The heart of the matter

Well, now we have the privilege of turning in God's Word together to the Gospel of Mark chapter 7.

Mark 7 · chapter mention

We'll be looking at verses 1 through 23 this morning.

We're going to see in this passage this interaction that Jesus has with the Pharisees, the religious rulers of the day,

and the strong rebuke that he gives them in regards to their teaching.

Perhaps some of us here are interested in World War II history.

It's kind of one of my favorite parts of history to study,

and many of you probably know how the British entered the war in 1939 by declaring war on Germany.

But in those late months of 1939, there wasn't a whole lot of action happening until early 1940

when Allied forces attempted to push the Nazis out of Norway.

It was a rather unsuccessful, poorly coordinated mission.

And so there's a lot of fear on the part of the British to think, can we defeat the Nazis?

What's going to happen to our nation?

And so this was not only felt by the public, but also those within Parliament.

And so this led to this two-day debate regarding this military crisis and the future of Britain against the Nazis.

Many of them actually questioned the leadership of Neville Chamberlain, who was a prime minister at the time,

and questioned whether he was the right man for the job.

And to the end of this long debate, there was actually a member of Neville Chamberlain's own party,

an MP by the name of Leo Amory, who rose to speak.

And he gave this rather lengthy speech, and he ended his speech with a quote from Oliver Cromwell,

who 300 years previously had stormed the House of Commons in order to dismiss the long Parliament.

And these are the words that he repeated to the prime minister, Chamberlain.

He said, you have sat too long here for any good you have been doing.

Depart, I say, and let us have done with you.

In the name of God, go.

Within two days, Chamberlain had resigned, and Winston Churchill had become the prime minister.

See, Parliament had gathered to kind of discuss this military failure

and to think what needed to change on this military front.

But what Amory was pointing out to the members of Parliament and the public,

that it wasn't Norway specifically that was the issue.

The issue was leadership itself.

And so in our passage today, we're going to see something very similar,

because the Pharisees, these religious leaders, they begin debating hand-washing.

And Jesus comes to them and says,

hand-washing really isn't the issue here.

The heart is the issue.

And so similar to Amory, we have Jesus here that rebukes this poor leadership of the Pharisees,

who's pointing out their ignorant teachings, their self-righteous practices,

and at the same time revealing the beauty of the gospel.

And so I hope that's what we can see in our passage together this morning.

Let's turn there and read together.

Mark chapter 7, starting in verse 1.

Mark 7 · chapter mention

The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered round Jesus

and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.

The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing,

holding to the tradition of elders.

And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.

And they observe many other traditions, such as washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles.

So the Pharisees and the teachers of the law asked Jesus,

why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of elders

instead of eating their food with defiled hands?

He replied, Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites.

As it is written, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

They worship me in vain.

Their teachings are merely human rules.

You have let go of the commands of God and are holding to the human traditions.

And he continued,

you have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions.

For Moses said, honor your father and your mother.

And anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.

But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban,

that is devoted to God,

then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother.

Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.

And you do many things like that.

Again, Jesus called to the crowd,

the called the crowd to him and said, listen to me, everyone and understand this.

Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them.

Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.

After he left the crowd and entered the house,

his disciples asked him about this parable.

Are you so dull, he asked?

Don't you see that nothing that enters a person from outside can defile them?

For it doesn't go into their heart, but into their stomach and then out of the body.

In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.

He went on, what comes out of a person is what defiles them.

For it is from within, out of a person's heart,

that evil thoughts come,

sexual immorality,

theft,

murder,

adultery,

greed,

malice,

deceit,

lewdness,

envy,

slander,

arrogance,

and folly.

All these things come from inside and defile a person.

This is the word of God.

Let's turn in prayer to Lord again.

Lord, we thank you for the blessing of your word.

We acknowledge that it is a light into our path.

So we ask, Lord, that you illuminate your scriptures this morning through the work and the power of your Holy Spirit.

Lord, we pray, Lord, that you may give us a tent of hearts, softened hearts and opened eyes and ears to receive with gladness your instruction.

That we may hear and rejoice in the message of salvation.

We pray this in Jesus name.

Amen.

Well, if we were to start at the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, we'd see that Jesus has these repeated confrontations with the Pharisees.

And as we approach this passage in Mark 7, we see this.

There's this really this this first and most significant confrontation where Jesus rebukes these Pharisees.

And it's really this this pivotal moment in the Gospel because we see Jesus addressing the very heart of the Christian faith.

We see this conflict between tradition and truth, between external religiosity and internal faith.

And so the three things I want us to focus on in this passage are are this.

We're going to focus first on the problem of tradition.

Second, the pollution of the heart.

And three, the provision of grace.

The problem of tradition, the pollution of the heart and the provision of grace.

So considering the problem of tradition first, I think it may be helpful to kind of make sure we have a clear understanding of who the Pharisees are.

Because if you've grown up in the church or been around here a long time, it's oftentimes we just recognize the Pharisees as being the bad guys, those who oppose Jesus.

But what's their background?

Where do they come from and where do they kind of fit into Jewish culture and religion?

Well, we think that the Pharisees emerged during this intertestamentary period.

This 400 years after the Old Testament was completed and before the New Testament begins.

And these Pharisees, they weren't priests.

These were lay people, a lay movement within Jewish culture.

They were teachers of the law.

They wanted to preserve Jewish culture, Jewish identity, Jewish faithfulness.

And so they did so by having a strong adherence to knowing and obeying Scripture.

And in order to obey Scripture, they developed what was known as the tradition of elders.

It was basically these man-made traditions and customs that kind of fenced or created a wall of protection around God's laws.

But it was ultimately these traditions that led the Pharisees and many others astray.

And so when we think about the problem of tradition, maybe that may cause us to bristle at first because we recognize there's great value in tradition,

especially when we think about the tradition within the free church and tradition within Scottish Presbyterianism.

And so the point is to say not that all tradition is bad.

There's great value in tradition.

Even how we're doing going about worship this morning in the liturgy that we have,

this is a form of tradition that's based on God's words that allows us to recognize the drama of the gospel as it unfolds.

There's other traditions that we hold to, like the sacraments, like baptism and the Lord's Supper,

even certain things like a carol service at Christmas.

Those things aren't bad.

What happens is we have tradition that contradicts or takes us away from the Word of God.

And so when we recognize these traditions that the elders, excuse me, the traditions of elders that were put forward by the Pharisees,

we recognize that they created them at first to protect the law,

but in fact they actually held them in such a state that they became equal with the law

and then began to overshadow the law and then actually became contrary to the law.

And so what would have been this spiritual movement to preserve Scripture

ultimately became this deadly disease of religious externalism.

And so what we see at the beginning of this chapter,

the Pharisees come to Jesus and his disciples and they're criticizing them for their uncleanliness

because they're not washing their hands as they should before they eat.

And they would have been referencing Old Testament law.

This law would have been ceremonial law for the priests,

the washing that they needed to do before they make sacrifice.

And so what the Pharisees were doing here, they were applying this to themselves and saying,

well, we need to be clean.

And so we see Mark giving this commentary in verses 3 and 4 and saying,

they had a lot of rules about cleanliness,

about when they went out into the marketplace and when they came back

and how they need to wash their cups and their dishes, even their furniture.

And we may think, well, that doesn't seem like that's such a big deal.

I mean, it seems like a pretty good practice to wash up,

especially in a time where there's not modern medicine

and certainly sickness and disease going around.

And even today we tell our kids to wash up before we have dinner.

And so what's the big deal with having these practical washing rituals?

But the thing is, it wasn't really practical in nature.

They were much more concerned about the ritual itself

because they weren't so concerned about making their hands clean,

but they thought by following these rituals they were making their hearts clean.

And so again, we see this preoccupation with religious externalism.

I don't know if some of you here may go to the gym.

I try to go a few times a week.

And a common trend that I'm seeing growing that I really, really dislike

is when people go to the gym with their iPhone in a tripod

in order to record themselves working out.

And I don't know who these people are,

how many followers they think they have on TikTok,

and who really cares about what they squatted

or how many reps they did in a workout.

But it's becoming, I mean, I don't know why these people do this,

but it's really ironic in the sense that

they become much more preoccupied with their appearance

than the actual physical working out.

Because they're doing less work than most of us

because they have to set up the tripod,

and then they get in position and do their lift,

and they come back and they look at the camera,

and then they change the angle of the tripod again and then do it again.

And you want to think you made the effort to be in the gym,

put forth the real effort without caring what other people think.

But they think they're really the benefits,

they care more about the appearance of working out

than the benefits themselves,

or the benefits don't really count in their mind

unless someone else has seen them do it.

And so I think the same is for the Pharisees here.

They're rejecting this fundamental inward godliness

in replace for this outward display of righteousness.

And this is what Jesus is calling them out about.

He calls them in verse six,

he refers to them as hypocrites,

for they honor God with their lips,

but their hearts are far from him.

And so he's actually quoting from the prophet Isaiah,

Isaiah 29, where Isaiah the prophet is,

he's really bringing this prediction of destruction

on the city of Jerusalem

because of the hypocrisy of the people,

because they're practicing this false worship of God.

And so we know this word hypocrisy,

or a hypocrite to be a rather derogatory term in our day and age.

We don't want to be called a hypocrite.

We may be cautious in calling other people hypocrites,

but in the Greek, this word really just,

it was a term for a stage actor,

for someone who performed or someone who wore a mask.

And so we recognize that an actor,

how they perform on a stage is very different,

how they may act backstage or in real life.

And Jesus is saying the same is true for these Pharisees

because they're pretending to follow God's laws,

but they're actually very far from him.

There's this disconnect, Jesus is saying,

between their lips and their hearts.

They're pretending to worship God,

but also ultimately much more concerned with this self-worship.

And so there's other times that we see in the gospel,

Jesus has these encounters with the Pharisees.

If we return to the gospel of Matthew 23,

he announces these seven woes upon the scribes and the Pharisees.

This is what he says in Matthew 23, verse 27.

Matthew 23:27

He says,

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites,

for you are like whitewashed tombs,

which outwardly appear beautiful,

but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.

And I wonder if that may describe some of us here today,

that we may cling to outward displays of tradition

rather than truly recognizing and internalizing the truth of the gospel.

I think we see this played out in our culture a lot.

I was down in London a few weeks ago

preaching at London City Presbyterian Church,

and I was staying with the minister, Andy Longway,

and that Saturday we got up and did a park run that he often does.

And these park runs happen all around the UK,

and they gather hundreds of people,

depending on where you are, every single Saturday morning.

And before the 5K race, there was an announcement.

They were saying, we need more volunteers.

It takes dozens of volunteers to pull this off every Saturday,

but also honoring those volunteers who have been there week after week,

you know, 100 times, 200 times,

and wanted to give them proper recognition.

And it got me thinking,

well, why are these people serving here every week?

And not to say there's anything wrong with being altruistic

or wanting to commit to volunteerism,

but for many of them, this is kind of like their church

because they show up every week

in order to either prove to themselves or prove to others

maybe how good of a person they are.

Look, I work hard all week,

and even then I'll wake up on a Saturday morning

to volunteer at 8 a.m.

in order for this race to get put on.

Look at how good I am.

I think the same can even be true in the church.

We can be tempted in similar ways.

We can come faithfully on a Sunday morning and a Sunday evening.

If you're a student, you can be involved in Scripture Union

or Christian Union.

You think about going to community groups

and prayer meetings and Bible studies,

and it can be all in the sense of keeping up appearances,

as if we have to check enough boxes

in order that God will be pleased with us

when actually our hearts are truly far from God.

And I think this can be true for even those

who are in full-time ministry.

I think of myself as I was studying this text

and recognizing how often I can fall into the same trap

of staying busy in ministry,

in preaching and teaching

and being a director for a missions organization,

travel and strategy,

but ultimately can feel very far from God

because I'm finding my identity oftentimes in what I do.

And oftentimes when this happens,

when I feel far from God,

the answer that I internally think is,

well, maybe I just need to lean

a little bit further into my work.

Maybe I need to try a little bit harder

or do a little bit better

and then God will be pleased with me.

Maybe then I'll reach this level of spiritual maturity.

Maybe that rings true with some of you as well.

The late poet T.S. Eliot wrote this once.

He said,

the greatest sin is to do the right thing

for the wrong reason.

He says,

at what point do we become legalists in our faith?

When are we going through the motions without emotions?

Or worse,

going through the motions

because they have taken the place of our faith?

In this state,

we are no better than the Pharisees

who Jesus set on their heads

or bobbing dolls on a dashboard

with glazed, empty smiles.

I wonder if this can be true of us,

that we've allowed our external customs

and traditions to replace this need

for true heart transformation.

I wonder if sometimes we can become the legalists

that Eliot is speaking about here.

When we think about legalism,

what is legalism?

What is a legalist?

It's someone who believes

that their standing before God

is based on their performance

rather than God's grace.

And so practically,

we recognize that's not the truth of the gospel,

but oftentimes in our lives,

this is how we act, right?

Because we think we need to supplement God's grace

with our own actions.

We need to add something to this idea

or this recipe of salvation

in order for God to be pleased with us.

That's the recipe for legalism

that Jesus is speaking about here.

That we obey God

because we think then we will earn his love.

But the gospel says something very different.

God loves us,

therefore we obey.

And so that brings us to our second point,

the pollution of the heart.

I'm sure many of you,

we all have cell phones here.

We're probably used to using filters

in Instagram or TikTok

or different forms of social media

or FaceTime when we communicate to one another.

My parents are with us today,

but often they live in the States.

And so we communicate through FaceTime often with them

and we try to talk to them regularly.

Or when I'm traveling,

I talk to my kids using FaceTime.

And typically when they take hold of the phone,

the temptation is to start flipping through the filters

and start talking to me

as like a dinosaur or a dog or something.

And they become much more preoccupied

with the technology

than actually carrying on a conversation.

And we see these filters are used in different forms, right?

Whether it's to make you look younger or older

or to change the aspect of your picture.

We recognize that though,

what these filters do,

they're creating this false image of ourselves.

And this is essentially what these traditions of the elders,

that's what they're doing.

They're providing a filter for these Pharisees

in order to create this false image of selves,

that they look at these traditions

that they're now keeping and say,

look how good of a person I am.

Look how righteous I am.

And so the irony is,

they think these traditions

are maintaining a high view of the law

when actually they're creating

a rather low view of the law

because law and tradition in their mind equals merit.

Keep the rules and God will accept you.

Follow God's commands and then you'll be righteous.

And maybe you're not familiar with church

or maybe this is all new to you

and you think this is what Christianity is all about.

No doubt, if you were to go on the pavement

and just pull students walking by

and ask them, what is Christianity all about?

They'd probably give you an answer like that.

Well, you have to be a good person

in order for God to love you.

Similarly, probably people who reject Christianity,

it's because they view God as some cosmic killjoy

who's just ready to drop the hammer

whenever you screw up.

But what we see here is a very different picture

in the scriptures.

And so if we go back to the Old Testament,

we see God deliver his people out of the land of Egypt,

out of the house of slavery,

brings them into the wilderness

where he gives them his law.

He gives them the 10 commandments

to Moses on Mount Sinai.

And we see later on in the book of Exodus

and into Leviticus,

he gives them more laws,

ceremonial laws and civil laws.

And so if you've ever started

a new Bible reading plan

and you may be excited to start a new year,

you get through Genesis and the first part of Exodus

and you kind of feel like you hit this wall

come second part of Exodus and Leviticus

because it's just loaded with all these laws

that we may not really understand

their significance about sacrifice

or Sabbath or clothing

or feasts or social justice.

And so we may ask,

what's the purpose of all these laws?

Well, if we think about

the Westminster Confession of Faith,

and this is a document that we use

to help us understand and articulate our faith,

help us to understand what the Bible says

and what we ought to believe,

it talks about the law

and it gives us three uses of the law.

The first use it says is,

the law serves as a mirror.

What does that mean?

When God looks at the law,

he sees his holiness and his perfection.

But when man looks at the law,

we see our own sin.

The law reveals just how far

we have fallen from God's perfect standard.

And so this is what Paul says in Romans 3,

he says,

no one will be declared righteous

in God's sight by works of the law.

Rather, through the law,

we become conscious of our sin.

And so for the Pharisees,

really their big issue is

they have a false understanding

of what the law is meant to do.

They think the law allows them

to prove their cleanliness.

And it's what's external to them

is what makes them defiled.

Jesus is saying something very different.

Look in our passage again in verse 20.

He says,

what comes out of a person

is what defiles them.

For it is from within,

out of a person's heart,

that evil thoughts come,

and sexual immorality,

theft, murder, adultery,

greed, malice, deceit,

lewdness, envy, slander,

arrogance, and folly.

All these evil things

come from inside

and defile a person.

And so what Jesus is making clear here,

it's not the external

that defiles a person,

but what is internal.

And so listen to what Paul says again

in Romans 5, verse 12.

Romans 5:12

He says,

therefore, just as sin came

into the world through one man

and death through sin,

and so death spread to all men

because all sinned.

For sin indeed was in the world

before the law was given,

but sin is not counted

where there is no law.

He's basically saying,

because Adam sinned,

we have all sinned.

And the law reveals to us

just how sinful we are.

The late Welsh minister,

Martin Lloyd-Jones,

he said this.

He said,

the sinner is an abomination to God.

He is a monstrosity in God's universe.

He is altogether hateful and vile.

We may hear those words and think,

ooh, that sounds a bit harsh,

like, Martin,

what did you have for breakfast this morning?

Like, take it easy.

Because certainly the culture around us

thinks, well, we are,

man is basically good.

It's maybe circumstances around us

that are to blame for our bad behavior,

but what we just need to do

is we just need to weigh the scales, right?

If we simply just tip the scales

a little bit in our favor of good,

more good than bad,

then we're seen as righteous.

Now, obviously,

we wouldn't confess this in the church,

but again, practically,

this can play out in our lives.

We recognize that we are depraved

and sinful,

but oftentimes we can think about

our practice of coming to church

and we're reading scripture

and we're volunteering

and we're serving the church

and we think, you know what?

I'm doing pretty good.

God must be pretty pleased with me.

And that ultimately puts us

in a pretty dangerous spot

because it can show

that we're failing to recognize

the significance

and pervasiveness of our own sin

or that we're failing

to recognize the perfection

and superiority of God's standard.

Ultimately, the Pharisees thought

that the law and the tradition

could save them,

but the reality is

that the law does not save.

It only condemns.

And so that's what separates Christianity

from any other religion out there.

Other religions say,

follow the law and be saved.

That's what the Pharisees practiced,

but Christianity says,

you can't follow the law.

You're not able to follow the law.

But think for a second

if you could follow the law,

if the law could save you.

Because maybe we have

that independent streak

and we think, you know what?

I just want to be able

to control my own fate

and so let me give it a try.

But think about all the uncertainty

that that would cause in our lives.

Because how would you ever know

that you follow the law closely enough?

And so we'd have this temptation

to think we've got to keep working harder

and harder

and really have no sense of assurance

that we've ever met

God's perfect standard.

And so that'll only lead

to the sense of discouragement

and despair

and anxiety in our lives.

And does that not describe

the ways the Pharisees acted?

These were not winsome teachers

who just kind of came to Jesus

cheerfully and his disciples.

They came looking for a fight.

They were judgmental.

They were self-righteous,

thinking that the law could save,

but the law only condemns.

The law is not a filter.

It is a mirror.

And so what Jesus wants

the Pharisees to see here,

he wants them to see

their own depravity.

He wants them to recognize

their fallenness,

to sense their helplessness,

to feel the weight

of their own sin.

And so when we think about

that long list of sins

that Jesus listed,

you may think,

okay, that's enough.

Like, you can stop.

Or it kind of leads us

to think about that other person

or that other person.

Yeah, that describes that person.

When we need to recognize

that what Jesus is listing here,

it's describing you and I

in our total state of depravity.

That there's nothing

that we can do

to save ourselves.

There's no amount of effort

that we can rescue ourselves

from the penalty of sin and death.

And so we can stop there

and pray, right?

No, of course not.

This isn't the end of the story.

This leads us to our final point,

the provision of grace

that Jesus makes clear

to his disciples

as well as the Pharisees.

You may remember back in 2010,

what became national

or international news.

It was this Chilean mining accident

where 33 men were trapped

in this copper mine

2,000 feet under the ground.

And they had little food.

They had little supplies down there,

little water.

And for the first 17 days,

those who were on the surface

didn't know if these men

were alive or not.

And it was only until

they could drill this little hole

down there and retrieve this letter

that said all 33 men were alive.

And so this put the engineers

into high gear

trying to figure out a way

to rescue these men

while also delivering them supplies

while they tried to figure this out.

And so they formulated this plan.

They were going to drill

this shaft down there

and create this rescue mechanism

to bring them up one at a time.

And it took 69 days

for them to execute this plan

that ultimately all 33 men were saved.

These miners were left under the ground.

They weren't able to save themselves.

It wasn't because of their own efforts

that they got rescued.

They had to rely on someone above.

In the same way,

we see something very similar

in this passage

that man is totally without hope.

We are unable to save ourselves.

We are liable to sin and death.

It is only Christ who comes

and to rescue and offer salvation.

And so if we look to the actions

of the Pharisees,

we should really see this great irony

because they are believing

that they are protecting

Old Testament ceremonial law

when in fact,

they're totally ignorant

of the reason

and the intended purpose of this law.

We turn to the book of Hebrews

Hebrews 10:1

chapter 10 verse 1.

This is what it says.

It says,

For since the law

has but a shadow

of the good things to come

instead of the true form

of these realities,

it can never,

by the same sacrifices

that are continually offered

every year,

make perfect those who draw near.

What does that mean?

It means that the law

was never intended to save us.

So think about

all these Old Testament laws,

all these sacrifices,

all these offerings,

there were burnt offerings

and peace offerings

and sin offerings

and guilt offerings,

grain offerings,

but they had to be repeatedly given

over and over again.

Why?

Because they weren't ultimately effective

in bringing lasting change.

The law pointed forward

to someone else

who could provide

that lasting change,

and that's Jesus.

And so if we think about

the Westminster Confession of Faith again,

in chapter 19,

it actually says this

about the law.

It says that ceremonial laws

prefigure Christ,

his graces,

actions,

sufferings,

and benefits.

The reason that God gave

the people of Israel

ceremonial laws

was not for them

to keep themselves clean,

but to point them forward

to a spotless Savior

who would come

to provide lasting cleansing

in their lives.

And so Jesus says this

in verse 18,

Are you so dull?

Don't you see that

nothing that enters a person

from outside

can defile them?

For it doesn't go

into their heart,

but into their stomach,

and then out of their body.

In saying this,

Jesus declared

all foods clean.

And that's a little bit

of commentary

that Mark uses

at the end of that passage

to explain for us

what's really going on here.

Because all we'd have to do

is jump forward

in the New Testament

to the book of Acts.

In Acts 10,

you may remember

these visions that Peter,

who's the leader

of the New Testament church,

is having

of all these unclean foods

and animals

that he has instructed

to kill and eat.

And he refuses and says,

This is against ceremonial law.

We're not supposed to do this.

And again,

he's told to kill and eat.

At the same time,

a Roman centurion

comes to him, Cornelius,

and invites him back

to his house.

This Gentile family

where they want to know

the true meaning

of the gospel

and who Jesus truly is.

And Peter recognizes

at this point

that it's no longer

any rules

regarding these unclean foods

that Gentiles themselves

shouldn't be viewed

as unclean.

But all is now permissible

and seen as clean

through Christ.

And so,

when we think about

that passage,

you may think,

Okay, that's the point in time

in the New Testament church.

They're in Acts 10

where all these laws

are kind of go by the wayside.

But Mark is making

very clear here.

It doesn't happen

after Jesus' departure.

This change occurs

at Jesus' arrival

because the law

points forward

to the real image

who is now here.

The barrier to cleanliness

has now been broken.

And Christ has come

who makes all things clean.

And so,

Jesus' harsh rebuke

of the Pharisees

is not to embarrass them

or simply to ridicule them,

but to reveal to them

their need for

a sinless substitute.

To reveal

and to demonstrate

they need someone

to do what the law

could not do.

Someone who could legally

declare them righteous

before God.

And so,

this is what the whole

Gospel of Mark

goes through.

That Jesus,

it's Jesus' journey

to the cross

where he willingly

suffers and dies

in order to pay the penalty

for your sin

and for mine.

Taking away our guilt

and giving us

his own righteousness.

And so,

this is what we believe

and that we preach.

That we are saved

by grace alone

through faith alone

in Christ alone.

And so,

this is the invitation

for each one of us today

that we may receive

the righteousness

of Jesus.

We may receive

his grace

that comes through

our own faith.

And so,

that we don't try

to strive after Jesus

to earn his satisfaction

or his pleasure.

but we come to him

in our filth

and in our sin

and in our guilt

recognizing that

he's the only one

who can clean us.

Horatius Bonar

who is a Scottish minister

from the 1800s

was famous

not only as a preacher

but also as a hymn writer.

And he wrote these words

in one of his hymns.

He said,

Upon a life

I have not lived.

Upon a death

I did not die.

Another's life.

Another's death.

Death.

I stake my whole eternity.

And so,

when we do that

when we stake

our whole eternity

on the life

and death

of Jesus

it's not only

going to transform

our hearts

it's also going to

transform our

relationship to the law

because we said

that the law

serves as a mirror

but as a believer

the law also serves

as a guide for us.

We don't throw away

the law

because Jesus came.

Jesus came

to fulfill the law.

We don't follow

the law out of duty

but we follow the law

out of hearts

of gratitude

and joy

when we recognize

the beauty

and the blessing

of the gospel

in our lives.

Therefore,

we are made able

through the power

of the Spirit

to be obedient

to Christ.

And so,

this is the truth

that we see

in our passage

this morning.

That tradition

wrongly says

obey me

and hope to live.

The law

rightly says

you can't obey me

so you must

certainly die.

But Christ

graciously says

I have obeyed

so you can

surely live.

Let's cling

to this truth

this morning.

Let's pray together.

Lord,

we thank you

for the truth

of the gospel

that comes

through this

harsh rebuke

of the Pharisees.

And while it's

so often

our temptation

to distance

ourselves

from them,

may we identify

ourselves,

identify with them

this morning

to recognize

how often

we rely

on traditions

and our good works

and customs

in order to

receive your pleasure

and your approval.

Lord,

help us to recognize

the truth

and the beauty

of the gospel

that we are sinners

saved by grace,

that our righteousness

comes only

through the blood

of Jesus.

And so,

Lord,

we ask that you

cleanse us

this morning.

We pray,

Lord,

that we will

recognize

and stand

under the law

as condemned

but to see Christ

having fulfilled it

that therefore

we may use

the law

as a guide

for Christian living.

Not out of a sense

of duty

but a sense

of true joy

that we may

follow after you

all the days

of our life.

We pray this

in Jesus' name.

Amen.