Sermon for Sunday, May 31st, 2026 at First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY (BPC)
Old Testament Reading:
[Isaiah 29:13-14 ESV] 13 And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, 14 therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”
New Testament Reading:
[Colossians 2:8-15 ESV] 8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Gospel Reading:
[Mark 7:1-23 ESV] 1 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ 8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” 9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”‘ (that is, given to God)– 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.” 14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 16 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Sermon Text:
[Matthew 15:1-20 ESV] 1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” 3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” 6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 8 “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'” 10 And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” 12 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” 13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 15 But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” 16 And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”
Introduction
Sin comes from within. That is the title of the sermon this morning, and the main point of the passage we have just read. Sin comes from within.
And looking at this text, we’ll do so in three points.
I. Follow the commandments of God, not the traditions of men.
II. Christians have liberty.
III. Sin comes from within, but salvation comes from without.
I. Follow the commandments of God, not the traditions of men.
You are probably familiar with the term “legalism.”
Some use the term to broadly, meaning “any requirement being asked of them.”
But, in theology, “Legalism” is the error of saying that we are saved by something we do, rather than by the grace of God.
That legalism is at play in our passage, as the Scribes and Pharisees treat HAND WASHING as an incredibly important spiritual practice, so much so that they call out Jesus and his disciples for not joining in the tradition.
Traditions are not bad in themselves. Each year, except this year because it rained, we have a memorial day parade in Unionville. That’s a fine tradition, so long as no one says you must go to it; that your salvation depends on it. And we give gifts as Christmas, as the wise men gave gifts to the baby Jesus. That’s a tradition, and its ok to practice that tradition, and its ok to bow out and not practice that tradition. Nothing should be enjoined upon you but what is required of the Lord; his laws alone are binding upon us.
When traditions are said to be NECESSARY, then they have been raised to a status that only should be reserved for the commands of God.
To say it simply, The Commandments of God > The Traditions of men.
And we do want to obey the commands of God.
Thou shalt have no other Gods before.
Thou shalt remember the sabbath and keep it holy.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not covet, etc.
But we sometimes get confused, because did God specify various commands about what to eat, and how to clean? How is Jesus now against such commands?
And the answer is twofold.
1) The ceremonial law is no more.
Though the moral law (the 10 commandments) are binding on all men for all time, the ceremonial laws of the old testament – those laws that detailed the operations of the temple and those laws that specified the diet of the people – those laws no longer oblige us. They have been abrogated; done away with.
That is a great freedom that the Christian now has.
In our parallel passage from Mark is says “(Thus he declared all foods clean.)”
And we have also in Acts 10 the story of Peter seeing a sheet with all animals coming down from heaven and God saying “eat” though it including animals previous considered unclean. But God said “What God has made clean, do not call common.”
In this, the barrier was broken. Not just the barrier of what to eat, but of what to wash, and especially the barrier that separated the Jews from the Gentiles. Previously, the laws had helped to keep the people of God separate from the world, but now ALL PEOPLE have Christ who makes them clean. So the ceremonial washing is superfluous, unnecessary.
And then, the second reason Jesus is against the hand washing is that …
2) What the Pharisees are requiring of the people is NOT from the law of God at all, but is a creation of man.
So Jesus says that the command of God are greater than the traditions of men.
And he turns the tables on the Pharisees and Scribes (a literally delegation that has been sent from Jerusalem to cause him trouble). When they asked, “Why do your disciples break the traditions of the elders and not wash their hands?,” he responds, on the higher level, “Why do you break the commands of God for the traditions of men?”
How did they do that? How are they guilty? The answer is in verse 4-6 (Matthew 15:5).
4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” 6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.
This can be hard to understand. What is going on is that they had developed an idea that if they declared their money as a “given to God” then that money was exempt from using it to help their parents. But in the process they violated God’s command to honor one’s parents.
The Hebrew (and Greek) term for the idea is “Corban.” And we hear of it in the parallel passage from Mark 7:11-13
[Mark 7:11-13 ESV] 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”‘ (that is, given to God)– 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
So they are directly failing to obey God’s commands when they follow their man-made tradition. And frankly, it is not just a coincidence that they fail to obey God’s command; they are using the tradition to intentionally skirt around God’s law. That is evil.
We ought indeed to follow the commands of God, but we have no obligation to follow the traditions of man. Indeed, we have liberty.
II. Christians have liberty.
We have “Christian Liberty” and “Freedom of Conscience.”
These are two related terms.
“Christian liberty” is about what we do.
“Freedom of conscience” is about what we think.
We don’t need to do anything that God does not command us to do.
And we are not obliged to believe anything hold any views other than what God tells us in His word.
We are free FROM the traditions of man, and free TO follow the Lord.
And, as for the Freedom of Conscience, where the Bible gives us no command we are free to make our own choices and decisions. This is sometimes called “adiaphora.” The Lutherans I grew up with love that word. It means “things indifferent.” We are to be very keen on things of the Lord, but all other things we can have our own personal preferences. What we eat, and the activities we partake in are our own choice. It is often said “God alone is Lord of the Conscience.” No one else has the right to bind you with their own rules.
That point is made in the Constitution of our denomination, the Bible Presbyterian Church.
In a section called “The Form of Government” it says that a principle we ought to understand is that:
“‘God alone is Lord of the conscience’; and ‘hat left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are in any thing contrary to his word, or beside it in matters of faith or worship.” “Therefore we consider the rights of private judgment, in all matters that respect religion, as universal and unalienable.”
We have Christian liberty.
But there are those, like the Pharisees and Scribes, who want control over others.
Matthew Henry says that they had a “pretense of zeal for the law of Moses, when really nothing was intended but the support of their own tyranny over the consciences of men.”
It is indeed a great evil to restrict the liberty of others, and it is a great mistake to listen to those who would restrict our liberty.
The traditions of man cannot be raised to the same level as the commands of God. This was a central point of the Reformation, when the church said “Sola Scriptura” – Scripture Alone is our ultimate authority for all things of faith and practice. We may benefit from history, from tradition, from councils, and from leaders past and present, but we must not equate them with the Word of God. God alone is Lord of the conscience.
III. Sin comes from within, salvation comes from without.
We then come to our third point: sin comes from within, salvation comes from without.
The Pharisees and Scribes were demanded that Jesus and his disciples follow their traditions, claiming them to be sinners for not ceremonially washing their hands.
But now, Jesus explains that it is not what is on the outside that defiles a man, but sin comes from within; from the heart.
In verse 6-9 Jesus calls the Pharisees and Scribes hypocrites, quoting from Isaiah who explains that such people pretend to worship God, but their hearts are far from God.
Then at verse 10 we have a transition; Jesus now explains what truly is bad for a person; not what they eat; not what comes from the outside, but what is made from the inside; sin is what defiles a person, and sin comes from the heart/mind.
Verse 11 is really the central verse for the whole passage.
“Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”
And then this is repeated and clarified in verses 18-20:
17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”
Yes, the evil words we say defile us; words can be sinful.
But so also are “evil thoughts.”
Indeed, it is the evil thoughts that lead to the evil language and evil deeds; murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft false witness, slander.
How then do we become clean?
While sin is from the inside, salvation is from the outside.
Granted, our passage does not get into this subject, but it is a frequent subject of the Scriptures.
We have hear that one half the story – Sin.
We need the other half of the story – Salvation.
And we are corrupt, all with sin, which comes from within us.
Then we indeed need salvation from without.
And that comes with Jesus Christ.
That is the gospel – not salvation by following the rules of man, but salvation because Jesus obeyed all the commands of God in our place and was the perfect sacrifice who died for our sins. That is the Gospel.
Let’s then look at a couple applications from this passage.
Application 1: Beware of human traditions.
This doesn’t mean we can’t have them. It just means we shouldn’t place them on a pedestal and declare them necessary, or judge others based on them. But if those traditions infringe on our Christian liberty, we need not follow them.
So Paul warns in Colossians:
8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
Application 2: Sin is what YOU Have done, not what others have done to you.
This might seem like an odd application to some. For others, it could be greatly enlightening. Perhaps you feel “dirty,” sinful for something not that you’ve done, but for something someone else did or said to you. It is difficult to give an example here that is not scandalous.
But this understanding, from our passage, that sin is what arises from the inside, of our sinful nature, does also tell us that the evil things people do TO US, they are NOT OUR SINS, they are their sins.
I repeat: sin is what YOU have done, not what others have done to you.
Sin is about your choices and actions, not the pain others have caused you.
But all sins – when we sin, and when others sin against us – all sin, has only one solution. Cleanliness comes not from the washing of hands, nor following the traditions of the elders, but through blood of Jesus Christ.
May his name be praised.