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The Creator Revealed: Scripture Against All False Gods | John Calvin · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. You know, usually when we talk
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about a medical diagnosis, there is this expectation of real
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precision. It is kind of like engineering.
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Right, very mechanical. Yeah, mechanical.
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You fall off the ladder, you break your arm and you go into
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that cold, sterile hospital room.
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The doctor pulls up the X-ray and there's that jagged white
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line on the screen. He just points at it says, well,
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there it is. That is the problem.
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It is entirely binary. I mean, the bone is broken or it
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is not broken. It is a clean, undeniable
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physical reality that everyone in the room can easily agree on.
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And honestly, I think that is comforting for us.
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We like things to be visible. We like things to be easily
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categorized and boxed up. Oh, absolutely.
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We love a tangible problem. Right.
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But then you step into the spiritual reality of the human
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condition and suddenly that X-ray machine is entirely
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useless. We are looking at a diagnostic
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landscape that operates on a completely different level.
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Yes, a much more uncomfortable level.
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So today on our deep dive, we are analyzing a text called The
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Defiled Heart in Christ's Cleansing Grace.
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This is centered on the Gospel of Mark Chapter 7, verses 20
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through 23. And the mission for you, the
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listener, is to grasp a pretty staggering claim made by Jesus.
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It really is staggering. He claims that human corruption
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works from the inside out rather than the outside in, and this
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text, while it strips away every single comforting excuse
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humanity uses to blame their environment for their faults.
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A Doctor Who misdiagnoses a disease might flatter the
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patient, but you know he cannot actually heal them.
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Christ offers a severe but very merciful diagnosis.
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Here He exposes the the wound to prepare it for a real cure.
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Yeah, flattery in a hospital is dangerous.
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It is lethal if you flatter a patient who has a terminal
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illness by telling them they just have a minor cold.
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You might make them feel better for an afternoon, but you are
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effectively letting them die in their ignorance.
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Wow, yeah, that is a heavy way to look at it.
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Jesus refuses to do that. He takes a sharp blade of truth
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and gets right to the center of the issue.
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I mean, society constantly tells you that the problem is all
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around you. Right, it's always the
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environment. Exactly.
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The logic is if you clean the outside, manage your public
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image and adjust your social circumstances, you will be
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whole. But Christ says the problem is
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firmly lodged within you. Before we look at that specific
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diagnosis of the heart, I think we need to understand the
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confrontation that prompted Jesus to speak these words.
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Let's set the historical stage here.
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That is a good idea. Context is everything.
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So we are stepping back into 1st century Galilee.
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We have Jesus and his disciples, probably dusty from walking the
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dirt roads, just surrounded by regular everyday people, and
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suddenly a delegation of Pharisees and scribes arrives
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all the way from Jerusalem. This is not just a casual
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encounter, is it? Not at all, it is an official
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inspection. The Pharisees were allay
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movement and they were hyper focused on purity, Torah
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observance and this vast body of traditions that had grown up
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around the law over centuries. And the scribes were with them
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too. Right.
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The scribes were the recognized legal experts.
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They were essentially the lawyers of the religious system.
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So when Mark notes that they came down from Jerusalem, he is
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signaling to the reader that this carries immense official
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weight. So it is kind of like corporate
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auditors showing up unannounced from headquarters.
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That is a perfect analogy. They are there to comb through
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the books, scrutinize Jesus, find a flaw and build a case
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against him and the presenting issue they latch onto.
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The thing that starts this whole conflict is the disciples eating
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bread with unwashed hands. And we really have to clarify
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this right away for the modern listener, because our brains
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immediately go to germs, you know?
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Yes, we think of basic hygiene. Right.
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We think they were worried about bacteria or passing along a
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stomach bug, but germ theory did not even exist yet.
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Precisely. It was an entirely ceremonial
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tradition. It was tied to what they called
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the tradition of the elders. Let's unpack that a bit.
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What was the original intent there?
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Well, the original Mosaic Law given at Mount Sinai did utilize
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food laws and ceremonial washings.
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Those original laws had a legitimate divine purpose.
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They were given to teach ancient Israel about the absolute
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holiness of God and the separateness of Israel from the
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surrounding Pagan nations. So.
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It was a teaching tool. Yes, a visual aid to show the
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constant need for cleansing before approaching the Lord and
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worship. But by the time of this
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confrontation in the 1st century, human tradition had
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mutated into a rival authority. It just grew out of control.
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It really did. The Pharisees had extended these
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purity concerns far beyond the written law.
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They actually believe that casual contact with impurity in
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the marketplace, like breaking shoulders with a gentile or
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touching a coin handled by a Sinner, could render a person's
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ceremonially defiled. So they instituted these ritual
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washings as necessary safeguards, like a buffer zone.
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Exactly. It was a fence around the law.
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OK, let's unpack this. It is like setting up a massive
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high tech security fence around your house to keep the dirt out
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while completely ignoring the termites eating the walls on the
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inside. That is a great way to put it.
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They substituted visible markers for inward repentance.
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But let me stop and ask a basic question here.
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Why are human beings so drawn to the security fence?
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Why do we always prefer the ritual washing over actual
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inward cleansing? Well, I mean, we prefer the
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fence because the fence is manageable.
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You can measure a fence. You can check off a list that
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says I wash my hands up to the elbow.
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I avoided the marketplace. I kept my distance.
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It gives you a sense of control. Spot on.
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It provides this psychological hit of self righteousness
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without requiring the painful death of our own pride.
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It is just much easier to wash your hands than to wash your
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heart of greed. That hits close to home.
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It does, and Jesus counters them not by belittling the actual
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holiness of God, but by exposing their counterfeit holiness.
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He quotes the prophet Isaiah to them, saying they honor God with
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their lips, but their hearts are far from him.
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And then he gives a really devastating example of their
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hypocrisy. He talks about the practice of
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Corbin. Yes, the Corbin loophole.
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Right. This is fascinating.
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I want to spend some time here so you, the listener, really get
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what was happening. As I understand it, a person
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could declare their financial resources or their property as
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Corbin, meaning a gift devoted to God.
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That is correct. And by doing that, they evaded
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the 5th Commandment, which tells us to honor our father and
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mother. That is the core of it.
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Imagine an elderly couple in 1st century Judea.
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The father can no longer work the fields.
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The mother is frail and they have basically run out of money
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for food. A desperate situation.
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Very desperate, yeah. So they go to their wealthy,
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successful son and ask for support.
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The son who loves his money more than his parents, looks at them
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and says, well, I would love to help you, mother and father, but
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unfortunately my bank account and my grain silos have been
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declared. Corbin.
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So he spiritualizes his greed. Yes, he tells them.
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His assets are officially dedicated to the temple
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treasury. The money was technically locked
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up under a religious vow, which meant he could not legally use
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it for his parents. But the kicker is he probably
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still had access to it for his own use, right?
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I mean, it feels like spiritualized financial abuse.
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That is exactly what it was. Often the vow did not mean the
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temple took immediate possession of the assets.
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It meant the assets were sheltered from certain family
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obligations. But he could still draw from the
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estate for himself. That is just legalistic
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manipulation of the worst kind. It really is.
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They used a veneer of intense religious devotion to justify
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blatant rebellion against the revealed will of God.
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They basically invented a religious tax shelter to starve
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their own parents. So this historical conflict is
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not just some dusty debate between Old Testament strictness
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and New Testament looseness. It is a clash between God's
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command and man's tradition. It is a war between true
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holiness and religious hypocrisy.
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And for you, the listener, this asks a very direct and honestly
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uncomfortable question. How often do modern people
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substitute cultural habits or perfect church attendance or
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respectable public appearances for actual obedience to God's
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commandments? It.
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Happens all the time today. It does.
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We can preserve a perfectly respectable image, you know,
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volunteering for every committee, knowing all the right
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theological terminology while tolerating immense bitterness,
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greed, or pride behind closed doors.
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The problem is ancient because the human heart in Adam is
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ancient. That's the whole issue.
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Because the Pharisees were so fixated on external dirt and
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ceremonial contact, Jesus had to completely invert their moral
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framework to reveal the true location of the disease.
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He had to tear down their entire diagnostic system.
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He did, and that brings us to the inside out reality of human
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defilement. In Mark Chapter 7 verse 20,
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Jesus declared that what comes out of a person is what defiles
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them. And then in verse 21, he says
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from within, out of the heart of men, let's camp out there for a
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minute. We need to we need to define
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what he means by the heart, because modern culture equates
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the heart primarily with romantic feelings or fleeting
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emotional states. We think of Hallmark cards.
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Yes, when we say follow your heart, we usually mean just do
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whatever feels emotionally authentic to you right now, in
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this exact moment. Right, but Jesus is not talking
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about a feeling, is he? No, he is not.
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The biblical definition of the heart is much more comprehensive
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than modern sentimentality. In Scripture, the heart is the
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Control Center of the inner person.
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It encompasses the mind, the desire, the will, the
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affections, the imagination, and the entire moral orientation of
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a human being. It is like the central
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processing unit. It is the factory where thoughts
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are produced. It is the courtroom where
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decisions are made and the theater where our imaginations
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run wild. When Jesus places the heart at
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the center of this explanation, he is making a massive
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anatomical statement about human morality.
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This raises an interesting question about the grammatical
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direction of moral movement in the text.
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Jesus says from within and proceed out.
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I want to lean into that because it feels like the hinge of the
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entire argument. It is the hinge.
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The wording in the Greek text deliberately reverses the
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assumption of the Pharisees. They were terrified that
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something outside entering through unwashed hands or UN
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kosher food would breach their perimeter and render them
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unclean. Like a virus getting into a
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sterile room. Yes, but Jesus says the decisive
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moral issue moves in the exact opposite direction.
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Sin is conceived inwardly. The heart acts as an invisible
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womb. The visible deed is just the
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final public stage of a process that began long before in the
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mind and the affections. That is a terrifying thought, It
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is. This text naturally yields the
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historic Protestant doctrine of total depravity.
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OK, let's define that. For the listener who might be
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new to the term or maybe intimidated by it, Total
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Depravity sounds incredibly bleak.
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Does that mean every single human being is as evil as they
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could possibly be? Like are we saying everyone is a
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cartoon villain? That is a very common
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misunderstanding. But no, total depravity does not
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mean absolute or utter depravity.
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It does not mean everyone is as wicked as they could possibly
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be. OK, that is a relief.
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What it means is that the corruption of sin extends to the
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totality of the human person. It has infected the mind, the
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will, the emotions and the body. So it touches every part.
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Think of a drop of dark ink falling into a glass of water.
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The entire glass is clouded. There is no pristine, unfallen
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island of goodness left inside us that operates completely free
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from the influence of sin. That ink analogy is really
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helpful. It shows that evil acts are not
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foreign invaders that hijack an otherwise pristine human nature.
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They are native fruits of a fallen nature.
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Man sins willingly and personally from within.
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Let me play devil's advocate here, because society constantly
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tells you the problem is external.
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If someone commits a crime or ruins their life, the immediate
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cultural reflex is to blame the environment.
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Always, we love a scapegoat. We say, well, they had a
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terrible upbringing or they suffered A psychological injury.
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We say they are victims of an oppressive economic system or
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they reportedly educated. Are you saying those external
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things do not matter at all? No.
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We are definitely not saying those external factors are
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imaginary. Poverty is real, Oppression is
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incredibly real. Terrible upbringings and
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psychological injuries are tragic realities of a fallen
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world. OK, so.
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They do play a role, they do. But they are the context of our
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sin, not the root cause of it. That is the offense of Christ's
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teaching here. Fallen humans prefer an
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explanation that leaves them basically innocent.
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We want. To be victims of our
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circumstances rather than perpetrators of rebellion.
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We want to say, well, the system made me do it right.
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It feels much better to say I have a temper because I'm under
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a lot of stress at work, rather than admitting I have a temper
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because my heart is full of angry demands.
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Oh, that. Stings, but it is true.
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Let us look. At how temptation actually
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works. Temptations absolutely exist in
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the outside world. Corrupt systems pressure people,
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but external temptation only lights a fire because there was
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already dry Tinder waiting inside the human heart.
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The match. Would not burn if the wood were
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not dry and ready to catch precisely.
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The environment might provide the occasion for sin, it
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provides the opportunity in the stress test, but the heart
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provides the cause. Think of a cup.
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If you bump a cup full of water, water spills out.
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If you bump a cup full of vinegar, vinegar spills out.
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The bump is just the circumstance.
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What spills out is determined by what was already inside the cup.
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I love. That cup analogy.
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It makes the reality undeniable. And Jesus does not leave this
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diagnosis in the fog of vague generalities either.
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He gets highly specific. Which brings us to the vice
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list. In Mark 7, verses 21 and 22, He
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lays it. All out he does.
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To prove his point about the heart acting as the source, he
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lists the undeniable symptoms it produces.
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And this list is incredibly thorough.
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Let's walk through it. He.
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Records a series of plural nouns that demonstrate the sheer
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variety and abundance of human corruption.
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The list includes sexual immoralities, thefts, murders,
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adulteries, covetings, wickednesses, deceit, sensuality
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and evil eye, slander, pride and folly.
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That is a. Heavy list it covers.
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Everything. Sins of the body, sins of
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property, sins against life, sins against the marriage
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covenant, sins of desire, sins of speech, and sins of self
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exaltation. He leaves no stone turned.
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Let's walk. Through some of these terms
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slowly, because I want to ask you to break down the mechanics
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of them, they are incredibly revealing.
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He starts with sexual immoralities, thefts, murders
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and adulteries. Those are obvious violations of
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the moral law, clearly echoing the 10 Commandments, yes.
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The big visible ones, even a. Secular society agrees that
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murder and theft are bad, but then he gets into inward
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dispositions, and this is where it gets really uncomfortable.
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Let's look at covetings. Covetousness is the secret,
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greedy grasping of the heart is the inward hunger to possess
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what God has not given you, and a refusal to receive God's
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Providence with contentment and it.
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Is completely invisible to the outside world.
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It is often. Entirely hidden from public
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view, you can be paralyzed by it while looking perfectly calm.
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Let's put that into a modern context.
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How does coveting operate in an office building or in a
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neighborhood today? Well.
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Imagine you're sitting at your desk and your Co worker, whom
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you secretly consider less talented than yourself, gets the
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promotion you wanted. They get the corner office and
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the massive race. I can.
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Feel the tension already, you. Smile, you shake their hand, you
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buy them a congratulatory card and you say way to go.
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Outwardly you have committed no crime.
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You look like a great team player.
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But. Inwardly.
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Inwardly. Your heart is churning with
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resentment. You begin to mentally tear down
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their qualifications. You secretly hope they fail.
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You are obsessing over the fact that they have something you
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believe you deserve. That is coveting.
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It is a quiet, venomous rebellion against God's
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distribution of gifts. Here is where it gets really
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interesting to me. Some of the sins on this list
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are scandalous crimes that will literally put you in jail, like
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murder. But others wear very respectable
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clothing like pride, deceit, or envy.
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You can be a highly decorated citizen while mastering deceit.
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Absolutely. Deceit describes the crooked
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heart that manipulates, flatters and twists the truth for selfish
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ends. It is not always a bold faced
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lie either. Sometimes.
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It is just omission, yes. Withholding crucial information
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to maintain an advantage. It is spinning a narrative so
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you always look like the hero. Then we have wickednesses, which
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refers to malicious dispositions.
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These are people who simply enjoy causing harm or watching
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others stumble and. Sensuality.
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That feels like a word we do not use much outside of theological
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circles anymore. Sensuality is shameless
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indulgence. It is casting off all moral
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restraint, living solely for the next physical or emotional
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thrill, without any regard for God's boundaries or the harm it
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causes others. What about?
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An evil eye that sounds like a curse from a fantasy novel What
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does Jesus mean by an evil eye in.
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Biblical idiom, an evil eye refers to begrudging resentment
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or envy. It is closely related to
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coveting, but it has a sharper edge to it.
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How? So it is.
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Looking at another person's blessing, their success, their
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healthy children, or their joy, and responding not with
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Thanksgiving to God, but with absolute bitterness.
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It's a good, quiet, rotting envy that sours your own life because
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you cannot stand the light shining on someone else.
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Wow. And folly.
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I want to press on this one because I know plenty of highly
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educated people who make a complete wreck of their lives.
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Folly is not about a low IQ, is it?
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Not at all. Folly has nothing to do with
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intelligence. A person can have advanced
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degrees, run a massive company, read complex literature, and be
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universally admired for their intellect, yet be entirely
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characterized by folly. So how?
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Does the Bible define it? In the biblical worldview, folly
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is moral senselessness before God.
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It is living your life as though the Creator's verdict does not
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matter at all. It is building a massive empire
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on sand while ignoring the approaching hurricane of God's
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justice. The fool says in his heart there
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is no God, or at least lives as if God is entirely irrelevant.
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A. Person listening to this might
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say, well I have never robbed a bank and I have never committed
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murder, so I'm doing pretty well that.
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Is the natural human defense mechanism but Jesus?
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Strips sin of all its disguises here.
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You might never steal from a store, but you cultivate
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covetous discontent every time you scroll through social media
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and resent your friends vacations.
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You might never murder someone with your hands, but you
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assassinate their character with slander over a coffee break.
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Or you. Nurse genuine malice in your
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heart toward. Them exactly and that leads to
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the universal verdict at the end of the list In Mark Chapter 7
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verse 23 Jesus says all these evil things come from within and
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they defile a person that word all is doing a lot of heavy
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lifting the word. All is a locked door against
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human boasting. It prevents selective hearing.
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You do not get to excuse your favorite hidden vice just
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because you managed to avoid the public scandals.
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You cannot. Just point at the criminal on TV
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and feel superior, no? You cannot look at the murderer
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on the Evening News and say I am clean while you harbor pride and
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deceit in your own home. The whole dark family of evil
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shares the exact same inward origin.
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The respectable sins and the scandalous sins were born in the
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same factory. OK, so if the.
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Disease is completely internal. That creates a massive problem
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for us because every single tool human beings have invented to
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fix themselves, Laws, therapy, habits, politics, they're all
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external tools. They're all.
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Treating the outside of the cup it is like.
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Trying to cure a heart arrhythmia by putting a fresh
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coat of paint on your chest if the root is rotten, superficial
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human cures are not just useless, they're incredibly
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deceptive. Let's dig into the condemnation
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of false remedies because this text systematically destroys
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multiple popular methods we use for dealing with our guilt when
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you. Understand the inside out
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reality of defilement. You realize that all our natural
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attempts at self salvation fail completely.
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Let us examine them 1 by 1. First, legalism is condemned
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right the. Idea of just adding more rules
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Legalism. Assumes that if you just add
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stricter boundaries in rigid rituals, you can wash the
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inside, but ritual water cannot reach the conscience.
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You can force a person to wear certain clothes and eat certain
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foods, but you cannot force their heart to love God.
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Wait, let. Me, push back on that for a
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second. Isn't moralism, you know,
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forming better habits, following the rules actually a good thing
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for society? If I train myself to stop
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stealing, even if my heart is still a bit greedy, haven't I
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technically solved the problem for my neighbor?
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My neighbor does not care about my heart, he just wants to keep
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his lawnmower that. Is a brilliant distinction, and
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it brings up the difference between civil righteousness and
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spiritual righteousness. OK, let's.
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Break that down for society. Yes, civil righteousness is
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wonderful. It keeps civilization
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functioning. We want laws against stealing.
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We want people to have the habit of telling the truth in court,
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but Jesus is talking about our standing before a holy God,
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which is a. Totally different standard
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entirely. Different before God, outward
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compliance without inward love is just a beautifully painted
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tomb full of dead men's bones. Better habits cannot create a
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new nature. You can.
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Train a dog to walk on its hind legs, but you cannot train a dog
21:15
to become a sheep. I love.
21:17
That moralism fails because it addresses the symptoms, not the
21:20
actual disease that makes a. Lot of sense.
21:22
So legalism and moralism fail. What about the opposite extreme?
21:26
Let's talk about antinomianism. For the listener who is
21:28
unfamiliar, anti means against and nomos means law.
21:32
It is this idea that because we have grace, the rules are
21:35
basically deleted, right? Why is that such a dangerous
21:38
trap? Antinomianism is the false idea
21:41
that because believers are saved by grace, the moral law of God
21:44
no longer applies to their lives as a standard of conduct.
21:47
It treats grace like a blank check for sin, like a get out
21:51
of. Jail free card, yes.
21:53
But Jesus shatters that idea right here.
21:55
He still names all these things, adultery, deceit, slander, as
21:59
evil and defiling. Grace does not rewrite the
22:02
Dictionary of heaven to make sin acceptable.
22:04
Christ upholds the holy standard of God.
22:06
He saves us from the penalty of the law, but he does not abolish
22:09
the moral perfection the law describes.
22:11
We also. See a liberal theology condemned
22:13
by this passage. And by liberal theology I mean
22:16
the framework that tries to reduce sin to a lack of
22:18
education or purely blames broken social structures.
22:22
Yes. Liberal theology often attempts
22:24
to locate the problem of humanity exclusively in systems
22:28
it's as we just fix the schools, fix the government, and
22:32
redistribute resources, humanity will flourish into a utopian
22:35
state which. Sounds great on paper.
22:38
It does, and while Christians absolutely should care about
22:41
justice, education, and social structures, Jesus locates the
22:45
core of the problem squarely within the individual human
22:48
heart. You can put a center in a
22:50
perfect utopia and they will find a way to ruin it.
22:53
With pride and envy. I mean.
22:55
We know this because Adam and Eve rebelled in a perfect
22:57
paradise. The environment was flawless.
23:00
As is the ultimate proof, the environment was not the issue.
23:02
Prosperity. Religion takes a hit here too,
23:04
doesn't it? Absolutely.
23:06
Prosperity teachers suggest that your greatest need is material
23:08
comfort, physical health, or financial abundance.
23:12
They act as if a lack of faith is the only thing keeping you
23:15
from a mansion. But.
23:16
Jesus flips that completely. He shows that.
23:18
The most desperate, terrifying human need is cleansing from
23:21
guilt and corruption. You can be completely healthy,
23:25
massively wealthy, and still be totally defiled before God and.
23:28
Finally, pragmatism. Modern evangelical pragmatism
23:33
often hunts for behavior management techniques.
23:36
We want 10 steps to a better marriage or five steps to
23:39
financial peace. We want.
23:40
Visible results, right? We want the quick fix while
23:43
completely shrinking away from the heavy reality of total
23:46
depravity pragmatism. Treats the church like a self
23:49
help seminar. It offers life hacks instead of
23:52
resurrection. If behavior modification fails,
23:55
if following all the cultural rules fails.
23:57
If changing your political system fails, you are left
24:00
completely bankrupt. So if I.
24:01
Am listening to this and I realize my heart is the factory
24:05
producing all this evil and none of my tools can reach the
24:08
factory floor. How on earth do I fix the rot at
24:11
the root? I mean what is the actual
24:13
solution? What's fascinating?
24:14
Here is the absolute distinction between the law and the Gospel.
24:18
The function of the law, as demonstrated by Jesus in this
24:20
text, is to expose the heart's guilt.
24:23
The law is a mirror. It shows.
24:25
You the dirt it shows. You the dirt on your face, but
24:27
the mirror cannot wash your face.
24:29
The law shuts every mouth. It proves that all our false
24:32
remedies are utterly inadequate and.
24:34
That severe exposure is entirely necessary.
24:38
It is. Because it prepares you for the
24:40
only true solution. You have to realize your
24:43
absolute bankruptcy before you will accept the charity of
24:46
Christ having. Stripped away all false hope and
24:49
established the severe inward corruption.
24:51
We have to look at the cure because the Bible does not just
24:54
leave us bleeding out on the diagnostic table.
24:56
The cure is the person and work of Jesus.
24:59
Jesus Christ, Yes. The gospel, hope and he.
25:02
Stands in this text fulfilling several massive roles.
25:06
Let's look at Christ as the true prophet Christ.
25:09
Stands as the true prophet because he diagnoses the heart
25:13
with supreme divine authority. He does not cite A rabbinic
25:16
school. He does not quote a
25:18
psychological study. He does not.
25:19
Need footnotes? No.
25:21
He speaks as the Lord of the universe, whose word pierces
25:24
bone and marrow, interpreting the law and judging the
25:26
conscience. He tells us the truth about
25:28
ourselves when everyone else is lying to us.
25:30
He also. Stands as the sinless man this
25:33
is crucial when we read that vice list, the murders, the
25:36
deceit, the pride, the folly. We have to recognize that Jesus
25:39
possessed a human heart, but none of those things ever
25:42
proceeded from it. That is.
25:44
The beauty of his act of obedience every single day of
25:47
his earthly life. His heart produced nothing but
25:49
pure love for God and pure love for his neighbor.
25:52
Never. A single resentful thought his.
25:54
Obedience was not just superficial conformity to keep
25:57
out of trouble, it was perfect inward holiness.
26:00
He faced immense temptation, he faced brutal injustice, and yet
26:04
his heart never yielded a drop of malice or deceit.
26:08
He succeeded exactly where we fail entirely.
26:12
And. Because he was sinless, he could
26:14
act as the priest. The Old Testament priesthood
26:16
dealt with ceremonial uncleanness through washings and
26:19
animal sacrifices. They were constantly
26:21
slaughtering bulls and goats, dealing with blood.
26:23
But those are just shadows pointing forward.
26:25
They could never clear the conscience.
26:27
The author of Hebrews tells us that the blood of bulls and
26:29
goats cannot take away sin. Jesus deals with the actual
26:33
defilement of the heart, not by prescribing more basin water,
26:37
but by shedding his own blood as a substitute, he becomes.
26:39
The sacrifice on the. Cross he operates as both the
26:43
priest offering the sacrifice and the sacrifice itself.
26:46
He bears the terrifying judgement due to sinners whose
26:49
hearts have produced the very defiling evils he named in Mark
26:52
7. He takes our defilement upon
26:55
himself so we can be clothed in his purity and.
26:58
Finally, he stands as the king. The defiled heart is not just
27:02
guilty, it is enslaved. We are trapped by the things we
27:05
want. Men love darkness and are ruled
27:07
by desires that destroy them. But the.
27:10
Risen Christ gives the Holy Spirit to conquer the dominion
27:13
of sin in the believer He performs the ultimate heart
27:16
transplant like. Ezekiel talked about yes, the.
27:18
Prophet Ezekiel spoke of God taking out the heart of stone
27:21
and giving a heart of flesh. The King unites his people to
27:24
himself, and rules them by grace, if we.
27:27
Connect this to the bigger picture in Mark's Gospel.
27:29
There is an amazing literary context surrounding this
27:32
teaching. Immediately following the severe
27:34
confrontation about purity, Jesus travels to Gentile
27:37
regions. He actually leaves the Jewish
27:40
heartland. He goes to the.
27:41
Region of tyre, right? He meets the Seraphinician woman
27:44
there, a gentile woman begging for her daughter, and then later
27:47
he heals a deaf man in the Decapolis, which is another
27:50
gentile area. That movement cannot be an
27:53
accident Mark. Placed these events sequentially
27:56
for a very specific reason by proving that defilement is
28:00
fundamentally an internal human problem rather than an ethnic or
28:04
ceremonial one, Jesus throws the door wide open for the gospel to
28:08
advance to all nations that. Is an amazing connection, that
28:11
is. The theological genius of what
28:13
Jesus is doing. The issue is not that Gentiles
28:16
are clean in themselves. The issue is that ceremonial
28:19
categories can no longer be used to bar those whom Christ
28:22
cleanses by mercy. So the.
28:23
Ground is level at the foot of the cross exactly.
28:26
A Pharisee with his perfectly washed hands and his memorized
28:28
prayers, and a Gentile with his unwashed hands and Pagan
28:31
background share the exact same corrupt heart disease.
28:35
And because the disease is identical, they both need the
28:37
exact same grace. It is.
28:39
Like tearing down a massive dividing wall between two
28:42
warring groups of people because you suddenly realize both sides
28:46
of the wall have the identical terminal illness and need the
28:48
identical physician. No one gets to look down on
28:51
anyone else. This.
28:52
Truth protects the Church from two major opposing errors,
28:57
moralism and despair. How does?
28:59
It prevent moralism. It prevents.
29:00
Moralism because you realize you cannot save yourself, you need
29:05
pardon for sins already committed, and you need a
29:07
righteousness you have not performed.
29:10
Your resume is completely useless here.
29:12
And how? Does it present despair well?
29:14
A Sinner might look at their own defiled heart, see the absolute
29:17
depths of their greed and pride, and ask what hope remains for
29:21
me? The answer is the absolute
29:23
overflowing sufficiency of Christ.
29:25
The fountain open for sin is sufficient for the absolute
29:28
foulest heart that comes by faith.
29:30
He came for the sick, not the healthy knowing.
29:32
That the cure is Christ. We need to talk about the
29:34
practical side of this. How does a listener apply this
29:38
theological reality to their daily life and to the corporate
29:41
life of their local church? Because Jesus does not just drop
29:45
this heavy truth and walk away. It demands a response.
29:48
It demands waging war at the root.
29:50
The. First, most immediate practical
29:52
application is honest self examination.
29:55
This passage calls us to stop looking out the window at
29:58
everyone else's sins and start looking in the mirror that is.
30:01
Hard to do. You must.
30:02
Check our own secret thoughts and motives when no one is
30:04
watching. We cannot hide behind
30:06
comparisons anymore. You cannot say, well I am not
30:08
like the openly violent criminal or the corrupt politician.
30:11
The real question is what proceeds from your own heart.
30:13
What secret? Desires do you protect?
30:15
What resentments do you justify? What sharp biting words do you
30:19
release under the excuse of just being honest or trying to be
30:22
funny? We also.
30:23
Have to reject superficial religion.
30:26
True doctrine should deepen our repentance.
30:29
Orthodoxy, having all the right beliefs, cannot be a mask for
30:32
unrepentant pride, harshness toward others, or a complete
30:35
lack of prayer. You can.
30:36
Have all the right theological vocabulary.
30:39
You can adhere to the finest historic confessions of faith.
30:42
You can win every debate on the Internet.
30:44
But if you harbor malice and greed, you are simply playing
30:47
the Pharisee that brings. Us to the concept of the
30:49
mortification of sin believers must wage war where sin actually
30:54
begins, the puritan John Owen famously wrote.
30:58
Be killing sin or it will be killing you.
31:00
We cannot. Be satisfied with trimming the
31:02
visible branches while watering the hidden root.
31:04
Let's make that concrete for the listener.
31:06
Mortification sounds like something from the Middle Ages,
31:08
like locking yourself in a monastery.
31:11
What does it actually look like to starve the root of a sin
31:14
today? Let us use envy as an example.
31:17
A person battling envy must not just stay quiet and refuse to
31:20
vocalize their jealousy. That is just behavior
31:23
modification, right? Just.
31:24
Biting your tongue. Mortification goes deeper.
31:27
To mortify envy, you must actively learn to rejoice and
31:30
grow that Providence and intentionally bless God for
31:33
another person's good. You pray for their continued
31:36
success until your heart aligns with your prayer that.
31:39
Is a radical shift. What about lust?
31:41
Consider lust. A person battling lust must not
31:45
merely install a web filter on their phone and avoid a bad
31:48
situation. A filter is a good fence, but it
31:51
does not change the heart. They must cultivate A genuine,
31:55
staggering fear of God and find their ultimate satisfaction and
31:58
contentment in Christ. Mortification attacks the very
32:02
disposition of the heart to do. That we have to use the ordinary
32:05
means of grace. And let's define that term too.
32:08
These are not magic spells. They are the regular, steady
32:12
avenues God has provided to feed our souls.
32:14
Yes. The basic rhythms of the
32:16
Christian life we. Rely on the Word of God to
32:19
expose our hidden motives and renew our minds.
32:22
We rely on prayer to confess our constant dependence and cry out
32:25
for help. We rely on corporate worship,
32:27
sitting under the preaching of the Word and participating in
32:30
the ordinances, baptism, and the Lord's Supper to continually
32:33
reorder our disordered affections.
32:36
And there is. A severe warning here for
32:37
parents and for churches. We must not train children or
32:40
congregations to be skilled hypocrites who only know how to
32:43
avoid public embarrassment outward.
32:45
Obedience matters. Yes, we want children who obey.
32:48
We want citizens who follow the law, but it must be connected to
32:52
the heart before God if a. Church learns only to maintain
32:56
appearances, to project an image of perfect families with no
33:00
struggles. It becomes a polished tomb.
33:03
We must teach the commandments, and we must name sin plainly,
33:07
but above all, we must preach the absolute necessity of the
33:10
new birth. So what?
33:12
Does this all mean for the weary listener?
33:14
How does a believer avoid throwing their hands up in
33:16
absolute despair when they wake up day after day and see their
33:19
own persistent inward corruption?
33:21
It is a. Daily battle it is.
33:23
You examine your heart, you see the lingering pride, you see the
33:26
flare ups of envy, you see the selfishness.
33:28
And you think I am a wretched person.
33:29
I am making no progress at all. Maybe this isn't working?
33:32
That is a very real, painful struggle for the Christian.
33:35
The Apostle Paul felt the exact same way in Romans Chapter 7
33:39
when he cried out about the sin that dwelled within him.
33:42
But the presence of remaining sin should grieve us.
33:44
It should not drive us to despair.
33:46
It should. Drive us straight back to
33:48
Christ. Exactly.
33:49
Sanctification, the process of becoming holy, is progressive.
33:54
It is a lifelong war with many battles.
33:57
It is not an overnight fix, but the Savior who exposes your
34:01
defilement with the law is the exact same Savior who gives you
34:05
a new heart in the gospel and He.
34:06
Currently intercedes for his people at the right hand of the
34:10
Father the Holy. Spirit who began the good work
34:12
in you will carry it on to completion.
34:14
You are not fighting for victory, you are fighting for
34:17
the victory that Christ has already won on your behalf.
34:20
We live by daily honest repentance and daily desperate
34:24
faith to. Summarize the ground we have
34:26
covered today. True defilement does not come
34:28
from what you touch, what you eat, or the secular environment
34:31
swirling around you. True defilement comes from the
34:33
dark factory of the human heart it produces.
34:35
Specific nameable evils ranging from scandalous theft and murder
34:39
to the hidden quiet rot of pride and envy?
34:42
No. Amount of external religion,
34:43
rule keeping, psychological therapy, or behavior
34:46
modification can fix a dead root.
34:48
The only remedy is the atoning blood and the renewing spirit of
34:50
Jesus Christ, who acts as our true prophet, priest and king.
34:54
I will. Leave you with a final thought
34:55
to consider as you go about your week.
34:58
If every single thought, secret motive, and hidden desire of
35:02
your heart over the last 24 hours was suddenly broadcast on
35:05
a large screen for the entire world to see, how quickly would
35:09
you realize that ceremonial rule following and public reputation
35:13
are the absolute least of your worries that.
35:16
Is a terrifying thought experiment and in.
35:18
Light of that terrifying exposure, how much more precious
35:21
would the cleansing covering blood of Christ become to you
35:24
today? Thank you for.
35:24
Joining us on this deep dive, keep examining the scriptures,
35:27
keep testing your own heart, and keep looking away from yourself
35:30
to the Savior we will see next time.