The True Source of Defilement

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church.

Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota.

We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now here's a message.

From Pastor Chris Roseberg.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark chapter 7 verses 14 through 23.

Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said listen to me everyone and understand this.

Nothing outside a man can make him unclean by going into him.

Rather it is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean.

After he had left the crowd and entered the house his disciples asked him about this parable.

Are you so dull?

Do you not do you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him unclean?

For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach and then out of his body.

In saying this Jesus declared all foods to be clean.

He went on.

What comes out of man is what makes him unclean.

For from within out of men's hearts come evil thoughts, sexual immorality,

theft, murder, adultery, slander, arrogance, and folly.

All of these evils come from inside and what makes and makes a man unclean.

In the name of Jesus.

All right you'll notice that our hymn the sermon hymn today is just chock -full of gospel

grace and our gospel text is not.

Yep if you were paying attention and you're paying attention to the proper distinction between law and

gospel the law telling us the bad news if you would diagnosing our sinful condition

well that's the law the gospel is the good news of Christ and him crucified for our sins you'll

notice in our gospel text there is no gospel none whatsoever and

so with that expect it to be a bumpy ride today now our

text is part two of last week's gospel text and I mean that because

Jesus is building off of what happened last week and last week we learned that the

Pharisees they had a secondary authority you know system if you would the so -called

tradition of the elders and this is where the commandment supposedly resided to wash

your hands when you're out among the masses and this ceremonial hand

-washing ceremony was to make it so that your hands went from being unclean or

common to being holy and set -apart.

Those are the categories you have to work when.

So when we read in our gospel text today about unclean all right another word for it is

defiled and it's the Greek word kanao quinoa and it means common.

And so the idea in the mind of people you have things that are set -apart and are holy unto God and then you

have things that are common or defiled.

And the way the Pharisees taught you go out into the marketplace and you're among the unwashed

masses and the Gentiles.

Well apparently sin is like an airborne disease.

You know if you're exposed to sin well then you've got to come in and do this ceremonial hand

-washing ceremony again not found in Scripture.

And last week Jesus basically takes the tradition of the elders puts c3 on it goes back

a few feet presses the button and just blows the whole thing up.

Sorry.

It's Scripture in Scripture alone.

And now Jesus is going to get to the heart of the matter regarding this defiled or unclean.

And so we return to our gospel text.

Verse 14.

Jesus called the crowd to him and he said listen to me everyone and understand this.

Nothing outside a man can make him unclean or

defiled or common.

Yeah think of it this way.

Sin is not an airborne disease again.

So he says nothing outside a man can make him unclean by going into him.

Rather it is what comes out of a man that makes him

unclean.

In other words the source of sin is not out there.

The source of sin is right here.

It's inside of me.

It's inside of you.

Now we oftentimes as Christians get in a bad habit and the bad habit is talking about all of the

sin out there.

Those darn Democrats those darn Republicans.

It's the people in Hollywood can't believe all the lobbyists in Washington.

Oh it's the Illuminati right.

They're the ones that are the source of the evil of the whole world.

And the world would just be great if it wasn't for them.

Hogwash.

The world would be great if it wasn't for you.

The world would be great if it wasn't for me.

Because the problem is not out there.

Jesus says the problem again is in here.

Sin has its wellspring not in them but in you and in me.

And so the disciples hearing Jesus say this it's not what you know you're exposed to out

there in the environment that makes you unclean.

But rather it's the things that come out of you that make you unclean.

You could see the disciples going up to Jesus.

We need to have a talk with you Jesus.

And that's what they do.

So he left the crowd and they entered the house and disciples asked him about the parable.

What did you mean by that Jesus.

Jesus's response are you so dull.

Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him

unclean.

Nothing for it doesn't go into his heart.

It goes into his stomach and then is expelled from his body.

The Greek is a little graphic here.

I will spare you those details.

And in saying this Jesus declared all foods clean.

In other words all of the ceremonial laws regarding the mosaic dietary things those were all

type in shadow clean unclean animals.

Those were all well type in shadow pointing to something different.

But that's for another sermon.

So Jesus here is basically saying number one yeah eating bacon doesn't make you

unclean.

Thank God

man I'd be the most unclean man on the planet.

Anyway I'm very thankful that bacon does not make me unclean.

But there's a lot of people who think that you've got to follow these old mosaic you know dietary laws and

properly distinguish between clean and unclean.

By the way there's nothing better than lobster wrapped with bacon just saying okay talk about double

unclean.

Okay.

But that won't make you unclean.

In the eyes of God this is not what makes you unclean.

Instead he says what comes out of a man is what makes him

unclean.

I'm going to use a metaphor it's not a pretty one.

Have you any of you ever had your toilet decide to run the opposite direction

have it back up.

Oh what a mess.

And how foul that is.

There's nothing worse than having to clean up a basement or clean up a

bottom floor where the toilet has backed up.

Because when the toilet backs up oh it brings everything back with it.

And so when think of it that way when the toilet backs up the source there is literally a

cesspool.

And I want you to think of your sin like that think of your sin when you

have sin come out of your heart.

That is the cesspool of your sinful heart running backwards if you would.

Rather than keeping it to yourself it just comes spilling out.

And oh what a mess it is.

And then Jesus gives this lovely list.

And it's ugly.

He says what comes out of the man is what makes him unclean.

For from within not Hollywood

not the politicians not New York City not San Francisco.

But from within your heart comes evil thoughts sexual immorality

theft murder adultery.

Oh and by the way just because you haven't actually pulled the trigger and shot somebody in the back and put them in the graveyard

doesn't mean you're not a murderer.

Jesus blows that one up in the Sermon on the Mount.

Oh and just because you haven't physically committed adultery doesn't mean you're not an adulterer.

Jesus blows that up when he talks about the fact that if you look at another person who isn't your spouse with lustful

intent you've already committed adultery with that person.

Notice I'm using vague pronouns here because this works not just for men it also works for women.

Theft murder adultery greed malice deceit

lewdness envy slander arrogance ouch

and folly.

That's quite the list.

Anyone here not described by Jesus in this list.

How many people had less than three things describe you.

No hands.

Right.

We won't get into this again.

The purpose of God's law primary purpose is to show you that you are a sinner.

We must take this idea out of your mind and blow it up that you are a good

person.

You are not.

I am NOT a good person.

We live in a country where people think well you're a good person.

If well you pay your taxes and you're not in prison.

Now those people who well they've done some evil in their life and they go to prison and they've got a rap sheet.

Well those are not the good people.

We think of good and evil by way of a bell curve.

And we compare ourselves to other people.

Well at least I didn't do that like that person did.

At least I didn't do this thing like that person did.

And so we do the comparison game.

We compare ourselves to each other.

This is no way for determining good and evil.

You want to know whether or not you are good or evil.

The comparison is God's holy and righteous and just law.

That's where the comparison point is.

And if you're not keeping it perfectly you are not a good person.

James the brother of Jesus half -brother of Jesus makes this very clear.

If you have transgressed one of God's commandments he says you're guilty of breaking

them all.

Yeah all of them.

So when you get on the phone and pass along a big juicy piece of

gossip.

Right.

And you slander and defame somebody's character that makes you guilty of being an

idolater.

Makes you guilty of being a blasphemer.

Makes you guilty of being an adulterer.

Makes you guilty of being one who covets.

Makes you guilty of being a liar.

Makes you guilty.

The list goes on.

Does it not.

Don't think for a second that Christianity is all about us trying really hard to make ourselves really

good.

It's not now many of you are thinking

whoo there's no good news here.

You're right.

There isn't.

There's no good news in this.

It's time for us and always time for us to be cognizant of the fact that we are not

holy.

We are forgiven.

We are not holy with our own righteousness.

We are given a righteousness by grace through faith.

And by way of comparison I want to remind you of King David.

You remember King David and King Saul.

You ever read through.

First Samuel.

First Samuel the people of Israel they asked for a king.

Of course this was a wicked thing that they asked for.

God went ahead and gave them their king.

God gave them their king.

And it was Saul Benjamite guy head taller than everybody else.

Handsome young man.

Right.

And he sinned.

Do you know what his sin was.

Do you remember the story how it goes.

He was told to go and you know basically destroy this city put everything to the sword put

the animals and every every one of them to death as God's judgment.

Well he didn't exactly do that.

He killed his soldiers.

They killed mostly everything but the best sheep the best goats the best what they kept for

themselves.

Samuel shows up.

What is this bleeding of sheep that I hear.

Right.

Oh and by the way they forgot to kill the king of that town.

Right.

And it's oh well we we say this is a sacrifice to the Lord.

You think.

Okay.

That's a pretty pious lie that he told right.

And then at another time Saul was told to wait until Samuel showed up and they were going to have

a sacrifice.

And swell Saul got impatient.

Samuel was a few minutes late and so he went ahead and conducted the ceremony himself even though he's not

supposed to be doing that a religious act.

Pious.

Right.

And it's because of those sins that God rejected Saul if we

were to kind of put them on the sliding scale.

We all know what the big sins are.

Right.

Adultery murder.

You know all those big sins.

Those are big big big sins religious sins.

Oh they're down here because I mean at least the person's heart was in the right place.

Was it not.

And yet when confronted with his sin by the Prophet Samuel do you know what

Saul did.

Who he blamed his sin on.

He pulled the old Adam's stunt.

Remember when Adam was confronted with his sin and Adam said oh it's the woman that you gave me it she caused me to do this.

Right.

The past the buck thing when Saul was confronted with his sin.

That's exactly what he did.

Well you know this these people I mean they're he blamed it on them rather than take

responsibility for his own sin and repent.

David on the other hand he didn't commit a little religious sin.

You know with his heart in the right place slight misstep.

Right.

David sinned huge ginormous.

In fact if this were to happen today if Israel still had a king and David was the king this would be the lead

story on all the tabloid shows on television Twitter and Facebook would be a buzz

sex scandal in Israel.

Right.

King David knocks up married woman has his her

husband murdered huge sins.

And you know what David did when he was confronted with his sin.

He repented.

And the Prophet Nathan said to David the Lord has put away your sin.

So here's the question I have for you.

And then I'll read to you Psalm 51.

Kind of bring this up put this all together.

When you hear God's law railing against your sin.

Are you sitting there concocting an excuse.

Yeah.

But there's a good reason why I it wasn't that bad.

It was really her fault or his fault.

You don't understand the pressure I'm in in the job that I have you.

You don't understand my life has taken a really bad turn.

And you know and I'm just in a weakened state.

And everybody can understand.

And you know that you know I've fallen into this that or the other thing.

Are you looking for excuses or are you getting gonna get real.

Let me read to you Psalm 51 which David penned as soon as Nathan the Prophet left him after

confronting him with his sin.

David writes.

Have mercy on me.

Oh God according to your steadfast love

according to your abundant mercy.

Blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.

Cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against you.

And you only have I sinned.

Notice he takes responsibility.

He doesn't pass the buck.

He confesses that he's sinned.

And that ultimately the one who he's really sinned against the only one who he has sinned against is God against you.

And you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you God may be justified in your

words and blameless in your judgment.

Behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceived me.

He's confessing there what we confess in our confession of sins that we are by

nature sinful and unclean.

He's not saying that his mom conceived him in some kind of lewd sexual act with the neighbor.

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying that he was conceived and born in sin that he is by

nature sinful.

And this is exactly what Scripture teaches us in Ephesians chapter 2 starting in

verse 1.

And you you Christians you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked by the

way the word there for dead Greek you know what it means means dead.

Yeah dead is dead.

You were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world following the Prince of the power of the

air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our

flesh carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.

And we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

So when King David in this psalm praise to the God praise to God and says in

sin did my mother conceived me.

He's confessing what Ephesians 2 says even though Paul had not written Ephesians 2

that he is sinful by nature.

And that's the reason why sin originates in your heart.

It's not an environmental thing it's an internal thing that we've inherited from our first parents Adam and

Eve.

Behold you delight in truth in the inward being.

And you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.

Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness.

And let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins and blot out all of my iniquities created me a clean heart.

Oh God.

And renew a right spirit within me.

And that's the prayer of all Christians.

Lord created me a clean heart.

And I have news for you Christians.

And it's good news in the waters of your baptism God did wash you and he made you whiter than snow.

That's exactly what he did.

And when you were regenerated and brought to penitent faith in Christ God replaced your heart of stone with the heart of

flesh.

God has taken all of your iniquities and has placed them on Jesus Christ.

Because remember what Isaiah says.

God has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

When Jesus was up all night after he had been betrayed by one of his own with a kiss.

And is that not always how Jesus is betrayed.

Even to this day he's betrayed with those who appear friendly to him give him a kiss

and then have him carted away.

He was put on trial and found guilty even though he committed no sin.

And the reason he was found guilty ultimately is because when he was on trial he was on trial for

your sins and mine.

That's why he was found guilty.

God laid on him the iniquity of us all.

And so then taken into the praetorium he was strapped to a pole and they took the cat of

nine tails and they let him have it.

And boy he bled the flesh on his back was ripped off of him.

Every beating every blow was because of every sin that came out of your heart and mine.

And then they made him carry his cross to Golgotha

and his legs knees buckled under the load because he was already so weakened.

So another man had to carry his cross.

And when he got to Golgotha they took the nails pierced his

hands and pierced his feet and then suspended them between heaven and earth

all because of your sin and mine.

The crown of thorns that was pressed in his head caused his the blood to run down his

face.

And the blood from his back ran down the cross and the blood from his hands and his feet ran down the cross.

And yet he committed no sin.

But see God laid on him the iniquity of us all.

And when he cried out my God my God why have you forsaken me.

It was because the father had turned away could not look on the sin that had been

laid on him.

You see he was found guilty for you so that you can be declared innocent before God.

He suffered in your place so that you would never have to suffer.

He died so that you might live.

Sin is not some small matter not some trifling thing

because it costs the Son of God his very life.

And he laid it down willingly.

And he did so for you.

Purge me with his up.

I shall be clean wash me.

I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness and let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins and blot out all of my iniquities.

Created me a clean heart.

Oh God.

And renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a

willing spirit.

Romans 8 verse 1 says this.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And that's you and that's me.

We all know what we deserve.

We all know that we deserve an eternity in hell.

We all know that is exactly if God gave us what we deserved and we wanted to stand

before God in our own righteousness.

That's exactly what we would experience.

The scandal is this.

The scandal is is that Christ forgives sinners as rotten to the core as you

and me.

I'm absolutely convinced.

You know you think of the hierarchy of sin.

We think the lowest of the low.

You know kind of like you know crack dealers and prostitutes.

There's going to be crack dealers and prostitutes in the new kingdom because they've been

brought to penitent faith in Christ.

I'm pretty convinced that when I show up they're gonna say oh there goes the neighborhood.

I can't believe they let him in.

But the reality is this when we come to the Lord's table we're all on our knees.

Are we not.

If you're not comfortable being on your knees next to a forgiven

prostitute drug dealer

politician lawyer those are the evilist of the evil right

and see yourself as equally forgiven as them.

Then you still don't understand the depth and the magnitude of your sin.

Let us remember Jesus's words and I'll read them again.

What comes out of a man is what makes him unclean.

For from within out of men's hearts come evil thoughts sexual

immorality theft murder adultery greed malice deceit

lewdness envy slander arrogance and folly all of

these evil come.

These evils come from inside and they make a man unclean.

But for us Christians who are guilty and know that this is truly from within us this is exactly what comes out of

us.

There is now no condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the spirit of life has set us free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death for God is

done with the law.

Weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful

flesh.

And for sin he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in

us who walk not according to the flesh but walk according to the spirit.

And folks you truly do walk according with the spirit when you believe and trust that Jesus has

died for you.

John 316 we all know this says.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish

but have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved

through him.

So each and every one of us who have this vile ugly putrid filth of

sin welling up from within outside of our hearts and spewing out into our lives.

God does not condemn us because we are in Christ and we've been given faith.

For whoever believes in him is not condemned.

Whoever does not believe is condemned already because he is not believed in the name of the Son of God.

So do you believe this morning.

Do you believe that Christ's death can forgive even you.

That's the question.

Because the verdict has come in you're guilty of sin.

But Christ has bled and died for you.

And he did not come to condemn you.

But that you might be saved through him.

In the name of Jesus.

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