Clean Hands or Clean Heart?

1. Read: Matthew 15:10-20

2. About the Text:

1) Peter calls Jesus’ saying in verse 10, a parable (v.15).

2) It was a proverb of Jesus that was difficult to understand. Why?

3) We are conditioned by life and our culture to expect external problems.

a. Some problems are external.

b. The Pharisees focused on the external alone.

c. Jesus said, “But all their works they do to be seen by men” (Matthew 23:5).

4) Not all problems are external in nature.

5) The bigger threat lies within each one of our hearts.

6) It is easier to have clean hands than to have a clean heart.

3. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. The Pharisees had a definition of defilement.

1) “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread” (Matthew 15:2).

2) It had its origins in the law of Moses.

a. Contact with certain bodily discharges rendered them “defiled.”

b. “And whomever the one who has the discharge touches, and has not rinsed his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening” (Leviticus 15:11).

c. To remove the impurity, they were commanded to wash their hands.

3) The Pharisees had expanded upon this commandment to more circumstances.

a. Before eating bread.

b. After eating bread.

c. Before eating dipped fruit and vegetables.

d. Before worship.

e. Before the priestly blessing.

f. After sleeping.

g. After touching certain parts of the body.

h. After leaving a restroom, bathhouse, or lavatory.

i. After leaving a cemetery.

j. After cutting one’s hair or fingernails.

k. After coming within proximity to a dead body.

l. Before certain types of religious work.

4) Those who did not do this were assigned moral guilt, unchastity, and unholiness.

5) Failure to wash hands was deemed sinful.

2. Jesus had a definition of defilement.

1) What it is not.

a. It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles us (v.11).

a) It goes into the stomach and is eliminated (v.17).

b) Defilement does not originate from an outside source.

b. Eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person (v.20).

2) What it is.

a. What comes out of the mouth defiles a person (v.11).

b. Those things come from the heart (v.18).

c. It is what is in the heart that defiles a person (v.18).

d. Sin originates in the heart (v.19).

e. Sin is what defiles a person (v.19).

f. “Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

1. The Pharisees believed that defilement came from external sources.

1) They believed that righteousness came from ritualistic perfectionism.

2) They were obsessed with not contacting the gentiles in the marketplace.

3) “When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches” (Mark 7:4).

4) It is always some external threat that is causing the problem, not self.

2. Jesus taught that defilement came from internal sources.

1) Defilement is not a failure of ritual, but a corruption of the heart.

2) “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.” Jeremiah 17:9-10

3) Self is the fundamental problem, not everyone else.

4) “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man” (Mark 7:21-22).

1. It is easy to believe and respond to external sources of defilement.

1) It is easy to have clean hands.; I just wash my hands and go on my way.

2) No internal change is required.

3) I hold everyone else responsible for my problems but myself.

4) If we continue in this thinking, we will make no moral progress.

5) That is the great danger!

6) “But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there” (James 3:14-16).

2. In that regard, the Pharisees were the blind leading the blind.

1) They could not see the internal problems they had for their focus on the externals.

2) This is the real menace because it does not deal with problem of the human heart.

3) False righteousness only results in false purity.

4) The outside is clean, but the inside never gets clean!

5) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence” (Matthew 23:25).

6) They have clean hands, but do not have a clean heart.

3. We must confess that sin originates in our own hearts!

1) “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).

2) “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (James 1:14-15).

4. When we recognize this truth, we can take ownership of our own lives.

1) I must try to recognize my own sins and respond to them.

2) “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified” (2 Corinthians 13:5).

3) We are required to change/repent.

4) I must take ownership of my life.

5) I must have a clean heart.

6) “Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 18:31).

5. The great menace to spirituality is not owning one’s own life and choices!

1. We learn how to take responsibility when we realize the . . .

1) Meaning of Defilement

2) Manner of Defilement

3) Menace of Defilement

2. Invitation