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And there's a lot to cover here tonight in this chapter. Matthew chapter 15. Look at verse number 9. Matthew chapter 15 verse 9. The Bible reads, But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. The title of the sermon tonight is Commandments of Men. Hey, do you guys want to keep the commandments of God? Or the commandments of men? Alright, that's the question. There's nothing wrong with commandments of men. As long as it doesn't contradict the commandments of God. Okay, as long as you're whereby by obeying something that God man commands, that you know it is something sinful. That's when you get into problems. Okay, that's when you get into problems. And we'll start off here in Matthew chapter 15 verse 1. The Bible says, Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees. Here we go immediately. Alright, here comes to Jesus scribes and Pharisees. We know where the problem is going to be, right? These guys, they've been a thorn into Jesus side this whole time that he's been ministering in Israel. And it says, Which were of Jerusalem saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. Now, what about you guys? I mean, before you have your breakfast, lunch and dinner, before you have a meal, do you wash your hands? I hope so. I mean, that's good practice. It's good practice to wash your hands. But if I'm honest with you, I'll just say to you, I haven't always washed my hands before I eat, okay? And I remember growing up as a child in my household, my dad was always saying to me, my brother, wash your hands before you eat, okay? And my brother would come back with something in this chapter here. Okay, we'll have a look at that later on. But do you think, I mean, why do you think that the Pharisees care about Jesus and his disciples washing their hands? Do you think they're worried about their hygiene? Do you think they're worried about the health of Jesus Christ and the health of his disciples? I mean, why do you think you'd make a big deal about this? Okay, it's not just about, in fact, this is not about hygiene. This is not about one's health, okay? These are spiritual matters. And it makes sense when you understand the spiritual context of what's going on. It makes sense why this is a big issue to the Pharisees and why Jesus rebukes them in the way that he does, all right? Now, just to tell you very quickly, the scribes and the Pharisees had put all these traditions, all these commandments over the Word of God, okay? And one thing you need to understand, the washing of hands, well, it is a good practice to do. For them, it was a practice that made them right with God. In fact, the Pharisees and the scribes, they would often have these traditions of washing, and obviously on the outside, we know that Jesus Christ says they're very clean on the outside. They look very nice on the outside. They look very holy and very righteous on the outside. See, the Pharisees had put the outward cleansing as a requirement to be right with God, to be made right with God, and Jesus constantly reminds them, hey, the problem is not the outside, the problem is with your heart. The problem is a spiritual matter. No matter how much you cleanse yourself on the outside, no matter how much you reform your life, you try to keep the commands of God, no matter how much you try to follow after God, if the problem in your heart's not been fixed, then you're still dirty on the outside. You're still dirty on the inside, and you're not made right with God. You see, many religions today prioritize the outward, right? Many religions today say in order for you to be saved, you gotta keep this sacrament. You've gotta keep that tradition. You've gotta keep these commandments. What are they doing? They're no different from the scribes and the Pharisees, okay? For them, it was the washing of hands, okay? For some others, it's baptism. You gotta be baptized in order to be made right with God. Hey, no, these requirements are not there. The outward cleansing of the body is not gonna get you saved. No matter how clean you are on the outside, it's not going to get you saved. Let's keep reading, verse number three. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? Now, do you think washing your hands before you eat is transgressing the commandments of God? Of course not. The way we understand this is, the reason why it's transgressing the commandments of God is because they were saying this makes you right with God. And of course, that would transgress the commands of God because the only way you can be right with God is by receiving the Lord Jesus Christ, by receiving his death, burial, and resurrection, by placing all your faith and trust on Jesus Christ. That is the only way for you to be made right with God. You put anything else over that, you are transgressing the commandments of God. Okay, any other way to salvation that you think you need to put into place is transgressing the commandments of God. This now makes sense. Why does Jesus respond harshly to these guys? It makes sense because they're putting other requirements on people in order to be made right with God. Now, the Bible says in 1 John 3, 4, you don't need to turn there, Whosoever commit of sin, transgressive also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. What is sin? It is the transgression of the law. When you break the laws of God, when you break commandments of God, that makes you a sinner. That is when you sin. And Jesus is telling them, hey, you're sinning by commanding us to wash our hands, by saying this is our requirement to be saved or to be made right with God, you are transgressing the Lord, you are committing sin. They think they're being righteous in their requirement. They think they're being righteous by the tradition. But in fact, Jesus says you are transgressing the commandments of God. Let's keep reading verse number four. For God commanded saying, honor thy father and mother, and hear that curse of father and mother, let him die the death. Did you guys know there's a death penalty for children, that dishonor, that curse their parents? Okay, do we just read that? Am I making this up? It's right there, right? Jesus Christ says, hear that curse of father and mother, let him die the death. Now children, okay, under the household of mom and dad, please, this is probably a good memory verse for you, all right? When the time comes, am I going to curse my parents? Am I going to dishonor them? Hey, how does God feel about rebellious children? The death penalty, as much as it does for a murderer, the same punishment for murder, is the same punishment for cursing your parents. Now let me clarify this a little bit, because you might say that's pretty crazy. Keep your finger there, turn to the book of Exodus, please. Book of Exodus. You see, when the Bible talks about cursing, okay, it's not the same way that we think about it, like today. You know, we think of cursing as like saying a swear word. Like if I cussed out my parents, if I said something, you know, corrupt to them, does that mean that I'm deserving of death? Not really, okay? That's not what it means. When you curse someone, it means you desire harm upon that person, or you go out and you commit some evil, wicked, or harmful act on your parents, okay? And look, we see sometimes on the news where children raise up and brutally, you know, beat up or even murder their parents, okay? Now look, if a child cannot have a love for their parents, or hurt them and curse them in that way, cause them harm, cause them evil, for their parents, the ones that raised them, that knew them their whole life, do you think they're gonna be any use to society? That, you know, in the relationships that they make with other people? Hey, these are destructive individuals, and yes, they are deserving of the death penalty. You know, Jesus Christ says this, but you guys are in Exodus. Turn to Exodus chapter 20, please. Exodus chapter 20, verse 12. Exodus chapter 20, verse 12. The Bible says, Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord hath given thee. So one of the commandments that God gives us, as, you know, young people, children, this is something you guys can keep pretty well, is to honor your mother and father, and the promise is that God will give you a long life, okay? That thy days may be long upon the land. Well, it's quite interesting. You know, God promised you a long life if you honor your mother and father, but if you curse your mother and father, your life's cut short. It's a death penalty as far as God is concerned. Please go to one more chapter now, Exodus 21. Just Exodus 21, verse 17. Exodus chapter 21, verse 17. The Bible says, And he that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. Okay? So this is what Jesus Christ is quoting in the New Testament. He's quoting this passage from the Old Testament. Now, one thing that I need you to understand, as Australians, we don't fully embrace this. If you come from a culture that's non-Australian, you're probably more aware of this, but, you know, in Australia, we're very blessed. We're very rich. There's a lot of social aid that comes from government, and usually when someone retires or gets to an age where they can no longer work, we usually have superannuation, don't we? We normally have the pension. We have all these aids that can help the elderly, and, you know, those things in many ways are good, but, you know, in many nations around the world, they don't have this assistance. They don't have this aid, and you'll find that, you know, in South American countries, you know, and I'll assume some other countries where when someone gets to a certain age where they cannot provide for themselves, they cannot look after themselves, the responsibility for the elderly fall on their children. Okay? Now, I've got 10 kids. I haven't got a big superannuation, but I've got 10 kids. You know, guess what I'm relying on when I get too old to work. All right? I mean, there's more than, you know, if one looks after us one day per week, there's more than enough days per week for the kids to go around looking after us, right? But look, this is a good thing. This is what it means to honor. It's not just respect, and that's part of it. Respecting your parents is important, but to honor is also to provide them aid, to provide them help in their older years. Now, I'm not saying if you've got your own family, that family comes first. Your spouse comes first. Your children come first. Okay, but when you get to a point where you're elderly and your parents are elderly, you know, your responsibility is to look after them. I mean, as your children, as the children of those parents that raised you, that invested into your life, you know, it's your responsibility to make sure, hey, I need to provide some help for my parents, you know? And my mom used to work in a nursing home, and I remember my mom used to tell me stories that there were some, you know, elderly people there, and they would not be visited. I mean, they would go years and years, right, mom, without any visits from their children, any visits from their grandchildren. It's just that they'd just been dumped at the nursing home. You know, as far as I'm concerned, that's kind of like just cursing your parents. Just dump them into a stranger, dump into an institution, and not be there, not be there to, you know, to give them love, to give them aid, to speak to them. You know, that, as far as I'm concerned, would be cursing your parents. You know, you just dump them. But to honor is to respect them, to look after them. If I can just give you one quick reference, if you guys can go to 1 Timothy 5, verse 17, just to prove this a little bit. 1 Timothy 5, verse 17. 1 Timothy 5, verse 17. Now, this is a passage about pastors, okay, but we get the principle here in 1 Timothy, chapter 5, verse 17. The Bible says, Let the elders... Now, the elders is another word for saying bishop or the pastor, okay? Let the elders or the pastors that rule well be counted worthy of double honor. Remember, we're meant to honor mother and father? Well, the elder here is to be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. Now, the Bible says this, I'm not saying this, but the Bible says that I'm counted worthy, well, as long as I faithfully serve you guys labor in word and doctrine, of double honor. Okay, what does that mean? What does that mean? Let's keep reading, verse 18. For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward. You see, the Bible teaches that pastors or bishops, with the double honor that they are to receive, that they are worthy of their reward, for the labor they bestow, they ought to be provided for. You know, paid, these kinds of things. So when we take that principle to honoring mother and father, it's not just obedience, which is important when you're a young child, it's not just respect, which is important when you're a young child, but honor is to make sure you provide for them. Okay, so when they get to an age when they're older, that you guys are able to step in and help them out. Okay, that's an important part of life. And again, in Australia, we don't really see that so much because, you know, we got so many social services available to us, you know, and I think maybe, maybe, you know, the intention is right, but it seems like it makes the hearts cold, you know, against the parents because I don't need to look after them, the state's going to look after them, you know. But again, there are other countries, there are other places where you see, you know, children have to bring in the parents to their house when they got in past age and care for them. That's the biblical principle. That's what we see here in the Bible. Let's go back to Matthew 15, please. Matthew 15, you say, what does that have to do with washing of hands? Let's tie it all in together now. Matthew chapter 15, verse 5. Matthew 15, verse 5. But ye say, so Jesus has said, hey, you got to honour mother and father, right? That's the commandment. But ye say, whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, it is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, and honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Keep your finger there very quickly. Go to Mark chapter 7, please. Mark chapter 7, verse 11. Mark chapter 7, verse 11. Let's understand this with a little bit more context here. In Mark chapter 7, Mark chapter 7, verse 11. So this is the same teaching of Christ, but he words it a little bit different here. He says here, but ye say, if a man shall say to his father or mother, it is Corban, that is to say a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be free. Look at verse 12, but ye suffer him no more to be ought for his father or his mother. Look back at verse number 11, it is Corban. Now that is not an English word. That is a transliterated word from the Greek, which is transliterated from the Hebrew. And this is the same word that is often used to bring an offering to the Lord. You come and bring that gift, you bring that offering in the Old Testament times, right? You come and bring that animal for sacrifice, right? You guys are aware of that, right? So what is Jesus Christ saying here? He's saying, look, the commandment that God has given you is to honor your mother and your father. But you guys are taking people that aren't honoring their father and mother and you're allowing them to come in and bring that gift. You're coming in and allowing them to bring that sacrifice and then not requiring of them to keep the commandment to honor mother and father. So instead of using their resources, you know, that they have to support their elderly parents, they're taking those same resources and giving a gift to the temple, an offering to the temple. And by doing that, and there's nothing wrong with taking an offering to the temple, but by doing that, they're transgressing the commandment of honoring mother and father. They're not looking after their elderly parents. But the priest describes the Pharisees, they're saying, hey, you guys are good. You've given the offering to the Lord in the temple, good on you, you're right with God, but they're not going home and honoring their parents. Does that make sense? Does that make sense? So it's kind of like they're a respecter of person. If someone comes and gives a gift to the church, but then you're not keeping the commandments that God has given us, and then you're respecting that person, you're saying, well, you're good, you're fine, you're walking with the Lord. No, they may very well be breaking the commandments of God. I hope that makes sense to you. Go back to Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15, verse seven. Matthew 15, verse seven. And I'm just gonna quickly read you a passage from 1 Samuel 15, which says, to obey is better than sacrifice. Let me read that again. To obey is better than sacrifice. What were the Pharisees saying? Sacrifice is better than obedience. You come and bring the gifts, but you don't keep the commandments of honoring mother and father. But the Pharisees were saying, hey, you're fine. That's a problem. You see, Jesus Christ was showing them the hypocrisy. They were accusing Jesus and his disciples of not keeping the commands, and he's showing them, no, you're the ones that aren't keeping the commandments of God. By the traditions that you've set aside, the commandments you've made in the temple, you're breaking the commandments that God has given us. Let's look at verse number seven. The Bible says, ye hypocrites, where did Esaias prophesy of you saying, this people drove nigh unto me with their mouth and honor for me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Okay, so what was the problem with the scribes and Pharisees? Again, on the outside, they look brilliant. They would honor God with their lips, but their hearts were far from God. Okay, now look, we look at that and go, wow, look at these wicked men. But what about you guys tonight? You know, we started off by singing some praises, some hymns to the Lord. Praise God, we also honor him with our mouths. We also praise him with our lips. But where's your heart? You know, now I hope you're in church. I hope your heart's in the right place. You've come here to honor the Lord, praise God. But you know what? I'm sure there are times we come to church and our hearts are far from God. You know, I'm sure the walk of the Lord, we've just not been, we've not been fellowshiping with the Lord. We've not been picking up our Bibles. We've not been praying. But we come to church, we sing our praises, but our hearts might be defiled. Our hearts are after other things besides the Lord God. Hey, we can be the saints as the Pharisees and scribes that we see here. We need to be aware of that. You know, make sure when you come to church and you're ready to sing these praises to God, make sure your heart's in the right place. You know, ask the Lord to try your heart. Anyway, let's look at verse number nine. The Bible says here, but in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. But in vain they do worship me. Were they worshiping God? Yes, but it was in vain, it was empty. And that's what I don't want for you guys. When you come to church, you know, you participate in the preaching and the singing and the worship, great. That's awesome. But if your heart's not there, if your heart's away from the Lord, it's vain worship. It doesn't profit you anything. It doesn't give God joy. Yes, you're sacrificing yourself being in church, you're sacrificing your voice, you're singing, but to obey is better than sacrifice. Keeping the commandments of God, walking His way. That's what God ultimately wants. And then for you to be in church, praising Him. Okay, make sure you have the right order. Make sure you have the right order. And look, and I said this just on Sunday, I think to the church up there in Queensland, you know, as I'm driving to church, I'm always just, Lord, if there's any sins in my life that I've not confessed, please forgive me, right? I want to go to church and be right with you, have a clean heart, you know, seek to feed the flock of God that you've given me. You know, that's all it takes guys. It's not this long winded process. All it takes is for you to humble yourself, come before the Lord, please forgive me, Lord. Please, please, you know, bring back that right relationship that I also have with you. And then you're ready. You're ready to be in church and sing those praises to God. Okay, keep that in mind. Let's go to, if you guys can go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. And while you're turning there, I've got a lot of verses, so I won't get you to turn to all of them. I've got 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 18. Okay, I'm going to read to you from 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 18, which says, You see, we need to be careful of the traditions of our fathers. Okay, we need to be careful of traditions that may be of churches that we've come from. We've seen the traditions that they do. But you know what? We're going to be mindful that are these traditions trampling the blood of Christ? Are these traditions being taught as doctrines of God? You know, we've got to be careful. You know, I know it's probably easy for me as a pastor to fall into this, where I might issue a command. I might issue a rule in church and teach it as a doctrine of God when it's not really a doctrine. It's something that I like. It's something that I would like to instill in the church. And that's fine. It's fine to do that, but not to teach it as the commandments of God, or if it's against the commandments of God. If it tramples the blood of Christ, that's something that we ought to do away within our lives, all right? But I'm going to turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 because the question becomes, is all tradition wrong? You know, is tradition always wrong? Well, no. Let's keep reading here. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13, not all tradition is wrong. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13, it says, But we are bound to give thanks all way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, hey, this is great, great news about our salvation. Verse 15, Therefore, brethren, stand fast. What are we to stand fast on? Let's keep reading. And hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle. So is all tradition wrong? No. It says here to stand fast, right? On what? On the traditions. But how do we know whether the traditions we've been given from our forefathers, our spiritual fathers, the churches we've come from, how do we know if they're right, if they're good, if they're holy? What else did he say there in that verse? Whether by word or our epistle. So, look, nothing wrong with traditions, but we need to compare it to this word. We need to compare it to the epistles that God has given us, don't we? And if it's not contradicting the commandments of God, then it's fine. It's good to have traditions. In fact, the way we conduct church is very traditional. You know, we sit down, we sing hymns, we have a time of prayer, we have a Bible reading, then we get to the sermon, or we have the announcements, or some people have the announcement before the sermon. Hey, you know, that's a custom, that's a tradition, a way of doing things. But is that contrary to the commandments of God? No, it's fine. Certain traditions are fine. You know, as long as this, I hope that, you know, just gives you an idea, you know, whenever you've been given a tradition, just is it contrary to the commandments of God? Is it being taught as a doctrine of God? If it's that way, then you need to do away that tradition, okay? But if other traditions are aligned with the word of God, they're not contradictive, they're fine. Keep them, hold on to them. Hold fast on to them, okay? That's fine. Back to Matthew chapter 15, please, verse 10, Matthew 15, verse 10. So, always just stay in Matthew 15, all right? Keep your finger there, because we're always going back there. Verse 10, And he called them multitude, and said unto them, Hear and understand, not that which goeth into the mouth defileth for man, but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth for man. Now, this was the verse my brother would quote to my dad. My dad would be like, you know, sons, wash your hands before eating. My brother would be like, yeah, but Jesus said, you know, Jesus said that, sorry, I lost the verse, you know, not that which goeth into the mouth defileth for man, but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth for man. So, my brother, I've obviously is mucking around having a joke, but he took it as a very carnal teaching, right? It's the same thing that these Pharisees were doing. They were trying to teach this carnal truth, but Jesus Christ was more focused on the spiritual truth, the truth of the heart there, okay? The spiritual lesson, which is what? What is the spiritual lesson that we see there? That iniquity, that wickedness, that sin starts from within the man, okay? Your sins, the sins you've committed against the Lord, I know it's very tempting for you to blame the devil. I've heard people say, oh, the devil made me do it. It's not the devil, okay? The devil might have given you the temptation, might have given you a thought, but still it's come from within, okay? You doing that sins come from within. It's very tempting. What did Adam do? When God came to Adam and said, hey Adam, what's going on? He said, it was the wife you've given me. He went to Eve. What did Eve say? It was the devil, okay? No, wickedness, sin, it comes from within. It doesn't come from outside. It's what's within that defiles the man. Let's keep reading verse number 12. Then came his disciples and said unto him, knowest doubt that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying. And he answered and said, every plant which my heavenly Father have not planted shall be rooted up. You see, once again guys, what were they making themselves? What did they believe they had to do to be made right with God? The scribes and the Pharisees, washings, right? The outside cleansing, cleansing on the outside, self-reform, the works that they do. They thought that was going to get them right with God, okay? And Jesus is saying, hey, that's not good enough. You're still defiled on the inside. And so these disciples picked up on the Pharisees getting all offended. You know, the gospel offends. You know, you when you go and knock a door, people think, hey, I think I'm good enough for heaven. Don't they? They say that I hope I'm good. You know, I believe I'm good enough for heaven. And then you tell them, hey, there is none righteous, no, not one. You know, you tell them that. You tell them that, hey, you're not good enough for heaven. You tell them, in fact, your sins will send you to hell. It makes you deserving of hell. You know, some people hope, you know, they wake up today. Well, what does the Bible say then in order? What do I need to do to be saved? But many times people get offended when they hear the truth that all these works that I was doing or, you know, all that church attendance that I had, all the money that I had given to charities and to the poor. Are you telling me that's not good enough? Are you saying that a murderer can ask, can just believe on Christ and he can be saved? And here am I, I'm trying to believe a good life and I, you know, I'm going to go to hell because I don't believe in Jesus. I've seen people get offended by that. You know, the gospel offends, you know, because you're telling people it doesn't matter how much you clean yourself on the outside. You're still dirty on the inside. Okay, there's another way to clean yourself to be made right with God. It offends. And the Pharisees and the scribes they were offended here. So be it, you know, your good works cannot save you. Verse 14, the Bible says, let them alone. Listen, when someone gets offended, you don't need to go and sugarcoat the gospel. You can't sugarcoat the gospel. When someone gets offended, take Jesus' advice. Let them alone. Okay, they're offended. They don't want to hear it. Move on, leave them alone. They be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. And of course that ditch spiritually speaking would be hell, you know, if they're offended by the gospel, which is supposed to be good news, the free gift of salvation. If they're offended by that, let them be, you know, let them fall into that ditch as it were. And then verse 15, then answered Peter and said unto him, declare unto us this parable. See, Peter didn't understand what Jesus Christ was teaching you. And look at Jesus' response. He says, and Jesus said, are you also yet without understanding? I mean, look, this is quite a shock rebuke that Peter got from the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you not understood this teaching that, you know, about the washings and what defiles you is actually within? Verse number 17, do not ye yet understand that whatsoever enterth in at the mouth, goeth into the belly and is cast out into the draught? So for us today, what does that mean? It means look, even if you eat something that's bad for you, it's going to go into your belly and then it's just going to go to the toilet. It's going to go down the sewer. Okay, it's just going to pass through your body. You know, don't you understand that? But verse 18, but those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile the man. All right, they defile the man, the things that are within. Now, Jesus Christ rebuked Peter, okay? And look, there are a lot of Christians today that asked the same question that Peter gets. They don't understand what's being taught here and they too need to be sharply rebuked. You know, and maybe you've asked yourself this question, you know, and that is this, someone that is saved, someone that has believed on Christ. Have you ever had someone come up to you? Maybe yourself, maybe you've asked this question. Maybe you started to doubt and you said, I don't know if I'm saved. You know, I don't know if I'm saved. You say, well, why is that? Why don't you believe that you're saved? Well, because if I'm saved, shouldn't I be living differently? You know, I'm not living up to the standard that I see Jesus Christ set. I'm not living after the commandments. I'm still sinning. Hey, someone that says that, and look, this is commonplace in a lot of churches. People doubting their salvation because of the way they live. But let me ask you Brevin, will salvation ever about the way you live? No, that's why it should be sharply rebuked. And quite often I'll say to them, hold on, is it the way you live that saves you or is it your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? And quite often they just wake up. And you know, sometimes, you know, just a carnal Christian, someone that's received bad training, they just need the cobwebs, you know, cleaned out a little bit and they remind, of course, it's my faith in Christ. Of course, it's Christ that died for my sins, my past, present and future sins. Of course, I can't live righteously. If I could, then I wouldn't need a savior. That's the whole reason why Jesus Christ came to die for us, okay? Hey, that's the same thing. You know, the Pharisees are getting offended. They're looking on the outside. Jesus says, look, you're dirty on the inside, you know? And look, I would say this, if someone is constantly, constantly doubting your salvation, if you're someone that's just constantly, I'm not saying you've doubted because I've doubted my salvation in life. I'm sure there's been different times where we've all doubted. But if you're just constantly confused, am I saved, am I saved? You're probably not saved, okay? Because when you understand the gospel, when you understand what Jesus did for you, when you understand there's nothing you can contribute except to place your faith in what Jesus Christ has done, when you understand that and it's all in Jesus' name and that it's eternal life forever, then you won't doubt because it's not based on your performance. It's based on Jesus Christ. And most people know that Jesus Christ is good. Most people understand that He's perfect. Most people understand that He came and did the job of salvation. And when you understand that, you're not going to doubt because it's not based on you. It's based on Christ, okay? So that's the kind of rebuke that we need to give to people. Like if you hear people say, I don't know if I'm saved. Why? Because of my works. It's like, well, what's wrong? Either you just need those cobwebs cleaned out or that person's not saved and they're basing their salvation on their works, okay? Not so. Yeah, you can do all the works you want. You still be befiled on the inside. You need to be born again by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 19, For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. All these things sound like really horrible, right? Evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications. But you know what? We all have the heart of man. You've probably just, I'm not saying you've necessarily done these things, but you've probably in your heart thought on these things, okay? And if you have, you can, if you have, you look at that list, you go, yeah, you know what? I've thought about these things. That just shows you just how evil your heart is, you know, because, you know, that's the fallen human nature that we have unfortunately, you know? That's something that we need to keep battling by walking in the Spirit. Verse 20, These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man. And I'll just read to you from Jeremiah 17, verse 9. A lot of you guys know this passage. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Hey, who knows your heart? You can't know your heart, okay? It's God that knows your heart. You can trick yourself into thinking I'm such a great person. Man, if you just consider the thoughts that are in your heart, you know, you'd see just how wicked of a person you are. You realize just how much, why we needed the Lord Jesus Christ to come and sacrifice himself for us. Verse 21, Then Jesus went thence and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. Now, the following story seems really harsh, okay? As long as, if you understand the context of all this and you understand a bit of the history, Jesus has gone into the, to Jesus, okay, Tyre and Sidon, they're not Jewish cities, they're Gentile cities, okay? They're Gentile cities. And if you guys, you don't have to turn there, but in fact, I'm not even gonna read it. But Luke chapter six, you'll find that multitudes of people from Tyre and Sidon came to Jesus believing on him and he heals them from all kinds of sicknesses and he cast out all kinds of devils for these Gentile people that came to see him. My point is, Jesus never drove away Gentiles that came to hear of him, okay? He never drove them away. He never didn't, he always healed them if they required that. And so I want to give you that picture because if you don't understand that, this story sounds really harsh, okay? But we see that Jesus goes into Gentile coasts, okay? It's not that he's in an area of the Jews and then a Gentile woman comes up to him. He went to a Gentile place and that's why there's a Gentile woman that comes up to her. Here in verse number 22, it says, And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. Now, if you've been here with some of our other chapters that we've gone through, I've shown you how when someone calls Jesus Christ the Son of David, what they are essentially saying is that you are the Messiah, okay? You are the one who will reign eternally on the throne of David and of Solomon. That's what it means to be the Son of David. So this woman is a believer on Christ. You know, Christ the Messiah, Christ is another word, that's her Savior, that's her Christ, okay? She is a believer. And then verse 23, But he answered her, not a word. So it's kind of like ignores her. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she cryeth after us. And he answered and said, I am not sense, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. So you see that Jesus Christ does affirm a truth that he did come to the lost house of Israel. You know, his purpose was to come to the Jews and many of the Jews believed on him. And then obviously, when Christ ascends to heaven, he instructs his disciples to go out into all the world and preach the gospel, okay? The intention was always to have a faithful men and people that would go out and witness to the Gentile nations. But here we have a Gentile woman coming. And what's happening here is that Jesus Christ is going to teach everyone here a lesson, all right? But what I want you to notice in verse 25, she came and worshipped him. Who even meant to worship? The Lord God, right? So not only does she recognize him as the son of David, the Messiah, but she recognized him as the Lord God. She comes and worships him. Lord, help me. Verse 26, and he answered and said, It is not meat to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. I mean, he essentially calls her a dog, all right? Compared to the Jews, he says they're the children, right? Verse 27, and she said, Truth, Lord. I find that hard to understand, all right? I mean, if someone calls me a dog, am I gonna, yeah, that's true. But you know what, guys? It's what we are, all right? I mean, right now, we're children of God. We're saved believers born again into God's family. But before you were saved, honestly, we were dogs. Okay, without the Lord God. That's exactly what we were. Truth, Lord, we should say. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. In other words, Lord, even you are gonna consider those dogs because you're gonna allow those crumbs to fall off the master's table and the dogs will be fed. And look what Jesus says. Is it being cruel to the woman? No, he's teaching a lesson to everyone around him. Verse 28, Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee, even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. What's the lesson we can take out of this? This was a Gentile woman and Jesus says, your faith is great, okay? It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile. It doesn't matter you're your background, you're the ascendancy, your DNA. Look, we all have the ability to have our faith in the Lord God. And we ought to be striving, regardless of your background, we ought to be striving to be someone that is great in faith. When Jesus Christ can say, you are great in faith. And you see, when Jesus Christ sees that, he says, look, even as thou wilt, and her daughter was made whole from that very hour. What does that teach us about our prayer life? That when we come and pray, we ask the Lord, we bring our request before Him, we need to come with great faith. We need to come knowing that God can answer that prayer, that God can perform that work that we require Him to do. That's how we ought to come to Him in great faith, the great lesson that we see from this woman. Verse 29, And they glorified the God of Israel. Now, you and I, we're not going to see these miracles in our lifetime. You know, this is an amazing thing to see Jesus Christ perform these amazing miracles, right? Healing people that could not speak, they were able to speak the lame, people unable to walk and they're able to walk and people that are blind and Jesus Christ is able to make them see, these are amazing things. And sometimes I used to wonder, I used to wonder, man, it would've been so great, I wish I was there during the time of Christ and be able to see these things. But then when I was looking at these things, I was reminded that these miracles can be seen in our lifetime. We can see these miracles, but in a different way. In fact, a more powerful way. And let me give you an example of this. Look at verse 31 again. It said, And when they saw the dumb to speak, you know, and I'm reminded just myself as a preacher, you know, before I became a pastor, before I had the chance to preach, I would say I was dumb to preach. You know, I didn't think I had the ability to stand before people and open the word of God and preach. I'm sure there are many of you that have gone out and preached the gospel and saw people saved. There was a time when you said, I don't think I can preach the gospel. I don't think I'm able to do that. You know, but here's the thing. It's the same thing. Dumb is someone that is unable to speak. Many times we limit ourselves. We think, God, we cannot do this work that you've given us. You know, Lord, I know you want me to preach the gospel, but I can't. I'm too timid. I've never done it before. Now I remember as a teenager, I used to think there's no way I can preach the gospel. There's no way I can do it. But Lord, I'd love to see one person saved in my whole life. If that's all I can do in my whole life, I'd love to see at least one person saved. You know, hey, that's an amazing miracle when God can use us, when we think we're limited, He can empower us, and then we can speak. Hey, these are the same miracles that we see today, just in the spiritual sense, right? If you've preached the gospel, you've been a dumb person, now you can speak, all right? And then it says the maimed made whole. Hey, this is like salvation. We're maimed. You know, we've got those filthy rags of our works. You know, we're sick with the sickness of sin in our lives. We're maimed in that way. But then God has made us whole. God has given us salvation. And then the lane to walk. You know, we were people that before knowing the words of God, we were, you know, just walking after the flesh, walking, walking and having our own desires. But God gives us the knowledge, the ability to walk in the spirit. He gives us that Holy Ghost so we can walk in His ways and the blind to see. I mean, I'm sure those times when you picked up the Bible, maybe the first times you picked up the Bible and you're like, I don't understand what this is. What is this? What are these words saying? And then we study, we've reading, we've asking the Lord for wisdom. You were able then to see, you're able to then understand the scriptures that God has given you. Hey, these are miracles that we can see take place in our lives. Okay, and these are the greater miracles. Do you think God's more concerned about you physically being able to walk or is He more concerned about you walking in the spirit, walking after His ways? Hey, that's the greater miracle. So we get to experience greater things guys, you know, than what these people saw as far as those physical miracles go. Let's keep reading, verse 32. Then Jesus called His disciples unto Him and said, I have compassion on the multitude. Because they continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat. Now, if you were here two weeks ago, the previous chapter, what did we see? So Jesus Christ feeding the, does anyone remember how many? Feeding the 5,000. It was 5,000 men. There were other women and children, could have easily been 10,000 people. Just the previous chapter, all right? Now Jesus Christ has another great multitude. Verse number, verse number 38 tells us that He was 4,000 there. Okay, 4,000 now. So it's a little bit less than the previous chapter. And then it says in verse number 33, and His disciples say unto Him, whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness as to feel so great a multitude? And this blows me away. Just the previous chapter, Christ was able to feed the 5,000, right? Performing amazing miracles. And they had 12 baskets left over a food. You remember that? And now there's 4,000 and the disciples are going, where are we gonna feed them from, God? You know, where is the bread gonna come from? It's amazing. But then I'm reminded we're like these guys. We're the same, all right? Where God steps in, He answers our prayers, He does amazing things in our life. But then the next problem we go to, the next trial we go into is, Lord, how are you gonna help me now? You know, what are you gonna do, Lord? It's like, well, didn't you really learn your lesson last time? Where God has provided your every need and now, hey, He can provide your every need once again. But look, we're the same. We need to be reminded of these things. This is, I think, why God gives us these stories back to back, one chapter to the other, is to remind us of our human nature, you know? Just seeing God provide is amazing, you know? But it's easy for us to lose hope. It's easy for us to lose faith when we go through the next trial. But we need to be reminded about the things that have happened before, how the Lord has come through before and if He's done it for you before, He's going to do it for you again. And so what we see here, the Lord's going to do an amazing miracle. Again, verse 34. And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said seven and a few little fishes. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground and he took the seven loaves and the fishes and gave thanks and break them and gave to his disciples and the disciples of the multitude. And they did all eat and were filled and they took up of the broken meats that was left seven baskets full. So it's not the 12 baskets full that are left. This time, there's seven baskets full, all right? Now, you know, I don't know maybe the significance of the numbers why there's 12. I told you maybe there's 12 because of the 12 disciples and, you know, one basket for each to remind themselves, hey, you know, the Lord can provide and provide more. But the point is that not only was everyone fed, but there were leftovers, okay? And the reminder is that God does not just provide your need, but he can provide for you in abundance. In abundance, all right? And the lesson here, guys, is that repetition is important. We need to hear the same things over and over again. We need to come before the Lord over and over again, bringing our request before him, you know, knowing that he can fulfill our every need over and over again. And then there it says in verse 38, and they that did eat were 4,000 beside women and children. So there's more than 4,000 if you added the women and the children to that, okay? But yeah, we do need to be reminded, guys, that God can provide our every need. It's so important. We can fall into that trap of thinking, I don't know if God's going to come through this time. Well, he has before. You know, be hopeful about that. Be filled of joy for the work that God has done in your life before. He will do it again. But hey, we need to be like that woman. That woman with the great faith, don't we? We need to keep working on our faith. This is the biggest struggle that you're going to go through in your life. You know, it's just the way it is, okay? We need to ask the Lord to increase our faith. And yeah, hopefully these stories, you know, as we go through them here, just remind you, you know, even these great men of God, these apostles and disciples, even they lacked faith sometimes, you know? So don't get cast down when you're struggling. Just remind yourself, hey, I'm made of the same flesh and blood and I need to be refreshed. I need to have my faith increased just like these men needed to. And then just verse 39, and he sent away the multitude and took ship and came into the coast of Magdala. So I don't have anything else to add there. I hope that gives you a good snapshot of what Matthew chapter 15 is about. You know, we saw the commandments of men. Be careful with the commandments that you teach. Make sure you don't teach them as doctrines of God if they contradict the words of God. It's fine to have traditions. It's fine. As long as it's aligned with the word of God does not contradict. Secondly, you know, make sure you remind yourself that you need to have great faith just because, you know, you come from a different background. Maybe you don't come from a Christian home. That doesn't matter. You can still be someone with a great faith compared to someone that maybe grew up in a Christian home. And lastly, with that great faith, make sure that's the vehicle you need to bring your prayers and supplications before the Lord and be reminded, you know, over and over again that God can provide your every need. Leave it there. Let's pray.