WWUTT 2032 What Defiles a Man (Matthew 15:15-28)

The Heart as the Source of Defilement

Jesus had said in Matthew 12, that out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. And he comes back to that teaching again in chapter 15. It's not what goes into a person that defiles the man, but what comes out of him defiles him when we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Jesus Explains What Defiles a Man

Thank you, Becky, and greetings everyone. We're back to our study of Matthew. Chapter 15 is where we are this week. And I'm going to begin reading in verse 15 and go through verse 28. This is out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

Hear the word of the Lord. Now Peter answered and said to him, Explain the parable to us. And 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 goes into the sewer?

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, sexual immoralities, thefts, false witness, slanders.

These are the things which defile the man. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man. And going away from there, Jesus withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David.

My daughter is cruelly demon-possessed. But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and were pleading with him, saying, Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us. But he answered and said, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

But she came and was bowing down before him, saying, Lord, help me. And he answered and said, It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. But she said, Yes, Lord, But even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master's table.

Then Jesus answered and said to her, O woman, your faith is great. It shall be done for you as you wish. And her daughter was healed at once. So we have two more episodes here. The first in verses 15 through 20.

This goes right along with the encounter that Jesus had with the Pharisees, Which we read yesterday in verses 1 through 14. And then the second is Jesus' encounter with a Canaanite woman in verses 21 to 28.

And you see that the disciples lack understanding in verses 15 to 20. But the Canaanite woman has understanding. This woman from a pagan land. That's in verses 21 to 28. So that's the contrast that we're going to see between these two episodes.

Peter, coming off of this encounter that Jesus just had with the Pharisees, Asked Jesus to explain the parable to us. Now, what is Peter referring to as a parable? Well, it's not really a parable in the traditional sense that we have considered parables in the Gospel of Matthew.

But this goes back to what Jesus had said in verses 10 and 11. Remember that the Pharisees were telling the people that they needed to wash their hands before they ate. That's a good instruction. As I said yesterday, you don't want to get your food dirty or contaminate your food.

So to prevent getting sick, you want to wash your hands before you eat. That's what we tell our children to do. But what the Pharisees were telling the people to do was to wash their hands. Because if they ate with dirty hands, it would make themselves unclean.

Like ceremonially unclean. They would be unholy because they ate their food with defiled hands. So they were tying this, you know, what would be a sanitary gesture before going and eating your food. They were tying that into something spiritual.

Like you become spiritually unclean if you were to eat with defiled hands. But Jesus rebuked them for this, saying that they were making up their own rules, not following the law of God. And then those things that God's law explicitly says to do, the Pharisees were telling the people not to do.

The Pharisees were relying on their own word. Jesus was pointing back to the law of God. And he turns to the people in verse 10 and says, 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. So Peter says in verse 15, explain this to us, but he calls it a parable. Now, Jesus says, are you still lacking in understanding also? And I have to wonder if Jesus response to Peter's request was as though to say, Peter, this is not a parable.

I mean, the very fact that you said explain the parable to us demonstrates that you didn't understand what it was that I was saying. So it's not just that Peter had to ask. It's that he even calls it a parable.

But it's plain what it is that Jesus is saying. And Peter should have picked it up, should have picked up on this, that what enters into the mouth does not defile a man. It's what proceeds out of the mouth that defiles a man.

This isn't a parable. Jesus is speaking clearly here. So do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and goes into the sewer? You know, Jesus is just simply explaining what he had said earlier in verses 10 and 11.

What goes into you cannot defile you because it passes back out of you. But the things that proceed out of the mouth, where do they come from? They come from the heart. They come from the center of a person, from the core of a person.

And this goes back to something that Jesus had taught earlier in Matthew chapter 12. In verse 34, he said, the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. And by your words, you will be justified.

And by your words, you will be condemned out of the overflow of the heart. The mouth speaks is another way that you've probably heard that said. So Jesus is really coming back to that teaching here in chapter 15.

What goes into the mouth goes into the stomach and goes into the sewer. It doesn't make you unholy or unspiritual in any way. It's completely natural for food to work in this way in a person's body. You eat, you expel it.

That's what's supposed to happen. But what makes a person truly unclean? It's not what goes into his mouth, but what comes out of his mouth. That demonstrates whether he's clean or not. This is what defiles a man.

For out of the heart, Jesus says in verse 19, come evil thoughts. Murders, adultery, sexual immoralities, thefts, false witness and slanders. Jesus lists off several sins here. But it's interesting that the first thing that he says is evil thoughts.

It's not the actions that you do with your body. It's first of all, the things that you think that defile you, that come from your heart. Even the very desire for sin is sin itself. It doesn't have to then materialize into something that you engage in with your body.

The fact that you want it. That your heart desires it. That you would desire something that God does not desire for you. That in itself is sin. In Colossians 3, verse 5. The Apostle Paul said, put to death what is earthly in you.

Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire. And covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming. Notice that all of those things there have to do with sexual immorality.

That's listed first, but everything that follows that comes right back to it. Impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness. All of this also addresses desires of the heart. It's not just those things that you do with your body.

It's those things that you desire before you then follow through with those desires. So the very longing for something sinful. Something that God has declared sinful, but you long for it. That's evil.

And it's even said here that the desire for that. God's wrath is coming against it. If in your mind, if in your heart, you long for those things that are wicked. Maybe you even think in your heart, Oh, if I could just indulge in that for a little bit.

Maybe nobody has to know. And you plot in your mind the sins that you want to have. Maybe you never follow through with it. But my friends, that is evil. It's wicked to be thinking those things in your mind.

Like you're sucking on a candy. And you're just enjoying the flavor of it. So you dwell on those sins. You don't take those thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ. You don't dwell on those things that are honoring to God.

But instead you long for sin.

That's wicked.

That's evil. And if that is what your heart is inclined toward. Not toward Christ, but the things that are opposed to Christ. Scripture tells us the wrath of God is coming against these things. There are many professing evangelicals.

There are many who fancy themselves to be teachers. That are telling people in our present day and age. That you can desire same-sex attraction. You can have that in your being. And it still sit there.

And that even becomes part of you. It's part of your identity. There are teachers that are telling people this. You can have same-sex attraction. But it's not sin. It's not sin unless you act out on it.

There are even some teachers out there that are saying. A man who is married to a man can remain married to that man. As long as he doesn't do anything sexual. All of this is evil. It's heresy. Because that's not even really marriage.

It's not marriage. It's not what God created to be marriage. Marriage is between a man and a woman. It's not between a man and a man. That is a perversion of marriage. It doesn't matter whether our culture calls it marriage.

It's not marriage. It was never recognized as marriage in the history of the world until just about 20 years ago. This is a relatively new thing that has happened even on the world stage. And more and more countries are adopting what is called gay marriage or same-sex marriage.

Which is not really marriage. Again, it's a perversion of that which God had created. And called it good. Man and a woman who are supposed to remain committed to each other for life. And God created sex to be good and to be enjoyed between a man and a woman.

A man and a man are not married to one another. It doesn't matter what the culture says. It doesn't matter what man's laws call it. They are not married. And so it is horrible for anybody to encourage those men in sin that God has promised that he will judge.

1 Corinthians 6 .9 says, Do you not know that the sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God? And along with the sexually immoral are listed homosexuals in the effeminate. You're encouraging a person in sin that will lead them to hell.

That's heresy. It's just straight up heresy. To tell a person they can have that desire. It's fine. It's who you are. There's nothing that you need to change about yourself. So long as you don't let it go too far.

If that's your approach to sin, then your focus is on the sin. It is not on Christ. We're told in 1 John 1 .9 that if we ask forgiveness for our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to do what?

To cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And those who used to be homosexual and effeminate, according to 1 Corinthians 6 .9, It says later on in verse 11, such were some of you, but you were washed. You were sanctified.

You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. So you don't continue in those things any longer. You don't call yourself that. You don't identify with those sins, especially sins that God has promised that he will judge.

The evil thoughts themselves are wicked. Even before they manifest themselves in the sinful actions that we do, evil thoughts proceed out of a defiled heart. 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. You think it first before you say it. You think it first before you do it. Evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities. The man was a murderer before he murdered because he had the desire in his heart to murder.

Same with adultery. And these are two things, by the way, Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount. Remember this in Matthew 5. You have heard it said, do not murder. But I say to you that everyone who has called his brother names are guilty of the fire of hell.

That's that's I'm paraphrasing what Jesus goes on to say there. But if you if you have even called your brother a fool, you are guilty of the fire. You you will be held accountable on the day of judgment.

Adulteries.

You've heard it said you shall not commit adultery. But I say that anyone who even looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. The law reveals the attitude of the heart.

And so a person who murders was a murderer before they murdered. A person who commits adultery was committing adultery in his heart before he went through with it. Sexual immoralities, thefts, false witness, slanders.

These are the things which defile the man, Jesus says. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man. That does not make anyone spiritually unclean. It is the things that we do that are contrary to the desire of God.

What God would want for us if we want something else that that God would not want for us, then that desire is sin. And again, I cannot impress this enough upon you. We are warned in scripture that the wrath of God comes against even the desire for sin.

Come before God and ask for his forgiveness and ask that he would give you a pure heart. A clean mind that would desire the things of God instead of the things of your flesh or the things of this world.

The Canaanite Woman's Faith

Going on into the next part here. This is verses 21 to 28. So the Pharisees, the Pharisees did not understand who Jesus was. They didn't understand God's law. Even Peter and the disciples appeared to be a little confused.

But Jesus comes into the region of Tyre and Sidon, which are pagan areas full of Gentiles. The Jews don't live there. It's Gentiles who live there. And remember that Jesus, when he sent out his disciples, he said, don't go into the Gentile cities, but just remain in the in the the cities of Israel.

You're going to the house of Israel. That is who you're ministering to. So Jesus ministry was primarily to Israel. It was the apostles that he would send out after his death and resurrection. He would tell them to go into all the world.

Remember the commission as it's given in Acts chapter one, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So you're going to spread the gospel in the capital city of Jerusalem.

You're going to go out to Judea and Samaria, which was the northern and southern regions. And then you're going to go out to the ends of the earth, even reaching out to the Gentiles with the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But here for Jesus ministry, he was not. He was not lending himself to the Gentiles. Behold, a Canaanite woman from the region came out and began to cry out, saying, have mercy on me, Lord, son of David.

My daughter is cruelly demon possessed. But he did not answer her a word, and his disciples came and were pleading with him, saying, send her away. She keeps shouting at us. But he answered and said, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

But she came and was bowing down before him, saying, Lord, help me. And he answered and said, it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. Now, this is a pretty controversial passage with some debating.

You know, did Jesus just call this woman a dog? Does he call her this derogatory name? Well, the Jews did consider Gentiles to be dogs. And you find that warning over and over again in the scriptures.

Jesus is not saying anything you don't find in the Old Testament where the Gentiles are referred to as dogs. He had said previously in the Sermon on the Mount, don't cast your pearls before a swine or give what is sacred to dogs.

And he's making a reference to those pagans who won't listen to what you have to say when you share the gospel with them. If they won't listen, then don't continue to give them those sacred things. Give it to those who are willing to listen.

Even the Apostle Paul, when he went to the Jews and attempted to share the gospel in the synagogues, they would not listen to him. And you have this account when he went into Corinth. He shares the gospel in the synagogue first.

They won't listen to him. They don't believe in Jesus. So he shakes his garment free of them. And he says, from now on, I'm going to the Gentiles. Well, in those moments, the Jews were acting like dogs.

They were not accepting that Jesus is the Christ. And so, Paul went to the Gentiles who received that message. So he didn't continue to give what is sacred to the dogs. This is a right application of that word.

Jesus is simply making reference to titles that have already been given in Scripture, things that he himself has already said, even in his own sermon. So it's not that he's calling her some derogatory name as though he's looking down his nose at her in some way.

This is what God's word says about those who are Gentiles, that they are dogs. But she said, yes, Lord, even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master's table. So she is acknowledging here, I am as good as a dog.

You're right. She humbles herself before Christ, recognizing her sin and her unworthiness, and refers to him as master. Even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Now, masters here is actually plural.

So that would be in reference to the Jews. Remember what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman? This is not in Matthew, of course. It's in John 4. But he says to the woman of Samaria at the well of Sychar, he says, you Samaritans worship what you don't know.

But we worship what we do know, referring to himself as a Jew and other Jews, worshiping the God that they know. Jesus, you know, even referring to his own disciples, knowing the will of God that has been given through the Son.

And so where this woman makes a reference to master's table and masters being plural, she's recognizing that the Savior comes through the Jews. So she humbles herself and refers to him as master. And so Jesus answered and said to her, Oh, woman, your faith is great.

It shall be done for you as you wish. And her daughter was healed at once. So this is the amazing contrast that we see here in chapter 15, verses 1 through 28. The Pharisees don't believe who he is. The disciples are a little bit confused.

It's not that they don't believe that he is the Christ. We have it coming up in chapter 16 that Peter does confess that Jesus is the Christ. But they're still confused about what it is that Jesus is saying about what enters the mouth that defiles the man.

So they don't understand the words. The Pharisees don't understand. The disciples don't understand. But here this Canaanite woman understands truly who he is, even humbling herself, calling herself a dog.

And saying, I'm willing to take crumbs from the master's table, whatever you have to give to me, please heal my daughter. And Jesus is astonished at her faith. Woman, your faith is great. It shall be done for you as you wish.

And her daughter was healed at once. So what came from her mouth? Remember that Jesus said of the Pharisees, these teachers honor me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. That's what Isaiah prophesied about them.

So they will speak something with their lips, but their heart is far away from God. The disciples did not understand the teaching that was coming from Jesus' lips. Jesus had to explain to them, it's out of the heart.

What comes from the heart is what defiles a man. But here this woman, what she says with her mouth reveals the character of her heart, her humble estate, and her recognition of Christ as Lord. And because of her faith, knowing that she was a great sinner, but he is a great savior.

Jesus says, it shall be done for you as you wish. And so what is our heart reflecting about us? That we know that Jesus is the Christ? That we know that the judgment of God comes upon the sons of disobedience?

Do we demonstrate that, that we understand the judgment of God comes against those who love sin? If we know that Christ is Savior, if we know that we have been saved, then turn from your sin to righteousness and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

And may the words that come from your mouth reflect what is in your heart. Don't speak like the world. Don't use profanities and then say, oh, well, Paul said something about dung and Philippians so that I can speak profanity.

Your speech is not to sound like them. What comes out of the mouth is a reflection of what's in the heart. Do you desire the pure things of God? Do your words reflect that you're a follower of Jesus Christ?

Your actions, the way that you live, the things that you do don't save you. We are not saved by our works. We're saved by faith. This Canaanite woman rewarded for her faith. We're saved by faith and not of works.

But our works are going to demonstrate that our heart has truly been transformed in Christ. Heavenly Father, I ask that you would humble us, that we would acknowledge our sin. Forgive us, God, of our sins and heal us from those unrighteous things that have so plagued our souls and clouded our minds and polluted our thinking.

Help us to think the thoughts of Christ, to have the mind of Christ, as said in Philippians 2 .5. And may the words that come from our mouth be a reflection of the heart that has been transformed by your Spirit.

It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Pastor Gabe is the author of several books and Bible studies, available in paperback or for your e-reader. For titles and more information, visit our website at www .utt .com. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in God's Word when we understand the text.