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[0:00] Good morning. Welcome. Tri-State Community Church. Our family. Praise the Lord.! I didn't share a verse. Here's my chance. Psalm 149 verse 4. As for the saints who are! The majestic... No, no, that's Psalm 16. That's a good one. I'm going to share that one later. That's okay, but I'll share this quick. Psalm 149 verse 4. For Yahweh takes pleasure in his people. He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation. I love that one. Let's go ahead and have a word of prayer. Thank you, Father, for a great Breaking Bread service this morning. Thank you for our family. Thank you that we're together. That we're freely, freely worshiping you. Let us continue to do that here at church, here at home, in our homes. Lord, help us worship you at home. Help us think of you, ponder you, worship you at our workplace, our neighbors. Lord, let your glory shine in this city of Dubuque. Lord, it's awesome. You've given us life everlasting, eternal life. We praise you for that, God.

[1:36] Thank you so much. Open our hearts to the word today. Continue to hear more of God's word yet this morning. I trust it'll be good for you, good for me. I've learned a lot this week.

[1:54] Lift up the ones that have been sick, still pleading with you for healing. Jim Potter, Becky, Becky Crouch, Trish Blaser, others that have ailing and hurting. Lord, please heal these people.

[2:08] Help us to continue to come alongside of them to comfort them with your love, Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. So, let's see, it's about 20 after. I'm still going to ask you for about 25 minutes.

[2:25] I hope that's okay. I think you can tough it out. God's good. So, we're continuing in the book of Mark.

[2:39] And still exciting stuff. Today's message is going to be a little bit tougher, but it's the whole counsel of God we want to give you. We're not going to shy away from that.

[2:50] But it's good. I think it's good. We're here to learn and to grow, and that's what we need to hear today. So, that's what we're going to hear. So, oh, look at that.

[3:03] So, Thursday, the three of us pastors, Pastor John, Pastor John, Pastor Tim, and our wives, we went to a Pastor Wives Retreat in Starved Rock, Illinois.

[3:20] Just a little nice place. We met our other associated churches, their pastors, their wives. I think there was about 24 of us there, and it was a great refreshing time. Got to know John and his wife better. That was great.

[3:33] It was a building time. We had some teaching. We had some fellowship with the other pastors, and it was encouragement. And I think it was good for us, hopefully good for you, ultimately.

[3:44] So, that was on Thursday and Friday. Yesterday morning, we met with a really great Christian man named Alex Strauch.

[3:56] He's kind of a pastor guru, you might say. And we met with him for breakfast yesterday morning, and we learned some more things that hopefully will help us and help you.

[4:07] So, that's what we're about at Tri-State is we're here to help you folks to grow and learn and be a warm, loving family to reach Dubuque. So, that's just a little what's going on there.

[4:21] So, here we are in the book of Mark, chapter 7. And if you kind of remember some of the stuff we've been learning, Jesus fed the 5,000, walking on water, healing.

[4:33] Many people were getting healed. He sent the disciples out. They healed people. They were growing and learning and getting ready to do his work and doing his work.

[4:45] And so, we're located in Gennesaret, which is near Capernaum, which is kind of the, I don't have a picture today, but kind of in Galilee, the north, maybe northwest side a little bit of Galilee.

[4:57] It's kind of where they're at, and that's where the story picks up. So, let's read through here today's scripture. And the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around him when they had come from Jerusalem and had seen that some of his disciples were eating their bread with defiled hands, that is, unwashed.

[5:18] For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders. And when they had come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash themselves.

[5:30] And there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots. And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with defiled hands?

[5:51] And he said to them, Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me.

[6:04] But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commands of men. Leaving the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.

[6:15] And he was also saying to them, You are good at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother, and he who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death.

[6:29] But you say, If a man says to his father or his mother, Whatever you might benefit from me is corban, that is, is a given to God. You no longer leave him to do anything for his father or his mother, thus invalidating the word of God by her tradition, which you have handed down, and you do many things such as that.

[6:49] And so let's go to the first verse. And the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around him when they had come from Jerusalem.

[7:01] So the Pharisees are coming all the way from Jerusalem, once again, coming after Jesus, finding ways to make accusations against Jesus.

[7:12] There's a cost to Jesus' fame and his growing popularity. And the Pharisees did not like it. And they're finding ways to come after him.

[7:24] We saw it in Mark. We saw it in chapter 2, verse 18. We saw it in chapter 3, verse 6, verse 22. You can reference those where they were coming after Jesus.

[7:35] And we know it's going to get worse, much worse, as we remember today his death and resurrection as he makes the ultimate sacrifice. They're going to keep coming after him over and over and over.

[7:49] I don't know if you've ever felt like that at a job where someone's coming after you. It happens. I talk to people that they have a boss that's tough. It seems like it just never ends.

[8:01] It's coming about 90 miles. It's a long trek. They were serious. They're coming after Jesus. And starting to verse 2.

[8:14] And had seen that some of his disciples were eating, so the Pharisees here, right, seeing the disciples were eating their bread with defiled hands that is unwashed.

[8:27] So they're finding a way to make some accusations. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders.

[8:38] And when they had come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash themselves. And there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.

[8:50] And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with defiled hands?

[9:04] So we see this issue of uncleanliness. Once again, the Pharisees are challenging Jesus. This is more of a rabbi ritual thing than it is what the Old Testament law really says.

[9:19] The traditions of men, they've gotten sidetracked. And so we see what the law says about, let's look at what the law says about washing and cleanliness here. In Exodus 30, verse 19, this is about the priests.

[9:34] And Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet from it. Now, I wasn't going to get into this whole passage, but if you read verse 17 to 21, it talks about a little bit why and how they're supposed to wash hands.

[9:48] It was a sign of purity when they went into the tent and they went to the altar. It was for the priests. It didn't apply to what the disciples were doing. But the Jewish people have turned it around of the day of the Pharisees.

[10:04] And another verse here. Likewise, whomever the one with the discharge touches without having rinsed his hands or water shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening.

[10:18] There was some specific laws about cleanliness. being clean and be in purity going into the temple and to the altar. But these were not the correct reasonings for the disciples for when the Pharisees went and saw Jesus with the disciples.

[10:35] And they're looking for a reason. The Pharisees were looking for a reason to come against Jesus. So again, they're looking to convict and get Jesus for what he's doing.

[10:51] They're jealous. They really don't understand the scriptures and the intent of the word of God. And they are legalistic about their ways. And we've seen this. We've been talking about this in Mark.

[11:02] They've become legalistic. It's easy to do. Oh, you should be doing this. I've done it. I've done it. The Pharisees are more interested in the law than the relationship with God by faith.

[11:17] They don't understand how important a transformed heart is. The thing to note is that Jesus and the disciples have been in many unclean situations that we've been reading about in Mark.

[11:33] The Pharisees would have had trouble with that too. You know, Jesus was with lepers. The Samaritans. Remember when he went to cast out the demon and all the legion of pigs?

[11:46] We've read that story. So Jesus was in a lot of unclean situations. That was good. We know he was doing good things, good work, things that we can learn from, right?

[12:00] But this cleansing thing, you know, they were just distorting the word and using it against them. Cleaning was a big thing.

[12:13] Archaeologists actually dug up places where they find these cleaning pools in homes of Jewish people at the time. So, so what happened to the Pharisees and the word of God?

[12:27] Why did that happen? Why, why, why did they not understand the truth of the word? I'm pondering that this week. Maybe you could ask the same question. Why, why did they not understand those scripture verses we saw about cleansing, cleansing, cleaning?

[12:42] I think what happens is over time, in my opinion, over time, little by little, we change what the word says. Little by little, and pretty soon it's a lot.

[12:55] It's why I go back and read my word, read the word of God every day. Make sure I refresh myself to see what it really says, the truth of the scriptures. It's a very important thing to learn, discuss with one another, what does the scriptures mean?

[13:11] And go back and re-read. I re-read my Bible how many times, year after year, to make sure I got the truth coming in my heart. In fact, you really want to know what being cleansed is?

[13:25] Read God's word. If you really want to get clean, it's the word of God who will clean you. It's not washing your hands. Continue the story.

[13:38] And he said to them, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me.

[13:53] But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commands of men. Leaving the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.

[14:05] And he was also saying to them, you are good at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. Some tough words.

[14:16] Told you it's a tough message today. He calls them hypocrites. Calls them hypocrites. What is a hypocrite? Someone who acts a role that is not really their role.

[14:30] It kind of comes from acting. Right? Anytime you watch TV, someone's taking on a role. It's really not them. We know that, right? Obviously, right? They take on a role. This is a quote from Isaiah, chapter 29, verse 13.

[14:48] Let's read it again. Right in the middle there. This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

[15:02] But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commands of men. As again, I said, this is a challenging topic, but I really want you to ponder this.

[15:13] It's the word of truth. It's a hypocrite. Hypocrite is a tough thing to think about, talk about. But the reality is, I've been there. Maybe you've been there.

[15:25] I'm not here to accuse anyone. We're sharing what the word says. Hypocrisy can be little ways, big ways. Hypocrisy is hypocrisy. Saying one thing and doing another thing.

[15:37] It can happen fast. Paul made it real clear in Acts 20, verse 27. He wasn't going to shrink back from sharing the whole truth of the gospel, truth of the scriptures.

[15:53] And he didn't. We read what Paul, all the things Paul talked about. He shared everything with the people. That's what we're doing here at Tri-State. So I've just asked you, as from one sinner to another sinner, I can say it like that, can't I?

[16:09] From one sinner to another sinner, let's just ponder this idea of hypocrisy. Has it crept into maybe a little bit here and there? What's it look like? Let it, let these, I've got a lot of scripture verses, let it wash us today.

[16:24] A good cleaning, you might say, from God's word as we get every day, should be every day. So God knows our hearts. And their teachings are rules by men we're reading here.

[16:37] Another verse. Matthew chapter 3, verse 8. This is John the Baptist addressing hypocrisy. He called these, in verse 7, he calls them, the Pharisees, a brood of vipers.

[16:53] And verse 8, therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not suppose that you can say to yourself, you have Abraham for our father. For I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

[17:08] He's not giving, this is, he's speaking to the Pharisees. He's not giving them a free pass. He's addressing hypocrisy. He's not afraid to do it. It's important. Hypocrisy needs to be addressed.

[17:22] Jesus calls hypocrites wolves in sheep's clothing. You've heard that before, right? Matthew chapter 7, verse 15. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

[17:39] One side, what the outside and the inside don't match. I like to think of it as the front stage life and the backstage life. Do they match? What I say here, am I really like that in the backstage?

[17:53] Back stage. 1 John 2, verse 9. The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.

[18:09] Hypocrisy, isn't it? In the light, yet hates his brother. Where's our heart? Where's our heart? God sees our hearts, doesn't he? God knows our hearts.

[18:20] There's no hiding hypocrisy from God. You might be able to do it from men and women will not hide hypocrisy from God. It can't be done. 12, verse 9.

[18:36] Let love be without hypocrisy by abhorring what is evil, clinging to what is good. Can't say it enough. Let the words, let these words wash us.

[18:46] Let us ponder this idea of hypocrisy. What are we really like in our backstage life? What's it really like? Does it match what we want to say and do? A hypocrite may look good on the outside, but is troubled on the inside.

[19:04] True righteousness comes from the inside and is transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit. That's really the only way we can change. We have to let God, the Holy Spirit, change us.

[19:15] Let us grab our hearts. Let us act on the inside what we say on the outside. I think there's maybe more, but there's, I'd like to share two types of hypocrisy.

[19:32] One is professing one belief but acting in a manner differently. That's one type of hypocrisy. Another time, kind, is you look down on someone when in fact you are flawed in the same belief, struggle that they have.

[19:48] we've seen that. The Sermon on the Mount I think is a good verse to look at. You may remember this scripture that Jesus spoke.

[20:02] And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye but not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye and behold the log is in your own eye?

[20:18] You hypocrite. First take out the log of your own eye and then you will see clearly the speck out of your brother's eye. Jesus is telling us not to be prideful about ourselves and telling others what to do.

[20:38] Now certainly there's times we're going to tell others what to do, right? We want to help one another. But let's just, before you do that I would always encourage you to retrospect a little bit in your own heart first just to see where your own heart's at.

[20:51] Ask God, Lord, where's my heart? I want to help this person. I want to grow. Grow together. Sometimes we worry about other sins.

[21:02] We forget about our own in the process. We get so worried about what someone else is doing we forget about our own problems. therefore you are without excuse O man everyone who passes judgment for in that which you judge another you condemn yourself for you who judge practice the same things.

[21:27] That's hypocrisy. So God makes it clear as to our hearts and what's going on inside. It's easy to be a judge.

[21:37] I've been there way too many times. Way too many times. I think one of the answers to this maybe the only answer really is find a way to get closer to God.

[21:53] I've heard it said and I'm saying it again the closer you get to God the light shines in your heart. God's light does and it reveals your own sin and you see that you think oh boy I'm worried about you and I really should be worried about myself.

[22:11] So when we get close to God getting close to God reading the word spending time together fellowshipping together I really think it's important we have discussions once in a while not all the time we don't want to have a drag time here but every once in a while we have a discussion with someone and talk about what's going on in our heart.

[22:33] What are we struggling with? Share it with God pour out your heart to Him because He cares for us it says in Psalms get closer to God it's the answer it's the answer to hypocrisy if I see wickedness in my heart the Lord will not hear it's a tough verse but it's true He doesn't hear when we're struggling inside we need to let that we need to deal with that remember why we had breaking of bread today we're forgiven maybe the first thing to do is remember we are forgiven when we struggle with something in our heart start there address the hardness of our heart we know Jesus had many run-ins with the Pharisees here since the Pharisees were so adherent to the law they became legalistic and uncompassionate we certainly don't want that the problem wasn't the law but the way the Pharisees implemented the law they didn't really understand it the Old Testament law it was great all those years them Jewish people lived under the law it was meant for relationship with God it was all good until they started to get off track with what it really means then Jesus spoke to the crowds and his disciples

[24:08] Matthew 23 here then Jesus spoke to the crowds and his disciples saying the scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses that's quite a statement therefore all that they tell you do and keep but do not do according to their deeds for they say things and do not do them that's hypocrisy isn't it it's interesting here verse 3 therefore all that they tell you do it he didn't say don't listen to them therefore all that they tell you do and keep so they must have been saying some good things for Jesus to say that but do not do according to their deeds to see they weren't acting out what they were saying I always feel this way when someone even when they're in a bad spirit and they tell me to do something I know it's right even if they're

[25:11] I know they're bad spirit bad motives but they're telling me the right thing I have to listen to that I've got to humble myself to listen to that God speaks in lots of ways uses lots of people lots of different circumstances that they're telling us correct things truthful things scripture things even though maybe they're in the wrong themselves I'm still going to listen it's humbling to do that it's hard very hard to listen to someone that's out of the spirit you might say the Pharisees wanted everyone to look up to them but not have the character to back up what they said so simply put it's wrong to teach for example drunkenness when you get drunk in the background or whatever sin that maybe you struggle with I'm going to share I'm going to pause for a second because I know this is tough stuff and just share a real good encouraging verse that I wanted to share earlier if that's okay

[26:16] Psalms 16 verse 3 I love this verse as for the saints who are in the earth they are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight let's remember that God's teaching us about hypocrisy but he delights in us why he's teaching us this and the last section for Moses said honor your father and your mother and he who speaks evil a father and mother is to be put to death but you say if a man says to his father or his mother whatever you might benefit from me is Corban that is to say given to God you no longer leave him to do anything for his father or his mother thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down and you do many things such as that Jesus is speaking

[27:17] Jesus is going to get proof here of the Pharisees corruption about the washing of hands and how they got it wrong it's interesting it's like a shift to a completely different topic we're talking about washing hands and also now we're talking about honor your father and mother what's Jesus trying to share here he's making a radical shift to another topic to show the Pharisees what's how wrong they are so Jesus is appealing to the original ruling from Moses about honoring your father and mother and he's going to show the Pharisees here how they've corrupted and distorted the truth of the scriptures and there's a term here that I learned here in the last couple weeks it's called Corban you see that word Corban in there that's an interesting word that I've never stopped to pay attention to this word before it says right it says what it means that is to say given to God Corban means dedicated to God or devoted to God as a gift for God's use that's what it means

[28:22] Jesus explains that the Pharisees used the idea of Corban to promote people to dedicate their money to God and hence to the temple and hence they would get the money it was a really strange thing but they found a way to get money from people so they would encourage people to dedicate money Corban to the temple when they die they would that the money would go to the temple well this money was needed to help their parents so so so if I had let's say I had five thousand dollars set aside and wherever I maybe I even inherited from my parents I don't know I had five thousand bucks set aside and my parents were in need Pharisees said hey dedicate to the temple well then no longer can I use that five thousand to help my parents when I die the money went to the temple that's what the

[29:36] Pharisees were encouraging people to do and then of course it goes to the temple then that's they get that money it was horrible it was horrible it's actually it helps me understand honor thy father and mother a little bit it helps give the definition of that if they're in need financial need I think we're to help them in their old age especially right when they can't get around we have lots of needy parents and we can help them we can help them and they were distorting that it's horrible horrible so I'm just pondering you know how about Tri-State Community Church is there any traditions that maybe we carry on that aren't quite scriptural I'm just pondering this in my own heart I'm asking you guys to do the same thing is there something in the words or the truths that we maybe we need to discuss with one another that we're swaying away a little bit from what the real truth says you know have we looked down on someone hey maybe they should be giving more money maybe you're not giving enough money they should be serving more maybe you're not serving more

[30:56]  I don't know I'm only proposing things to ponder and think about in my own life about what a hypocrisy is so as we close here this morning thanks for bearing with me here a few extra minutes to hear the truth let's just ponder this idea of hypocrisy it's a tough subject but it's from God it's his truth and he wants us to be clean he wants us to feel that forgiveness that he's given us and help people and move forward so let's pray thank you Lord for your goodness and kindness today it's been a great morning Lord worship and sharing and remembering you and hearing the hearing the scriptures spoken feels great let us continue that tomorrow the next day weeks to come and share this great love that you've given us with our neighbors and our friends amen