THE HEART IS WICKED (Mark 7:14-23)
INTRODUCTION:
A delegation of Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem had traveled to Galilee to observe and confront Jesus if they saw Him doing anything unlawful. They wanted to discredit Him in the eyes of the people, but ultimately, they wanted to eliminate Him. They thought they had Jesus trapped when they saw some of His disciples eating with unwashed hands. They approached Him and asked why His disciples did not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but ate bread with impure hands? Instead of answering their question directly, Jesus formally accused them of elevating the traditions of the elders over the commands of God written in the law of God. He showed by the prophet Isaiah that their legalism made them hypocrites. Then He went on to show them how they used the tradition of the elders to get around following God’s law as recorded by Moses.
Leaving this delegation that had come to discredit Him standing completely humiliated and wanting to do away with Jesus right then and there, Jesus called the crowd that had gathered around Him. He was about to tell them what truly makes one unclean, or impure, or defiled and what He was about to tell them was revolutionary. We are first going to hear the truth of defilement stated, and then the truth of defilement explained. Let’s pray before getting into God’s Word.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles this morning to Mark 7:14-23, our passage for today. Please, if you are able, stand in honor of the reading of the Word of God, and follow along as I read.
Mark 7:14-23,
“After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, ‘Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.’ When he had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples questioned Him about the parable. And He said to them, ‘Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?’ (Thus He declared all foods clean.) And He was saying, ‘That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.’ ” (Mark 7:14–23, NASB95)[1]
THE TRUTH OF DEFILEMENT STATED (Mark 7:14-16)
Jesus’ ministry in Galilee was drawing to a close, but even at the end the crowds seemed to grow whenever He was present. The religious leaders were jealous of His popularity and the fact that His message opposed the legalistic, self-righteous Judaism that they practiced and instructed the people to practice in their own lives, seeking to keep the traditions of the elders with its myriads of regulations and prohibitions. Jesus’ message spoke of freedom, the traditions of the elders was bondage. These verses take place right after Jesus had exposed the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and scribes. Jesus called the crowd that had gathered as He had rebuked the religious leaders, called them to come closer and listen to what He had to say. Not only did Jesus call them to Himself, but He exhorted them to listen to Him and understand. Jesus said this is for all of you, listen to my words and comprehend what I am about to tell you.
Jesus then began to speak to them about spiritual defilement. Jesus said, “…there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him…” (Mark 7:15a, NASB95)[2] In other words, Jesus was saying that external things, like a meal eaten with unwashed hands, is not the source of spiritual impurity. He went on to say that the defilement that offends God is an internal, spiritual reality that has a corresponding internal source. Spiritual uncleanness does not come from outside the sinner but lies within him. Jesus went on to say, “…but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.” (Mark 7:15b, NASB95)[3] Jesus’ point was that moral impurity is not evidenced by what goes into a person’s mouth but what comes out of a person’s mouth. The mouth is not the only place where wickedness manifests itself, but it is the most ready, immediate and constant exit for the evil inside us. Proverbs 6:12 says, “A worthless person, a wicked man, Is the one who walks with a perverse mouth,” (Proverbs 6:12, NASB95)[4] Proverbs 15:28 adds this concerning the wicked, “But the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.” (Proverbs 15:28b, NASB95)[5] When the Lord Jesus spoke of the things which proceed out of the man, He was not only referring to what came out of man’s mouth in his speech but also the desires, thoughts, and attitudes behind his words. Jeremiah the prophet reminded us of the condition of our hearts when he wrote in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9, NASB95)[6] The phrase desperately sick can also be translated as incurable. Because the heart is evil, wicked lusts, words, and actions inevitably gush forth. Those are the things which defile a man.
As I said in my introduction, Jesus’ words were revolutionary and those whom He had called around Him and told them to listen and understand would have been shocked by what He said. All of them had been raised in a religious system that was built on and valued external morality and ceremonies. But in reality, the Lord Jesus was not introducing new ideas but reiterating Old Testament truths that the Jewish people should have known. For example, the passage in 1st Samuel 16 where God had sent Samuel to anoint a young man who would become king in place of Saul who had disobeyed the Lord’s command. As the sons of Jesse passed before Samuel the Lord told Samuel in verse 7, “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7b, NASB95)[7] Or they should have remembered the words of David to his son Solomon in 1st Chronicles 28:9, where David said, ““As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts.” (1 Chronicles 28:9a, NASB95)[8] But these truths had been lost due to their own extrabiblical traditions, they had become preoccupied with a superficial form of external purity that was naturally hypocritical because it had nothing to do with the heart.
It is true that God’s law written down by Moses did have some rituals and regulations that had been given to the people of Israel by God. Certain foods were forbidden, certain medical conditions such as leprosy, or the touching of a dead body, or menstruation would make a person ceremonially unclean. Yet these were to be seen as symbols of the true nature of man’s sinful heart and his desperate need for divine cleansing. That a person who was ceremonially defiled needed external cleansing to participate in public worship provided a powerful illustration of the fact that every sinner requires divine forgiveness and internal cleansing to come into the presence of God.
The book of Hebrews speaks of the Law being only a shadow, or an illustration to point us to the Lord Jesus Christ. The author of Hebrews writes in chapter 10, verses 1-4, “For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” (Hebrews 10:1–4, NASB95)[9] The author goes on to tells us that Jesus Christ came to do the will of God the Father and He writes in verse 10, “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10, NASB95)[10] Salvation requires internal cleansing through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Old Testament was clear that no attention to commanded ceremony or ritual was pleasing to God unless it came from a heart that sincerely loved Him. The idea that external acts, like being circumcised, observing dietary laws, or performing ceremonial cleansing could provide salvation from sin was utterly the opposite of the intent of God’s law. This truth was lost to the Jewish people because they added their own man-made rules and regulations to the law which eventually obscured the truth of God’s Word with the traditions of men. Rather than leading the people closer to God, these traditions of men led them away from Him. In the end, by rejecting and crucifying God’s Son, they proved they loved their traditions of the elders far more than they loved God Himself.
This is why Jesus was willing to confront them, He rebuked them for their superficial religion and emphasized the need of true internal righteousness. Because the source of their defilement was spiritual and internal, it could never be removed by physical washings and external rituals. It is only an internal cleansing by the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation that can bring about the internal cleansing. It is only the Holy Spirit that can bring about the regenerating transformation necessary to enter God’s kingdom. This can never be done through physical, external, and ceremonial means. This creates only a self-righteous façade that thinly veils a defiled and corrupt heart. As Jesus later said to the religious leaders, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matthew 23:27–28, NASB95)[11]
Verse 16 of our passage adds the phrase, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Mark 7:16, NASB95)[12] Most translations place this phrase in brackets because it does not occur in the earliest and most reliable manuscripts that we have of Mark’s gospel. It is true that Jesus used this phrase on other occasions, but the evidence indicates that it was not part of the original text, but most likely added by a scribe when he was copying the gospel.
THE TRUTH OF DEFILEMENT EXPLAINED (Mark 7:17-23)
Jesus at some point during the day left the crowd and entered the house where He was staying. If this took place in Capernaum, which is most likely, then this would have been the house of Andrew and Peter. Shut in the house away from the crowds the Lord Jesus was able to communicate with His disciples privately. They began to ask Him about the parable, which wasn’t really a parable since He had spoken quite plainly to the crowd. Jesus response to their asking for an explanation was to ask, “Are you so lacking in understanding also?” (Mark 7:18a, NASB95)[13] This response was a mild rebuke from the Lord. It was about a year until Jesus Christ would be crucified and the disciples were still struggling with basic truths like the priority of inner righteousness over external ritual. They probably comprehended some of the aspects of the truth that Jesus was giving, but His teaching was so contrary to what they had been taught all their lives that they at first found it difficult to accept and to comprehend.
Jesus recognized their struggle, and He again took the time to explain more fully what He had been saying to the crowd. Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?” (Mark 7:18b–19a, NASB95)[14] Remember that when Jesus speaks of the heart, He is not referring to the organ, but the inner person—the seat of one’s mental, emotional, and spiritual being. The Lord Jesus was making the point that something physical and external, like eating food with unwashed hands, cannot defile the inner person because it is physical and not spiritual. The condition of your heart before God is not determined by what you eat or if you eat it with unwashed hands.
Mark then gives us a parenthetical note explaining that Jesus in making this statement made obsolete the dietary laws of Judaism and declared all foods clean. The issue of a person’s food choices is not the point, the issue is their spiritual condition. Given Mark’s close association with the apostle Peter, Mark’s comment was likely influenced by Peter’s later experience in Joppa when in a trance God taught Peter that anything God has cleansed is no longer to be considered unholy. If you would like to read of Peter’s experience it is found in Acts 10.
Beginning in verse 20, Jesus switched from the physical illustration to speak clearly about the spiritual reality. “And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.” (Mark 7:20, NASB95)[15] In other words, spiritual defilement does not come from the outside but from the evil that resides in each of us due to our sin nature. Jesus went onto say that the source of wickedness is within each of us so that out of the heart proceed evil thoughts. The word translated “thoughts” is a general term in Greek that refers to a person’s inward reasoning or perception. Because the heart of man is evil, man’s intentions, designs, ideas, motives, ponderings are also depraved. Out of our corrupt hearts flow evil words, evil actions, and evil attitudes. Jesus listed six of each for us. In this list Jesus defined the true nature of spiritual defilement by presenting the types of wickedness that live in and proceed out of corrupt hearts.
Jesus began by listing six representative evil actions. He began with fornication which is a word that is a general reference to sexual sin, any sexual activity outside of marriage. Next, He listed thefts which covers any kind of stealing, then murders which refers to the unlawful taking of another person’s life. Next, He listed adulteries which refers to sexual sin that violates the marriage covenant, and finally deeds of coveting, a reference to desires and behaviors motivated by greed and the desire to have what someone else has. The last four of this list of actions are included in the second half of the Ten Commandments, and the disciples would have immediately seen these as obvious transgressions. Completing this category of evil Jesus added wickedness, a general term for iniquity that summarized what had already been listed and that included everything else that violates God’s law and holy will.
Jesus then listed the evil attitudes that lie behind the evil actions. Again, He lists six, beginning with deceit which means craftiness, lying, and deception. Second, sensuality which refers to the unrestrained lust of a dirty mind. Third, envy, this word is translated from two Greek words meaning “evil eye” and could be translated that way. Jesus used it here to describe eyes full of jealousy and hatred. Fourth is slander which is any form of abusive or injurious speech toward God or others. Fifth is pride which describes feelings of superiority, arrogance, and self-promotion. In the same way that wickedness summarized the evil actions, Jesus finished this list with foolishness which includes the previous attitudes and is a general term for moral folly and senselessness. To make sure that His disciples did not miss the point, Jesus repeated the truth, “All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.” (Mark 7:23, NASB95)[16]
What a dark, negative list, and these words came from Jesus’ lips. This is how Jesus viewed the heart of man apart from His grace. Jesus Himself taught the doctrine of depravity—that every area of life is tainted with sin, which originates in man’s heart. No physical act of ceremonial or external ritual can purify a depraved heart out of which flows the wicked actions and evil attitudes listed here. A radical change of the human heart is what is needed. Nothing in this world can bring about this change. There is only one answer: regeneration. There is no power in the world that can make a defiled heart pure. Only the Gospel can do that. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3, NASB95)[17] Paul described regeneration in these words in Titus 3:5-7, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:5–7, NASB95)[18] Salvation is not established “on the basis of deeds” including moral works, religious ceremonies, and external rituals. Salvation requires an internal miracle by the Holy Spirit who according to His sovereign will and power creates and cleanses the souls of all who come to Jesus Christ in faith. The radical change is a new heart. God said through the prophet Ezekiel, ““Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26, NASB95)[19]
CONCLUSION:
The Pharisees and the scribes failed to understand that their corruption was on the inside. Though they appeared extremely religious, their superficial, legalistic, self-righteousness was infinitely inadequate. Like all sinners, they needed new hearts that were regenerated by the Spirit of God. Yet, when Jesus confronted their hypocrisy, they rejected Him in angry unbelief, plotted His murder, and committed spiritual suicide. Those who harden their hearts to the good news of the gospel, like the Pharisees and scribes did, will face eternal judgment.
But those whose hearts have been made new by the power of God have become new creations in Christ. They have been baptized with Jesus Christ in His death and raised with Him in His resurrection. Paul writes in Romans 6:3-4, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3–4, NASB95)[20] The good news of the gospel is completely and utterly radical: a new birth, a new heart, a new creation, a resurrection! Apart from Christ the world is desperately lost. It can only be redeemed by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. There is no other way. We can polish the outside, we can educate ourselves, we can do “good” things. But none of these will really change us. We need Christ’s life, death, and resurrection to transform us from the inside out.
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[9]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[10]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[11]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[12]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[13]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[14]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[15]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[16]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[17]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[18]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[19]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[20]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.