A Matter of the Heart

Transcript

GRM 515
1/26/1997
A Matter of the Heart
Matthew 15: 1-20
Gil Rugh

I wanted to pick up in the book of Matthew 15. This is a section that will really form a background for our study in the book of Colossians even though we won’t get to this material particularly until we get into chapter 2 of the book of Colossians. Why, I think you’ll see and time permitting we will read a verse of two from the book of Colossians, as we conclude this study.

Chapter 15, the opening verses where we’re going to look, and we’re really going to look over the first 20 verses of this chapter. It has to do with the issue of tradition and the word of God. Jesus is confronting the religious leaders of His day and dealing with their religious traditions, the tragedy of those religious traditions and the disastrous effects those traditions have had upon the word of God. As we look at this portion, we want to keep before us, that not only the Jews have traditions, but we all develop traditions. Traditions are not bad in and of themselves, but they have the potential to become very damaging. When we get into the religious realm, the area of spiritual things, things that become tradition, things that we do regularly over time have a way of so fixing themselves in our thinking that we sometimes blur them with the word of God. We can fail to sort out what is biblical and what is required and what is simply something that is part of our tradition. The worst part of it, over time our traditions can begin to cancel out the word of God. That’s the process of dying spiritually as a group where we’re left with our traditions, but those traditions are in opposition to the word of God. That’s where the Jews were in a number of areas.

The chapter begins, then some Pharisees and Scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem. Now Jesus is in the northern part of Palestine, up by the Sea of Galilee. So, these Scribes and Pharisees have made a special trip from Jerusalem to confront Christ and their desire is to discredit Him before the people. The Pharisees we’re familiar with, they are the conservative party in Israel in contrast to the Sadducees. The Pharisees believed in the supernatural, believed in life after death and so on. Whereas the Sadducees were the liberal party and didn’t believe in those things at all. The Scribes are connected with the Pharisees. The Scribes are the experts in the Mosaic Law and in interpreting Mosaic Law. The Pharisees formed their practices on the basis of the interpretation of the Scribes. But there was much embellishment that went on with the scriptures. Often these things start out with good intentions. You know, we’re going to help be sure that the scripture is maintained so, we add to the scripture to preserve it. Some of that had gone on here.

They come to Jesus, and they say to Him in verse 2, “why do your disciples break the tradition of the Elders?” And the tradition of the Elders would be the opinions, the practices that had been handed down by the leaders in Israel over time. The particular tradition that’s being dealt with, they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. Now, in the Old Testament there is ceremonial washings, ritual washings. Now, these had been greatly embellished and added to. Washing your hands before you ate every time may be good hygiene, but it was not required in the Mosaic Law. But you know, you add to it, if it’s good to wash your hands ritually, ceremonially in certain cases wouldn’t it be better to wash your hands in every case? And if you wash them in every case then you won’t miss one of those cases when you should of, but you forgot. So, they had built up a tradition of washing of the hands. In Jewish writings, you’re familiar with like the Talmud, the Mishnah, names you sometimes hear and see. These are books, whole books written of these elaborate Jewish traditions that became part of the very fiber of Israel.

Jesus answers their question with His own question in verse 3, “why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?” You note the parallel, if you underline in your bible or high light it, you should mark the first part of verse 2, “why do Your disciples break the tradition of the Elders?” The question in verse 3, “why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?” The response of Christ is very sharp and abrupt, and it draws attention to the focus. He accuses them of putting tradition above the word of God. Their tradition has placed them into the position of breaking the word of God. So you see, tradition has superseded God’s revelation.

He gives them an example, for God said, so here’s the word of God, honor your father and mother, he who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death. In the honoring of father and mother was more than just respect. I mean, this was a crucial matter, punishable by death. It meant seeing that they were cared for, provided for. Their needs were met, all involved in honoring your father and your mother. But their tradition had been developed. Verse 6, you say, whoever says to his father and mother, whatever I have that would help you, it has been given to God. He is not to honor his father and his mother. Now, you can see how this would go, well we want to put God above our family, even our parents. The Jews had developed tradition, you could declare your possessions as belonging to God. You were still free to use them, but you didn’t have to use them in the support of you parents. But you are allowed to use them for yourself, but since you declared them as devoted to God, you no longer were responsible to fulfill this commandment of using them to meet the needs of your parents. So, that tradition became a way of violating the clear commandment of God. Verse 6, “by this you invalidate the word of God for the sake of your tradition.” So, to obey their tradition, you had to disobey the word of God. Tradition becomes the authority for us. By this, you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

Roman Catholicism is clear on the subject of tradition, use them as an example because that’s their stated doctrine, the Council of Trent. This goes back centuries, but none of the doctrines of the Council of Trent have ever been repudiated in the Roman Catholic Church. In the Council of Trent, we are told that they, the traditions of the church, are to be held with the same highest affection and reverence as the Holy Scriptures. You see what they have done? Tradition is to be held on the same level as the scriptures. Then you add to that the church, and the church is the mediator of scripture and tradition. So, the church tells you what is binding. It is dogma that they have established. In the practice of the church, they don’t even have to try to support that from scripture. That is their tradition, and tradition holds the same place with scripture. And then you can add to that the dogmas that the church developed. You have the additional authority and the word of God gets undermined.

In practice, you know, even in protestant churches, you go to church, you go through a certain routine. We begin to associate that with worship. We might go to another church, and they may believe and teach the word of God, but because of the order of the way things are done, the style of what is done, they say, oh boy, you know, that just wasn’t a worship service to me. Part of it comes from our traditions, this is how we do it. You know, if we were going to change things here, and you came in next Sunday, and things had been reordered, and the whole order of service is changed, some people would go away and say, you know, they just ruined the worship. Well, I’d have to first ask, did what we do now, is it not biblical? But you know, in my mind, and I’m the same way. I develop the groove, and there’s nothing wrong with it, in and of itself, except I begin to associate that with what worship is. What I’ve done is move worship to the realm of the external. And these traditional things become primary. And that’s what happens in a church. As long as they go through the forms, the word of God is progressively given a smaller and smaller place. The people still “feel” like they’ve worshiped because they’ve gone through the same forms. Pretty soon all you have is the form. There is no real life, so no real worship that is going on.

Jesus is very harsh, very blunt in dealing with this. Keep in mind, now He’s dealing with the respected, religious leaders of His day, the Pharisees and the Scribes. They held the place of honor in the worship of Israel. And note what Jesus says to them in verse 7, “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you.” And He quotes from Isaiah 29:13, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines, the precepts of men.” Stinging indictment. He says, you are hypocrites, you are just like the Jews of Isaiah’s day, and he condemned them as God’s spokesman. They honor Me with their lips, they say all the right things, but “their hearts are far away from Me. In vain, do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.” You see what happens here? When worship is based on the teaching of men not the word of God, it’s vain worship. It’s worthless, it’s empty, it’s futile. What that does, so much of what is passed off as worship in churches, synagogues and so on today, it says it’s vain. I know, we today have an idea of respectability. You shouldn’t speak against other people’s worship. But the fact is, Jesus does it in a very stinging way and those who claim to be biblical, but are not worshiping biblically are hypocrites. It’s not the idea that God is pleased. I mentioned to the men, and I referred this morning to a book I’ve been reading, or read by a Roman Catholic, advocating Roman Catholic practices. He believes the practices of the Roman Catholic Church, such as the Eucharist, where the bread and the wine actually become the body and blood are absolutely essential. True worship is built around the sacrifices of the mass, it’s not built around the study of the word of God. He believes that in prayer, you go to God through Mary and the saints because it’s God’s intention to honor them. Well, these are all traditions, these are all doctrines taught by the church, but you don’t find those in the word of God. What happens in a system is worshiping within that framework, is empty worship, vain worship. But you know what? People are attracted to it, they are drawn to it. This man that I’m referring to, I told you was a Calvinist himself, would have claimed to be a believer.

Why are we drawn to this external form? There is something comforting, isn’t it? Reassuring about those old patterns? You know, we talk about it like your old slippers. You go home, you’ve been away from home. There’s something about home. You move to a new house, it doesn’t become your home for awhile. I have to get settled in. I have to get my furniture where I want it. I have to get the things hung on the walls. I have to get comfortable here all over again. I want to be careful, worship is not form. Worship comes out of the heart.

Remember, John 4:24, “those who worship God, must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” The true worship does not take place in the realm of the physical, it takes place in the realm of the spirit. And true worship must take place in accord with the truth, the word of God. So, there’s nothing wrong with having a place we come together to worship together. We just have to be careful that this does not become our worship center and we think this is where worship must occur. And the form that we have is true worship.

Jesus goes on to develop, verse 10, “Jesus called the crowd to Him. He said to them, hear and understand, it is not what enters the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.” Do you have that verse underlined in your bible? I hope you do. We have all kind of Christian diet programs that are based on a conflict with what Jesus says in verse 11. And we often tell people, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, you have to be careful what you put in it. Why? What I put in my mouth doesn’t defile my body. That’s what Jesus says here, isn’t it? It’s not what enters the mouth that defiles the body. I’m not saying that everything you put in your mouth is healthy, that’s a different issue. If you want to write a book on certain diets because certain diets you believe are more healthy than others, fine. Just don’t try to support it with scripture. Because the bible tells me what I put in my mouth doesn’t defile me as a person. Incidentally, that kills a lot of arguments of why you shouldn’t smoke because smoke defiles the temple. Well, I don’t think you should smoke, unless you’re wondering, I don’t, and so I’m not trying to build a defense. However, smoking does not defile a person. Now, there may be, if you smoke, it may defile you. Because if you’re doing it, then there are principles here that we don’t have time to get into. If you believe God would not have you do it, then it is defiling because you’re not doing it out of faith. But the point is, it’s not a physical action that defiles a person. And it’s not what you put in the mouth. This is where the Jews were.

What you eat, what you drink, how you wash your hands, all these things become the focus. Jesus said, it’s not what you put in your mouth that defiles a man. So, you don’t wash your hands when you eat. Again, we may have a hygiene issue here, but you don’t have a spiritual issue. Because if you eat with your hands not washed doesn’t defile you spiritually. What you put in your mouth does not defile you as a person. That means, if you eat oatmeal for breakfast, you’re no better or worse spiritually. If you eat a milky way for breakfast, spiritually you’re not defiled. It may not be the healthiest thing, but you know what we try to do? We try to bring this all in, and now you get Christian publications from certain book houses. What? Now they have their section on health and diet and it’s often tied together as though there was something more spiritual here. That’s just not the case. What you put in your mouth does not defile you as a person.

Well, this didn’t go over well. In our day, where your goal is not to offend anyone, Jesus would not have fit. Verse 12, the disciples came to him and said, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement? Do you think Jesus didn’t know, when he said you hypocrites, verse 7? That they would find that offensive? You know what they’re saying? We’re getting a little uncomfortable here. He answered and said, “every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant, shall be uprooted, let them alone, they are the blind guides of the blind.”

Back up a few pages to chapter 13 of Matthew, and beginning with verse 24 of Matthew 13, you have the parable of the wheat and the tares. Verse 24, “the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat.” They grow up, you have tares among the wheat. And the slaves say, should be go through and sort out the tares? No, wait until the harvest. And then at the harvest, he’ll send forth the reapers in verse 30, and he will gather the tares into bundles and burn them. That’s the idea, what we’re talking about over in chapter 15, “every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted.” These are not genuine plants. They have not been planted by God. A connection back in chapter 13 with the wheat and the tares. They are blind guides of the blind. They profess to know God, they profess to be genuine, they profess to tell you about God, they are blind guides of the blind. They don’t know where they’re going, and the people who follow them don’t know where they’re going. And if a blind man guides the blind man, both will fall into a pit.

You note verse 14 begins, “let them alone, literally very abrupt, leave them. He’s given us a command, leave them.” Let them alone, that’s literally here, it says as a command, “leave them.” The point is, that they’re to have nothing to do with them. They are to be separated from these false teachers and their influence. Just dot down Hosea 4:17, where Hosea, as God’s spokesman says, Ephraim, the northern kingdom is joined to idols. So, the instruction is given to Judah, let him alone, have nothing to do with him. Why? You don’t want to be corrupted and influenced by their false teaching and false doctrine. So, the blind guides of the blind here, are false religious leaders, Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’s day. The responsibility of the disciples is, don’t have anything to do with them, leave them.

That’s how we are to deal with false teachers and false teaching, have nothing to do with it. Now the church would be spared a great deal of heartache if we just listened to this. False teachers, leave them. Don’t have anything to do with them. Don’t submit yourself to their teaching. Sometimes we like to complicate the simple. Don’t have anything to do with false teachers. They are not going to help you, and if you follow after them, you’re only going to get into trouble. So, that means don’t listen to them on your radio. Don’t watch them on your television. Don’t have anything to do with them. You know what happens? You start listening to them and they sound sincere. They seem to have some good points. And pretty soon, what? I’m drawn in and I’m beginning to get confused. Leave them, that’s it. He didn’t say that these Pharisees and Sadducees never had anything good to say, well they would have had some correct things, but they are false teachers.

Now at this point, Peter speaks up and we’re going to get some clarification. Peter is the one to ask. Explain the parable to us, the parable is verse 11. “It’s not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth that defiles the man.” Peter says, can you explain that to us? There’s a rebuke here. Are you still lacking in understanding also? You mean you don’t understand yourselves yet? This ought to be clear to you. You ought to know this. Do you not understand that “everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated,” is He being clear? It’s a rather simple anatomy lesson. You put something in your mouth, it comes into your body, goes into the stomach and then is eventually passed out as waste. Ok. But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and those defile the man. You see the food that I eat, even unhealthy food, it never gets into my spiritual being. The immaterial part of me as a person, it only effects my physical body, it does not affect my spiritual man. That’s the point, when it’s taken into the mouth and ultimately passed out. Obviously nutrients are taken out of it and so on, but it never gets into the spiritual part of the person. So, it is not spiritually defiling in and of itself.

Keep in mind, this discussion started out with, should you wash your hands before you eat. The position of the Scribes and Pharisees is, you are ceremonially defiled if you don’t wash your hands. So, you’re spiritually defiled before God. Jesus says who? God never said that. What you put in your mouth doesn’t defile you, but what comes out of the mouth, what you say, what you speak, that reveals what is in your heart, in the immaterial part of you as a person. That is what is defiling. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulterers, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.” In other words, all kind of sinful activity comes out of the heart. Remember Jeremiah 17:9, “the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things.” The position of Jesus here, is that it is the fallen nature of man that is defiling. It’s revealed in our words, that’s why by our words we will be judged. We reveal what’s in us by what we say. We reveal something of our character in our words. That’s the point. So, they’ve got to reverse, it’s not what you’re putting in that’s defiling you, it’s what’s coming out of that mouth that is defiling you. Because out of that heart, that’s where sin originates, from within the person.

Remember the book of James tells us. Turn over to the book of James 1:14, “each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived it gives birth to sin, when sin is accomplished it brings forth death.” You see where it starts, in the lust, in the evil desire of my heart or mind, is the point. And then out of the conceiving of that lustful desire, I give expression to it, and I indulge in the action. The result then, the culmination is death. The wages of sin is death. But the origin of sin is within the person, it’s in me. That’s why the law was a spark to sin. It told me what not to do. I was told what not to do, now in my heart and mind I begin to think about that. I begin to think about that, pretty soon I end up, I indulge in that. That’s why it’s important what I put into my heart and mind, as far as what I think about, where I dwell.

What happens, man or a woman, they look at someone they’re not married to. They begin to have contact with them, they begin to think of how much they would enjoy spending more time with them. Pretty soon, they’re looking for the opportunity to spend more time with them. Pretty soon they’re looking for the opportunity to spend time in situations that lead to other things. Where did it start? The thought in the heart, that person is desirable to me. I would enjoy, what? The lust is developing. And the action is simply the culmination of what? What took place in the heart. That’s what Jesus is saying, there’s where the defilement is. The Jews hadn’t come to grips with this. They thought, well you wash your hands before you eat, there we are, we’re clean before God. What’s that got to do with anything? You have a heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things, and you’re worried about whether your hands are clean before you eat. They should have known this. I mean, that’s their scriptures, Jeremiah 17.

So, back in Matthew 15, Jesus says these are the things which defile the man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man. We have it together, it’s not the external things that defile. Now, again that’s not saying you ought to do a lot of these things. What it’s saying is, keep your focus on where defilement is, and what is spiritual and what is not.
Turn over to the book of Colossians 2, and I’ll pick up with verse 16, preparing you for where we’ll be going in Colossians. “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to festivals, new moon or sabbath day.” When we get into Colossians, the issue is there, people want to bring these things in and add it to Christianity. Certain things are acceptable to eat or to drink. Certain festivals days or sabbath days and so on. All added from the outside. These things are a mere shadow of what is to come, the substance belongs to Christ. Jump down to verse 20, “if you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, like do not handle, do not taste, do not touch which all refer to things destined to perish with the using.” The food, the drink, the things you touch, I mean they perish, they are used, they’re gone. In accordance with the commandments and teachings of men.

You note verse 23, “these are matters which have to be sure the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body.” So, those things “giving an appearance of” boy, this person really has spiritual insights and wisdom, in self made religion. No, the point here, this isn’t something that God has developed for the worship of Him, its something man has developed. The self-abasement, the severe treating of the body, as though that made you more spiritual. The depriving of the body. We’re coming up to Easter, we’ll have lent, and you give up something for lent. You deprive yourself, that’s more spiritual. Used to be, when we were in a more liberal protestant church, they were believing you should give up something for lent. I always tried to find something I wouldn’t mind giving up. No, they’d say, give up something you like. I think I gave up Ovaltine one year, that’s the only one I remember. What does that have to do with being more spiritual? I mean nothing. Severe treatment of the body, and we do, we admire people who discipline their bodies. We are to be disciplined. We ought to understand these external things to go with severe treatment of the body, that doesn’t make you more spiritual, like we see in some of the eastern religions in India and so on, where they will lay on beds of nails, or they won’t eat or they’ll hold their hands up in a certain position until the muscles atrophy and they can’t move that arm, so we do look at them and say, wow, that’s something that they will do but, it’s nothing. And you note, these are of no value against fleshly indulgence. That’s the trap we have to watch out for. This is of no help in avoiding the trap of the flesh. You can go through all these things, but they won’t enable you to be holy or more holy in the sense that God calls us to be holy. “They are of no value against fleshly indulgence.” We put up all these rules, all these regulations, we’re going to do all these things, but that doesn’t help you avoid the lusts of the flesh, indulging the flesh in its lust. That’s the trap of these external things.

Come back to Matthew. How does the church come all around full cycle? What Jesus said here then now, true spiritual reality is a matter of the heart. You have to deal with the heart. And until you’ve dealt with the heart, you haven’t delt with anything. What are all the crusades that so much of the church is involved in today? Political, socially and morally. Try to get people to do certain things and not do certain things. You understand these are of no value, no consequence. And they only are deluding to give an appearance, they don’t help you deal with things. I mean, it greaves my heart to watch people who are carrying a bible in one hand and a poster in the other, marching around trying to get people to stop sinning. I mean, have you never read Matthew 15? I’m serious, this is a matter of the heart. And if we haven’t delt with the issue of the heart of the spiritual condition of the person, we have done nothing. In fact, we have done worse than nothing. We have been hypocrites, encouraging people to do something that is a vain display of man made activity. The church has lost its way. We read this and say, yes that’s clear, that’s simple, yes, but look around, what is the church doing? It’s crusading in all these areas. We don’t really believe what Jesus said. In our own lives, we get caught up in this. We want to keep our focus where we are to be spiritually.

Now, with this instruction, don’t have anything to do with those who teach otherwise. It’s pretty narrow. But Jesus is narrow. Leave them, don’t have anything to do with them because their impact upon you will only be confusing, will ultimately only be corrupting. One other passage, 2 Corinthians 6:14, “do not be bound together with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness with fellowship has light with darkness” and so on. Down to verse 16, “I will dwell among them, walk among them, be their God. They’ll be my people.” Verse 17, “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord. And do not touch the unclean thing.” And in the context here, what are we talking about? Our involvement with the unbeliever. Not in the general discourse, and Paul made clear earlier in his writing to the Corinthians, when he said, you don’t associate with certain people, I don’t mean unbelievers. But our involvement with them and our joining with them in relationships, no. Chapter 7:1, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

Somewhere in its emphasis is what Jesus is saying in Matthew 14, understand what true spiritual life is. A true spiritual walk with God is. It has to do with the condition of the heart. First the heart has to be cleansed by the salvation of God. Then we walk in a spiritual relationship with God. We worship Him out of our spirit in accord with truth. In that context, we separate ourselves from those who teach otherwise. We leave them. We don’t get involved. How can I get involved with those who are on crusades to men about what they ought to be, by a series of laws and promises? A mixture that does not join in like-minded people in their doctrine. I cannot, I have to live in light of the passages we looked at in Matthew and Corinthians and Colossians and on we go.

Its important for us as a church to understand our traditions have not become sacred. We’re going to change some traditions this year. Remember, they are only traditions. Be careful we don’t change the truth of the word of God. Be careful we don’t veer or alter that stand. But if we change the order of service, don’t worry. If I get up Sunday morning and preach my sermon first, half of you will miss it. But other than that, the bible doesn’t say, sing first and preach later. So, we could preach first and sing later. So, those things, we change the times of the service from 10 o’clock to 12 o’clock, it may be less convenient, but it’s not a spiritual issue. And on we go with the things. Be careful we don’t slide down. Because what we’re in danger of doing if we do that is we raise the coming generation like the sonshine kids, thinking that it’s the external form that is really pleasing to God, really what is important. We want to constantly be modeling what really is significant is the condition of the heart and the authority of the word of God, for us in all that we do.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord, for the richness of Your grace. Thank You for all that You have provided for us in Christ. Thank You for spiritual reality. Thank You that Your salvation touches the heart. Your plan for us, in our walk with You, to mold and shape and bring up to the maturity that You want us to be. May we accept no substitutes. May we not be taken in by man made religion, human wisdom which is of no help in dealing with the flesh in its corruption. Thank You that in Christ, You have provided everything necessary for life and godliness. We pray in His name, Amen.