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So, page 22, if you've got the little red books, mark chapter seven. Reading through to verse 23. 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 washing of cups, pitches 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 defiled hands? He replied, isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, hypocrites. As it is written, these people honour 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 are holding on to human traditions. And he continued, you have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions. For Moses said, honour 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 what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban, that is, devoted God, then you no longer let them do anything for their father or 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 a person that defiles them.

After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciple asked him about this parable. Are you so dull? He asked, don't you see that nothing 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 the body. In saying this, jesus declared all foods were 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.

Thank you, Jackie. That's great. Well, do have your bibles with you, and let me pray. Just as we begin, Father, I do pray that you open the eyes of our hearts that we might see wonderful things in your lord, in your word. Amen.

I wonder, does anyone here watch dragon's Den? It's kind of quite a Sunday night type thing to watch, isn't it? Have you seen Dragon's Den? I love Dragon's Den. It's the variety that's so fun, isn't it?

Sometimes people come in and they just have done something amazing and you think, wow, has someone never thought of that before? It's absolutely amazing. More often than not, they think of something utterly useless, don't they? More often than not, really, if we're honest. I mean, there are still major problems in the world.

Like how is it that when socks go into the wash, they always come out without a pair? I lined up all my non paired socks on the bed the other day and there must have been about 14. How is it that the only socks that's ever go missing is the one that I've. It's ridiculous. No one ever comes into dragon's Den.

I'm interested in that problem, but more often than not, they come in and they have a solution for something that's just not a problem. And you think, wow, that looks really cool sometimes, and then think, but wait a second, that's really not a problem. Let me give you an example of how this happens. I've recently moved house, as you know, I've lived in Finch's gardens in Linfield for six weeks, seven weeks. And I went downstairs and we got a new washing machine.

And I was looking at the washing machine, not, I hastened to add, because I was actually going to use it. I'm sorry, but I was looking at it and I saw that on the side of all the different things it can do, it said, it's got Bluetooth. And I thought, how cool is that? My washing machine has got Bluetooth. So I'm thinking, right, I'm going to get my phone, I'm going to connect to it.

By the time I got back, I thought, why on earth has a washing machine got Bluetooth for? What would it even do? Bluetooth is a short range. It's not like you can turn your washing on from afar, is it? Or tell the washing machine, go upstairs and pick up the washing.

It's a solution looking for a problem, isn't it? Solution looking for a problem. And I just wonder whether, as we come to this point in Christianity, explored, we've heard some really good things. We've heard Jesus is amazing. Last week, we heard all about who he was, stories of him healing the sick, of him calming the storm.

We've seen Jesus teaching amazing things. That's great. That's great.

But do I need that hymn? Do I need him? Has he got anything to do with me? Or is he a solution? Kind of looking for a problem?

I don't actually have any problems. That may be us here thinking, do you know, I'm actually basically fine, Jesus. That's fine for some people, but not for me because I'm actually all right. Well, the question we're thinking about today is, why did Jesus come? Is there a problem?

And the reality is that there is a problem. The Bible's very clear. Jesus is very clear. He says, actually, whatever we think of ourselves, there is an issue. There is an issue that we all have, and it's an issue that we all need sorting out.

Let's look in the Bible to find out what that issue is. I do want you to open your Bible to chapter seven, where we do the reading. I want you to do this because here at All Saints, we like to speak from the Bible. Because you haven't come out here on a cold autumn night to listen to what I think. That's not worth your time.

I can tell you that for nothing. It's not worth your time coming out to hear what I think about something. You've come to hear what God says about something. And the way God speaks is in his word. So do open your bible because we want to find out about him.

It's eminently possible to tell other people who we think they should be. This would be like going on a date, incidentally. Like going on a date. And instead of finding out about the person, you tell them what you think they should be like. This is also tempting, by the way, my wife has come tonight, so this is funnier.

When I first met her, we were discussing and we were fighting up about, oh, do you like music? So I quite like music. What music do you like? She says blue, and I think wrong is my first thought. No, we can try again.

What music do you like? Yeah, but that will be silly, wouldn't it? Because she does actually like blue. Unbelievable as it is. That is actually what she likes.

But look, that will be what it will be like if we don't hear from God's word himself. It will be like us going on a date and being like God. This is what I think you should be like. But we want to hear what he is like, so we open his word so that he can speak to us only listen to God. Well, we have this problem in verses one to 13, the first sort of half of our text, where Jesus meets.

Well, some people called Pharisees, oppose Jesus. You see, what is going on is that Jesus' disciples weren't doing all of the rules correctly. The Pharisees thought they should be. They've been eating without doing the right hand washing. We see verse two.

Some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. Then we get a nice explanation, a bit in brackets, about all the things they do. And the Pharisees come up to Jesus and they're. No, no, this is really wrong. I'm really actually quite annoyed with you.

The Pharisees get really annoyed about this. Thing you need to know about the Pharisees is that they're good people. They're good people. They're the kind of people that you would describe as a good person. They really are.

They will bother to get everything right externally.

They're the kind of people who actually stick to speed limits like I do. Obviously, they actually stick to speed limits. They don't do anything wrong on their taxes. There's nothing dodgy about them at all. They get everything right externally.

They're good people. They're really good people. And that's what really got them going. That's what they loved, being. Getting stuff right.

And of course, as you know, with people like that, they tend to start finding what other people aren't doing right, don't they? It's what the Pharisees did. They started finding issues with Jesus and his disciples. Why are you eating food without washing your hands? We know they're getting all upset.

They're getting all upset.

And in verse six, Jesus responds to them. Now, if you didn't know this story very well, I wonder what you imagine this Jesus response would be. You'd probably imagine it might be something like, it's only washing your hands. Calm down. Or, we haven't even learnt about germs yet.

It's not an issue. Maybe he would say something like, you're just getting het up about nothing. What are you talking about, Pharisees? Something along those lines, yes. You're worrying way too much.

You're worrying way too much. It's not what he says. He quotes a guy called Isaiah, verse six. He that Jesus replied to the Pharisees. Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you.

Hypocrites. As it is written, these people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain. Their teachings are merely human rules. They honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

See, Jesus is saying to them, the issue with you is actually that your obedience doesn't go deep enough. You're saying things that sound nice, but it's really. Your heart's not in it. You honour me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me. This is like when you see a child and you say, why did you just hit your sister?

Not to be too realistic in my own family. Why did you hit your sister? Apologise. And they say, yeah, this is your lip, okay, you did say the word, but clearly your heart's far from me. And what Jesus is saying is.

Pharisees, your problem is that although you think you're being great by keeping all the rules. Although people are describing you as good person, good people, it's too shallow. It's too shallow. It's just with your lips, but your heart's not in it. You're like that little child that says, but you don't mean it.

Your heart's not there, is it? Your heart's not there. That's the problem. Jesus says. It's not like Jesus is saying, oh, look, the issue is, just do whatever you like.

That's their problem. The Pharisees should have just let everyone do what they want. That's not actually what Jesus says. He says, your heart's the issue. Well, as we move to verse 14 and to the end of our passage.

We see that this was obviously quite a thing for him to say. The people at the time probably found it quite hard as well. Because, again, verse 14. Again, Jesus called the crowd to him and said. It's as if Jesus knows that people are thinking.

That was an od way to respond to that. And he just wants to press home. Let me just clarify, actually, it really is important, what I just said. And I'm going to explain it to the crowd. So he's no longer dealing with the Pharisees.

Now. He speaks to the crowd to be people and. And he speaks to them about it.

And he says, verse 15. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it's what comes out of a person that defiles them.

And we know that this is Jesus' main point. That he really, really wants to hammer this home. Because in verse 14 he says, listen to me, everyone, and understand this. It's kind of like a very long phrase, isn't it? Before you say something, he could just have said, listen, crowds, it's what comes out, not what goes in.

But he says, listen to me, everybody, and understand this. It's like when the teacher says, listen up. This is definitely going to be on the test. This is the thing I want you to, wherever you've been drifting, come back from half asleep and listen to this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them.

Rather, it's what comes out of a person that defiles them. What comes out of your heart? The heart is the issue. That's what Isaiah said. He says, and it's so hard for you to get that.

I just need to stress this point. It's the heart. It comes out the heart.

The issue is on the inside. It's not just how you present yourself. It's not just the externals of your life. Pharisees, where's your heart? He says, it's an issue.

Verse 21. Why? For it's from within, as 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.

When the Pharisees hear this, they suddenly realise, okay, I'd followed all the rules, but I didn't get to the inside. I changed my outside. But the inside is the same. The inside is the same.

And actually, when we listen to this, do we not find that this makes us squirm a bit, just like it did the Pharisees? It certainly does know that Jesus calls us to say, actually, are you sometimes honouring God with your lips? But your heart's far from him? Because he says, this happens with all of these things. Happens with sexual immorality.

When we say with our lips, I'm always faithful in my marriage. But we let our thoughts linger just a bit longer. Or our hearts say, do you know what? It's all right. I can normalise just a bit of porn every now and then.

It might be theft where our lips say, no, I would never steal. I don't steal. Then our hearts say, but you know what? It's not stealing when you download something, like a film from the Internet. It's really expensive.

Just download that. No one will know yet. The lips say the right thing and the heart tries to justify something else. Murder. We never do that.

But who's ever had road rage? And so on and so on. And so Jesus' message really makes all the hearers suddenly squirm. Because they realise all these externals, if they're really not what matter, then this is a problem because I can't deny this is where my heart is.

You see, I think deep down, every single one of us knows that this is a problem. We know that even if maybe we're patient in the moment, we're suppressing, like, an anger or whatever it might be.

And you see, we deal with this problem, I think, in different ways in our society. There are loads of ways we deal with it. But let me just throw a few out there. A few out there. Lots of us deal with this.

We have this innate sense. We know that there's something wrong. And so we dive into escapism. It's prevalent, isn't it, in our world? Absolutely.

Everywhere. And this could look like so many different things. Maybe we just work every hour of the day, because if I just work every single hour of the day, then I won't have any time to think about my problems, just drown myself in work. Maybe it's not work. Maybe it's hobbies.

Maybe you just think, well, if I'll just do something, I'll just focus on this and then I don't have to address the issue.

Maybe it's other things for you. All sorts of escapism that we try to quiet that sense that we know the heart's a problem, but it might be that we go a different tack. And actually some of us do good works and we think, well, actually, do you know what? If I just do loads and loads of good things, if I just do loads of things for charity that will just balance out. I kind of know that I've done some bad stuff.

If I do enough good stuff, hopefully, eventually the scales will balance and maybe hope against hope, it'll all work out. That's others of us, isn't it?

But for others of us still, we just sort of tried to shift the goalposts and we just said, you know what? That's actually just not wrong anyway. It's just really not wrong anyway. If I just tell myself that thing is actually fine, then I'll be all right. The problem's gone away, hasn't it?

Isn't it too much to expect adultery to be a problem? No, it's fine. But these are different ways that we try to quiet that voice because it's not a comfortable message. Is it what Jesus says? No one can really read this and understand this passage that Jesus is saying and be comfortable.

It's a difficult message.

And it might sound harsh that I'm standing here and saying, do you know what? Every single one of us is a sinner and has a problem of the heart. But it's important for me to say because it's true.

And we try to deal with it in all different ways, but the only way to really deal with it is to come to Jesus and have him forgive us.

You see, we all have a problem. We all have a need.

Next week, we're going to think about how Jesus deals with that more. But I can't just leave us totally in the lurch. Jesus is going to come and because he is the one who doesn't have a heart problem, he can sort out ours and he actually gives us all that's his. He takes all that's ours. If you want to find out more about that, do come next week, but don't leave it till next week.

If you really want to know. Jesus is the answer to our deepest need, which is the issue of our hearts. Should we pray, Father, I am sorry. We are sorry that we do have an issue of the heart, that all these things that are wrong come from within us. And Father, help me.

Help us not to try to sort ourselves out externally, to look like we've got it all sorted, all made, but actually leave the issue of the heart in place. Give us a new heart, we pray, Lord, and we do thank you, that in Jesus we can receive that new heart, that we can be forgiven whole before him. In Jesus name, amen.