Matters of the Heart: Mark 7:1-23

If you were this morning, if you were turning your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark, Mark chapter 7.

Mark 7 · chapter mention

And we'll be reading verses 1 through 23 of Mark chapter 7 this morning.

Mark 7 · chapter mention

Mark chapter 7.

Mark 7 · chapter mention

Verses 1 through 23.

And it reads as follows.

Now the Pharisees gathered to him with this some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem.

They saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.

For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the traditions of the elders.

And when they came from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.

And there are many other traditions they observe that they observe, such as washing of the cups and pots, and copper vessels and dining couches.

And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the traditions of the elders, but eat with the defiled hands?

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.

In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

You leave the commandments of God and hold to the traditions of man.

And he said to them, You have a fine way of rejecting the commandments of God in order to establish your tradition.

For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother, and whoever he reviles father and mother must surely die.

But you say, if a man tells his father or his mother, Whatever you would have gained for me, it is Corban, that is, given to God, then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down, and many such things you do.

And he called to the people again, he called the people again to him and said to them, Hear me all of you, and understand 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.

And when he had entered into the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable, 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?

Since it enters into it, since it enters not his heart, but his stomach, and is expelled.

This thus he declared all foods clean.

And he said, What comes out of a person is that which defiles is what defiles him.

For from within, out of the heart of man comes evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness, all these things come from within, and they defile a person.

Let us pray.

Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for the clarity of your word.

We pray that as we explore these verses, these passages, this passage this morning, that you would speak to our hearts.

Would we not be like Pharisees concerned about the outward appearance but not dealing with what's really going on in our hearts?

We pray, Father, that your spirit would deal with us from the pulpit to the back door.

Lord be glorified this morning.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

We've been working through this series in the book of Mark as Jesus has been working and living and moving in his life.

And one of the things that we keep seeing through the gospel of Mark is this ideal and this question of who is this one that's before us and and what has he come to do?

They keep asking the question, who is this as he parts the sea?

Who is not as he parts as he walks on the water?

Who has this as he feeds the thousands?

Who is this man that is before us as he heals and and he controls and he casts out demons?

Who are we dealing with?

And he has this conflict constantly with the Pharisees, the religious leaders, and and they are they are at odds with him because he is a threat to their system.

They love the things that they do, they have respect from the people, they have prestige, they have position, they are they are in a position of prestige among them, and so they are constantly fighting against Jesus because Jesus is constantly pushing against them because they have taken his word and his laws and they have miscrew conscrewed them and they have twisted them.

So they're always trying to find out a way that they can they can kill Jesus.

That's really what they want to do.

And the last time we saw the Pharisees interacting with Jesus, it was in chapter three.

And in chapter three, he had he had healed a man and he had also uh uh freed a demon.

And one of the things that they said is that we must find a way to destroy this man.

Because they understood that he was a threat to their system.

And so they are they're coming now in this passage to find ways that they can get at him.

They've they've come down, they sent a coalition to check him out.

And we see in verse 5 the complaint that they had, the Pharisees' complaint.

And they say in verse 5, the Pharisees and the scribes ask him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the traditions of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?

That's their complaint.

They've looked at the disciples, they've watched, they've been observing Jesus, they've they've seen how he acts and how he moves, and they realize and they recognize, but their disciples aren't washing their hands and doing the things that we do.

These are the traditions that they had they had placed on the law that you had to do these various things in order to be right with God.

This whole thing is about how do I stand in God's presence, how do I have acceptance before God?

And so they had all of these rituals about when you go one place or go that place, you need to wash the pot and cups and all these various things to not be defiled.

And I want you to notice quickly how Jesus responds to them.

Jesus cut no corners with the Pharisees, He comes right out the gate.

He says, He said in verse 6, Well did Isaiah say of you hypocrites?

That's not a way to win friends.

I mean, when you respond to them, the first thing they ask you a question, okay, well, how come your disciples aren't doing?

And he says, Y'all ain't nothing but a bunch of hypocrites.

And notice what he says here.

He says, 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.

And that's that's the core of what's going on here.

And that's the core of what God is expecting and what God is focusing on and looking at with us.

He says, You are you are speaking, you are doing all the things that look religious, and on the outside, everybody seems that, well, he really must love God.

They really must be people that are committed to God.

Look at how they pray, look at what they do, look at all the various things that they do.

They they're in here every Sunday.

Look at them on the outward.

Their lips, their words, their expressions are all expressions of loving God.

But then he says, But their hearts are far from him.

Now, beloved, this is the frightening thing.

This is a this is a thing that we all must do business with this morning because it is possible with what Jesus is letting us know is that it is possible for us to do this every day, every week, every Sunday, to come here and to worship and to raise our hands and to praise, but but our hearts be far from God.

And that's what was going on with the Pharisees.

They had all the religious trapies, they had all the religious words, they looked it, they sounded it, they did it, but their hearts were far from God.

And that has always been the thing.

That has always been what God was concerned about.

God is not always necessarily concerned about the outward actions, He is concerned about what is going on in our hearts.

What are you you thinking in your heart?

You can look at me this morning and you can be smiling at me, but hating me in my heart, in your hearts.

And we can do that to one another.

So the heart is where all things go on.

So Jesus gives an example of how they have twisted and manipulated God's law to serve their flesh.

And there was this principle that they were responsible.

The law said that you are responsible to care for your parents.

But they had they had twisted God's law in such a way and they had added to it that they had this saying that they said, Well, if I commit this money, if I commit my resources to God or to the church, then I'm not obligated to care for my parents.

You see, it looked real spiritual.

We're giving all our money to the church and and we're serving God, and I'm I'm making sure that God's temple is taken care of.

And so, mom and dad, I really don't have the resources to take care of you.

They were manipulating the word, they were manipulating God's law, and and so so they were they were outwardly looking like they were spiritual, but inwardly they were they were working out ways where they did not have to obey the commandments of God.

They were finding loopholes, as it were, that they figured that I don't, if I do this, then I won't have to do that.

That's that's what the Pharisees were doing.

Now it's difficult for us to oftentimes connect with this because that's way back then, and we're like, well, what's that look like for us today?

Well, we've seen this in pulpits, in churches.

You've seen pastors, we've seen the stories.

You hear the stories of pastors and preachers who outwardly look like they love God.

They preach, they dress nice, they they they have all these things going on.

They drive nice cars, they know the right words to say, but but in time, in time you realize that they've been living a double life.

They're hypocrites, they're not, they're not who they really say they are.

It's possible for me to stand in the pulpit and and you think, well, Pastor Mike is good.

But I could be living a double life.

That's a possibility.

That's what the Pharisees were doing.

They were they were looking good on the outside, but they were they were faking it on the inside.

They were still indulging in and enjoying their sin.

But those aren't the only people that can be like Pharisees and hypocrites.

It can happen in families, it can happen with parents.

As parents, you can come here on Sunday morning and and you can raise your hands and we can praise God and everything looks okay, but at home, all hell's breaking loose at home.

It's possible.

It might be even happening here this morning that there might be some that come in here and and I look on the outside, and we look on the outside, and we look at the cars you drive and the clothes you wear and the way you speak, and it and it looks good, but but if you if you if if we were flying on the wall, you'd be saying, What in the world is going on here?

That's that's another way that that can happen.

And that's why a lot of times there are young people, there are children that that they turn away from the faith and they turn away from God because they're looking there saying, I see mom and dad doing that, but you you don't know what's happening at home.

But they're not the only ones that can be hypocritical.

You young people can be hypocritical too.

You teenagers, you college students, you you look right at church.

You know what to do and how to look when you come here.

But but when you're with your friends, when you're at your school, when you're on your campus and nobody's there and nobody sees, there's something else going on.

There's a double life going on there.

We're hypocrites, you're hypocrites.

All of us are capable of doing this, all of us are capable of living like this, all of us are our hearts are are easy to deceive us.

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Who can know it?

So we can we can look at the Pharisees and we can say, well, yeah, those folks are there.

But but understand, all of us, all of us in here this morning, we're capable of doing this and living like this.

So Jesus wants to clear something up with the folks.

He wants to get them straight on what really matters.

And so he addresses the people again, and he wants to make it clear what defiles a person and how desperate a situation they're in.

And so look at verse 14.

He wants them to understand what really defiles a person.

The Pharisees said what defiles a person, what makes a person out of sync with God is they're not doing all the right rituals and and they're not they're not saying the right words and they're not washing and doing the right things, and that's what defiles them.

But Jesus says, No, I want you to, I want you to understand how God sees the situation.

So he says in verse 14, he says he called the people again to him and said to them, Hear me, all of you, and understand.

He says, Y'all understand now.

I want y'all to get this.

Pay attention to what I'm saying.

Hear me and understand.

He says, verse 15, there is nothing outside of a person that by going into him can defile him.

He says, There's nothing that you can take in your body that can defile you.

That's what he's saying.

It's not, it's not food you eat, it's not, it's not what you drink.

You can't, those aren't the things that defile a person.

He says, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.

And then he entered the house and left the people.

His disciples asked him about the parable.

So he says, Look, all that stuff the Pharisees are telling you about the washing of the cups and the beds and all that stuff.

That is not what is going to defile you.

I want you to understand.

He says, But I want you to understand what really will defile you.

It is what comes out of you.

And so you might think that the Pharisees, I mean, the people are thinking, Man, I'm free.

All that stuff they were asking me to do, and the washing of the cups and all the other, he says, that's that's not what defiles me.

You think that that would let them off the hook.

But Jesus goes further and he makes it clear.

He says, I want you to understand what really defiles a person.

And so they the disciples, verse 18, he said to the disciples asked him about the parable in verse 17.

And in verse 18, he said to them, Then are you also without understanding?

See, they say, Well, could you explain what you mean by the outward things not defiling, but what comes out of a man defiling?

And see, so Jesus says, Okay, let me let me explain this to you.

He says, Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him?

Since it enters not into his heart, but his stomach and is expelled.

Thus he declared all foods clean.

Now, Jesus just gets very practical here.

He says, Look, the food can't defile you because you eat it, you digest it, and it passes through your digestive system.

It's not that can't defile you.

That's not what's going to defile you.

But then he goes on and he explains, and this is this is where it gets tough now.

Because it was easier for the Pharisees to wash all the cups and do all the other stuff.

But when Jesus says, I want you to understand what really is the problem, now you got an issue of what's inside of us.

And how do I clean that up?

How do I straighten it up?

Notice what Jesus says in verse 20.

And he said, when it comes up, and he said, What comes out of a person is what defiles him.

For from within, out of the heart of man, now notice the things that now Jesus says you gotta be concerned about.

Notice what he says.

He says, From from the from the heart of man come evil thoughts.

How many of us have ever struggled with that?

You know, you even you're praying, you're praying, and the next thing you know, so where'd that come from?

Evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness, all these things come from within and they defile a person.

Oh, now we got a problem.

Because now Jesus says, look, what what the issue is it's not out there, it's in here.

The problem is not out there, the problem is in here.

It's what comes out from within me.

And notice here that all of these things he lists, it's not somebody else making you do it.

That's you, that's me.

He says, from within, from within comes the envy, from within comes the sexual immorality, from within comes the thirst for theft, from within comes murder and adultery.

It starts in here first and it works itself out.

I was in counseling, we were in counseling, and and you know, you the counselor told me, He says, Look, you know, you say these things like, I don't know where that came from.

You know, when you say something, you know, and a bad word comes out your mouth, you curse.

I don't know where that came from.

And the fellow the the counselor said that I know where it came from.

It was already there.

You didn't grab that from out there and bring it in.

No, no, that that came from in word, from within.

All of these things, all of these sins, all of these issues, they come from within and they defile the person.

Notice some of the other things, pride and foolishness, all of that comes from within.

That's in us.

The potential for all of that is in everyone that sits in this church this morning.

Now, now we got a problem.

Because now I'm like, okay, well, how do I clean that up?

How do I fix that?

How do I fix the lust in my heart?

How do I fix the pride in my life?

How do I fix the evil in my mind?

How do I fix all these various things?

How do I fix the foolishness that just flows out of my being?

And when I'm in someplace or I'm going somewhere, there's just foolishness.

How do I get that fixed?

It's always been, beloved, about the heart.

It is the heart, as it says in Jeremiah, that is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and we just don't want to believe that about ourselves.

We want to look and we're gonna say, Well, I'm not that bad.

But just let somebody get you in the right situation and see what happens.

It's it's it's within.

Just listen to these verses that God has always been concerned about the heart.

Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 16.

Deuteronomy 10:16

Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn.

You see, they they were worried about the physical circumcision.

If they get that right, then they're right with God.

God says, That's only a symbol.

The real thing is it's your heart cut and set apart for God.

Circumcise the heart.

Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 6, and the Lord said, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and that you may live.

Deuteronomy 30:6

It was it is the heart, and it is a work that God must do in each of us to get our hearts right.

I can't do that on my own.

I can't change that on my own.

I can't make that work on my own.

There's something in me from Adam's sin that my heart needs to be fixed, and the only power that can fix my heart is the power of Jesus Christ.

Oh, that's the only hope we have this morning, beloved.

That's the only hope you have if you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, and you recognize that these things are working and moving in your heart, and you say, Well, I'm just gonna try harder.

I'm just gonna do this.

Well, you might work on that one sin, but you got 20 others that you gotta deal with.

And it is only the blood of Jesus that can cleanse and change the heart.

Psalms 51, 16 through 17 says this, for you will not delight in sacrifices, or I will give it.

You will not be pleased with burnt offerings, and the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart.

Oh God, you will not despise.

You say, Lord, how do I fix my heart?

How do I fix what's really going on inside of me?

Broken and contrite spirit.

So you you you and I have got to be willing to admit that Father, I'm a mess inside.

I'm I'm jacked up inside.

I'm I can't control it, I can't keep it under control.

I've been trying to be these things are in me.

I need you to come into my life and to change my heart.

And that's what God said back in the Old Testament.

And as we close, Jeremiah 31, 33, he says, This for the for this is a covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declare the Lord.

I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

The only hope for us this morning, beloved, and this is a glorious hope, because what it says is that I don't have the power and I don't have the energy to do this on my own.

Somebody, I need somebody else to come in and do it for me.

Jesus says, I'm willing to come and work on your heart.

I'm willing to come and straighten up what's messed up inside.

I'm willing to come through the power of the gospel and bring about transformation in your life.

All you need to do and all I need to do is recognize and confess, Lord, I can't do this on my own.

I've been trying all these years, I've been trying to get it right, and I don't know how to do it.

I need you.

And you know what he says?

Oh, now we can get busy.

Now I can work.

Now I can begin to work on those areas in our lives and in our hearts that have been tripping you up all this time.

Now we can get started.

Oh, beloved, I'm reminded of the song, old song.

What can wash away my sins?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.

No other fount I know.

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

And beloved, it's free.

It's free.

If you're here this morning, you don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior.

You heard those words about what's inside and you're troubled by that.

Come to Jesus.

If you're a Christian and you recognize that I've been living a hypocritical life and I've been faking it, come to Jesus.

Let Him wash you.

Let Him wash us.

Let us pray.

Father, we thank you for your word.

Lord, we look at the Pharisees often and we think, oh, look at those guys, but Lord, then you turn the mirror on ourselves and we look at our own hearts and we realize, Lord, I'm just as bad.

Lord, would you this morning, would you work in our hearts that we would that our hearts would be broken and contrite?

And that we would say to you, Would you come and clean us up?

The only thing that can wash away my sin and deal with the sin in my heart is your precious blood.

Oh Jesus, would you apply that to our hearts this morning?

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.