.

Your externals and your internals, they do not line up.

And you've substituted man-made traditions for the authority of the Word of God.

So Jesus gives a second answer.

How is it that we are supposed to approach to be accepted and embraced by a holy and pure God?

We need a renewed heart.

And this we can infer from verses 6 and 21, where Jesus locates the issue of sin right in our hearts.

But what does a renewed heart look like?

Here's two things I want to suggest.

A renewed heart holds fast to God's word.

We see this in verses 9 through 13.

Jesus says, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.

For Moses said, honor your father and mother, and whoever adviles father and mother must surely die.

But you say, if a man tells his father or mother, whatever you've gained from me is corbond, that is 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 this is just one example of many.

Here Jesus pits the fifth commandment, honor your father and mother, on which we can all agree, and Jesus and his opponents can all agree is essential to the word of God against this tradition that's developed called Corbon.

This Corbon tradition is this idea that, well, I can take what material resources God has given me, my wealth, and instead of using my wealth to honor my aging father and mother and providing for their very real needs, I can instead say, well, I'm going to take this, I'm going to take my savings account, I'm going to make it Corbon.

I'm going to give it to God, so to speak, dedicate it to his temple.

Whether or not that actually makes it to the temple is another question.

But I'm going to say, this really belongs to God, not to me.

So it's not right that this wealth would go towards the care for my parents.

It belongs to God.

It's a way of kind of washing my hands of the situation, saying, I wish I could help you, mom and dad, but really I'm just too pious.

I'm really just too righteous to do something like care for you in your old age.

For Jesus exposes not faithfulness to God, but faithlessness, weasling out of God's clear commands.

What we need is not performance, we need a renewed heart that endeavors to fulfill God's commands.

See, a renewed heart does not look like looking for loopholes, figuring out what the easiest way to, or the path of least resistance in regards to God's word.

It's actually receiving God's word and saying, This is what I want to do.

God be my helper.

A renewed heart holds fast to God's word.

But a renewed heart requires inward cleansing.

This is where serious humility comes into the picture.

Jesus says, verse 15, that there is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but it is the things that come from outside a person that are what defile him.

That is, it's what's on the inside that renders us unacceptable to God, not on the outside.

This word defilement is huge.

It's what qualifies us as impure, unrighteous, sinners.

And Jesus is turning the tables, so to speak, on these Pharisees who are obsessed with keeping ritual and ceremonial purity.

If I do all the right things on the outside, then God is going to accept me.

And Jesus is saying, you don't get it.

Your heart is as far as it can be from God.

You are not faithful, but faithless.

It's not what goes into your body, say, particularly clean, pure foods, but rather it's what's coming out of your heart.

There's good news here.

The good news is that this inward cleansing that a renewed heart requires opens the door for outward Christian liberties.

You see, we see this when in verse 19, when Mark interjects to say that Jesus declares all foods clean.

This is going to get picked up in the book of Acts, especially as we see the covenant community of God expand beyond just this one ethnic community of Israel that becomes a multinational family of faith.

Yes, there is right and wrong in Christian ethics.

I'm not saying that in a sense of liberty, there's just kind of a do what you feel like, but that Christian ethics is a whole other sermon.

Here's what I want to say.

Even within the right and pleasing to God way of living, there is Christian freedom.

Christian freedom liberates us from a sense of self-righteousness, holding ourselves to an extremely high standard of extra-biblical living, but it also frees us from a condemning, judgmental, and policing attitude towards our brothers and sisters in Christ.

How easy is it to feel superior to someone as a Christian?

We look next door and we think, oh boy, serious Christians don't do that, not like me.

Boy, maybe we have more in common with the Pharisees than we're inclined to admit.

The good news is that this inward cleansing of the heart opens the door for external Christian liberties.

There is freedom in which to perform God's will as a Christian.

But the bad news is this, and we need to deal with the bad news, that the inward condition of our hearts is far worse than we otherwise would have suspected.

See, Jesus says from within, out of the heart of a man, comes evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, evil, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

All these things, Jesus wants to say again, come from within, and they defile a person.

See, God's word unapologetically challenges the unqualified notion that we are essentially good.

Maybe you haven't dreamed about murdering someone recently.

Maybe you have.

Maybe you've just been especially angry towards a brother and sister.

But if we're honest enough with ourselves, who in their heart of hearts has not entertained a fantasy of lust or deceit or envy, self-styled pride?

Jeremiah chapter 17 says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.

Jeremiah 17 · chapter mention

Who can understand it?

Part of the wild thing that strikes me about our heart of hearts is not just how capable of sin we are, we are certainly capable of all kinds of sin, but that we are capable of such rationalization and justification of our own sin.

Right in our deepest heart of hearts.

See, God's people are called to be holy as he is holy, yet we ourselves have this steady stream of spiritual pollution and unholiness springing up, not from without.

It springs up from within.

This pollution, this muck.

We're inclined to try and weasel out of God's commands.

Our hearts are inclined and enticed by sin again and again.

So what hope have polluted sinners of approaching a holy and pure God?

Is there anyone who can dwell in his tabernacle or rest upon his holy hill?

Friends, this is where the gospel comes in view.

The good news of the gospel is not that there's this new method, a new practice, a new self improvement strategy, a new kind of self styled self righteousness that can get you in God's good books.

Rather, the gospel of Christ begins by telling us exactly this that we are unholy, that apart from grace, There is no health in us.

If the question is who is acceptable on their own, the answer is not us.

If the question is who can rest on God's holy hill, the answer is not we.

The Pharisees studied the law and they thought, well, we can do this.

In fact, we could do more.

Yet it was the law itself that testifies that they are dead and dying in sin.

And so too, the Apostle Paul writes, that you are dead in your sins and transgressions.

To the Pharisees' external and practiced self-righteousness is as absurd as thinking that eating a salad will prevent an imminent heart failure.

The response of a Christian to the law is not, I can do that more.

The response of a Christian is, Woe is me, I am unclean, and therefore I am undone.

The Christian, when confronted by the Word of God, by his law, acknowledges their own polluted heart and cries out, I cannot do that.

God, please help me.

It requires us to crucify our self-righteousness.

In fact, one pastor, Tim Keller, observes that all religions of the world have in common a sense of repentance of sin, but only Christianity proclaims repentance from self-righteousness.

The good news is that God can forgive us.

And that God does renew our hearts.

He became sin who knew no sin, so that we might become his righteousness.

See, I cannot rest on God's holy hill on my own.

Neither can you.

But there is one who can.

There is one who has.

There is one who has done it for our sake and has made a way for us to dwell there also.

See, through the cross and resurrection of Jesus, God performs, as it were, a heart transplant.

He takes our corrupted, impure, failing and failed heart, and takes it upon himself and gives us a new heart that beats unto eternal life, that pumps new life into our bodies.

This is why when we come to communion and we receive the body and blood of Christ, you don't extend your cupped hands and hear me say, Good job, you earned it.

You worked hard for it this week, I can tell.

Instead, you hear, this is the body of Christ broken for you.

This is the blood of Christ shed for you.

He has fulfilled what we cannot fulfill for ourselves.

He has done what we cannot do for ourselves.

Jesus, the one without sin, takes upon himself our polluted heart so that we can have his righteousness, his new heart, pumping eternal life into us.

So as polluted sinners, we can now say with the Apostle Paul, wretched man that I am, who can deliver me from this body of death?

And we can answer our own question by saying, thanks be to God, to our Lord Jesus Christ.

So now the Christian can live out a life of true righteousness, not self-righteousness.

Through our ongoing dependence and discipleship, through the crucified and resurrection of Jesus, we have a new righteous heart pumping in ourselves.

He alone can renew our hearts such that we can stand pure in his righteousness before God.

And saints, what a secure place that is.

That frees us from all kinds of freneticism.

All kinds of, did I earn it this week kind of thinking?

Because his heart pumps within us.

His new heart is redeeming us and restoring us.

And we can approach his tabernacle, we can approach his holy hill with the confidence of Christ.

So, what does it take for a polluted sinner to be acceptable to a pure and holy God?

Is it required right action?

If so, we'll only ever be slaves to our own self-righteousness.

We'll only ever be hypocrites convinced that salads and frequent walks can prevent our heart failure.

What Jesus calls us to is a renewed heart.

Jesus gladly and lovingly provides what we require the most.

And he calls us to hold fast to God's word.

And he invites us to invite him to do a renewing work in our hearts today, and to see this renewing work continued by his Holy Spirit each and every day as we live into that new life that he has given us.

So take heart saints.

Through Christ we are accepted and embraced completely by our holy and pure God.

In Christ, we will ascend to his tabernacle and rest on his holy hill.

In Christ we are accepted.

Our sins there many.

His mercy is more.