Fault Finders – Religious Nitpickers (Part B)

This is the gnat that they strain out and the camel that they swallow. I don't want to be this kind of a believer to anybody. Anybody here want to be a hypocrite?

Put on a little mask when you leave church and fake it all? All of it. I don't, I hope not. They picked a fight with him over this.

As legalism does, it will pick its fights to make itself look better and stronger and just dominate its environment. And in so doing, they snuff out all the light, all the love, all the kindness. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Mark.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Today's study is called Fault Finders, Religious Nitpickers, and Pastor Rick is teaching in Mark Chapter 7. The Pharisees made them binding on the people. They were penalties for violating what they said.

You couldn't get away with this stuff. It was troublesome to the people. And again, they would use the scripture when it was convenient, but overall, they had renovated what God had said. Verse 4, when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash, and there are many other such things which they have received and hold. I meant verse 4, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches. He just said, Mark's saying, you Gentiles understand these folks, what they're doing here.

You can hear, you can hear a bit of Mark's irritation decades later, writing this down. He says, here in verse 4, and there are many other things which they have received and hold. There's a whole bunch of stuff with these boys. It's not just washing the hands after they finish with that one, they just mind another one on you.

The only way to get them to leave you alone is to think like them, but who wants to think like this? This will lead to Christ's death. That's how serious they were about this. They took it personal. This would have become an extension of who they were.

If you dare disagree with them, you're gonna die. Smug about their external cleanliness, but completely oblivious, willfully so, disinterested in inner cleanliness. They wanted what they wanted, and it was this whole ritual, lighting candles and incense or statue, whatever, you just name it.

I have a piece of the cross of Christ up in a relic form or some junk. Then there are the legalists, which were mixed in with them. This, they habitually, legalists, substitute outward forms for the inward, just as long as everybody can perceive that they are the, you know, the ones to listen to.

Then they go home and terrorize their own families many times. Well, verse 5, then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands? Really?

Do you have to even ask me? Why should I even care what the elders say? They weren't about to give Jesus a pass. Again, raising the dead was small to them.

This is the gnat that they strain out and the camel that they swallow. I don't want to be this kind of a believer to anybody. Anybody here want to be a hypocrite?

Put on a little mask when you leave church and fake it all? All of it. I hope not. They picked a fight with him over this.

As legalism does, it will pick its fights to make itself look better and stronger and just dominate its environment. And in so doing, it snuffed out all the light, all the love, all the kindness. You know, Paul says, you can't even boast about being a martyr if you don't have love because it's not dying for the Lord.

It's something else. If I have not love, it's junk. How do I get to that love? Well, this ain't the way, following the tradition of the elders. We never read about love coming from these Pharisees. Not until we see Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus converted at the death of Christ that this is the Christ. We can't figure this out, but they show love to his remains.

I believe strongly you'll see both of those men in heaven. But for this petty defiance and offense, they will eventually crucify him. John, who tells us in the seventh chapter of his gospel, links this time period, he says they sought to kill him after these things.

John doesn't give us these details, this story, but it's the same time going on. And so to add or to take away from God is to criticize him. To come to his word and add things to it or pull it out is to edit him. It's to criticize. I don't like that. I think it's a mistake.

This is not going to work. God alone sets the dispensations for us. He gets to do that, and he does it through his words, and he does that through his apostles and his prophets and Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2.20, having been built in the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being chief cornerstone. It's such an easy verse to read.

But listen to the power of it. Jesus Christ himself. See, if he is who he says he is, then the believers believe that, which makes us believers. If he is who he says he is, and it says Jesus Christ himself, that means his hands are all over this. And I better line up with him before I line up with anybody else. And I can do that without being abrasive.

Although the guilty will always accuse the guiltless of, the guilty who have no intention of being righteous will always accuse the innocent of some form of guilt. Well, he shocked them. He shocked these boys with his disregard for their modifications. He just wasn't impressed. How dare you not be. You will notice me. You will give me recognition.

You're not getting the kind of recognition you're looking for. He shocked them with his disregard for the modifications. They shocked him, in this sense, with their disregard for God's word.

It's like, are you kidding? What other words do you use to express your frustration with human beings who behave this way? It would be really not much if they didn't hurt people, but they hurt lives long term.

And he's going to close with that. As we read, he gets into, you know, the lewdness and the evil eye and the blasphemy. These things are sinful and they hurt in a big way. They do damage. And so he's saying, when he gets to that section, you think this is just a religious game?

My views versus their views? No, this stuff hurts, harms, and sends to hell. It's very serious. That's what he's going to be saying. We know it to be so serious that he died for us to take away the penalty from those who want him, but because of it, cursed flesh can't quite pull it off. So he has died for the ungodly, but not for the impenitent ungodly. Well, he died for them, but they don't benefit from it because they don't come and receive the grace of Christ.

Verse 6, He answered and said to them, Well did Isaiah prophesy to you? Hypocrites, as it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Imagine you're one of the disciples. You see these guys come from Jerusalem in their three-piece robes and you're impressed by them. They're the intelligent ones. They're the ones that are overlords of the faith and the land.

And they ask this question, Why don't these guys wash their hands like the elders do? And Jesus, he goes right to the scripture. He doesn't play around. He doesn't mince words. He says, Isaiah the prophet, I'm telling you something from the Bible because you may be too dumb to know it's coming from the Bible. Now, he might not say it like that, but he kind of needs me to kind of lay it out for you. But he does. He's in their face.

I'm not walking that back. He says, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites right between the eyes? And if you're one of the apostles, you'll say, Oh man, what are you doing?

They're going to get us now. He didn't care. Well, he cared in the sense that he would love to have converted them, but these fellas were irretrievable because that's what they wanted to be.

Take someone who's exposed to the word. They go, Yes, I love it. Oh, yes, I'm a believer. But really, again, they've got that mask on and they're faking it. Even God can't reach them because they don't want to be reached. And they resent being told that. So they go find some other religion or some other way to do it, and they hate on those who say, But we've got the facts. We've got the prophecies. We've got the logic.

We've got that which is irrefutable, but no. And that's why your damnation will be just because you got up in God's face and lost. Well, here's another section of Isaiah that they should have known.

Isaiah chapter 8 verse 20. Isaiah the prophet says about people like this, To the law and the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. They're dark.

They're in darkness. They were the product of de-prioritizing scripture. This is the outcome, and the Holy Spirit says to us, You want to de-prioritize your Bible?

You're going to be messed up, too. There's a consequence to this. They pointed to the elders. He pointed to the Word of God. If you stop reading your Bible because it does not give you the desired results, then watch the results you will get from turning from your Bible. I want to say, you know, in my head I'm saying, I've been through this. I've been there. To go verse by verse through the scripture, to hunger and thirst for the Bible, and to then to struggle nonetheless and come up with results less than appealing, I have now a choice. I can say I'm done.

It didn't work. Or I can pull out my sword and swing against those demonic thoughts that try to move me from God's Word. That's what a martyr is, one who suffers and or dies for what they believe in. Well, going by that definition, I can suffer as a martyr just by struggling through life and adhering to Christ. In His words, abide with me.

Go with me anywhere. It is too easy to be a fault finder of God and His Word and of others. I don't know about you, but I love being criticized. Sarcasm, instead of an applause meter, sarcasm. And there are those that just love doing it anyway.

It makes them feel good about themselves. So He says, oh you hypocrites. Again, He doesn't spare their feelings because these, they're hurting people. Later on, and Paul will say that these Pharisees, these elders of the traditions, they made laws that nobody could lift.

Nobody could keep them. And as I've been saying, they got away with it. These religious play actors, outward only was their religion, but inside, behind the mass, something very ugly. Here's another thing Jesus said about them. This is when the disciples tried to shut them up.

Don't offend them. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. Hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and uncleanness. You're just a gravesite.

There is nothing inside about you that is desirable. There's death in there. The evidences of the curse are in there. And there's nothing working against it in you because you won't listen to God. You only take what God has said and you spin it. And this ugliness, again, finds fault in everyone else.

You may have been unfortunate enough in your life to have been victimized by such critics who hold power over you in some way. And you've got to put up with this nonsense. Well, endure. God sees it all.

You say, Pastor, do I have to wait until I die before I see the reward of the wicked? Many times. Yep. What are you going to do about that? Well, then what can I do, what can I do to strike back at the enemy? Walk the walk.

That's what. Abide in Christ. You want to punish the devil? I'm too afraid to punish the devil.

Why? You've not been given a spirit of fear. You punish the devil by pursuing righteousness. Why does it punish him?

Because it influences others towards righteousness. And those who don't want it, they'll drop off to the side. But where after those who do want it?

Who are they? We don't know. Wait till God reveals them. So it's not their place to alter God's word. Verse 7, and Jesus says, and in vain they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

How powerful is that? All your church going is for nothing. That's what he's saying. You've got your robes, your hat, your incense, your prayers, all the stuff you do. And it's useless. Paul will say this stuff is useless against the indulgences of the flesh.

In the Colossian letter he slams this kind of thinking. Don't eat this. Do eat that. I don't know. Years ago there was someone boasting to me about their Christian eating, whatever that is. I don't know if they ate Christians. I don't know. What does that mean, Christian eating? And I said, well, you know, you've got all these rules and all, but I see people who follow none of this.

They're just as healthy as people who eat. Don't eat this. You're missing out. I had so much satisfaction shooting that legalism down.

To this day I'm enjoying it. Is that pride? I don't know. It's a gray zone. Because, you know, it's not I eat this and you don't. I'm better than you. No, you're not. Okay, sorry.

No, you're not. The flesh. We've got to watch that our flesh doesn't begin fighting their flesh. And that's why I tried to mock it in some form from the pulpit and then I hear myself later on the week when it's my chance to get into the flesh. I usually can start fighting back.

This morning I didn't have such a good time with some things, but that's another story. Anyway, after the Jews returned from their captivity, the Hebrew, the pure Hebrew language lost its, you know, it started fading amongst the people. So they picked up other languages and parts of the Aramaic.

Many of them spoke Greek. And in so doing, the Hebrew scriptures were not really the primary scripture that the common folks used, especially up in Galilee and in other parts of the world. They used what is, what we know today as the Septuagint, which is a translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into the Greek language. Well, that's the translation Mark is using that he's saying Jesus used. Now, Jesus may have been speaking in the Aramaic and Mark is translating his words using the Septuagint. And that's why if you look in your Bibles at Isaiah 29, where Christ is quoting, you may not see it word for word. But if you go to a translation of the Septuagint, then you will see it word for word. No injustice, no corruption whatsoever it's just the use of different words to say the same thing. It's a practice in writing.

You just don't want to keep using the same word over and over. Anyway, in their lives, they claimed Yahweh. In their speech they, well in their speech they did, but not in their lives. They went opposite and he says, teaching us doctrines, the commandments of men. Well, by the time of course Christ comes to the earth, the rabbis had decided that to carry a loaf of bread from one house to another house on the Sabbath was work.

See, this is the minutia and this is just a little bit, just a little bit. That if you put a lamp out on the Sabbath day, you were working. If you picked up a child and the child was holding a toy, anything, a rock, now you were violating the Sabbath. You could pick the child up on the Sabbath day, but the child could not carry anything. If you had studs on the bottom of your sandals for traction, you were violating the Sabbath.

See, it just went out of the world. To this day in Israel, on the Sabbath day, the elevators in the hotels, they're on automatic. You've got to go to every floor because if you push that button on the Sabbath, you violated it. This is what Christ was up against. You really think this is what God had in mind for the people?

And they did it everywhere. Oh look, another rule giving the Jewish people the Mishnah and the Talmud, which are just really useless writings. They already had Moses and the prophets. Why did they need those guys? Because someone had to tell them, if you pick up a child with a rock in his hand, it was a violation of the Sabbath. See, God didn't go far enough for these guys. They were smarter.

They were intelligent. Colossians 2-22, according to the commandments and doctrines of men, question mark, Paul asks. He's challenging it.

He's going after it. Titus 1-14, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth. Well, Paul was Jewish, not anti-Semitic. It's anti-anti-bible.

That's what it is. Verse 8 now, I forgot, we've got a lot of verses to go. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, the washing of pitchers of cups and many other such things you do. He's going to repeat that, many other such things you do.

Mark already hinted at it. Christ will say it twice. It's a tone of irritation.

Why are you doing this? So, the more they put into their tradition, the less they apply themselves to God. That is what happened then and that is what happens to this day. Their departure from God's word and God's truth ruined them. And I've already quoted, you know, Christ saying, you're mistaken not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. Why don't they know the power of God? Because they don't know God.

And how come, why not? They don't have his word. They just think they can inherit. You know, if your parents are Christians, it doesn't mean you're one. If your child is a Christian, it doesn't mean you're one. You're going to be a Christian, it's going to be one-on-one.

You cannot inherit the faith, not through flesh and blood or anything short of the confession of faith. So, he says, you hold the tradition of men. It's meaningless, it's burdensome, it's painful, it's imprisoning. Acts, I mentioned this earlier, Paul setting it straight. He says, now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

Sorry, that's not Paul, Peter and James. Just not letting these traditions put a yoke on people. So, you look at a bunch of people walking around in stocks, in yokes, of the law, washing the cups. Nothing wrong with washing cups.

In fact, I prefer to drink out of a cup that's been washed. I routinely practice that. But they may turn it into a shackle, which is the essence of sin to corrupt a decent thing. And many other such things you do, he'll mention that in verse 13.

He's upset with this bloated rule book that they're jamming down the throats of others. Christianity is not a matter of foot washings and head coverings and infant baptisms and such things. This is about trust and belief in Jesus Christ through his word. This is about the grace of God.

This is about looking for solutions to problems because of sin, not looking to imprison people because of sin. Anyway, verse 9, he said to them, all too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. He's slamming them. This isn't, there's nothing they can say back to him.

But there you can see the smoke coming off of them as he's singeing them shot after shot. He's not letting up. It's like he was waiting for this moment.

It's not all of it, but he was ready for this moment. Three times in this section, he hammers your tradition, your tradition. He keeps it in front of them.

So we catch it. He says, all too well, your master's at this. You reject the commandment of God.

These are emphatic rebukes and they're not to be missed by us. The Greeks would come along, well, they're already here. The Greeks deified the emotions, the God of love, you know, the God of fear, the God of levity. And they had a God for everything.

In fact, they even had one for the unknown things, the things that maybe we forgot one, we don't want that guy to get us, so we put a statue out for him too. Didn't they stop to think that if someone did that to them, I can't remember your name, but whoever you are, have a seat. That's kind of like not a wise thing to do with a God. So when the Thessalonians turned to Christ, because they were sick of that junk, Paul writes to them and he says about the reputation of these believers, he said, for they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. The Pharisees did the opposite. They turned from the living God to serve their idols.

What were their idols? Their traditions. They created traditions like a man creates an idol. They did it intellectually, not physically. Idolatry does not have to have a figurine.

It can just have an idea. When people worship created things, they've lost communion with the Creator. You can't worship other things that are man-made. And these, of course Christ defying their tradition, he blasphemed their idols. They would never have worded it that way.

Didn't have to. What they created became the standard of holiness and that's why they are attacking him. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the Book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the Book of Mark, right here on Cross Reference Radio.