Tradition vs. Truth
March 28, 2021
Mark 7:1-23
- The Mishnah is a compilation of Jewish oral laws in which a 2nd century documents declares, “Tradition is a fence around the law.”
- The Pharisees are not concerned with the cleanliness of the disciples but their moral purity as being sinful (defiled) for not following their non-biblical, religious tradition.
- Mankind kind adds rules to God’s commands in an attempt to be extra holy (Hand washing, Alcohol, Modesty, etc)
- God’s Rebuke
TRUTH | Human Heart is a Wellspring of Evil
- Mark 7:14-23
- “There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him” (7:15). William Barclay calls this, “The most revolutionary passage in the New Testament.”
- Man’s heart is a well-spring of evil (Jeremiah 17:9)
- It is not our action of sin only that makes us a sinner. It is a sinful heart that causes us to sin.
- Hope-filled promise – Though our own insufficiency may cause us to despair, God promises to give us a new heart that leads us to be healed.
APPLICATION
- How am I building or blaming manmade structures to justify myself?
- Building manmade rules that we can achieve to feel ok
- Breaking manmade rules with the false hope that they alone are the problem.
- How am I relying on God to transform my heart?
- Praying against unbelief. We need a new heart before we can believe (1 Peter 1:3, 1 John 5:1, Mark 9:24, 2 For. 4:4-6)
- Reminding our new hearts of past, present and future truth that allows out heart to rest in Jesus.