MARK (7 of 16) - Chuck Missler

well we're exploring the gospel of mark the little gospel as it's called because it seems shorter than the others it may surprise you to know that matthew's actually shorter than marx if you exclude the discourses which matthew details because he took shorthand but the gospel of mark is also probably not the gospel of mark he penned it but he apparently did it sort of as a secretary for peter most scholars hold the view with some basis that this is really peter's gospel and uh it's a and it's so like peter because it's an action-oriented gospel very little time spent on discourses it moves right along like a shooting script very visual very action oriented and so it's a little different kind of gospel but we're in chapter seven and so we could call this the hazard of traditions if you wanted sort of a subtitle for this chapter the hazard of today you know we have all of us have traditions and those traditions have a utility they're useful in many ways and yet they also represent a hazard because they become ossified crystallized and and sometimes we get bound by them so this is really a guard against that if you will so we'll start off with verse 1 then came together unto him the pharisees and certain of the scribes which came from jerusalem read that came from headquarters or something these are this is a you know a a hit squad of some kind coming down and when they saw some of his disciples that's jesus disciples of course eat bread with defiled that is to say with unwashing hands they found fault now we may not fully appreciate that that that's unusual but see there really this had nothing to do with personal hygiene nor was this commanded by the law by the way that may surprise you because it's become such a ritual such a practice it's interesting this was not commanded in the law they felt they treated it as as if it was and of course the critics are there first to criticize and so that's the issue they're bringing up here and these guys that came down from jerusalem were professionals in the sense they were the theological hitmen if i can call it that and they were upset any time in fact every time that jesus undermined their authority over the people and their traditions in other words jesus was encroaching on their turf they were the custodians of proper practice and we find their similarities in our own life in our own life today many churches deal with practices that they regard other churches of being wrong and so forth that's that's just that's people that's history the longer they go the the often traditions when they first came were useful and yet they get ossified and often lose sight of their original feelings but anyway for the pharisees and all the jews except their they they wash their hands often eat not holding the tradition of their elders in other words this is a time-honored tradition here sometimes they call tradition a fence around the law and that's a term comes out of the mishnah the mishnah was a compilation of jewish oral traditions made at the end of the second century a.d you'll often hear the term mishna the torah is their term for the books of moses the five books of moses but the mishnah is a compilation of traditions and they treat these traditions as if their oral law they weren't written down they were passed down verbally generation to generation or at least that's the view and this oral tradition gets codified initially in the mishnah and ultimately in the talmud the talmud from the third century throughout the eighth century is a codification of what they held as oral traditions and the tragedy of course is those oral traditions start to take precedence over the actual torah itself so there's a whole thing we could get into there and so forth but uh in any case uh the jews viewed tradition as protecting god's holy word and they felt it assisted people in keeping god's word and this probably began with good intentions many things like this start well but ultimately they produce over time some famous absurdities some of these traditions lose sight of what they started out to do for example in the effort to protect the sabbath from being broken by inadvertent labor now you're not supposed to labor on the sabbath well to make sure that you don't accidentally labor they have some very unusual uh practices the devout were given an amazing list of prohibitions fences if you will for example one could not look into a mirror because a gray hair might show up that you might pluck see so you weren't supposed to look in the mirror so you wouldn't be tempted to pluck a hair because plucking a hair would be considered work now see when you take that itself it's obviously absurd and yet these things grow slowly inch by inch one couldn't wear false teeth lest they fall out and picking them up would be working the rabbis debated about a man with a wooden leg if his home caught fire could he retrieve it on the sabbath these are debates that actually occur you see if someone spit on the sabbath he had to take care of where it landed if it landed in the dirt and was scuffed with a sandal it would be cultivating the soil and thus performing work now you know you and i can look at this and chuckle but these are the kinds of things that can grow and and and and be the the turf of protection by people whose world was to guard these peculiar uh admonitions if you were an israeli if you ever by the way when you go to israel and you're in a hotel on shabbat on sabbath you'll encounter what they call sabbath elevators normally go into a hotel and you can push the button and get any one of the 12 floors or whatever that's in the hotel if you're in a sabbath elevator you'll discover that the buttons are already pressed for you and in some most hotels they'll have two odd and even so you want to get into the hotel it's going to it and it'll stop at every even or odd floor in other words you're in a sabbath elevator and they don't uh uh they they regard pushing the button as work so on sabbath you don't push the button you go into a sabbath elevator and and when you're there as a gentile you find yourself often trapped in a situation where you've got to wait for that thing to stop at every floor till the floor you want to get off on so forth and that's just uh see every floor is pre-selected so you don't have to push a button and may that sounds strange to our ears or our observation but that's that's their practice and uh often there are two so you have odd and even ones and so on see the pharisees were committed to ritual purity ritual purity and that made them extremely pious and very self-righteous see one by-product is when you're keeping all these rules you start feeling very unique and you short and you start showing disdain for those that aren't keeping those rules and so forth well let's move on to verse four and when they when they were come from the market except they wash they eat not and many other things there be which they have received to hold as the washing of cups and pots and brazen vessels and of tables and see the biggest concern of the mishnah was cleanliness including ritual washing then we're not talking about hygienic washing we're talking about just the ritual of it if you will and this all originates from a biblical command that all priests must wash their hands well if the priests are supposed to wash their hands it's probably a good idea for all of us to you'll find that in exodus 30 and so forth so all pious jews began to do that about 200 bc not always but about 200 bc it got to be practiced not just for the priests and we're talking here ritual cleansing we're not talking about hygiene per se although obviously it has a hygienic side effect a rabbi who once omitted washing his hands before eating bread was excommunicated it's reported that another rabbi who suffered imprisonment under the romans nearly died because he used his ration of drinking water to ritually wash up ultimately the concept of true inner purity had been trivialized to a system of external washings those these washings not only indicated the wrong attitude toward people they also convey a wrong idea of the nature of sin and personal holiness you always want to be careful of the secondary effects of some of these things many many doctrinal practices run the risk of giving you the wrong impression of god and we want to be careful of that i want to be careful of that but in this case they gave the wrong idea of sin that somehow uh you know you confuse the two anyway then the pharisees and scribes ask him why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders but eat bread with unwashing hands see they're quite alarmed by this they're quite concerned they're quite critical and uh and jesus answered and said to them well hath isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites you notice how guarded he is with his words you notice how diplomatic he is with these critics i enjoy this wealth isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites as it is written this people honoreth me with their lips but their heart is far from me you know it's interesting and sometimes your best defense is a well-directed offense isn't it so he nails him here jesus is quoting isaiah 29 verse 13 which wherefore the lord said for as much as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips do not do honor me but have removed their heart far from me and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men in other words in contrast to the precepts of god so that's what jesus is alluding to apparently from isaiah 29 but he contains albeit in vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men that's continuing that quote for laying aside the commandment of god ye hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things ye do so that's jesus criticism of them if you will he said to them full will ye reject the commandment of god that ye may keep your own tradition okay and rabbi eliezer said that he who expounds the scriptures in opposition tradition has no share in the world to come that's a rabbinical thing and ignoring the fact the scriptures should be taking precedence over our traditions the bishop says it's a greater offense to teach anything contrary to the voice of the rabbis than to contradict the scripture itself that may shock you but that's in the mishnah you begin to realize you see these traditions have eclipsed and taken precedence over the actual word of god and that's one of the great tragedies in judaism today you see the the judaism goes there's when you talk we always talk about judaism in broad terms as as observers but you there's mosaic judaism that's the torah the five books of moses their attempts to stick to that okay and the keralites did that in russia very interesting if you study this in russia you discover there's a group called the keraits that did not accept the talmud they accepted the books the laws of moses and under the russian persecution of the jews the care rights were accepted the tsar felt they were distinct and different so when they had pogroms or the double taxation all that that was on talmudic judaism which is the bulk of it of course but the keralites were immune from i was intrigued to discover that those that were strictly moses were exempt from all of that the carrots are an interesting uh phenomenon in history i think but uh so the point is that's that's as you grow uh into the uh several centuries before christ we have these pharisees and these people rise up who cling to what they call oral law and that's what the pharisees were doing dealing with oral law and that's what jesus was rebelling against when you get to 70 a.d the temple is destroyed right okay so that judaism suddenly has a huge problem because the torah teaches that without the shedding of blood there's no remission of sins they have no place to shed blood if the temple is no walder and so forth so they have a council called the council of yamnia in which the rabbis redefine judaism into a works oriented culture and that's what yeah and that leads to um that oral law gets codified written down in the talmud so you have talmudic judaism that start that that's from the third to the eighth century when you get to about the 12th century you then have by then and what goes on then in the geonic era as they call it the the jews tend to regard the writings of the rabbis with greater weight than they do the torah itself and it starts to drift further and further and further away even to the point when you get to the 12th century you have what they call the kabbalah which is actually mysticism jewish mysticism and a reaction to that in the 18th century is the hasidics but as you go through the different form when you speak of judaism in any meaningful way you need to sort of define your terms because the people that we regard as hasidic or the extreme orthodox as we would see them was a reaction to the kabbalah and uh anyway so in any case here we have this already we begin to get some little excerpts here to give you a perspective that the mission of the interpret the jewish perception was it was more important to listen to the voice of the rabbis than to conquer and uh contradict the scripture itself moving on here for moses said jesus speaking now moses said honor thy father and thy mother and and whoso curseth father and mother let him die to death but ye say if a man shall say to his father or mother it is corbon that is to say a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profiteth by me he shall be free what he's referring to is an unusual practice they were supposed to take care of their mother and father but if they took their their goods and said that's set aside for the lord that would exempt them corban would you know that was a they used it as an escape from their obligations to their own mother and father that's what he's alluding to here see if his match will say to his father it is corbon this little treasure i've got is corbin in other words it's a gift for god set aside for him he's using the recent excuse to not take care of the mother and father and jesus is referring to the law in exodus 20 and leviticus 20 and they sidestep the commandment by simply declaring that their possessions were corbon meaning given to god and thus dedicated for spiritual purposes and that was they're using that as an escape clause if you will and that's what jesus is criticizing it says then you suffer him no more to do ought for his mother and father making the word of god of none effect through your tradition which ye have delivered and many such like things do you know jesus is chiding them because they're using traditions to eclipse or supersede what the law called for so he's he's he's challenging their their commitment to nutrition over and above their commitment to the law of god those who try to justify themselves by the law end up modifying it in order to escape its authority very often you find people who appear to be very very pious are really using the law of something to hide behind rather than to adhere to the spirit of the law i want you to notice the tragic sequence here teaching their doctrines is god's word it was verse 7 laying aside god's word in verse 8 rejecting god's word in verse 9 and then robbing god's word of its power in verse 13. that's the progress we're observing here in the text see it's in the same way those who handle god's word without submitting to it are in the constant process of conforming it to their own self-complacency so you want to be careful of that as we as new testament readers as we watch these things moving on verse 14. and when he had called all the people unto him he said unto them hearken unto me every one of you and understand there's nothing from without a man that entering into him can defile him he's speaking spiritually of course but the things which come out of him those are they that defile the man if any men have ears to hear let them hear in other words it's not what the concern they you know hygiene is worrying about eating something impure okay he's speaking spiritually what defiles you spiritually isn't what you're eating it's what comes out of you your words they do you more harm than anything that you could possibly consume that's what he's that's the the thought here that's embraced here and this jesus of course had the pharisees reeling he made his closing remarks as public as possible no he's not dealing with affairs he's doing with the public he's saying don't listen to these guys this is what you should be concerned with this is declaring null and void the entire mosaic system of clean and unclean foods believe it or not that's astonishing he's saying don't shouldn't be concerned about kosher non-kosher that's actually what's implied here mark doesn't hit that hard because he's writing to gentiles another thing that i think we've covered in our opening remarks we discover as we study the gospel of mark that it's very much written to non-jews because again and again and again he has to translate and explain so he tells you that he's he has in view a gentile audience and uh what's impo what's implicit here though is that he's declaring the clean and unclean thing a thing of the past see another question i love to ask how many um of each animal did uh no did noah take into the ark people say two at first except how many did they take two of the unclean seven of the clean right that's all in in in genesis six and seven and so on interesting question those definitions are uh are ritual definitions in the book of leviticus clean and unclean is is not intrinsic you know a pig isn't unclean to eat people love pork in other words it's it's it's it's those are ritual definitions how did noah know clean and unclean and the answer of course as you start to analyze that is they were ordained long before noah they were ordained in the eden way back in the garden the sabbath day was introduced genesis chapter 2 not exodus 20 the sabbath wasn't established in the law it was in the law instruct them to remember the sabbath it already said the law was given in exodus chapter 20. in exodus chapter 16 four chapters earlier they're observing sabbat shabbat with the quails and all that business so begin to realize that some of these ideas were much they preceded the whole existence of judaism and so uh not to make a big thing of that but just to be realize that these things have a deeper deeper thing and the clean and unclean definitions are really ritualistic and anyway let's move on here and when he was entered into the house from the people his disciples asked him concerning the parable so notice he's gonna he's going to explain inside some special things the disciples just didn't get it at first this wasn't a parable by the way it was a straightforward exposition they're calling it a parable because they didn't get it he said to them are you so without understanding also now in the privacy of a home he's talking to his disciples and are you guys not getting it do you not perceive that whatsoever thing from without entereth into a man it cannot defile him now he's not talking nutritionally he's talking spiritually because it entereth not into his heart but into his belly and go without in the draft purging all meats so you understand what he's saying see it's what goes into your heart that defiles you not what goes into your stomach that's his point now obviously you can take poisons that's not what he's talking about okay but you know something i have to tell you something kind of strange and i hope you don't take this wrong but i i just i find myself very very often when i eat and also when i go to the bathroom i find myself profoundly awed by the complexity of our nutritional system it's really astonishing when you think about it that we can go and we eat things leaves foods whatever and they go into our body and our body separates and takes what it needs and passes on what it doesn't need how does it know you follow me and then as you study that further you also realize that that you've got combustion taking place which takes carbon oxygen gets co2 that co2 that you exhale not only going to the bathroom but even out breathing is required by the trees and the floor to in order to make what it does which is sugar and oxygen okay and it makes more sugar than it needs and that's where we get food and you begin to realize not only we are we exquisitely designed i mean the whole nutritional process i don't think we fully can read books and books about nutrition and everybody has certain opinions but i don't think we fully understand it all anyway eating cholesterol doesn't really produce cholesterol in your body there's other issues there but i guess the complexity of our nutritional system is breathtaking and i'm always fascinated how the body determines what doesn't need and passes it on doesn't accumulate somewhere it it's it's a flow through it's a working fluid kind of model and the whole creation's like that and then we begin to discover that the plants and the trees the other things are all designed in harmony with us in a sense and uh staggering and uh so i don't dismiss this i couldn't resist getting it because it what what what when it enters into your body it doesn't contaminate you spiritually it you know it's what comes out of your mouth that contaminates you spiritually and so uh anyway that's little beckham the he basically though jesus had declared right here that all foods are clean that comes as a shock to a jew and i'm not saying that if you're jewish you shouldn't you need to abandon your traditions that's not the point but recognize what they are are there really traditions let's move on verse 20. and he said that which cometh out of the man that defileth the man and he means what comes out of your mouth okay for from within out of the heart of men proceed and boy do we have a list of things that comes out of the heart of man here evil thoughts adulteries fornications murders thefts covetousness wickedness the seed lasciviousness an evil eye blasphemy pride foolishness what a list all these evil things come from within and that's what defiles the man not what he eats it's what he comes out of his mouth that's what the lord the point is making now some regard this declaration as the most revolutionary passage in the new testament to the jewish mind certainly see most of us fail to appreciate its impact because we're not familiar with the bondage from the fastidious legalism which had taken over if we understand that culture and this fastidious legalism that the pharisees had embraced and that was the the pop you know the popular standard this is shredding that whole standard and that's why this this passage is probably far more revolutionary than most readers especially if the non-jewish readers recognize by the way peter had this very issue re-emphasized to him on a rooftop in joppa that occupies the core of acts chapter 10. kill and eat that said to peter that shocked him and god instructed him to do three times and uh and he still doesn't get the lesson paul in galatians had to call him out for his hypocrisy because he would when uh he would preach uh openness and then when the jews were around he would you know feign a certain orthodoxy and and paul called him out as a hypocrite and peter submitted that correction see some traditions can be helpful to us as reminders of our heritage but we must constantly be aware unless traditions take the place of truth that has its core correlation if you will to our own patriotism when i was a boy scout it was god in country didn't have to choose between them during world war ii we stood for liberty and men gave their lives so that other people could have that liberty but somehow it's all gotten twisted around we're not about democracy democracy is an unstable form of government was recognized as such to most students of history that's why our founding fathers worked hard to avoid giving us a democracy because they're unstable gave us a republic very different it's probably one only one uh citizen in 10 that knows the difference in this country our educational system has failed to preserve that so here's a case where our traditions have failed us because we haven't embraced the right ones the traditions that found this country are worth embracing and are worth dying for the country we have today makes that quite questionable where people who sign up for some of these things often are just the millions of politicians rather than really committing to a set of principles that justify that kind of commitment beware less traditions take the place of truth do we really have truth do we really have freedom of speech do we do we really have freedom of religion in this country the very things that our founding fathers tried to preserve are being shredded by our neglect and allowing our enemies to take charge holiness has always been a matter of the heart not the stomach and it's a matter of a right relationship with god by faith that's what it's all about not keeping rules but a relationship with god now ceremonial purity is a matter of external obedience to a law as evidence of that faith but to the extent it's an evidence of that faith that's one thing but where it replaces that faith it's quite another moses made it clear that god wanted love and obedience to come from the heart and not merely outward obedience to rules deuteronomy 6 deuteronomy 10 deuteronomy 30. deuteronomy is basically three sermons by moses at the end of his life and he emphasizes that god is interested in your heart not the rules that you have an outward obedience to in the absence of that and so there's there's a there's a big dedication between the big difference between true dedication and simply conformance to some kind of system system of rules okay so we have man's traditions on the one hand and god's truth on the other all through the bible outward mass traditions outward forms and that's a form of bondage the kosher laws to the jew are a form of bondage many jews have the insight and will admit that it's really a rabbinical con job it's their turf in contrast to outward forms and bondage god's truth would have inward faith and liberty liberty and the liberty we have in christ is a precious thing to really understand mass traditions are trifling rules god's truth is in the form of fundamental principles and they don't change man's traditions are outward piety god's truth is true inward holiness that's what he's after mass traditions are neglect which replaces the word in other words and god's truth exalts the word of god in contrast to that one neglects the word of god the other exalts it now this is quite a list we ran through into in this passage here we spot it said evil thoughts and the the the greek term there is quite precise evil reasoning within oneself is what actually the greek term uh dialogue it's my hoy katoy is uh evil reasoning within oneself is perhaps a more precise translation the other term porneia is translated sexual immorality in their typical bible is illicit illicit sexual intercourse adultery fornication homosexuality lesbianism intercourse with animals all embraced by that sexually of course with close relatives incest is also embraced by that term porneia in the greek now there's another word for adulteries malchea and murders of course fonus which are murderers slaughters the ten commandments don't doesn't say thou shalt not kill it says thou shalt not murder to be more precise but anyway and thefts cloak that's where we get the word kleptomania from by the way thefts covetousness pleonexia greed appetite for what belongs to others covetousness we have it highly organized called madison avenue promotes covetousness and covetousness is a form of idol worship idol that's why tithing is a antidote to covetousness and a very profound series of studies i encourage you to track those things down wickedness porneria which is depravity malice evil desires deceit dolos which is craft guile or deceit that's pretty straightforward lasciviousness unbridled lust excess licenses licentiousness lasciviousness wantonness outrageousness shamelessness insolence you know it's disturbing to realize how hollywood our entertainment industry has allowed these things to become commonplace it's bad enough for them to exist it's quite another for them to be celebrated it's astonishing to see the number of magazines who survive on just keeping track of who's sleeping with who in the container in the entertainment industry and uh we're not only we are not only to avoid these things we were to avoid those who see pleasure in them and uh lasciviousness very very critical issue moving on an evil eye of almost panerais that's the eye that watches another's possessions it sounds like an old english term here and it obviously was at the same time it includes it's a form in a sense of extreme covetousness and so on blasphemy we use that term sounds like a theological term no it's simply slander detraction speech injurious to another's good name thus also in pious and repro reproachful speech injurious to divine majesty that's we normally associate that term when we slander god the holy spirit or whatever but um but it's it's anyway it's it's a it's a form of slander it's astonishing to see the degree of gossip and slander within the christian body i'm stunned as i moved from 30 years in the corporate boardrooms of america secular which my experience has been had a very high ethic not talking they weren't saved necessarily but they had a high ethic and respect and these people that deserved respect it shocks me having shifted some 20 years ago from the secular world to full-time professional christianity it shocks me to see how prevalent everywhere we have among christians of gossip slander and libel okay then another one comes up here is pride hooper opinia pride haughtiness arrogance if i asked you who is mr arrogance on the airwaves and most of you have very quickly come up with a only one or two names that would qualify that i mean that stand out so much that you would make a good guess as to who i might be speaking about it's astonishing to see how people prominent on the platform ministry are arrogant and prideful it's a very it's shocking it's shocking foolishness approaching foolishness uh folly senselessness thoughtlessness recklessness that's really the flavor of this recklessness is probably the closest to us and foolishness okay this is radical stuff if especially if you think that mankind is intrinsically good well there's some good man though it's hard to find man left to himself is a pretty vicious animal and this is this is the description here and jeremiah sums it up beautifully with a verse that most of you knows jeremiah 79 where god declares through jeremiah the heart human heart is deceitful above all things that's quite a statement and goes on to say it is desperately wicked in fact the word in the hebrew implies incurably wicked and who can know it you see nowhere in the bible does god cure the heart doesn't repair it it's always used the expression of replacing it with a new one that's why it's called a new birth you're reborn you're a new creation in christ because we don't physically see it immediately you sort of think well that's just a figure of speech no it's a very real dynamic and it will show up in changes if you haven't if there hasn't if it hasn't initiated a series of changes called sanctification you know something's wrong because it will if it's real there's no power in the world that can make a make the heart good is the thought it's incurable you need a new one and that new one's available in christ let's just take a let's take a quick pass through romans chapter 3 a refresher in romans 3 verses 10 through 18 actually as it is written paul writes in romans there is none righteous no not one that's a terrifying statement that includes every one of us if we're not in christ there's none righteous no not one there is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after god god took the initiative to reach out to you see all of us were willfully ignorant we chose to be we weren't just stupid not informed no we chose to be that's what willfully means back in romans chapter 1 verse 18 through 32 nails that thoroughly and if none seeks then all that seek do so upon god's initiative we call that doctrine election there's a whole study of the doctrine of election i'll leave you to chase down yourself in luke chapter 4 jesus gave a little sermon when he was at nazareth and they tried to throw him off a cliff why well check out the sermon because he used several examples they were all gentiles to point out the whole concept of election they were very proud jews he showed that every one of the examples used were elections romans continues they are all gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable there is none that doeth good no not one paul is hammering this here to make his point the foundation for the following chapters in romans people deliberately turned their backs on the truth they dishonored god instead of glorifying him what use are they they're like overripe fruits the concept here they do not follow after that which is good man does not evolve upwards that's another part of the fallacy of what we're taught in our culture in our traditions if you will man devolves downward take a look at the ethics of the politicians of the first few decades of this country and the ethics of the politicians today by going from a convent to a brothel balconies their throat is an open sepuker which is probably the most detestable thing that a jewish writer could conceive of an open grave decaying away that throws an open sepulchre with their tongues they have used deceit the poison of asps is under their lips and he's quoting psalm 5 verse 9. the asp there is an egyptian cobra by the way but that's not important let's move on their throat is an open sepulchre with their tongues they have they used to see the poison of aspers under lips whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness wow see a man's tongue is a window into his heart boy you know when you see some of the young people and the language they use among themselves on the street it's a shock most of us if we have any age at all remember a time when it wasn't like that even among kids it's just gotten more and more celebrated by hollywood more and more cursed there's places that you can travel on a bus sometimes or even on a plane and hear conversations that are so disgusting so they have no grasp of how disgusting the land the everyday language they use is it's just amazing it's a window into their heart their feet are swift to shed blood that's quoting isaiah 59 verse 7 and also isaiah 6 destruction misery are in their ways see man has no fulfillment except in glorifying god and the way of peace they have not known see there is no peace if you're separated from god there is no fear of god before their eyes that's our problem with christians go through the christian body in america especially and there's no awe no fear of god by going through a little procedure they feel they've got their get out of hell free card gee i'm saved i made that i went down the sawdust trail and i made my decision for christ so that's okay i got my feeling the idea of behavior as responsible there's no fear of god in their lives something's wrong we need to re-examine the way we're approaching some of these things here it's quoting psalm 36 similar to the days of noah there's no fear of god in the days of no one so god took care of that at the end of all flesh has come before me declares in genesis 6. romans 3 23 a verse that most of us have recognized for all have sinned and come short of the glory of god every one of us every one of us have blown it and paul says of himself as we must also a wretched man that i am who shall deliver me from the body of this death he pleased in romans 7 well obviously jesus christ has that's the that's the incredible drama of it all christ has repaired this deficiency on our part getting back to mark i'm sure he probably didn't think we'd get back to chapter seven i had to take a little digress i couldn't resist reviewing a little bit of romans when you talk about these things but anyways from then c rose and she gets a shooting script okay scene change we shift from all of that now we're going to go to a very strange place by the way this surprises you if you've really studied the gospels you may not realize that he left israel and from thence he rose and went into the borders of tyre and sidon and entered into a house and would have no man know it but he could not be hit so he's up he's like it's sort of you get the feeling it's sort of like a vacation spot he got away from the crowds of galilee and judea and when he went to tyre and sidon way up north on the coat near the coast he entered the house for privacy he would have no man know it in other words he apparently did this with a certain covertness he just slipped away and that was his little vacation spot except you know the word got out hey guess where he is i know where he is this is the only recorded occasion outside israel a summer cottage for privacy on the mediterranean coast about 40 miles from capernaum and he's on foot by the way this wasn't where the hurts rent a car this is on foot 40 miles think about it for for you know change of pace okay there are only a few in scripture commended for their faith by the way i want you before we get into this little anecdote think about it how many in the scripture are commended for their faith only a couple of cases and they're always gentiles take a look we're not always we'll take a look here here's one we don't know the person's name so we continue verse 25 for a certain woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell at his feet okay the woman was a greek a syrophoenician woman by nation and that was she was from that area but she's a gentile her daughters got a demon possession situation and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter seems straightforward enough she'd heard the rumors in desperation she finds out where he is goes to see him and falls at his feet got the picture non-jewish a greek right and by the way the verb tense here indicates that she kept on begging in other words it's pretty intense which means it isn't concluded it's continuing you follow me she didn't beg once and it wasn't a once and for all act it was a continuous process begging begging biggie you got the picture now national her nationality was against her she's a gentile not jewish she's considered unclean anyway by jewish standards she was despised by the religious establishment but here we are by jewish standards this is a gentile therefore unclean she's despised by the jewish establishment and furthermore she was a woman which had no standing in the in the jewish culture so she's not only a gentile she's she's she's she's a woman and satan was against her the jewish the establishment was against her her gender was against her and satan was against her demons had taken control of her daughter he got the picture the disciples were against her because they tried to send her away they wouldn't let her come in so she she's got the deck stacked against her every which way you can imagine okay and what does jesus say to her he's sort of putting her to the test so don't be surprised what he's doing here he said unto her let the children first be filled for does not mean to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs wow the dogs canary on this it's the pet household dogs not street scavengers it's like the you know the that's the term that's used there jesus hinted at a hope here and she grabbed it he said you see let the children first be filled it's not me to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs in other words he's implying that as bad as it looks there may be some leftovers there may be some leftovers that's sort of the hint that's she takes that as her entry if you will she answered and said on him yes lord yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs you see now you and i reading this might miss the tone of it he didn't of course see jesus she used jesus own words and used them as the basis for her plea this is was viewed as a bright persistence of faith by our lord this woman is willing to spend untiring energy in the pursuit of spiritual things the question that sort of lurks for you and me here is do you persistently and passionately pray for anything is there anything in your life that you persistently and passionately pray for like she was begging for her on the behalf of her daughter think about that do we get serious about praying or do we sort of toss up a request now and then and then wonder why lord doesn't maybe seem to respond the way we thought he would no she was intense committed persistent she depended entirely upon christ's goodness and not her own she didn't say she deserved this none of that it was entirely all appealing to grace key point here psalm 51 17 the sacrifices of god are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart oh god thou wilt not despise hebrews 11 6 the famous faith chapter hall of faith in hebrews 11 6 for without faith it is impossible to please god for he that cometh to god must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him just knowing god's exist is nothing well i would say nothing but i mean that's just a preamble the devils also know he exists they tremble no he must also know that only not only that he is that he exists but that he is a rewarder of them that deals with him he's an intelligent person he has decisions he has responses he has preferences god has need to understand those and he is a rewarder of those that seek him diligently not just casually diligently that's what he's after wow a lot here to think about verse 29 and he said unto her for this saying go thy way the devil has gone out of my daughter wow like that it is done and when she was gone when she was at verse 30 when she was come to her house she found the devil gone out and her daughter laid upon the bed praise his holy name matthew 5 6 blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled praise god wow nothing in vain while the shooting script continues verse 31 and again departing from the coasts of tyre and sidon he came unto the sea of galilee through the midst of the coasts of decapolis decapolis are ten cities greek cities east of the jordan non-jewish environment that's where we had gadara in the what we call the case of the devil ham and all of that okay and they bring unto him one that was deaf and it had an impediment in his speech and they beseech him to put his hand upon him okay by the way something i picked up that i can't vouch for but i think it's provocative to think about there are some experts that believe that deafness is vastly more debilitating than blindness and the reason is more traumatic than blindness because in blindness they still have community in blindness they can feel part of a group they can they can fellowship they can communicate they can hear and they can talk and and they can connect someone's deaf is isolated and some of the experts in this kind of thing feel that the deafness is a bigger burden in a sense partly because the social stigma and the isolation is more severe we don't we know we we don't sort of disdain someone's blind we try to help them somewhat deaf we sort of um distance ourselves from because you can't communicate there's there's a barrier there stiffness that's the at least that's the point of view of some i share with you anyway here's one that's deaf and also had an impediment in the speech they not surprising that they would go together and they besieged him to put his hand upon him and he took him aside from the multitude and put his fingers into his ears and he spit and touched his tongue and looking up to heaven he sighed and saith unto him ephesus that is be opened that's an aramaic phrase but the writer mark interprets it for you because it takes for granted you don't know aramaic which implies he's writing to a gentile you see and straightway there's that word again occurs over 40 times in this gospel and straightway his ears were opened and the string of his tongue was loosed and he spake plain wow simple little declaration profoundly significant and by the way the verb 10 says he kept on speaking now we've all known that type too haven't we why are these details recorded jesus procedure seems to be a form of communication with him a form of sign language it also gives an example to follow his look his sigh his touch and his word wow he was a this is a hands-on ministry it was personal it was compassionate and it was directed to a specific need i share that as we think about our own ministries what god calls us to do you know is it personal do you really have a burden for some particular element of society it was compassionate wasn't academic wasn't intellectual no it's compassionate that was very specifically focused i think we can learn a lot from reflecting on this see our prayerlessness is probably among our most serious sins we start making lists of our our shortcomings our problems i think our prayerlessness may head the list is our prayer personal does it express true compassion and is it specific you know if you're a forward spotter for the infantry you're calling in air support you don't pick up the mic and say kill the enemy no they want to know specifically what it is they should be dealing with we should be our prayer should be the same way calling the lord's attention to the specific challenges so that when he deals with that he gets the glory moving on verse 36 he charged them that they should tell no man that's interesting you know we the more he charged them so much the more a great deal they published it and we're beyond measure astonishing he hath done all things well he maketh both the diff to hear and the dumb to speak see we always get it backwards he charged us to tell everyone and we treat it like a secret how many people have you told today or yesterday of the glory of god and the redemption in christ see we get it backwards he charged us to tell everybody we don't tell anyone he told them not to tell anyone and they told everyone a little different situation but i think the ellipsis is interesting now you may recall back in luke 7 there was a time apparently where john the baptist seemed to have his doubts he sent his disciples to go check is the did the messiah really come now we don't know whether he really had doubts or whether he was just using that to train or you know challenge his disciples but whatever jesus tells them to go back and tell john that the deaf here in the blind sea and he used those credentials as as his authority and so forth okay well that's our little chapter an easy little study but just to keep our pace of a chapter of time we'll tie it off of there and for next session you might explore chapter 8 of this little gospel of mark and with that let's stand for a closing word of prayer

Channel: Adam Champion

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Id: U8dkwL0ShmA

Length: 57min 33sec (3453 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 14 2021