At the Heart of the Matter

[0:00] What makes us unclean in God's sight? What makes us unclean in God's sight?

[0:13] The Bible talks about sin in a variety of different ways. False worship, idolatry, rebellion, losing your way.

[0:24] It talks about sin as sickness, as crossing a line, as missing the mark, as a stain, dirty or unclean.

[0:39] And we're going to be looking at a passage in Mark chapter 7 verses 1 through 23 in which Jesus speaks about sin as that which defiles someone in God's sight.

[0:54] Sin is something that's morally unclean, something that is morally dirty in God's sight. The opposite of moral defilement is moral purity which is another way of talking about holiness.

[1:05] So the question being asked in Mark chapter 7 verses 1 through 23 is what actually defiles a human being in God's sight? What makes us dirty in His eyes?

[1:18] What makes us unclean in His sight? Now if I were to ask you, why do you sin? I'm guessing many of you would be able to give me a really concise answer.

[1:30] Something like this. Well Pastor Mike, I still sin because sin is still in me. Even as a Christian, I am simultaneously justified and yet sinful.

[1:41] I've got these sinful desires coming up from my flesh even though the Spirit has given me a new heart. But even though you might be theologically precise in that, there's another question related to this that's a little bit more difficult to answer.

[2:03] How are you at owning your sin? How are you at taking responsibility for your sin? If you're like me, I know not all of you are like me.

[2:22] But if you're like me in this way, I tend to be slow to take responsibility for my sin and I am really quick at blaming others for my sin. The devil made me do it.

[2:38] The world made me do it. This person that sinned against me made me do it. But here's the deal with all that. This blame shifting that we're so prone to.

[2:49] Even if there was no devil, I would still be sinning. Even if we were not living in the world, I would still be sinning. So would you. Even if no one else ever sinned against me, I'd still be a sinner.

[3:04] This is a classic and common mistake that we make. We tend to push the blame of our sin outside of us. And today Jesus blows it all up.

[3:19] He's going to say the evil that defiles us. Well, it doesn't come from outside of us. The evil that defiles us, that makes us dirty in God's sight, it actually comes from within us.

[3:37] We are defiled not from the outside in, but from the inside out. Chapter 7, verses 1-23.

[3:50] You can break them into two sections. Verses 1-13. There's a Q&A with Jesus. It's the questions asked by Pharisees and scribes, and Jesus answers it.

[4:01] And then in verses 14-23, there's another Q&A with Jesus, but it's His disciples asking Him the question, and Jesus answers it. The first set of questions, Jesus exposes a mistake of thinking that we're defiled from the outside in.

[4:17] And then in the latter part, He corrects it. And He explains it, and He helps us to see that we are defiled in God's sight from the inside out.

[4:28] As Thomas Watson has said, Till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet. So let's open our hearts to what our Lord Jesus has to say.

[4:44] You're going to need to behold your King this morning, because He speaks with authority and clarity on something that we all must hear. And the question is, is it true or not?

[4:58] So would you look at verses 1-13 in chapter 7? I'm going to read through them. It's Q&A with these religious leaders. Now when the Pharisees gathered to Him, Jesus, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of His disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.

[5:20] For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.

[5:36] And the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands? And Jesus said to them, Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you, hypocrites?

[5:53] As it is written, This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. In vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. You have the commandment of God, and you leave the commandment of God, and hold to the tradition of men.

[6:08] And then He said to them, You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition. For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.

[6:19] But you say, If a man tells his father or his mother, Whatever you would have gained from Me is Corban, that is given to God, then you no longer permit Him to do anything for his father or mother.

[6:30] Thus, making the void, the Word of God, by your tradition that you've handed down. And many such things you do. In verses 1-13, Jesus has this very sharp interaction with the Jewish religious leaders in Israel.

[6:49] Some Pharisees and scribes have observed Jesus' disciples doing something in that culture would have been very peculiar. They were eating, some of His disciples were eating food without washing their hands.

[7:03] So, the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, What's going on here? And then Jesus answers them with a very sharp rebuke. There's a question and an answer.

[7:16] The question is in verse 5, and the answer is in verses 6-13. But preceding the question, is some peculiar activity.

[7:30] In verse 2, these Pharisees and scribes, they observed something that's peculiar. What is it? Some of Jesus' Pharisees were eating without washing their hands.

[7:43] And you might be thinking, what's the big deal? I mean, I had a meal this week and I didn't wash my hands before I ate. What's the big deal with that? Well, the big deal is represented in a little word.

[7:58] It's in verse 2. They saw that some of His disciples ate with hands that were defiled. The Pharisees and the scribes weren't physical hygiene police.

[8:10] They were morality police. And they had observed a big moral no-no among some of Jesus' disciples.

[8:25] They were eating without washed hands. And they had made themselves, in their opinion, spiritually unclean. Now you may be asking, well, how does that work? Well, Mark tells us how that works.

[8:36] In verses 3 and 4, you see how it's in parentheses? He's anticipating Gentiles like us need a little bit more information. And so what Mark does in verses 3 and 4 is he kind of spells out the extent of all this washing.

[8:54] We read that the Pharisees and all the Jews, so this is a cultural norm. They do not eat unless they wash their hands.

[9:05] Every meal, they've got to wash their hands a certain way. Every meal, it has to be done a certain way. And so there's this frequency to this.

[9:16] It's happening all the time. And it's not just frequency dealing with kind of like what you eat. It's where you come from. Did you see that? So, in verse 4, when they come from the marketplace, the agora, from meyer, from woodman's, you've got to wash a certain way before you would even eat again because you were there.

[9:42] So it's just not every meal. You've got to be paying attention to where you come from. And it's not just having your meals and where you come from. Look at the scope of this at the end of verse 4.

[9:55] Such as the washing, so there were many other traditions such as the washing of cups, pots, copper vessels, and dining couches. Not only were they washing their hands and coming from meyer and having to wash, but they were also having to be washing what they made their food in, what they presented their food in, and what they sat on when they ate their food.

[10:21] So what we're seeing here is this like extent of this washing. The idea behind it was this.

[10:35] That defilement was transmitted, transferred by touch. And so to stop the transmission of defilement, you've got to do a lot of washing.

[10:52] Has anybody heard of the phrase OCD? Obsessive-compulsive disorder? This is O-C-W-D. Obsessive-compulsive washing disorder.

[11:06] They had created these layers upon layers of washing in order to keep in order to keep the defilement from the outside from getting into the inside.

[11:19] And if you notice in verse 3, the Pharisees and all the Jews practiced these things. It was a cultural norm. You would have grown up in it. You know, you might be asking, hey, where did all this come from?

[11:31] What authority is driving this? And you see it referenced twice. It's the tradition of the elders in verse 3 and in the question in verse 5.

[11:42] Why do disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? The tradition of the elders was this, these applications that rabbis had come up with over the centuries.

[11:56] They would take God's commands commands, and then they would think through how to apply it to every possible situation that they could imagine. Every possible situation.

[12:09] And so, over time, it became an oral tradition and it started to become more and more authoritative. And then it took a written form called the Mishnah. And so, all of a sudden, what you have over time is this new competing authority with God's commands that have been made up by man in order to apply God's law to people's lives.

[12:32] But, it wasn't the Word of God. It wasn't the Torah. And over centuries, what happens is these traditions become treated as if they were God's law.

[12:51] And the whole reason why is they didn't want to be defiled. Because they thought defilement came from the outside in.

[13:02] They had built all these rules to keep it out. It's a man-made system being treated as coming from God when it wasn't.

[13:16] So, are you starting to understand what's behind the question in verse 5? Jesus, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders like the rest of us?

[13:30] Why are you letting your disciples become unclean? They're dirty in God's sight. Why would you do that? So, this is the question.

[13:41] Jesus, why aren't you enforcing the rules? And in verses 6-13, Jesus answers their question with a very sharp rebuke.

[13:53] Have you ever seen a hockey game? When a fight breaks out, gloves are off. Look at verse 6. And Jesus said to them, well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites.

[14:10] You notice, Jesus is not appealing to the tradition of the elders. Jesus is quoting Isaiah 29-13.

[14:20] Verse 6-13. This people, he's speaking to the Pharisees and scribes, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

[14:32] Hypocrisy. You're saying one thing, tradition of the elders, but you're actually, your heart is seeking to accomplish something else. We'll see that in a sec. He goes on to say, in vain do they worship me.

[14:44] All of these washings, it's just vanity. It's pointless. It's not accomplishing what you think it's accomplishing.

[14:57] Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men, they have elevated these traditions of the elders, these applications that are not God's Word, on the same par as God's Word.

[15:11] The gloves are off. And so using God's Word, Jesus answers the Pharisees with quite a rebuke. In verse 8, he goes on to say, you leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.

[15:28] This is what's really going on. So verse 5 carries this kind of like veiled accusation that Jesus and his disciples are not obeying God's will by not observing the tradition of the elders.

[15:41] And what Jesus does is, he's like, hold on a second. You are the ones who are not living according to God's Word. You've actually left God's commandments to lay hold of these traditions.

[15:58] Behold your king. Calling him out. And in verse 9, you see something that may make you a little uncomfortable from Jesus.

[16:12] It's Jesus' sarcasm. The sarcasm of the Son of God. Sarcasm of the Son of Man. And he said to them, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.

[16:26] That is not a compliment. He's using sarcasm to expose their hypocrisy.

[16:42] And in verses 10 and 13, Jesus goes on to give a very specific example of how the Pharisees and scribes had rejected the commandment of God to establish their tradition.

[16:54] It was a tradition introduced by the elders and the Pharisees and scribes called Corban. Corban means dedicated to God.

[17:04] God. So here's what was happening in a nutshell. God had commanded his people to honor your father and your mother.

[17:16] And so I have parents in their 70s. And so that command to me at that time would have showed up like, okay, we're going to use our resources to care for my parents. And what the Pharisees and scribes had done is they introduced this Corban thinking to be able to say things, you know what, Mike?

[17:34] You don't need to give that money to your parents because if you call it Corban, then you dedicate it to God and you're not no longer responsible to care for your parents.

[17:45] And that money, of course, do you know where it goes? Temple treasury. So what Jesus is pointing out is this. These Pharisees and scribes had rejected honor your father and your mother in order to hold to the tradition of the elders, Corban, and their hearts were far from God.

[18:13] It's hypocrisy. It's self-serving. And what Jesus says in verse 13, he says, and many such things you do. This is just one other, there's more.

[18:25] So here's this Q&A. Jesus is answering, and what we're seeing are two things.

[18:39] First is this. The thinking that defilement comes from the outside in, and that you need to be obsessively, compulsively washing in order to keep it outside, it's a terrible mistake.

[18:55] And here's what we're going to find out in a second. Because it doesn't make you clean. And the second terrible thing we're seeing here is the tendency among human beings to elevate their thoughts, their traditions, their intentions on the same par as God's word.

[19:23] You might be thinking, well, whoo, we don't practice Corban around here. We don't do the OCWD thing around here. Well, we don't.

[19:35] But we have this knack for making applications of God's good word into pharisaical rules. And so, every parent in the room is called to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

[19:52] Lord. And in that command, parents, you're going to need to decide how your kids are going to be educated. Are we going to send them to public school? Are we going to send them to Christian school? Are we going to homeschool?

[20:03] There are groups of Christians who will say something like this. All Christians must homeschool their children. That is pharisaical.

[20:16] That is moving beyond the scriptures. Is it a good option? Sure. Is it God's defined will?

[20:29] No. So we can't raise it to the same par as scriptures. Do you see? Here is another way we do it.

[20:43] No Christian should drink alcohol. When the Bible itself doesn't forbid alcohol, it forbids getting drunk. We cannot insist upon things that the Bible itself does not insist on.

[20:59] We don't go beyond what the scriptures say. No Christian should participate in Halloween. People have different opinions on Halloween.

[21:13] But can you make that into a thus saith the Lord? Lord, you can't. Make a good case. Let's debate it.

[21:27] Here's the ways that we as Christians today have made our applications. We raise them to the same bar as thus saith the Lord.

[21:42] Every one of us has an inner Pharisee. we like to make rules and regulations to live by. Because we think we're safe.

[21:56] But these man-made restrictions that go beyond God's Word, they don't keep us clean. And we make the mistake of putting our words in the mouth of God.

[22:12] God. So here we have Jesus in verses 1-13 exposing the outside-in mistake.

[22:24] But then in verses 14-23 He supplies a corrective inside-out defilement, the way things really are.

[22:35] Let me read that for you. 14-23 and He called the people to Him again and said to them, Hear me all of you and understand, there is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.

[22:52] And when He had entered the house and left the people, His disciples asked Him about the parable, and He said to them, Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach and is expelled?

[23:08] Thus He declared all foods clean. Amen. And He said, What comes out of a person is what defiles him. From within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

[23:34] All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. So this whole passage, verses 1-23, it now takes a turn in verse 14.

[23:48] And you can see it because He's no longer talking to the Pharisees and scribes. He's now called a people back to Him. This crowd comes back to them, and what Jesus is doing here, He's saying, let me just set the record straight, everybody.

[23:59] Everybody. And He says in verse 15, there is nothing outside a person that by going into Him can defile Him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile Him.

[24:13] And in that sentence, He blows up the tradition of the elders. Blows it up. Because what He's saying is defilement isn't transferred by touch.

[24:28] it's not what you eat that will defile you. And in verses 17 through 23, there's another scene change. He goes from talking to this crowd outside to moving into a house, leaves the crowd, and is now with His family of faith, His disciples.

[24:49] Remember, at the end of Mark chapter 3. And they have a question for Him. Verse 17. And in verses 18 to 23, He supplies the answer.

[25:01] So the question in verse 17 is asked by His disciples. They want to know about this saying, this parable that He said.

[25:12] Let me just read it to you again. There's nothing outside a person that by going into Him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile them. Now, if you were one of His disciples, most likely you grew up in some kind of Jewish context of that time.

[25:26] So you're thinking, hold on a second, Jesus, I don't think I've ever heard you say that before. Are you saying we don't need to wash our hands? Because I grew up in a culture, I was being told every day since I grew up, Michael, have you washed your hands so that you can be pure before you eat?

[25:43] Jesus, are you saying it doesn't matter what we eat? So when you think about it, there's good reason for His disciples to be asking questions about that saying.

[25:58] 18-23, Jesus answers their question and 18 starts with a mild rebuke. Then are you also without understanding?

[26:12] You guys seem to be a little slow. The reality is I think everybody in the room identifies with being a little slow. It takes some time to fully understand what Jesus calls us to.

[26:23] And then in the second part of 18 into 19, He starts to spell it out for His disciples. Just spell it out for us, Jesus.

[26:35] Look what He says. Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside Him cannot defile Him? Verse 19, since it enters not His heart but His stomach and is expelled.

[26:51] What Jesus does is He gives us an anatomy lesson. He's like, hey, do you not realize that what you eat, it doesn't defile you because it goes into your mouth, into your stomach, and then expelled.

[27:05] And His point is this. In verse 19, it never enters your heart. And when Jesus starts talking about the heart, He's not talking about the muscle in your chest right now that is pumping oxygen-rich blood into your body so that you can live.

[27:23] He's not talking about that heart. He's talking about what the Hebrews thought as the core of who you are, the control center of your life, the seat of a person's emotions and thinking and will and worship.

[27:40] You live out of your heart. Is anybody in the room a Star Trek fan? I see that hand. Well, I'm a bit of a Star Trek fan.

[27:58] Old school Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise. There you go. James T.

[28:11] Kirk, do you know where we see James T. Kirk a lot in episodes? He's in his captain's chair on the what? The bridge of the USS Enterprise.

[28:21] Now, if we were a Klingon horde wanting to take over the USS Enterprise, I would have our beamer person, beam us all onto the bridge of the USS Enterprise.

[28:36] Do you know why? If you control the bridge of the USS Enterprise, you control the USS Enterprise. We can hijack it. So when Jesus is talking about the heart, he's talking about the control center, your bridge of your life.

[28:52] What controls you? Where you make decisions, emotions, where you make priorities from where you worship, out of the overflow of the heart, you live.

[29:06] So what Jesus is doing here is very simple. He's saying what you eat has no defiling influence or consequence on the control center of your being.

[29:23] Food doesn't defile you because it can't. It doesn't enter your heart. And Mark spells out the immediate implication.

[29:39] He declared all foods clean. Do you know what yours truly had this week? I had some pork chops and they were delicious. Not once did I think they defiled me.

[29:52] If I were a Jew growing up in Galilee at this time, oh, I would have been in a lot of trouble. But Jesus is saying no, that's not your problem.

[30:07] Food coming into you is not your problem. But if food can't defile us in God's sight, what does? defiles us. And Jesus continues with his correction.

[30:21] In verses 20-23, he clearly shows us what defiles us. He clearly shows where, from where, we are defiled. And it's not outside of us, it's inside of us.

[30:34] Look at verse 20. And he said, what comes out of a person is what defiles him. Look at verse 21. He gets a little bit narrower. From within. And then the next phrase, he hits the bullseye.

[30:46] Out of the heart of man. Your control center is a corruption center. John Calvin talked about the human heart as an idle factory.

[30:58] Jesus talks about the human heart as an evil factory. You generate evil from your heart. And then he uses that phrase, evil thoughts.

[31:11] It's like a banner flying over the next 12 evils. Let me just list them for you. Out of your heart comes sexual immorality.

[31:26] Any sexual activity outside the marital union. Out of your heart comes theft. Out of your heart comes murder and adultery and coveting and wickedness, which is malice. It's hate heartedness.

[31:40] Out of your heart comes deceit. Out of your heart comes sensuality, this hedonism that's pursuing pleasure. Out of your heart comes envy. Out of your heart comes slander. Out of your heart comes pride and foolishness.

[31:51] He does not relent, does he? In what he's doing there, this is not a list coming from the tradition of the elders. This is a list coming from your Bible.

[32:06] Five of the twelve come right out of the Ten Commandments. what Jesus is saying, and this is where you need to just ask the question, is it true or not?

[32:18] Is that everyone in the room, every one of our hearts is capable of producing any and all of these twelve evil things.

[32:33] all of us. These evils, according to Jesus, come from our hearts.

[32:45] They're not outside of us. The devil doesn't make me do it. The world doesn't make me do it. The person that sinned against me doesn't make me do this. I make me do this. It's not outside of you.

[32:58] It's inside of you in the point Jesus is getting at and you're responsible. you're responsible for your heart. Jeremiah 17 9 says, the heart is deceitful above all else and desperately sick.

[33:12] Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17 10 says, the heart, the Lord knows the heart. And so Jesus is not painting a flattering picture of our sinful condition, is he?

[33:26] He's getting at the depravity of sin. It's at the root, brothers and sisters. It's in our hearts. We have an evil factory dwelling within.

[33:40] So Jesus is exposing our hearts. We have an evil producing control center that we live out of. The question is, is it true?

[33:53] Do you know how you can test it? Has anybody committed sexual immorality in the room? No. I have.

[34:05] Guilty. It's true. Has anybody stolen? Has anybody coveted? Just go down the list and ask, has it come out of your heart?

[34:20] Yes. The evil that defiles us, verse 23, is coming from inside of us. we defile ourselves because of the evil in our hearts.

[34:33] Here's what this means. It means you need to decide if these words of Jesus are true or not. Either our hearts are producing evil and that they are defiling us or your heart doesn't do that.

[34:48] if your heart is producing evils, you are responsible for those evils. You can't blame the devil. You can't blame the world.

[34:59] You can't blame someone else for sinning against you. You are responsible for what is defiling you and it's coming from within you.

[35:10] So, why do we sin? Why do we sin? Our own hearts cause us to sin. And yet, till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.

[35:28] What's the point of this passage? Well, the point is simple. The evil within defiles each of us. That's the point. It's not outside of us, it's inside of us. And don't forget who's saying this.

[35:39] Remember the Gospel of Mark, what it says about Jesus, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that Jesus Christ is the Son of Man. That Jesus Christ has the authority to forgive sin.

[35:50] That Jesus Christ has authority over nature, Mark 4. That Jesus Christ has authority over demons, Mark 5. That Jesus Christ has authority over disease, Mark 5. Jesus Christ has even authority over death.

[36:02] The all authoritative King of the universe is clearly declaring to us this morning that the evil that defiles us doesn't come from outside of us, it comes from inside of us.

[36:15] And we're responsible for it. Till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet. You want some good news? The very one who exposes our defiled hearts is the only one who can purify our defiled hearts.

[36:33] Isn't that good news? He's the only one. making, obeying rules that's not going to block the defilement because the defilement comes from within.

[36:52] Making, obeying rules cannot cleanse your heart. Only Jesus can purify your heart. who can forgive sins but God alone.

[37:06] As an example of this, do you remember when King David in 2 Samuel, remember when he sinned, he had committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then he killed her husband Uriah, murdered him to cover it up.

[37:19] And then in Psalm 51, David confesses it. And he uses this kind of language, cleanse me, wash me with and make me clean, create in me a clean heart.

[37:37] Where we go, when we acknowledge the defiling evil in our hearts, we run to God and seek cleansing from Him.

[37:49] Do you want to be cleansed from your evil? Just as David cried out to God, we cry out to our Emmanuel. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty sayings.

[38:07] What can wash me from my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. God's cleansing grace is greater than the evil that defiles our hearts.

[38:24] Amen. Amen. So this morning, if you've been convinced by these words of Jesus, that the evil that you need to be most concerned about is not outside of you, but inside of you, here are three quick applications.

[38:44] Application one. You don't need your hands washed. You need your heart washed. Again and again. We know that if you're a believer in the room, you're simultaneously justified in right standing with God, and yet you still sin, which means you're going to need cleansing again and again and again.

[39:07] That's why 1 John 1 9 says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

[39:20] Christian, you need your heart cleansed. Again and again. Because it's generating evils. If you're not a Christian, you just need to start by asking Jesus to wash you white as snow.

[39:36] He can and He will. Until sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet. Point two. Sanctification is the hard work of heart work.

[39:51] Jesus goes right to the heart and so must we. As we want to become less and less ruled by sin and more and more like Jesus, we've got to pay attention to our hearts.

[40:05] Paul Tripp talks about how a Christian grows and he compares a root of a tree and its fruit to the heart and the actions of a Christian.

[40:16] You've got a bad root, you've got bad fruit. You've got an evil heart, you'll have evil actions. And so what we need to be doing to really grow is tend to the root, the heart of the situation. Can I challenge you with something?

[40:29] Because I love you. Psalm 139 verses 23 and 24 is a psalm of David. Can I encourage you to pray that to God?

[40:46] Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. God might show you that you are lying.

[41:00] This question is, why are you lying? I was praying this and I got exposed of a fear that tempts me to speak a certain way to someone.

[41:11] God? Would you ask your God to expose the evils in your heart and then ask him to make you white as snow?

[41:29] The third application, till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet. The third application is this. Because you've got an inner Pharisee living inside of you. Remember these words of Jesus.

[41:47] Judge not that you not be judged. For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged. And with the measure that you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

[42:00] Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye, when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

[42:13] Just as a word of process. First, be doing the hard work of your own heart work, before volunteering to do the hard work of heart work in someone else.

[42:27] The reason why is it will keep you humble and make you helpful, because you'll be working out of this, I am in constant need of God's sanctifying grace. And if I can help you, I'd be glad to, but I've got to deal with me first.

[42:42] Until sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet. Why do you sin? Jesus is crystal clear. All these evils, they come from within, and they defile a person.

[43:01] But the very one who exposes our evil hearts is the very one, the only one, who purifies our hearts. Isn't that good news? And as we trust Him and go to Him daily for fresh cleansing, He slowly changes our hearts, purifies our hearts.

[43:19] Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God. And over time, our lives change. And we treasure Jesus more.

[43:31] Till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet. let's pray. God in heaven, Father, would you just continue to show us our desperate need for you because our hearts are desperately wicked.

[43:49] Father, thank you for filling us with your Spirit, for indwelling us with your Spirit, for giving us a new affection by your Spirit's power.

[43:59] God, would you make us more and more like Jesus and less and less ruled by these evil desires. We look forward to the day when you purify us completely.

[44:15] In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[44:25] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.