We have sinful hearts but Jesus can rescue us

Very few of us like to get called out on our sin and mistakes.

Most of us get defensive when we are.

Some of us don’t get defensive; because we hardly ever believe we are in the wrong.

All of us are good at making excuses and justifying our mistakes and sin.

Some of us are sensitive enough to know that we make too many excuses, so we get good at giving token acknowledgements of being wrong in things that are of almost no concern.

It is all a sign of insecurity and exposes our propensity to create a façade around us that pretends we are more than what we are.

It is also a sign that we don’t understand the Bible very well about the reality of how much sin affects our hearts and minds even if we are saved.

One interesting excuse I hear fairly often is, “I don’t know why I did that. I don’t know where that came from. It’s just not me!”

Which usually ends up with us blaming something or someone else for why we did what we did.

In Mark 7 Jesus said to His disciples, “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come – sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

What we do and say is what we are. We may have been able to keep it hidden in our hearts but now it has found a way to come out.

When Jesus says this, He is not being mean, He is getting rid of confusion and lovingly providing us with a true diagnosis of our hearts and then a way to bring about healing.

And so, in the bigger passage that we are looking at this morning Mark 7: 1 – 30 we will see that all people have sinful hearts, but Jesus can rescue people with sinful hearts

(Pray)

This passage is also Jesus explaining why people don’t get who He is and what He is doing.

Whether we are talking about Pharisees who don’t get it and reject Jesus with hostility … or the disciples who don’t get it but stay with Jesus.

This explains that and what can be done about it.

Hearts far from God (7: 1 – 13)

The Pharisees and teachers of the law, who were always looking for reasons to discredit Jesus and His followers (probably also to justify what they were planning to do to Jesus), notice that some of the disciples hadn’t washed their hands before eating.

They ask Jesus why? Not as a matter of hygiene but as a matter of ritual purity as prescribed by something called “the tradition of the elders”.

These leaders believed that by not washing their hands, in accordance with “the tradition of the elders”, the disciples were defiling themselves spiritually.

And reading between the lines, they are criticising Jesus for letting this happen.

Jesus responds by calling them hypocrites and saying that Isaiah prophesied about their hypocrisy 6 – 7.

What is their hypocrisy?

They think they are honouring God and worshipping Him with their strict observance of “the traditions of the elders”. But all that shows is how far their hearts are from God.

Why?

“The traditions of the elders” was a man-made list of rules made by Jewish leaders to be obeyed. The problem is that not only were they not in God’s Word but many of the rules were at odds with what God had clearly said in His Word.

And so, to use “the traditions of the elders”, man-made anti-Scripture rules, and think they are honouring God and worshiping Him is to reveal just how far their hearts were from God.

To use “the traditions of the elders”, man-made anti-Scripture rules to criticise (reject) Jesus and His followers shows just how far their hearts were from God.

And so, before Jesus deals with the washing hands rule, they had a go at Him and His disciples for, He gives another example of how terrible “the traditions of the elders” could be 8 – 13.

God had told His people in His Word that they were always to honour their parents. And it was such a serious thing that if they dishonoured them, they would (according the law God had given) be put to death.

Obviously, part of honouring their parents would be helping and caring for them materially. And that is right.

The Pharisees and teachers of the law had made up a rule in “the tradition of the elders” called “Corban” which means “devoted to God”.

This rule said that if you didn’t want to give material help to your parents (but also didn’t want to be charged with dishonouring your parents for obvious reasons) you could declare Corban over whatever material help was supposed to go to your parents, and then it would go to the temple treasury instead. And this was deemed acceptable.

This directly goes against God’s will.

And evidently (according to Jesus on verse 13) they did this with a lot of other things. And they want to have a go at Jesus?

Their hearts are far from God. It is hypocrisy of the highest order.

And this was the same kind of problem with the ceremonial handwashing in “the tradition of the elders” that was being hurled at Jesus and some of His followers.

Firstly, it was not in the OT (and if God had thought it that important it would have been).

And secondly it was a false understanding about what defiles people, what makes them sinful and do sinful things and what can make them pure again.

The handwashing ritual assumed that what comes from outside of people defiles them … an outside-in problem.

But Jesus says that is not true. People don’t have an outside-in problem but …

An inside-out problem

Which is exactly what Jesus says to the crowd in 7: 14 – 16.

Jesus will explain more shortly, but in what Mark calls a parable Jesus is saying to the crowd that these leaders in insisting that Jesus’ disciples are defiled by not having cleaned their hands is nonsense.

It is not dirt on the hands that gets on food and goes into the body that defiles them spiritually … it is something defiled that is already in them that when it comes out defiles them even more.

The disciples don’t get it and ask for an explanation.

And so, Jesus explains that the problem with everyone is that they have…

Evil hearts (7: 17 – 23)

The disciples are dull, but Jesus is gracious, and patient and He explains the parable to them.

Dirt on the hands, which gets onto the food, goes into the stomach and eventually out of the body can’t defile anyone spiritually because it passes through the body physically and that’s that.

It is the spiritually sinful hearts that we are born with that defile us and causes us to do evil that defiles us even more. Evil being anything that is contrary to God’s will.

Nothing outside of you makes you sin; it is your sinful heart that makes you sin (look at list again). 

And the leaders by creating these false rules and regulations and teaching people to follow them and even attacking Jesus and His followers with them … were rejecting God word and truth and hiding it under their false rules and regulations.

And they still think they are honouring God, worshipping Him, doing His work.

But before we jump all over them, we might need to evaluate ourselves and see if there is anything in the way we think, speak and live that causes us to disobey God’s Word, while we also think we are still honouring and worshipping Him.

Bit of a downer to hear this about ourselves isn’t it? For sure! I wish I could have preached a more positive message as my last message before Sabbatical.

But actually, this is the glorious thing about teaching through books of the Bible.

It forces us to deal publicly with all of God’s Word and not be like the Jewish leaders who made plans to get rid of the parts they didn’t like.

Also, we need the downer of Jesus’ bad news about our sinful, evil hearts because only when we understand the bad news, do we see the need for the good, glorious news that…

Jesus can rescue anyone with an evil heart (7: 24 – 30)

These verses also fit neatly into the next section of Mark when Jesus moves from dealing with the Jews to dealing with the Gentiles. And that is fine. We will look at it like that too.

But they are also a wonderful demonstration of the truth that Jesus can rescue us from our evil hearts.

He rescues a Gentile woman’s daughter by casting an evil demon out of her. He can deal with evil; He can change evil hearts.

It also shows us that Jesus cares for all sinners, Jews and Gentiles, who are equally in need of rescue.

Only He can rescue us and change our evil hearts into hearts that hate evil and fight evil and love God. Which is the sign that God has done something in our hearts.

But still it is hectic on the 26^th of May 2019 in this hall to hear about our defiled hearts

What makes it seem even worse is that we have been fed the nonsense of this world that our hearts are ok. They may have a few smudges on them but are ok and we can follow our hearts.

How different from how Jesus sees the natural condition of our hearts in this passage. And how in Jeremiah 17: 9 God says that, “The heart is deceitful above all things”.

It is hectic, but it is a correct diagnosis of our natural condition. And like any true diagnosis of a serious condition it is hectic.

But in this case, because we have exposed you to God’s true diagnosis, you get the right treatment.

The script says … Great news! Jesus is a Rescuer and Healer of hearts. He is the best and doing non-invasive heart transplants with brand new hearts for free, He paid what it costs.

All you need to do, like the Gentile mother, with sincere faith, go to the Rescuer and Healer and ask for your rescue and healing and He will give it to you with live and at no cost to you!

How awesome! And this offer is for all people with sinful hearts who know it, don’t make excuses for it … no matter how bad the condition of their hearts.

And this hope is not only for salvation up front but also for ongoing purification from residual sin that still defiles us.

Which is why these words are so amazing in 1 John 1: 9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” No water needed.

And it is in this way then we can genuinely honour and worship Him with our thinking, talking and action and with ever decreasing hypocrisy.

Questions:

1. What does Jesus say about why we sin and do terrible things?
2. What is Jesus’ solution to that problem?
3. How do the Pharisees differ from Jesus on those two questions?
4. Why is Jesus’ view better for us?
5. How would you share the answers to questions 1, 2 and 4 with:
   1. A friend who is not a Christian?
   2. A friend who is a Christian?