Really Clean (Mark 7:1-23)

Most people today will tell you that your biggest problem comes

from outside and the solution comes from inside.

The problem could be political oppression or your family's

repressive rules. It could be trauma from your

past or other people's judge mental attitudes and the

solution people will recommend comes from within and many forms

of therapy. The therapist is not an

authority telling you what to change or fix.

Instead, they're a guide helping you discover and draw out

resources that are within you. Countless movies and shows and

songs tell you that freedom comes from finding and living

out your true self within. Throw off tradition,

expectation, repression and let what is inside come out.

No right, no wrong, no rules for me, I'm free.

Philosopher Charles Taylor calls this ethic expressive

individualism. It's the story that our society

lives by. Authenticity is everything.

Each of us has our own way of realizing his or her true

humanity, and expressing your truth, rather than holding to

some externally imposed model, is the key to meaning and

fulfillment and happiness. That's what our culture says.

Your biggest problem comes from outside.

The solution comes from inside. What does Jesus say?

This morning? We continue our series in Mark's

Gospel with Chapter 7, verses 1 to 23.

If you don't have a Bible, please raise your hand and

someone will bring you one. Feel free right up here in the

front. Keep the hand of Bible on its

way. In our passage, Jesus disputes

with some influential religious leaders of his day, and Jesus's

position in this debate reveals his answer to these fundamental

questions. Where do our biggest problems

come from? Where do their solutions come

from? Please follow along as I read

the whole passage. Mark 7 verses 1 to 23.

Mark 7:1–23

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him with 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

tradition of the elders. 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. 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?

And he said to them, Well did Isaiah prophecy 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 commandment of God

and hold to the tradition of men.

And he said to them, you have a fine way of rejecting the

commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.

For Moses said, honor your father and your mother, and

whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.

But you say if a man tells his father or his mother, whatever

you would have gained from me is Corbin 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 the people to him again and said to them, Hear me,

all of you, and understand there's 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 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 not his heart but his

stomach, and is expelled? Thus he declared all foods

clean, and he said what comes out of a person is what defiles

him. For from within, out of the

heart of man, come evil thoughts.

Sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting,

wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride,

foolishness, all these evil things come from within and they

defile a person. Verses one through 5 set up the

controversy. The Pharisees and scribes notice

Jesus disciples failing to follow a custom that they regard

as binding, so they go straight to the top.

They take Jesus to task for his disciples behavior.

They ask in verse 5, Why do your disciples not walk according to

the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?

Note that the question has two parts.

Why do they not walk according to the tradition of the elders?

Why do they eat with defiled hands?

Now Jesus is going to respond to those two charges in turn.

In verses 6 to 13 he answers the first charge directly addressing

the Pharisees. Then in verses 14 to 23 he

answers the second charge by first teaching the crowd and

then explaining privately to his disciples what he taught the

crowd. So this debate turns on two

issues. One is the relationship of human

tradition to divine revelation, and the other issue is where

impurity comes from. 2 issues, 2 answers.

The sermon will have two points. Where does our biggest problem

and its solution come from .1 versus 1 to 13?

Truth comes from outside. Truth comes from outside .2

versus 14 to 23. Impurity comes from inside.

Impurity comes from inside .1 on verses 1 to 13.

Truth comes from outside. In other words, God's Word is

and must be supreme over all human traditions.

Look again at verses 1:00 to 5:00.

Now when the Pharisees gathered to Him with 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.

Even less. They wash their hands properly,

holding to the tradition of the elders.

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.

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? This group of Pharisees and

scribes had come from Jerusalem into Galilee where Jesus was

ministering. They came to see if this upstart

measured up to their standards and played by their rules.

And they noticed that at least some of Jesus disciples ate

without washing their hands first.

Now we have to clarify right away that the Pharisees concern

was not hygiene. They were not operating from the

germ theory of disease or any ancient precursor to it.

Their concern was not health, but holiness.

They were concerned not to prevent the spread of the flu,

but to protect against a ritual impurity.

Throughout the whole passage, we have to remember that purity was

their prime concern. So kids in the congregation,

this passage does not give you a reason to accuse your parents of

being Pharisees when they tell you to wash your hands.

Now this concern for purity is what Mark explains in the

background material he provides in verses 3 and 4.

Mark is a Jew. The original 12 disciples who

are eyewitnesses were Jews. But Mark's writing to an

audience is going to include a lot of Gentiles.

So he explains these Jewish customs that were influenced by

the Pharisees. The Pharisees practices we

learned in verses 3 and four were based on the idea that

someone's hands could transmit impurity to their food and

thereby to their body. If you went to the marketplace,

you might unintentionally or even unknowingly come into

contact with someone who is in a state of ritual impurity, maybe

through a skin disease or blood discharge.

And if you contracted impurity from them, then on the Pharisees

view, you could pass that impurity to your food or

somebody else's food and become ritually defiled that way.

The same would hold for getting food from someone who was

ritually impure. It could make you impure without

knowing it and the consequences for that impurity.

It wasn't viewed as a moral matter or sin, but it could keep

you from participating in temple worship.

It could spread impurity to things that were supposed to be

holy. It was a big deal.

Now it's important to notice that in both Marks comment in

verse 3 and the Pharisees question in verse 5, this

practice is grounded in the tradition of the elders.

What does that mean? It means oral tradition passed

down from 1 teacher to another, one generation to another.

The Pharisees likely viewed this as a kind of oral Torah that

they would have claimed was given alongside the Law,

separate from the law, and then passed down ever since the time

of Moses and Mount Sinai. But note what the Pharisees

don't claim. They do not claim that the

disciples are disobeying Scripture.

They don't claim that the disciples are breaking a command

of God. Instead, they accuse them of

disregarding the tradition of the elders, which the Pharisees

and a whole lot of Jewish people along with them hold to be

authoritative. A practice or teaching can be at

one and the same time an old tradition and a recent

innovation. It can be older than us, but

newer than God's law. The fact that a teaching or

tradition is old doesn't automatically mean it comes from

God. So the Pharisees are accusing

the disciples not of departing from God's law, but of departing

from their tradition. That's the charge.

How does Jesus respond to the charge?

Look at verses 6 and seven. And he said to them, Well did

Isaiah prophecy 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 his doctrines, the commandments of men.

Here Jesus cites Isaiah chapter 29 verse 13, and he says that

Isaiah 29:13

the great prophet Isaiah himself predicted the Pharisees

particular form of disobedience. Jesus calls it hypocrisy.

Now we often use the word hypocrite to describe someone

who's deliberately duplicitous, someone who preaches one thing

and knowingly practices another, someone who crafts a public

image that's different from private reality.

And that's related to what Jesus charges here.

But I don't think it's exactly what he means here in this

verse. I think the point of Jesus

charge is that the Pharisees have a split between their heart

and their actions. They are outwardly right, but

inwardly wrong. They are sincere in all their

practices, but they are sincerely mistaken for all their

outward religious service. They fail to actually devote

themselves to God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength,

which is the whole point of the law.

In the 1st place, how can you detect and diagnose hypocrisy in

your life? One way is by asking questions

that serve to X-ray your heart. Questions that get at your

motives, your loves, your hates, your desires, your cravings.

In his book Seeing with New Eyes, the biblical counselor

David Powerson has a chapter with 35 of these X-ray

questions. Questions like What do you love?

What do you hate? What do you think you need?

What do you think about most often?

What preoccupies or obsesses you?

What does your mind drift to instinctively, when you've got a

free moment, your mind is idle. Where does it go?

What do you crave or wish for? All of those diagnostic

questions get at the direction your heart aims.

Instinctively, intuitively, what God demands of us is that our

hearts are devoted to Him. Our hearts are directed at Him.

Our hearts are oriented to Him. None of us do that perfectly,

but wherever the gap between the direction your heart points and

love of God is, that's where you've got the most work to do

spiritually. Now how did the Pharisees

hypocrisy manifest itself? Specifically the prophecy in

Isaiah tells us, quoted in verse seven.

In vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the

commandments of men. God calls their worship vain.

That means futile, pointless, fruitless.

It does not hit the target it aims at.

Now why is it vain? Because they grant divine

authority to human teachings, of course, the Pharisees would have

believed that their traditions enabled them to fulfill God's

commands. They frequently use the phrase

of building a hedge around the Torah.

They were trying to protect observance to the law.

They would not have claimed to set their traditions above

divine revelation. But according to Jesus, that's

exactly what God himself charges them with doing.

Jesus is teaching by quoting Isaiah that divine revelation

and human tradition can conflict.

He's teaching that even traditions that were developed

in an effort to fulfill God's commands can come to contradict

those commands. And he's saying that whenever

divine revelation and human tradition conflict, divine

revelation must win. Jesus is teaching that we may

never claim divine authority for any practice that is of merely

human origin. We can never claim that God

requires something that humans have invented.

From the debates over the right worship of God that consumed the

Reformation in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, this

teaching came to be known as the regulative principle of worship.

Meaning, Scripture regulates how we worship God.

Churches must perform only those elements of worship that God has

required in His Word. To do anything else is to give

divine authority to a human custom.

Jesus here teaches the regulative principle of worship.

In contrast, there are Christian traditions that hold to a view

of the relationship between tradition and Scripture that is

remarkably like that of the Pharisees.

Here I'm thinking especially of the Roman Catholic Church.

According to official Roman Catholic teaching, tradition and

Scripture are inseparable sources of revelation.

According to the Roman Catholic Church, you cannot have one

without the other. Scripture and tradition always

go together, must always belong together.

But Jesus himself teaches that tradition and Scripture can

contradict each other, and where they contradict, Scripture must

win. And all that we do is a church.

We have to work to keep a clear distinction between divine

revelation and human tradition, between divine command and human

custom. One way we try to do that is by

privileging expository preaching in our corporate worship,

expository preaching where we work through whole books of the

Bible, text by text, section by section, and try to give the

main point of each of those passages.

What is that doing? It's training all of us to

distinguish between human tradition and divine truth.

Expository preaching systematically exposes all of

our consciences week by week to what God himself teaches in

Scripture. That word, conscience, is

important in an ultimate sense. Only God's Word can bind our

consciences. As we confess in Article 15 of

our church's Statement of faith. We believe that God alone is

Lord of the conscience and has designed it to be free from the

doctrines and commandments of men that are contrary to His

Word or not contained in it. That article in our statement of

faith is paraphrasing Jesus citation of Isaiah right here.

Pastors can only declare what God's Word commands and requires

and promises. We cannot make up rules that you

have to follow. We cannot command what God has

not commanded. And it's important in that light

to question your own conscience, to hold your conscience to

account in light of God's Word. Are there any things your

conscience tells you might be required that God doesn't

actually require? Are there any things your

conscience tells you might be permitted that God's Word

actually forbids? All of our consciences have been

formed not only by Scripture, but by the families we grew up

in, the cultural backgrounds we come from, and the standards of

people around us. If you think something is

required, not just a good idea, not just a personal preference,

but required for you and for all Christians, can you prove that

from Scripture? That's the question.

Parents, there's all kinds of applications for parenting here.

Here's just one as you disciple your kids.

It's important to help them distinguish between what God

requires and what mom and dad require.

Parents should help their kids understand the difference

between 3 categories of things that you will instruct your

children in. Number one, God's commands.

These have absolute authority. You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery. And those big negative commands

have tons of necessary implications that affect our

behavior in pervasive ways #2 family rules.

You could call these in house rules, things like lights out,

time, curfew, what kids can and can't eat.

And when parents have the authority to establish rules

like this for the flourishing and order of their families,

they're like many governments in that way.

And kids are required to obey these rules because they're

required to obey their parents. But these rules are not

absolute, infallible commands from God #3 matters of courtesy

and custom, good manners. These vary from place to place,

culture to culture, time to time.

But we should observe them out of love of neighbor.

Now Jesus really turns the tables on the Pharisees and

scribes in verses 6 and seven. Why don't my disciples keep the

tradition of the elders? Because you're a bunch of

hypocrites. That's pretty bold.

That's a pretty severe accusation because he says

you're teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

OK, Jesus, can you give us an example?

Sure. Verses 8 to 13.

Here's an extended example of how they're teaching as

doctrines the commandments of men.

Jesus says you leave the commandment of God and hold to

the tradition of men. And he said to them, you have a

fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to

establish your tradition. For Moses said, honor your

father and your mother, and whoever reviles father or mother

must surely die. But you say if a man tells his

father or his mother, whatever you would have gained from me is

Corbin 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. The Pharisees charge the

disciples with forsaking their tradition.

Jesus charges the Pharisees with forsaking God's commands.

Verse 8 you leave the commandment of God.

Verse 9, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of

God. A little divine sarcasm there.

Verse 13. Thus making void the word of God

by your tradition. The example Jesus gives is the

5th commandment. Honor your father and your

mother. God spoke that word to Israel

through Moses. And then Jesus also appeals to

Exodus 2117 to show how serious of a punishment the law held out

for those who refuse to honor their father and mother.

Now, part of the background for this debate is that all ancient

Jews rightly understood that the command to honor father and

mother includes the obligation for adult children to provide

for their parents in the case of illness, poverty, or the

infirmity of old age. There's certainly cultural

variation and what it looks like to keep this command, and it can

be difficult to navigate the tension between what aging

parents might want and what seems objectively good for them.

But care for aging parents is included in the meaning of what

God commanded through Moses. So where does the conflict come

in verse 11? But you say, and then Jesus goes

on to describe the practice of Corbin, which is a Hebrew or

Aramaic term meaning given to God.

Corbin was a kind of deferred giving.

It involved designating one's wealth or property as a gift of

God. But that didn't mean you had to

donate it right away. You were earmarking it for

divine use. It was only given it death, but

declaring it to be Corbin rendered it off limits for any

other use, such as supporting your elderly parents.

Sorry, Mom and dad can't spare any cash or property.

It's all been given to God. You can easily see how that

could become a kind of loophole. Now, in verse 12, Jesus says

that when someone invokes Corbin, you no longer permit him

to do anything for his father or mother.

How would this practice actually prohibit someone from caring for

their father or mother? It's because it was a binding

vow. They took vows very, very

seriously. If you declared something

Corbin, it was a vow. It was sworn before the Lord,

and apparently at least some of the Pharisees of Jesus Day held

that that vow was binding even in cases where one's parents

fell into abject need. So they held the obligation to

keep the vow outweighed the obligation to help your parents.

A good modern analogy for this practice would be to say that

these legal experts were like tax accountants who could find a

loophole that enabled somebody to get by without paying any

taxes whatsoever. So you could give the money to

God, but really keep it for yourself.

That makes a mockery of the God you're claiming to honor.

That's hypocrisy. That's vain worship.

True worship of God leads you to love his commands and seek to

obey them fully in all their implications.

True worship does not look for loopholes.

If you're looking for loopholes, you're not trying to serve God,

you're trying to serve yourself. When it comes to how you use

your money, do you look for ways to keep as much as you can

without technically disobeying God?

Or do you look for more and more good ways to give it away?

If you approach God's commands looking for loopholes, to think

that you're trying to get or keep through that loophole is

your functional God. That's what you're serving, not

the true God. A heart that loves God will love

his word. A heart that loves God will love

his commands. The heart that loves God will

discern that God's commands are signposts directing us in how to

love Him and love our neighbor. If you love God, you'll discern

that His commands are guardrails keeping us from veering off the

path of loving God and loving our neighbor.

What are we seeing earlier in Psalm 19?

The precepts of the Lord are right and fill the heart with

great delight. Jesus warns against letting

human tradition contradict God's Word.

How can that happen in churches that mean to obey the Bible?

Here's one example from a little over 100 years ago.

Back before the neighboring towns of Winston and Salem

merged to become the city Winston Salem in 1913, a man

named Sam Morton lived in Salem. He was a Christian, and he

noticed that many of the local children who worked all week in

the nearby mill would just be hanging around outside on

Sunday, kind of like they had nothing to do.

They weren't going to the local church.

One of the reasons he found out why they weren't going to the

local church is that these kids were poor and they had no shoes.

And the church had a rule that you could only attend worship if

you had shoes. So Sam Morton decided to start a

Sunday school as an outreach to these kids.

He brought them in. He started gathering more and

more kids. Eventually some parents started

coming and they decided to found a new church.

It was a sort of Sunday school that led to family outreach.

That led to a church plant. That church was founded in 19 O

9. It's called Salem Baptist

Church. They're still doing good gospel

work today in the city of Winston Salem.

I was talking to their interim pastor a few weeks ago.

By the way, the great, great, great grandson of Sam Morton is

here among us this morning. Any guesses as to who it could

be? It's our very own deep North

Carolina roots. Joe Bird.

What was the human tradition? No shoes, no service.

What was Jesus command? Let the little children come to

me. What are some examples you can

think of where human traditions hinder or even contradict God's

commands? What can we as a church do to

ensure that we don't let any developing traditions of our own

contradict God's commands? Jesus is teaching that in order

to rightly relate to God, we need to give His commands more

weight than our customs. We need to give His revelation

more weight than human tradition.

Now zoom Outback up. Why is that the case?

It's because our minds and hearts are unreliable guides to

the truth. It's because sin has distorted

and infected our minds and hearts.

It's because our minds and hearts are darkened.

Our hearts are idle factories and our minds endlessly churn

out justifications to convince ourselves why it's OK to worship

those idols. Our minds are not the ultimate

source and standard of truth. God's mind is the most important

truth. Truth that can set you right and

set you free comes from outside. If truth comes from outside,

what comes from inside? Point #2 impurity comes from

inside. Impurity comes from inside.

That's the burden of the second-half of Jesus response

from verses 14 to 23. Here's Jesus point in a

nutshell. As Israel's system of ritual

purity teaches, moral impurity arises from within a person.

I'll say that again, one sentence summary of the section.

As Israel's system of ritual purity teaches, moral impurity

arises from within a person. Look with me at verses 14 to 19.

And he called the people to him again and said to them, Hear me,

all of you, and understand there's 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 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 not his heart but his

stomach, and is expelled? Thus, he declared all foods

clean. Now, I don't think this passage

means exactly what a lot of people take it.

To me, I don't think that in these verses Jesus is

demolishing the foundations of Judaism.

I don't think he's revoking the Mosaic Law.

I don't think he's repealing the entire system of ritual purity.

In other words, I don't think Jesus is changing the purity

laws. I think he's clarifying them.

He's explaining the rationale and the deep significance of the

Old Testament's purity code, and thereby he's proving the

Pharisees wrong. He's demonstrating that their

tradition is not just in addition to Scripture, but their

tradition is actually against Scripture.

What we have here is a conflict between two different systems of

purity. I'll explain the details of the

passage in a minute, but here's an illustration to help us get

the big picture. You could say that tidying and

cleaning are two different systems of household purity.

What is tidying? Tidying is making sure every

object is in its proper place. Shoes, books, mail, coats,

stuffed animals, groceries, you name it.

Tidying is putting stuff away. What is cleaning?

Cleaning is scouring surfaces clear of dirt and dust and grime

and dog hair and whatever else can build up on them.

Now these two systems of household purity, tidying and

cleaning, can coexist in harmony, or they can come into

conflict with one another. For instance, in a marriage,

say, that one spouse might perhaps care more about tidying

and the other spouse might perhaps care more about

cleaning. The spouse that cares more about

tidying might look at a room and just say, oh, this thing's a

mess, What's going on? Where's the other spouse who

cares more about cleaning goes, it's fine.

What do you mean one spouse looks at it and goes, this is a

mess. There's a spouse looks at it and

goes, no, it's not. There's this irreconcilable,

potentially crazy making contradiction between systems of

household purity, something like that.

Competing systems of purity is what's going on in our passage.

Let me explain. Verse 17 calls what Jesus says

in verse 15 a parable. Now all that that word means in

this case is that it's a pithy, proverbial saying.

It doesn't necessarily mean that it's a Riddle or that it has a

deeper meaning hidden beneath the surface.

In this case, I think it's just a short, dense statement.

It's compressed, it's compact. So the disciples asked Jesus to

unpack it for them. What does Jesus say in verse 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. Now, we've got to keep a few

things in mind here. The first is that despite their

claims to ancient tradition, the Pharisees were innovators.

Their system of purity wasn't biblical, it was traditional.

And what if their system of purity involve it incorporated a

concern not to let impurity enter from without via food or

hands? You could somehow get the filed

and pass something into yourself.

That's what Jesus is denying. What does he affirm?

But the things that come out of a person are what defile him.

Now, one crucial key to understanding this statement is

actually something we've seen a few times already in different

sermons in Mark, in the Old Testament's teaching on ritual

purity, which chiefly comes from the book of Leviticus.

What causes ritual impurity? There are three main sources.

Skin disease, discharge of blood and other bodily fluids, and

dead bodies. What do each of those cases or

sources of impurity have in common?

The impurity is, as it were, coming from within the body.

It's something inside the body that's coming out.

That's obvious in the case of blood or other bodily fluids,

and I'd argue it's implied in the case of skin disease or

corpses. Jesus is saying that when it

comes to ritual impurity, which is what the debate here with the

Pharisees is about, when it comes to ritual impurity, the

source of that impurity is actually within the body.

So eating food that might have been made ritually impure cannot

make you impure. Jesus is saying that the

Pharisees teaching on ritual purity is not the scriptures

teaching on ritual purity. In fact he's saying that the

Pharisees system of purity systematically distorts the

Levitical system. Leviticus teaches that impurity

comes from within the body and moves out.

It doesn't come from outside the body and move in.

So this is not Jesus versus Leviticus.

Instead this is Jesus explaining Leviticus versus the Pharisees.

And then Jesus illustrates the point first by bringing in the

digestive process as a kind of illustration, verse 18.

Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside

cannot defile him since it enters not his heart but his

stomach and is expelled? Jesus point by way of

illustration is that the digestive process is a kind of

work of purification. For one thing, food doesn't go

into the heart. It doesn't enter the moral

center of a person, but also it goes into the stomach.

Then the body takes whatever it needs from it, and whatever the

body doesn't need it expels and leaves the body.

The body doesn't take in any defilement from food.

Now the end of verse 19 is commonly translated as it is

here. Thus he declared all foods

clean. That would take this phrase as a

comment by Mark about Jesus speech.

But the Greek phrase is literally purifying all foods.

That's how the King James version translated it.

They're they're following William Tyndall who translated

it the same. The King James is purging all

meats. It's a very literal translation,

at least into 1600 English. So in the Greek phrase there's

no verb for declare or say. It's possible this is an

authorial comment by Mark, but I think it's far more likely that

this is actually part of Jesus speech, not a voiceover from

Mark. And if you look at the King

James version, if it has red letters, the King James will

still put this sort of in the red letter portion.

So I think it's more likely part of Jesus speech.

If you read it as simply purifying all foods then it

works as a conclusion to what Jesus is saying the body does.

Now to understand the big issues here we need to distinguish

between 2 categories. 1 is permitted versus forbidden foods

and the other is the issue of being clean or unclean, pure or

impure. All the foods that the Old

Testament told Israelites not to eat were forbidden.

They were prohibited. You weren't supposed to eat them

because God said so. Scripture never teaches that

eating those foods made anyone impure.

Scripture never says that if you eat those foods, they make you

ritually impure. Eating forbidden foods is wrong

because they were prohibited, not because they were defiling.

So prohibited, permitted, clean, unclean are two different

categories, two different concepts.

So even if this comment at the end of verse 19 is an authorial

voice over by Mark. I think it means that Jesus

declared all permitted foods clean, not that he declared

forbidden foods to be permitted. To be sure, I think the rest of

the New Testament eventually does teach that.

I think we see that in Acts chapters 10 and 11.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

I think we see that in Paul's position in Romans 14.

But I don't think that's what Jesus is doing here.

Jesus and the Pharisees both kept kosher.

That's just not the fight Jesus is picking with them right now.

In other words, this whole debate, including verse 19, is

as if you overheard a conversation between 2 vegans. 1

scholar uses this illustration. 2 vegans sit down to a meal.

One vegan asks the other Did you wash your hands first?

They might have germs on them. The second vegan responds.

I'm not worried about germs. I eat everything without washing

my hands first. If you heard that, you would not

conclude that the second vegan is now saying that he or she

eats meat products. You know the background, you

know the rules that each of those eaters abides by.

So the everything has an implicit limit or qualification.

One last observation in support of this understanding, which

might be new to some of you. The more widespread

interpretation is that Jesus is teaching in verse 15 is a kind

of momentous history shaping declaration.

On that view, Jesus is uttering a speech act, an effective

declaration that revokes the authority of the Mosaic Law and

creates an entirely new religious situation for all of

God's people. If Jesus is declaring prohibited

foods permitted, then he's saying that now as of this very

sentence. They're permitted, but on God's

own authority. They weren't before.

They weren't like 2 seconds before Jesus started talking.

It's only by speaking right now that Jesus makes it so.

There are several problems with seeing Jesus teaching here as

that kind of momentous world changing declaration.

One problem is that if Jesus really was teaching that, he

could have made it a lot clearer.

Another problem is that we don't have any record of any of Jesus

opponents questioning him or objecting to his teaching on

this point. Hey Jesus, where do you get off

contradicting Moses? I thought you were just telling

us to put divine commands above human teachings.

Where do you get the authority to do away with the entire law?

A third problem is that in verse 18, when Jesus rebuked his

disciples for their lack of understanding, how are how are

they supposed to understand this if Jesus just now announced a

revolutionary change in God's relationship to his people?

But Jesus isn't saying something brand new.

I think he's clarifying what they should have known all

along. And again, here's the point in a

nutshell. Impurity doesn't come from

outside, but inside. Now if you're wondering what on

earth can all of that possibly have to do with us today, we who

don't keep kosher, we who are not talking about ritual,

defilement, purity, all this kind of stuff, the key is where

Jesus takes us in verses 20 to 23.

And he said what comes out of a person is what defiles him.

For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil

thoughts. Sexual immorality, theft,

murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality,

envy, slander, pride, foolishness, all these evil

things come from within and they defile a person.

Jesus is saying that impurity comes from inside.

And there are really close connections to the debate here

that might not be evident at first glance.

One crucial point that helps us get our bearings is that there

are some especially weighty sins that the Old Testament describes

as defiling, making impure those who commit them.

In other words, in the Old Testament, purity is a concept

that has both ritual and moral aspects.

Consider, for instance, Leviticus 1824 to 25.

Just before this, God has given a whole series of commands

regulating sexual activity, rendering all sorts of sexual

acts off limits. Then he says, Do not make

yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these

the nations I'm driving out before you have become unclean.

And the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity,

and the land vomited out its inhabitants.

Now, one key point to recognize is that Jesus's list of sins

that defile closely matches a number of Old Testament passages

that describe sins that defile. In other words, Jesus doesn't

contrast immorality with impurity.

Instead, he shows that immorality is one kind of

impurity, and the direction that impurity travels is from the

heart outward. Just like ritual impurity

travels from the body outward, so moral impurity travels from

the heart outward. That's what Jesus list has not

only actions, but attitudes. He talks about not only deeds

and words, but desires. Jesus is teaching that the Old

Testament system of ritual purity is itself a parable.

It's a picture, it's a sign. It's teaching that just as what

comes out of the body defiles, So what comes out of the heart

defiles. And that could not be more

relevant to every single one of us.

Jesus often uses the word person or man in this passage.

It's the same Greek word behind both.

The ESV translation is using the word man in an inclusive sense,

not exclusive. This passage is teaching us

fundamental truths about what it means to be a fallen human

being. Jesus is diagnosing our deepest

problems, and he's teaching that our most fundamental problem

comes from inside, not outside. Your deepest problem is that

your heart is a source of moral impurity.

Your deepest problem is that evil things come out of your

heart. Your deepest problem is not

something you can fix yourself. Our passage here only sets up

the problem, but the rest of Mark's gospel shows us a

solution. Why did Jesus come?

He came to give his life as a ransom for many, he tells us.

In Mark 1045, Jesus became Incarnate.

He lived on this earth. He died on the cross to pay the

penalty, the full price for the sins that come out of each of

our hearts. Jesus came to pay the full debt

of sin we'd racked up by all the things that are continually

coming out of our heart, day by day by day by day by day.

Jesus alone could do that because he is both God and man.

Jesus alone is willing to do that because of his infinite

love for us. And he sealed that sacrifice.

He proved that payment by rising from the dead.

He escaped from death the ultimate impurity, and he

triumphed over it. And now He invites and summons

and commands all people everywhere to turn from sin and

trust in Him. Your deepest problem is your

evil, broken heart. Your deepest problem is the

impurity that comes out of your heart continually.

And you can't fix it. You can't pay off that debt.

You can't clean up your own act. Sometimes people get the wrong

idea that in order to get right with God, they have to kind of

go through a moral cleanse first.

Now that moral cleanse might bring some benefits into their

life, but that moral cleanse will not get them right with

God. You can't get down deep enough

to fix it, and you can't pay the penalty for sin.

Only Jesus can. So if you're not a believer in

Jesus, you need to know that your biggest problem is inside.

The solution can only come from outside.

That's what God sent Jesus to do.

For all of us who believe in Jesus, remember that the same

grace that brings forgiveness of sins also brings in Word

renewal, new birth, regeneration.

When God by His grace enables you to receive the Lord Jesus

Christ, He gives you a new heart.

That's what He promised in Ezekiel 3626.

I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within

you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and

give you a heart of flesh. The new heart that every

believer has is not perfect, but it is really changed.

This new heart loves God and His people.

This new heart loves God's commands.

If you believe in Jesus, you love his commands, and that is

not a love you had before. So here's a key principle to

help all of us apply Jesus teaching in these final verses.

This is where the passage really comes home for all of us in the

Christian life, change doesn't happen from the outside in, but

from the inside out. Growth doesn't happen from the

outside in, but from the inside out.

As a Christian, the way you grow into greater conformity to the

character of Christ is not by merely adopting outward

practices recommended by seemingly holy people.

Instead, it's by having your heart inwardly renewed so that

you have a greater love for God and a greater desire to fulfill

His commands. Now, how does that kind of heart

change happen? Ultimately, it's by God's power.

Ultimately, it's by God's Spirit.

It's not change we have the power to bring about ourselves,

but God has appointed means by which He promises to work.

What are some of those means? This kind of heart change comes

through regular exposure to God's Word through public

preaching and teaching. It comes through regular

participation in all the means of grace in corporate worship,

in what we pray and sing and read and hear.

Our hearts are freshly exposed to the convicting and renewing

power of God's Word in corporate worship.

We lay our hearts bare before God in prayer, and we lift up

our hearts to God together in song.

This kind of heart change happens through privately

reading God's Word and turning what you read into prayer.

It happens through private prayer in which you examine

yourself in light of God's Word and you tell God what you see.

And it happens through fellowship.

As we speak truth in love, in discipling relationships, like

we're talking about in our Sunday School class for the next

few weeks at 9:00 AM. In discipling relationships, we

aim God's truth at each other's hearts.

In other words, what we should constantly pray for and strive

for as a church is not a culture of external conformity, but a

culture of heart change. We can't see each other's

hearts. We should not judge each other's

hearts. We cannot change each other's

hearts. But we can gently, lovingly,

patiently work with each other to pursue heart deep change.

We can become instruments through which God can work to

change hearts, Lord willing. In our evening service tonight,

I'll be interviewing Brian Lonner, who leads a biblical

counseling ministry here in the region called Hope Counseling.

We'll be talking about some of these dynamics.

How can we be that kind of church where we aim at heart

deep change? How can biblical counseling be a

help in that? Impurity comes from inside, and

by God's grace and the work of His Spirit, that's how far His

renewing work reaches. Our deepest problems come from

within, and God's grace reaches every bit as deep as our deepest

problems, and even deeper because He pulls up our sin by

the roots. That's how far God's

transforming grace reaches. Praise God for His saving work

in Christ. He came from outside to

transform what's inside. He came to pay the price for sin

so you wouldn't be condemned. He came to give you His Spirit

so you wouldn't be trapped in slavery to sin.

He came to free you from sins, condemnation and it's inward

corruption. He came to free you from the

burden of sin and bondage to sin, and He will keep working to

transform you until the day when your whole being is perfectly

conformed to His glory when you see Him face to face.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that we

would come to see ourselves in light of Jesus diagnosis, that

what comes out of our hearts defiles us.

Father, we pray for anyone who's not trusted in Christ for the

cleansing from sin that he alone can provide, that they would

repent and believe. And we pray that you would grant

us to be inwardly renewed so that the roots of these evil

thoughts and desires are increasingly uprooted out of our

hearts. We pray you do these things in

us for your glory in Jesus name, Amen.