Latest / Reformed Thinking / From Plate to Person: Jesus’ Doctrine of Defilement and the Heart (Matthew 15:15–20)

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From Plate to Person: Jesus’ Doctrine of Defilement and the Heart (Matthew 15:15–20) · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Welcome to reformed thinking. Hey, it's it's really good to be
• 0:03
  here today. Today we are we're opening up a
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  file that, to be totally honest, a lot of people might prefer to
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  keep closed, whether you are sitting in the pews every Sunday
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  or maybe you've never even stepped foot in a church.
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  Yeah, it's a it's a tough one. We're doing a rigorous
• 0:18
  examination of Matthew chapter 15, specifically focusing on
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  verses 15 through 20. And I think, I think we really
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  need to set the stage right off the bat here, right?
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  Because if you just kind of glance at the heading in your
• 0:32
  Bible, or maybe you just skim the first few verses of the
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  chapter, you might assume we're about to have this, you know,
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  riveting conversation about hygiene.
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  Right. Or, or some sort of debate on
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  table manners. Yeah, you know which fork to use
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  for the salad, or how long you need to scrub your hands with
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  soap before. Dinner.
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  And that would be a very short, very boring discussion.
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  Absolutely. But this deep dive is not about
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  washing your hands before you eat a sandwich.
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  It is a forensic analysis of the human condition.
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  It really is. I mean, it is one of the most
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  surgical sections of scripture where Jesus essentially acts as
• 1:06
  a cardiologist. He bypasses all the surface
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  issues, the symptoms really, and go straight to the source of the
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  problem. And the conflict here is
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  massive. We aren't just looking at a
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  little theological disagreement between a couple of friends.
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  We are seeing a pretty violent clash of worldviews.
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  On one side you have the Pharisees and their perdition of
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  the elders, which represented the absolute peak of human
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  religious achievement at the time.
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  And then on the other side, you have Jesus offering a radical
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  and honestly, a pretty terrifying diagnosis of the
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  human heart. That is the whole mission for
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  this discussion today. We want to do what the text
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  does, which is dismantle the illusion of external
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  righteousness. We want to peel back all those
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  layers of religious performance, the cultural niceties, all that
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  moralistic behavior, and uncover the doctrine of total depravity
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  as it was presented by Christ himself.
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  To do that, we are leaning heavily on 2 theological essays
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  1 is titled Jesus's Doctrine of Defilement and the other is The
• 2:04
  Anatomy of. Gravity.
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  Both fantastic sources. And just so everyone listening
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  knows where we are standing, because context is always key,
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  we are approaching this from a reformed theological
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  perspective. We hold to the Westminster
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  Confession as our framework. Which is really crucial for you
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  to understand as you listen, because this perspective changes
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  the stakes completely. This isn't just a talk about,
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  you know, how to be a better person or moral improvement.
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  This is about the very nature of man, the nature of sin, and the
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  absolute necessity of sovereign grace.
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  Because if you missed the diagnosis, the cure just makes
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  no sense. So let's get into Section 1 and
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  really set the scene properly. We are in Galilee, but the text
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  tells us that scribes and Pharisees arrived from
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  Jerusalem. Why does Matthew make sure to
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  include that specific geographical detail?
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  That detail is everything. You have to understand the
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  political dynamic going on here. Jerusalem is the headquarters.
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  It's the center of gravity for 1st century Judaism.
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  The big leagues. Yeah, these aren't just local
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  critics or the village rabbi checking in on things.
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  These are the religious heavy They've traveled a significant
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  distance. We're talking about 80 to 100
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  miles, which is a multi day hike specifically to audit Jesus.
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  They are essentially A delegation sent from
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  headquarters to investigate a threat.
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  It feels like an inquisitorial squad.
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  That is precisely what it is. Jesus is making waves and the
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  religious establishment is feeling threatened.
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  So they send the top experts out there to find a flaw.
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  They're looking for a crack in his theology or his daily
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  practice. And the accusation they actually
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  bring seems, at least to our modern years, almost laughable.
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  After all this travel, all this effort, they walk up and say,
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  Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?
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  For they do not wash their hands when they eat.
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  It sounds incredibly petty, doesn't it?
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  It sounds like my mother catching me before dinner when I
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  was 8 years old. But we really have to clarify
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  this immediately. This has zero to do with
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  hygiene. This is not about germs.
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  This is not about bacteria or viruses or avoiding E coli.
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  They didn't know about microbes back then.
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  Lou Pester hadn't been born yet. So if I am a disciple and I eat
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  a piece of bread with dirty hands, the Pharisees aren't
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  worried I'm going to get a stomach ache.
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  Not at all. They are worried about
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  ceremonial propriety. This is all about ritual
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  defilement. You see, over the centuries, the
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  Jewish leaders had built what they called a fence around the
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  law. Let's unpack that concept for a
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  second. The fence.
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  So God gave the Torah the law, which was perfect.
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  For example, the law says keep the Sabbath holy.
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  That is the command. But the scribes over the years
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  thought we need to make sure nobody even gets close to
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  breaking that law. So let's make extra rules to
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  protect it. OK, so they instituted all these
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  microscopic rules about how many steps you could walk on the
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  Sabbath or whether you could carry a needle in your robe.
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  Like a buffer zone. The logic being, if I don't
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  cross the fence, I certainly won't cross the actual line of
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  the law. Precisely.
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  It starts with a good intention, right?
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  But what happens over time? The fence becomes more prominent
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  than the house. It's protecting the tradition of
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  the elders. This massive oral law that had
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  accumulated became the absolute standard by which they judged
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  holiness. They fully believed that if you
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  didn't perform this specific ceremonial washing, pouring
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  water over the hands in a very specific way, letting it run
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  down to the West, you were spiritually unclean.
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  You were unfit for God. And that brings us to this
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  broader concept of externalism, because this wasn't just about
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  water, was it? It was an entire worldview.
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  Yes. Externalism is basically the
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  default religion of the human heart.
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  It is the idea that I can measure my standing with God by
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  things that are visible, controllable, and manageable.
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  I can control whether I wash my hands.
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  I can control what clothes I wear.
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  I can control what kind of meat I eat.
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  And if I do those things, I feel righteous.
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  I feel superior to the guy over there who doesn't do them.
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  It's a checklist spirituality. It is, and it is incredibly
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  dangerous because it allows you to feel holy while your heart is
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  completely far from God. You can be a quote UN quote,
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  good person on the outside and an absolute monster on the
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  inside. The sources highlight a specific
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  example Jesus uses to expose this hypocrisy and it is
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  fascinating to read the Corbin loophole.
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  We need to break this down because it sounds like something
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  a crooked accountant would come up with in a white collar crime
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  drama. It really does.
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  One of our sources calls it legalized disobedience.
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  Here is the scenario. The 5th commandment is very
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  clear. Honor your father and mother.
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  Right. Now, in that culture and frankly
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  in the biblical world view as a whole, that isn't just about
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  being polite or sending a card on Mother's Day, it includes
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  financial support. In their old age.
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  There was no Social Security back then.
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  The family unit was the safety net, OK.
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  So you have a binding God-given duty to care for your aging
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  parents. That is crystal clear correct.
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  But let's say you have a significant amount of money or
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  property and you are greedy. You don't really want to spend
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  that capital on your parents medical care or housing.
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  You want to keep it in your own estate.
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  The Pharisees had developed this tradition called korban and.
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  What does that mean? You can declare your assets as
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  korban, which essentially means given to God or dedicated to the
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  temple. So it's a religious donation?
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  Theoretically, but in practice the tradition allowed for a
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  massive loophole. You could designate your money
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  as korban, which meant it was spiritually dedicated to the
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  temple, but you could often retain the use of fruit.
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  The right to actually use it during your lifetime.
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  Oh wow. However, because it was now
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  technically holy, you couldn't give it to anyone else.
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  I think I see where this is going.
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  So your elderly father comes to you and says, son, I can't
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  afford food, I need some help. And you look at him and say, oh,
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  Dad, I would absolutely love to help you.
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  My heart breaks for you. But this money, this property,
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  it is Corbin. It belongs to God.
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  My hands are tied. I can't use God's money to pay
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  for your groceries. Wow, so they used a religious
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  vow to completely dodge a moral obligation?
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  Spot on. They pitted their human
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  tradition against the direct written command of God that was
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  incredibly pious to everyone around them.
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  Look how much he has consecrated to the Lord.
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  But in reality, they were violating the law of God just to
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  protect their own greed. They were hiding their
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  selfishness behind a mask of extreme devotion.
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  That is insidious. It is literally using God's name
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  to break God's law. It is and that is why Jesus's
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  verdict here is so harsh. He doesn't say, well you guys
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  are trying hard, but you are a little misguided.
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  Let's redirect. He flat out calls them
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  hypocrites. He quotes Isaiah 29.
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  This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far
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  from me. That distinction?
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  Lips versus heart seems to be the core of the whole issue.
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  It is the absolute thesis of the whole passage.
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  You can have the right theological vocabulary.
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  You can have the right liturgy. You can be socially admired in
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  your town as a religious pillar. The guy who never misses a
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  service. Yes, the guy who knows all the
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  hymns by heart, But if the heart is estranged from God, the
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  worship is vain, it is empty, it is just noise.
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  So Jesus exposes this massive hypocrisy.
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  He turns to the crowd and tells them it's not what goes into the
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  mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth.
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  And then we get to Section 2 because the disciples are
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  confused. And I find their reaction so
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  interesting. They are very confused and
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  anxious honestly. Peter comes up to Jesus later
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  when they're inside the house away from the crowds, and says,
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  explain the parable to us. And that is such a telling
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  moment in the text because, as one of our sources points out,
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  it wasn't actually a parable. It was a plain statement, right?
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  What goes in doesn't defile. That is not a story about a
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  sower or a mustard seed. There's no hidden metaphor.
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  It was a categorical statement of biological and spiritual
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  fact. But Peter calls it a parable
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  because his brain simply cannot process it literally.
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  It is so radical, so contrary to everything he has ever been
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  taught since he was a small child in Sunday school or
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  synagogue school. But he thinks, surely, Jesus,
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  you must be speaking in a Riddle.
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  You can't possibly mean that the dietary laws and the washing
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  traditions don't make us clean. It is almost like cognitive
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  dissonance. His brain is rejecting the
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  literal meaning because the implications are just too
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  shattering to his worldview. Completely.
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  The cultural conditioning went so incredibly deep.
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  They were raised in a Levitical system where holiness was
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  entirely about separation. Don't touch the dead body.
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  Don't eat the pork. Don't touch the leper.
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  Holiness was maintained by avoiding contamination from the
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  outside world. And Jesus rebukes them for this.
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  He says. Are you also still without
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  understanding? He doesn't pull his punches at
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  all. He essentially says, are you
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  guys still thinking like Pharisees?
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  Have you been with me this long and you still don't get the
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  fundamental nature of the Kingdom?
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  What is the nature of this understanding they lack?
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  Is it that they aren't smart enough?
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  Is this an intellectual failure on Peter's part?
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  No, it is not an IQ problem. It is a spiritual perception
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  problem. It is spiritual blindness.
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  The text talks about blind guides.
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  Jesus warns that if the blind lead the blind, both fall into a
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  pit. That is a terrifying image for
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  the church today, honestly. It should be because it means
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  that you can be totally sincere, you can be zealous, you can be
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  strict. The Pharisees were very strict,
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  disciplined men. But if your diagnosis of the
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  problem is wrong, your cure will be wrong.
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  If you think the problem is dirt on my hands, the cure is
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  washing. But if the problem is actually
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  sin in my heart, washing your hands is completely useless.
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  It is like putting a Band-Aid on a massive internal hemorrhage.
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  It doesn't treat the actual disease.
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  So Jesus has to give them a literal lesson in anatomy.
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  He breaks it down to the bare basics.
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  This brings us to Section 3, the biology of defilement.
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  And he gets oddly specific here. He draws a sharp line between
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  two organs, the stomach, which in Greek is the culia, and the
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  heart, decordia. Let's talk about the stomach
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  first. Jesus describes a process.
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  Food enters the mouth, goes to the stomach and is expelled.
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  It is a biological loop, yeah, and our sources point out that
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  the Greek word used for where it ends up after and referred
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  specifically to the latrine or the sewer.
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  It is earthy language. He's not sugar coating.
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  It it is very earthy. Jesus is being graphic on
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  purpose. He is stripping away all the
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  religious mystique of the food laws.
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  He's saying look at the food, It is physical matter.
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  You chew it, you swallow it, your body extract the nutrients
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  it needs and the waste goes right into the sewer.
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  And the logic is that this physical process cannot possibly
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  touch the soul. That's it.
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  It is a category error. Food is material.
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  The soul is immaterial. You cannot stain your conscience
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  with a pork chop. You cannot corrupt your moral
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  nature just by having unwashed hands.
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  The source material explicitly calls it a category error.
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  The Pharisees were treating the soul as if it were a physical
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  vessel, like a cup that gets dirty from the outside
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  environment. But Jesus says no, the stomach
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  and the soul are not connected in that way.
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  The stomach handles fuel. It doesn't handle morality.
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  So having dismissed the stomach, and really by extension the
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  entire system of external dietary holiness, he pivots to
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  the heart, verse 18. But what comes out of the mouth
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  proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.
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  The Greek verb there is akoriomi, which means to proceed
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  out or to issue forth. It indicates a very strong
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  internal emission. It is almost volcanic language.
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  Now, when the Bible talks about the heart, we need to be
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  careful, right? Because in our modern culture,
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  the heart is the Valentine's Day organ.
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  It is all about feelings, romance, sentimentality.
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  Correct. We tend to think of the heart as
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  the seat of emotion, and the brain is the seat of the
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  intellect. But in biblical anthropology, in
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  the Hebrew worldview, the Cardia or Lev in Hebrew is the command
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  center of the entire person. It includes the intellect, the
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  will, the desires, the emotions, and the moral agency.
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  It is the cockpit of the soul. So when Jesus says speech comes
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  from the heart, he means it comes from our core identity,
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  the very center of who we are. Yes, the mouth is just the
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  overflow valve. The mouth doesn't create evil,
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  it reveals it. You know, we often say things
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  like, oh, I didn't mean to say that it just slipped out or I
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  was just tired. That wasn't the real me I've.
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  Said that. We all have, but Jesus would say
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  no. It slipped out because it was
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  already in there. It was the real you.
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  Speech is the audible evidence of the hearts true condition.
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  That brings us to the massive theological shift in this
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  passage. Jesus is relocating the source
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  of impurity. It is not on the plate, It is in
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  the person. And that is the terrifying part
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  of his message. If the problem is on the plate,
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  I could just avoid that specific food.
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  If the problem is my neighborhood environment, I can
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  move to a new city. But if the problem is in me, if
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  the contaminate is my own nature, then I'm in deep
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  trouble. I can't run away from myself.
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  And that leads us directly into Section 4, the anatomy of
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  depravity. Because Jesus doesn't just make
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  a vague statement that bad things come out.
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  He gives a list a very specific catalog and it is ugly.
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  He does, and this is where we get into the doctrine of total
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  depravity, which is central to Reformed theology and is mapped
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  out in Chapter 6 of the Westminster Confession.
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  Can we define total depravity quickly for the listener?
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  Because some people hear that term and they immediately think
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  it means we are all as bad as we could possibly be.
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  Like everyone is a serial killer or a complete monster.
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  Right. That is a very common
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  misunderstanding. Total refers to extent, not
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  degree. Extent, yes, doesn't mean we are
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  as bad as we could be. God's common grace restrains us
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  from acting out every evil impulse.
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  Society and laws restrain us, but it means that corruption
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  extends to every single part of our nature.
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  Our mind, our will, our affections.
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  They are all tainted by sin. We are not born neutral.
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  We aren't blank slates. No, we are not blank slates
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  waiting for society to write on us.
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  That is the Enlightenment view. The biblical view which John
• 16:01
  Calvin articulated so so well is that the heart is a factory of
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  idols. The source material uses the
• 16:07
  phrase morally bent. We come into the world with a
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  gravitational pull towards self and away from God.
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  So let's look at this list Jesus gives in verse 19.
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  He starts with evil thoughts. Dad.
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  Logismoy, Poneroy. Why do you think he puts that
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  one first? Well, based on what we just said
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  about the heart, it seems like it's the root, the planning
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  stage before anything else happens.
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  Precisely. It is the seedbed.
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  Before you ever commit a murder, you have a thought of anger.
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  Before you commit adultery, you have a thought of lust.
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  Before you steal, you have a covetous thought.
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  Sin always begins in the imagination.
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  It begins in the internal calculation.
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  The source actually quotes Genesis 6.5.
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  Here. The intent of the thoughts of
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  man's heart is only evil continually.
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  It is a devastating consistency we see throughout Scripture.
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  The problem starts in the invisible realm of our thoughts.
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  And let's be real, if we were judged solely on our thoughts,
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  the things absolutely nobody else sees, we would all be
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  condemned on the spot. Then he moves to the violation
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  of the Decalogue, the 10 commandments, murders,
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  adulteries, sexual immorality, thefts, false witness, slander.
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  Notice the plural in the Greek there murders, adulteries.
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  It implies a lifestyle, a habit. Pattern is not just a one off
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  event, it is a production line of sin.
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  Let's break a few of these down. Sexual immorality Pornii.
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  This is a broad term. It covers everything outside of
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  the bounds of biblical marriage. But Jesus back in the Sermon on
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  the Mount, connects this directly back to the heart.
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  He says if you look with lust, you have already committed
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  adultery in your heart, right? So this includes pornography.
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  It includes internal fantasies. It includes the cultivation of
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  desire for someone who isn't your spouse.
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  The Pharisee says I haven't committed the physical acts, so
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  my hands are clean. Jesus says you undressed her in
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  your mind. Your heart is thoroughly
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  defiled. Then there is theft.
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  Which is driven by a profound dissatisfaction with what God
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  has given you and a desire to take what belongs to another
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  person. Again, it is a heart issue,
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  greed and a lack of trust in God's provision.
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  It's not just holding up a gas station.
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  No, It is time theft at work when you're supposed to be on
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  the clock. It is fudging the numbers on
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  your taxes. It is the internal desire to get
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  something for nothing at someone else's expense.
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  And then the last two on the list, false witness and slander.
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  Sins of the tongue. It is really interesting that
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  Jesus put slander on the exact same list as murder.
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  That feels jarring to read. That is a very weighty
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  observation. We tend to rank sins in our
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  minds. We think murder is a level 10
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  sin, and talking behind someone's back is maybe a level
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  2 sin. Maybe a Level 3 if the gossip is
• 18:45
  really mean. Right, we say.
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  I'm just venting or I'm just sharing a prayer request about
• 18:49
  how awful they are. Exactly.
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  Or rather, that is spot on. We sanitize it, we dress it up,
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  but Christ puts them in the same category of defilement.
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  Why? Because slander kills a
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  reputation. It literally murders a person
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  standing in the community and it proceeds from a heart full of
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  malice or envy. The source material mentions
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  that we so often minimize sins of the tongue, but Christ sees
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  them as glaring evidence of a defiled nature.
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  If you want to know the physical health of a patient, a doctor
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  checks the vitals. If you want to know the health
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  of the soul, listen to the mouth.
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  If the mouth is constantly full of gossip, criticism, and
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  deceit, the heart is terribly sick.
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  You cannot have a pure heart and a filthy mouth.
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  James makes the exact same point in his epistle.
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  Can both freshwater and saltwater flow from the same
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  spring? No.
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  This brings us to Section 5, the theological synthesis.
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  We need to zoom out for a minute and look at the anthropology,
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  the doctrine of man that Jesus is teaching here, because this
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  is incredibly countercultural today.
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  This text completely destroys the modern secular idea of
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  humanity. Which is what?
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  What is the prevailing narrative you're talking about?
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  The prevailing view today is that people are inherently good.
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  You hear it all the time. Deep down, people are basically
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  good. So if someone does something
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  bad, the immediate assumption is that it is because they were a
• 20:08
  victim of systemic oppression, or they had bad parents, or they
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  grew up poor, or they lacked proper education.
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  So the. Evil is located in the external
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  structure, not the person. Right.
• 20:19
  Modern sociology and frameworks like critical race theory often
• 20:23
  locate the primary source of evil in systems and structures.
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  Now, to be fair, systems can absolutely be corrupt.
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  Reformed theology readily acknowledges that sinful men
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  create sinful systems. Of course.
• 20:35
  But Jesus locates the absolute source of the corruption in the
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  individual heart. The system is broken because the
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  people building it are broken. That's the ticket.
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  We are not sinners because we sin.
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  We sin because we are sinners. That is a sticky phrase.
• 20:48
  We sin because we are sinners. Can we unpack that a bit more?
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  It means the condition precedes the action.
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  Think about an apple tree. An apple tree produces apples
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  because it is an apple tree. It doesn't become an apple tree
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  the very first time it pops out a piece of fruit.
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  It was already that. By his very nature, a Sinner
• 21:06
  produces sin because he has a sin nature.
• 21:09
  This also addresses the total failure of religion and
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  moralism. It shows that hand washing or
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  any human ritual cannot clean the heart.
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  You can institute all the social programs you want.
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  You can force everyone to use the approved political
• 21:22
  vocabulary. You can have seeker sensitive
• 21:25
  church services that give you practical tips for living.
• 21:27
  Five steps to a better you, right?
• 21:30
  But if you don't address the heart you were just painting
• 21:32
  over rust, we can have a very clean life, a great job, a nice
• 21:36
  family, polite manners, while the heart inside is seething
• 21:39
  with bitterness, pride and practical atheism.
• 21:42
  Jesus calls it a whitewashed tomb, beautiful on the outside,
• 21:45
  full of dead bones on the inside.
• 21:47
  It is the ultimate verdict on externalism.
• 21:49
  It is a cosmetic solution to a terminal illness.
• 21:52
  So if the diagnosis is this bleak, if the heart is a factory
• 21:57
  of idols and we can't wash it, clean ourselves, and education
• 22:00
  can't fix it, where is the hope that moves us right into Section
• 22:04
  6, Christological fulfillment? This is where the Law leads us
• 22:08
  to the Gospel. This is the pivot point of the
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  entire Christian faith. Explain the function of the law
• 22:13
  here. Why does Jesus hit them so hard
• 22:16
  with this brutal list of sins? The law acts as a mirror.
• 22:20
  It shows us the dirt on our faces.
• 22:21
  It acts as a diagnostic hammer. When Jesus lists those sins,
• 22:26
  evil thoughts, murder, slander, He is holding up the mirror to
• 22:29
  the Pharisees and to us. He is saying this is what you
• 22:32
  are. And the result of looking in
• 22:34
  that mirror. It shuts every single mouth.
• 22:36
  Romans 3 says the law stops every mouth and holds the whole
• 22:38
  world accountable to God. We can't say it but I tried
• 22:41
  really hard. The mirror says you are defiled.
• 22:44
  It strips us of our self righteousness.
• 22:46
  It kills the Pharisee inside of us.
• 22:47
  So education is useless for salvation.
• 22:49
  Rituals are useless for salvation.
• 22:51
  We need a transplant. We need what is ECO 36 promises.
• 22:55
  God says I will remove the heart of stone and give you a heart of
• 22:57
  flesh. We need a completely new nature.
• 23:00
  We don't need a remodel. We need a resurrection.
• 23:03
  And this is where Christ comes into the picture.
• 23:04
  This is the great exchange. Jesus is the only human being in
• 23:08
  history who actually had a pure heart.
• 23:11
  He never had an evil thought. He never coveted.
• 23:14
  He never slandered anyone. He honored his Father perfectly
• 23:17
  from the cradle to the grave. And yet, look at the list of
• 23:19
  sins in Matthew 15. Murder.
• 23:22
  False witness. Those were the very sins used
• 23:24
  against him. Think of the irony of the cross.
• 23:27
  False witnesses lied about him at his trial to get a
• 23:29
  conviction. Murderers killed him.
• 23:32
  He, the pure 1, was crushed by the very defilement he described
• 23:35
  in this passage. He took the brunt of the human
• 23:37
  heart's absolute defilement. He takes the defilement, we get
• 23:40
  His righteousness. That is the doctrine of
• 23:42
  imputation. On the cross He takes our filth,
• 23:46
  our evil thoughts, our slander, our lust.
• 23:48
  He drinks that cup down to the dregs.
• 23:50
  And by faith he gives us his perfect record.
• 23:53
  He gives us his clean hands and His pure heart.
• 23:56
  It is fascinating to look at this through the lens of
• 23:58
  redemptive history. The Old Testament had all those
• 24:01
  ceremonial laws. Don't eat pork, wash your hands.
• 24:03
  Don't touch a dead body. Those were shadows.
• 24:05
  There were visual aids for a nation in its infancy.
• 24:09
  God was teaching his people, I am holy and you are not.
• 24:12
  You need to be clean to be near me.
• 24:15
  It was a pedagogy. But the shadow isn't the
• 24:17
  reality, no. Jesus is the substance.
• 24:20
  He shows that the true cleansing must be spiritual.
• 24:23
  We don't need a bath, we need a blood sacrifice.
• 24:26
  We need the blood of Christ to cleanse the conscience from dead
• 24:28
  works. So justification is forensic.
• 24:32
  We are legally declared righteous in God's courtroom.
• 24:35
  But what about the actual change you mentioned?
• 24:37
  Ezekiel giving a new heart. That is sanctification.
• 24:40
  When you come to Christ, He doesn't just declare you legal.
• 24:43
  He begins to change you from the inside out.
• 24:45
  He puts His Spirit inside you. And that brings us to the
• 24:48
  application of all this, because we don't just sit there with
• 24:51
  this knowledge. Let's get into Section 7.
• 24:53
  How do we live this out? Let's start with the person
• 24:56
  listening right now who might not be a believer.
• 24:58
  Maybe they think they are a good person.
• 25:00
  They pay their taxes on time. They help old ladies across the
• 25:03
  street. This text is a massive wake up
• 25:06
  call for that person. It is a summons to stop trusting
• 25:10
  in your own goodness if you think you are good just because
• 25:14
  you haven't literally killed anyone or robbed a bank.
• 25:17
  Jesus says look at your thoughts, look at your hidden
• 25:19
  anger, look at your private lust.
• 25:22
  The heart is black as soot, as one of the sources puts it.
• 25:25
  It is, and the only appropriate response is to flee to Christ.
• 25:28
  You have to admit I cannot clean myself.
• 25:30
  You have to ask Him for regeneration.
• 25:32
  You have to ask Him to wash you. You have to resign from being
• 25:34
  the Savior of your own soul. Now, what about the believer,
• 25:38
  the person who loves Jesus and is justified?
• 25:40
  Does this text mean we should walk around feeling guilty all
• 25:43
  the time about our evil thoughts?
• 25:44
  Should we be paralyzed by introspection?
• 25:47
  No, for the believer, this is what Reformed theology calls the
• 25:51
  third use of the law. It guides our gratitude.
• 25:54
  We respond not with terror of condemnation, but with grateful
• 25:58
  obedience. We aren't working for our
• 26:00
  salvation. We are working from our
• 26:02
  salvation. How does that work practically
• 26:04
  in daily life? It is called the mortification
• 26:06
  of sin. Because we have a new heart, we
• 26:09
  now actually have the power to fight the old habits.
• 26:13
  We must police our evil thoughts.
• 26:15
  So when a slanderous thought about a Co worker pops up.
• 26:18
  We kill it. We don't entertain it.
• 26:20
  We don't say, well it is true, so I should probably say it.
• 26:23
  We say no, That proceeds from the old nature.
• 26:25
  My new heart loves my neighbor. I reject that thought.
• 26:28
  And repentance becomes very specific, doesn't it it?
• 26:31
  Does it changes from a generic God, I'm sorry, I made a mistake
• 26:34
  today. To God, forgive me, my heart
• 26:36
  produced bitterness. Today my heart produced pride.
• 26:39
  We name the root, we own the defilement, and we bring it to
• 26:42
  the cross immediately. And we use the means of grace to
• 26:45
  help us. Yes, the word prayer, the
• 26:48
  sacraments. These aren't magic rituals like
• 26:51
  the Pharisees hand washing, they are the ordained ways the Holy
• 26:55
  Spirit renews our minds. Speaking of sacraments, there is
• 26:57
  a beautiful contrast with the Lord's Supper here.
• 27:00
  There really is. Jesus talked about food going
• 27:02
  into the stomach and being expelled, purely physical going
• 27:05
  to the latrine. But in the Lord's Supper we eat
• 27:08
  bread and drink wine. Physically yes it goes to the
• 27:11
  stomach, but spiritually, by faith we are feeding on Christ.
• 27:15
  We are being nourished in the inner man.
• 27:17
  It is the exact opposite of the Pharisees empty ritual.
• 27:21
  It is a meal that genuinely strengthens the new.
• 27:23
  That is a beautiful picture. It flips the whole dynamic on
• 27:26
  its head. It does.
• 27:27
  So as we wrap up, let's summarize the main takeaways.
• 27:30
  Jesus moved the debate entirely. The Pharisees wanted to talk
• 27:33
  about hands. Jesus insisted on talking about
• 27:35
  the. Heart, the bad news is far worse
• 27:37
  than we thought. We are more sinful than we dared
• 27:40
  imagine. Total depravity is a reality.
• 27:43
  But the good news is better than we hoped.
• 27:45
  We are more loved and accepted in Christ than we dared hope.
• 27:48
  Sovereign grace is a reality. Here is the final challenge for
• 27:51
  you listening today. Stop looking at the clean hands
• 27:55
  of your neighbor or yourself. Stop looking at the Instagram
• 27:58
  highlight reel. Stop looking at the religious
• 28:01
  resume. Look at the mouth.
• 28:03
  Listen to the words. The mouth reveals the true state
• 28:06
  of the heart. If the fountain is polluted,
• 28:08
  don't try to paint the pump. You can't fix a poisoned well by
• 28:12
  decorating the bucket. You need to ask God to cleanse
• 28:15
  the spring and. We will leave you with this
• 28:17
  thought, a specific provocation straight from our sources, if
• 28:21
  your thoughts from the last 24 hours.
• 28:23
  Every single judgement, every lustful glance, every jealous
• 28:27
  spike, every calculated deception, if all of that were
• 28:31
  projected on a giant screen for everyone you know to see.
• 28:34
  Would you still claim to be a good person?
• 28:36
  Or would you run to the only one who can wash you white as snow?
• 28:39
  That is the question we all have to answer.
• 28:41
  Thanks for listening to Reformed Thinking.
• 28:43
  We'll see you in the next deep dive.
• 28:44
  Goodbye.