Admonition Podcast

Good afternoon, Good evening.

Yeah, my wife gets on to me for that one all the time.

It's evening, Justin, it's not afternoon.

Yeah, but it's still technically after the noon.

We won't argue.

Good evening.

Welcome to Collierville Your Real Church of Christ.

uh Wonderful to see everybody's shining faces this evening.

um I'm going to be filling in for Aaron this evening for the Wednesday night class.

We will be continuing in Mark chapter seven.

oh

this evening.

But before we do that, let's go ahead and open with a word of prayer.

Dear Lord, our Almighty God, Father in heaven, hallowed is thy name.

How beautiful it is to sing your praises each and every day we come together to worship
you.

You are worthy of so much more than the praises that we could ever give you.

Lord God, as we go throughout this study this evening, please allow us to retain

the memory of what we have learned here tonight and apply its lessons into our daily
lives.

May we be attentive and have a learning spirit towards Your Word.

Lord God, we thank You for Your Son that died on the cross for our sins, and we pray that
when we finally leave this place that You will continue to watch over us, guide us, and

care for us.

And so we pray to You in Jesus' name, amen.

So last week, Aaron finished Mark chapter 6, and I believe we...

got to verse 8 in chapter 7, ah but first we're going to do a quick recap.

We will be continuing where the study left off in verse 8.

ah This was when Jesus had come into Galilee um on the boat.

So, He had recently done the miracle of silencing the storm, the waters being calmed, and
as He arrives on at Galilee, we see large crowds all about Him coming for healing.

They had had large crowds before, left them, sailed on the boat, and as soon as they
arrive, he is known for this.

He's recognized.

It's so much to the point that the account in chapter six show that they even wanted to
simply touch the hem of his garment.

That's the little bit of your garment that has the stitching that holds it all together on
the end.

Even just that small bit, they believed would completely heal them of their physical
ailments.

This amount of people that were surrounding Jesus and His disciples at the point looking
for answers would have been very intimidating to the Pharisees and scribes at the time.

We learned that they went to him with the express goal to look for a fault in Christ.

Now as leaders of the ancient world in the religious section, um this would have been a
very big grab for power from them.

See, Jesus had things that they had never taught before or a faith that they were supposed
to be teaching and yet fallen away from.

Their goal was to look for a fault in Christ.

or particularly his disciples even as Aaron pointed out.

When you go looking for a fault in somebody, are you going to find it?

I like to think of it the same way as uh vans, right?

So everyone here knows that I love the Volkswagen vans.

Before I learned about those vans, I never saw them on the road.

Then all of a sudden, once I get one, they're everywhere.

I see one almost every single day.

there goes another one just like mine.

It could apply to motorcycles or whatever car that's on the road.

The fact is when you go looking for something, you're going to find that something.

Sometimes when it comes to personality differences with people, if you're looking for a
fault in someone, you're going to find that fault even if the fault isn't there.

Your mind is going to be made up so that any small inkling of a difference between you and
them will seem as a fault.

So, as we know, they couldn't find fault in Christ, so they eventually had to turn to his
disciples.

In their culture, a teacher or a rabbi was generally considered responsible for the
behavior, the actions of their disciples, the ones that they were teaching.

This means that the Jewish leaders were insinuating that Jesus should have been
reprimanded for His followers and their negligent behavior that they had seen in their

eyes.

Now, this wasn't actually negligent behavior on the part of the disciples.

They simply knew better.

But to the rabbi looking for just anything that they could depict on, this is what they
found.

Similarly how today we have managers who manage the employees of whatever establishment
they govern.

If we have an issue with the cashier, typically we ask to speak to the manager, don't we?

The manager is ultimately, while society tells us there's that pyramid and they're higher
up on the pyramid, typical businesses operate more of a reverse pyramid.

The higher you are on the totem pole, the more responsibility you have.

So it ultimately falls on the manager and the manager is being held responsible because
after all, he's the one that hired these people.

He's the one that taught them how to do their job.

If you go into men's warehouse and one of the sales associates mismeasures you and you now
don't have your suit for the right size for the wedding you're going to, you can complain

to the manager.

Ultimately, it'll fall down to the manager to fix the root of the problem.

But this was at the root of their attempt to publicly shame and discredit our Lord.

You see what the Pharisees viewed as being sinful was rejecting the opportunity to be
cleansed of the impurity that they assumed came from out of the living world living in

daily activities.

It wasn't necessarily that they thought that just, you you had to wash your hands to
spiritually cleanse yourself as Aaron so.

noted last week, they wanted to wash the Gentile off of them.

They thought that having connections with the outside world made them spiritually impure.

In this instance, they were not arguing for purification, but purification before
sacrifice.

So this was the commands from the Old Testament.

The tribe of Levi before participating in sacrifices to our Lord would have to cleanse
themselves in a ritualistic manner.

But rather than arguing to be poor during even common meals, this is what the uh Pharisees
and the scribes were.

fighting for.

So they had taken something that was strictly for sacrificial purposes taught in the Old
Testament under the law of Moses and now tried to apply it to general meals.

So breakfast, lunch, and dinner they had to purify themselves.

They obviously took this way too far.

The law never demanded any such a thing.

Let's get someone to read Deuteronomy 12 and verse 15.

I always like to get you guys involved when I teach, so.

if someone would get Deuteronomy 12 and verse 15.

So the roebuck and the heart there would be talking about different forms of deer, but the
clean and the unclean they may eat of.

Not only that, but they were allowed to eat in the gates of the city, which would imply
that they could eat in multiple different parts of the city.

Let's jump down to Deuteronomy 12 and verse 22 where it reads, even as the roebuck and the
heart is eaten, remember this is deer again, so thou shalt eat them.

The unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike.

Hmm.

Continuing on, and if there be any blemish therein, as if it be lame or blind or have any
ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the Lord thy God.

Thou shalt eat it within thy gates.

The unclean and the clean person shall eat it alike as the roebuck and as the heart.

Now if we jump back even further, well a little forward actually, to Leviticus chapter 22,
we can read through verses three through nine where it expounds on this a little more.

This is talking about the ritualistic clean.

This is where we read about the ones who were to be ritualistically clean, but only when
they were eating the portion of their sacrifices that were to be made.

See, the tribe of Levi were not only supposed to perform the sacrifices in the Old
Testament, but they were also supposed to partake of a portion of that meat that was

sacrificed.

This was not a command for every single meal, and yet the Pharisees expanded this to
include just that.

So if we can get someone to read Leviticus 22 and then verses 3 through 9.

saying to them, whosoever he be of all your seed, all your seed among your generations,
that goeth unto the holy thing, which the children of Israel hallow unto the Lord, having

his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from my presence.

I am the Lord.

What man soever of the seed of Aaron is a leper, or hath a running issue, he shall not eat
of the holy things until he be clean.

And whoso touches,

anything that is unclean by the dead, a man whose seed goeth from, or whosoever toucheth
any creeping thing, whereby he may be made unclean, or a man of whom he may take

uncleanness, whatsoever uncleanness he hath, the soul which hath touched any such shall be
unclean until even, and shall not eat of the holy things, unless he wash his flesh with

water.

Then when the sun is down, he shall be clean, and shall afterward eat of the holy thing.

because it is his food.

That which dith of itself, or is torn with beast, he shall not eat to defile himself
therewith.

I am the Lord.

They shall therefore keep mine ordinance, lest they bear sin for it, and die therefore if
they profane.

I the Lord do sanctify them." All right, so here we see in verse four and verse six and
verse seven,

the holy things.

He's not talking about every single meal here, he's talking about the holy sacrifice
meals.

This wasn't to include every single meal.

uh

But returning back to the public accusation that they laid before Jesus in an attempt to
discredit him, he responds appropriately, not by answering their question, but by calling

them out as hypocrites, as Aaron noted.

Hypocrite in the original Greek referred to the term play actor.

It was someone who wore various masks depending on the role that they would play.

Typically, this would be in a theater.

It reminds me of something uh from Japan which is called Kabuki Theater.

There's also, which Kabuki was more heavy makeup, but there's another version called the
Nome theater, where they had large abbreviated masks for every type of character.

uh Evil men would be portrayed as red masks with really long noses and things like that.

And so it's not just a reference to the Greek, but that's where we get the word hypocrite
from, is in reference to play actors.

We left the quote, we were left at the end of the lesson with Aaron with a quote from
Isaiah which sheds more light on the subject.

Aaron let me know that he will be the one to go over Isaiah more in depth when he gets
back so we're going to jump past that and give you more detail surrounding Mark 7 itself.

ah So we're going to continue in Mark that way hopefully you have a better view of things
when Aaron does jump back into Isaiah.

So moving forward into verse 8.

and 9 of Mark chapter 7.

It reads, for laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men as the
washing of pots and cups and many other such things like you do.

And he said unto them, full well you reject the commandment of God, that you keep your own
traditions.

When the Pharisees were

referred to traditions, typically they were talking about traditions of elders, traditions
of people.

Christ brought it back to their attention that these were very much just the commandments
of men, these were not the commandments of God.

They needed to remember that someone like their forefathers, Moses, Aaron, people from
before, they were fallible men still, they weren't perfect.

By doing this, Christ brings to attention the great contrast between humanity's choices
and decisions on things and commandments and God's divinity.

So you can see the separation there.

The Pharisees for many years had put more emphasis on their own manmade traditions than
what was actually taught by the Lord.

These men were experts at explaining away God's commandment that had conflicted with their
own desires and traditions.

You could almost think of them as skilled politicians.

They were real good at not answering the question.

But instead, they would leverage the law of the land.

They were misusing the law of our creator many times to suit their own purposes, like what
they were doing with the food, the clean and the unclean.

They were applying it to every single meal.

And that's just one of the issues.

These were the type of people who...

in a sense, look for loopholes.

They were trying to figure out ways to bend God's Word to their will.

Now, whether they were doing this knowingly or unknowingly, it would depend on the
individual person.

I'm not sure why my phone is not on silent, but I will correct that.

They look for these loopholes so that it would alleviate them from obeying God's will
while simultaneously allowing them to apply their own will to the people.

Continuing on in verse 10, he gives them an example of their substitution of God's law.

He not only accuses, but then goes straight into showing the proof to back up his claim
about the Pharisees.

So here it is, starting in verse 10, and we're gonna read through verse 13, for Moses
said, so now he's quoting one of the forefathers, honor thy father and mother, and whoso

curseth father and mother, let him die.

But ye say, if a man shall say to his father or mother, it is korban, that is to say a
gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited of me, he shall be free.

And you suffer him no more to do aught for his mother or father.

Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition,

which ye have delivered, and many such like things you do." He uses the unfair way some of
the Jews dealt with their parents who were getting old and uses it as an example to teach

them what's going on.

The account back in Matthew chapter 4, which is a parallel account, has it written like
this, "'For God commanded saying, honor thy father and mother, and he that curseth father

or mother, let him die the death.'"

Okay, so at last we find a contradiction in the accounts so we can all go home, right?

Mark said, Moses said, and Matthew said, God said.

We get to go home now?

No, absolutely not.

Moses spoke by whose authority?

By God's authority, right?

So if you say Moses said and God said, that should be the same thing, right?

As long as the messages align, there's no contradiction there.

But more than this, Christ was very, very clever in how he counters his opponents.

Since the Pharisees typically trace their oral traditions all the way back to Moses, time
after time after time after time, Christ reminds them of what Moses really said.

So instead of saying, he said this and we should follow this, he quotes him.

He reads it perfectly.

In fact, he starts by quoting the fifth commandment, honor thy father and mother.

And this is found in Exodus 20 and verse 12, Deuteronomy 5, 16.

And 1 Timothy 5, 4 tells us to show piety at home to their parents.

What is piety?

Can anyone tell me what piety means?

piety would be yes, respect, it's reverence, love, and that could even include financial
support.

After this, Jesus immediately follows up with the first quote with another one.

So we see the first quote, honor thy father and mother, and then this second quote that he
does is from Exodus 21 17 and Leviticus 20 and verse 9.

He who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death.

This is a focus on the punishment for abusing one's family and parents.

That's a pretty harsh punishment, right?

But that should show them the weight of what these decisions were doing to them.

This was not just speaking ill of them.

He's not just saying, don't speak bad about your parents.

Don't talk bad about them behind their back.

Remember how we looked at the phase whenever we read the phrase in the Bible to walk?

If we're going on a walk with God, does that mean we're physically walking with God?

No, it means we're living with Him, right?

In His way.

So...

The same type of thought process can be applied here.

Okay, so bringing it back to the Greek and I keep looking at this word and it's
intimidating to pronounce but I'm going to try.

It's kago logio, I think I nailed it, or can be transliterated as literal curses or
reviles, all right?

This wasn't just talking about about your parents, this was cursing your parents.

This was reviling your parents.

This is to criticize an abusive.

or an angry and insulting manner.

So they're not just talking bad about their parents, they're criticizing them towards an
evil goal.

Now we reach verse 11 and 12, which opens up a very distinct contrast to what Moses said.

He's now stating for the record with everyone they're hearing what the Pharisees are
saying and showing that they are in direct opposition to the teachings of Moses, who they

had just claimed to hold in such high regard.

These Pharisees were teaching people that instead of helping their aging parents
financially, they could give their money to the church.

You don't have to give to your parents as long as you make a vow and give it to the
church.

You can donate that to God.

By doing this, they would break voluntarily the fifth commandment, which is honor thy
father or mother.

This practice, as we read in the verses known as korban, was explained by Mark in a
parenthetical note as meaning given to God.

Now, parenthetical note is a piece of information added to a sentence or a paragraph
typically to give more depth to it.

Typically, it's enclosed in parentheses and it provides additional explanation for
clarification.

It's all a parenthetical phrase means.

It's a million dollar word for a very simple meaning.

The word itself is Hebrew and Arabic in term which means gift or offering.

So that's korban that we read there.

We have the word actually, and I looked this up, this was very neat to look up.

uh Two separate artifacts were found in Jerusalem with the word korban.

The first is a fragment of a pot or a vessel of some sort.

We're not sure what was held into it, but we do have a fragment of this vessel.

And the word is there with an etching of two doves.

This could have possibly been associated with sacrifices at the temple at the time.

And we see more of that in Leviticus chapter 12, verse eight and Luke two and verse 24.

The second is a little bitty box called an ulcerary.

This would be uh transliterated as a bone box typically.

ah It had on its little bitty box but with a lid that reads everything that a man will
find to his profit in this box is an offering to God from the one within it.

So the usage of the word korban is very interesting ah because the contents of the box

were only to be used by the owner of the box.

No one else was supposed to do that.

It was very taboo to do this.

ah But at the same time, it was also not something that was given to the temple.

It stayed in possession, right?

ah This would have been where you would bury family members, things like that.

At the end of the day though, some think that it's a way to legally exclude one's parents.

from being included in what was, whatever was contained in that bone box, in that ossuary.

So, if you place something inside and you were, as being a child, change your mind later.

You vowed at the church, you, you know, you're on your own little stent, you're a raging
teenager, you're wanting to get out on your own.

I don't want to give mom and dad part of my money.

They should have been able to stockpile some for themselves.

Later on, you grow out of that, you think, well, no, I should probably be giving them my
mom and dad.

Well, you've taken that vow now.

You can't change your mind.

It's locked in.

And so this was like a legal loophole that would keep you from giving things to your
parents.

So even if the child changed his mind, the scribes would remind them that this vow was
binding and that it could not be changed.

These type of practices, and we see that as stated in verse 13, the scribes were making
the Word of God void in their daily lives, weren't they?

They were taking the fifth commandment, honor thy father and mother.

and putting all kinds of legal ramifications on it and red tape and things that needed to
be written out and boxes that they couldn't access.

Not only this, but the verse states that something that that that this was something that
they literally handed down to people.

So this was not only applied to them, but would also be something that their children, the
next generation would also have to adhere to as well.

This would not prevent that generation also from obeying the word of God.

Obviously, they could have chosen to obey the word of God.

But how many traditions of men do we have passed down from generation to generation to
generation to generation that now people follow simply because great, great, great, great,

10 times granddad did it.

And so I'm going to do it the same way.

Let's continue on to Mark 14 and verse 16.

So, I'm sorry, Mark chapter 7, we're still in verse 7, we're not gonna leave verse 7 very
often unless we jump over to Matthew, but in chapter 7, verses 14, and when he had called

unto the people, he said unto them, hearken unto me, every one of you, and understand.

He's essentially calling everybody, hey, hey, you guys wanna hear this?

Come here, listen to me, listen up, I wanna make sure everybody hears this.

You see, the Pharisees and the scribes were brazen enough to attack Jesus in front of all
the people that He was teaching.

And so, in like manner, He wanted to make absolutely sure that their ears were open and
they weren't talking amongst themselves about what the Pharisees and scribes were possibly

saying.

So, here He goes, harken unto me, come here, listen, open up your ears and understand.

There is nothing from without a man that entering into Him can defile Him.

but the things which come out of them, those are they that defile the man.

If any man has ears to hear, let him hear." Christ turns his attention from the Pharisees
to the crowd at this point.

Remember, they brought this in front of a crowd.

What was their attempt?

To discredit?

To shame him?

All right.

And yet we see the tables turn very quickly, don't we?

And he's not verbally attacking them, but he's teaching the people.

His accusers who were a moment ago so brazen, so loud, are now being humbled by their own
hypocrisy, aren't they?

They hear the words of Moses, stated on two different accounts.

He goes back and quotes Leviticus.

It's important to note that Christ did not do this to destroy the reputation of the
scribes and the Pharisees.

He used this as an opportunity to teach his followers.

Sadly, for the Pharisees, as many of us know today as adults, embarrassment can be a very
good learning tool, can't it?

You do something that embarrasses you, especially out in public, you tend not to do that
again.

This would have been a good teacher for them.

If you don't want to be embarrassed again, don't do it again.

He invites all those around to listen so they can understand his message.

This would have been incredibly embarrassing to the Pharisees and scribes who are supposed
to be managers, politicians, top of the totem pole.

Jesus then returns back.

He goes back to the original issue that needed addressing.

This was a claim issue of impurity, right?

So if we go back in 7, 1 through 5 of Matthew's account, goes into detail a little bit
further here.

I'm sorry, in Matthew 15, 11, he goes into this a little bit further in detail where
Matthew states, not that which goeth into the mouth defileeth a man, but that which cometh

out of the mouth, that is which defileeth the man.

So they were talking about ritual cleaning of their hands and their bodies and things
before they ate in a social sense and here they're being told by Matthew, well expounded

upon by Matthew.

That's not the food that enters your body.

Everyone here at this time period was thinking physical things.

They had a very hard time during the first century applying spiritual lessons, thinking
things outside of the physical realm.

Jesus finishes the lesson by stating, any man has ears to hear, let him hear.

He's saying, if you're going to listen to me, listen to me.

Now we have a shift.

So we have a break in the text and a little bit of time passes.

And we see different sections of events outlined in verses 17 through 23 of Mark chapter
seven.

So let's continue on for the sake of time.

And when he entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the
parable.

And he saith unto them, are you so without understanding also?

Do you not?

perceive that whatsoever thing from without entereth into a man, it cannot defile him
because it entereth not into his heart but his belly and goeth out into draught, purging

all meats.

And he said, that which cometh out of the man, that defileeth the man.

For from within, out of the heart of man proceeds evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murderers, thefts.

covetousness, wickedness, deceits, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all these evil things
come from within and defile the man.

Now we see the Christ leaving the crowd and entering a house with his disciples.

When they get there, the disciples do what they tend to do to Jesus after every time he
talks in public.

They start asking them questions.

Teach us teacher.

What did you mean by these things?

They questioned him about the parables.

They looked to him for further explanation and clarification.

If we jump back over to Matthew chapter 15, the parallel chapter, through verses 12
through 14, we see the disciples let Jesus know that his words had often offended the

Pharisees.

They seem almost to be worried since after all, the Pharisees were leaders of the people,
right?

You don't want to offend the people in power.

They could cause you a lot of trouble.

Jesus isn't worried about these things.

He's worried about spiritual things, isn't he?

He knows ultimately what's coming to meet him on the cross, and he goes forth honorably,
he goes forth sinlessly, and he finishes the work.

Jesus responds to them by stating that every plant which my heavenly Father hath not
planted shall be rooted up.

If you're teaching stuff that God has not been teaching, it will get rooted up.

It will get found out those teachings are not going to continue forever.

He goes on to call them the blind leading the blind.

Matthew also gives us the additional information that it was Peter who asked about the
parable.

So we see Peter asking specifically in Matthew's account.

Coming back into Mark chapter seven, I know we keep going back and forth between Matthew
and Mark, but the parallel accounts give us a real good view of what's going on at the

time.

We see Jesus expressing a form of disappointment towards his disciples.

These were people who he has been teaching to look towards spiritual things rather than
physical.

He keeps trying to teach his disciples this, but for some reason they're really locked
into that physical thought process.

And yet they still seem to have that lack of understanding.

So Jesus seems to explain to them in a little simpler terms.

In verse 15, he explains, he tells them about what enters a man from the outside,
referring to food that enters one's mouth, Matthew 15, 17.

The Jews, for a very long time, to give a little more context to this, were very concerned
with kosher food laws from the Old Testament.

There are people today that even I've met that are very, very stuck on the laws of, I
can't eat pork, I can't eat this unclean thing here.

And while this was almost a pet peeve of the Jews and the Pharisees because they were
obsessed with the ritual purity of eating in general, which we touched on earlier, Jesus

here tries to get them to see just how futile this line of thinking is.

um He walks them through basically the digestive system, all right?

It's almost like a biology class that he gives these guys.

um

In a sense, he's giving them this biology lesson and then he links it to a spiritual
application.

He instructs them, looking at Mark, that the food once eaten doesn't enter your soul, does
it?

No, of course it doesn't.

But rather the belly and there's the stomach where it gets processed.

And eventually, he says it's eliminated.

The Greek term here, aphedron, could be transliterated to literally mean the word latrine
or sewer.

So.

He's not attacking the kosher food laws, rather he's attempting to emphasize that moral
purity is a whole lot more significant than ceremonial purity, right?

So, I'm very thankful that what the Pharisees were teaching was not true.

After all, I myself and many others at one point I'm sure have absolutely smashed a pizza.

It's not the greatest food to put in my mouth.

But that's not going to make me ceremonially unclean, right?

There are lots of food, that giant plate of brownies, uh the cinnamon rolls on the back
table that we tend to have during the birthday celebration typically or the ice cream,

that's not going to make you impure.

Granted, it might make you sick physically, but it's not going to make you sick
spiritually.

Point is, at this time, most Jews continue to observe the food laws from the Old Testament
along with many other Jewish customs.

from that time period.

However, we know that the visions received by Peter before visiting with Cornelius,
pointed them into a new direction.

And we see this reflected in Acts chapter 10 and 11, verses two through eight.

When meeting at Jerusalem at the, uh the Apostle, they emphasize that both Jew and Gentile
were saved through the grace of Christ by having their hearts cleaned by faith.

Acts 15 and verse nine.

Later we see that the Jew and Gentile were called to fellowship with one another at the
table.

And we read this in Galatians 2, 11 and verse 17.

We read it in Colossians 2, 16 through 21, 23, somewhere in that area.

For this happened to be the Jewish food law that had been abolished.

Paul even wrote, and we'll take a look at it.

Someone get 1 Timothy 4 and we'll look at verses four through five.

1 Timothy 4, four through five.

Every creature from God is good and nothing is to be refused.

Okay, so that's totally different.

So, is pork okay?

Yes.

Pork is okay.

Is beef okay?

Can we eat kosher things?

Yes, we can.

Jesus continued in verses 20 through 22, going back to Mark, that which proceeds out of
the mouth of man, that is what defiles the man.

What is in your heart always manifests in your word and actions, doesn't it?

I know we have the phrase all the time, you are what you eat.

Don't put any stock in that phrase, it's just a sound bite.

Matthew touches on this in Matthew 15 and verse 8, the things that proceed out of the
mouth come from the heart.

Whatever comes out of our mouth is what we're thinking.

Sometimes we don't think long enough before we speak and those things come out straight
and they hurt people.

He was explaining this to the other disciples that it was not the traditions of the
Pharisees that cleaned the heart.

washing your hands, washing your body, going through the purification rituals aren't going
to clean you.

We can only get our hearts cleaned by what?

The teachings of Christ?

Of course.

Someone get Proverbs 5 and verse 23 for me.

Proverbs chapter 5 and verse 23.

Is that 523?

I may have written down the wrong line.

423, that's it.

Thank you.

Yeah, keep thy heart with all diligence out of it springs the issues of life.

Back in the text of Mark 7, we read, of the heart of man proceeds evil thoughts.

Jesus then proceeds to list several sins that all originate from the heart of man.

Let's go through those very quickly.

I know we just heard the bell.

So fornication.

By definition, this would be any kind of sexual relationship outside of God-ordained
marriage.

Any kind.

This would be fornication, incest,

Adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, so on and so forth.

I'm not going to list them all.

Number two, we have red thefts.

This great term, clopi, carries the idea of any form of robbery.

This would be from petty theft all the way up to armed robbery, murders, phononoid, all
kinds of murders, typically stemming from anger.

Number four, we see adulteries.

Having relations in which one partner is married to someone else.

This is a sin that originates from lust that is developed in the heart.

Number five, deeds of coveting.

This is the desire for someone else's possessions.

You're not happy with your own.

This would normally go hand in hand with theft, but it's also linked to greediness, which
is a form of idolatry, isn't it?

We're not supposed to be great.

Number six, see wickedness listed.

This would be the idea of any form of deception or maliciousness.

And then we see a second group of sin to be discussed.

We see deceit.

This is treachery, falsehoods.

It could even be malicious cunning towards an individual.

Two, we see situality.

This would be a lack of restraint or discipline.

Devotry, lewdness is also a sin.

Number three, envy.

The Greek word literally meaning, and in some translations it even says, an evil eye.

This would be a stinginess, a grudging spirit.

ah I can't help but think of Scrooge from the Christmas story.

He doesn't want to give anybody any kind of money whatsoever.

Or maybe Scrooge McDuck if you watch the cartoons and you're a bit younger like me.

Four, we see slander.

This would be defaming or abusive speech to discredit someone.

Five, have pride, arrogance, or haughtiness.

That's what pride is.

And foolishness.

This would just be a general lack of common sense, essentially.

Whether moral or intellectual, you're making foolish decisions.

You're not taking your time to be wise.

And what is wisdom?

Okay, what is knowledge?

Let's start with knowledge.

What is knowledge?

It's what you know, right?

Yeah, it's not overly complicated.

It's what you know.

It's all the information and data you gather.

Wisdom, by definition, is the application of knowledge.

You can know every word of the Bible.

Does it do you any good if you do not apply it?

Would it be wise to apply it?

Absolutely, it would be.

So we need to not only have knowledge, but wisdom so that we know how to apply the
knowledge.

Jesus concludes this section with, these evil things proceed from within and defile man.

This is not just a food that you ingest, but rather the actions and attitudes you exhibit
in word and or deed.

I know I've only got about two minutes left, so we'll go ahead and stop there, since we're
at the end of this section.

Did anyone have any questions, comments, philosophical meanderings?

All right, we'll go ahead and wrap it up there.

Thank you very much for your attention this evening.

Yes.

Sure.

Yes, so when it talks about the heart, it doesn't mean physically the heart.

Kind of like we said, you know, walk with Christ.