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Skip Heitzig: When you focus on externals, you begin ignoring what concerns God the most. You are valuing what is worthless and you are devaluing what is priceless. You're focusing just on the external. So cleanliness had become external. That's the first category.

The second is that cleanliness was seen as eternal. You see, they got this whole thing confused. The external was becoming confused with the eternal. And so they come and they say, "Your disciples are eating food with unwashed, defiled, unclean hands." Now, that's a long way to walk to tell somebody they need to wash their hands. My mom was a clean freak, but this is like a little bit ridiculous. We're going to walk 100 miles to tell you that your disciples aren't doing it right.

But notice what their complaint is. Their complaint is not that his disciples have broken God's law, but they have gone against the tradition of the elders. See, this is important. Look at verse five. The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?"

They had come to believe that external cleanliness is what brought eternal cleanliness. I'm not making that up. One rabbi insisted, and I'm quoting, "Whosoever has his abode in the land of Israel and eats his common food with rinsed hands may rest assured that he shall obtain eternal life." You want to go to heaven? Just live in Israel and wash your hands.

One rabbi was imprisoned, this is during the Roman era. As a prisoner, he was given a small portion of water to drink. He wouldn't drink the water, but he used it to wash his hands ceremonially before he ate, claiming he would rather die than transgress the tradition of the elders. So it became a greater offense to go against the tradition passed down orally from the elders in the oral law than it was to even break God's written commandments.

Now, rabbis had all sorts of reasons for this, and one of the reasons they cited is they actually believed a demon could get inside of you if you ate food with unwashed hands. They even had a name for this demon, Shibta. And Shibta would like get in your bed at night and cling to your hands while you're sleeping. And then when you got up the next day, if you didn't ceremonially wash your hands and you ate food, that demon would crawl inside of you.

So look back at verse three for a moment. There's a little phrase I want you to make a note of. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands. What's the next phrase? In a special way. Literally, that phrasing is unless they wash their hands with the fist, holding the tradition of the elders. What that is referring to is an elaborate, ceremonially complex process.

And this is what it looked like. To wash your hands, you would place your hands in front of you, fingers pointed upward. Somebody would apply water, pour water on the tip of the fingers. The water would run down to the wrist and then fall off the wrist because the water now is defiled; it has touched unclean hands. Then you would turn your hands over. Somebody would pour water from the wrist, it would drip off the fingers.

After that, you would take your hands, put them together, fist and hand on the fist. Somebody would pour water and you would rub your fist in the hand, rub your fist in the other hand. You had to do all three of those things. Jewish people did that before every meal. Strict Orthodox Jews did that between every course of every meal.

So in effect, the Pharisees and the scribes were saying cleanliness is next to godliness. The ritual will make you right with God. Well, we know that's not true. The ritual of washing your hands may kill germs, it's not a bad thing to do, but it doesn't remove spiritual germs. You could actually be concealing something.

Now, notice something in the text. At the end of verse eight, it says Jesus speaking, "And many other such things you do." And then at the end of verse 13, a little further on down, "And many such things you do." What Jesus is acknowledging is you have a whole list of rules and regulations about every single little thing that needs to be washed. It's mentioned here, the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches. Did you know that the Mishnah devoted no less than 35 whole pages on how you should wash dishes?

It became laborious to keep the law. So cleanliness had become external. Cleanliness was seen as eternal. But the third one is the truth, and that is cleanliness is really internal. It's a matter of the heart. So they come to Jesus, they surround him, they ask him this question. And I love how he answers all questions, but this is a classic.

Verse six, he answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, washing of pitchers, cups, and many other such things you do." He said to them, "All too well you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition."

Now, that's a very biting response. That's a sarcastic, almost scathing response. He calls them hypocrites. Nobody likes to be called a hypocrite. But when he used the term hypocrite, hupokriton is the word, the plural of hupokritos. It simply was a Greek word that meant an actor. You guys are putting on a show. You're just acting a part. You're playing a role.

In Greek terminology, a hupokritos wore a mask in a Greek tragedy or a Greek comedy, a smiley face or a sad face, and would play a part on a stage. And so what Jesus is essentially saying to them is this is simply a show to cover up your moral filth. You don't really care about cleanliness. You only care about the external ritual and will condemn others if they don't practice it.

I can see their faces now. Their blood is boiling. Jesus is calling them out. Hypocrites, he calls them. Why a hypocrite? Number one, because their teaching is rooted in tradition, not in scripture. Number two, because their actions are only external but not internal. They do not come from the heart. It's just about checking the boxes and looking good.

If you go to the Italian Riviera, you discover that homes, very colorful tiled homes in those areas, think that balconies are very important commodities. So a lot of homes will have balconies on them. They like to go outside and enjoy the view. But not every person can afford to put a balcony on their home. So what many of them will do is just paint a balcony on a plain wall.

And it's very convincing if you go by it from a distance. You think those are beautiful balconies. Sometimes they'll put windows and balconies and even the family wash on a clothesline painted on the wall to make it look real. But it's just painted on. This was just a show. It's just painting on righteousness. And so a person can go to church, carry a Bible, sing songs, but in their heart, they are dead to God. The music doesn't move them, the sermon doesn't convict them, the experience never changes them. It is all external, and they have confused the external with the eternal when it's really internal.

Now, the trouble with rules is you can keep a set of rules and not be saved. And that's what a lot of people opt for their whole life. If you ask them, "Are you going to heaven?" "Well, I keep the rules. I go to church. I do this. I do that." They start checking off the boxes. They're externally clean, internally filthy. And what Jesus does here in stark contrast is show the superiority of God's word, God's law, the scripture over man-made laws, traditions.

Now, I was raised with lots of tradition in the denomination I was raised with. Some of you also grew up in a very traditional environment. There's nothing wrong with tradition. But you and I should always evaluate our tradition in light of God's word. Because if our tradition cannot be backed up by God's word, why are we doing it? Because we've always done it?

You know, when on the day of Pentecost they asked Peter, "Why are you guys doing this? What is this?" Peter said, I love what he said, "This is that which was spoken of by the prophets who said in the last days..." and he quotes the scripture. In other words, what we are practicing is right out of what the Bible said we would practice. So the practice is substantiated by the scripture.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Every day, the generosity of friends like you helps reach more people with God's word, changing lives through clear, practical Bible teaching. And this month, we want to thank you with a powerful and inspiring resource from Skip's wife, Lenya Heitzig. It's her book, Reload Love: Transforming Bullets to Beauty and Battlegrounds to Playgrounds.

This remarkable book tells the true story of how God took Lenya's heartbreak over suffering children in war-torn regions and turned it into a global movement of compassion, melting down bullets to build playgrounds and bringing hope where it's needed most. Request your copy of Reload Love when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skip Heitzig. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com/offer. Now, let's return to today's teaching.

Skip Heitzig: Now, sometimes human tradition, what you've always done, what your grandfather and mother and father told you to do, is done simply because of that with no regard for the word of God. And sometimes it can be even placed above the word of God. So look at verse nine. He said to them, "All too well you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition." Now he gives them an example.

For Moses said, here's the written law, "Honor your father and your mother," and "He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death." I wonder how much population would go down if that were practiced today. But you say, see now he's contrasting what God said in his word, "But you say," the oral law, "If a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban' (that is, a gift to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do."

What's he talking about? Well, they developed a tradition in the oral law called Corban, dedicated to God. So it kind of went like this. "Yeah, Mom and Dad, I'd love to help you guys out. I know I have a ton of money in the bank and I got a lot of furniture at home, and I know you're destitute and you could use a couch and stuff, and I got a bunch of those, but I can't give any of them to you because I've dedicated them all to God. I went through this special ritual and prayer and all my money and all my stuff, I've got to keep because it's really dedicated to God, so I can't give it to you." So Jesus said by this lame oral law practice, your tradition, you have circumvented the word of God itself.

So cleanliness had become external. It was seen as eternal. What Jesus is coming to is it's really about what is internal. Now, let me bring balance to this whole issue. There is a certain kind of virtue in being a neat, orderly, sanitary human being. I know cleanliness may not be next to godliness, but being a slob is not next to godliness either.

So why is it important generally speaking to be a clean person? Well, let me give you a few reasons. Number one, it shows you respect God's creation. You are God's creation. Your body was created by God and the Bible says, First Corinthians six, "Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God. You are not your own. You have been bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's." So it shows you respect God's creation.

Second, it shows that you respect your blessings. You and I, we are stewards of whatever we say we own, whatever we have, whatever money is in our account, whatever things we own or drive or have. We are stewards of what God has given. So he has entrusted us with resources, with our environment. There's something to be said for creation care, being responsible stewards of what we own and what is around us. So it shows we respect God's creation, we respect our blessings.

Number three, it shows that we respect other people. We are creating by cleanliness, now I'm sounding a lot like John Wesley here, but we are creating an environment of hospitality. We want people to feel welcome. We don't want anything to impede their hearing of the gospel. I mean, if you're a counselor, if you are a pastor on staff, if people come to talk to you, you could wear clean clothes. I like to carry breath mints in my pocket when I talk to people. You should too because if you get close enough to pray for people and you smell like Godzilla breath, they're not going to hear anything you have to say. They're going to want to say amen as quickly as they can to get out the door. So it just shows you respect other people.

But in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, cleanliness is not next to godliness. In fact, cleanliness can cover up for a lack of godliness. Jesus said to the religious leaders, this is Matthew 23, "You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are still filthy, full of greed and wickedness. Blind Pharisees! First wash the inside of the cup, then the outside will become clean also."

He is speaking about internal hygiene now, spiritual sanitation that nobody sees except one, and that is God. The Bible teaches us that man looks at the outward appearance—finish the verse—but God looks at the heart. God looks at the heart. So practice spiritual hygiene. Practice holiness when nobody can see but God.

I'm going to read a few verses to you. I just want you to listen to them and listen to the emphasis of these verses. This is a sampling of so many from the scripture. The first is Isaiah chapter one, verse 16. "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes. Cease to do evil." See where the emphasis lies there? It's spiritual, inward.

Psalm 51, verse 10. "Create in me a clean heart, oh God. Renew a right spirit within me." Second Corinthians seven, verse one. "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God." And then Jesus in Matthew five, verse eight said, "Blessed are the pure in spirit or the pure in heart for they will see God."

So practice spiritual hygiene. Get past religion into reality where it's all about who you really are from the core. The core, the heart. Right? Jesus said you are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, strength. Every base was covered in that verse.

So to boil all of this down to its irreducible minimum, this is a contrast between religion and the gospel. Religion ends in outer reformation; the gospel ends in inner transformation. Religion can become a farce; the gospel is always a force that brings change. Now, you've heard me preach on this before and maybe some of you are thinking by now, "Skip, you're awfully hard on religion." I mean, isn't just religion itself a good thing for people? Hasn't religion brought a lot of good things to this world? Sometimes. But a lot of times, just the opposite.

Did you know Jesus' biggest enemies were religious people in the New Testament? It was the religious people who sought to put him to death and succeeded. Jesus' harshest words in the gospels were for religious leaders. "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees," he said over and over again. It was religious, religion that brought the bloodlust of the crusades. It was religion that brought conflict to Ireland, the conflict between Catholic and Protestant. It was religion that brought airplanes into the World Trade Center on 9/11. It was religion that motivated ISIS to cut people's heads off and burn them in cages. Religion, religion, religion, religion.

Religion is man's quest for God. The gospel is God seeking lost people. All religion originates on earth; only the gospel originated in heaven. Religion is a story of what sinful men try to do for God; the gospel is the story of what holy God has done for sinful men. Religion might have good views; the gospel is good news.

There are many religions. There is one gospel. And the gospel says that our Lord Jesus came into this grimy, filthy, dirty world and met with and ate with the messiest of people—tax collectors, sinners, lepers, harlots, rich and poor—for one purpose: to cleanse them, to bring them cleanliness of heart, of spirit, cleaning the inside of the dish first.

The Bible says if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold, all things become new. You get a new birth. Jesus said you must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven. You get a new heart, and the Bible promises that God will make a covenant where he puts a new heart within us. And with that new heart comes new hope, hope in the present and hope for the future. All things become new.

Cleanliness is next to godliness? No. Holiness is next to godliness. And you come to Christ as you are. You say, "Oh, I got to clean myself up before I come to God." No, you come as you are because he knows you can't do that and you are not that. And you come as broken, as hurting, as dirty as you are, and he'll take you as you are and he will save you as you are, and then he will clean you up. But instantly if you come to him, he will make you in that moment perfectly righteous and clean before him based on not your ritual, not your religion, but on what Jesus did for you on a cross 2,000 years ago. That's the gospel. That's the great exchange that he offers and promises.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, remember that your generosity helps share God's word around the world, bringing truth and hope to people who need Jesus. And this month, we'll send you Lenya Heitzig's powerful book, Reload Love: Transforming Bullets to Beauty and Battlegrounds to Playgrounds as our thanks for your gift.

This inspiring story shows how God can turn bullets into beauty and how love can transform even the most broken places into beacons of hope. Give now at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. We'll see you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig.

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