THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
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prca.orgDear radio friends,
There is a danger that threatens the members of the church no
matter in what time in history they might live.
This danger is easily summarized in one word: formalism.
Formalism is mere external adherence to a certain set of doctrines,
codes, and traditions prescribed by a particular church. It is a careful following after the rules and
customs that a church deems necessary to live a Christian life, but it is
following these prescribed practices of a church with the thought that keeping these
things in themselves constitutes true faith and
worship. When one is guilty of
formalism, he believes that he is fulfilling what God requires of him simply by
following externally what his church says.
But this is not
true service of God. It is not pure
religion and undefiled. And this is what
Jesus is teaching us in the passage that we are going to be considering
today. Formalism is really nothing more
than Phariseeism.
It places emphasis on the outward deeds of the law and says nothing
about the inner disposition of the heart.
And the point our Savior made was that God does not look on the outside,
to see the things that we do there. Men
do that, but God does not. He looks at
the heart and at what is going on in there.
Is there in us an awareness of sin in the inward parts? Do we know that sin is not simply in the
outward deed but in the heart? Do we
know, too, that true service of God is an inner act of deep love and filial
fear for Him? That is the point that we
are going to consider today.
And that is what
faced Jesus when He was confronted by the Pharisees. They came to Jesus in an attempt to undermine
His integrity as a teacher of the people.
So they asked Him the question:
“Why do your disciples eat without washing their hands? Evidently you do not teach them what is the tradition of the church. You’re not much of a teacher. You’re not a very good person if you allow
your disciples to do something that is against the tradition of the elders.”
When the Pharisees
brought this accusation against Jesus, He was given opportunity to teach the
truth that we are going to consider today:
the heart is what defiles the man.
We read in
Matthew 15:10, 11:
“And he [that is, Jesus]
called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: Not that which goeth
into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh
out of the mouth, this defileth a man.” Later on, His disciples came and asked Jesus
about this parable that He spoke. We
read in verse 15: “Then answered Peter
and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable.” And here was the answer that Jesus gave in
verses 16-20: “Are ye also yet without
understanding? Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth
in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out
into the draught? But those things which
proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the
man. For out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These
are the things which defile a man: but
to eat with unwashen hands defileth
not a man.”
That is the
instruction that Jesus gave to His disciples, and gives to the church
today.
Though the
Pharisees understood what Jesus was talking about and were offended by it, the
disciples of Jesus did not seem to pick up the obvious meaning. And for that reason Jesus had to explain to
them what He said in verse 11: “Not that
which goeth into the mouth defileth
a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth
a man.” He explains that to them by
saying to them. “Listen. Whatever enters in at the mouth goes into the belly and is cast
out into the draught,” or, literally, into the drain, “but those things that
proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the heart, and they defile a
man.”
In these verses we
are taught that what a man puts into his mouth in order to eat cannot defile a
man’s heart and soul. Food cannot
pollute or corrupt a person from a spiritual point of view. It does not make a man evil if he eats, say,
beef, or a granola bar, or whatever. What
a man eats simply goes into his belly, is digested, and is cast out into the
drain. In reality, Jesus’ language is
much more graphic: “It is excreted into
the toilet,” Jesus says. “And it is
taken away.”
His point is well
taken. Food cannot defile the heart or
the soul of a man. The only thing it can
defile is our body. What, in reality,
pollutes a man from a spiritual point of view is that which comes out of a
man’s heart or mouth—that is, that which is first of all conceived in his heart
and only afterwards is expressed with his mouth. Corruption, or evil, is not physical. It is moral; it is spiritual. It never comes into the mouth from without,
but is in the heart already and comes to expression with the mouth.
The explanation of
this parable Jesus gives in the last two verses in this passage: verses 19, 20: “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders…. These are the things which
defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a
man.”
Jesus was making
direct reference to the charge that the Pharisees had leveled against Him,
namely, that His disciples had eaten food without first washing their
hands. This was considered, by tradition
of the elders, a violation of the law.
After all, one may have touched or handled, in the marketplace or
somewhere, something that had been touched previously by a Gentile. This would render one’s hands spiritually
unclean, they said. If, then, he touched
food with unclean hands and put that food into his mouth, it would “defile” him.
Thus Jesus uses
this tradition of the Pharisees to make plain that sin is a matter of the heart
and not simply external actions.
The “heart” here in verse 19 does not of course refer to the physical
heart that beats within our breasts. The
Bible, in many different places, speaks of the heart as the spiritual core or
center of a man’s being. In Greek and
Roman thought, the heart was considered to be that out of which proceeded all thoughts, emotions, and so on. But the Bible takes it one step farther and
says that the heart is the source of morality and spirituality. It is the life-source of our spiritual
self. And, therefore, it is that within
man that determines whether he will do good or evil. If the heart is corrupt and depraved, it will
produce depraved thoughts and desires.
Likewise, the opposite is true.
If the heart is good it will produce good thoughts and desires. And these, in turn, will come out in our
words and actions.
Jesus’ point is
this: the heart of a man is not defiled
or polluted simply because he eats food with unwashed hands. Sin does not originate on the outside and go
in. It originates on the inside and
proceeds out. That is the point of the
examples that Jesus gives in verse 19. When a man murders, that murder is first of all conceived in his
heart. If a man commits adultery
and fornication, he is guilty first of all of the thoughts and desires in his
heart. The same is true with stealing or
lying, thefts, false witnesses, or blasphemies.
All proceed out of the evil thoughts and the evil intents of the heart,
before coming to manifestation in our lives.
Now, we could stop
at this point, with the simple instruction of this parable. But to do so, I believe, would not do total
justice to the point of the parable.
Jesus wants us to look at our hearts not only to find sin but also to
examine the motives for our total worship and service of God in this
world.
You see, the
Pharisees were good at what they did.
They placed all the emphasis on an outward keeping of the laws and
traditions of the Jews. They knew and
studied God’s Word in the Old Testament.
All the traditions passed down to them from the fathers they could
recite to you well. In modern terms,
they knew the doctrines of the Scriptures and the teachings of the church. And they kept strictly all the traditions of
the church that, in their minds, followed from those doctrines. Their external lives were exemplary. No one would ever catch them eating food with
unwashed hands. And, if anyone would ask
them the “why” of this tradition, they probably had a pretty good answer on
their tongues, too. They made long
prayers in the marketplace; they wore the proper clothing; they paid tithes of
mint, anise, and cummin; they visited the
widows. And, negatively, they made sure
that they did not walk more than a Sabbath-day’s journey; that they would not
converse with a Gentile; that they would eat nothing unclean; and so on. The outward life and actions of the Pharisee
were, to the people, near to perfection. The Pharisee was looked upon with awe and
reverence by the common people. There
was no one quite so holy in their eyes as the Pharisee.
But the Pharisee,
Jesus points out, had a major fault. He
did not know what true worship of God was.
It may have looked like he did.
He appeared to be the most avid of worshipers of God. But all of his worship was in external rites
and customs and laws. It really had
nothing to do with the heart. The “why”
of worship was not an issue. Just so one did what was required of him by
the church—that was all that was necessary.
Good deeds were external in character.
If I did something externally, even though my heart, that is, my
spiritual desire, was not in it, it was a good deed. And it was felt that it pleased God. My heart could be far, far from God. But so long as I lived a good, moral life, I
could be assured that I was a child of God.
Evil
deeds in my life—same thing. If I
did something contrary to custom or tradition, even if my heart was right with
God, as was the disciples’, nevertheless, it would be an evil deed. Good and evil was not a matter of the heart,
it was only a matter of external works.
That was the sin of
the Pharisees. That was the sin that
Jesus attacked in this parable. And that
is the sin that threatens the church of all ages. We, today, are not exempt from this threat
either. How easy it is to judge our own
Christianity on the basis of our outward deeds, rather than what we see in our
hearts. How easy it becomes to place the
emphasis on externals and think nothing of worshiping God from the heart.
That comes to
manifestation in a couple of different ways today. First of all, it comes to manifestation in
what is known as legalism. There are
those in the church who insist that the best way of keeping sin out of the
church and out of the lives of God’s people is by passing all kinds of
laws. This, in their mind, will force
the people to live a holy life. So they
come up with this whole system of traditions by which they really bind the
lives of God’s people. Nothing is left
to freedom in the life of the child of God.
In reality, that is Phariseeism. People can walk according to all kinds of
rigid laws, and their hearts are not necessarily right with God.
However, obedience to
God on the one hand, and sin on the other hand,
proceed out of the heart. We ought to
know that. External laws cannot touch
the heart. Only the preaching of Christ
crucified and saved by grace touches the heart.
Now, that is the
one side of the coin: legalism. The other side of the coin is that this
adherence to outward traditions can result in licentiousness, that is to say, a
total disregard for strict rules or for correctness. Often times
licentiousness shows itself in people who refuse to strive after God in their
lives. Oh, they will follow all of those
laws, and they will follow all of those little traditions, but that is all that
is necessary, they think, in their lives.
For the rest of their lives, they are free to go out and do what they
want to do. They can live openly in sin
and, so long as they have fulfilled the outward customs and traditions of the
church, they need not feel guilty. After
all, they think, we’re doing those good external deeds that are required of us,
so we can walk in the way of sin all we want and, well, the good deeds will
overcome the evil deeds in our life.
Thus you have two
extremes that come out of that kind of attitude. Both of these are guilty of the sin of Phariseeism:
following prescribed rules but not striving to worship God from the
heart. True worship of God is found in
the proper attitude of the heart with God.
It is the earnest attempt of that heart to be holy as God is holy. It is a heart that desires to try in every
way conceivable to please God, even if there is not some rule that covers a
certain area of life.
On the other hand,
sin is when the heart follows the dictates of the corrupt nature within us, a
nature that is always attempting to transgress the limits of God’s Word. Sin is not simply a violation of a church
practice or tradition or a doctrine of Scripture in the outward deed. Sin flows out of a corrupt heart that would
always seek to do what we want to do rather than what God wants us to do.
We have heard now
of this dangerous threat to our own spiritual well-being as believers. Now the command of Jesus comes to us loudly
and clearly in verse 10: “Hear and
understand.” We ought not to hear Jesus
say to us, as He did to His disciples in verses 16 and 17: “Are ye also yet without understanding? Do not ye yet understand?” We are called upon to pay attention, to wake
up and take note of what He says. That
is the force of the word “hear” in verse 10.
Open your spiritual ears, so that you do not simply hear these words
spoken, without hearing them in the spiritual sense and taking note of
them. Understand them, Jesus says. Understand them with a heart of faith. That is our calling as God’s people in this
world.
The Pharisees knew
what Jesus was speaking of. They caught
on before Jesus’ own disciples did. And
yet, they did not hear and understand what Jesus was teaching. Jesus explains why this is true of the
Pharisees and why it is yet true of many today. “It is not given unto them to know,” He says in
Matthew 11:25.
“It is not given unto them to know the things
of the kingdom of heaven. Unto you it is
given.” In other words, what Jesus is
teaching in the text before us today fell on dead hearts, unbelieving hearts,
when it fell on the hearts of the Pharisees.
The
Pharisees unbelieving? Come
on! That cannot be true. They did all kinds of good works. Certainly they could not be labeled as
unbelievers. They were the leaders of
the church, after all. But listen to what Jesus says of the Pharisees in verse 8 of
Matthew 15:
“This people draweth
nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with
their lips; but their heart is far from me.”
The Pharisees were whitewashed sepulchers, looking good on the outside,
but within, Jesus says, they were far, far from God. Their hearts were darkened in unbelief, and
no matter what Jesus now told them, they would not change their ways.
That must not be
true of us who hear what Jesus says to us today. We must hear and understand. That makes us think twice, does it not? Why do we follow the doctrines, the
traditions of the church? Why are we so
convinced that they are right? Do we
follow all these things because, well, we were taught to do them? Do we follow them because, well, the church
says we have to follow them? Do we
follow them because by following them it makes our religion easy—a religion
that consists in outward actions and yet does not even touch the inner
disposition of our hearts? Do we really
think that mere, external conformity to the things of our churches will save
us? Think again! Hear and understand.
Let the Spirit of
Christ dwell in you richly. When that
Spirit dwells in our hearts, He opens our eyes to the things of the kingdom of
heaven and we do not look any longer at our external actions. We do not look at long prayers. We do not look to see if we have attended
church faithfully or not. Even though
these are requirements of us, we do not look to see if we have followed to a
“t” the traditions of our churches. But
we look at our hearts and we examine what is in them. Why do we perform these things? Do we do it out of a love for God and the neighbor,
or simply out of custom and habit, blindly following after what men tell us we
have to do, without even examining whether these outward traditions flow out of
a heart that loves God and loves the neighbor?
Even those who have
been given the truth of God’s Word must examine themselves as to whether they
do these things in their life out of custom and habit. Look deeply into your heart. What do you find lurking in the inner
recesses of your own heart? Is there
hatred, loathing for a brother or sister in the church? Then there is murder in us. Is there lust after another man or woman in
our hearts? Then we have committed
adultery there. Is there greed or
covetousness for what another has? Then
we have stolen. Do we think evil of
another? Then we are false witnesses and
out of us comes blasphemies.
What do we confess
concerning ourselves? I’m a sinner. And ultimately I tell myself, “I need the
cross of Jesus Christ and I need the salvation that He has earned for me
there!” We need that. We may not think that we are sufficient in
ourselves because we have kept well enough the deeds of the law. Christ commands us: “Hear, understand, examine yourselves! Except your righteousness exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven” (
Matt. 5).
To
understand that is to know what the true, humble service and worship of God is
in our lives. And only then will we come
to God with a true knowledge of our need for Jesus Christ. We need Christ. We know that because we know our hearts. And we know that out of our hearts proceed
evil thoughts and desires. Even our
righteous-nesses, the things that we might consider good, are as filthy rags,
Isaiah tells us.
With that knowledge
we come before God on bended knee and we look to Him for deliverance. He gives that only in the cross of Jesus
Christ. By His blood alone we are
redeemed from evil—from the very evil and sin that plagues our hearts and comes
out at the mouth.
We look, therefore,
to the cross of our Savior. We cling to
Him. We find comfort and victory over
our sin in Him. From the heart, true
worship of God will flow, and in that way we will glorify the name of our
God. Hear and understand. Then we will draw nigh unto God not only with
our lips but with our hearts and souls, too.
God give us hearts that love and obey Him!