mark 7

This sermon was preached at Twynholm, august 24th 2008.
Audio is available here

If you could defy the laws of gravity
have nerves of ice
If you could have legs like steel springs,
the eyes of a hawk
the grace of a swan.
If you had all this you would have the body
"you would have the tools
but you would not have greatness"
until you understand that the strongest muscle is the heart.
To me that is the soul of the Olympic Games.

So says Andrea Bocelli in the advertising campaign for the Olympics.

Or, from the Olympic charter itself.

The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.

Nelson Mandela put it like this

For seventeen days, they are roommates.
For seventeen days, they are soulmates.
And for twenty-two seconds, they are competitors.
Seventeen days as equals. Twenty-two seconds as adversaries.
What a wonderful world that would be.
That's the hope I see in the Olympic Games.

Is the sportsfield the best place to find hope in a divided and hate-filled world.
Is 2012 the great hope for London? With 18 gold medals causing Olympic fever to infect our nation, even those who were once sceptical about the effects of the 2012 Olympics upon London, seem to be converted or strangely silent.
One interesting event that took place earlier in the week might illustrate it. The Georgian Revasi Mindorashvili met Russian Georgy Ketoev in the freestyle wrestling ring semi final.
Their compatriots had been fighting with guns that same week. For them it was all over, and when the medals were handed out the Russians courteously stood to hear the Georgian national anthem play.
The joy of sporting victory is short-lived – I feel particularly compelled to remind Fulham fans of that fact after their unexpected win over my beloved arsenal yesterday.
But we know that not all problems are dealt with so sportingly.
There is war as well as contest, and closer to home, even among those that we love most, there is friction.
Be honest, how often are there harsh words between you and a housemate, or a family member even as you are trying to get out the door to church. If your household is like mine, then I guess it is more often that you would like to admit.
What is at the heart of the human problem? Is there a solution?
Turn with me to Mark 7, Page 1016 in the church bibles.
Here we will see that the human problem runs far deeper than we might have assumed; it runs so deep that the combined force of all of humanity could not solve it. And yet there is hope. For God’s own divine solution reaches even deeper than the depth of the human problem.
1. The heart of the human problem (1-22)
2. The scope of the divine solution. (23-8:10)
3. The source of the eternal hope.(8:11-21)

1. The heart of the human problem (1-23)
1(A) Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes(B) who had come from Jerusalem, 2they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were(C) defiled, that is, unwashed. 3(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash[a] their hands, holding to(D) the tradition of(E) the elders, 4and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.[b] And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as(F) the washing of(G) cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.[c]) 5And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not walk according to(H) the tradition of(I) the elders,(J) but eat with(K) defiled hands?" 6And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you(L) hypocrites, as it is written,

(M) "'This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
7in vain do they worship me,
teaching as(N) doctrines the commandments of men.'
8You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men."
The heart of the human problem runs deep. We need to realise this, or we will look in the wrong place for a solution. If you get the wrong diagnosis, you might be satisfied with an inadequate treatment, but it will head you down a road towards despair.
The problem is so deep that it is Beyond the reach of any law
Perhaps the most common mistake in trying to deal with the human problem is to suggest that it can be solved by the right rules.
The Pharisees were meticulous rule keepers. We mustn’t underestimate why they thought they had such reasons to be such meticulous rulekeepers. They knew their Old Testaments. They knew that the very reason that Israel had been judged and sent into exile was that she had broken the law of Moses. And so, after a small remnant of Israel had been brought back into the land, there were those who wanted to make sure that the exile could never happen again.
And so they tried to enforce the law. And more than just enforce it, they had a whole series of other laws that meant that if you kept them, not only would you not break the Mosaic law, you wouldn’t even get close. That’s what they mean here by the “tradition of the elders” in verse 3 and 5.
So, where the law said that if you sat on the same couch as someone who was unclean, then you were unclean, they said, right then, we will ceremonially wash our couches every time someone sits on them, because we don’t know where they’ve been. If the law said that if you touch someone who is unclean you must ceremonially wash, then they said, right then, just in case, every time you go to the marketplace you’d better come back and wash from head to foot… actually, if you have a look at the footnote, you’ll see that the actual word in verse 2 is baptize: they would have thorough wash to make sure they had not inadvertently broken the law.
But in trying so meticulously to keep the law visibly like this, it didn’t deal with the problem.
The law was never intended to ensure obedience. It required obedience, but it could not ensure obedience. It was intended to reveal our disobedience.
So, Paul writes in romans 3:20
For by works of the law no human being[a] will be justified in God’s sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
The law was never meant to be the cure, only the diagnosis.
My friends, we need to beware of legalism, the idea that the law can purify us.
We need to get away from this in our church. Rules cannot encourage obedience. They can reveal disobedience and show us our need of mercy and of repentance. But it is only the work of the Spirit in the heart that can bring that repentance. The law can’t.
Do you see that: the problem is deep because it is a heart problem, not merely an external behavioural problem. The law can’t touch the heart. “These people honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. If we don’t realise how the law cannot touch the heart, we will think that we just need to add a few more laws. We just need to be a little more harsh. That’s what the Pharisees did. They longed that the law of God would not be broken, so they added more and more laws to try to protect it. But they did not reach the heart.
We need to know this in our families. Parents are you ever frustrated with your young children, because they just don’t seem to obey. You are tempted to make the rule more and more strict and the punishments more and more severe, thinking that maybe that would get through to them.
Well, it might have some effect on their behavior, and it might do some good in showing them more clearly what is right and what is wrong; but it cannot reach their heart. Did you know that as parents we are incapable of reaching our children’s hearts. We can plead, weep, laugh, love, discipline, instruct, but we cannot reach their hearts. We must pray for our children, for the Lord can reach their hearts.
Twynholm Baptist church. Will this be a church that is ruled by the law or by the gospel. Now, I’m not at all suggesting that there are no moral standards that we are to hold one another to. But first, will we hold one another to the standards of the word, or to the traditions of men.
“We’ve always done it that way. Baptists don’t do that. We’ve gone through this before.”
Well, that’s all very interesting: but what does the bible say: are we following the traditions of men, or the word of God. Now it’s fine to have some traditions: there is a tradition here that we meet at 10:30on Sunda mornings. That’s great. Works well, but it would be a very different thing if we said we MUST meet at 10:30 because we always have done.
Secondly; do we think that the way to be motivated to serve the Lord more faithfully is through laying down the law? There will be times when we need to confront one another with real sin in one another’s lives. But, my friends, we are never to confront someone with their sin and leave it at that. We are Christians, the only point in ever confronting someone with their sin is to lead them to the cross.
Let me say that again. The only reason ever to confront someone with their sin is to lead them to the cross.
If they will not repent, we do not exercise church discipline because they deserve it and we want them out. No! We exercise church discipline in love that they might be restored.
So, the last person who was put out of membership in this church – do you remember him regularly in your prayers? If you have a relationship with him, do you still try to call him to repentance?
My friends: I hope that we will all be confronted with the ugliness of our sin in this first section of Mark 7. We are going to be looking at it for sometime: But the only reason that we are doing so is that we may know the depth of the problem, so that we might turn to the one great solution that is on offer in the cross of Christ.
Legalism is so dangerous: the tradition of the elders might have made them feel good about their obedience, and made them feel that they had no need of forgiveness.
, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you(L) hypocrites, as it is written,

(M) "'This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
7in vain do they worship me,
teaching as(N) doctrines the commandments of men.'
What a terrible idea. We can think that we are worshipping God, but in fact it is worthless. It is possible to stand in the pews here, raise our voices in song with joy on our faces and tears rolling down our cheeks, and our hearts to be far from God; if we have unrepentant hearts, our worship is worse than useless, for it leaves us in our sin and yet convinces us that we are safe.
Hypocrisy is a dangerous thing; church can be a dangerous place. Do you wear a mask to church? I’m sure we all do to some extent... That row in the car suddenly dies down as we enter the church door. But is the mask your usual attire when you are at church; or are you allowing people at church to know the real you, warts and all. If church is your family where you don’t come to hide, but to share, then it can be the best place for getting rid of hypocrisy. Which is it to you?
Their legalism also distracted them from the fact that they were in fact disobedient in far more significant ways,
9And he said to them, "You have a fine way of(O) rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10For Moses said,(P) 'Honor your father and your mother'; and,(Q) 'Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.' 11But 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)[d]— 12then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13thus(R) making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do."
Note how for all their attempts to protect the law with extra laws, the Pharisees cannot get away from their own self-centredness. They claimed their laws were to serve God, but really they were to serve themselves at the expense of others. It sounds so pious doesn’t it, “Oh, Mum, I’m so sorry – I’d love to help you, but that was the money that was pledged to the church building fund.”
The human problem is so deep that it beyond the horizon of our own sight. We may do things even thinking that we are doing them for good reasons, even for God, but below the surface we are serving ourselves. Seek counsel from others. Let them speak into your life so that you would not be self-deceived.
We need to trust ourselves less; it is fairly safe to assume that there are various ways you are self-deceived. Listen to those who are close to you – they are probably aware of your sin in ways that you may not be!
Perhaps though, you feel that you are very aware of your sin.
Perhaps you think that you are not good enough for God. You may even think that you suffer from low self esteem. My friend, according to the bible the problem is not that we think too lowly of ourselves; without exception, we think too highly of ourselves, and too often of ourselves.
Even low self-esteem is a strangely self-absorbed problem. We are not meant to find our worth in ourselves; if you are looking for self-worth it is a doomed search. We are meant to find our satisfaction in the infinite value of God, not ourselves. Well, you are dissatisfied with yourself: good! We are not God, we are not supposed to find satisfaction in ourselves, but in him.
Even if we were sinless, we are still very finite. God is both infinite and perfect. He is satisfying.
But we are very, very sinful. I am worse than my worst opinion of myself. You are worse than you very worst opinion you have of yourself.
As the prophet Jeremiah said, “9The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?”
Well, Jesus can; he diagnoses the heart like a master physician. Look at 14:
14And he called the people to him again and said to them, (S) "Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15(T) 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."[e] 17And when he had entered(U) the house and left the people,(V) his disciples asked him about the parable. 18And he said to them, "Then(W) are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19since it enters not his heart(X) but his stomach, and is expelled?"[f] ((Y) Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20And he said, (Z) "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft,(AA) murder, adultery, 22coveting, wickedness, deceit,(AB) sensuality,(AC) envy,(AD) slander,(AE) pride,(AF) foolishness. 23(AG) All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."
We’ve already seen that the problem is so deep that it is beyond the reach of the Law. It is beyong the horizon of our sight. But it is also beyond our ability to isolate ourselves from the problem.
The problem isn’t out there: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him
It is In here: but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.
The problem is not something that we learn from our parents.
Larkin said, “they screw you up your Mum and Dad, they may not mean to but they do, they fill you with the faults they had and add some extra just for you.”
Well. Our parents may have influenced us for good or for ill, but we didn’t learn to be sinners from them. It is impossible for one person to corrupt another’s heart. One person might encourage corruption to grow in another’s heart. But the heart is already corrupt.
Parents know this. You don’t have to teach a child to hit their siblings, or to cheat, or to lie. They do it all by themselves. Sin is nature not nurture.
We cannot protect ourselves or our loves ones from sinful influences because we all carry around sinful influences. And lets face it: they are ugly.
21For from within, out of the heart of man, come
evil thoughts – are there things that you think about doing, and the only thing that stops you is that you might get caught?,
sexual immorality: Do you find yourself wanting those who don’t belong to you?do you find yourself wanting others to find you irresistable?,
theft: ,(AA)
murder: are you filled with rage with others not because they have dishonoured God but because they have hurt you?
adultery,
coveting: what have you seen and thought “I must have it”,
wickedness: when have you spoken without caring that your words might wound?
deceit,(AB):
children – if you are growing up with Christian parents, realise that the deceit – telling lies, and trying to hide your sin from your parents, might be the quickest way to turn yourself into a hypocrite: one who appears to be a Christian, but isn’t really. Admit your sin before it is found out, and ask for forgiveness.
sensuality:
envy,(AD)
slander: when have you presented as a fact something bad about someone that is actually just a suspicion that you have.
pride,
foolishness.

Those last two are so tragic, because they protect all the others: it is our pride that causes us to deny that the other sins are a problem in our life, or to suggest that we can handle the problem by ourselves.
It is foolishness that would turn a blind eye to the Lord Jesus, who is our only hope.

23(AG) All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.
Does this Sound familiar? Does it sound like Jesus has just described you? He can see our hearts better than we allow ourselves to see them.
I don’t know what your upbringing was like, and the extent to which you witnessed these sins growing up: if you did, don’t assume that they would have been absent from you if only you’d had a different upbringing. They come from the nature of our fallen hearts.
The problem is too big for us to deal with; and the only tools we have are themselves broken: we cannot reach the heart with the law; and we cannot change our hearts by our own actions, for our actions are goverened by our hearts that are the very source of the problem.
The heart of the human problem IS the problem of the human heart.
We can go and start a new life somewhere else, but we will take the problems with us.
And even if we realized just how ugly our hearts were
It be isolated
We are not the solution, we are the problem…
… the heart of the problem is the problem of the human heart.
Jesus the physician who has diagnosed the problem of our hearts. Jesus is also the only surgeon who can bring healing.
2. The scope of the divine solution. (24-8:10)
If the problem runs deep, the solution is great in bredth, depth and height.
Bredth: All kinds of people.
4And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon.[g] And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 25But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26(AH) Now the woman was a(AI) Gentile,(AJ) a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27And he said to her, "Let the children be(AK) fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and(AL) throw it to the dogs." 28But she answered him, "Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s(AM) crumbs." 29And he said to her, "For this statement you may(AN) go your way; the demon has left your daughter." 30And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

Perhaps to our ears Jesus’ words sound a little harsh, calling her a dog. This was a common word used by Jews of gentiles. He here uses the term that would have been used of a pet, not a stray. But it does make a clear distinction between Jew and Gentile. God had chosen a people Israel to be a picture of purity. And thus the other nations were by comparison to be a picture of impurity. But God had done this so that one day the blessings that came to Israel would be a blessing to all the nations. Hence jesus uses the term “first”… The blessings should go first to Israel, then to the Gentiles.
It is worth noting though that this would not have been at all unexpected in terms of what the Messiah was expected to do. The Messiah was expected to come to expel and subdue the Gentiles, not visit and embrace them.
If a Jewish marketplace would have required a bath, then a visit to the notoriously pagan tyre and Sidon would have required a bath in caustic soda.
Why does her daughter have the demons in the first place… was it because of demonic pagan practices…. She didn’t deserve healing…
But that’s the whole point. She, like us, was undeserving of any solution to the mess she had made of hers and her daughter’s life. And she knew it. That’s why she was at Jesus’ feet. She knew she needed him, for her daughter was in the grip of evil, just as we have seen our own hearts are.
And Jesus was willing.
Crumbs under tables may not seem much. But remember, there had just been 12 basketsful of crumbs collected from the last meal that we read about Jesus serving. The crumbs from the table are quite enough.
We saw earlier that pride is the one thing that will protect all the other sins in our lives. Unless we have come to a point of humility we will never fall at Jesus’ feet and cry out for mercy. But that is what we so desperately need.
Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love and power.
Let not conscience make you linger,
Not of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.
I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms;
In the arms of my dear Savior,
O there are ten thousand charms.
GOSPEL.
Jesus came for all kinds of people. Jew and Gentile – we are all one of those, or some mixture. You are not beyond the scope of Jesus salvation. Perhaps there is someone here who thinks that Jesus really wouldn’t save someone like you…
And Jesus is able to reach right into us and forgive us, and cleanse us.
Depth: The heart of the problem
31(AO) Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to(AP) the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the(AQ) Decapolis. 32And they brought to him(AR) a man who was deaf and(AS) had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33And(AT) taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. 34And(AU) looking up to heaven,(AV) he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." 35(AW) And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36And(AX) Jesus[h] charged them to tell no one. But(AY) the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37And they were(AZ) astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."

We are not able to reach inside of ourselves and change our hearts. But Jesus can.
Our hearts are so sinful that we are not even able to see into them and see our need of Christ, and see Christ and turn to him. We are deaf to the good news of Jesus.
But note what Jesus does… He speaks to a deaf man. And he speaks in Aramaic to a gentile in the Decapolis. Speaking to a deaf man in a foreign language! And yet his words have power… in speaking to deaf ears, he makes those ears able to hear.
In calling those whose hearts are unable to get past their own sinfulness, Jesus gives new hearts that would embrace him.
Once again we see that there are no grounds for pride in being a Christian. We were guilty sinners deserving judgement, unable to turn to Christ, but he gave us the ability. He opened our deaf ears, he loosened our enslaved tongue that we might praise him and exclaim that he has done all things well.
Height: abundant blessings
1(BA) 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(BB) "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away." 4And his disciples answered him, "How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?" 5And he asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" They said,(BC) "Seven." 6And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and(BD) having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7And they had a few small fish. And(BE) having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. 8And(BF) they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over,(BG) seven baskets full. 9And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. 10And immediately he got into(BH) the boat with his disciples and went to the district of(BI) Dalmanutha.[i]

People have often been puzzled as to why there are 2 feedings: one of 5,000 men, plus women and children, the other of 4,000 people altogether. Some have even suggested that there must have been some confusion. But no, Jesus is clearly deliberately repeating the miracle. We saw in chapter 6 that the miracle showed that Jesus was like the Lord who provided bread from heaven for Israel in the desert.
The shocking thing here is that he does exactly the same thing in gentile territory. The same blessings that were going to Israel were now going to the Gentiles through Christ. Even the disciples don’t seem to expect it.
"How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?"
Yes, we can understand you providing for Israelites, but these Gentiles... surely the blessings promised to Israel can’t go to gentiles can they. Well, they can, if they come through the one who was the fulfilment of Israel, Jesus himself. And they come in equal abundance. The whoe crowd was satisfied, and once again there were crumbs falling from the table. There would have been enough blessing for even more had they come.
I wonder if we have the same attitude as the disciples. Do we think that there are some kinds of people who we kind of think might we worth sharing the gospel to. We want to see them saved and blessed. There are others who we either assume are not interested, or we actually don’t want them to be saved.
Garry glitter is back in the UK now. Would you want him to begin attending this church, and coming under the sound of the gospel? Or do we think that there are some hearts that are so rotten that they must be beyond the reach of salvation, or at least ought to be.
We are to be a people who know that we have been forgiven though we deserve hell, and therefore hold out the good news to any and all who will listen.
Children, do you want to know if you have been forgiven? Do you find that you are becoming quicker and quicker to forgive those who have done you wrong: And I don’t just mean saying the words, “I forgive you” but actually being committed not to hold wrongs against people.
3. The source of the eternal hope.(8:11-21)
11(BJ) The Pharisees came and began to argue with him,(BK) seeking from him(BL) a sign from heaven(BM) to test him. 12And(BN) he sighed deeply(BO) 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." 13And(BP) he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side.
The Leaven of the Pharisees and Herod
14Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. 15And he cautioned them, saying, "Watch out;(BQ) beware of(BR) the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of(BS) Herod."[j] 16And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. 17And(BT) Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread?(BU) Do you not yet perceive(BV) or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18(BW) Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? 19When I broke(BX) 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(BY) the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" And they said to him, "Seven." 21And he said to them, "Do you not yet understand?"

Perhaps it seems a little harsh to you that Jesus will not do the miraculous sign that they ask for, and even sighs as they are asking: why didn’t he just perform a miracle and then they would have been on his side wouldn’t they?
Well no, they wouldn’t. They have already seen Jesus perform many miracles and they did not believe, they accredited them to Satan.
But also, it is the wrong kind of way to come to Jesus. We have desperately sinful hearts and we need forgiveness. We are not in a position to make any demands of Jesus; note how the Syrophoenician woman fell down at his feet, and the friends of the deaf man had begged Jesus to touch him. We are bankrupt before Jesus, entirely dependent upon his mercy.
And he will give his mercy to those who humbly turn to him in faith, but not to those who proudly make demands.
The yeast of the Pharisees and the Herodians is the yeast that would make ourselves look within ourselves for the solution to the human problem: either to our religious efforts, or to our public recognition.
And it would stop us looking to our only hope, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even the disciples who were with him through all of this – who had seen the miracles, were so focused on the here and now that they were worrying more about where their next meal was coming from than who this incredible man was.
There were in danger of being blinded to the extraordinary Saviour that Jesus is, and going away as lost and as deceived as the Pharisees. One of them would walk away, and betray Jesus for money that was spent in a day.
Yet Jesus is the one who had fed thousands of Jews, showing that he was the Lord himself, and thousands of Gentiles, showing that he had come to bring blessings to the whole world, and they are worried about a loaf of bread.
What about you. Do you still not understand? Life is not about our achievements or our status. Life is not about our religiousness or our morality. Life is not about us, it’s about Jesus!
Do you belong to him?
Do you enjoy him?
Do you rest in him?

A friend of mine in Washington has a dog, that he walks each day in the congregational cemetery. Only those who were senators or congressmen get to be buried there. Some of them would have been very important people in their lifetime, reaching levels of human success and power that most of us only see on TV. But now their bodies are buried, and the only thing that matters is whether their sinful hearts had been forgiven, and cleansed. The only thing that matters is whether they knew Jesus and entrusted themselves to him.

Are you resting upon him? Is he your shield and your defender
On Jesus, your righteousness, your sure Foundation, your prince of glory and your King of love.
Lets pray.