Mark 9:14-29 14  And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. 15  And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. 16  And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” 17  And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. 18  And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” 19  And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” 20  And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21  And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22  And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 23  And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” 24  Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” 25  And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” 26  And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” 27  But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. 28  And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29  And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”

This miracle took place after Jesus came down the mountain with Peter, James, and John.  On the mountain His image was transfigured into a picture of His future glorified state.  When Jesus rose from the dead He walked upon this earth in a glorified body- the reward for His perfect obedience to God and His submission to the will of the Father in dying for our sins.  Jesus was going to the cross and before the transfiguration He had just told His disciples for the first time that He would die.  Of all the difficult teachings that Jesus had taught His disciples, this was by far the most shocking and challenging.  If Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Christ and was establishing the Kingdom of God, why would He die?  If He could perform all the miracles that the disciples had already seen, why would He not prevent His own death if someone tried to kill Him?  Was the devil more powerful than God?  It made no sense.
The scene that transpired as they came down from the mountain consisted of the remaining disciples being challenged by the scribes- the Jewish leaders who knew the Old Testament writings better than anyone else.  At the centre of their dispute was a demon possessed child.  
Neither the disciples nor the scribes were able to help him.  This boy had been brought by his father to be set free by Jesus but he did not find Jesus but only His disciples.  The demon had complete control over the boy.  The demon prevented the boy from speaking or hearing and would throw him around even trying to kill him in the fire.  From childhood this boy had been utterly helpless because of the demon and was completely powerless.
This boy pictured perfectly the current state of Israel.  If the true followers of God are walking with Him as they should the devil have complete control over them?  No.  The devil will be forced to flee.  The devil’s power over man is because of sin and Israel was filled with wickedness.  If the true followers of God are drawing near to God the devil has no power:
James 4:7-8 7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8  Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 
This is why Jesus said in verse 19, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?”  But why could the disciples not cast out the demon?  The answer is their unbelief.  Unbelief had crept into their hearts as a result of them being taught that the Christ would die.  They were struggling intensely with believing this.  A lack of faith was developing in their relationship with Jesus.  They doubted Him and in turn they could not pray to God as they should.  They could not see the Kingdom of God manifest in their midst because their relationship with God was in a damaged state.  They did not believe.  They doubted God.
Jesus knew what He was teaching them was difficult.  He knew they would not fully understand until later but they needed to keep following Him.  The disciples needed to follow Him to the cross.  Before He died they would scatter but only temporarily.  But here and now Jesus could not lose them.  They needed reassurance that He was still in control and they could still trust Him.  So the unbelief of the father was a picture of the unbelief of the disciples.  It was the disciples who could also say, “I believe; help my unbelief!”  They had given up everything to follow Jesus and yet now Jesus challenged them with the teaching of His death of which they did not and felt that they could not believe.  But Jesus encourages them to keep following Him.  He was saying, “Don’t give up following me now that it is becoming difficult and uncertain.  I am still in control.  I still have all power and authority.  Submit to Me.  I will lead you through this!”  
Jesus demonstrated that He would have absolute control over what would happen to Him on the cross as He casts out the demon from the boy.  The devil would try to destroy Him upon the cross but the devil has no power over Him.  It was His Father’s will that He would die for our sins.  It was the Father who would pour out His wrath upon the Son as He died upon the cross in taking the punishment for our sins.  And by Jesus’ own power, and the power of the Father and the Holy Spirit, Jesus would rise from the dead!  The devil could not destroy Him!  Jesus would remain the King of the Kingdom of God!  He could not be defeated!
All of us, if we are true followers of Jesus will have times in our walk with Him where we struggle with what He has called us to believe about Him.  We all will have moments where we can likewise say, “I believe, help my unbelief.”  In these moments, if we are genuinely seeking Him with all our heart, Jesus Himself will reassure us that He is still the only one we should follow.  He is the way to heaven.  He is the only means of our salvation.  He will encourage us to keep following Him and in time we will believe.  He is still in complete control.  He still has all authority and power.  He will raise us up for His glory!  We will see Him in His glorified state!  Believe!

Pastor Murray Hack

Mark 8:34-38 34  And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36  For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37  For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38  For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Mark 9:1-8 1  And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” 2  And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3  and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. 4  And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. 5  And Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6  For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7  And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”

At this point in Jesus’ public ministry He introduces His disciples to the difficult teaching that He, as the Christ and the King of the new Kingdom of God that He was establishing, would die.  Any ruler of a kingdom who dies is replaced by someone else and His reign ends.  But not so with Jesus. Jesus’ departure would only be temporary.  He would rise again!  And His death would be necessary for the Kingdom to be formally established as the only passageway into this Kingdom would be through faith in the work that Jesus would accomplish in His death.  Of course none of the disciples understood at this time what it meant that Jesus would die for their sins.  And perhaps just as difficult to accept was the teaching that all of Jesus’ followers will suffer for His Name.  The only way that our lives may be saved is if we are lost for His sake.  It is only as we are willing to become less the eyes of the world that we can rest in the knowledge that our souls will be saved.  The way up is down.  Nobody wants to suffer but the Kingdom of God requires us to demonstrate our love to Him through sacrifice.  This is a love that is true and genuine.  Sacrificial love not out of force but of willing submission is what God desires for us to be in His Kingdom.
But God never leaves a Christian to suffer without the promise of glory.  Any time Christian suffering is mentioned in the Scriptures, glory is always beside it.  And any time glory is mentioned in the Scriptures, suffering is close by.  They are always coupled together showing the path to glory is through suffering for His Name.  And so at the very first mention of Jesus’ suffering death upon the cross the future glory He would receive when He rose from the dead was made known.  As Peter, James, and John followed Jesus up onto the high mountain and saw Jesus transfigured they were given a glimpse of what was to come.  They were given a glimpse of the glory of Jesus Christ.  Elijah and Moses were there with Him representing all of the Old Testament teaching given to mankind through the Law and the Prophets.  The entire Old Testament pointed forward to this moment when Jesus Christ would die upon the cross suffering the wrath of God the Father as He suffered for my sins and yours.  God’s plan of salvation would be shortly fulfilled and Jesus would not hide what was to come from His disciples but He at the same time knew that they would not and could not understand until after He rose from the dead.
At the mount of transfiguration the voice of God the Father was heard from the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to Him.”  The authority that Jesus Christ has is beyond measure.  It is above all authority given to man.  He is in His glory even now and one day in the future His glory will be revealed to all of mankind.  All who will not repent and believe in Him before His return will be punished eternally for their sins and rejecting the only means of their salvation.  If only people would listen to Him now as He speaks through His Word!  The living Word of God continues today to carry all weight and power and will either lead to our salvation or our damnation.  
Romans 8:18  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 

The Christian life is a life of difficulty and hardship and sacrifice, not of ease and comfort.  The disciples were excited to follow Jesus in the beginning as everything that He did was so amazing and fascinating.  But their feelings would gradually turn to anxiety and fear as the cross approached.  Jesus was preparing them for what was to come.  Ultimately one of them could not take it any longer and tried to escape what God requires of all who follow Jesus- sacrificial love.  The true follower of God will not abandon their pursuit of God when persecution and trials come but the false believer will.  Judas Iscariot was willing to betray Jesus to save his own life but in turn he showed that he never loved Jesus Christ and was outside the Kingdom of God.  
Do you desire to see the Kingdom of God in power?  It always comes through suffering.  Have you counted the cost of following Jesus?  
Luke 14:28-33 28  For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29  Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30  saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31  Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32  And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33  So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
To renounce all that you have is to surrender everything to Him.  Jesus paid it all but He expects us to sacrifice for Him.  We cannot save ourselves but we can show our love to Him through sacrificial love.  The next part of the disciples journey in following Jesus would stretch them to the very core.  As Jesus died upon the cross they all would abandon Him and suffer great shame for they did not love Him as they thought.  But the eleven did not give up their pursuit of God.  Jesus restored them and raised them up for His glory.  Every Christian will struggle in their ultimate surrender to God.  But Jesus will lead us through suffering into future glory!

Pastor Murray Hack

Mark 8:34-38 34  And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36  For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37  For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38  For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

To follow Jesus; to come after Him, is the greatest thing that any person can do in this life and yet it is the hardest.  A young child can hear the Gospel message and believe and yet it is impossible to follow Jesus without the Spirit of God actively at work in them.  Just prior to these words, Jesus had asked His disciples while on the outskirts of Israel who they thought that He was?  In spite of the fact that the disciples all were looking for the Christ and had given up everything to follow Jesus of Nazareth, He did not act in the manner in which they expected as the Christ.  Instead of restoring Israel, Jesus revealed to them the Kingdom of God in which He reigns and He manifested the Kingdom of God in their midst and through them.  He also revealed that this kingdom would not be just for the Jews but for people from all the Gentile nations of which the Jews considered as wicked and beyond salvation for their ways were evil and far below the high standard of morality as shown in the nation of Israel and demonstrated by the Pharisees and the religious leaders.  And yet Jesus gave them examples of Gentiles who demonstrated genuine faith and Jesus also condemned the hypocrisy and false faith of the religious leaders who were supposed to lead the people to the Christ but rather they desired to kill Jesus.  When Peter confirms that he still believed that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus then makes known to the disciples, for the first time, that He will suffer and die at the hands of the religious leaders.  Peter then rebuked Jesus for saying such things.  Jesus responds by saying, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”  The irony is that while Peter reinforced his belief that Jesus is the Christ, by his very next actions he is showing that he doesn’t yet fully believe in Jesus as the Christ.  Peter denies the actions that were necessary for Jesus as the Christ to perform.  To claim to believe that Jesus is the Christ and yet to misunderstand what He did upon the cross is to follow a false Jesus.  The remainder of Jesus’ ministry upon earth was used to prepare His disciples to understand the significance of the cross but the disciples would not understand and believe until after Jesus rose from the dead.  They would remain in confusion until then.
It is at this point that Jesus introduces another significant hurdle for the disciples to overcome in their understanding of this new Kingdom of God that Jesus was establishing.  This would be a kingdom that requires suffering in this world.  Nobody likes suffering.  Nobody chooses to suffer.  If there is an easier walking path through a forest, that is the one most taken even if the route may be longer.  This new teaching on suffering in relation to the Kingdom of God and Jesus’ final act in providing for our salvation through suffering was difficult for the disciples to hear.  
This teaching was contrary to what the Jews would have expected.  The Old Testament is filled with passages that promise temporal blessings (blessings in the physical world while still alive).  As long as the Israelites were obedient to God, God promised them prosperity and wealth and protection from their enemies.  But this Kingdom of God that Jesus was establishing uses suffering as a mark of blessing.  There is a cross to be carried by every born again Christian in the Church.  Just as Jesus carried a cross and died upon the cross, so too do we need to be willing to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ.  None of us can provide for the salvation of others as Jesus did through suffering, but our suffering for His Name will reveal our love to Him.  As those who do not believe in Jesus Christ oppose us and condemn what we believe, we show Him that we love Him above all others.  A sacrificial love is greatly esteemed.  It is the highest form of love as demonstrated in Jesus Christ’s love for the Father and His love for us.  This goes far and above loving someone for the blessings you may receive from them.  To love through your own sacrifice shows a much deeper love and commitment.  It is real and genuine and it cannot be faked.  You will not sacrifice yourself for someone who you do not love.  This call of sacrificial love applies to anyone who would come after Jesus.  Anyone who will follow Jesus and enter into the Kingdom of God must enter in through the cross: through Jesus Christ’s personal sacrifice unto death but also acknowledging and agreeing to their own sacrifice that is necessary.  
This is not like the suffering of those who are living in sin.  People continually die in their sin.  They continually suffer temporally (here in this world) because of their rebellious actions against God.  Many see frequent death and suffering not because they are following Jesus but because they will not.  They do not know of the suffering that Jesus is describing here.  They are among those who are ashamed of Jesus Christ and His words.  They condemn God for the suffering that they have had to endure but fail to recognize the reason for their suffering.  Suffering in sin is absolutely different from suffering for God.  There is no peace for those who suffer in sin.  There is no hope.  But for those who suffer for Jesus Christ there is peace and hope in the midst of suffering.  The Christian suffers because of faith.  They believe and are willing even to die to show their love to God and to Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit enables them through love to God to suffer for His Name.  The Christian will not forfeit their soul.  Their soul has been redeemed and they know it.  They will not deny Jesus Christ but they will deny themselves.  The Christian will actively oppose the wicked desires that they once pursued as their first love.  Their love for God is real and deep and passionate.  Their life has been saved by hearing the Gospel message and believing.  Their life now belongs to Jesus Christ who died for them.
Do you understand what it means to come after Him?  Do you know what it means to follow Jesus?  Have you counted the cost?  Are you living even now in the reality of His call, “Come after Me.”  Do not become dismayed and discouraged if you are enduring suffering for His Name.  This is a part of being in the Kingdom of God here and now.  It is the mark of those who are His.  You have been willing to lose your life in order that He could save it.  The Son of Man is pleased with you!  Jesus Christ is pleased with your love for Him!  But how terrible it will be for those who deny Him!  How terrible it will be for those who suffer now in their sin to suffer for all eternity!  How sad it will be to see those who have forfeited their soul for the cares of this world!  Are you forfeiting your soul for what can only give you temporary pleasure?  Turn to Jesus!

Pastor Murray Hack

Mark 8:27-33 27  And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28  And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” 29  And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” 30  And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. 
31  And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32  And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33  But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” 

It is hard to comprehend how difficult it would have been to follow Jesus as one of the twelve disciples.  It would have been amazing to see the miracles performed and to hear God in the flesh speak perfectly and act perfectly in every way in accordance with the Law of God but how hard it would have been at the same time.  For Jesus was revealing the Kingdom of God to mankind in a manner which was previously unknown.  He fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophecies as promised to the nation of Israel but the establishment of a spiritual kingdom on earth was a mystery to everyone.  No single person understood what was about to happen through Jesus of Nazareth.  Although many were looking for the Christ and had been directed by John the Baptist to follow Jesus, this question that Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?” was a much more difficult question to answer now than on those first days after Jesus had been baptized by John and He had entered into public ministry.  When Jesus was first revealed, as recorded in Mark 1, very few who saw and heard Him would have doubted that He was the Christ.  Everyone was caught up in the excitement.  But what kind of Christ; what kind of Saviour, were they looking for?  Were they looking for the health and wealth Christ that could heal their illnesses and miraculously provide food?  Were they looking for the political Christ who would set them free from the rule of Rome?  All the Jews, even the ones who had genuinely been born again by repenting of their sin nature and believing in the Christ who was to come, did not understand this new Kingdom of God that Jesus was establishing.  And so as Jesus is establishing this perfect Kingdom of God upon earth in which He reigns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, He is continually stretching and expanding His disciples' understanding about who He was and what He was accomplishing.  This is what makes Peter’s response at this point, “You are the Christ” so amazing!  In spite of the fact that the Kingdom of God under Jesus was new and different and surprising- not what they were expecting, Peter still said, “You are the Christ.”
Jesus had just completed a tour on the outskirts of Israel contrasting the lack of faith in the Jewish religious leaders and the lack of faith among the people in Israel who were already beginning to turn away from Him with the newfound faith of Gentile believers.  This was shown with the Gentile woman who begged for the scraps from the table (Mark 7:24-30) and it was shown in the miraculous feeding of the 4,000 (Mark 8:1-10).  Jesus heals a deaf man and a blind man and warns them of the yeast of the Pharisees.  They were dangerous men proclaiming a false Gospel.  But the true Gospel message that Jesus proclaimed and the Kingdom of God that He was establishing was dependent upon a direct relationship to Him.  The Kingdom of God would be manifested on earth in and through Jesus Christ as His followers were united to Him and this Kingdom would be established over the whole earth!  The Gentiles, the scum of the earth as the Jews saw them (the dogs), would be equal with the Jews in this spiritual Kingdom.  No longer would Israel be above the other nations but rather the Church would be established.  In the Church Jews and Gentiles would be equal and the Church would be the spiritual representation of this new Kingdom of God established by Jesus Christ.  
This would have been very difficult for the disciples to accept.  And so Jesus tests His disciples at Caesarea Philippi.  This was a place where many pagan gods were worshipped.  You can almost sense the angst of the disciples as they were in the midst of such an evil place.  Jesus was saying in a sense, “Even here, I came to call people unto Myself.  I came to save even these wicked Gentiles and to bring them into My Kingdom and they will be more righteous than the Pharisees that you have been taught to look up to.  Who do you say that I am?”  In spite of the difficulty in responding, Peter still says, “You are the Christ.”
But Jesus does not leave them here.  He has stretched the disciples so far already.  Now He goes further.  He declares that He, as the Christ, will die by the very men that are supposed to be teaching the people about the Christ.  The elders and the chief priests and the scribes do not only fail to recognize Jesus as the Christ but they will kill the Saviour.  Jesus will die and He predicts His own death.  Not that He might die but that He must suffer many things and die and rise again.  Once again the disciples are confused and Peter, the very disciple who confessed Jesus as the Christ now contradicts his revelation by saying that Jesus must not die.  How could Jesus of Nazareth be the Christ if He was to die?  How could this new spiritual Kingdom of God continue to exist if Jesus was no longer ruling over it?  How could God die?
Do you see how difficult it was to follow Jesus as one of the twelve disciples?  Jesus’ ministry to the twelve in person occurred just over three years.  How intense would it have been!  How amazing but how difficult!  Jesus had to die to fully provide the way into the Kingdom of God, not only for the Jew but also for the Gentile.  Without the shedding of His blood, there is no way our sins could be covered.  Without His death there could be no life.  Eternal life could never be achieved apart from Jesus’ death and resurrection for those who truly believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ- the Saviour of mankind.
Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ?  Do you really believe?  Or, are you still believing in a false Christ?  Is He a saviour of your own imagination or the false teaching of others?  Has Jesus turned your understanding upside down in your pursuit of Him or has everything been easy and clear to you?  All of us, no matter who we are, have been misled in our understanding of who Jesus really is.  All of us, if we are genuinely seeking God with all of our heart, will go through similar struggles as the disciples did in coming to terms with the reality that Jesus is indeed the Christ.  To follow Jesus is difficult.  It is not easy.  He is a treasure to be found and not all will find Him.  He continually challenges us in our pursuit of Him.  Keep seeking Him!

Pastor Murray Hack

Mark 8:11-26 11  The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. 12  And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” 13  And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side. 
14  Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. 15  And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” 16  And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. 17  And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18  Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? 19  When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” 20  “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” 21  And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?” 
22  And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. 23  And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” 24  And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” 25  Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26  And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

We are all slow to understand spiritual things and the disciples were no different.  At this point in Jesus’ public ministry He had performed an amazing miracle of feeding over 4,000 people similar to His earlier miracle where He fed the crowd of over 5,000.  This miracle was to show that the Gospel was opened to the nations as the seven large leftover baskets represented the seventy known nations at that time.  At the same time Jesus was more directly condemning the teaching of the Pharisees and the religious leaders.  The Kingdom of God that Jesus was establishing would be very different than what the Jews had expected.  No longer would one nation be considered above the rest  but individuals from every nation would be brought into this Kingdom as a part of the Church.  God still has a special place for the nation of Israel and there will be a great harvest of Jews who repent and believe that Jesus is the Christ before His second coming one day in the future but at this point in Jesus’ ministry He was teaching His disciples to let go of their false beliefs about who they thought He should be and to submit to God’s perfect plan of salvation.  Jesus had just healed a deaf man and following this miracle He heals a blind man who at first sees blurry trees.  The disciples were themselves struggling with their vision and hearing as what Jesus was teaching them was not what they wanted to hear and challenged a lot of their deep rooted beliefs as Jews.
Each and every one of us generally have deep rooted beliefs that are contrary to the Word of God and His plan of salvation.  Often they come from those who are regarded as experts in society or within our own culture.  It is easy for us to think that we aren’t that smart- that we don’t have the same education or knowledge that they have and yet unless they have been given their understanding from God it is likely to be flawed.  Or perhaps we have been practicing and believing something for so long that we believe that it cannot be false.  Or we may have been presented with a false view of Jesus Christ and the Gospel and we can’t see Him for who He really is because of past experiences and deep wounds that we have from someone who claimed to be a Christian but was in fact a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  Or even in our own church or denomination we have been taught a certain set of beliefs and are conditioned that anything else must be wrong.  But no matter who we are, if we are willing to humble ourselves and really examine the Scriptures for what they say we will see what before we could not see, we will hear what before we could not hear, and we will be amazed!  We will see everything clearly!
Our ability to see clearly is not dependent upon our education or family or upbringing.  It is dependent upon the Word of God and the Holy Spirit who will reveal this to us.  All that Jesus was teaching His disciples only increased their reliance upon Him as the only true source of Truth.  He alone was their guide.  He alone as the Son of God had the authority to correct the previous errors that they had believed based upon the common teaching as given by the Pharisees and scribes who were supposed to be the experts in understanding the Old Testament Law.  It is a wonderful characteristic to be willing to be challenged and to examine what you believe.  For what you believe will determine who you are.  Your views and understanding about God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and salvation will determine how you live.  While we must come to stand upon our convictions about what we believe if we are to be born again, we must at the same time be willing to re-examine everything continually.  Not that we come to deny our relationship with God through Jesus Christ and deny the foundation of the faith as we ask questions and try to understand but that we recognize that:
Romans 11:33-34 33  Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34  “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”
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How much do you understand about the things of God?  Have you been led to a place of true repentance and faith in Jesus Christ or are you still blurry to the very foundation of the faith?  Have you been willing to let go of the false teachings that you once believed?  Have you been willing to let go to the anger and the bitterness from the hurts and the wounds that you blame God for?  Do you see Jesus Christ as your only guide or are you still relying upon the wisdom of man and the so-called experts who do not know Him?  These experts, while they may be looked up to and honored among men, may be blind and deaf. Beware of eating the bread of their teaching.  Do not fill yourself upon what they say and teach but upon the Words of Jesus Christ.  He challenges the heart of every man, no matter who we are.  He alone is God and He alone has all knowledge and He continues to speak to us through His Word as we read or listen to the Bible.  He does not need to speak to us through an audible voice as He did in the Old Testament.  He can speak directly to our spirit through the Word of God.  He can speak to you in your inner man and give you a knowledge of Himself that will fill you with peace and love as you come to surrender to Him and to know Him.  His message will challenge us as He challenged the disciples but we can come to a place of knowing that we understand; we believe!

Pastor Murray Hack

Mark 7:31-37 31  Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32  And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33  And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. 34  And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35  And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36  And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37  And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”  
Mark 8:1-10 1  In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, 2  “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3  And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” 4  And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” 5  And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” 6  And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7  And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. 8  And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9  And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. 10  And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.  

At this point in Jesus’ ministry He was expanding His disciples’ understanding of the new Kingdom of God that Jesus was establishing.  He first makes it known to His disciples how different this Kingdom is as compared to what they had expected.  The disciples believed that Jesus was the Christ but they would have been convinced like the majority of the Jews that Jesus came to restore their nation politically.  But Jesus didn’t come to release Israel from Roman captivity but to establish a new Kingdom wherein righteousness reigns.  He teaches His disciples the spiritual nature of His Kingdom.  Next Jesus shows His disciples the false teaching of the religious leaders and that this Kingdom will include the nations.  Jesus didn’t come to save Israel but individuals from every tribe and nation.  He then contrasts the false faith of the Pharisees with the genuine faith of a Gentile woman (a foreigner) who was willing to receive the scraps from the table if that was necessary to know Jesus Christ.  This would have been very confusing for the disciples as the Pharisees were looked up to and the Gentiles were viewed as wicked sinners.  Jesus was making known to His disciples that He was indeed the Christ but He wasn’t what they were expecting.  They would need to humble themselves before God and be willing to acknowledge that they were wrong in who they thought that He would be. God’s plan of salvation would be a surprise to them and it would take time for them to believe and understand.
As Jesus is stretching their understanding of who He is and God’s plan of salvation and this new Kingdom of God, Jesus heals a deaf person with a speech impediment in rather an amazing way.  He puts His fingers into the man’s ears and also touches his tongue after spitting on His hand.  Then he speaks in Aramaic, the common language of the people, saying “Be opened.”  Why would He do so?  This again was done in private to not draw attention.
Who were not speaking the truth to the common people?  The Pharisees.  They were leading the people astray.  And so Jesus would shut the ears of those who thought they knew better and He would open the ears of those who could not hear.  He would speak plainly to those who did not understand and in parables to those who thought they could understand.  He would open the ears of the weak and the destitute and stop the ears of the proud and the arrogant.
Among those who were deaf and unable to hear were the Gentiles.  For thousands of years the nations outside of Israel were on the outside and unable to hear.  They did not have the Word of God or understand but now, in this new Kingdom of God that Jesus was establishing, they would be included.  Jesus makes this known as He miraculously provides for the crowd of 4,000.  This miracle was very similar to when He fed the 5,000 but this time His purpose was different.  There were 7 large baskets left over representing the 70 known nations upon the earth.  Not only was the Gospel message for the 12 tribes of Israel but for all the nations.  This new Kingdom of God would span across nations as the Church was established 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead.
But how sad it is that today there continues to be those who claim to be Christians but are just like the Pharisees.  They are unwilling to humble themselves before God and they claim to know the way to God but they are deceived.  They cannot hear and they speak with a speech impediment while claiming to be the source of truth.  Be careful that you are not listening to these false teachers.  Unfortunately many people have been led to believe that Christianity is what they teach but this is a false Gospel.  They never knew Jesus although they may use Jesus’ name.
But how wonderful it is for those who do not think that they could ever hear.  If you are among those who feel as if there is no hope, if you feel like you are the one on the outside, it is to you that Jesus desires to save.  Turn to Him with all your heart and He will unstop your ears.  He will enable you to speak the unfathomable wonders of God!  Even through your mouth the Good News can be spoken clearly.  God can glorify Himself through you if you will repent and believe.  Jesus can fill you with gladness and joy and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.  Jesus sighed as He healed the man.  His love and compassion for the lost who are willing to turn to Him to be healed is beyond comprehension.  If only we will seek His touch we will hear Him!  
Isaiah 35:5-6 5  Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6  then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;
Isaiah 35:10  And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 
 
Pastor Murray Hack

Mark 7:24-30 24  And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 25  But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26  Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27  And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28  But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29  And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” 30  And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. 

At the age of 30 years old, about 2000 years ago, Jesus of Nazareth entered into public ministry following His baptism and manifested the Kingdom of God upon earth. He was establishing a new kingdom that was unique and different from the nation of Israel that God had established through Abraham thousands of years earlier.  The Son of God became flesh and entered into creation during a time in which the people of Israel were being led astray from a proper understanding of the Word of God (the Old Testament scriptures) by the Pharisees and the scribes who were the only people in Israel who could still read the scriptures in the original Hebrew language.  They had all kinds of extra regulations on top of the 613 Old Testament laws that the nation of Israel was to follow but their man made laws actually contradicted what God had intended.  The Jews naturally thought that they were better than all the other nations as eternal salvation could only be known through the teachings that God had given them but the Kingdom of God that Jesus was establishing would be composed of individuals from all nations.  At this point in Jesus’ ministry (as recorded in Mark 7), He has taught His disciples the basic fundamental principles of His new Kingdom and sternly rebuked the false teachers.  He is now establishing that the Gentile nations would be a part of this Kingdom and further rebuking the self-righteous Jews by showing the genuine faith of Gentile believers in contrast to their own.
Jesus travels to the region of Tyre and Sidon in secret with His disciples but obviously His fame had reached here as well.  A Gentile woman begged Jesus to cast the demon out of her daughter.  Jesus’ response seems rather harsh.  He seems to call her a dog.  Why would he do this?  Dogs were vermin and not regarded as we view them in our culture.  They were not liked.  And the Gentiles (the foreign nations) were considered by the Jews as dogs as all kinds of evil was practiced by them.  Romans 1:26-32 describes the evil acts performed by the Gentiles.
Romans 1:29-31 29  They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30  slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31  foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 
But these evil acts were actually no different than what was in the heart of the unbelieving Jews as Jesus had just explained previously to the Pharisees and the scribes:
Mark 7:21-23 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.”
How would you respond when confronted with the reality that your upbringing was not a good one?  We don’t choose what home we are raised in.  Often we don’t fully comprehend whether our upbringing was a good one or not until we are much older.  It is as our world expands and we learn from others and compare to our own that we get more perspective.  It can be very difficult and painful to acknowledge that you were not raised as well as others let alone how God intended.  It was a great privilege to be raised as a Jew as the laws that they followed most clearly reflected God’s desires as compared to all of the other nations.  This Gentile woman understood and believed that she was a dog compared to the children (the Jews).  What Jesus said to her, while it may have seemed to be offensive was in fact the truth.  
How shocking was her response!  The disciples must have been amazed.  They had been taught growing up to look up to the Pharisees and scribes as men of great faith but Jesus now had exposed them to be hypocrites and rather it was this Gentile woman who showed great faith.  And we know that the disciples had judged her wrongly.  In the parallel account recorded in Matthew 15:22-23 the disciples begged Jesus to send her away.  They had previously cast out demons among the Jews when Jesus had sent them out (Mark 6:7-13).  Why did they not want to help her?  Because she was a Gentile and they assumed she was living a wicked life.
The woman responded to Jesus by saying that even the dogs eat the children’s crumbs as they spill food from the table.  She recognized Jesus as the Christ.  She knew He could save her daughter.  Even though she was a Gentile, even though she did not have a godly upbringing and had probably lived a wicked life in her past, she knew that Jesus was the only means of her salvation.  She was looking for the Christ.  She recognized Jesus for who He really was.  She put her faith in Him and was willing to humble herself before Him no matter the cost.  Her faith was desperate and persistent.  She did not care if she offended the disciples.  She needed Jesus and would know Him no matter what!  She would not be denied in her pursuit of Jesus.
How does Jesus respond?  Without even seeing her daughter, He casts the demon out.  From a distance Jesus sets her free.  He acknowledges the mother’s desperate faith and blesses her.  She would be a part of His new Kingdom.  Her home would not be as she was raised.  Perhaps her daughter was demon possessed because of the past practices of her parents in their worship of a false god.  But now this mother would raise her daughter in a godly home.  She would teach her daughter to know Jesus Christ.  She would live according to God’s commands as recorded in the Bible.  The hardship that she had suffered would be replaced with joy and peace and love in knowing God and Jesus Christ who would later die for her sins.
Do you understand that Jesus is seeking those who are like this woman to be in His Kingdom: persistent, desperate, humble.  He is seeking those who are willing to submit to Him and to recognize that Jesus is the only means of their salvation.  It matters not how you were raised or how evil your heart once was.  God wants you to seek Him with all your heart and He will regenerate it.  He will make it new and pure and holy.  It matters not that others judge you and condemn you.  Seek Him with desperation! Jesus came to this earth to save you!  He loves you!
 
Pastor Murray Hack

Mark 7:14-15 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.”
Mark 7:17-23 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.”

At this point in Jesus’ public ministry He is bringing to a head the false and dangerous teaching of the Pharisees.  They looked and acted in a very righteous manner.  They had added all kinds of rules on top of the 613 Old Testament laws that were given to Moses many generations earlier.  One of these rules related to washing your hands before you ate food.  They had developed a specific manner in which you had to ceremonially wash your hands in order not to defile yourself.  All of their rules and traditions related to outward actions and they were devised in such a manner as to elevate the Pharisees and scribes who were experts in these laws and the only people in the nation of Israel who still knew the Hebrew language and thus could properly interpret the Old Testament scriptures.  They were the spiritual elite and everyone knew and believed that they were to be looked up to and highly regarded.  But the reality was that they were corrupt at the very core of their being just as everyone else in the nation of Israel by nature.  The 613 laws were to show them that they were actually unclean and not clean.
Jesus makes a statement in verse 15 that would have astonished all those who heard: “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.”  How could this be?  There were all kinds of laws related to clean and unclean animals recorded in Leviticus 11.  There were laws about leprosy which was a skin disease (Leviticus 13).  There were many commands which seemed to indicate that you were defiled by what you touched or ate and the rules the Pharisees had developed related to ceremonial washing only expanded on such teaching.  Was Jesus abolishing all of these commands?  How confusing it must have been for the Jews to hear Jesus’ words.  The Apostle Peter would later have the same struggle and confusion when he saw in a vision all kinds of animals on a sheet descending towards him and he was commanded to eat even the unclean animals (Acts 10).  Peter, as a Jew, had never eaten an unclean animal.
There is always the danger that you could grow up going to church or perhaps you were forced to follow rules or commands that are supposedly in the Bible and you think that by doing them you are made holy.  You think, perhaps unknowingly, that you are saved by your actions.  You think that you will go to heaven when you die because you are clean on the outside.  But this is a totally false belief that will only lead to eternal damnation.  You are still defiled within.  
Jesus, in verses 21-22, gives a synopsis of what is in the heart of every man: 21 “evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.”  We are all corrupt by nature.  We were all born into this world with a sin nature.  We are all prone to evil and active rebellion against God.  Even if we know the righteous commandments of God we cannot keep them as we are.  Any attempt at obedience is only a form of ceremonial washing leaving us with an outward appearance of being clean but inwardly defiled and corrupted.  The Pharisees did not understand the purpose of God’s Law.
The purpose of the commandments are not to make us clean but to enable us to see our state of inward corruption and our inability to obey God’s commands perfectly.  We do not compare ourselves to others who are trying to live up to God’s standard but to God Himself who gave us the commandments.  There must be some other way to actually fulfill God’s commandments.  There must be some way in which the inward man can have his corruption removed.  If only the Pharisees and scribes had understood this they would have been looking for the Christ to save them.  If only they saw their inward depravity, they would have been leading the people to follow Jesus.  For only in Jesus of Nazareth was the law perfectly fulfilled because He was inwardly pure and clean.  Out of His heart flowed perfect love and not evil because He was not born with a corrupt nature as we were.  Jesus obeyed God’s Law perfectly because He was inwardly perfect.  He came to this world to save us from our sins by dying on the cross and as we repent and turn to Him in faith and believe in Him, He regenerates our corrupt heart.  We receive His perfect heart and in turn can obey God as we should.  When we are born again by the Spirit of God, we are actually clean on the inside first and then this becomes evident on the outside.  We don’t try to be holy.  We are holy because of the amazing change that has happened within us.  
But the starting point for anyone who will ever come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior is to see the evil within their own heart.  It is always easier to see the evil in others.  The Jews believed that it was the Gentiles (the foreign nations) who were evil and not themselves.  They believed they were saved by obeying the Law but rather it condemned them.  Jesus knew this and so as He further expands His teaching of what change is required in the heart in order to enter into this new Kingdom of God that Jesus was establishing by next going among the Gentiles as we will see in the Book of Mark.  His Kingdom would include Jews and Gentiles.
The scary thing for anyone who is self-righteous is that God will always expose the state of your heart.  No matter how hard you try to hide the evil within, it is only a matter of time before God reveals it not just to yourself but to those around you.  Do not fool yourself into thinking that you can be right with God apart from a new nature.  No matter how hard you try to change, no matter how hard you try to deceive yourself that you are strong enough or good enough, the perfect standard of God condemns you.  Your only hope is found in the Son of God who became the Son of Man.  Jesus of Nazareth is the answer!  Through faith in Him we are born again and the corrupt nature is removed forever!  The defilement from within is replaced with the same Spirit that was in the heart of Jesus Christ!  Do you know Him?  Has this change happened in your heart?  Do you know if the Spirit of Christ is within you?
 
Pastor Murray Hack

Mark 7:6-13 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.”

What will be the end state when the leaders in a nation have become corrupt?  This was the condition within the nation of Israel when Jesus and John the Baptist before Him entered on the scene of world history over two thousand years ago.  Their appearance at such a time can give us hope that in spite of the great turmoil and distress in our day, God can yet make His presence known in a powerful way.  The Pharisees and scribes were the only people in Israel who could read the Hebrew language.  The Jews had lost their language when they returned from exile in Babylon many generations earlier.  These leaders were incorrectly teaching the people of Israel.  They had distorted and corrupted the Word of God- the means by which Israel could know the voice of God and be a light upon the earth.  Without knowing what God revealed in the Bible how could they know God’s plan of salvation and how could they understand the righteous requirements of God’s Law?  Without a proper knowledge of God, the nation of Israel would become just like all the other nations upon the earth and would be lost forever.
But the fascinating thing is that when Jesus entered into His public ministry, He did not come to save Israel but rather the whole world!  His intentions were not ultimately to reestablish the throne of King David as the Israelites saw it, but rather to set up a global kingdom- the Kingdom of God where Jesus Christ would reign over individuals from every nation upon the earth.  He would not rule over everyone from only a single nation but rather from those whom He has called among all the nations who will receive Him and submit to Him.  But for those who reject Him (including the Israelites) they will one day in the future be cast into the lake of fire.  They will one day be forever removed from the presence of Jesus Christ as the ruler of His perfect eternal kingdom when He creates a new heaven and a new earth following the final judgment.  
At this point in Jesus’ ministry, He is demonstrating a formal rejection of the corrupt leadership within Israel as well as (we will see later) an opening up of the Kingdom of God to the Gentiles- to the people on the outside of the surrounding nations to whom the Jews had assumed were lost forever and that only a few of them would ever be saved and only as the were circumcised and as they rejected their national identity and became a part of the nation of Israel.  To be saved was to become a Jew but this would no longer be the case as the Church was established.  You did not have to forsake your nationality or all of your culture to be saved.
Here Jesus gives very specific examples as to how the Pharisees and scribes were misleading the people as He comes to the core problem in their teaching.  He had already shown previously as recorded in the book of Mark that the Pharisees and scribes were teaching the people wrongly in regards to eating with sinners (Mark 2:15), fasting (Mark 2:18-22), and the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-28, 3:1-6).  And here in Mark 7, He condemns their traditions beginning with ceremonial washing (Mark 7:1-8).  Then He exposes their tendency to place their man made laws above the law of God as given to Moses on Mount Sinai.  
Jesus describes their laws regarding offerings given to God (through the Temple) in contrast with the fifth commandment.  Of the Ten Commandments, the fifth commandment says: “Honor your father and mother” (Exodus 20:12).  The Pharisees had come up with a man made law that if you devote your property as a gift to God then you do not need to to help your parents in their old age and provide for them.  There were no senior centres in the nation of Israel two thousand years ago.  The family was expected to support their elderly parents as part of the fifth commandment in honoring their parents.  But the Pharisees and scribes taught that their spiritual authority and the needs of the Temple superseded the fifth commandment.  You could effectively starve your parents if you donated to the Temple.  It was a greater cause in their eyes to pour money into their pockets and in the upkeep of the Temple.  But the commandments of God do not work in this way.  One commandment does not trump the other but they all work together in perfect harmony as they reflect the perfect character of God.  The fact that their man made law conflicted with the commandment to honor their parents showed that it was absolutely false.  Their man made law had made void the Word of God.  This was just one example of how they were corrupt in their hearts but disguised their desire for wealth in claiming that it was spiritual.  By rejecting the fifth commandment they had rejected it all.  It is all or nothing.
How often do we do the same?  There is a tendency in us all to think that what we believe is the right way but often what we may think is truth contradicts the commandments of God.  It is only as we really study and examine what God requires as recorded in the Bible that we will come to see His perfect righteousness.  We all desire to make God’s standard less than what it actually is in order to satisfy our own wicked desires.  We must submit to the commandments of God in their entirety.  They are the only way by which we should live.  But how many people even know what God requires of them?  How many people claim to be Christians but they have never examined the Scriptures in detail to even determine how they are to live?  If we love Him we will want to be obedient to Him.  A rebellious child does not show love to their parents and the Pharisees were teaching the people to actively rebel against the commandments of God by claiming their authority in their man made laws was over and above the commandments of God.  They had become gods and Jesus rightfully puts them in their place.
Is this how you live?  Do you decide what is right and what is wrong?  Is the standard by which you live your life based upon the commandments of God or by your own standard?  Do you make void the Word of God by the traditions that have been passed down to you or the traditions that you establish?  Or do you rejoice in the righteous requirements of God?

 Pastor Murray Hack