The Rotten Root
Notes
Transcript
Sermon title - The Rotten Root
last week - clean hands; pharisees confronted Jesus about disciples not washing hands which was a tradition they imposed on people and not a law
they took God’s word and misapplied it, and in turn made tradition something greater than God’s word
scene continues in our text today where Jesus addresses defilement; not something of external cleanliness but of the heart
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.”
Intro - bad fruit; looks good on the outside but rotten on the inside; apples with rot and worms in it
October 31st - Reformation day; Martin Luther nailed the 95 thesis on the door of the church in Wittenburg, Germany; stand against false teachings of Roman Catholic; looked good on the outside but on the inside, the church was dead
they had embraced a works based theology; faith plus other things(baptism, mass, penance, confession); people paying indulgences to get family members out of purgatory(false doctrine); Martin Luther studies scripture and saw that this was wrong
nailing this on the door was a way of trying to start a friendly debate; ultimately it lit a fire in Europe that is still burning in the church today
things may look good on the outside yet be rotten on the inside; hypocrites were actors, played a part that looked put together; still happens today
Main Point - The Quality of the Fruit is Determined by the Root
Main Point - The Quality of the Fruit is Determined by the Root
root is our hearts; Jesus uses this opportunity to teach them about what true defilement is
2 sub-points in our text that I am going to point out
Defilement Makes Us Rotten at the Root
Defilement Makes Us Rotten at the Root
Pharisees arguing that not washing hands is considered defilement; misapplication of OT law; Jesus is going to teach them what true defilement is
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.”
Hear me, understand - what he was about to say was important; do we put more weight on what Jesus says or what man says?
understand - the words of Jesus are able to be understood; God’s word was given to us and we have it in an understandable language for us; we can go home, open up God’s word, and God will speak to us clearly through his word
v. 15; nothing means nothing; getting into cultural context, even food that is sacrificed to pagan gods cannot defile someone if they eat it; therefore, the washing of hands is irrelevant to purity; Jesus points to what is inside.
What defiles a man then?; it is the things on the inside that come out
Jesus flips the script on the Pharisees; not what goes in, but what is in and comes out
17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable.
He leaves it like that and takes his disciples. He doesn’t sit there and preach a sermon to them, just a short teaching and leaves them; not the first time he did this; takes his disciples and explains it further
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.)
He asks them if they are like everyone else and don’t understand?
It isn’t that they don’t understand about food, the problem is that they don’t understand the heart
Mom worked at the hospital for over 40 years; took pictures and videos of hearts; I could ask her to sit her and explain different parts and functions of the human heart; but our spiritual heart is not our physical heart
God knows our hearts; he knows when a heart is wicked and he knows when a heart is not; this is because if a heart is no longer wicked, it is because God is the one who changes it
it is all about the heart; sin comes from our hearts
he is using this argument of food and cleanliness to point out something even bigger; food isn’t the problem, our heart is; physical cleanliness is not the problem, our heart is
what we put into our bodies is not what makes us defiled but what is in our hearts; Jesus is battling this false teaching of cleanliness; so he declares all food clean
there are still people today who claim to follow Jesus that feel like they have to obey OT ritual; Jesus has declared all food clean; It doesn’t matter what you eat for lunch today, what matters is what is in your heart
our hearts are the root; grandpa had a big garden; green thumb; if there was a plant that was rotten at the root, it would not produce a good crop
before move on, address v. 16; take off preacher hat, put on teacher hat; KJV has it, others don’t, Why?; since KJV translation, thousands of older manuscripts have been discovered, only had handful of them at the time; now they can compare all of them; sometimes they find a place that was written in some of them, but in the majority, it was not there; does not change the message of the scripture; only strive to make it more accurate; the idea of v.16 is a repeat of v. 14, so there is nothing that is left out
don’t think that I have “defiled” the text by skipping or leaving out
defilement makes us rotten at the root
Defilement Shows Itself by Rotten Fruit
Defilement Shows Itself by Rotten Fruit
I mentioned earlier about the fruit that would look good on the outside but be rotten on the inside. But the truth is, it doesn’t matter how much you try to cover it up, the fruit is going to be rotten. You can paint it and shine it up real nice, but it is still rotten. It isn’t about what is on the outside, it is about what is on the inside.
20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.
Jesus begins this by explaining clearly what he is talking about to the disciples. There needs to be no confusion about this parable that Jesus said. Especially for his close followers. These are the men who would be sent out after the death and resurrection of Jesus. These are the men who would be the ones who take this teaching of what it means to be defiled to both the Jews and Gentiles. These are the men who would be preaching the gospel of needing to be changed by Jesus.
What Jesus does is he clears up any confusion as to what he might be talking about and he gives examples in the next couple of verses of what it means to be defiled.
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.”
With clarity, he tells them that these things come from the heart. It is not a physical problem that needs to be fixed, but a heart problem. I see so many people that struggle with things. They try everything that they can think of to try to fix the problem. But it is all surface level attempts. For us to truly deal with our problems, and all of our problems are sin problems, we must deal with the heart. And this heart cannot be changed personally. It can only be changed by God.
So what are the things that Jesus lists here. Evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. This is not an exhaustive list. This does not mean that if something is not listed here that it doesn’t come from a defiled person. But these are things that show someone as defiled.
With this list, we have to deal with Jesus and his relationship to the law. Before this, Jesus declares that all food is clean. This goes against the Levitical law. Now, Jesus gives a list of things that show a man to be defiled, and when you look at it, he gets this from the law of God. Much of what he lists here is found in the Ten Commandments.
A lot of non believers today get hook up on this. Ignoring part of the law while upholding part of it. Is that what Jesus is doing here? Is he saying that it is okay to ignore part of the law? To truly answer this question, we need to have a general understanding of the laws that are found in the OT. In the OT, you could put the laws into 3 different categories; ceremonial, cultural, and moral.
When Jesus is dealing with the washing of hands, he is dealing with a ceremonial law. The Pharisees took this law and twisted it and misapplied it. When Jesus deals with food going into someone and whether or not that defiles them, he is dealing with cultural laws. The Israelites would avoid certain foods so that they would distinguish themselves from other people groups.
Since Jesus has come, there is no need for sacrificial ceremonies. We no longer are held by ceremonial laws. Since Jesus has come, the bible tells us that there is no longer Jew nor Greek, that we are all one in the family of God. So we don’t have to be held by cultural laws. But, moral laws will never go away.
We see this in the list that Jesus gives them. Jesus does not abandon the moral law but upholds it. He tells us that these are the things that defile someone. And it all starts with our thoughts. Evil thoughts lead to the things that follow after this. 2 Corinthians 10:5 “5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”. Take those thoughts captive to keep from being defiled.
Then he deals with the outworking of evil thoughts. He says sexual immorality defiles someone. I could preach a whole sermon just on this and how it has corrupted not only the world, but the church. We have churches that are no longer held by the authority of scripture because they want to approve of people living sexually promiscuous lives. They affirm people who live homosexual lives, people who cheat on their spouse and divorce them, and people sleeping around with people they aren’t married to. Church, we cannot stand for this. When we have church members that are doing these things, and we turn a blind eye to it, we are saying that we believe that they can live in blatant unrepentant sin and still be saved. And these two things cannot exist at the same time.
Let me move on. Theft (8th commandment), murder (6th commandment), adultery (7th commandment), coveting (10th commandment), skip down and there is slander (9th commandment). Within this, Jesus deals with the last 5 of the 10 commandments. They deal with the moral law. We cannot abandon the moral law, even as NT believers.
Some others that he lists. Wickedness, doing evil actions towards others, doing something deliberate, could be as simple as cutting someone off in traffic. Deceit, being deceptive, being manipulative to get your way. Sensuality, living without any moral discernment or restraint, seeing nothing wrong with a lifestyle that is opposed to Christianity.
Envy, this one might be a tough one for some of us. Thinking that you deserve better than what you have. That you deserve what others have gotten. With envy, you are never satisfied with what you have gotten. You always want more. Which kind of goes hand in hand with pride. Being arrogant about yourself. Thinking you are better than others. Which also goes with being foolish. Being spiritually insensitive.
This is quite a list. It is a very intrusive list. What we don’t need to do with a list like this is try to think of someone else that you see these things in. But we need to take this list and look into a spiritual mirror. The question at hand is “am I someone who is defiled or am I someone who is spiritually clean?”
And it all comes from our heart. This is the fruit from the root. If the root is rotten, the fruit will be rotten.
Conclusion
This is what I want to close with. Just a question. Is your root rotten?
Such a simple question that means so much, in fact it is the difference of eternal life or death. You have seen the attributes of what it means to be rotten at the root. This is not a list that I came up with but this is a list from Jesus Christ. Many people say that they love Jesus. But you cannot love Jesus and ignore his words. This is a moment of reflection. Look into your heart and see what it truly looks like. Does it line up with the word of God or is it opposed.
Let’s take a moment and close our eyes. Let’s take away any distraction that could be happening and focus on yourself here.
When you are examining your heart, is all that you see defilement? Do you identify with what Jesus listed off here?
If you do, and you are wondering how to change it, the bible gives us the answer. Jesus tells us at the beginning of the book of Mark to repent. This is not a word that we use in our everyday language. So what does repent mean? Repent means to turn to Jesus Christ. You are leaving behind the old life of living for yourself and you are now living a life that is dedicated to Jesus. The things that you once lived for, they are now behind you. You now live for the things of Christ. And now you truly believe that Jesus died for you.
This is what we call the gospel. When God created Adam and Eve, they were without sin. Then they broke God’s law. Because of this, they were exiled from the garden of Eden, and every human that has been born since has inherited this sin nature. This sin has separated us from God. We need to be brought back to God. This only happens through Jesus. Jesus is God made in flesh. He lived a sinless life, because he is God. He went to the cross and died from our sins. And 3 days later, he rose from the grave to prove that he is God. This is the gospel and when you turn to Jesus and believe these things, you are saved.
And this is where it ties into our text from today. Jesus talked about how the heart is defiled. When you repent, Jesus gives us a new heart. That heart that is defiled is gone and you now have a heart that is tuned to the things of God. You are a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
This is worth celebrating. I want to ask you, do you believe this? Maybe you have never truly been saved. Maybe this is the first time that you have ever heard this and you believe. I am not going to make you walk an aisle or say a prayer, because those things do not save you. But, no one is looking around but me, if you have come to a saving faith today, would you lift your hand up?
Everyone can open their eyes. For everyone here today, we have a simple application of this text. Keep a close watch on our hearts. Make sure that we keep Jesus at the center of our hearts. Keep surrendering yourself to him. This is what it is about, surrender. We are going to finish the service by singing I Surrender All. You don’t have to stand up and sing. If you want to sit in your seat and spend some time in prayer, feel free to do that. If you want to come down to the front steps down here and pray, feel free to do that. If you want to stand and sing this song at the top of your lungs, feel free to do that.
