Deadly Defilement
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The last few weeks, we’ve talked a lot about the flesh, sin, idols, our sin nature. Tonight will sort of be an extension of all of those things. The question here tonight is what makes us clean? There’s a lot of teaching that really is not biblical when it comes to our holiness.
But there’s also a flip side to that coin. We have talked in previous weeks about why we need a Savior. We’ve talked about our sin nature, and how it was imputed, or credited to us with Adam’s original sin. We were all born fallen because of the fall. But what causes us to be unclean? There are things that we have in our sin nature that keeps us unclean, but there’s also things after we come to Christ that we must guard ourselves from. Tonight were going to talk about DEADLY DEFILEMENT.
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.”
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.”
We pick up in v14 and 15 where Jesus is explaining to His disciples that nothing outside of a person can defile the inside of them. But before we elaborate on this, we need to talk about WHY Jesus is even explaining this! Earlier in the chapter, we see the Pharisees approaching Jesus, questioning Him about His disciples.
1 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem,
2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.
3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders,
4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.)
5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
So here we see the Pharisees, very zealous for their traditions, questioning Jesus saying, “If you’re truly this Rabbi, this Teacher, with a following, if You are a Holy Man of God, why do your disciples eat with unwashed hands?”
Jesus went on to explain that the Pharisees had it all wrong. He explained to them that they find ways to break the commandments of God, so that they can hold to the traditions of man.
The Pharisees truly believed that their righteousness was in keeping traditions, such as washing their hands before they eat, washing when they return from the market, washing of the cups and bowls. They assumed, because of MAN’S INTERPRETATION OF THE LAW, that as long as they washed, and kept themselves from unclean things, and unclean people, that they themselves were clean. But they didn’t understand the SPIRIT OF THE LAW. Here’s our first application.
BEING EXTERNALLY CLEAN CANNOT MAKE YOU ACCEPTABLE BEFORE GOD
This is where Man’s Interpretation waters down the power of the cross. But before we talk modern day, Let me first explain with the Pharisees. See there was the law, the old covenant, which was comprised of over 600 commandments, including the 10 commandments.
But over time, the Pharisees, through the oral tradition passed down by their fathers, added their own traditions to the commandments, and they esteemed their traditions JUST AS HIGHlY as they esteemed the actual commands of God.
Have you ever noticed that in churches today in America? There’s something thats taught, or held on to for so long that you don’t even think about it; and one day you realize. “Hmmm.. is this even really in the Bible?” (no singing? No instruments in church?) These are manmade traditions that we have esteemed as highly as the word, when it was truly just man’s interpretation.
For example. Let’s talk about the Sabbath day. God commanded that the Israelites remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Meaning set apart to God. On that day, no one was to work, not the Israelites, their sons or daughters, or their servants or burden animals. God gave them the Sabbath as a day of rest, to remember how He rested after He created everything in 6 days, but most of all it was a SIGN that CHRIST would be OUR SABBATH, He would be OUR REST FROM OUR WORKS!
But over time, the Pharisees, interpreted work in ways that God Himself never mentioned. They added to the law how many steps you could walk on that day, wether or not you could start a fire, or pluck grains with your hands simply to eat, not to harvest. Modern day, if you go to a hotel in Israel, there is a Sabbath elevator where it continually stops and opens on every floor, that way you don’t even have to push a button, because they would consider that WORK.
Essentially what happened is, man took a day that God meant for rest, and refreshment, and for a sign of His grace to come, and they turned it into a burden.
4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
This is what man has done to the cross. We say we believe the Gospel, that Christ died for sinners, that we are saved by grace through faith, not of works, yet when a person gets saved we bind them with heavy burdens, saying if you don’t obey, if you don’t pay your tithe, if you don’t live holy, then you aren’t saved.
Man’s interpretation of Salvation has made it out to be Jesus, plus MY holiness, equals salvation. But all of my HOLINESS, does nothing but TAKE AWAY from the holiness of Jesus.
WHEN YOU ADD ANYTHING TO JESUS, IT’S TRULY SUBTRACTION
How can I say that? Because you’re saying that HIS sacrifice wasn’t enough to pay for my sins. That His Holiness wasn’t enough to appease God’s wrath, like He needs MY HOLINESS TOO!
I believe in obedience, I believe in holiness. 1 John tells us that if we are able to live in habitual sin, then we couldn’t possibly be born again. A true Christian hates sin, and wants it out of their lives.
But we MUST stop WATERING DOWN THE GOSPEL by presenting a Salvation that is earned by my obedience. CHRIST DOESN’T NEED MY HELP! HE SAVED ME PERFECTLY, THE BLOOD OF JESUS DOES NOT NEED MY WORKS! IT IS FILTHY RAGS, AND IT IS HERESY TO PRESENT A GOSPEL THAT PUTS MY PERFORMANCE IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING THAT IS ENTIRELY CHRIST!
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,
So we see here that the disciples, despite being with Jesus, hearing His words, witnessing the miracles, things at times were still lost on them. I think it’s important we see the application here;
WE CAN BE AROUND JESUS AND YET LACK UNDERSTANDING
It’s not enough to say we believe, and to be around the church. Notice Jesus took His disciples aside and got alone with them, to give them revelation and understanding. You MUST be ALONE with Jesus REGULARLY, if you are to reach deeper REVELATION.
People say they can’t understand the Bible; but are they ever actually spending time in the Bible? We say we need an answer from God on what we should do; but are we seeking His presence? Get alone with Jesus! It’s not a relationship if you’re not communing and communicating on a daily basis! That is simply acquaintanceship.
If you’re here tonight and you are someone who reads and prays everyday, the application is
THERE IS DEEPER STILL
Think about the disciples. They were all called, and were the closest people to Jesus on the face of the earth. But of the 12, there were 3 who were even closer. Peter, James and John. These 3 got to witness events that no one else did such as the raising up of Jairus’ dead daughter, and being with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. But I think the biggest event was the transfiguration. What they saw was the glory of Christ. They saw, for just a moment, a glimpse of the Glory of our Lord Jesus.
Therefore, these men had a DEEPER REVELATION of the identity of Christ then the others did. Yet despite this deeper revelation, we see the mistakes of Peter, the lack of wisdom and understanding, and even the denial of Christ. But Peter came back stronger, and drew closer, and become the foundation of the early church.
Let’s see this as a whole. The church, we are like the disciples. Christians who are called to Jesus. There is no one on earth as close to Jesus as born again believers in the church.
Yet is seems, like Peter, James and John, there are Christians who draw closer, (those who are diligently seeking Him through prayer and study) there are those who answer the call to go deeper. But just like Peter, that deeper revelation does not mean we have the fullness of what Jesus has for us.
We can still blow it, we can still miss the mark, we can still lack the wisdom and understanding we seek.
WE CANNOT BE SATISFIED WITH WHERE WE ARE SPIRITUALLY
There is more. There is always more. We cannot compare ourselves amongst ourselves and say, “Oh I’m doing great, there are christians who hardly even read their word, I study daily, i pray daily, i do my devotionals”. That is not wisdom, we cannot compare ourselves to others standards, but to GODS. Are you as intimate as you can be? Are you as close as you can be, this side of heaven? The answer is always NO! As Paul said, oh the depths and the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God.
A lot of times when we find ourselves stuck in a place of lacking wisdom or understanding in a situation, or when we find ourselves stuck in a particular sin, or a season of life, it’s directly related to the fact that we are stuck in the same closeness as the last season, when He is calling us DEEPER into the next season.
We must understand that there’s a deeper level of intimacy we have yet to reach. There is a deeper level in His presence we have not entered. The beauty of the veil being torn from top to bottom after Jesus was crucified, is that we can ALL now enter into the Holy of Holies. But most of us get so distracted with this life, we find ourselves comfortable only drawing so close. Some of us are stuck in the the holy place, right outside the Holy of Holies, where God’s presence is. Some are further out into the outer courts. And even further still, some Christians are barely on the porch of the temple.
TO GROW STRONGER WE MUST GO DEEPER
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.)
There are three conclusions we draw from Jesus’ speaking on defilement.
THE LAW CANNOT MAKE US RIGHTEOUS
Jesus here begins to explain that defilement is so much deeper than we all think. It’s not the external things that cause us to be unclean. You can’t just wash your hands like the Pharisees believed through ceremonial law. Keeping your hands free from the filth of the world CANNOT MAKE YOU CLEAN!
This is so important for us to know because so many people think if they just change THE THINGS THEY DO that life will be so much better.
That’s why RECOVERY is the big lie. People get so infatuated with getting sober, that after they get sober, their whole life is about sobriety. People think if they can just get clean that all of their problems will be solved. If your recovery is not Christ, it will be joyless, it will be dry, it will not be deliverance. And the sad truth is, many will ride the coattail of recovery all the way to hell. Recovery cannot fix the root of the problem. Recovery may allow you to get a job, and make enough money for a car and a house. Recovery may bring you back into relationship with your kids; but getting sober CANNOT make you right with God.
We don’t need recovery, we need an encounter with the living God. Being “In Recovery” implies that you are still in the process of recovering from your drug addiction, but being healed means that the chains are gone, the stronghold is broken, and I am FREE!
Getting out of addiction is amazing, but i know Jesus is the only thing that KEEPS ME OUT! But I cannot live as if getting out of my addiction is the end all be all. Why not?
16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Why can we not be made right with God through behavior? By the things that we do?
2. ONLY CHRIST CAN MAKE US RIGHTEOUS
Only Christ can make us righteous, because our unrighteousness comes from within, not from without. Look again at what Jesus said.
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.)
Jesus said those things, eating food with defiled hands only affects the stomach, but it ENTERS NOT HIS HEART! What He is saying is that It’s not about the external, BUT THE INTERNAL! This is not about the physical, this is not about works, this is not about cleansing rituals; THIS IS ABOUT THE SPIRITUAL! The law could only deal with external things, the things the Pharisees concerned themselves with. But Jesus, Jesus deal WITH THE HEART.
Because the law revealed our uncleaness, but just like the cleansing rituals of handwashing, it could only clean us up on the outside. But Jesus said, the things that defile us are not just ON US from the things we do. They are IN US. It’s apart of who we are.
WE WERE BORN IN SIN, SO WE MUST BE BORN AGAIN INTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
In verse 19 it said that Jesus declared all foods clean. That doesn’t mean that Jesus was undoing the law. He was showing us the SPIRIT OF THE LAW (which points us to our uncleaness) and He was FULFILLING THE LAW. And through His perfect fulfillment He changed the way we approach God.
See, the law showed the Israelites that the things of this world are defiled and they will cause us to separate from a Holy God. THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW shows us that the things of the flesh are IN US making us opposed to God, and points us toward our only hope for Salvation, for righteousness, for redemption, because we cannot obtain it on our own. It’s only found in Christ.
WE NEED A HEART CHANGE, NOT BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION
Jesus intended to show us that we cannot reach salvation without Him. We cannot do this alone.
We cannot have this attitude of, “If I just beat this addiction, if I just stop drinking, if I just stop cussing, if i just stop lusting, if i just stop going to jail, if i come to church THEN I WILL BE RIGHT WITH GOD”. WRONG!
You can only walk in those things if Christ first changes your heart. Then you’ll be able to defeat your addiction, then you can live holy. But those things don’t get you saved, those things don’t keep you saved, those things are only proof of the fact that Christ has PERFECTLY SAVED YOU. And He is able to perfectly keep you.
We have to stop putting salvation upon ourselves, as if i could live holy enough for God, when Jesus said the very things that come from a mans heart defiles him. Realize that only a SAVIOR can save you. And you and your performance is not that savior.
WE WERE DEAD MEN! Dead men can’t perform. Dead men can’t obey. Dead men can’t do nothin’ but stink. WE WERE DEAD, IN THE TOMB, STINKIN LIKE LAZURUS TILL JESUS BROUGHT US BACK TO LIFE.
So what do we do?
STOP FOCUSING ON THE SIN AND FOCUS ON THE ONE WHO CHANGES THE HEART
It’s so easy to get caught up evaluating ourselves, and focusing on the sin we want out of our lives.
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Look to Jesus. Don’t look to your own relative holiness. Don’t look at the sin that seems to lure you in. Look to the one who founded our faith, who perfects our faith, who defeated sin and is seated at the right hand, continually making intercession for us.
That’s the problem with legalistic preaching. Religious preaching that presents a form of the Gospel where your salvation depends upon your works. That kind of preaching takes your eyes off of Christ, and puts it back on you. Isn’t that man’s greatest temptation? Making it all about us?
YOU CANNOT CHANGE YOUR POSITION WITH GOD BASED ON WHAT YOU DO, ONLY CHRIST CAN CHANGE YOUR POSITION WITH GOD.
AFTER, AND ONLY AFTER JESUS CHANGES OUR POSITION WITH GOD, then through His sanctification we have the ability to change our CONDITION with God through our obedience.
How can obedience change my condition? If I’m consistently engaged in sin, I won’t be consistently engaging with God. I will feel far from Him. I won’t feel that closeness, that intimacy. And not because of God, because of me. God didn’t move, I moved.
If I’m not walking in holiness, I won’t be walking in my purpose.
My obedience keeps me sensitive to God, it keeps me from falling into old habits and lusts, and it shows my love for God.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
See, obedience is done out of love for God, love for Jesus and all that He has done for us. If you don’t have a desire to obey, something is missing in your love for God. But notice that obedience is not done to earn me something, or to keep my salvation. It’s done because i have salvation, and because i love God, and He has given me the ability to obey.
So don’t misunderstand me. Although I am preaching strongly against watering down the power of the cross by saying that works keeps our salvation; AS IF WE COULD DO SOMETHING TO KEEP SOMETHING THAT WE COULD NOT EARN IN THE FIRST PLACE! I am also preaching that obedience is EXTREMELY important, because it directly affects our hearts towards God.
This brings us to our final point.
3. WE MUST GUARD OUR HEARTS
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.”
Jesus here exposes the heart of man. He shows us why an external law, could not give us life, but could only condemn us through the perfect standard of God. These evils are INSIDE OF MAN!
(You don’t have to teach children how to sin, you have to teach them to behave! Because this sin is INNATE)
But for the believer, once you come to the cross the sin problem has been taken care. You have been given a clean slate. You are now the righteousness of God in Christ, you are justified, and declared innocent before God.
But these are things we still must be aware of, these are the works of the flesh, these are things we are tempted with.
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
This is why holiness is so important. This is why daily time in prayer and in study of God’s word is crucial. If we are not guarding our heart, it will remain full of dead things, and the overflow will be sinful actions.
Notice what all of these wicked things start with in verse 21.
Mark 7:21 (ESV)
21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
EVIL THOUGHTS.
WHAT YOU MEDITATE ON IS WHAT YOU BECOME
I was talking to a Dream Center student about secular music today. There’s a certain rapper I used to love, who is from my neighborhood in Sacramento. Very influential. But all he talks about is gangbangin, drugs, money, sex and murder.
I want you to think about this. When all you are filling your mind with is gangbangin, drugs, money, sex and murder; what kind of lyrics will be stuck in your mind all day? Then as you repeat the lyrics because it’s stuck in your head, what are you meditating on? As you meditate, what will your thoughts be about?
These evil thoughts in verse 21, become every form of evil imaginable.
What consumes you becomes your character. Your thoughts become your decisions. Your decisions make up your life.
Galatians 6:8 (ESV)
8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
That word sow literally means to scatter seed on the ground. What happens when you scatter seed? It takes root. It grows. It produces life, a living organism.
When you “scatter seed” to your own flesh, it comes alive, producing deep rooted corruption in your life.
But when you “scatter seed” to the Spirit, the Spirit gives you life. In the here and now, that looks like STRENGTH TO OVERCOME TEMPTATION. Strength to endure trial and tribulation. Strength to face tragedies in life. The ability to grow ever closer in intimacy with Him. And in the future, it looks like ETERNAL LIFE!
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
If you put your flesh in a situation with the ability to gratify itself, the evils from within man will certainly win out. This is where we need wisdom. If it’s something that will lure your flesh, you’ve GOT TO CUT IT OUT! Wether thats people, places, social media, the internet, conversations. Whatever it is IT’S GOT TO GO!
But notice it’s not just avoiding situations where your flesh may be tempted. The most important key is the first part of that verse. PUT ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!
How do you do that? You realize what Christ has done for you and YOU WALK IN IT!
1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Freedom from what? Freedom from the law. Freedom from trying to earn our way to God, freedom from always failing to be holy enough, freedom from sin, freedom from the wages of sin, freedom from the power of sin. FREEDOM FROM OUR FLESH, and eventually freedom from the presence of sin, FOREVER!
As we close, what we must see from this passage is that what defiles us, what makes us unrighteous and unclean in the sight of God, is the sin nature within us. The evils that flow from the heart of man.
Therefore, the law cannot make us righteous. Only Christ can make us righteous. Once He makes us righteous, He gives us the ability to walk in freedom. But we must guard our hearts, and guard that freedom, because sin is always crouching at the door.
There is evil in mankind, but there is freedom in Christ.
There is bondage in religion, but there is freedom in Christ.
There is slavery in sin, but there is freedom in Christ.
And freedom is given freely. And that’s the Gospel.
