In the sermon 'What Defiles a Person' by Jason Dohm, the speaker reflects on Matthew 15:10-20, where Jesus addresses the crowd and challenges the Pharisees' focus on external rituals, specifically the tradition of hand washing before eating. Jesus asserts that it is not what enters the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth, as these are expressions of the heart's true nature. The sermon highlights Jesus' criticism of the Pharisees for prioritizing human traditions over God's commandments and using them to nullify God's laws. It emphasizes the importance of internal purity and the need for genuine faith and transformation, rather than just external conformity. The sermon also discusses the nature of false teachings and warns against false gospels, urging believers to adhere strictly to the true gospel. The speaker underscores the necessity of internal cleansing through Christ's mediation, rather than reliance on external rituals, as a means to approach God.

Matthew 15 beginning in verse 10, read down through verse 20. Please hear and receive and obey the word of the Lord. When he had called the multitude to himself, he said to them, hear and understand. Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man But what comes out of the mouth this defiles a man Then his disciples came and said to him Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? But he answered and said every plant which my heavenly father has not planted will be uprooted.

Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind, And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch. Then Peter answered and said to him, Explain this parable to us. So Jesus said, Are you also still without understanding? Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated?

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and they defile a man For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man. Blessed Holy Spirit, author of these words, We ask that we would so hear and obey out of hearts of love and gratitude to you blessed triune God. In the name of Jesus our Messiah we pray. Amen.

The title of the sermon today is What Defiles a Person. In the text it says a couple of times Jesus addresses what defiles a man or what doesn't defile a man. Actually the gender neutral rendering of that is better in this case. It really means mankind. It's not specific to men at all.

What Jesus is addressing here is a human problem, not just a male problem. That's why the title of the sermon is, What Defiles a Person? Because that's what Jesus is addressing in this text. What does defile people and what doesn't defile them? Because there's a misunderstanding afoot and Jesus is on the scene to clear it up.

In verses 1-9, the text that Dan covered last week, the scribes and the Pharisees have come from Jerusalem and they have come with this question, why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? There's this tradition that had grown up that If you're going to eat anything, you ought to wash your hands first. This had become something that was sacred. If you didn't do it, you might get visited by scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem if you had any prominence. Jesus answers this question with a question of his own.

He says, why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? In other words, I'm standing on the Word of God, the things that God has explicitly commanded, And you bring to me a tradition of man nowhere founded in the Word of God that ends up nullifying things that are clear commands. In other words, You have a command to honor your father and your mother. And this isn't just a fuzzy feeling in the heart, a warm feeling about your mom and dad. That's not what it means to honor your father and mother.

There are practical outgrows of that. And one of those practical outgrows is when they're older that you care for them. The fifth commandment might have an impact on your wallet in future years because honoring isn't just feeling nice feelings about your parents. It might actually turn your life upside down at some point because the command to honor your father or mother actually comes with real obligations and practical implications. And So when these traditions grow up that bump the explicit commands of God out of the way, then those things must be addressed.

Jesus ends up quoting Isaiah 29, 13. He talks about these people who draw near with their mouths, they honor God with their lips, but their heart is far from God. And he says, your worship is in vain. That's not worship. All this flapping of your gums, all this talk, talk, talk about the honor of God is counterfeit.

It's not real worship of God at all. So we see that you can construct a whole life around talk and traditions, and think that you're wonderful and acceptable. And yet, you're violating the most basic, you're violating the Ten Commandments, the big central commandments that God has given to us. You're trampling on them, even though you talk a good game and you've got these other outward things that you observe. So the scribes and the Pharisees, they come and they're asking, hey, why aren't you guys hand washers?

We're hand washers. The elders think that we ought to be hand washers. Why aren't you guys hand washers? Jesus simply attacks the presupposition of what they are bringing to him. He is essentially making an argument.

When did God ever say we should be hand washers? When did God tell us that we ought to be hand washers? Consider what God says through Jeremiah 5, 30, and 31. An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power.

And my people love to have it so." God through Jeremiah puts his finger right on the problem. It's the priests ruling by their own power, not standing upon the Word of God and making earnest exhortations to obey God through His Word, but ruling through their own power, raising up their own traditions which are not founded on the Word of God. And then it says this, My people love to have it so." And Jeremiah calls this an astonishing thing, and he calls this a horrible thing. Not only that the priests would rule by their own power, but that people would love to have it so. And This is what we find in the Gospel times, in the Gospel accounts.

We have these blind leaders, but they are also leading the blind. The people are happy enough to have a few external things, just washing their hands before they eat. And then they think, all is well. And Jesus is bringing that building crashing down. All is not well when you wash your hands before you eat.

Not at all. And so this is a warning, And it's a warning to all of us because it's not just scribes and Pharisees that do this. This is representative of the natural man. The natural man loves to have it this way. The natural man loves to have some leaders who will cobble together some external rules that can then be followed and we all feel good about how we are doing.

But Christianity will have none of that. Jesus will have none of that type of religious system. As we get into our text today, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we have felt this in our own hearts. We know it is the human condition to be satisfied with a few external things that can be done, and to declare ourselves acceptable and pleasing when it's not so, that deception is so buried in the heart of man.

Oh God, we pray that you would come put your finger upon these things in our midst. Show us. Conform us to your ways, not to the traditions of men. Help us to love and honor your word and to honor you not just with our lips, Lord, though we ought to praise you with our lips, but also with hearts that are humble, that understand the real condition of the human heart and desire to be cleansed and transformed. Cleansed by the blood of Christ and transformed by the work of the Spirit.

We ask for this in Jesus' name. Amen. As far as we can tell, what's happened in chapter 15 so far has been at least a semi-private affair. It's been the scribes and the Pharisees, and they've come to Jesus and He has responded to them. So the circle has been small.

There's not been a lot of people hearing this, but that definitely changes in Matthew 15, verse 10. Nothing escalates things like a press conference escalates things. And this is, you have the Jesus time equivalent of a press conference. He's actually calling the multitudes to himself. When he had called the multitude to himself, he said to them, hear and understand.

He's actually drawing a crowd. We don't know exactly how this worked, but it appears that there was a crowd assembled and There was a disconference that Jesus is having with the scribes and the Pharisees. When he's done addressing the scribes and Pharisees directly, then he assembles everyone and he has what he wants them to hear. He says this, hear and understand, not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man. What Jesus is saying is that there is a paradigm shift that is required.

A paradigm is the grid through which you see life to make sense of things. You have your slots in your paradigm of where certain things fit and how they relate to each other. And our paradigm ought to be the Word of God. That the Word of God would supply the grid to help us make sense of life. And these scribes and Pharisees have come with a paradigm where they think there's some sort of righteousness attached to washing your hands before you meet.

And Jesus isn't going to allow that grid to stand. Jesus is going to tear that grid down and he's going to replace it with another grid that will actually allow the people to see life rightly. They are not seeing life rightly as long as they think there is any merit in washing your hands before you eat. And so Jesus says, not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man. Jesus is doing exactly what he did in Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount, where he takes these things that have been brought forward through the years, through time, things added to the law of God.

He is actually freeing what God said from misinterpretation, misunderstanding, and these additions that had collected around what God had actually said. In Matthew 520, Jesus said, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And then he starts in on their righteousness. He said you've got to have a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. And here's their righteousness.

They say if you murder, it's just killing someone. But no, it's when you speak evil of your brother. Or it's When you think you have hatred in your heart towards your brother, that is a violation of the commandment against murder. They say it's just physical adultery. That's their righteousness if you just don't commit physical adultery.

No, If you lust after a woman in your heart, that's a violation of the commandment against adultery. And so forth and so on. He has six different examples that you'll recall from the Sermon on the Mount. And he's driving things back into the heart, not content with an outward conformity, where you say, you lower the bar down, where we can all jump over it, and then we all jump over it, and then we clap for ourselves. No.

This is not the religion of the Old Testament or the New. They've completely misunderstood hand washing. And they've done that in two ways that I think is important to speak of. Hand washing is biblical in the Old Testament. There were requirements for hand washing, but it was just for a small group of people and some of the time.

So in the law of God, the application of hand washing is very narrow. But they've broadened it out to everybody before every meal. And by the way, if you don't do it, you're in big trouble. Well, that wasn't the law of God at all. It wasn't for all Israelites.

It's not even for all Levites. It's only for the priests, and it's only sometimes, it's only when they're going in to do their ministry, would they do this hand washing. So they have taken this thing that actually is a category in the Word of God, and they have broadened it out and applied it to everyone all the time without warrant from the Scriptures to do this. The second way in which they have misunderstood this is that it is ceremonial law. In other words, the value of the hand washings of the Old Testament is actually just pictorial.

It's just representative. It doesn't really have to do with the dirt on the hands. It is a picture of something. And ceremonial law points towards Christ. That's what it's there for.

All this sacrificing, all this blood, is not anything in itself. The value, the reason it was given, is in the picture, in what it actually represents. The shadow is not the value. The substance is the value. So they misunderstood the ceremonial law.

The point in The ceremonial law of hand washing is that all men are defiled and that there must be cleansing to approach God. That's why God gave hand washing in the Old Testament. As a picture that a priest Can't just saunter into the presence of God to perform his duties. Can't just walk into the Holy of Holies chewing gum and with his hat on. No!

There's a holy God on the other side of that veil. And a priest is defiled and he must be cleansed or he'll die. That's why hand washing in the Old Testament. It's a picture. So Jesus wants people to know that it's not the dirt on the hands.

It's representative of the filth on the inside that priests have that must be cleansed before they can do their duty of worship before God. Man is not just free to come in and worship God as he is. It isn't come as you are. In that sense, it's be cleansed so that you will not be consumed by a holy God. The disciples are concerned.

We see this beginning in verse 12. Then his disciples came and said to him, Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? Now when we come to this text, we come with a predisposition about the scribes and the Pharisees. We're, Get them Jesus, those hypocrites, because we're looking back through the New Testament lens, not so with the disciples. This is another one of these places in the book of Matthew where we've got to put our Jewish glasses on and understand that they don't come to the scribes and the Pharisees with the same predisposition to say, get him Jesus.

In the time of Jesus, the scribes and the Pharisees are the ones who are serious about the things of God. They are the ones that are most earnest about the law. They are the ones who are most respected in the religion of the day. Here's what Paul says in Galatians 1.14. Paul says, and I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

So this is Paul's history. He excelled because he was exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. He was a Pharisee's Pharisee, just like these men who came. The reason that they're Pharisees, the reason that they've even been sent from Jerusalem at all, is because these are the people who take the things of God seriously. This is what you do if you take the things of God seriously in this culture.

You're zealous for the traditions of your Father. And that is how you rise. That is how Paul rose. That is how these men who have come to Jesus have risen. Because they have been exceedingly zealous for the traditions of their Father.

So we come to these accounts expecting them to be the bad guys, but for the Jew it's the opposite. These are the God fevers. The scribes and the Pharisees are the ones who actually take the things of God seriously. So there is a respect for them and they are worried that Jesus has offended these men who have risen because they have been exceedingly zealous for the traditions of their fathers. We find out that not only was Jesus aware, not only was Jesus completely unconcerned that they were offended, that actually He is intentionally and publicly contradicting them.

He is not trying to get the offense to go away. He is actually trying to inflame the offense in this instance. Why? Because the scribes and the Pharisees are ambassadors of a false gospel. They are preaching a false gospel.

Anytime your view of man and your God has come to the place where you think there is any merit, any pleasure that God would take in you because you've washed your hands because of your eating. You're advancing a false gospel. And these scribes and these Pharisees are ambassadors of this false gospel. And so therefore, this is not Matthew 18. I'm offended, so I goes to his brother in secret to win his brother over.

He actually is setting the pattern that Paul will follow in Galatians 2. Galatians 2, beginning in verse 11. Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I, Paul, withstood him to his face because he was to be blamed. For before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles. But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.

And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about The truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, if you being a Jew live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? This is exactly what's happening here. The truth of the Gospel is at stake. Paul isn't at liberty to call his brother aside and say, Brother, there's an offense.

I need to speak with you in private about this offense. There has been public teaching and a public display that violates the gospel. And so now Paul must actually contradict Peter and call him out in public and rebuke him in public because the gospel is at stake. When a false gospel is being advanced, we don't have the luxury of being dainty. And it's not sufficient for Jesus to just explain this to His disciples and let the multitudes still be led by these blind gods.

It's not sufficient to do that. There's been public sin in advancing a false gospel, and so there must be public rebuke, public contradiction, and a re-teaching so that the Gospel, the real Gospel that tells about the real heart of man and the real character of God and how those things can be bridged can actually be restored. Look at what Paul says in Galatians 1. Just flip over the page. Galatians 1, verses 6-9.

I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another. But there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we are an angel from heaven preached another gospel to you, then what we have preached to you, Let him be accursed. As we have said before, so I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed." Now we're not talking about a new believer here who's a little fuzzy on the Gospel. We are talking about scribes and Pharisees, the leaders of the day who are publicly teaching, preaching, advancing a false Gospel.

And Paul says, whenever that happens, If we should come and preach another gospel, if I should stand in this pulpit and preach another gospel, let me be eternally accursed. The gospel is precious. We get anything from Galatians 2 and Matthew 15. It should be that we ought to be so careful with the Gospel, not to add on man-made traditions that bring on these external conformities that we then value and confuse with righteousness, may it never be. But we have a duty to publicly and actively oppose false Gospels when they are being advanced by men and women.

Matthew Henry says this, weak hearers are sometimes more solicitous than they should be not to have wicked hearers offended. In other words, the disciples are the weak hearers. And they are way too concerned about what the wicked hearers, the scribes and the Pharisees, are thinking. Henry continues, But if we please men with the concealment of truth and the indulgence of their errors and corruptions, we are not the servants of Christ. How do you like that?

If we play footsie with false gospels, Matthew Henry says, if we please men with the concealment of the truth, if we indulge their errors and corruptions, we are not followers of Christ. The gospel is the most precious treasure we have. And when people start messing with the Gospel, they should be publicly rebuked. And that's what Jesus is doing. Now you might say, when you do this, when you take this approach, you're painting them into the corner.

And so there's no graceful way out, and so they're just going to fight you then. Right. Exactly. Don't worry about that. That's not the main concern.

That's not the factors that you should be considering in deciding what is right to do. If it means that you are painting them into a corner so that there is no graceful way out, then so be it. James 3 verse 1, Let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. When a teacher advances a false gospel, it's exactly right. They're painted into a corner.

They've painted themselves into that corner. And there is no graceful way out. When a false gospel has been advanced, then public repentance is required. The false gospel has to be renounced before that man can go forward. If I in this year or in future years teach a false gospel, there will be no quiet way to make it going away.

I'll have to stand up and publicly renounce it. I'll have to publicly repent of it because I've publicly advanced it. That's how it works. That's what it means to have a stricter judgment. To have a stricter judgment.

Back to Matthew 15. Verses 13 and 14. But Jesus answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind, and if The blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.

Jesus in these verses teaches his disciples how to understand these false teachers and how to relate to these false teachers. In understanding them, he speaks to the nature and the end of the false teacher. He says, every plant not planted by God the Father will be uprooted." He's talking about their nature. They're not planted by God. They're not gods.

That's the nature of those advancing a false gospel. They're not planted by God. And he speaks to their end. They will be uprooted. There are no ands, ifs, or buts.

Those not planted by God will be uprooted. And this is exactly what he's taught in Matthew 13 in the parable of the wheat and the terrible. It's the enemy who sows. He is the devil. He has planted those tares.

In verse 41 of Matthew 13, it says, The son of man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness. Every plant not planted by God the Father will be uprooted. Turn to Isaiah 61. There are two sides to this coin. Isaiah 61.

And We get both of the sides in the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13. In other words, there are plants planted by God and then there are plants planted by the devil. And they have very different ends. We actually see this so beautifully in Isaiah 61, which is a prophecy about the Messiah. Isaiah 61 verses 1-3.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the Spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planning of the Lord that he may be glorified. This is the gospel that the Messiah has been sent by the Father and He has a mission. He has a mission to heal the broken-hearted. He has a mission to liberate the captives He has a mission to Free those who are bound and to console those who are more are Mourn and he takes these people he takes these captives He takes these poor He takes these one who it ones who have been bound and those who have been tied up in mourning, and He makes them the planting of the Lord.

This is how it ends in verse 3. They are planted by God. This is the other side of it. Those who are not planted by God will be uprooted. But there are a people who are captive, who are mourning, and they will be given beauty for ashes.

And they will be trees of righteousness. They will be the planting of the Lord. Now Jesus tells his disciples how to relate to these men who are advancing a false gospel. It's very simple. Let them alone.

Leave these men alone. Stop listening to these men. Listen to what Paul writes to Titus in Titus 3 verses 9 through 11. He says, but avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law. That is exactly what we have in Matthew 15.

We have foolish disputes. Why aren't you guys washing your hands? It's nowhere in the law of God. And yet they've come from Jerusalem to confront Jesus on this matter. This is a foolish dispute.

This is a contention. This is a striving about the law, and it's not even a law that applies in the way that they're trying to apply it. For they are unprofitable and useless. Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition. Now we are far enough into Matthew where we are way beyond the first and second admonition.

So this is where Jesus is. He is rejecting these divisive men. He has already warned them that their righteousness in chapter 5 is not the right kind of righteousness. And that to be Right with God, you have to have a completely different kind of righteousness than the scribes and the Pharisees have. And Paul ends his instructions to Titus by saying, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.

Isn't this what we see about the scribes and the Pharisees? These men are warped. They are warped. They don't know up from down. They think things are righteous that aren't righteous at all.

They think things that are unrighteous that are righteous and pleasing in the sight of God. They are warped. They are self-condemned. Jesus says those who follow them end up in the same pit. You can render that word either ditch or pit.

Either one of them is acceptable. But these men are dragging people into a pit. These people are following right along behind them. So Jesus calls these multitudes to Himself, and he's actually attempting to detach these people from their blind leaders. This is how you treat men who are advancing a false gospel.

You try to detach their followers from them before they drag every last one of those followers into a pit. We don't coddle men who advance a false gospel. We don't engage in endless dialogue with men who advance a false gospel. We rebuke them publicly, we let them alone, and then we take their disciples if we can without apology. Do you realize what's at stake?

If you just allow blind leaders to lead other blind right into the pit, how unloving that is. Our consciences should cry out that we not allow that. There are many false teachers advancing a false gospel. And we ought to rebuke them publicly, then we ought to let them alone, and then we ought to take as many of their disciples as we can. Because if they don't come away from these false teachers, they'll end up in the ditch along with the false teachers.

In verse 15, back to our text, in verse 15 Peter asks for an explanation of the parable. In Mark 7, which is a parallel passage giving the same account in the Gospel of Mark, Mark 7, 17, says when Jesus had entered a house away from the crowd. So Mark 7 gives us a little more detail and when Peter asks this question, they're away. They're completely separated from the crowd and they are alone with Jesus in a house. And Peter actually shows how little this was understood.

This isn't a parable. A parable is the things of everyday life used to explain another truth. There is no analogy here. Jesus is saying it's not what goes into a man that defiles him and what comes out of a man. There's no analogy being made here.

The man is the man. The thing going into the mouth is the thing going into the mouth. The thing coming out of the man is the thing coming out of the man. There's no analogy. And so Peter is asking, what's the deeper meaning here?

And Jesus is explaining what he's already said in plain terms. In the last chapter, in the last interchange that we have between Peter and Jesus, what is Jesus saying? Oh, you of little faith. Oh, you of little faith. And he was actually the one who got out of the boat.

But Jesus expected Peter to believe in him and for his faith not to fail. And so he rebukes him for his little faith and now he rebukes him for his little understanding. And it's not just Peter, it's all the disciples in Mark 7. It's all the disciples who are asking the question. So it appears that Peter is the representative who gets to go forward and ask the question and receive the rebuke, but all the disciples were a little fuzzy on what's actually being taught here.

But just as Jesus expects our faith in Him to hold, not because He doesn't understand that we're dust, but because he is so utterly faithful that as an object of faith he expects us to believe in him. He also expects our understanding to grow. He's been saying time after time after time, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. He expects us to hear and to apply ourselves to the things that are being said and to actually grow in our understanding. Here is what the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 5.12.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food." I think this is what Jesus is saying here. He's already sent these men out to teach repentance and about the kingdom. And now they're coming and asking him about something of first principles. Hey, what do you mean about it not being the things that go into the mouth of the pharaoh? Man, It's the things that come out.

What is that all about? Jesus is saying these are the things of first principles. You ought to be able to move on from milk by now to meat, and yet I'm still having to explain these things to you. Verses 17-20. Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated, but those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and they defile a man.

For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man." Jesus talks about what goes in and He talks about what comes out. In verse 17 He says, whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated. Literally it means it goes into the latrine. That's what happens to things that go into the mouth.

It ends up in the latrine. The King James actually renders that more literally. It will give you a word that you won't know what it means. It means latrine. It goes into the mouth and ends up in the latrine.

Mark 7, 19, again our parallel passage in Mark, Jesus says, Because it does not enter his heart, but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods. The things that go into the mouth, they stay in that digestive tract all the way through. And they're eliminated that way. They don't go to the heart. Things that go in the mouth don't go to the heart at all.

And Jesus is saying, worry about the heart. The body is made to worry about the food. It has a way to cleanse those foods. So that the nutrients are helpful and the toxins are eliminated. The body can handle that.

But Jesus is saying your real problems are not gastrointestinal. Your real problems are in your heart. If your food went into your heart, then you should worry about your food, but it doesn't go to the heart. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 6, 12 and 13. All things are lawful to me, but all things are not helpful.

All things are lawful to me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods. But God will destroy both it and them. Food is not going to be a concern forever. Your stomach is not going to be a concern forever.

God will destroy them both. Don't fear man. Don't even fear foods. Fear the one who can kill both soul and body. This is what Paul is saying here.

So now we know Paul and Jesus have taught us how we ought to think about food. That we ought not to be brought under the power of anything. That's true. With food, anything we might eat or drink, we ought not to be brought under the power of it. We shouldn't love food.

We should be careful about food. But we shouldn't be brought under the power of it. We shouldn't love food. We should be careful about food. But we shouldn't be brought under the power of anything we eat or drink.

But we shouldn't be consumed by these things. Here's what the writer of Hebrews says, Hebrews 13, 9, Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. There is such a thing as food idolatry. There is such a thing as giving too much time and effort and concern to food. Now does this mean that it's inappropriate for wives and mothers to give attention to feeding their families things that will be good for them, that will help them to be healthy.

No, it doesn't mean that at all. But it does say explicitly that We ought not to be occupied with these things. Our preoccupations ought to be about the things of God. And there are going to be things that we'll need to do to care for our bodies. Exercise is one of those things.

We need to monitor the things that we eat or drink, but they should not be our preoccupation. If you're pinning your hopes on a diet, prepare to be disappointed, because your biggest problems have nothing to do with your diet. Does that mean that they're nothing? No, but they're not everything. If you're pinning much on things like food and exercise and those types of things, you're not addressing the big areas of concern that Jesus says we should be addressing.

I'm not asserting that it doesn't matter what you eat. I'm simply agreeing with Scripture that this isn't our biggest problem. This is not our biggest problem. And so we ought to have the right perspective when we think about food and not to be occupied with it. Paul can have the last word on this, Romans 14-17.

For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Having talked about what goes in and what happens with what goes in, Jesus talks about what comes out. And He's teaching that defiling things originate on the inside. The defilement is already there. You don't need to put defiling things in.

It couldn't defile you more than what's in there to start with. And he begins by speaking of what you say, what comes out of your mouth. And in Matthew 12, 34, he's already said, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. That's why Jesus is talking about what comes out of the mouth, because it is a representative sample of what's in there. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

And then he broadens that in verse 19 to what you do. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. It's all in there, Jesus says. It's all in there. You don't need any help from your defiled hands, or from the things that you eat, or from the things that you drink.

Does that matter? Does that mean We can drink all the alcohol we want. No, there are things that are external, that don't help the things that are already in there. That inflame our passions, that prey on the weaknesses of our nature. And we've got to be on the lookout for those things.

But you know what? You can't manage all those things forever. You can manage them as tightly as you want to. And you can never drink a drop of alcohol or ever partake of any illegal substance. And you can be so rotten in there without any of the help of those external things.

It will not make you right in the sight of God to manage the external things. To the nth degree, because you don't need the things that are out there, the defiling things are already in there. He says in verse 19, He says in verse 19, For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, violations of the sixth commandment, violations of the seventh commandment, violations of the eighth commandment, violations of the ninth commandment. I'm translating there, but that's what he's giving us. Do you realize, he's giving us the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th commandments in order there.

And then when you go to Mark 22, the 10th commandment is added in. Mark actually gives a longer list. So Mark adds wickedness, lewdness, and evil eye, pride, foolishness. That pretty much covers it, friends. All the defilements are in there.

They're all in there. Here's what J.C. Ryle says, This is no sketch of the heart of a robber or murderer. It is the true and faithful account of the hearts of all mankind. If you read this and said, Look at the sketch of a robber and a murderer.

You have missed what Jesus is saying here. He's not talking about the heart of a robber or a murderer. He's talking about your heart. The defilements are in your heart. And it doesn't need any help from the external things that we consider defiling.

Genesis 6, 5, Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was Only evil continually. This is the sketch of your heart." You say, well that was before the flood. God got rid of all that wickedness. He wiped him out and he started back with eight righteous people. Okay, Genesis 8, 21.

This is getting off the ark. They're offering a sacrifice. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake. Although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, nor will I again destroy every living creature as I have done." All Those people wiped out.

All that corruption wiped out. And then God says the imagination of their heart is still wicked from their youth. Still, the corruptions weren't wiped out with the flood. Jeremiah 17, 9. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.

Who can know it? You cannot come to Jesus unless you see yourself this way. You cannot be saved unless you know this about yourself. You can be religious. You can pass all of my tests, but you cannot be born again until you have seen your desperate need.

The scribes and the Pharisees have come and they have their terms for Jesus. You cannot come to Jesus that way. You cannot come imposing your terms on Jesus. He'll have none of it. It must be on His term.

You must know that all these things reside in your heart, and that a little hand washing doesn't make you acceptable. And that any external structure that you built up will be no help to you, because the defilements are in your heart. Proverbs 26 verse 12, Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. We cannot come to Jesus to be saved until we are no longer wise in our own eyes.

We have to drop our terms and accept his definitions of what we're like and what he's like and his terms Have you agreed with Jesus's diagnosis That all these defilements are in your own heart and must be dealt with. And that a little hand washing will do nothing for you. It will do nothing. It will not help you one ounce. It will leave you with all the defilements you had before you started washing.

Proverbs 16 verse 2. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits. This is the problem. You don't get to judge. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes.

We become masters of self-justification, and we can convince ourselves that we're not really that bad, that we're a little better than our neighbor, and that that is good enough, but it's never good enough, because the defilements are in the heart, and it is the Lord who weighs the spirits. Here is what this means. There must be cleansing to approach God. That's what the hand washing was always about. There must be cleansing to approach God.

To do any duty, to do any act of worship, there must be cleansing. We cannot come to God with these defilements in our hearts. God is holy. Without cleansing, being in the presence of God will kill you. He is a holy God.

But there is a mediator between God and man, one who has offered himself to provide the cleansing for all those defilements that reside in the heart. And he can put his one hand on Almighty God and one hand upon you and bridge that gap. There is a massive, harmful rejection of this in this day that is just like what we see in Matthew 15. That believes that the corruptions are external, that man is basically good, That if you just watch out for x, y, and z, steer clear of x, y, and z, and you'll be OK. Because man is basically good.

This is unbiblical. And this is a doctrine that will drag you to hell. Man is not basically good. Man is defiled in the core. Hopelessly defiled.

And though the external things prey on those defilements that already exist, they don't create them. Colossians 2, 20-23. Paul writes, Therefore, if you died with Christ to the basic principles of the world, why as though living in the world do you subject yourselves to regulations? Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concern things which perish with the using, according to the commandments and doctrines of men. These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom and self-imposed religion, false humility and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

This is what Jesus is saying. You can wash the first four layers of skin off of your hands and it will be of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. It will be of no value. You can say, don't touch, don't taste, don't handle. You can keep your things for those things, but the problem is the corruptions are already there.

It's already inside. A few concluding remarks. Consider your heart. Have you agreed with Jesus' diagnosis of your heart? And this is not a one-time event.

This is something that needs to recur again and again and again and again where you understand the true nature of man. And understand how defiled we are. You are not one less needy of the blood of Christ 20 years, 30 years, 40 years after being saved and justified, than you were on the day you were saved. You've not achieved anything. The defilements are still there.

You must have His blood to cleanse you. Do we start to think that we've got our act together? As if those defilements aren't still there, as if somehow we're now having begun by grace, we're continuing in the flesh that we now have the ability to please God? May it never be. Are you trusting in disinfected hands in any way, in any sort of outer structure that makes you acceptable to the person who is sitting next to you, so that you don't get hassled.

But yet, you're short of being born again, and made a new creature, and taken out of one kingdom, and transferred, transported into another kingdom. May we never be a people who are just cleaning up the externals, and trying to make a little bit of progress towards God, as if we could earn any merit. There's no merit to be had. Jesus says these are the things which defile a man, his list. The Ten Commandments and more, his list.

These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man." Let's pray. Father, We're so in need of your mercy. Self-righteousness is so repugnant to you Because it shows the fundamental misunderstanding of who we actually are and who you are. You are the holy God in whose presence we would die if not for the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ and His blood standing in our place every day of our life. God, I thank you that you've taught us what we're like.

Our minds are so slow to grasp this. A natural man never wants to believe that This is true. But in our saner moments, we know that the defilements are all there. And that you are a holy God. And that you could never even look upon these things.

I thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanses us from all iniquity, takes these defilements that are so internal to us, so inseparable from us, and places it as far as the East is from the West. We thank you for your mercy. God, help us to think rightly about this, to keep these things continually before our eyes so we will relate to you in humility, that we will be on our faces before you knowing who we are, knowing who you are. Yes, coming in boldness, but also understanding that it is only your mercy. Lord, how can we do anything else but to praise you when we consider these things, but to Think upon the kindness of God on a sinful, defiled people, yet washed and made as white as snow, because of your own provision.

We rejoice in you today, Lord, because of your great mercies. We thank you for your word, in Jesus' name, Amen.