Defilement Comes from the Heart
Truth Taught- Jesus teaches us the all people are defiled, unclean and evil and all that comes from our hearts not from external sources. We can only be made clean through the blood of Christ.
What we find in our text today is the conclusion to Jesus’ dialogue with the Pharisees about defilement. They said a person is defiled by not washing their hands in the ceremonial way passed down through the traditions over centuries.
Remember their original question?
Mark 7:5 (ESV)
5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
In the opinion of the Pharisees, defilement came about when a person did not adhere to the traditions of Judaism.
If a person eats with defiled hands, then the food is defiled and then the person who eats it becomes defiled.
What does defilement mean? To be defiled is to be unclean before God. The defilement lies within our hearts. Sin defiles a person and makes them unacceptable before God.
When we defile ourselves through sin or neglect of the Lord Himself, we must seek cleansing by confessing our sins to God (1 John 1:9). Only the blood of Jesus Christ is powerful enough to cleanse our hearts and make us fit to commune with God (1 John 1:7).
Jeremiah 17:9–10 (ESV)
9 The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
From the dialogue which transpires in the first thirteen verses of Mark 7, it is apparent that the Pharisees and teachers of the law were now watching Jesus and his disciples quite closely. They were hoping to catch Jesus doing something which would allow them to arrest him. If they could just catch Jesus, or his disciples, committing a serious enough violation of the law, they would not only have grounds to arrest Jesus, they might even be able to put him to death for committing a capital offense. As we have seen in the past few weeks, all of this takes place against the backdrop of the on-going struggle throughout Israel to determine Jesus’ true identity and the nature of his ministry. The Pharisees and teachers of the law have already made up their minds about Jesus. In their estimation, Jesus is either demon-possessed or else he is a magician and false teacher. They clearly believe that Jesus is a threat to them, and they will do everything in their power to stop him and put an end to his messianic mission. Furthermore, the scribes and Pharisees were no doubt aware of the huge crowds Jesus is attracting and they were jealous of all of the attention Jesus was receiving. And so when the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus about why it was that his disciples did not practice the ceremonial washings as required by the Pharisees, they were not asking the question because they wanted to know Jesus’ opinion about this. Rather, this was a trick into admitting guilt, thereby giving the Pharisees sufficient grounds to arrest him. They may even be able to expose for all to see that Jesus was a law-breaker and indifferent to the holiness required of God’s people. And this would put an end to Jesus’ messianic mission once and for all. Instead, Jesus quickly turned the tables on them.
Our Lord shows that they are the ones breaking God’s Law by affirming and practicing human tradition over God’s Word.
Our Lord uses their tricks and antagonistic questions to actually teach what true defilement is and where it comes from.
My goal today is to see with you what Jesus says about defilement, its seriousness, its cause and its cure. If we are to be in a right relationship with God we must address our own defilement.
Please Stand…
Mark 7:14–23 (ESV)
14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
1. Nothing Going into a Person Causes Defilement (7:14-15)
14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”
Here’s a sad reality and we can pick up on this in Matthew’s account of the same event. The disciples were somewhat taken back by Jesus’ teaching.
The point Jesus makes here is that nothing entering into the body such as food eaten with unwashed hands is able to defile a person.
Here is the conclusion of Jesus’ teaching on this very subject. Whether or not one ceremonially washing before eating has no impact on whether one is clean or defiled. Our Lord goes against the system of the Jews and their dietary human laws. So radical is truth to the rule keeper that it seems wrong and in fact the disciples are extremely uneasy at this point and they literally tell Jesus that He has created a scandal with what He is teaching.
Can we be so flooded with lies, untruths, traditions, and false doctrine that the truth sounds like a scandal?
We must be very cautious here. We can believe something wrong for so long that when the truth is presented it does not sound right. This is the disciple’s assessment. According to them, those who had been overtaken with many traditions taught all their lives as doctrine, when they hear truth that goes counter to their beliefs the truth seems like a scandal.
Here’s what the disciples and those in Judaism believed that was untrue. They believed that people were basically good and even pure and that it was something on the outside that defiled them. This is the modern psychologist who teaches that people are good and that it was something in your childhood, environment, parents etc. that is your issue. This view goes against the Bible’s teaching. We are not basically good people and that there is something outside of us that has polluted us or here, caused us to become defiled.
Nothing from outside of us that goes into us such as unclean food or food eaten with unwashed hands makes us impure…
2. Jesus Tells Us, That the Cause of Defilement is the Heart (7:17-19a)
17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?”
So, unlike the Pharisees and unlike modern psychologists, the issue is not something on the outside entering us that defiles us but what defiles is already inside us. Jesus teaches us that what is evil and what defiles is the heart. This is what the Bible teaches us as well.
Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV)
9 The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
James 1:14 (ESV)
14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
That is a definitive Christian view of man. That is a biblical anthropology that what defiles is on the inside, not the outside. Society doesn’t want to admit that. You hear people being interviewed all the time in our society who say well, the reason I did this, the reason I have this problem, the reason I have this anti-social or criminal behavior or bizarre behavior is because I was misunderstood as a child. I was molested as a child. I was denied privileges as a child. I was unloved as a child. I was bullied – that’s the latest one.
All of these kinds of external things have created this kind of behavior because I’ve lived in this toxic kind of environment. That is not what the Bible teaches. The problem is not outside of you, the problem is inside of you.
The Jewish leadership had taught for so long that the evil within someone came from outside of them. People were good and their environment made them evil. The disciples had been taught this all their life so, when they heard the truth from Jesus it was great cause for alarm.
Jewish dietary laws and rituals and traditions were not able to clean the heart from evil. One could wash their hands until they scrubbed the skin away and still have an evil heart. Our Lord is concerned with internals, not externals.
This brings us back to last week’s Scripture quote from Jesus…
Isaiah 29:13 (ESV)
13 And the Lord said:
“Because this people draw near with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
Our Lord presses home the recognition that the ultimate seat of purity or defilement is the heart.
Psalm 51:7–12 (ESV)
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
David’s contrition over his sin with Bathsheba has caused him to take stock of his inward dispositions and affections, leading him to confess his need for the Lord to create in him a clean heart (v. 10). In so doing, he displays his awareness of his need for divine grace. John Calvin comments, “By the term create … [David] acknowledges that we are indebted entirely to the grace of God, both for our first regeneration, and, in the event of our falling, for subsequent restoration.” From first to last, the Christian life is a matter of grace. Grace initiates our salvation, it sustains our salvation, and it will complete our salvation.
Only through the righteousness of Christ being imputed to us by faith can any fallen human ever have a pure heart. God saves us by grace and then works in our lives to bring us closer to actually aligning with our declared position. Only through faith in Jesus will our utter and complete heart defilement ever be remedied.
Matthew 5:8 (ESV)
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
The first thing we learn from this beatitude is that Jesus is concerned with our heart. It is not enough to clean up our act on the outside. Here’s our Lord’s attitude toward those who want to only appear righteous without seeking to be righteous on the inside…
Matthew 23:25–28 (ESV)
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
3. Evil Things Come from Within a Person (7:19b-23)
(Thus he declared all foods clean.)
20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
In teaching on what causes defilement and what doesn’t, our Lord is also moving His people into the New Covenant era when all foods will be declared to be clean…
(Thus he declared all foods clean.)
This statement is very much in line with what Peter discovered later on the roof of Cornelius’ house.
Acts 10:9–16 (ESV)
9 The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance 11 and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” 15 And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” 16 This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.
No food is defiled in the New Covenant. The Bible still declares we should not eat blood and that in everything God provides what we eat and we should give thanks always for our food.
So, what the early Church learned was that the Old Covenant Levitical ceremonial laws are now fulfilled in Christ. The old Laws of purity and cleanliness could never actually make the sinner pure. They were a picture of the true purity that is found only in Jesus.
The reality is that everyone here is in need of cleansing by Christ. He alone can cleanse us on the inside.
Has Christ removed your defilement through faith in Him and His sacrifice for us?
Lord’s Supper
Conclusion
Resources
https://www.gty.org/sermons/41-33/the-inside-story-on-defilement
https://learn.ligonier.org/devotionals/davids-plea-clean-heart
Mark by William Lane
Words of grace
Leave a Reply