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The HEART of the Matter
Logos Bible Fellowship
11/14/2007
Breakdown of Passage
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The Inadequacy of Tradition (vv.1-2)
The Importance of Scripture (vv.3-6)
The Indictment of Hypocrites (vv.7-9)
The Inner Nature of Sin (vv.10-11, 15-20)
The Impact on the Kingdom (vv.12-14)
Jesus speaks to the Pharisees (vv.1-9)
Jesus speaks to the crowd (vv.10-11)
Jesus speaks to the disciples (vv.12-20)
The Confrontation (vv.1-9)
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The Pharisees and Scribes accused the
disciples of eating bread with impure hands
 Jesus charged them with setting aside,
transgressing, and invalidating the
commandment of God for the traditions of men
 Jesus forcefully chastised them and indicted
them on three charges:
1.Cold and heartless externalism
2.Vain/false worship
3.Elevation of tradition over Scripture
The Inner Nature of Sin
(vv.10-11, 15-20)
After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them,
"Hear and understand. "It is not what enters into the
mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out
of the mouth, this defiles the man.“…Peter said to
Him, "Explain the parable to us." Jesus said, "Are
you still lacking in understanding also? "Do you not
understand that everything that goes into the mouth
passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? "But the
things that proceed out of the mouth come from the
heart, and those defile the man. "For out of the heart
come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. "These
are the things which defile the man; but to eat with
unwashed hands does not defile the man. (Matthew
15:10-11,15-20)
Clean Hands or a Clean Heart?
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For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I
would give it; You are not pleased with burnt
offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God,
You will not despise. (Psalm 51:16-17)
for the kingdom of God is not eating and
drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy
in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14:17-18)
Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
And who may stand in His holy place? He who
has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has
not lifted up his soul to falsehood And has not
sworn deceitfully. (Psalm 24:3-4)
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall
see God. (Matthew 5:8)
Our High Calling
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You shall love the LORD your God with all your
heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
mind. This is the great and foremost
commandment. The second is like it…On
these two commands depend the whole Law
and the Prophets. (Matthew 22:37-40)
We are commanded to: look for (Deut 4:29),
seek (Jer 29:13), turn to (Deut 30:10), believe
(Prov 4:4), trust (Prov 3:5), love (Deut 6:5),
fear (Deut 10:12), serve (Deut 11:13), obey
(Deut 30:2), follow (Deut 26:16), and rejoice in
(Zeph 3:14) God all your heart!
Have you ever done anything with all your
heart? Is it possible?
The Pharisee’s Hearts Were Evil
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You brood of vipers, how can you, being
evil, speak what is good? For the mouth
speaks out of that which fills the heart.
The good man brings out of his good
treasure what is good; and the evil man
brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.
(Matthew 12:34-35)
So you, too, outwardly appear righteous
to men, but inwardly you are full of
hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew
23:28)
All Unregenerate Hearts are Evil
…the intent of man's heart is evil from his
youth (Genesis 8:21)
 The heart is deceitful above all things, And
desperately wicked; (Jeremiah 17:9)
 But because of your stubbornness and
unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath
for yourself (Romans 2:5)
 the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their
mind, being darkened in their
understanding, excluded from the life of
God…because of the hardness of their
heart; (Ephesians 4:17)
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Unregenerate Hearts Love Sin
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for where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also (Matthew 6:21)
 This is the judgment, that the Light has
come into the world, and men loved the
darkness rather than the Light, for their
deeds were evil. (John 3:19)
 all will be condemned who have not
believed the truth but have delighted in
wickedness. (2 Thess. 2:12)
Externalism – The Wrong Solution
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“Since food is merely physical, no one
who eats it will defile his heart or inner
person, which is spiritual. Physical
pollution, no matter how corrupt, cannot
cause spiritual or moral pollution. Neither
can external ceremonies and rituals
cleanse a person spiritually.”
~ John MacArthur
What does this say about nature versus
nurture? What about the nature of
sacraments/ordinances?
The New Birth – The Only Solution
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For neither is circumcision anything, nor
uncircumcision, but a new creation. (Gal. 6:15)
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD And
remove the foreskins of your heart (Jer. 4:4)
But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and
circumcision is that which is of the heart, by
the Spirit (Romans 2:29)
The LORD your God will circumcise your heart
and the heart of your descendants, to love the
LORD your God with all your heart and with all
your soul, so that you may live. (Deut. 30:6)
The New Birth – The Only Solution
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Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless
one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter
into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the
flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You
must be born [from above].' (John 3:5-7)
Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you
will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your
filthiness and from all your idols. "Moreover, I will
give you a new heart and put a new spirit within
you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your
flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My
Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My
statutes (Ezekiel 36:25-27)
I will put My law within them and on their heart I
will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall
be My people. (Jeremiah 31:33)
The New Birth, the Word, & Faith
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But as many as received Him, to them He gave the
right to become children of God, even to those who
believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor
of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
(John 1:12-13)
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have
done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by
the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy
Spirit (Titus 3:5)
That He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the
washing of water with the word (Ephesians 5:26)
A woman named Lydia…was listening; and the Lord
opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by
Paul. (Acts 16:14)
What does this say about the power of God’s Word?
What does it say about the character of an
uncircumcised heart verses the character of a
circumcised heart?
The Impact on the Kingdom
(vv.12-14)
Then the disciples came and said to
Him, "Do You know that the Pharisees
were offended when they heard this
statement?" But He answered and
said, "Every plant which My heavenly
Father did not plant shall be uprooted.
"Let them alone; they are blind guides
of the blind. And if a blind man guides
a blind man, both will fall into a pit."
(Matthew 15:12-14)
The Impact on the Kingdom
(vv.12-14)
An application of the parable of the
wheat and tares (tares were planted by
Satan, not God – c.f. John 8:44)
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You have planted them, and they have taken
root; they grow and bear fruit. You are
always on their lips but far from their hearts.
(Jeremiah 12:2)
I will build them up and not tear them down;
I will plant them and not uproot them. I will
give them a heart to know me, that I am the
LORD. They will be my people, and I will be
their God (Jeremiah 24:6-7)
The Bottom Line
“When we remember that the Pharisees
were the most highly regarded men of
religion of their day, we see how
shocking this is. By these words, Jesus
was not only condemning their system,
He was condemning the best of human
religion, saying that all human efforts to
please God are external and vain, and
that the only thing that really matters is a
radical change of heart.”
~ James Montgomery Boice
Your Choice…
“…a love of tradition more than a genuine love of
God always leads to false religion [and] selfrighteousness…[which] does not bring a
person into heaven. Rather, it leads to
judgment and death since the only possible
basis for our justification before God is Christ’s
righteousness, not our own.”
~ James Montgomery Boice
 Do you stand before God with clean hands
only or with a new, clean heart?
 How will you reject unbiblical traditions and
teach others to do the same?