 Today, we're in chapter 15 in the book of Matthew. We're doing a verse by verse study here in Matthew. And we're going to be looking today at verses 1 through 20. And I chose to entitle this particular installment, something very basic, legalism, liberty, or love. And you're going to see how that plays out during the study because what we're looking at in this chapter in the first 20 verses is Jesus dealing with the issue of legalism. I'll define that for you in just a moment. You know, and then you can tie in the words liberty and you can tie in the words love and you can get a balance and get an idea of how the Lord would have us live because the Pharisees were legalists, but the Lord would have us to have His liberty. And liberty in Christ is always going to be finding its origin in the grace and mercy of God. So the things that we do ought to always be done by love. We'll be looking at that in just a moment. But I'll say before I teach and before this goes on the recording, I actually added this to the first service, but I'll say it without it being on the tape today, not because I'm concerned about it, we've already put it on tape. But one of the things, just to kind of introduce this for you that I'm looking at right now and all, is what legalism ends up doing and what legalism does. And again, I'm getting ahead of myself, but legalism is a code of conduct that is based on rules and those who abide by our rules are approved. Those who do not abide by our rules are not approved. And sometimes in this legalism you will see the most heinous things done, destructive things done because of a religious rigidity that has eliminated grace, mercy, love, truth, goodness, and all the attributes that God would have us to understand about Him as it relates to our behavior in our society. Years ago I told my wife, Marie, that I was surprised that acts of vigilanteism hadn't erupted in the United States because so much of the morals of this nation have been rejected, and not only rejected, but in a violent way have been confronted. And we have ceased as a nation to have a sense of civility. I mean, you don't have to agree with and probably shouldn't agree with everything that public figures have to say. And when it comes to, for example, the political realities of our life, you know, you need to be looking at those who are presenting themselves as being candidates of your approval to preside over the affairs of this nation, and I'm speaking, obviously, of the upcoming presidential election. There are quite a number of people who are upset over the candidates. The violent opposition is coming in the direction that is pointed towards one in particular. So in a nation that seems to have made thou shalt tolerate everybody as the 11th commandment, it seems that it's very easy to break that commandment when you're in disagreement with the person who is espousing things that you don't approve of or agree with. Now, I'm not going to get into political speech. Forgive me if it sounds that way, but I'm not. I'm simply making an observation of what I've been noticing. Now that if somebody doesn't agree with somebody, they think it's OK to beat up a 14-year-old little boy or to throw an egg at somebody. Or that you have to build barriers around your convention center for fear of opposition in a violent way. We're living in a very violent society. And so I told Marie a long time years ago now, it's been a good 25 years or more, that I told Marie that I'm very surprised that we have not had any radical vigilanteism because the things that are being espoused as being good are things that have a tendency of upsetting people who have a disagreement with that. So I would tell Marie, I'd say, you know, I'm surprised that people haven't taken the law into their own hands. And on occasion, you'll see somebody who does, somebody who says, I just don't trust this system at all. And they may pull a gun out and shoot somebody in a courthouse. You do see that on occasion. I always had assumed that what we would see in terms of these kinds of expressions of anger, I had assumed that that would come from some form of moral base and thought that it could be from maybe a, come from a radical fundamentalist quote unquote Christian group. I always assumed that something like that could take place. Not that it would, but I would have kind of expected it to come from somebody who had very conservative values. I did not expect it to come from members of Islam. I didn't expect that, but that's what's happening. All of you have read the newspaper, perhaps, or not heard the news of an attack that took place just last night or actually this morning where some, somewhere around 50 people were shot and killed in a club in Orlando, Florida. And obviously, I'm not up here espousing that we should go to clubs or even this particular kind of club. But the individual who did it killed, it's been reported around 50. And I was just reviewing this prior to coming out just to make sure that the figures I'm given to you are up to date. But about 50 people were shot and killed. And there were around 53 who were wounded severely. That, to me, is an expression of what some would refer to as a religious faith gone wild, because the individual did this and everything I've read up to this point seems to point to that he was a member of Islam. And that he did this, I would believe, and we'll see. I'm not trying to prejudge everything, obviously, trying to report a little bit with the point that he was upset because this was a homosexual club and he didn't approve of the morals of those who were attending that particular club. And thus, it's very common to show your disapproval through acts of violence. The first things that are coming out, and I think sometimes they need to be measured, I don't think that you should jump to conclusions, and that's why I'm trying to be very careful. Even how I'm presenting this to you at this moment, the facts haven't come out yet, and yet there seem to be accruing facts that this is an individual who was, well, his parents were from Afghanistan, he was a Muslim, and he may have done this in the name of a terrorist organization, may have done this in the name of a terrorist organization referred to as ISIS. But the point I'm making is not just that, it's this, it's that that is an expression of the rigidity of legalism to the extreme, to the extreme, that when you don't agree with somebody, you ought to just kill them. And that is the extreme. We're looking at today, we're looking at the subject of legalism and what Jesus dealt with when he was out walking the face of the earth and Pharisees who were religious fundamentalists who ultimately were making charges against him for capital offenses that he might be put to death. And he was a Sabbath breaker and he was teaching others to disregard the law of Moses. And what you see is their, their religious fundamentalism, their brand of religious fundamentalism that led all the way to the execution of God the Son. That's what you're seeing. And legalism has the tendency of leading towards great damage to people. It may not lead towards death in every instance, but it most certainly led to the death of Jesus Christ. And in our modern era, we have individuals who are holding fast to a belief system that believes that you should kill infidels. You should kill people that you don't agree with. I was reading a report again. I hope that I'm not giving bad news to you, news in the sense of reporting, but I was just this morning again reading how a particular cleric in the Orlando area had stated that homosexuals ought to be put to death. So we need to be very careful how we approach our presentations of truth. And it is always wise to, to speak the truth with love. And when you look at the Lord Jesus Christ, this is what you see. You see him speaking the truth, but remember truth sets you free. And he never commanded his followers to kill those who didn't agree with them. Because what we do is we persuade, we share with people the gospel of Christ, the goodness of God, the love, mercy of God. We give to them warnings because God's word not only gives blessings, but also brings warnings. And we try to clearly say God loves you and will transform your life. And you can be an agent of change through the love of Christ. And no, I do not agree that the homosexual lifestyle is something that is ingrained by nature. There's absolutely no gene that has ever been demonstrated to be a homosexual gene. That is a fiction that this society has bought into. And there's been a brainwashing of our society through movies and through music and through actors and comedians and books. In every media there has been that kind of brainwashing that has taken place so that younger people are growing up saying it's just normal. That's how they're, you know, that's what they are. And but the Bible never teaches that. And science itself doesn't teach that. That has been just an agenda that the nation and the world now has been, you know, drawn into. So it's always truth that sets you free. And as a Christian I'm not going out trying to bully somebody into a green and thus if you don't I will behead you or shoot you. Know what I do is I leave you in the hands of the Lord, the judge of the whole earth and it's his desire to save you. And so let us be careful. We need to pray. We need to pray for this nation. We need to pray for, you know, the heartbroken families who had young people. They may not even have approved of the behavior, but young people who were in a club last night who were killed and all. And that is not the way of the Lord. And that is that is legalism to its extreme. And that's the kind of thing that that the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not speaking about that here, by the way, but that germ is in here. But what he's teaching is that you can, that a person can hold fast to an opinion that quenches the power of the spirit to change lives and transforms people into acting the way a group of religious people say you need to act. And thus takes God's law undermines it and replaces it with man's preferences. That's what we're looking at today. So let's pray because we need to and we'll get into our study. Father, I do lift up the families of those who are mourning and in shock of the love one that they have. They may not have approved of the behavior of that child, but they certainly love their child. And I'm asking, Lord, that you would somehow bring comfort to those right now who are going through the devastation and the concern. The Lord, I asked that somehow your grace and your mercy might overflow. Somehow people may be able to minister to these who are heartbroken and that your truth that sets free might be presented in a loving way. I asked that we would awaken to the times that we're living in, Lord, not to be afraid, but to be ready to give an answer concerning the hope that lies within us. May your church arise, may your church awaken, and may we see, Lord, clearly what has taken place in this nation. We love so much. So I ask, Lord, that you would use this Bible study to give us insight into your love and the liberty that we have in Christ. And may we avoid the pitfall of legalism. And we would ask these things now in the magnificent and mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Beginning at verse one, reading to verse nine, Matthew chapter 15. Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus saying, Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said to them, Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded saying, Honor your father and your mother. And he who curses father or mother, let him be put to death. But you say whoever says to his father or mother whatever prophet you might have received from me has been dedicated to the temple, is released from honoring his father or mother. Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you saying, These people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips. But their heart is far from me. And in vain they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. So as we begin our study today, I want you to note with me in verse one how it simply says, scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus. Now that may not say anything to you when you first read it, but you need to understand that the scribes and the Pharisees, the scribes and Pharisees were a legal group of people who are legal in the sense of knowing the law of Moses. The scribes were a mosaic scholars. Pharisees were a religious sect. And so this would speak of the religious scholars of the Pharisee persuasion. But what is interesting is to note that they came from the south and went to the north. Now you need to understand during this time the center of religious purity was from the south. The Pharisees from Jerusalem were extremely conservative and Jerusalem was looked at as being a very holy city. So these Pharisees were normally operated in the south. But there are Pharisees who are up in the north in the Galilee. It's called the Galilee, which is by the Sea of Galilee. And so something has provoked the southern leadership to leave from Jerusalem and take a three-day journey, a 60 mile or so walk from Jerusalem up to the north. And what has provoked them is undoubtedly they have been requested by the northern Pharisees to come up and confront this Jewish rabbi by the name of Jesus, who is garnering a lot of attention and a lot of followers. And the northern Pharisees are unable to deal with them and thus they call the big guns, if you will, from the south to come up and speak to Jesus and to confront him. That's what you're seeing. And so as they come, they're more than likely responding to a request in order to confront Christ. And so as they come, notice verse one, they said they came to Jesus saying in verse two, why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders for they do not wash their hands when they eat bread? And so they've come with a question to ask of Christ. Now Mark, who also gives to us information concerning the same thing, gives us insight in Mark chapter seven, verse two, when in his gospel he says, when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defile, that is with unwashed hands, they found fault. So that tells us that they came from the south looking for fault in Christ. They were watching him, observing him in order they would see something about him that they could call into question and try to undermine him. That's what they were doing. That gives us insight into their motives. They were looking for a confrontation. And so they found fault with him. Like it says in Psalm 37 verse 32, the wicked watches the righteous and seeks to slay him. When Psalm 3732 says the wicked watches, that word watches means to spy or watch closely. It speaks concerning the wicked looking to the righteous to try and find something wrong with them in order that they might bring an accusation. So in the case of Christ, finding fault with him started fairly early in his ministry. There were people watching him that they might find fault with him. You see that in Matthew 12. We already looked at it, but it's found in Matthew 12 verse 10 where it says, behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. They asked him, saying, is it lawful to heal in the Sabbath that they might accuse him? And so they're already observing him to find accusation. In Luke 11, 53 and 54, as he said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to assail him vehemently and to cross examine him about many things, lying in wait for him and seeking to catch him in something he might say that they might accuse him. So they have been watching the Lord Jesus Christ in order to find an accusation against him. You see, the Lord has been causing quite a stir. He hasn't shown any regard for what was so important to them. And he's been busy breaking quite a number of the rules of religion. As we've been going through the study here, we've seen, for example, how he would actually sit down and eat with the outcasts. Now, remember with me that the word Pharisee, when you read your New Testament and it says the Pharisees, the word Pharisee is translated, separated one. And the Pharisees were well known for their rigid separation. And so they had nothing to do with, quote, unquote, those who were sinners. And so when they saw Jesus would actually spend time with them, they would find fault with them and accuse him of being immoral because he had done that. We see that, for example, in Matthew 9, verses 10 and 11, where it says, So it was as Jesus sat at the table in the house, who hold many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Because for them to be near these kinds of people was unheard of. Jesus also had broken their tradition regarding fasting because he did not teach his men to do so. And we saw in Matthew 9, verse 14, that the disciples of John came to him, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast? And so the Pharisees fasted often, even the disciples of John fasted often. But they were questioning, why does Jesus not teach his disciples to fast? And not only that, he had broken their understanding of the observation of Sabbath. In Matthew 12, verses 1 and 2, it says that Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. Disciples were hungry, began to pluck heads of grain into eat, when the Pharisees saw it. They said to him, Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. And so they're already accruing things to say about Christ to make certain kinds of accusations against him. And if you watched him long enough, you could find something that you would disagree with and even accuse him of doing. You know, all you got to do is watch somebody long enough to find something that you don't like about him. You don't think so, just get married. But anyway, you know, when Pastor Chuck Smith, some of you know his name, perhaps some of you know him well. Pastor Chuck was my pastor. And when Pastor Chuck began to minister, it was a long time ago, this is a bit of ancient history, but it'll give you some context. You know, the generation that I come from was very rigid in its traditions. What is commonplace today in churches all through the United States did not exist when I was growing up. And Chuck was looked at by people as being a compromiser because he allowed hippies to enter into the church. You see, everybody, when I grew up, everybody in the church knew that Jesus Christ had a very short haircut and always wore a suit. Everybody knew that. And everybody would point to that. So when a hippie, you know, would come into church, first thing people would do is they'd get nervous because this long hair was there and he didn't have any shoes on. And they had beards and all of this and it was very disturbing for a lot of people. And so Pastor Chuck allowed people like that into the church. There were no bands in church. There were no bands at all. What you had was perhaps an organ and you sang traditional hymns and all. Not to say those are bad, but that was the climate. So when Calvary Chapel was used to introduce music that was called contemporary, which there was no such thing as a contemporary Christian music at that time. There were no double wards or anything like that. There were just people who got saved who would bring their musical talents to church and they'd go on the platform and they would sing songs that were fresh and new. They were a new song and people like me appreciated that, but that was unheard of. That was not commonplace. That was not normal. I can still remember I was an assisting pastor in another church and they said, you cannot bring the church we were renting from, said you cannot bring drums and you cannot bring electric guitars and all of that onto the platform. If you're going to have that kind of music that can only go into the fellowship hall, but you cannot have guitars and drums or anything like that on the main platform because they were very offended by that. Now to you, you're thinking, that's ridiculous. Are you kidding me? But that's the way it was. And I never made sense to me. Then it doesn't make sense to me now. What? God never goes into the fellowship hall. He just hangs around the sanctuary. It just never made any sense to me. But that's how rigid things were. So when Pastor Chuck began to invite us, people like me, to come into the church and to hear the word of God. And we came in and we came in barefooted and you'll hear stories of how the people got upset because the hippies would come into the pews. We'd be seated in the pews and I didn't wear shoes. Very few of us did. I didn't wear shoes. To this day, I don't wear shoes. I wear shoes on Sunday. It's a fact. And I can still remember crossing my legs, sitting in the pew with my toe stuck in the communion cup holder. Because it happens, right? It does. It happens. And you have to pull. And people would see that and say, oh no. Look at these dirty hippies. Remove the carpets. Because not, I'm sorry, make them put shoes on because they're ruining our carpet. And Pastor Chuck happened to walk in on a Sunday morning and there was a sign, no shoes, no seat. And he took the sign, ripped it up, walked up, spoke to his elders and said, if carpeting keeps one kid from coming into this church, let's rip up the carpets. That was Chuck Smith. So that's my heritage. That's my heritage. That's what I came out of as a 20-year-old. Hair doesn't matter. Long hair, short hair, some coats and ties. It doesn't matter because we're just coming around. And there were songs sung about that. Little Country Church was about Calvary Chapel. None of you have heard it, but it's about Calvary Chapel. And that's the way it was, you see? But the people would look at Chuck and they would say he's compromising. What it is is he's watering down the gospel and not making any biblical demands on the people. And the problem is that that wasn't at all. Pastor Chuck is the one who taught verse by verse through the whole Bible. You cannot say he didn't teach the Word of God. But during that time, they did. Why? Because it went against the religious traditionalism of that era. That's why. I grew up in a time when my dad and my mom are 100% against tattoos because only thugs wear tattoos. Thugs and sailors, same thing. My dad hated them. My dad was in the Navy. Never got a tattoo. Said that he would cut my arm off if I ever did. My dad hated tattoos. Why? Because in his mind, it represented being a troublemaker. Someone who was just not a good person. We still have people who think that way. We still have people who say, oh, you can't possibly be a believer because you've got tattoos. I mean, when are we going to learn that God has a way of changing hearts long before he changes the outside? When are we going to learn that? That God is in the business of catching the fish before he cleans it. And we have to be aware of that to this day. And so Jesus was dealing with this kind of mentality, this mentality that you've got to do things this way. Because if you don't do things this way, you can't possibly be a person who knows God. And Jesus was dealing with that. Now, in this particular case, his disciples did not wash their hands before eating. It says in verse 2 the question, why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. Again, we know that Mark said that they were watching until they found something to find fault with, and that's what they did. They're saying you are disregarding what is traditional as well as what is acceptable. Why are they transgressing the tradition of the elders? It's not that their hands were dirty, by the way. It's that they did not have what is called a ritual washing. And that was one of the issues that was very big during that day. Again, in Mark chapter seven, verse three, it said the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat, unless they wash their hands in a special way holding the traditions of the elders. So it's the tradition of the elders that required them to wash before eating. Now, this was done in the event that they accidentally had touched something or someone, as they were walking through the city or whatever, who was ceremonially unclean. And if I would have bumped into somebody or touched something that had been touched by somebody who had not been ritually ceremonially cleansed, then I would, by virtue of touching that, be regarded as being an unclean person. One of the things though to think about is washings during Jesus' time were directed really to the priests and not to the people. You see, it was the Jewish priests who were to wash before entering into the tabernacle or the temple. So it seems obvious that the Pharisees had adopted the ritual washings of its priests. So for them, daily food should be eaten as if it were priestly food. And that would lend itself to the idea that ordinary acts of life are to be treated as if they are sacred, because that will result in giving glory to God. And according to Leviticus 20, verse 26 in the Old Testament, God had said, you shall be holy to me. So there was a reason behind doing all of that. And now they're concerned. They're concerned about Jesus ignoring their traditional interpretation of the law. But what has happened is their tradition became superior to Scripture. And the way that their tradition became superior to the Bible is they said their tradition actually explained the Bible. That was the reasoning. Now how did that happen? How did tradition become the interpreter of the Word of God? Well at first their tradition was intended to safeguard God's law from being ignored. And when you looked at the writings of the rabbis around that time, the rabbis taught that God gave the oral law to Moses and that Moses passed it on to elders. The elders were to meditate on it and to obey all that it had to say. Then they were to train disciples in order that the next generation would have teachers. And they built a hedge about the law. They produced what we would today refer to as a wall of protection. But the hedge that they built opened up a way for hypocrisy to begin to grow. Eventually they no longer needed to be sincere. Simply act sincerely. That was outward observation. And when you get caught up with an outward only observation then that in and of itself is a breeding ground for hypocrisy. Jesus and Matthew 23.5 said all their works they do to be seen by men. And that's how it worked out during that time. They were doing works to be seen. So their hypocrisy was actually finding an origin in their tradition. Now their teachings didn't set people free. What it did is it enslaved you to legalism. Legalism being the establishment of rigid moral codes of conduct. But when you have rigid moral codes of conduct it has a way of undermining grace and mercy. These Pharisees were not free themselves and therefore could not present freedom to somebody else. What happened is their teachings produced fatigue from the efforts that they had found themselves involved in to become approved by God. And so any ministry that focuses on self effort always produces people in bondage. And so again, the Pharisees in verse two note that the disciples didn't wash and they're wondering why are you violating our tradition? The inference is if you were truly a rabbi who taught truth you would be teaching them properly. You see the manner of life of a disciple is a clear reflection of the rabbi. And the goal of making disciples is to produce someone who lives the way you do. In Matthew 10.25 Jesus said it's enough for a disciple that he'd be like his teacher and a servant like his master. So the goal of the rabbi was to mentor disciples who would love God. But what happened is the heart of the rabbi was wrapped up in traditional ritualism that was wrapped up with legalism. And so those who were becoming the disciples of these rabbis were finding themselves and meshed in traditionalism. As a result of that they're in bondage. And so the Lord is speaking concerning that. And so when they come and ask the question why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands when they eat bread. Jesus answers verse three and said to them why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded saying honor your father and your mother and he who curses father or mother let him be put to death. But you say whoever says to his father or mother whatever prophet you might have received from me has been dedicated to the temple is released from honoring his father or mother. Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. Now it's interesting, notice with me that Jesus is not intimidated. Notice that he doesn't apologize for his apparent disregard. Notice that he actually confronts them. Not only does he confront them but he does something that to me is just amazing. It shows us his authority because he actually says in verse seven that they are hypocrites. That's pretty strong. I mean a lot of people wouldn't, we don't relate to that very well because we don't understand the context of that. But again, if you understand these are big shots who have come from the North who are highly regarded by everybody because they're scholars in the law and they're speaking in its context to an itinerant rabbi, a rabbi who hasn't even gone through their schools, isn't even recognized by them. And they're speaking to this guy saying who are you? You haven't even been taught. Who are you? You haven't gone through the association. You haven't gotten your doctorate. The way we have, what gives you the right to say what you're saying? Who are you anyway? And you would think that this person, Jesus, might have been intimidated by their scholarship and their traditionalism and their rigidity and their outward sense of authority that so many people would actually, they feared during the time of Christ, they feared the Pharisees. As a matter of fact, his disciples may very well have feared them too. And for Jesus to look at them and confront them and then even call them hypocrites unheard of. Unheard of, he was a champion and they didn't know what to do with that. He called him hypocrite. The word hypocrite speaks of an actor, a stage player. It speaks of literally a pretender. The hypocrite pretends goodness but beneath a religious veneer is a malicious or deceitful heart. Now sometimes, and I'll kind of break away and then come back. Sometimes people will speak of us as Christians who we who are born again believers in Christ and say, you guys are a bunch of hypocrites. I don't know how many of you have ever been called a hypocrite but that's my middle name. You know, you're hypocrites. You know, you say one thing and do another and all of that. You're not a hypocrite when you don't put on and act as if you're one thing when in reality you know you're something else. If you're wanting to live a righteous life and you fail and stumble, who doesn't? Of course, I'm not giving permission. Okay, so hey, let's all go and stumble. You know, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that today we're gonna have plenty of opportunity to not live up to what we believe. Plenty of it. But I don't believe that anybody in this room necessarily is gonna go out and intentionally do that. That's hypocrisy. That's hypocrisy. And when Jesus was speaking to them, he was saying, oh, and you'll see this in a moment. You know, with your mouth you say one thing but your heart is far away. You know, it's one thing that you have the religious veneer, the outward, but the reality is the heart. And God doesn't look at the outer appearance, he looks at the heart. And it's your heart that is producing all of these things. You'll see that when he closes this off in just a moment. It's your nature because you're unredeemed. It's your nature because you've established a hedge to try and say that your behavior makes you righteous when in fact you're far from God. And so it isn't for us, we're not hypocrites when we sincerely desire to be faithful and fail. Well, he says in verse three, why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your traditions? Now, what he does is he refers to the fifth commandment. He says in verse four, God commanded saying, honor your father and your mother. That's the fifth commandment in the law found in the book of Exodus chapter 20. And so he makes reference to this particular law, a commandment that God had given which is to honor your father and your mother. Now, this particular command was given to safeguard the family. You see, honoring your father and your mother, while honoring your father and mother speaks concerning the backbone of society. The backbone of society is the family. And so he's speaking concerning this. Now, one aside, when a movement attempts to transform a culture, it normally will attack the family. When a movement wants to undermine the cultural morays of a nation, they normally will attack the family. If you read your Bible and you start in chapter one of Genesis, you get to chapter nine. By the ninth chapter of Genesis, three God ordained institutions are revealed to us. Marriage, the church, and government. In nine chapters, the backbone of society is established by God. And the first thing that he establishes as the backbone of the church and government is the family. It's the first thing you see because a family is the backbone of the entire culture. So if a nation is going to be changed, what you do is you change the definition and understanding of what a family is. That's what you do. And that's something that all of us are aware of. There was a book written, some of you perhaps had to read it in one of your classes in college or even in high school. It was called The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. It was written by a man by the name of Edward Gibbon. When Edward Gibbon wanted to tell you what it is that went into the Roman Empire, the most powerful empire on the face of the earth, what it is that undermined it, Gibbon would have pointed out that it was not destroyed necessarily by invaders from the outside. Gibbon pointed out that the Roman Empire was destroyed by decay from within. And he actually gave five different things that led to the overthrow and the fall of the Roman Empire. You can read this in The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. And Edward Gibbon said, and he was, by the way, no friend of Christianity, he wasn't a Christian at all. He said, Rome fell because of the undermining of the sanctity of home and family. Rome fell because of the increasing of taxes to pay for free bread and entertainment. Rome fell due to the increasing hunger for pleasure. He said, Rome fell through the decay of individual responsibility. And Rome fell because of the rejection of religion and its power to influence life and provide guidance for people. Do you see that in our nation? It's the same thing. We're seeing a great nation being decayed from the inside, and it's beginning with the destruction of the family. And so, when God said honor your father and your mother, we know that if you want to change a nation, just destroy the fabric of a family. And so, he makes it very clear. He said, God commanded verse four, honor your father and your mother, and he went on to say, and he who curses father or mother, let him be put to death. So he says honor. That word honors is to respect. It means show reverence or value highly. The word honor means to think well of and to act kindly towards. But the word curse means to treat with irreverence, to think evil in the heart, to swear at or disobey. And so obviously, God's intent is for parents to live worthy of respect and for children to respect their parents. That's the point that he was making. Many young parents today seem to be incapable of disciplining their children. Proverbs 29.15 says the rod of correction in parts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother. And that's who here would argue with that. When there's nobody teaching the child at home how to behave, when you go to restaurants and the child is going crazy, rolling underneath the table and yelling, and the parent doesn't know what to do, doesn't know how to deal with it. Okay, this sounds like I'm reminiscing and I'm not, I'm just giving a fact. He tells people, well, there's that old man, he's just traveling down the road to the 50s. No, I'm not. I'm telling you what has changed in a generation and some of you may remember when you would go to a restaurant and it was quiet. Some of you are kidding me, it was quiet? Yeah, yeah, it was actually quiet. How many of you remember that? Anybody here? Yeah, yeah, see, most of you don't because you're young. Your fault, no, it's a fact. You, if we went, which very seldom by the way, we never went to restaurants, we always ate at home, we had Sunday traditional dinners in the whole nine yards, but it's a fact. If you went to a restaurant, they had very quiet, it was very quiet. You could hear the sound of plates and you could hear the sound of glasses. You could hear that. You didn't hear people at one table screaming at the top of their lungs, ah, you know, and food dropping out of their mouth, that just didn't happen. You, because we were taught that you are in public and you should have a politeness. You should show respect for the person at the table next to you who didn't come to hear you scream. We were taught that, you see, but what we have today is the opposite because there's nobody at home watching the kids. So a child left to himself brings disgrace because there's nobody teaching him what is right and what is wrong. There's nobody teaching him this is proper behavior. And so what is taking place in the house is simply transferred into a restaurant. And that's where it is. We just talk loudly at the table. We bang our plates around. That's what happens. And see, it's small things, but it's the small things that undermine the larger things. And so in the home, the mom and the dad would actually be married, have children. We used to have this old saying, you know, we used to say at first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes so-and-so with the baby carriage, right? We used to say that. We used to say that. That's not true anymore, is it? God, you love and marriage don't even happen. You just have the baby carriage sometimes. But that's not how, that was this, these kinds of little things were actually rooted in traditional values that were biblically based. And so those are just archaic. Those are just old people's reminiscing because people don't understand how the Bible and family actually is going to develop a culture. And so one of the things that parents need to remember, and this is in the study on proper parenting by any means, but one of the things you might wanna remember is this, and this is something I've told my children when they were young, that I still, by the way, at my age and their age, and I don't have babies anymore. I have grandbabies, but my babies are all, you know, in their 30s and all. It's the same true, that it's true then, it's true now. And that is this, I had said to them this, this is a quote, I am not your friend, I'm your dad. And so don't treat me like you treat one of your friends because I don't respond well to that. I can still remember saying, you might be able to speak to one of your snotty nose little friends like that, but you don't speak to me that way because I'm your dad. You make sure you remember that. And I wasn't mean by the way, it sounds like I'm mean, huh? Someone's right now saying, give me a safe space, this hurts. No, I, it's just a fact. My kids didn't need a friend. And mom and dad, you're making a big mistake when you become their buddy. They don't need a grown up friend, they need a mom and a dad. And then guess what, it's kind of hard. Yeah, that's a fact, that's just a fact. I didn't need a buddy. I needed a dad. I had buddies, I needed a dad. I needed a dad who would draw a line in the Senate and say, you can't walk over that. That's as far as you're gonna go. I needed that because I was without borders and being without borders meant I'd do anything I want. Not with my dad. My dad said, no, no, this is as far as you're gonna go. And to me, that helped as I grew older and so we need to be aware of those kinds of things. And so with that said, when your family is actually honoring the parents, when you're showing them respect and love and concern, God said, I will bless the family. In Ephesians chapter six, verses one through three, the command is children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right, honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise. And here's the promise, that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. So part of the way to honor was showing the parents care in their old age. Someone wrote, this was a plain command of God, written with his own hand and delivered by Moses to them. It was of a moral nature and of eternal obligation, which was to be understood. Not merely of that high esteem parents are to be held and by their children and of the respectful language and gesture to be used towards them and of the cheerful obedience to be yielded to them, but also of honoring them with their substance, feeding, clothing and supplying them with the necessities of life when they stood in need of them. This was their reasonable service for all the care, expense and trouble they had experienced in bringing them into the world. And so the child had the responsibility to care for the parent when the parent had need and Jesus says honor your father and mother, but he also says to them, he who curses father or mother, let them be put to death. That shows how serious such a thing was and was intended to purge the evil of rebellion from a society. So as he's quoting scripture to them, he says in verse seven, well did Isaiah prophesy about you saying these people draw near to me with their mouth, honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me and in vain they worship me teaching as doctrines, the commandments of men. You see when he was saying to them that you say in your teaching, whatever prophet you may have received, I'm dedicated to God. He was speaking how the rabbis had created a way for the children to avoid caring for their parents when their parents were in need. And the answer to them was simply dedicate whatever it is that your parent has need of, just dedicate it to the Lord. The word is korban, dedicated to destruction which simply means in some contexts, this is a dedicated object to God, it belongs to him. So what the rabbis were doing is this, say that I as an older man, I have a small home, Mama and I are living in and I walk into my front room and my couch is just all ripped up, it's so old, the springs are coming out of the cushions and all of that. And I happen to go visit one of my kids and as I'm there, I notice that in one of the rooms in the corner, they have a couch. So I walk up to them and I say, you know, the couch that we have in our room is ripped up son, do you mind if I make use of that one? Could you, oh no dad, I'm sorry, I dedicated that to God. It belongs to God. I would ordinarily have given it to you but I dedicated it to the Lord. And that's what the rabbis were teaching their disciples. Just dedicate it to God. You can keep it in your own use but make it korban, make it doom to destruction, make it not to be used. And you can keep it and that's what they were doing. And so they were actually teaching that their vow to God would take precedence over benefiting a parent. You see in Ecclesiastes five versus four and five, it says, when you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools, fulfill your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. So they were saying a vow to God takes precedence but Jesus opposed that because honoring your father and your mother is a commandment. It says in 1st Timothy chapter five verse four, if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying the parents and grandparents for this is pleasing to God. He goes on in 1st Timothy five verse eight to say if anyone doesn't provide for his relatives especially for his immediate family, he's denied the faith, he's worse than an unbeliever and that's why Jesus would say in verse seven, hypocrites and say that Isaiah prophesied about you. You see all their works once again were to be noticed by men and he says in verse nine, in vain they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. So God's word is not to be added to, twisted or to be conforming to our liking nor is it to be modified by our traditions because their traditions brought them into bondage and it undermined God's design for family. We need to remember that it's truth that sets us free not man's traditions. And to this day people cling to traditions and they who cling to traditions very often have a false sense of security because of those traditions. See man made rules stifle the spirit of grace and the Pharisees fell into legalism. Now close with a couple of thoughts that are gonna take a few minutes but I'll develop it as we're about to close. Again I mentioned legalism, let me give you a definition. Legalism is a wrong attitude towards a code of laws under which a person lives. Legalism may be defined as a fleshly attitude which conforms to a code for the purpose of exalting self. Again it's not legalistic to desire to be obedient to what God's word says. Christians are to be disciples of Jesus Christ and we do follow his orders. And Jesus in John 14.15 said it like this. He said if you love me keep my commands. In John 14.23 Jesus answered and said to him if anyone loves me he'll keep my word. In first John 5.3 this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not burdensome. And so it isn't legalism when you want to obey God. That's not legalism. You see obedience to what God has said isn't legalistic. Legalism results in self-righteous bondage with no love for other people. And that's the thing to be aware of. And Jesus sets us free from this kind of bondage because he brings us into the freedom of his grace. So what they were doing is they were bringing them into bondage. Well as this takes place beginning at verse 10 he called the multitude and said to them hear and understand not what goes into the mouth that files a man, but what comes out of the mouth this defiles a man. Well as disciples came and said to him do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? But he answered and said every plant which my heavenly father has not planted will be uprooted let him alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. If the blind leads the blind both will fall into a ditch. Peter answered and said to him explain this parable to us. Jesus said shut up. No he didn't. Jesus said are you also still without understanding? Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and it's eliminated but those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and they defile a man for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man. So here in understand he says it's not what goes into you but what comes out of you. Now as he's saying this notice the disciples in verse 12 they're more concerned with the Pharisees and I find this interesting. His disciples came and said do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard the saying? You said something that got them mad. They were offended at you for what you just said. They got angry at you for what you just said. They were displeased. They were annoyed. They became indignant at what you said to them. Here's a little thought for you. Sometimes we look at the Lord Jesus Christ, meek and mild and we say to ourselves he never said anything to cause people to get upset. This is biblical evidence that indeed he did because they got angry. Once again you can think within yourself perhaps they could have reacted like who does he think he is. This ignorant hillbilly of a rabbi telling us we who have spent our entire lives going through scripture, what training did you have? Who told you they must have been so angry that it was evident to even the disciples. Do you not know that you got them angry? What you just said, listen, anybody here who gives away your faith, if I asked you to raise your hand, I'm not asking you to, but if I asked you to raise your hand, have you ever shared with somebody and they got mad at you and sputtered in anger? Some of you have just have shared. You know this is about the, what, what? They get all mad, their faces get all red, the veins come out of their necks. They get angry. How could you say that? What gives you the right to say that? How dare you say that? That's what they did. Do you not know that you offended them? And Jesus said, oh, let them alone. He said, every plant which my heavenly father has not planted will be uprooted. These people are moving to judgment and not only are they moving to judgment, but those who follow them. See, my father didn't plant them. These are not wheat, this is tears. These people don't have a faith in God. Jesus didn't back down. He'd never forget that. He didn't back down. He said, this is the truth because it's the truth that's set you free. He didn't back down. It's not like he intentionally wanted them angry, but he's not going to back down either. So he says, they don't belong to my heavenly father, they will be judged accordingly. Leave them alone. Well, when Peter comes and speaks and says, explain this parable to us, Jesus is saying this. He said, listen, you've been with me for some time. You've heard me teach and you still don't understand the basics. You don't understand. That's a bit of a rebuke. And that's why he says, it's not what you eat, it's what comes out of you. For out of the heart, verse 19, proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man. Food is physical and can only affect what is physical. It does not affect the spiritual. You may have somebody approach you saying to you, do you still eat pork? Yeah. Right, right? You still eat pork? Yeah, with salsa. Got tortilla, some beans. Is there something wrong with that? Don't you know that it's forbidden? You are not to eat pork? There are people who do that. I've had that done, have you? I've had that done. You're eating pork? Didn't you know the dietary law? Because if you eat it, you're cut off, it's not kosher. You're supposed to not eat pork. Now some people don't eat pork, that's okay. You don't like it, that's fine. I don't care. I do. My mom didn't. My mom wouldn't eat it. My mom said it's dirty. So I said, that's cool, I'll eat yours. See, my scripture is 1 Corinthians 8, 8, as well as this, Jesus is right now telling us that things that are kosher are not the things that you're eating, it's your life. But you'll see this in a second. But 1 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 8 says, food doesn't bring us near to God. We are no worse if we do not eat and no better if we do. It wasn't a matter of food at all, it was a separation of the heart. You see, sins like this that are being outlined for us, these sins come from an unwashed heart, not an unwashed hand. And that's the point that the Lord is making. And God's desire is not to just wash my hands. His desire is to wash my heart. How do I know that? Titus 3, 5 and 6, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration, renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. God wants to wash our hearts. And we get caught up wanting to wash our hands. But God says, no, let me wash your heart because out of your heart proceeds all the sin. You need a new heart. That comes from being born again. Listen, in closing, there are a lot of people who adhere to certain religious traditions who think that because they've done certain things, that they're right with God. But you can get caught up with the external as an evidence of your righteousness when your heart is still far from him. One last illustration I've shared before. My mom used to be a smoker before she got saved. My mom smoked from the time she was a little girl. I used to take the money. She would write a little note and I would go to the store. Cigarettes were a quarter then. And I would buy her a pack of cigarettes and I had a note. With a note you could do that at that time, at least in our neighborhood, right? So mama smoked all of my young life. She smoked until I was in my early 20s. And my mom started smoking when she was a young teen. And she smoked a pack a day. And she used to say, oh, there's nothing better than a cup of coffee and a cigarette first thing in the morning. And that's what my mom was like. I never said anything about it, but that was mom, you know? Well, I was raised, now whatever your religious heritage is, mine was Catholic. So I was raised in the Catholic church. And it was Ash Wednesday. I used to like to go get the ashes. And then I'd have my mom take me to the store. So I could walk around with my forehead out. So people could see the cross on me. I wanted them to know that I was a religious eight-year-old. My mama one day, I saw that she had ashes on her forehead. And I knew she didn't go to church on Ash Wednesday. Mama, where did you get those ashes? She took her cigarette ashes and she put it on herself so she could walk out and people would say, oh, what a holy woman she is. That's what Jesus is talking about. That's what it is. Mama can't get mad at me. Now she's with Jesus. But that's a fact. That's a fact. That's what tradition will do to you. You get caught up, wanting to look in a certain way when your heart is far from God. But when your heart is close to God, the outward trying to show off how religious I am dies. And what you want is just to love and honor him. And that's why Jesus said, you undermine the commands of God by the traditions of man. And don't understand that it's not washed hands that matter. It's a washed heart. And that comes through regeneration.