What Is In Your Heart? | Who Do You Say Jesus Is? | Grace Community Church Willow Street

You know, last night they needed 20 sponsors. We're down to eight. Come on, GCC. We can do this right. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, you see our hearts and it is the heart that matters to you, our inner self that you died to cleanse, to wash us whiter than snow. You are inclined toward those who seek you with their whole heart. You love those who have a heart after your own. Teach us today how to have a heart after yours more and more. And would you receive our broken, yet redeemed hearts today in humble worship and praise. We love you, Lord, and we are excited to hear what you are doing in our local schools through Bible to School for what you are doing through Jocelyn and through Bree Taylor and through Fran Gruber and Linda Hershey and many, many other volunteers that are making difference in the lives of these children. Difference that we're even seeing as these children have grown up and become a part of our youth group. We praise you, Father, for what you're doing. We want to see it continue. So I trust that you will lead and guide hearts today to respond to you and to love these children the way you want us to love them, to share the word with them the way youy want us to share it. Lord, have we been caused this last week to pause as we've considered what happened 25 years ago in our country and our hearts are still heavy for those that have suffered great loss and still live with the reality of that. Would you'd be their comfort, their presence, their peace. We are grateful for first responders who to this day serve selflessly at a moment's notice and who many times we fail to notice or appreciate. May they know your strength, your presence, your wisdom, and our deep appreciation as many were shaken in those days and sought you and the church and answers in those painful days that followed. I pray, Lord, that we would still be seeking you as deeply, listening to your voice, as earnestly obeying your leading, as faithfully revive us, Lord, and make us a people that seeks you first. Above all, Father, we lift the Comer family to you, ask that you would grant grace to Pastor Kevin as he faces the treatments and procedures and medications that he's dealing with. Would you grant the physicians wisdom and insight each step along the way? Ultimately, we look to you for healing and full restoration of our brother to ministry again. And we pray very specifically this week for Rachel as she travels home. Would you grant she and Chrissy their needed journeying mercies as they navigate the airports and the planes and the Very long travel time back from Southeast Asia. And now we commit Pastor Mike to you. As he opens the word, would you fill him and use him and empower him? And may our hearts and minds be open and teachable as we look into your word today. And may we we leave differently because we were in your presence and because we heard from you. In Jesus precious name we pray. Amen. Let's turn to Mark chapter seven, where Pastor Mike will be leading us through this morning. Beginning in verse one. Mark chapter seven. Beginning in verse one. The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled. That is unwashed. Notice the parentheses. Now, the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing holding to the tradition of the elders when they come from the marketplace. They do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups and 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 the El 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've let go of the commands of God and are holding onto the human traditions. And he continued, you have a fine way of setting aside commands, the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions. For Moses said, honor your father and mother, and anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death. But you say that if anyone declares that white might have been used to help their father or mother is Corbin that is devoted to God, then you no longer let them do anything for their father and 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 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 them that defiles them. After he had 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 enters a person from the outside? That enters a person from the 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. 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 evils come from inside and defile a person. May God add his blessing through the preaching of his word today. Thank you, Pastor Barry. So as we turn the pages in the Gospel of Mark, we've been in Mark now since just after Easter in our study and is taking us verse by verse, section by section, through the Gospel. As we turn the pages into Mark, chapter seven, have a question for you, and it's simply this. What's in your heart? What's in your heart today? Now, I'm not talking about the organ that pumps blood through your body. I'm talking about the inner you, that inward you from which radiates your character, your attitudes. That is the source of your actions and your words. And so the question is today is, what's in your heart? We can hide a lot of attitudes and behaviors in our hearts. We can hide them there out of the sight of everyone around us. But there is one who sees our hearts. He knows exactly what is in our hearts. And so when we think that we have very well hidden our inner self from everybody, we maybe have. But there is one who sees us. His name is. Is Jesus. We can pretend on the outside to be who we really are, not on the inside. And when we pretend on the outside to be who we really are, not on the inside, that actually has a technical theological name. It's called hypocrisy. And I wonder if you know what the name is of the people who practice hypocrisy. Those who practice it are called hypocrites. That's exactly right. Now, if you're like me and most of humankind, you probably have a keen eye for hypocrisy. You can see it at 100 yards coming at you. But if you're like me and most of humankind, you also have a blind spot. And that blind spot is for your own hypocrisy or my own hypocrisy. You can't imagine that how such an unflattering title as hypocrite could be used for yourself. Me, a hypocrite? Well, as we turn these pages to Mark, chapter seven, we're going to unpack hypocrisy. We're going to learn what it is, we're going to learn where it begins. We're going to learn how indeed God chooses to get rid of it in our lives. And so it's very fitting that Mark 7 opens verse one as follows. The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. I think that's another way of saying the most prominent hypocrites of the day came to visit Jesus and they are the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. And I can assure you they did not come because they were asking for help with their hypocrisy. In fact, according to the word of God, they came to trap Jesus. This is an official fact finding commission. In the words of Pastor Kent Hughes. And these are theological hitmen. They are sent to nail Jesus. And what do they choose as the way to nail him? What grounds are they going to use? Well, apparently it would be on the grounds of anything that they found that did not meet their uber critical, uber critical standards of holiness. And according to the word of God, they didn't have to look very far or very long to find something to with which they would nail Jesus. And of all the things that they would choose to nail Jesus and his disciples, they chose hand washing. Hand washing. They happened to observe and notice that Jesus disciples did not go through a ritual ceremonial hand washing before they ate. Now let me just cut this off at the beginning so I don't have to deal with it at the door. I'm not talking here about hygiene, not talking about good manners. I agree with you. If your children are with you, wash your hands before dinner. Absolutely you must do that. That's good manners. That's good hygiene. Totally different story as we look at this story in front of us. So let's go back to Mark 7. Let's just reread a portion of the beginning of this so we can get our hands and our minds around this idea of hand washing. Mark 71 4. The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around 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 the elders when they come from the marketplace. They do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles. So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with unclean hands. Simply put, the Pharisees were taking a man made and optional tradition and, and they were trying to give it the authority of God and then hold Jesus disciples accountable to what was a tradition and not the word of God. Why aren't your disciples as holy as we are? We give our hands a ceremonial washing before we eat. And what you have here is the first evidence of the hypocrisy in the lives of these Pharisees. They are using their tongues to cut off and slander and gossip while they are so proud that they have washed their hands. We have to be careful about that in our own lives. We have to be careful about that in our church life. When I was a youth pastor, long time ago, when I was youth pastor, my first youth pastorate, I arrived at the church about two years after they built a fellowship hall. And the very first thing that I was told by the trustees of the church is, listen, we don't allow anyone to use the kitchen or the fellowship hall on Sundays. It is the Sabbath. You cannot work. If you try to prepare snacks and you're going to be working, you cannot use the fellowship hall on Sunday. You cannot eat there. You cannot serve anything there. I said, okay, if that's your rule, fine. And it had this weight to it like this. If we did this, we would transgress the will and the ways of God. And then they said a little later on, hey, after the evening service on Sunday, a whole bunch of us go to Friendly's over in Hershey. Do you want to go along now, friends, put those two together. Just put them together. We can't use the fellowship hall because we're going to cause people to work on Sunday. But man, we're going to go over to friendlies at Hershey because they just, you know, Sundays magically appear and nobody has to work to make the Sunday over at Friendly's. That is ridiculous. And Jesus sees how ridiculous this behavior is on the part of the Pharisees. It's interesting to me that he sees right through their hypocrisy. He sees right through their critical and judgmental words and he sees into their callous hearts. He sees exactly what they're saying. This whole ceremonial hand washing friends, it had really nothing to do with clean hands or pure heart. It had everything to do with a ceremonial in front of everybody show. Watch me as I go through the mechanisms of washing my hands ceremonially so that, you know, I'm holy and I'm Clean and I'm pure. Watch me. And Jesus sees through it. And From Isaiah, chapter 29, he. He responds, look at the word of God. 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 you are holding on to human traditions. When you study Scripture, it's important to step back and to ask the question, how did the original recipients of this word hear the word of God? What were they hearing when Jesus cited Isaiah 29:13? Here's what I believe. They were just like your ancestors from 800 years ago. They were religiously shallow. They were morally corrupt. All talk, no substance. Put on a good show. And Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, you too. They were lawbreakers. And Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, you too, look. You have let go of the commands of God so you can hold on to the traditions of men. You have bypassed the word of God, and you have given to your traditions that you made up, your ceremonies that you devised. You have given to those things the weight of the authority of God's word. You are religious actors. You are pretending to be someone you are not. Such people are called hypocrites. And it's interesting that the Greek word for hypocrite is the word for actor. The outward behavior does not match the inward attitude. Hypocrites pay lip service to God, but their hearts are far from God. Hypocrites act like they love God, but they actually love themselves. And so Jesus looks at them and it's a strong word. And he says to them, you hypocrites. Now, man, that would be enough. Like, okay, Jesus, we got the message, and you laid it on pretty heavy, and we're clear about where you're going. But it wasn't enough for Jesus. He had more to say. You see, hypocrites tend to have a high view of themselves and a critical view of others. He understands that hypocrites sometimes have a hard heart and sometimes don't get it the first round. And so he goes on and he takes the opportunity to point out the sins of the hypocritical and hypercritical Pharisees. And he does so by focusing on one sinful issue that apparently Jesus had observed and that truly bothered him. It was the way the Pharisees twisted God's command and how they treated their parents. So Jesus reminds them from God's word. Look, if you would, at verses 10 through 12, Moses gave you this law from God. Honor your father and mother, and anyone who speaks disrespectfully of his father or mother must be put to death. But you, you say that it's all right for people to say to their parents, sorry, I can't help you, for I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you in this way. Jesus says, you let them disregard their needy parents. In other words, the Pharisees even had a tradition that got them off the hook from helping their parents when they had need. Talk about hypocrisy. They even gave a name to it. The name was called Corbin. And here's how it worked. If you're a Pharisee who's done well in life, you have, and I'm going to use some 21st century language here to help you paint this picture. You have a decent 401k. You have an investment account that is making money for you. Your checking account has a high balance, and you're very proud and very excited about the security that you have created for yourself as a thoroughgoing Pharisee. But your mother and dad didn't do so well in life. And so your dad has passed away, and your mother is a widow in a patriarchal society. She's in a vulnerable state, and she has financial need, and she's pretty young as a widow. And you're looking at your money and you're thinking, this is going to be used up pretty fast. Oh, that's right. We have a traditional among the elders. I can devote and declare that everything I have is Corbin. That's what I'll do. I'll call my retirement money, my investment account, my checking account. I'll call it Corbin, because once I call it Corbin, once I call it Corbin, once I call it Corbin, once I decide that it's Corbin, because after all, that's the authoritative word to use for my money, then that money can't be used to help my mother. She can't have any of it. She has no claim to it. In fact, once I call my money Corbin, you can read this in the Word of God. Once I call my money Corbin, then the only person who can spend my money is me, and it can only be used for me. And Jesus says, you hypocrites, you're here calling out my disciples because they didn't wash their hands ceremonially. But he must have known, because he knows everybody's heart. But you, you have loads of money and you have needy parents and you call your money Corban so you don't have to meet the needs of your parents, you hypocrites. Now, just when you think there's nothing more to say on this topic, Jesus calls the crowd to come in a little bit closer because he has something that he wants to say to the people. Not just the disciples, to the people, both then and now. Verses 14 and 15. Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside of man can make him unclean by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean. The Pharisees believed with all their heart that sin started out here and came in here. And so subscribing to the law of God in Leviticus that has been fulfilled in Jesus, they believed that if they touched mildew, they would be defiled and sinful. That if they ate pork, they would be defiled and sinful. That if they contracted an infectious disease or touched someone who had an infectious disease, they would be defiled and sinful. And Jesus. Jesus says to them, not so. Not so. Nothing outside a man can make him unclean. Say that with me. Nothing outside a man can make him unclean. Sin does not start outside of our hearts and work its way into us. Sin starts in our hearts and works its way outside of us. In other words, every one of us are sinners, and we are born with a sinful nature. Theologically, it's called original sin. And it means that from the very day that this world fell through, the sin of Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter three, to this day, every person has been born with a sinful nature. We don't learn our sinful nature from our parents or any of our relatives. How do you explain the way that children sometimes react with the temper tantrum when they're not even a year old yet? Where does that come from? Maybe you've never seen that. I've seen that. Where does that come from? It's the sinful nature that's within us. And it's interesting that our hearts are literally manufacturing plants of sin and idols because we have a sinful nature. Sin does not start out here in the environment or the culture with mildew or pork or infectious disease, it starts in our hearts. So to pretend that we are not sinful, that is hypocrisy. And to judge others for their sin while ignoring our own sin, that is hypocrisy. And so at this point, Jesus leaves the crowd and the word of God says he goes into the house. His disciples are Confused, I think that's so interesting. They have been confused a lot lately, haven't they? And you know what? I am one of his disciples, and I can be confused a lot, too. How about you? They are confused. They think that what they just heard was a parable. It's a spiritual story with a deeper meaning. Jesus looks him in the eye and he calls it exactly as the way he should. Are you so dull? Are you so dull? This was no parable. It was a straightforward word from God. And so he repeats the word in even more detail and with a new example. And. And the example that he uses actually refers to the dietary laws of God. To put it into context for you, help you understand just by using an illustration. Don't eat pork. Don't eat pork. If you eat pork, you're going to sin against God. My apologies to the pork producers among us. And men, this afternoon, when you come to the men's barbecue, you're going to eat pork. In fact, last night, Rob Barley said to me after the service, I have to ask you to forgive me. I'm going home to sin. Now, that's an unusual thing to say. And I wasn't clear on what he was saying when he said that last night he's preparing the pork. He was going home to prepare the pork overnight, so it would be ready and fresh for the men. So if you see him today, just tell him that his sins are forgiven. Men, when you are together at that barbecue, Jesus says, nonsense. Don't worry about what you eat or don't eat. Don't get hung up on the dietary laws of the Old Testament. Matthew, chapter 5. He has fulfilled the law in his coming and in himself. These laws no longer apply to you. God is not concerned about the content of your diet. He is concerned about the condition of your heart. He's concerned about the condition of your heart. That's where sin starts. And Jesus says, out of our hearts come evil thoughts. Sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from inside, and they make a person unclean. Point made. Point made. Point made. But how does that point impact my life? How does it impact your life? If this is the truth about our hearts, and it is the truth about our hearts, what should we do about what's in our hearts? What should our response be to this powerful convicting? It is a hard, yet absolutely necessary teaching of God and His Word. What should we do? Let me offer to you three thoughts. Number one, narrow your focus Narrow your focus to yourself. Stop focusing on others and their sin. Stop judging others. If you have a tendency to focus on others and their sin, stop it. And first go to your own heart and your own life and focus on yourself. You know, it's interesting, it may not even be sin that you are judging in others. It may simply be that others aren't like you. They do things differently than you. Not sinfully, not sinfully, just differently. They grew up in a different culture. They had parents who had a different way of raising them than your parents. Not sinful, not bad, just different. There is no need to judge people because they are different in the way in which they approach aspects of life. Not sinful, just different. It's exactly what was happening with the hand washing your disciples. They don't do what we do well. They didn't have to. It wasn't a command of God, it wasn't a law of God. It was just different. And sometimes we get so caught up looking around us and critically judging people because they're not like us somehow. Like we're the baseline and standard of holiness. And if you live like I do, you're good. And if you don't, what's wrong with you? And to that I want to ask a simple question. Who died and left you boss? And who died and left me boss? And I believe that what Jesus is getting at here is be ever so careful when you draw criticism and judgment of others because you could sound very much like a hypocrite. Focus on yourself, your own sin, your own life. Say, well, Mike, are you saying that sin doesn't matter? Not at all. In every one of our lives there are authorities that God has raised up who are responsible to hold us accountable for our own lives. Trust them. They will hold us accountable. Trust them. But I think you know what I mean when I say that it isn't a pleasant conversation when the first 15 minutes of the conversation is spent criticizing and judging someone. Narrow your focus now. Secondly, focus on your heart. It's important that we admit that we are sinners. You know, God says in Jeremiah 17:9 that our hearts are deceitful above all things. But God doesn't want our hearts to remain that way. God wants us to experience transformed hearts. And that happens in two different ways. It begins when we receive his free gift of salvation, the forgiveness of our sin and a new and eternal life in Christ. Here's the truth. Here's the good news. We can't do a thing about our sin. It's there, every one of us Are sinners. Our sins go by many different names. My sins are not your sins. Your sins are not my sins. But they are sins. And they are counted as rebellion against a holy God. And that holy God wants to have a personal relationship with every one of us. But the only thing that prevents that personal relationship is our sin. And so God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to be the punishment for our sin. And on that day that we call Good Friday, Jesus went to a cross and he was nailed to that cross. And he was punished not for any sin of his own, because he was perfect in every way. He died on that cross for you and for me, and for our sins. He bore in his body the sins of the entire world on that cross. And in that moment, he was separated from His Father in Heaven. My God, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And as he died on that cross for our sins, he paid the punishment for sin, which is death. And he died a real death. And he was laid in a real tomb. And on the third day, he rose again from the dead. A real life. Jesus Christ is alive. He was the victor over sin, over death, over evil. On the 40th day, he ascended to the right hand of. Of the throne of God in heaven. And from there, he offers to us the free gift of salvation, the forgiveness of our sin and a new and eternal life. And so when you confess Jesus as Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, the word of God says you will be saved. And what that means is that by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, he washes away our sin. He forgives our sin. He no longer counts it against us. He takes it and buries it in the deepest ocean. He separates us from our sin as far as the east is from the west. And then he begins. God begins to look at us in a different way. We are not sinners that deserve a punishment in hell. We are now saved men and women who are headed to heaven. And he sees us in the righteousness of Christ because the righteousness of Jesus is imputed upon us. And he looks at us through that righteousness and he sees us in that righteousness. And then he sends His Holy Spirit to take up residence in our life so that we have the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead living within us, so that we can say no to the temptations of the devil and we can live lives that are free of the tentacles of sin, increasingly, until the day we die. And are made perfectly whole in the presence of Jesus Christ in heaven. And that's the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen. That's the good news of Jesus Christ. And it's the first step to a heart change. When you're saved. There's one more thing you need to know. When you're saved, you're not made perfect that awaits you to get to heaven. And if there's any question you have about whether you're perfect or not, listen to yourself sometime, because this is what Jesus says. Out of the heart. The mouth speaks. And sometimes I listen to myself. And I think, where did that come from? It must have come from my heart, that it didn't tend the way I should have tended it. And I realized that that bitterness is still there. And, oh, God forgive me, only he can. We need to narrow our focus. We need to focus on our hearts, and then we need to refocus our behavior. If I knew that I would survive it, I'd stand on my head to say this once more to you. Please, please change directions from your sinful habits to godly disciplines and primarily take the Word of God in every day. You don't go without breakfast, lunch or dinner or some combination thereof. Why would you go without the Word of God in a day? The Word of God, Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 12, is alive and active, sharper than any double sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges. It judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart. How many times have I read the Word of God in an early morning? You're right, God. It's like you're reading me, and he is. And as you read the Word of God, remember Psalm 119, verse 11. I have hidden your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you. I want to ask you a question today. What's in your heart? Let's pray. Lord, you know our hearts. And you'd know, Father, the hearts of those who are here, who have been surrendered fully and completely to you and have received the gift of your salvation. My prayer is that those who have not yet made that decision would do so even this morning. Because we understand that all we're doing is poking around the edges of our heart. If we haven't first come to you for a complete heart change in salvation, with heads bowed and eyes closed in this place this morning, I want to ask you a question. Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Have you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of your life? Do you know that. You know that. You know that your sins are forgiven and you have a new and eternal life in Christ. Because that is the first step to heart change. It is to be saved. And if this morning as you are seated here, you realize that it's time to surrender your life to Jesus, then I invite you with sincerity in your heart to pray in this way. It's a prayer of salvation, a prayer of surrender, a prayer to invite Jesus to change your life from the inside out. Father, I believe that you sent Jesus to be the Savior and Lord to be my Savior. Lord Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross, rose again and lived. Today. Today I confess you as my Lord. And I believe in my heart that you are alive and I surrender my life to you. I am a sinner and I am broken over my sin today. Brokenhearted. Please forgive me. Take away my sin, Jesus. Please give me a new life. Change me from the inside. Thank you for hearing my prayer, Jesus. Thank you for saving me. In your name I pray. Lord, I thank you for the promise in your word that your spirit ministers to the spirits of those who pray in this way to surrender their lives to you. That they will know that they are children of God. And then I would simply ask you, Lord, for all of us who are children of on today, search our hearts. Find the wicked way that is there. Bring it to our attention. Give us the grace to confess and repent and to experience your cleansing. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.