A Heart Disease

Transcript

Welcome to this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. We hope this message inspires you, roots you down deep into the Lord, into His Word, and may His Spirit be your guide as you enjoy this teaching. Thanks for joining us. Here’s the message. Well this morning’s scripture text comes from Mark chapter 7, verses 14 through 23.

And he, that is Jesus the Christ, 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?

— Mark 7

(ESV)

The Controversial Teaching

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

— Mark 7

(ESV)

This Trinity Church is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Well our passage this morning picks right back up where we left off last week. And so just to help give a bit of context, if you remember, we looked at this conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders. The Pharisees and the scribes had teamed up to land an accusation against Jesus and his disciples. And through this kind of formal or thorough investigation, the only thing they could come

up with was that the disciples were eating with unclean hands. And so Jesus responds to the religious leaders, not by addressing the issue of unclean hands, but really by exposing the hypocrisy of their religious works. That their display of purity and righteousness was just that, a display. It was a showcase for the people, which meant that their worship was in vain. And finally, Jesus really begins to go in by revealing the toxicity of tradition when it’s placed above the authority of scripture. Well it’s here in our passage this morning where we see how Jesus, again, he’s so good at doing this. He actually uses the accusation, he exploits the accusation of the Pharisees to create this teaching moment for the crowd and for the disciples. Jesus uses this controversial conflict with the religious leaders to make a very controversial statement, a very controversial claim. Now at first glance, this passage might not seem very controversial.

It even seems a bit more biological than theological. But what we’ll see this morning, what I hope we’ll see is that this passage is extremely controversial. In fact, Jesus through this text will say some pretty radical and provocative things. Things that would be considered unheard of in a Jewish world. Now it’s important to know that when Jesus was confronted by these Pharisees and scribes that there was witnesses. There was a crowd of people who observed this showdown. So there was no doubt people in the crowd after seeing this conflict who would have been very confused. See the crowd would have known some of these issues concerning purity. The idea being that people can be defiled or people can be unclean. See this was indigenous to Jewish culture. So when Jesus sidesteps this accusation with the religious leaders, the crowd is kind of caught off guard because their entire religious framework is known for what defiles a person,

what makes a person unclean. And that’s what they understood universally as part of the Jewish religion. People learn that vicariously through observing the Pharisees and their religious traditions, which of course is what the Pharisees were so willing to do for the public. They saw the behavior and attitude of the Pharisees that when they came across unclean people how they would distance themselves from them, how they would avoid them at all cost to remain clean. See according to the logic of the Pharisees and scribes, what makes a person defiled or unclean or even corrupt comes from the outside. In their minds, uncleanness was contagious. They viewed sin and uncleanness as somewhat of an infectious disease, something that is spread and caught by infected or unclean people. See this was precisely why the Pharisees were separatists to begin with. They separated themselves from the rest of the world in an attempt to remain pure.

A Public Parable

They quarantined themselves from the uncleanness of society, but Jesus is not willing to leave the crowd with the Pharisees limited perspective of purity, so he decides to call the crowd to himself and teach them this most important spiritual truth. Now just to help us along this morning, in our passage there’s actually two scenes going on here. The first scene is Jesus addressing the crowd, which would include the disciples with this public parable, and then the second scene is Jesus addressing the disciples in this private conversation away from the crowd. And so we’ll begin with the first scene in verses 14 and 15 with the public parable. And he called the people to him again and said to them, hear me all of you and understand. So last week if you were following the conflict closely, you’ll remember Jesus did not really address the specific issue of uncleanness with the Pharisees.

Instead he addressed what was underneath. He addressed the issue of authority, that they were placing more stock in tradition than authority. But here in our text, Jesus actually takes on the issue of uncleanness and purity. So first, Jesus calls the crowd to himself. And just to be clear, this calling is actually more of a summons, there’s more weight to this calling. And this is not just Jesus saying to the crowd, hey guys, come here, I got something to tell you. This is something more authoritative. This is a summons. The same language we saw when Jesus first called his disciples to follow him is the same kind of call that’s happening here. It’s a summons by virtue of the seriousness and the substance of the content. So Jesus calls them to listen and to understand. Now the reason why Jesus says to listen and understand is because this would be a direct

response to the stubbornness of the Pharisees and the scribes. Because it’s obvious that these men heard what Jesus had to say, but they weren’t willing to listen. And there was no attempt to try and understand what Jesus had to say. No matter how plain, he made the truth. So Jesus says to the crowd, essentially, don’t be like the Pharisees and scribes who just hear the words that I’m saying. Pay close attention to it. Take it in and process it. Make it a priority to understand what I’m saying. See, there’s a sense of urgency and sobriety with this call. So he tells them, you ought to pay attention to it. And the reason for the summons is because Jesus views this issue as one of crucial importance. This is a point that must be completely understood because it has massive implications. And so now that he has captured the attention of the crowd, he says in verse 15, there’s

nothing outside of a person that by going into him can defile him. But the things that come out of a person are what defile him. So Jesus is saying here in the most simple and straightforward way, it’s not what you put in your body that makes you unclean. It’s what comes out of your body that makes you unclean. So there it is. That’s what Jesus gives them right there. Now that doesn’t sound like something crazy or crucial. So why does Jesus give this attention-grabbing summons if this is the extent of what Jesus had to say? If this was the seriousness, why does he do that? Well, to us, this would seem like not a big deal. What goes into the body, what comes out of the body. But to a Jew, this would have been an attention-grabbing statement. What Jesus has just said here at first listen would have sounded crazy to a first century

Jew. And it would have sounded as somewhat of a contradiction to the Old Testament. See there was a long Jewish history concerning what exactly it is that defiles a person. For centuries, one of the core distinctives of the Jewish religion, what it was that separated them from all other religions was this issue of what you could or could not eat. So for example, in Leviticus 11, God spoke to Moses and Aaron and told them what is acceptable to eat and the things that are not acceptable to eat. The whole chapter deals specifically with unclean and clean animals. Certain foods in the Old Testament law were considered off-limits and if you ate them then you would be considered unclean. In fact, Leviticus 11, 24 speaking about unclean animals says, by these you shall be clean. That means if you eat them, you’ll be unclean. So you can imagine how this could be perceived as a radical idea coming from Jesus.

How the crowd would have been shocked at this statement from Jesus. I mean, this would have rocked the religious framework of most of the people in the crowd. Their whole grid for understanding what makes you clean has to do with external factors. Moses specifically, the unclean things that you put in your body. What we’ll see later in this text is that this statement is so radical and it’s so different than what they were accustomed to that the crowd just can’t believe it. They actually can’t understand it. They don’t get it. And this is typically the case when it comes to parables. And see here is what we see, that this is one of humanity’s biggest problems. The inability to comprehend or understand the most basic spiritual truths without divine help. Without special revelation, nothing spiritual will really make any sense. In fact, if you listen to spiritual things without the aid of divine help, it will sound

Private Interpretation

ridiculous or foolish. It doesn’t matter how intelligent of a person is, how rational a person is, how many degrees that person might have. In order to process supernatural realities, you must have supernatural help. You need the spirit of God to make spiritual things understandable. First Corinthians 1 verse 21 says, for since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. So the crowd hears what Jesus has to say, but they don’t understand. And we see that in verses 17 through 19 with the private interpretation. And when he had entered the house and left the people, the disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, then are you also without understanding? So shortly after Jesus breaks away from the crowd and gets alone with his disciples, it’s

made clear by their question that even the disciples are a bit confused. And so they ask Jesus the meaning behind the parable. Now this is somewhat of a pattern for the disciples. We’ve seen this before in Mark’s gospel. If you remember in chapter four, verses 10 through 14 with the parable of the sower. And when he was alone, those around him with the 12 asked him about the parable. And he said to them, to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for those outside, everything is in parables so that they may indeed see, but not perceive and may indeed hear, but not understand lest they should turn and be forgiven. And he said to them, do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? So Jesus told them in Mark four, if you don’t understand this parable, you’re going to have

a hard time understanding other parables. You’re going to struggle. And that’s exactly what’s happening here. But just like in Mark four, when Jesus proceeded to explain the parable of the sower to his disciples, the exact same thing happens here. The disciples don’t understand. So they asked Jesus for clarity and Jesus helps them understand. Now just a side note, this exchange between Jesus and the disciples, this should really be an encouragement to you. This should really be a great encouragement to you that even those on the inside don’t quite understand fully the things of God, that even Christians still need divine help when it comes to understanding spiritual truths. This should be an encouragement to you so that you don’t feel like a second class Christian when you struggle to understand some of the things of God. Even the disciples didn’t get it. We need supernatural help.

We need it. This is why we must be a dependent and prayerful people constantly asking for the spirit to help us to understand these truths. The posture we must take every single time you read your Bible is, Lord, help me understand this. The posture we must take every time God’s word is preached is dependence. God, help us to understand what’s in your word if you intend for us to know anything. James one five says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. The dependent disciples ask for clarity, and Jesus generously gives them understanding. We see that in the second half of verse 18. Jesus reiterates the parable that confused the crowd and the disciples, and then he gives them a comprehensive interpretation of the parable. He says, 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, thus he declared all foods clean. See, the point Jesus is making here is that since the heart is the very center or essence of a person, then unclean food that goes into your body wouldn’t be what defiles you. Because the food goes in, and it bypasses the heart completely. It goes straight to the stomach. In fact, the food, whether it’s clean or unclean, goes into the body, and it begins to break down. The body absorbs all the good from that food. The vitamins, the minerals, the carbs, the proteins, the fats, they all pass through the body and make their way into the cells and in all the bad parts of the food. All of the junk passes through the stomach and finally gets expelled from the body, and we all know how that works.

The idea here is that everything bad that goes into the body eventually makes its way out, and it never once touches the heart, which is the very center and essence of what makes you, you. So this would be a very provocative statement from Jesus to a culture who spent most of their time and effort following these dietary laws to stay clean. This would be considered outlandish. And then Mark here at the very end of verse 19 in this parenthesis gives us a bit of commentary on this narrative. It’s as if Mark is breaking the fourth wall in this movie and pointing his audience forward to the accomplishments of Christ. Mark is helping his Gentile audience understand that Jesus has changed everything, including these dietary laws. The kingdom of God has come with Jesus, which means that the law of food regulations, all that stuff that we read about in Leviticus, has come to an end.

The Heart Problem

Not because the law wasn’t important, not because the law was done away with, but because Jesus has fulfilled it. Through his ministry, Jesus provided cleansing and purity for the people, something that food or washing hands could never do. Matthew 5, 17 says, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. And that’s precisely what he did. That’s why Mark gives us this commentary on it. See, Jesus’s private conversations with his disciples is to help them understand that this issue was so much bigger than food. It’s not a food problem, and it’s not a washing of the hands problem. And so in verse 20 through 23, Jesus gets to the heart of the problem. Verse 20, and he said, what comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, comes evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft,

murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, evil, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. What Jesus does here is he gives his disciples, through this explanation, he gives them doctrine He gives them the doctrine of original sin, the doctrine of total depravity, showing them that the corruption and sin, these things are an outworking of the heart. Jesus is essentially saying that inside of you, at the very core of who you are, is a fountain of corruption pouring out from the heart, manifesting all kinds of evil and wickedness. This is the doctrine of original sin. This is the doctrine of total depravity, that everyone is born sinful and inclined to all kinds of evil, that man is born with a sick heart, bent towards sin and disobedience. Psalm 51 5 says, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Jeremiah 17 9 says, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. Who can understand it? See, here’s the point. If we are born with a precondition of sin, and the human heart is corrupt from birth, then sin is not contagious. It’s not contagious. It’s not something caught by your environment or by sinful people. It’s indigenous to you. Which means then, no matter how much you isolate from people, or how much you separate yourself from the world and its evil influences, the problem is not out there with those bad people who do bad things. The problem is inside your bad heart. It’s inside of you. And our bad hearts create new and innovative ways of expressing the badness that already exists there. J.C. Ryle says, We need no bad company to teach us, and no devil to tempt us in order to run into sin.

We have within us the beginning of every sin under heaven. So you understand what this means for us. It means that you don’t have to be afraid of the people of Portland. As sinful as they are, you don’t need to worry about catching their sin. Their paganism, the paganism of Portland won’t somehow, by virtue of proximity, make its way into your hearts. Listen, it’s already there. The paganism is already there in your heart. This is why you don’t need to run away from the world, or hide from the world with fear that we’ll end up like the world. A quarantine won’t work when it comes to the issue of sin, because we’ve been infected with this disease since birth. Yes, we are to use wisdom and discernment as we move through this world, and yes, we are to flee from the influence of sin, but we are called not to run from the world, but

to live in the world as salt and light without the fear of catching this disease. Because A, we’ve already got it, and B, we uniquely have the antidote through Jesus Christ. So you start to see why Jesus has made this such an important issue, why he was so fierce with the Pharisees and scribes, because if you believe that sin is a problem that is only out there with those unclean people, then you will be preoccupied with avoiding those kinds of unclean people, and never really get to the heart of the problem, which is your own heart problem. So then Jesus gives them this exhaustive and comprehensive list concerning the various expressions of sin that comes from the heart, the outworking of a sinful heart. I mean, just look at this list. Sexual immorality, stealing, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deception, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. This is a wide and diverse spectrum of sin that has in some way impacted all of us.

To varying degrees, these sins are what we express by nature. I mean, pick your poison. Which one of these sins most resonates with you? I look at this list, and I can for sure see which ones resonate with me. And if you look at this list, and you think to yourself, none of these are for me, then I would simply point you to the sins of pride and foolishness. That pretty much sums up that we all got these heart issues. Jesus is saying all of this comes from within your own hearts. Human beings are capable of doing the most vile and wicked things all on their own. No one taught you how to think evil thoughts. No one taught you how to steal. No one taught you how to lie. I see this with my kids. No one taught you how to lust or how to be prideful.

You do it instinctively. You do it intuitively because we came out of the womb bent this way, expressing all kinds of evil. Jesus is driving this point with his disciples to teach them and to teach us that no matter whether your hands are clean or whether you eat clean food or if you wear clean clothes or if you don’t have tattoos or if you were homeschooled or if you live in a gated community or even if you go to church and you use religious language, it doesn’t matter. Your hearts are dirty. You have a heart disease. No matter how hard you try to contain it on your own, no matter how hard you try to cure it using your own religious methods, it will only continue to spread. This disease is so pervasive and so prevalent that it will ultimately destroy you. Sin leads to death.

And listen, the disease of sin, it not only impacts you. There are also side effects of your specific sin that will push its way out into our world. Sin is not contagious, but there are harmful side effects. Listen, sin affects everyone around you. Just take sexual immorality, for example. It doesn’t just impact you, it impacts everyone. If you’re not married, it affects the person you’ve sinned against sexually. Even if you say it’s been consensual, you’re still hurting that person. You’re stealing from that person something that is not yours to take, and not to mention the insecurity issues and the shame that happens from that sin. It affects everyone around you. And let’s say you are married. Well sexual immorality impacts more than just yourself. It fractures families. It crushes spouses. It leads to scarred and broken children, which creates a context of fatherlessness, which then creates all kinds of problems with addiction, which impacts our communities because it tends

The Heart Transplant

to perpetuate brokenness, violence, and lawlessness. See it’s way bigger of an issue than what you think it is in the moment. So don’t try to reason away your conscience because you think that your sin is not really hurting anyone. It’s only impacting me. No one really knows about my issue of pornography. It’s not really impacting anybody else. The heart disease has such a large and wide reach concerning its side effects, and so you need to think about that whenever you attempt to minimize or privatize your sin. We have a heart problem, and it’s a problem that we cannot fix on our own. No amount of religious work, no karma, not psychology, not counseling, not more education, and not with the deconstruction of corrupt institutions. The only thing that will work is a heart transplant. We need a new heart. And here is the beauty of the gospel.

Through Jesus’s broken body and through his shed blood, we are made clean. He gives us new hearts that change us from the inside out. See the cure for this deadly disease is Christ himself. Jesus is the only one who can make us pure. Jesus is the only one who can clean our dirty hearts. First John tells us that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness. See it’s not the food. It’s not touching people or things. It’s the blood of Jesus. We need a heart transplant with a blood transfusion. We need new hearts from Jesus that will no longer pump this massive amount of sin but will begin to pump out righteousness. Second Corinthians 5.21 says, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And this is not just new hearts that we receive from Jesus.

It’s a new spirit. Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit which dwells within us and changes us from the inside out. It changes the way we think, the way we feel, and the way we interact with each other, the way we behave. Ezekiel 36.25 and 26 says,

I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your unrighteousness and from all your idols I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

— Ezekiel 36

(ESV)

This is the great exchange. Our bad hearts are exchanged for new hearts. Our unrighteousness for Christ’s righteousness. Our corrupt nature for the Holy Spirit. This is the doctrine of regeneration. This verse is loaded with doctrine that God gives us new hearts and new life through Jesus

Christ. We are the recipients of such a marvelous gift from God. I mean, think about that list of sins. That was you. At one time, you and I were dominated by those sins. Defined by those sins, hopeless and dead because of those sins. When I hear that list, I can’t help but be reminded of 1 Corinthians chapter 6. It says,

Do you not know that unrighteousness will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexual immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. But such were some of you. Such were some of you but you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.

— 1 Corinthians 6

(ESV)

This was us. This was us.

We were by nature bent against God and His righteousness until we received this free gift of grace. Just think about that for a moment. You have been given such a marvelous gift of God’s grace. He has freed us from the shackles of those sins. That should induce in you worship, gratitude because you didn’t do anything. He did that for you. It was a gift from God. You weren’t smart enough. You weren’t pretty enough. You definitely weren’t religious enough to earn it. Jesus did all the work to earn it for you. And so I can’t help but ask the question, have you received this free gift of grace? Have you trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins? Have you received a new heart? Where else are you going to go for that? Where else are you going to go to deal with your heart disease?

Where else are you going to go to fix your heart problems? You won’t find a cure for this disease of sin anywhere else. Again, good works, karma, social activism, political activism, none of those things will work. They’re only treating symptoms. They will never really get to the heart of the problem. You need to be rescued. You need to be resuscitated. You need to be redeemed. And it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. It doesn’t matter how many of the sins in that list you’ve committed. You are not too far gone from the grip of God’s grace. If you want a new heart, you can have it this morning. You don’t have to do anything to receive this gift from God. You don’t have to clean yourself up. He’ll do that for you with his blood. Just ask Jesus to help you understand. Ask Jesus to help you know the truth.

Just ask Jesus to give you a new heart and he will do it. Trust and believe in Jesus and he will forgive that long list of sins. He will save you from the sin that resides in your heart and all of the side effects that ultimately will kill you. He will save you from the judgment of those sins and he will make you clean. Trust and believe in him and he will save you. Let’s pray. Our Father and our God, thank you for this passage because we are so prone to forget that we can stand before you on the merits of our goodness and our righteousness, our acts of good works. None of those things mean anything. We can only stand before you, a righteous and holy God, because you have done all the work necessary to make us righteous through Jesus Christ. We hide ourselves in the righteousness of God, which makes us acceptable before you.

Thank you for purchasing us through your own blood. Thank you for cleansing us by your blood. Thank you for redeeming us and giving us new hearts. Thank you for providing a way for us to be reconciled to the God who created us, the God who made us, and the God who is coming to make all things new. We pray, God, that you would continue to give us hearts and minds that are quick to listen and quick to understand the beauty of your glorious gospel. We pray all these things in his might. Thanks for joining us for this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. If you’d like to learn more about us, you can visit our website at www.trinityportland.com.