The Heart of the Matter

This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang.! Thank you for joining us. Welcome to Mark chapter 7.

As we continue in our study through the Gospel of Mark. The last couple of Sundays we've looked in verses 1 to 13.

And really centers around right in the very middle of that section, verses 6 and 7, where Jesus speaks to those who are religious leaders and are going through the motions, but do not have sincere hearts.

And He said to them in Mark 7 verse 6, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

So we walked through these 13 verses, and last week specifically looked at the application of this passage for us. We looked at what are the things the New Testament calls us as the gathered church to do to make sure that we are doing them, but that we're doing them with the right heart, with a pure motive.

What we do not want to do is make the same mistake that the religious leaders made in Jesus' day, where they still go through the motions and still do certain things, but do so with their heart far from the Lord, as verse 6 says.

And so we looked last Sunday at these five things the New Testament calls us to do that we should be doing as believers, but to make sure that we're not only doing them, but that we're doing them with the right heart.

And so we looked at the New Testament call to sing, that we're to be a singing people. That we need to be people who sing forth the praises of God, that we praise the name of the Lord in song, that we encourage each other as we sing.

We teach ourselves the doctrine of the gospel as we sing. And so we should be singing, and not just singing, we should be singing with our hearts fully engaged.

We don't want to honor the Lord with our lips, yet our hearts be far away, which is the very thing that Jesus was confronting them on. We looked last week, secondly, at the preaching of the Word, that when the church gathers together, that the preaching of the Word should be our focus.

And so that means the one who is preaching should be prepared and be teaching from the Word of God, and that those who are in the congregation ought to be listening carefully, and that we're not just listening, but that we have a follow-through of obedience, that we don't want to just simply honor the Lord with our ears, and our hearts be far away from the Lord, that we want to listen and obey.

We looked thirdly last week that the New Testament reminds believers that we are to be faithful to give, that as we gather as the local church, that we should be a group of generous people.

The Bible teaches that we are to give faithfully and sacrificially, purposefully. It should be a part of our worship, that we as members are a giving people, that we are giving to the Lord through the local church in order to help the ministry and the mission and the outreach of our church take place.

And so we want to be faithful to give, but not just to give, to give with a heart of worship. It'd be possible for us to miss it on either side. We don't give, and that would be wrong.

Or we do give, but our hearts are not engaged. That would be wrong. We want to make sure that we're giving with a pure heart. We looked fourthly that when we gather, we should be a praying people, that prayer should be a part of all that we do as a church, and that when we pray together as a body of Christ, our hearts are to be in tune with it.

So when somebody voices a prayer on behalf of the congregation, make sure you're listening. Let it be something that soothes your own soul, that remind your own mind of the truth of who the Lord is.

We want to pray with each other, and we want to pray for each other. And then fifthly, we looked last week that the New Testament reminds us that we're to be relationship building, that when the church gathers together, that it's not just about you and God, it's about all of us together as the body of Christ.

And so we serve each other and love each other and forgive each other and bear each other's burdens and show hospitality to each other. And those things demand relationships.

So what are we supposed to do as the body of Christ? We sing, we preach, we give, we pray, we build relationships, and we do all of these things with a heart that loves Christ and is pleasing to Him.

So that is what we apply. I think those are biblical things we take away from Mark 7, 1 to 13, where the Lord reminds people that we are to be faithful, yes, to honor Him with our lips, but to have sincerity of heart as we worship.

Which leads exactly into this next section of verses 14 to 23, where we really see the heart of the matter is our focus.

At certain times of the year, this will not be the favorite illustration I've ever used for most of you, but at certain times of the year, spiders can be an issue.

I'm sure we have plenty of spider fans among us. And if you are at your house and you're having abnormal spider activity, it can kind of mess with you a little bit.

My wife, who can do almost anything, the one thing she cannot do is she cannot handle spiders. And when we were newly married and we had a house we were living in, our house was, behind us was just pasture, just open field.

And so, we had lots of spiders. And I would come home from work, and what my wife would do is she would just get glasses and put them over spiders. And so, I would come home, and there would be two or five or 700 glasses all around the house.

And it was my husbandly duty to come home, pick up the glass, kill the spider, dispose of it, but I guess throw the glass away and then sell the house.

That was the job. Now, what you could do, if you're having a lot of spiders in your house, is you can catch them, kill them, and then if you see spider webs, you can vacuum them up.

And I don't want to keep you from sleeping at night, but you understand that for every spider you see, there's a lot more you don't see. And if you want to get rid of a spider infestation, you cannot simply lay out a trap or put a cup over a spider.

You've got to figure out where they're coming from and get rid of them because they're there. Or suppose you have a vehicle and your car doesn't start reliably, and it makes all kinds of strange noises.

And the brakes aren't working. And you've got all kinds of issues. And when the car is driving, when you're driving it down the road, there's all kinds of smoke coming out of the hood.

Well, you could take that car to the car wash and say, this car's got a lot of problems. I better clean this car. And you wash it, and you take it home, and you wax it, and you shine it real good, and you vacuum it out.

Have you done anything to fix the problem? Not at all. What you've done is you've cleaned up the outside, but you've done nothing to fix the internal problems.

This is exactly the issue in Mark 7. People who are driving cars that are washed, vacuumed, waxed, but inside, all kinds of problems.

And so many people, when it comes to their religion, that's how they live. They clean up the outside. They go through the ceremonies that can be seen and noticed by people.

And yet, their heart is so far away from the Lord. So the issue in Mark 7, 14 to 23, is what do we do to get clean?

What do we do to get right? What do we do to be fixed? Is it about external washings, Mark 7, 1 to 5, what the scribes and Pharisees did?

Or is it a heart issue that must be fixed from the inside out? Look with me in Mark 7, verse 14.

He called the people to him again and said to them, Hear me, all of you, and understand. There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.

And when he had entered 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 the person. I want you to make note of three things this morning as we see what the Lord is wanting us to understand.

First, watch how you listen. Watch how you listen. Be on guard for how you listen. Pay attention to how you listen.

That's what's happening here in verse 14. It says, He called the people to him again. What's happened was, Jesus was talking to the people. The scribes and the Pharisees, chapter 7, verse 1, came to talk with Jesus.

And as the leaders approached Jesus, the people kind of slipped off a little bit. They backed up. They made way for Jesus to talk to these scribes and these Pharisees.

That conversation has ended. And so now, Jesus tells the people, come back. I want you to listen. I want you to hear what I have to say. And He says to them, hear me, all of you, and understand.

He's saying, I want you to listen, but I want you to listen carefully. I want you to hear and understand. I don't want you to just simply take the words in audibly.

I want your heart to be engaged. Jesus is telling the people that when He teaches, in some sense, everyone that's present hears what He's saying, but few are understanding.

Few are listening. They may hear, but they don't really listen. And so the Lord says to the people, come back. I want you to pay attention.

I want you to hear me, all of you. I want all of you to hear me. I want all of you to pay attention, and I want all of you to understand.

He's telling the people that it's not enough just to be present. It's not enough just to have the ability to hear. You have to listen with your heart.

It reminds me of the old story of a wife who was frustrated with her husband, and she was trying to talk to him about her frustration, and he was watching a football game, and he had the remote control in his hand, and she's talking and trying to tell him her frustrations.

He's just flipping around different football games, and she finally got the remote and took it out of his hand and said, listen to me with your eyes. That's the idea.

Fully engage with what I'm saying, Jesus says. Pay attention to how you listen. Draw near, hear me, and understand.

But not only watch how you listen, secondly, watch who you blame. Watch who you blame. Verse 15, There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him.

Now, this is a very purposeful thing that's happening. In verses 1 to 13, Jesus has just said, it's not about hand-washing rituals. That's what the scribes and Pharisees were confronting Jesus about.

Why don't your apostles do the hand-washing rituals that we've commanded? So it's not about the hand-washing rituals. It's about your heart's sinful condition.

And he says in verse 15, the things that come out of a person are what defile him. Koino. It's a word that means to be dirty, to be corrupt, to be unclean.

And Jesus is saying to the people that ultimately, it's not about what's outside of you that's the problem. It's about what is inside of you that's the problem.

James chapter 1, verses 14 and 15, Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Jeremiah 17, 9, The heart is deceitful above all things and is desperately sick.

Who can understand it? It's about what is inside of us. Just as a quick note, most of your later translations you have with you today skips from verse 15 to 17.

You may have a note in your text there about verse 16. Verse 16 says, If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. We know that is something the Lord would often say, though our oldest and most reliable manuscripts do not include that.

And so that is why in your latest English translations it likely goes from verse 15 to verse 17 and leaves that out. Verse 17, notice this.

When he entered the house, he left the people. So the crowds have gone. Now it's just Jesus and his apostles. His disciples asked him about the parable.

This is interesting to me. What this tells us is the disciples were listening, but as Jesus was teaching, they still didn't get it. But they didn't want to stop Jesus out there among the crowd and say, could you explain this to us?

They just kind of nod and affirm. And then when the crowds are gone, they go up to Jesus and say, hey, by the way, we're confused. Explain to us, what are you talking about with this parable?

They didn't understand it. Now, Matthew records this same event in chapter 15 and he adds this detail. Verse 12, Then the disciples came and said to him, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?

The scribes and the Pharisees confront Jesus and they say to him, why do your men not follow our man-made law? And Jesus says, your lips honor the Lord, but your heart is far away from God and you have taken the traditions of men and elevated them above the commandments of God.

And the disciples say, by the way, Jesus, do you know when you said that, you offended the Pharisees? See, when you're confronted with the truth, one of two things happens.

You will repent or you will be offended. What Jesus said to the Pharisees was the truth.

What he said to the Pharisees was the very thing they needed to hear. The disciples were confused because they're saying, Lord, does it bother you that you offended these religious leaders?

And you have to understand, my brothers and sisters, that when we teach the truth and when we share the gospel, for those who believe, they will repent and for those with hardened hearts, they will be offended.

Don't be offended in your tone, offensive in your tone. Don't be offensive by the way you treat people. But do understand that for people who refuse to embrace the gospel, they will be offended by the truth you share.

And that holds no sway at all. over our message. You don't change the message to be more likable to those who reject the truth.

And so the apostles said to Jesus, the Pharisees are offended. And in verse 18, Jesus says back to them, are you also without understanding?

Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from the outside cannot defile him since it enters not his heart but his stomach and is expelled?

So we have to ask ourselves, in the Old Testament, the Lord did give His people ceremonial law and dietary law.

Now it's true that the religious leaders have taken that law and they have built upon it and they have actually elevated their own tradition over the law of God. But in the Old Testament, they did have ceremonial and dietary laws.

Now we know why. Hebrews 8.5 says, these things serve as a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things. And the laws in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 were external things to teach internal truths, all of it pointing eventually to Christ.

But the Lord is saying here to His own people that He has come. The shadow has given way to the substance. The Old Testament is pointing to Christ.

It's the shadow. Christ is the substance and He has come. It's fulfilled in Him. And now what He's doing is reminding His people to be careful who you blame.

Don't blame things outside of you for your sin. The issue is what is inside of you. Don't blame everybody else out there.

You've got to deal with your own heart. You can't get right with God by external washings. It's got to be the regeneration of your heart. And the problem is not with out here.

The problem is always with what's inside. And that's true in our world today. In our world today, everybody wants to blame somebody else for their issues.

So we blame the environment we're in. We blame our parents. We blame our boss. We blame our schools. We blame our government.

We want to blame all of the environment all around us. Now it's true that we may find ourselves in very dark days and ungodly situations, but our sin is our problem.

We don't get to excuse our sin by blaming those around us. And other people want to blame bad examples they've had in their life.

They want to blame leaders and say it's their fault I act this way or it's somebody else's fault why I act this way. And to be sure, godly parents are essential and godly leaders in a nation are very important and leadership matters absolutely, but we don't get to excuse our sin by blaming our leaders.

It's true in the church. Leadership matters and biblically speaking, a church needs godly shepherds and godly leaders who live right and teach right and are genuine believers and good, faithful examples to the flock, 1 Peter 5.

But we don't get to blame the sin of our leaders for our sin. We have to take personal accountability. The heart of the issue is that our sin comes from within us, not outside of us.

And that's the point Jesus is making. Your problem is your heart. So the only solution is a transformed heart.

The problem ultimately is not about the world around you. It's about your heart. And the way to fix it is not by fixing the outside things.

It's to have a new heart. If your car is making noise and your brakes aren't working and you have smoke coming out of your engine, you don't need to take it to the car wash.

You need to take it to a mechanic. Because it's not about cleaning up the outside. It's about getting it fixed from the inside. And so the Lord is telling His people here that you don't blame things from the outside.

We have to own our own sinfulness and the fix for it is the heart. Verse 19 clarifies, thus He declared all foods clean.

If you want to read more about that, you can go to Acts 10, 9 to 16. So watch how you listen. He says, make sure you hear and understand.

Watch who you blame. Make sure you take accountability for your own sin. Don't try to blame those outside of you. And then thirdly, watch what you allow.

Watch what you allow. This is an issue of the heart. And so while the religious leaders want to focus on hand washing, Jesus is going to talk about heart washing.

While the crowd wants to talk about external tradition you do, Jesus talks about internal regeneration your heart must experience.

Verse 20, and He said, what comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man come these things.

Watch what you allow. You've got to guard your heart. Because all of the sinful things of our life start in our heart.

It's not first about controlling your hands and your feet and your lips and your words. It's first about changing your heart.

And then He mentions in verses 21 and 22 these very specific sins. verse 21, for from within, out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.

These are the specific sins that He mentions. And I think the best way to understand this is that what Jesus is saying is that the evil thoughts lead to evil actions.

Which is why you must watch what you allow. Watch what you allow to enter your mind. Watch what you allow your heart to engage in.

Evil thoughts. This is where it starts. Everything else that He mentions comes out of our heart, out of our evil thoughts. Our heart tolerates sinful things.

We allow our mind to engage in evil thoughts. And when we do that, all these other forms of sin and wickedness are made manifest. The very wording He uses here to me is very interesting.

Verse 21, out of the heart of man come evil thoughts. The word is dialogosmos. You can hear our English word dialogue right in the middle of that word.

Dialogosmos. Dialogue. Evil thoughts. It's when in your mind you have this inner dialogue. You're allowing, you're tolerating your mind, your heart to think about evil, wicked things.

You're allowing your heart and your mind to have this internal conversation thinking about, dwelling on, considering, looking at, thinking about sinful things.

And when we do that, when we allow our heart and our mind to entertain sinful thoughts, that becomes the breeding ground from which all this other specific sin now comes forth.

And we'd rather sit back and blame our upbringing or blame our school or blame our government or blame our friends.

And the Lord says the first problem, the first problem is you allow on the inside these evil thoughts, this wicked dialogue.

You think, you consider, you dwell on, you meditate, and you allow your heart to build up this wickedness, these evil thoughts, and out of your heart now comes all of these evil things that he mentions.

The issue is first with the heart. Out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, and now he gets specific. Sexual immorality.

Pornea. We get our English word for pornography from this word. It's a word that's a general reference to all sexual sin.

This is a reminder that we must be on guard against all forms of sexual sin. Don't excuse it. Don't take it lightly. Don't dabble in it.

Don't play with it. Don't think it's a small issue. Don't think it's just something to be funny with, to be silly with. Don't excuse it because everybody else does this.

Don't excuse it because all of your friends are involved in it. He says we must be transformed from the inside out and sexual immorality begins with the evil thoughts, with letting your heart and your mind engage in sinful desires and sinful thoughts.

Watch what you allow. You need to watch what you allow to enter into your heart and your mind.

You need to be careful what you take in. You need to watch carefully, think carefully about what movies and TV shows you watch, and what music you let yourself listen to, and what websites you let your phone go to, and who you're texting with and what you allow yourself to text.

You need to be careful because if you allow your heart to build up sinful desires, actions, out of your heart will come sinful actions.

Be on guard with this. This is no small thing. And the fact that we live in a day and a culture where this is so rampant, we would be naive and foolish to pretend that sexual immorality stops at our parking lot.

So I just want to say, if you're struggling in any form of sexual immorality, if you're struggling with fidelity with your spouse, if you're struggling with pornography, if you're struggling with any part of what it means to be sexually pure before the Lord, I want you to know that we care and that we want to help you and your family.

And it may be awkward and it may be uncomfortable and you may prefer just to feel like, you know what, I just want to pretend this isn't real. But we can't do that.

We've got to fight for purity. with our hearts, for our children, and what we know is that issues of pornography is not just a teenage problem and it's not just a male problem.

This is men and women, children and adults, and we must be on guard. hard. And it makes us uncomfortable to even think about it, but it's the very words that Jesus used 2,000 years ago.

It's true, the way we express our sin may be a little nuanced through technology, but the heart of the issue has never changed. The things that people struggle with today are the same things people struggled with in Jesus' day 2,000 years ago.

And what he's telling those who will listen to him is that you must guard your mind. You must guard your heart. Don't let sinful, wicked things infiltrate your heart and your mind because if they do, it will be exposed.

And so we want to be on guard against these evil thoughts, and the first thing he mentions is sexual immorality. If you thought to yourself that this is a 2023 problem, it's not.

If you thought to yourself, well, this is just a computer technology problem, it's not. This is a sinful heart problem.

And we must be on guard. And if you need help, if you need someone to walk with you through hard days, your church is here for you.

We're not a collection of perfect people. We're not a collection of families who have it all together. We're a collection of imperfect people with a perfect Savior.

striving to honor Christ with all that we do. But we do that together. He says, beware of sexual morality. And then he mentions theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality.

Sensuality refers to the lust of a wicked mind. Isn't it interesting that even the Lord himself brings this up twice?

evil. Because this is such a common problem. We must be on guard with this. And then he mentions envy.

Envy is an interesting concept. In the original language, this is actually two words. Optimus poneros, which means evil eye.

Evil eye. Optimus or eye. Poneros, evil. That's what envy literally is. It's an evil eye. Envy is when your eyes are looking around and you're never satisfied.

I want what you have. I'm jealous that you have this. I'm upset that you got this blessing and I didn't. I deserve this more than you do.

I want to take from you what you got because I deserve it more. I can't believe the Lord blessed your family with this. I should have had that. And you just have an evil eye.

And every time you see the blessing of God in somebody else's life, instead of your life, it makes us angry and upset instead of grateful and thankful. And that starts because we tolerate evil thoughts in our minds.

Now we can blame everybody else from the outside, but the issue is not outside of us, the issue is inside of us. He mentions slander and pride in the end of verse 22, foolishness.

Now I want you to understand, when he talks about foolishness, this isn't about being uneducated. This isn't about being ignorant. This is about an arrogant rejection of God.

This is Psalm 14 1. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Now listen to that verse again. Psalm 14 1. The fool says where?

In his heart, there is no God. The problem is not what is outside of you, it's what's inside of you.

Our heart is the problem. Our heart must be changed. Our heart must be transformed. Our heart must be regenerated. And so he says in verse 23, all the evil things come from within and they defile a person.

Or as one man stated that people treat the symptoms of sin with their legalism, but leave the root cause untouched. We need our heart changed.

We need to be transformed from the inside out. Titus 3.5, which was the theme verse for our students this week, what we read earlier in the service, says he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

We need a new heart. Children need a new heart. Tangers need a new heart. Adults need a new heart.

It's not about external washings, Matthew 7, 1-5, it's about the regeneration of our heart. It's not about religious activity, it's about spiritual transformation.

It's not about blaming everybody else outside of you for your sin, it's about understanding we need to repent and the Lord give us a new heart.

So what do we do with this? Well, the Bible teaches that if you are in Christ, if you are a believer, if you've been saved by grace through faith, you've repented of your sin and you truly trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you are declared righteous.

It's what we would call in theology positional righteousness. You're standing before God is that you are righteous because of the work of Christ. But if we are going to apply this passage, here's what we have to do.

We strive by the work of the Spirit through the teaching of the Word to become in practice what we are in position. So the Lord has declared us righteous because of the work of Christ.

That's our position with Him. But we want to become in practice what we are in position. We want to become holy. We want to live righteous lives. And we do that by surrendering our heart and our mind, every part of us, to the Lord.

And we don't allow and tolerate segments of our life to be sinful. sinful. In other words, there are truths that we may affirm, but the question is, do we follow through and do them?

There are things that we may love to learn, but we need to put them into practice. It's not about how you wash your hands.

It's about a new heart. heart. And so we've got to be very careful.

Our world has so many examples of people who are highly religious, but do not have a transformed heart.

There may be people in this very sanctuary this morning, and you are on the spiritual treadmill running and running and running and running and sweating and exhausted, spiritually speaking, but you're getting nowhere because your heart hasn't been changed.

And so to summarize this passage, what Jesus is teaching is that true worship is first inward, then outward. our culture is and has been for years obsessed with pollution.

When I was a kid, trash pollution was a big thing. Some of you who are about my age may remember 30 years ago, 40 years ago, big campaign, don't lay that trash on Oklahoma.

I can still sing the jingle. Then it kind of went from trash pollution to air pollution. That was the big deal. The ozone, do we still have an ozone?

I'm not even sure. Does the ozone exist? Is it real? I don't know. But I know that when I was a kid, it was a big problem. Pollution is a big thing. Water pollution is a big thing.

All those things have some importance for sure, but heart pollution is the real issue.

And you know what a lot of churches will do? They'll take up a cause. And it's not that the cause in and of itself is wrong. But what many churches will do is they will get very involved in cause ministry.

And the people they're trying to help are, it's legitimate things and it's good work. But the problem is, if you are doing 10,000 causes from an unregenerate heart, you're no closer to heaven than you were when you started.

Because you'll never work your way to heaven. You must have a new heart. Worship is first inward, then outward.

When my wife and I were newly married, that first year of our married life, we memorized a verse of the Bible together and I would pick out verses that dealt with the heart.

And so the very first week we were married, 27 years ago, the first verse we memorized as a married couple was Proverbs 4, 23. Above all else, guard your heart for it's the wellspring of life.

Guard your heart because everything comes out of your heart. That's the issue here in Mark 7. Do you have a new heart?

Spiritually, we're all sinners. We're all unclean. The question becomes, what will we do about that? Will it be law keeping that saves us? Will it be just being better than somebody else that saves us?

Does God grant on the curve and we just need to be better than most? Is that what saves us? And here is the message of Mark 7. External activity without internal purity still leads to eternal separation.

External activity without internal heart purity still leads to eternal separation.

Your heart must be changed. And that happens by the grace of the Lord through the preaching of the gospel as you believe in who Christ is and repent and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.

And He saves you and gives you a new heart. He regenerates you and then we take what He's done inside of us and we live it out.

That's how a Christian lives. In Mark 7, the religious leaders want to worry about the outside. Jesus says the heart of the matter is always your heart.

God, if you don't know Christ as your Savior today, would you call on Him to give you a new heart, to change you from the inside out?

Would you repent and believe in Him and allow Him to change you and give you a new heart?

our Lord, that is our prayer today, that we would believe, that we would repent, that our worship would first be inward from a pure heart and then we would live it out in obedience.

In the name of Christ we pray. Amen. Before you're dismissed, I've asked Joy to come and share a brief recap from this weekend of D-Now. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.