Where Is True Defilement? Part II Matthew 15:10-20

Purifying the Heart by Rejecting Human Tradition

Julie cares about. In the first part of chapter 15, the scribes and Pharisees were troubled that Jesus' disciples did not wash their hands before they ate. It was not a lack of sanitation that they were concerned about.

Rather, they were troubled that the disciples did not follow the tradition of the elders. In between the period when the Old Testament was completed, 400 B .C., and the time of Jesus in the first century A .D., man-made doctrines were put in place that all Jews were told to follow.

What the scribes and Pharisees said is that to not follow these traditions was to disobey God, because they were the spokespeople for God, supposedly. And the Jewish leaders saw this as an opportunity to refute Jesus' ministry.

If Jesus did not follow the tradition of the elders, then of course, he's not from God. But Jesus, the God-Man, rebuked them. He compared them to their forefathers, saying, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men. In the first part of our text last week, Jesus called the crowd together that overheard this conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees and the scribes.

And what he explained is that it is not what goes into one's mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth. It's not these traditions that says whether someone is righteous or not. It's the heart that matters.

It's the deepest part of who we are. And the heart are your desires. You do what you do because you want what you want. This is what matters. This is what God cares about. So the big idea of this two-week sermon is to purify our hearts to truly please God.

And our first direction how that we saw two weeks ago is by fleeing from the evil within that leads to sinful patterns. Now this leads us to our second way how we are to purify our hearts to truly please God.

And that is by, and we'll see this in verses 12 -14 of chapter 15, and that is by running from erratic teachers that will lead you from the truth. And this will be our focus this morning in verses 12 -14 of Matthew 15.

So at this time, I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me there. And if you're using one of those red Bibles in the pews, it's on pages 975 and 976. And this sermon is once again titled, Where is True Defilement?

And I'm going to begin by reading verses 12 -14 of Matthew 15. Then the disciples came and said to Him, they said to Jesus, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? He answered, every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up.

Let them alone. They are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit. Once again, we purify our hearts to please God by running from erratic teachers that will lead you from the truth.

When Jesus said that it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out, this obviously rubbed the Jewish leaders the wrong way. To contradict false teachers will obviously anger them.

And that's why in verse 12, when His disciples come up to Him, what they tell Him is, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? When they heard Jesus call out their man-made tradition.

As we have seen throughout Matthew, there is an elite group of Jews they called the shots in Jerusalem in the first century. These were the chief priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees. They established their own system, their own religious system of self-righteousness.

They thought they could earn their way to God. They thought their faulty interpretation and man-made laws were the way to truly follow God. This elite group taught this corrupted version of Judaism to the common people.

And when Jesus comes on the scene, what He tells the people is don't listen to them. It's interesting, Jesus says, I did not come to bring peace. I came to bring a sword. He came to overthrow their whole system.

He's this fringe guy. He didn't go with the flow. And they don't like that. Jesus said about them, in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. They think they're serving God, but they're only serving themselves.

Now when Jesus hears that they are offended by His words, do you think Jesus cares? Jesus is not a snowflake that melts when people criticize Him. To use His common vernacular. To respond to His disciples, Jesus once again uses an agrarian illustration to describe what He thinks about the Jewish leaders.

This is what He says. Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. What Jesus explains here is that when He considered the Jewish leaders, these were not genuine believers. They were not planted in God's kingdom growing to maturity.

Like true believers do. The agrarian illustration here is similar to the parable of the sower and the parable of the weeds as we have already seen in our journey through Matthew. In the parable of the sower, the fourth seed and the fourth soil is a crop that grows healthy over the long haul.

It receives the Word of God. It loves the Word of God. It listens to the Word of God. And the person grows. That's the fourth seed and the fourth soil. In the parable of the weeds, there was wheat and there were weeds.

The weeds are plucked up and thrown into the fire while the wheat is gathered into the barn. The wheat are the true believers. The weeds are the unbelievers. The Jewish unbelievers are like the weeds that are plucked up.

They weren't planted by God, but rather they were unhealthy people who invaded His garden. They were unwelcomed guests. And they would not dwell with Him. They did not belong to Him. It is only His true children that would dwell with Him.

The one who does not truly follow Him has no part with Him. When Jesus hears that the Jewish leaders are offended when He said that these external rituals don't matter, Jesus' feelings are not hurt in the least bit that they rejected His claims.

He point-blank tells His disciples that these are unbelievers. And they are not people who should be listened to even though they held positions of prominence. Jesus describes the scribes and Pharisees in strong negative language as we've seen in verse 14.

Let me read this again. He tells His disciples, let them alone. Let them alone. They are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit. That's His instruction. How do we approach these people?

Let them alone. That's His response. In the NIV translation, it says leave them alone. Another way to say this, as one author has said, keep away from them and have nothing to do with them. If these people are dangerous, then what's the point in listening to them?

What's the point in hanging around them? What's the point in valuing their opinions? The scribes and Pharisees about whom Jesus was speaking were false teachers. Some of the darkest images in the Bible are given to false teachers.

And in the call to worship, I read one of those dark images in 2 Peter 2. And Jude also gives those dark descriptions. Read those on your own time. I tell you what, this is what God thinks about those who corrupt His Word.

Only Satan will have a worse place in hell than false teachers. James 3 .1 says, not many of you should be teachers. For those who teach will be judged more strictly. You want to become a pastor? Tremble.

Be terrified. Because at the judgment, God is going to examine you closer than the average Christian. You better get it right if you're going to teach the Bible. There better not be some secret agenda.

False teachers are not there to proclaim the clear teaching of God's Word. They have a secret, self-indulgent agenda. And since they are deceitful, this agenda can be very hard to spot. What we must understand about false teachers is that Satan rules them.

And Satan is a master deceiver. It's not always obvious who false teachers are. What the Bible teaches is that we should not hang out with false teachers. We should not look too carefully into their teaching.

Once we recognize something as obvious false teaching, one does not need to go any further. As 1 Timothy 6 .20 says, avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.

That was a false teaching that the Apostle Paul was addressing. We need to be very careful who we hang out with and what we fill our minds with in a world full of error. I remember hearing a pastor say one time, most of what is written in the world is false.

Most of what is written in the world or spoken in the world is false. Right? It makes sense. 1 John 5 .19 The whole world lies in the power of the evil one. We need to be careful who we are influenced by and what we spend time filling our minds with.

1 Corinthians 15 .33 says that bad company ruins good morals. Proverbs 13 .20 says, whoever walks with the wise becomes wise. But the companion of fools will suffer harm. I had a youth pastor growing up.

He used to tell our youth group in his thick Missouri accent, I don't even want to try the accent, okay? But he said, show me your friends. I'll show you your future. He's been to this church before by the way.

He was the guy who said, Amen! Do not spend time with those who are bad influences. We need to spend most of our time with those who are going to point us toward Christ. With those who are going to encourage us.

With those who are going to edify us. With those who are going to help sanctify us to become more like Christ. And if you have unbelieving family members who you are around a lot, this can be difficult.

But make it a point to spend time with other believers who will encourage you. Who will fill your minds with the right things. We also need to be careful what we fill our minds with when it comes to what we listen to and what we watch.

We can fill our minds with the wrong things in this day and age because of the TV and Internet. We've often thought about the Internet as a library. But I heard someone else describe a more accurate description.

A garbage dump. Right? There's some good things on the Internet, but it's also a garbage dump. Right? It's a mess out there. And we all have the experience of filling our minds with something we should not.

If the wrong thing goes into our mind, it can really affect us negatively. Instead, we need to fill our minds with the right things. Philippians 4 .8. This is such a wonderful verse. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

So, think about the things of God. I have stored up Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You. That's what the psalm says in Psalm 119. Does that describe us? When we fill our minds with the right things, it affects us positively.

But back to people, and in particular, false teachers. We are warned in the Bible about our loss of rewards for associating with people who teach false things. The most overlooked passage in the Bible comes from 2 John.

I'm just serious. I'm being honest here. Most people do not even consider living out 2 John, what I'm about to read here. But if we want to be faithful to Christ, we need to be faithful in everything.

These verses say, many deceivers have gone out into the world. Those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is a deceiver in the Antichrist. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever abides in this teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

Interesting, okay? So he's saying if someone doesn't bring the true teaching of the Bible to you, watch out for that person. And it even says don't greet them. We're supposed to be nice people, right?

Don't greet them. That's what the Bible says. Do you have a witness that comes to your door? It's okay to be a little rude. You don't belong here because you are bringing false teaching. It's holy to do that.

Now, I understand, there's usually one of the people who's a leader who comes to your door and one who's not. Be a little kinder to the one who's not the leader. But the one who's the leader, be firm with them.

You don't belong here. Don't bring that teaching into our house that denies the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Bible is clear that we are to be careful what we let into our minds and we need to be careful who we associate with.

And Jesus tells us in verse 14, let them alone. He's telling his disciples, avoid these people. The scribes, the Pharisees, the chief priests, these teachers of the law, avoid them. Leave them alone. Do not go there.

It will only cause you trouble. Separate from them. The biblical doctrine of separation is one of the least practiced things in the American church. We need to be careful who we associate with. Then Jesus gives some very stern words about false teachers in the remainder of verse 14 as he's talking about the scribes and Pharisees.

He says they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit. You probably have the experience of being led the wrong way in your life at one time or another. Someone gave you bad directions.

A number of years ago, I was running a 10-mile race on a very cold March morning around Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. And as I approached mile 9, I was in second place. And the first place runner was far enough ahead where I couldn't see him.

And I didn't know exactly where to go. And at these races, they have race volunteers who are supposed to point you where to go. So when you start the race, you're thinking, okay, we're good. I don't really need to know where to go because people are going to guide us.

But sometimes it doesn't go that well. I get to mile 9 and I get to a fork in the road. Either left or right. Left leads you to the finish line. Right leads you to who knows where. The volunteer led me to the right.

I went the wrong way. I'm running for two minutes and I'm like, okay, where's the finish line? Why aren't any people around? And then there's police officers down there. I'm like, is this the race? They're like, nope, you took a wrong turn.

The blind led the blind. It was a cold morning too. I remember I just ate some hot chocolate. So I didn't get second place and I didn't even finish the race because I was led the wrong way. The scribes and Pharisees were this to the Jewish population in the first century.

And Jesus calls them out. They're blind guides leading the blind. They're promising to these people, we're leading you the right way. Just follow us and you'll follow God. But Jesus calls them what they really are.

Blind guides. But false teachers are not just something from the past, but in the present, they are here. In 2 Peter 2 .1, the Apostle Peter wrote, false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies.

And now I'm gonna get to the part of the sermon where we're gonna actually talk about some people, which is biblical to do because the Bible does that. The Apostle Paul had no problem naming names and nor should we.

In the present day, there are obvious false teachers. Joel Osteen would be an obvious false teacher. He's got that big smile, right? If you just follow me and my teaching, you're gonna be rich, you're gonna be happy, you're gonna be healthy.

Every day is gonna be a Friday, right? And I almost can't keep a straight face even saying that. He doesn't teach the Bible. His whole ministry is telling people these lies, right? I mean, is the Christian life a blessing?

Yes. Is there hardship? Yes, and we need to talk about that. In the midst of the trials, God is there. We can be joyful in the midst of trials, but there are trials. There is adversity. And there is a day when there won't be adversity in heaven.

But to say that everything is just gonna be great and rosy while we're here, that's a false teacher. And what is interesting is that the last 18 months has been a big revealer of people. There are teachers who five years ago I would not have put in the false teacher category, but today I seriously wonder if they should be put in that category.

And as I say this, I want to tell you that I tremble as I make a judgment about where certain teachers are. It's not bad to do this, but we also need to be careful. All right, we don't want to just name names, just, I mean, flippantly, without carefully thinking through it.

And when we think about teachers of the Bible, we should think in categories, okay? We want to be a discerning church. And here's a good way to think. There's different types of teachers. There's solid teachers.

Those are the ones you want to listen to. There's somewhat solid teachers. Well, there's some good here, but there's some bad here. So be careful with the bad. Then there's the people who really need a lot of work.

And then there's people who are dangerous. The last category is where true teachers need the sound alarms to warn the flock. But even as the judgment is made, it needs to be done carefully. Matthew 7, verses one and two, it says, judge not that you not be judged.

For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. But Jesus also says in John 7, 24, judge with right judgments. In Matthew 7, verses three through five, so the rest of the verses of the judge not passage, he says that as we offer judgment, we also need the people who examine ourselves.

Am I doing the very same thing that I'm accusing someone else of doing? That question needs to be asked. And if you're not, you're good to move ahead by offering a judgment. So the judgment we offer always must be careful.

It always must be fair. We should look to give people the benefit of the doubt. It's loving to do that. 1 Corinthians 13, seven says that love believes all things. This doesn't mean that love is being gullible, but it does mean we give someone the benefit of the doubt on certain issues.

We should give people the benefit of the doubt unless, unless that trust is blown, okay? I mean, think about people in your life. There's people in your life who you gave them the benefit of the doubt.

And over and over again, they burned your trust. And at this point, you say, you know what? I can't trust you. I can't give you the benefit of the doubt. I need to warn people of you instead. If someone asks me about you, I need to warn people.

That's wise to do that. The Bible teaches us to be discerning. Acts 20, verses 30 to 31 says, from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be alert.

You will notice in that passage that Paul is not warning about false teachers from the outside. It's not like some secular person's gonna come into the church and just start preaching all these false things.

Where do false teachers come from? Within. And we should always aim to give people the benefit of the doubt, but when they keep giving you reason to doubt, their reliability and their credibility, and certain teachers actually become not a help to the wider church, but a threat, we should go from giving the benefit of the doubt to offering a warning for the benefit of everyone.

To continue to give the person the benefit of the doubt is foolish. It's to look the other way. And that's not what shepherds are supposed to do. You only give people the benefit of the doubt when minor things happen.

This isn't really who this person is, right? Let's just give them a pass on that. But once certain things arise to your attention, we warn. And the concern comes from legitimate reasons to be concerned, and true shepherds of God need to sound the alarm.

And here's my question as I stand here in 2021. Could it be that some of the famous pastors in America who speak at conferences, sell lots of books, and have lots of followers are actually blind guides?

Blind leading the blind. The very ones that Jesus is talking about in this verse. And I think what we have seen over the last 18 months is that there are more false teachers than we realize. There's more false Christians, there's more false teachers, right?

Because again, there's been a reveal of people, right? Once society takes a sharp turn away from Christianity, you really start to find out people's character. And then it becomes uncomfortable to be a Christian.

And then people, instead of continuing their Christian faith, they're actually, what they do is they actually side with the world. Because it's more comfortable. Peter said, just as there are false teachers among the old times of old, so they will be among you.

And right now we need discernment more than ever. We need to ask, is this person really speaking on behalf of God? And two weeks ago, I mentioned that the new Phariseeism in the American church is the social justice movement.

And it's interesting that John MacArthur, who is a trustworthy teacher, said that the greatest threat to the gospel in his 52 years as a pastor is the social justice gospel, which is another gospel. In fact, someone just wrote a book titled Christianity and Social Justice, Religions and Conflict.

Great book. I haven't read it yet, but I know the guy. He's showing this is a different religion. And usually threats to the gospel are embraced by people on the fringes of Christianity. But what is different about the social justice gospel is that it has been pushed forward by people we once thought credible.

And it makes you wonder how many wolves are out there wearing sheep's clothing. It is frightening because it's very easy to be deceived. Satan is a master deceiver. And one of the best ways to deceive is by getting something very close to the truth.

It's just wrong enough to send people to hell. Isn't that what a master deceiver would do? Conservative Lutheran theologian Richard Linsky, who died in 1936, said this. He said, the worst form of wickedness consists of perversions of the truth.

But many look upon these perversion with indifference and regard them as harmless, right? This isn't that big of a deal. Well, what is closest to the truth is the most effective because it is the most deceitful.

More people fall for it than obvious false teaching. Too many Christian leaders consider the teaching harmless when in reality it is very destructive. When you think about the prosperity gospel, there are a lot of people out there who follow prosperity gospel.

But there's a lot of people who can see right through it. But there's teachings right now in the church where it's not as obvious. And you can see Satan's influence on that. At the end of the day, it is God's responsibility, right?

To sift between the wheat and the tares. To say where people's eternal destiny is at. But at minimum, some teachers reach a point where they should be warned of rather than commended. Let me give you an example of this that I think is appropriate at this point.

About 10 years ago, I heard about a teacher that people were infatuated with. He was the cat's meow. So I wanted to hear this guy. And what I did was listen to a Q &A expecting to be impressed. Because everyone else was impressed, why wouldn't I be?

I wasn't impressed. He was getting clear questions from a skeptic of the Christian faith. And instead of giving clear answers from the Bible, he appealed more to philosophy. And since I wasn't impressed, I didn't want to further pursue listening to him.

So I didn't. Then I had a professor in seminary who warned us about this man. His concern was his position on the creation account. This man believed in theistic evolution. Now what this means is that God used evolution.

So evolution's true, but God used it. But the problem is the Bible doesn't agree with that, nor does science agree with that. So this is a red flag. But I wasn't ready to throw this guy out and say, well, stay away from him.

I was thinking, okay, well, maybe this is just one thing that he's doing and maybe he's solid everywhere else. So I still considered him a true teacher, and I considered him a true teacher because his beliefs were largely within the bounds of Christianity, even though his position on theistic evolution was problematic.

But many Christians raved about the man, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Then 2020 happened. The last 18 months has been a great revealer, as I mentioned, of men's hearts. And what we have learned in Matthew is that out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

What are people's true desires? How much does the world have a pull on someone? How much do people fear man and not God? We learned a lot about people, and this man in particular, what I and many have learned is troubling.

And I'm not alone on this, my concern. I just talked to a pastor this week, and I said, what have you done with this guy? Again, I haven't revealed who it is yet. He said, we've thrown away his books from our library, our church library.

I'm thinking, amen, that's a good shepherd right there. So this teacher has shown concerning fruit. The social justice movement took off in America, again, over the last 18 months, especially it took off in the church.

And what I discovered is that this man was one of the architects of the social justice movement in America. I then listened to a painful interview where he was asked about the climate in the American church, and what he said was alarming.

He said the reason the secular powers in America have been so hard on Christians lately is because Christians have treated the LGBTQ community poorly. Okay, he said that's why they're so hostile towards Christians.

If Christians would have been just a little nicer, a little bit less mean, then they would have treated us better. But this teacher has forgotten what Jesus said. It would be like for the Christian in this world.

What did Jesus say in John 15, 18? If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. They don't hate us because we're mean to them. They hate us because we're associated with Jesus, the biblical Jesus.

The powers in this world kill Jesus by hanging him on a cross. And we should expect opposition as we faithfully follow him. I'm so struck by that. There's only been one perfect person who's ever lived, and he died a brutal death.

The world killed him. We should expect opposition. Okay, but what this teacher did this past month is maybe the most alarming. You maybe heard the news that an atheist was hired as head of chaplains at Harvard University.

Anybody hear that? That's a great hire, huh? Every Christian should be appalled at this. Every Christian should see that this will do no good for this Ivy League university. We should see that this will only lead students their way from Christ.

He doesn't even believe in God. I mean, how is he gonna help people spiritually? We should see this as evidence of the downgrade of society. But this teacher, oh, he doesn't see it that way. Continuing his downward slide, he wrote on his Twitter account, congratulations to this atheist, and he wished him well.

Yes, that happened. Now, you might be wondering who I'm talking about. The teacher I'm talking about was a longtime pastor in New York by the name of Tim Keller. Maybe you've heard of him. Sells lots of books, speaks at lots of conferences, has lots of followers.

People talk about him like he's the best thing since sliced bread. But at this point, it is foolish to commend this man. Is Tim Keller a false teacher? Five years ago, I would have said, no way. Today, I say based off of this troubling fruit, this is a possibility.

Jesus said in Matthew 7, verses 15 and 16, how do we recognize a false teacher? Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits, okay?

Don't listen to their words. They might sign a statement of faith. They might, if you ask them, do you believe the gospel? They might say yes. But what are their actions? What are their words? That's what we listen to.

That's what we make a judgment based off of. And what is so deceptive about the social justice gospel is that those in evangelicalism who embrace it also ascribe to doctrine that is within the bounds of biblical Christianity.

But like the title of that book I mentioned, social justice and Christianity, religions and conflict. You can't have both. You choose one or the other. Joel Osteen is an obvious false teacher. Others are not as obvious, but they might be more dangerous.

The Lord knows those who are false and those who are true, and Satan is deceptive. There are blind guides out there leading people who are not discerning. And they are not leading people to Christ, but away from Him.

And it is my job as an under-shepherd of God to warn you when I see something very concerning. So this is what I am doing right here. At minimum, this man and teachers like him are unqualified to be a shepherd.

And that should be obvious to everyone who takes into account the facts I just presented. It comes to the point where this person is not a shepherd. They are blind guides deceiving people who are ignorant, deceiving even pastors who are not paying close attention.

And the end of story of this is that multitudes will be deceived. What's the end game of this movement? What's the end game of this man's trajectory and the people who are following him? It's not good, not at all.

Jesus called out the scribes and Pharisees for this, and He calls out every blind guide present today. Every false teacher leads ignorant people on the bridge to nowhere, right? They promise green pastures, but they really lead them to nowhere.

While true teachers lead people to heaven as they follow the good shepherd, every under-shepherd of Christ has been given a clear responsibility from Christ. Titus 1 .9, he must hold firm to the trustworthy where it is taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it, right?

So the goal of this church, right, to grow in Christ together, which means we grow together, right? We learn, but what does the Bible say it means to be a Christian? We need to grow, right? But we also defend.

What is out there that's gonna hurt that growth? That's what Titus 1 .9 says. And so I don't rebuke a teacher joyfully. I do it with fear and trembling. I do it because I am confident it needs to be done.

We need to recognize trouble. At a time when discernment is greatly lacking, may we have discernment from God. May we be a discerning church, a rare church, by the way. It's rare to be a discerning church.

May we follow the trustworthy and run from the untrustworthy. We are to run from blind guides like the scribes and Pharisees because it never leads to good. It only leads to damaging results. And when people embrace a perverted version of Christianity, you know who's happy?

Satan. He's okay with that, right? As long as it's not the truth because it leads multitudes to hell. Richard Lenski, once again, this quote I shared earlier, this Lutheran theologian, he said this, "'The worst form of wickedness "'consists of perversions of the truth.'.

"'But many look upon these perversions "'with indifference and regard them as harmless "'and then look at the results, "'look at the damage that happens. "'They're not harmless, "'and these blind guides do untold damage.'".

You know what Jesus says? Or actually, this isn't Jesus. It's the Word of God. First Corinthians chapter three, Paul wrote, "'He who destroys God's church, "'I will destroy.'". So God's given us this book, right?

Follow it, live it, protect dangers that are out there. Protect your home, protect your church, protect your friends. It's not complicated, but there's a lot of dangers out there. There's a lot of deception out there.

And Satan is active, he's very active. And he wants to get into as many places as he can possibly get, and he has been wildly successful in recent years. All in the name of, by the way, oh, we don't want to offend anybody.

We don't want to warn people about this guy, because that's mean, that's not Christian. People have such a misunderstanding of what Christianity really is. Right, it's loving to warn, to protect. If someone comes to my house and threatens my family, they are gonna wish they never came to my house, because that's what we need to do, right?

We need to protect, and we need to protect the church. So we are to purify our hearts to truly please God. And we've seen two directions how in this text, over this two Sunday sermon. The first direction how is by fleeing from the evil within that leads to sinful patterns.

The second direction how is by running from erratic teachers that lead others from the truth. It all starts in the heart, right? The heart of the matter is the heart is the matter. It's not my own quote, it's someone else's quote, but it's very good, right?

The heart of the matter is the heart is the matter. By the grace of God, we can turn our desires to follow his desires. We will only please God if we truly follow his path. The Pharisees and the scribes were in a dark place because their religious focus was far from God's focus.

They missed the whole point. Their allegiance was not to him. It was to their own false teaching. The Pharisees and scribes were blind guides because they did not desire what God desired. And they deceived countless followers who also were not after God's desires, but went down the same idolatrous path.

We purify our hearts by pursuing God and running away from that which will lead us away from him. Now, next Sunday, we will look at Jesus and once again, his journey through his ministry here in Matthew.

He's gonna have an encounter with a Gentile, a non-Jew. And how he treated this Gentile was so different from what was the expectation at this time in the first century. So I look forward to looking at that with you and we're gonna draw a lot from this for our own lives as well.