From the Pulpit...

After reading of Hebrews 8, Pastor Postiff teaches through the parable of the defiled heart. It is very important to notice the prior context in both passages. In Matthew 15:1-9 and Mark 7:1-13, our Lord has just had another negative encounter with the Pharisees and scribes. They serious expressed concern over the disciples eating with unwashed hands, while they themselves did very nasty, unlawful things even against their parents! This is classic "swallowing a camel" while "straining out a gnat" and nitpicking the speck in your brother's eye while carrying around a log in your own! Where these analogies fail is that eating with unwashed hands is not even as big as a gnat, nor is it a speck in the eye! The Lord will teach us that eating with dirty hands is not a sin....