Somebody Loves You

Raul Ries: God wants a heart worship, not tradition. It's not what's outside, it's what's inside that counts. My life before God. Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful, desperately wicked, who can know it? I the Lord know your heart." And that's why He rebuked the Pharisees and the scribes, because they were hypocrites.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. Thanks for joining us as we continue our truth series, contrasting religious tradition and genuine relationship with God. Raul will urge you to avoid the Pharisees' mistake of settling for an outward appearance of spirituality.

Church activities have no lasting value unless they come from a true love for the Lord. Stay with us for assurance to see that God sees those whose hearts are fully His. We'll begin today in Matthew chapter 15. Here's Raul Ries with more of our study, Truth versus Tradition.

Raul Ries: Jesus ran into some problems in chapter 14. We see that Jesus in the previous chapter, we see Him in conflict with His enemies. It seemed like the religious leaders of His time, the Pharisees and the scribes, were constantly coming against the teachings of Christ. And yet He was the word.

And it seems that people love tradition more than true doctrine. That's a real problem because if you just learn tradition, then you'll never really understand the truth and the heart of God's word. You won't even know what He really says. Because the Pharisees and the scribes and Sadducees were always looking, not only to be liberal in what they said, but they were always quoting, especially the Pharisees were always quoting Rabbi Hillel, Shammai, and all these rabbis that have been taught the word of God. And yet they taught the word of God to them.

But they took the Ten Commandments of Moses, ten words, and they made 613 laws. Think about that for a moment. The Pharisees, there were 6,000 of them in number. And they had come to the place where they had taken the law of God and they went through all of the traditions of the teachings that were given by the rabbis.

And if it was time to pray, they would stop wherever it was and they would pray, and they would pray out loud so that everybody could hear them, that they were religious. And when it came time to give to the Lord, they would always let the right hand know what their left hand was giving in public. And so when Jesus began to see what they were doing, Jesus became upset.

And as in the previous chapter, chapter 14, Jesus saw that the multitudes of people that were following Him, they were only following Him because they wanted to eat and they wanted to get something from Christ. But they were not really there to listen to the teachings of the word of God.

And so now Jesus, in chapter 15, beginning in verse one, the first thing that happens is the accusation that comes against Christ. He says in verse one, and then the scribes and the Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus. Now, the scribes first of all, were the lawyers of that time. At the same time, the scribes were those that wrote in the manuscripts the word of God. They were the ones to write it.

The Pharisees were the teachers and the ones that would read the word of God, and then they would give explanation to the word of God. But instead of really giving an explanation, they were giving a translation of the law of God from the Ten Commandments to the 612 commandments they made for themselves. And you see that's why the word of God was not taking effect in people's lives.

And so what happened, instead of having a personal love relationship by coming through Jesus Christ and being born again of the Holy Spirit and experiencing regeneration, they became religious people, which means they only went to church. There was no change of attitude, no change of heart, no change of life. Everything they were worrying about was outwardly, not inwardly.

And that's why in Matthew chapter 23, when Jesus rebukes the Pharisees, He rebukes them so heavily that He uses eight woes against them because they cheated the people from the word of God to give them their traditions of men. Sad to say, but it happened.

So here Jesus is confronting. In verse two here, he says, "Why do your disciples," this is the Pharisees speaking and the scribes, "Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread." Now, imagine, they're talking about tradition of the elders. They had a certain way that they would wash their hands.

This is what Jesus was watching and seeing, that these people were not into the real teaching of God's word. But they were more concerned just like the Jews today. If you go to Israel and you see the Master Rabbis, which are the Jewish Orthodox, they're the Pharisees of today, the 21st century. I've been on airplanes with them, El Al Airlines, which is an Israeli airline that I fly constantly.

And you watch them get in, in LA or if I'm in New York, they'll get into the airline, they get on the plane. All of a sudden when it comes time to take off, we take off on the air. And a couple of hours later, what happens is it's time to pray, and they take off their hats, they put their little yarmulke on top of the head. And they take their prayer shawl, they wrap it around. They take their phylacteries on top of the foreheads.

And they'll go to the back of the plane, the middle of the plane, and they'll try to face to the east and they'll start praying with their prayer book and they'll start moving this way and they start praying their little prayers in front of everybody and they don't care who watches. But this is religion. Tradition.

So here they're talking about the washing of the hands. Guess what Jesus said to them? Well, look at observation number two, verses three to nine now. He says then Jesus answered and said to them, who's that? The Pharisees and the scribes. "Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?"

Did you know that the word transgress is not the missing of the mark in the Greek language? It's the actual fact that you know what is right but you rebel against it. You don't care. "I'm going to do what I feel I'm going to do." And Jesus is saying why, after knowing the truth of the word of God, why are you rebelling and not following the commandments of God, but you follow the traditions of men? Why do you do that when you know it's not right?

I'm always amazed at how many people are constantly following the traditions of a church or organization, and they will not make a stand for truth. And they bring not only themselves, but others like their children and their families into bondage instead of enjoying Christianity and enjoying the word of God and enjoying a love relationship with God instead of a tradition or religion.

But that's what happens in so many churches, in so many places of worship on a Sunday morning when people do not speak the truth of God. And yet Jesus here is hitting them head on because He's talking to them because they were asking the question about the tradition of the elders about the washing of their hands when they eat bread.

And then the Lord, in responding to their question, said, He said, "Why then do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?" You see? Why don't you keep the law of God? Or why don't you keep the Bible? It's really important here because the Pharisees and the elders were trying to wash away the truth of God. Jesus caught onto them immediately. Check this out.

He says in verse three again, He said, "Answered and he said to them, and why is it that you also transgress the commandments of God because of your tradition? For God commanded," where? In Exodus chapter 20, verse one, notice he's using God's word. He says this: "Honor your father and your mother, and he who curses his father or mother, let him be put to death." All of a sudden you start to say, "Does that say that in the Bible?" Yes.

In the Old Testament, if you were living in your home and your parents told you to do something and you said no, and you rebelled and you called them stupid or whatever you did in becoming rebellious against them, all they would have to do is go down the street and take you down to the city gates where the elders were and make an accusation against your rebellion.

They would sign a piece of paper, and then they would take you outside of the city gates. They would put you against the wall and they would pick up these big rocks and they would kill you. There were no juvenile delinquents in that time. No jails. You see, that was the Old Testament. That's why Christ came to the New Testament.

Because that was committing the physical act. Now Jesus in the New Testament says you don't really have to commit the physical act. If you think it in your mind, you've already done it. So it's really here what He's dealing with is they're dealing with the outside. "As long as I look on the outside, I'm doing fine, then I'm religious and I'm spiritual." And Jesus says no, it's not the outside, it's the inside. It's the heart. He's going to get to that in a moment.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Don't forget we're here to enrich your faith with a deeper understanding of God's word. Visit somebodylovesyou.com for a wealth of Bible-based resources. You can also download our app for livestreamed biblical teaching. Now let's continue with more of our study, Truth versus Tradition.

Raul Ries: He says in verse five, "But you say, whoever says to his father or mother, whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God, when he need not honor his father or mother, thus you make the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition." He says, "Hypocrites!" What did Jesus think about them? They were hypocrites.

They were men and women of many faces, like the Romans when they got on stage and put up a mask to pretend they were acting. Hypocrites. Anybody that doesn't really do what God's word says that they act, they're hypocrites. The Bible says that.

And then He takes them back and guess what He does? He uses the Old Testament, the word of God to the book of Isaiah to tell them this already is in your Bibles, but you're not reading your Bibles. In Isaiah chapter 29:13, He said this, notice: "These people draw near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me." Wow. Imagine that.

Think of how many people are like that today. They draw close to Me with their lips, but their heart is really far away from Me, fully and completely. The word of God has never really touched them. They never truly have been born again of the Holy Spirit of God.

And that's why Jesus was so upset with them, so upset with them. Because they were so in love with tradition and the rabbis and they were doing everything outwardly but inside, man, they were like ravaging wolves. Verse eight again: "These people draw near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. And in vain," notice, in vain—the literal word is empty—"and in their empty worship, they worship Me, teaching as doctrines and the commandments of men."

Notice that. They're teaching Rabbi So-and-So, but it's not "Thus saith the Lord." It's not the word of God. So they were missing the mark. Missing the mark fully and completely. Think of how many people are like that today. They miss the mark fully and completely.

Why? Because God wants a heart worship, not tradition. It's not what's outside, it's what's inside that counts. My life before God. Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful, desperately wicked, who can know it? I the Lord know your heart." And that's why He rebuked the Pharisees and the scribes because they were hypocrites, pretending to be something they were not. And there's a lot of people like that today in all over the world.

Check this out. Observation number three, verses ten to 11 now. And when He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, "Hear and look, you guys, understand." He's calling now as He goes down to one of the disciples' houses. And He says, "I want you to listen to what I have to say to you and understand what I'm going to tell you."

Verse 11: "It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles." Notice the word defile, you'll find it five times in the next five, six verses. The word defile here means to make common, to profane, unclean, defiles or literally, it means it pollutes. It's a word of pollution. That's what He's talking about here.

He says this again: "Not what goes into the mouth defiles a person, but it's what comes out of the mouth that defiles that man." Why? Because what comes out, it comes out of where? The center of the heart. It's a heart issue. It's not an eating problem because what you eat comes out. You've got to get rid of it.

But what comes out of the heart hurts people. It damages people's personalities when we say mean things, when we call people different kinds of names. See, Jesus knew what He was talking about. They didn't. They didn't even care.

Check this out. Verse 12 now, the fourth observation, Christ's explanation now. And then from the people He turns to His disciples. Now He says now then His disciples came and said to Him, "Jesus, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? Did you know that you hurt their feelings?" And Jesus said, "Who cares?" Literally. Who cares?

You see that word offended He says there? This is an interesting word in Greek. Check this out. He says, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended?" The word is skandalizo in Greek, it means to do a scandalizing. They were totally scandalized. And what did Jesus say? Verse 13, but He answered and said, "Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted." Whoa. Who's He talking about? The Pharisees and the scribes, the hypocrites.

What is He saying about them? He's saying that they're going to be judged by God heavily. To much is given, much more is required. Check this out, verse 14. He says, "Let them alone," period. See that in your Bible? Literally, this is what He's saying. This is amazing. He says it's a rebuke. He says, "Stay away from such people. Don't hang out with them. They're not in the kingdom."

They're people that are on their way to hell. They are people that do not like the light, they love the darkness. They don't want to change. And Jesus says they're total hypocrites. He says, "Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind." So here they have their little disciples and their converts and here's the teacher leading. And He says all of a sudden they're walking along together and what happens because the leader is blind and the actual students are blind, He says, "They all fall into a ditch together."

Watch: "And if the blind lead the blind, they both fall into the ditch." You see, you've got to check out your teacher. Check what God's teaching you through the word of God. What are they saying from the pulpits of America? Is it true? Are people really checking exegesis, the word of God, and really knowing what God's word really is saying, or is it just somebody making up what they're reading?

That's how people are led astray. You can't believe men, but you can believe God's word. We tell people check out what God says in His word. Don't believe me. I separate what I say and I separate what God says. This is the word of the Lord, what He says here. "Let them alone, they are blind leaders of the blind, and if the blind lead the blind, they both will fall into a ditch," which means they're on their way to hell and they're taking all their students with them.

And check this out, verse 15. The question now. And then here's good old Peter answered and said to Him, "Explain this parable to us because I don't understand that either." Good old Peter. I love Peter. Verse 16: And so Jesus said, "Are you also still without understanding, Peter? Peter, what is the matter with you?" In love, of course. He's not rebuking him. "Peter, I will tell you."

Verse 17: "Do you not yet understand that whatever enters into the mouth goes into the stomach and," notice what it says, "and then it is eliminated." What He's saying to him is, "I'm not talking about eating and drinking." Verse 18: "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and these are the things that defile a man."

You see the distinction? Tradition and doctrine. The Bible. He's making a separation. Then He said this: "For out of the heart proceeds," what? "Evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." And then He said this: "These are the things," here it is again, "that defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man." Wow. He smacked them right in the face.

He said, "You get it now? It's not tradition, it's the word of God. It's the word of God. The word of God stands forever. If you don't live by the word of God, but you live by church rules and traditions, you'll never make it. You'll be frustrated, you'll be exasperated, and eventually you'll give up and you'll curse God and you'll be on your way to hell."

"But when you listen to the word of God and you study God's word, then the Holy Spirit is the one that brings great conviction to my heart. I can't convert anybody. I can't even speak to my own life. It is the Holy Spirit that has been sent and left here so that I can be convicted by Him so that I can change my mind and my heart and my attitude and I can be born again of the Holy Spirit and become a new man or a new woman in Christ Jesus by putting my faith in Jesus Christ fully and completely. And then when I open the Bible, I can understand it. Why? Because it's the Holy Spirit that leads me to understand it." That's why Jesus makes the separation here.

Guest (Male): Well, we hope it's been helpful to see that basing your life on man-made religious ideals is not the same as grounding your heart in God's word. You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Today's message was titled Truth versus Tradition. If you'd like to get an unedited version, we'll be happy to send it to you for a donation of five dollars or more. Just call us at 800-634-9165.

Now to further expand your understanding of what it looks like to live in authentic communion with the Lord, we'd like to offer you four key messages from Raul's Truth series. This collection is available on both CD and thumb drive. Challenging you to spend more time exploring the perfect, unchanging message of the Bible, this resource will point the way around roadblocks of false piety as you learn to walk more closely in step with God.

To purchase Raul's four-lesson Truth study, visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165. We'll send you the CD set for eighteen dollars or the USB for just nine dollars. That's 800-634-9165. Or write to Somebody Loves You Radio, Post Office Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California 91765. Every contribution you make helps us keep sharing biblical wisdom and hope. Thank you for your partnership. And join us next time for the conclusion of this series. As we think about the Bible's glimpses of the global chaos that's coming in the last days, you'll find comfort in the knowledge that God's truth is firm and reliable, your foundation in a rapidly shifting world.

This program is sponsored by Somebody Loves You Radio in Diamond Bar, California.