Evaluating Jesus – part 3

Apr 26, 2026 • Rory Mosley

035 Evaluating Jesus – part 3

Mark 7:1-23 (18-23)

April 26, 2026

Tonight we want to jump back in to our study of Mark 7.

· We know that the Pharisees have come to evaluate, expose, and condemn Jesus.

· We also know that their plan terribly backfired since no one can judge Jesus without having their own heart exposed.

· They sought to condemn Jesus for having unclean hands, He condemned them for having unclean hearts.

But the altercation did lead to a sermon from Jesus.

He called the crowd back and said:

(15) “there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.”

Very simply stated, defilement does not occur from the outside in,

It occurs from the inside out.

And then Jesus dismissed the crowd.

That brought us to the 5th and final point of the text.

#5 THE EXPLANATION

Mark 7:17-23

As we said, the disciples once again

Did not understand what He was talking about.

They revealed they did not understand

What it meant to be defiled or even how it happens.

We noted that this is also why they failed to see Jesus as set apart or holy.

eir understanding of defilement was wrong

So obviously their understanding of true holiness was also wrong.

Jesus is here setting out to correct their understanding

Of sin, defilement, and ultimately how it is fixed.

It creates for us an opportunity to discuss a theological doctrine.

We are discussing “The Doctrine of Sin” otherwise known as HAMARTIOLOGY

The title comes from the Greek word (ha-mar-TEE-a)

Which means “to miss the mark”

We want to understand this issue of sin and defilement,

And Jesus is going to explain it to us.

THIS MORNING we began by discussing what it meant to be defiled.

In the Old Testament it was often referred to as being unclean.

· It spoke of a person who was defiled or spoiled or contaminated and

otherwise unfit to dwell in the presence of God.

· You could be unclean for a number of reasons, but the one thing they all had in

common was that you were removed outside the camp. You could not

come near to God.

Well that is what started this whole issue in Mark’s gospel.

· The Pharisees accused the disciples of being unclean because they ate with

unwashed hands.

They wrongly assumed that they remained clean before God

So long as they protected themselves from outside defilement.

THAT ISN’T TRUE.

The most defiling they about them was already within them.

Jeremiah 17:9-10 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.”

And I want us to pick back up and discuss this a little more TONIGHT.

AND THE FIRST THING I want to do is to make sure you understand what is meant by “heart”.

We’ve talked about “defiled”, now let’s talk about “heart”.

When Jeremiah says “the heart is more deceitful than all else”.

It is important that you know what he was talking about.

TO US the heart is the seat of emotion.

“My heart yearns for you…”

But not to the Jews.

That is not what “heart” meant.

If you want to go back and look at the sermon notes on this sermon, I’m going to link a sermon there where John MacArthur talks about this much more fully.

The sermon is called: “Strengthen Your Heart” and it’s regarding Colossians 2:1-2

https://www.gty.org/sermons/2139/strengthen-your-heart

The Jews were not abstract, they were very detailed in how they talk.

“I feel nervous”, “I feel anxious”,

That is NOT the way they would talk.

They would describe that nervous feeling in the gut.

Consider the crucifixion account in Psalm 22.

Psalms 22:14 “I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It is melted within me.”

“me” there is actually the word for “bowels”.

He says “My heart is like wax, it is melted into my bowels”

He’s talking about a literal internal upheaval in His body.

It’s not abstract, it’s an accurate description of how He feels.

You’re going to like this one.

Song of Solomon 5:4 “My beloved extended his hand through the opening, And my feelings were aroused for him.”

“feelings” there is (MAY-EH)

It is the word for the digestive organs or the bowels

Solomon’s lady was quite the smooth talker, “my bowels were aroused for him”.

You ladies might want to hang on to that for Valentine’s Day.

She’s talking about physical feelings that actually occurred in her body.

But the point is that the bowels were ALWAYS RESPONDING.

They respond to pain, to grief, to danger, physical attraction.

There was a literal feeling in the gut that was responsive.

WHAT DID IT RESPOND TO?

Well to the Hebrew, the bowels responded to the heart.

And to the Jews, whereas the bowels were the seat of emotion,

The heart was the seat of reason or thinking or responsibility.

Revelation 18:7 “To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and will never see mourning.’”

You see it there, “she says in her heart”.

That’s an analogy for thinking.

Genesis 6:5 “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Again there, “the thoughts of his heart”

So the heart to the Hebrew was the intellect and the will.

Psalms 14:1 “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good.”

He doesn’t say “The fool has said in his brain…”

But that’s really what is happening.

So to the Jew the heart is the seat of reason and responsibility.

The bowels are the seat of emotion.

Now you need to know that because

When Jesus here talks about the heart,

You need to know He’s not talking about your emotions,

He’s talking about your mind and your will.

So back to that Jeremiah verse,

Now that you understand their way of thinking:

So what is Jeremiah saying?

· You think wrong.

· You reason wrong.

· Your logic is skewed.

· Your insight is crooked.

· Your will is fallen.

This is why the Pharisees could be so wrong about everything

And yet so convinced that they were right.

It’s because they think wrong.

· Their mind and thought processes are all fallen.

· They think backward.

· They don’t think like God thinks.

And here we find that in this instance, NEITHER DO THE DISCIPLES.

“Are you so lacking in understanding also?”

So when we talk about defilement you need to know that

It’s NOT what you eat that makes you evil,

It’s the way you think; it’s your will.

And look, the disciples should have known this.

Jesus had already preached the Sermon On The Mount

Matthew 5:21-22 “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”

Matthew 5:27-28 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

See there again, it’s not really the heart where adultery was committed,

It was in the mind. You thought about it, you played it out, you indulged it mentally.

It wasn’t the outside that made you guilty before God

It was the way you think.

That is what is defiled within man.

That is what is unacceptable to God.

It’s that man thinks wrong about everything.

IT’S CALLED DEPRAVITY

And it is the result of THE FALL.

Mankind does not naturally think like God thinks,

And that makes it man’s thinking wrong.

And, as we said this morning, we come into the world this way.

Some of you are familiar with this, but if not, let me clarify it again.

Romans 5:12-14 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned— for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”

I’ve told you before, but you need to know this.

When Paul says “death spread to all men, because all sinned”

The verb “sinned” there is in the aorist tense.

That verb tense was used by Greeks

To denote an action as a complete single event.

Think of them using it as a snapshot in the past,

As opposed to a video of the present.

What that means is this.

Paul is NOT SAYING that men were born neutral, but they all kept sinning and dying by following the example of Adam.

No, Paul is saying that when Adam sinned, we all sinned with him.

When Adam fell, we all fell with him.

And incidentally, that is very important to a correct understanding of the gospel.

If you deny that concept then you cannot later say that

We were crucified with Christ, or buried with Him, or raised with Him.

You don’t get to pick and choose which events you were a part of.

We all sinned with Adam.

We all fell with Adam.

And Paul makes that point by revealing that

Even before the Law came, which exposed sin, men still died.

Men were suffering the consequences of sin before they even knew what sin was.

WHY? Because we all were condemned in Adam.

So when we come into this world we do not come in neutral,

Simply needing to be protected from defiling environments.

We come into this world fallen and defiled already.

Romans 3:10-18 “as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving,” “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”; “Their feet are swift to shed blood, Destruction and misery are in their paths, And the path of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

SO YOU SEE THE POINT AGAIN.

Sin is not an environment problem, sin is a heart problem.

And that is what Jesus said to the crowd up in verse 15, “there is nothing outside the man which can defile him, if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.”

And it is what the disciples did not understand.

They had a distorted view of sin and defilement.

So Jesus is about to clarify it for them.

(18-19) “And He said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?” (Thus He declared all foods clean.)”

It really is a quite simple point.

There is a reason food, or even eating dirt, can’t defile you.

WHAT YOU EAT DOES NOT GO INTO THE HEART.

Food can’t defile

Because food doesn’t effect your intellect or your will.

Everything you eat goes into the stomach,

And eventually out the other end.

It’s what we call basic biology.

1 Corinthians 6:13 “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.”

· When you eat something, it goes into your stomach and then out.

· It does not enter your heart.

“(Thus He declared all foods clean.)”

That is to say, He eliminated all dietary restrictions.

· The were given for a time as a symbol of uncleanness and separation,

· But like all of the other O.T. symbols,

· Once the substance has come the symbol is no longer needed.

In short, you can eat bacon now.

It is not going to get you kicked out of the presence of God.

“Eating with unwashed hands” is not going to get you kicked out of the presence of God.

· That stuff will not defile you.

· That stuff will not make you unholy.

NOW, WE COULD

· Talk about how just because some things are permitted, that doesn’t mean it’s

profitable.

· We could talk about the need to love your brother and protect his

conscience.

· We could even talk about how healthy certain foods are for the body.

But that is not for here.

THE POINT HERE IS THAT

There is not a food in this world that you can eat

That will cause God to tell you to get out of His house.

HOWEVER…

(20) “And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.”

If verses 18-19 give us the Biology Of Defilement

Then verse 20 gives us the Theology Of Defilement.

It’s not what comes in, it’s what goes out.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

(21-23) “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. “All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

Jesus said that the things which defile us come “from within, out of the heart of men”

The origin is not the culture, it is the heart.

The things that cause God to want you to go outside the camp

All come from within you.

And Jesus is not shy about the list.

13 terrible sins are listed here.

All of them are detestable in the sight of God.

And we could spend time on each one defining and describing it,

But the greater point is to note that everyone of these

Originates inside of you not outside of you.

“evil thoughts”

It speaks of an internal dialogue where your mind is set on evil.

“fornications” – (par-NIE-a)

It’s illicit sexual intercourse, and the point is you do it because your heart loves it.

“thefts”

Stealing starts in the heart.

“murders”

We’ve all heard the Sermon on the Mount about hatred for your brother.

“adulteries” – (moy-KHI-a)

This is just the act of breaking a covenant with adultery.

“deeds of coveting and wickedness”

Obviously coveting starts internally and then move externally to pursue what you crave.

“deceit”

Lying may come out of your mouth, but it starts in the heart.

“sensuality”

It is unbridled lust, shamelessness, and insolence

“slander”

To murder someone’s reputation with your tongue.

“pride”

Love of self, and trust in self.

“foolishness”

Ultimately it is rebellion against authority.

I hope you recognize how Jesus there gave

Both the outward sin and the inward motivation behind it.

· It is evil thoughts that leads to fornications and adulteries.

· It is coveting that leads to thefts.

· It is pride that leads to slander and murder

· It is foolishness that leads to wickedness

Now any of those things you might do when you were a teenager and your momma would say, “He’s a good kid, he just got mixed up in the wrong crowd.”

THAT’S NOT TRUE.

YOU were the wrong crowd.

YOUR HEART was the evil influence not the boy down the block.

Those things weren’t taught to you,

Those things were already harboring in you.

I think a good analogy is a careless weed.

Provided it rains and carless weeds start coming up,

You can go out and spray every weed in your yard, and kill them all.

But go turn over the soil in your yard and amazingly more will come up.

They are there, just lurking below the surface,

Waiting for the opportunity to spring forth.

Everything required for wickedness is already in us.

Jesus said, (23) “All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

These are the things that make God not want to dwell near you.

These are the things that make God kick you out of the camp.

So here is the chief point that must be made about sin and defilement.

It’s the clearest description I ever heard, and one you need to know.

You don’t become a sinner when you sin.

You sin because you are a sinner.

Take the list Jesus just gave us.

Does a person become a slanderer after they slander?

· No, they slander because they have evil thoughts.

Does a person become a thief after they steal something?

· No, they steal because they are filled with coveting and wickedness.

Does a person become an adulterer after they commit adultery?

· No, they commit adultery because their mind is filled with fornication and lusts and sensuality.

It is the Biblical explanation as to why you sin.

And so the solution to escaping defilement

Is NOT in excluding yourself from evil influences. It’s too late for that.

Is NOT washing your hands or staying away from lepers.

The solution to escaping defilement is a heart transformation.

The only way that you can be washed

And made undefiled in the presence of God

Is if your heart is changed.

Think about what God has promised in the way of redemption.

Think about the New Covenant.

Jeremiah 31:33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

Ezekiel 36:26-27 “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

Think about what salvation is doing in you.

Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

God gives you a new heart (or mind)

And then God constantly renews it.

alvation is not when God takes you out of a defiled circumstance,

Salvation is when God takes the defilement out of you.

It is what Paul told the Corinthians

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

And this comes through Christ.

Hebrews 9:13-14 “For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

Jesus came to wash your heart.

Jesus came to clean you on the inside.

Remember when He was in the upper room washing the disciples feet?

· Peter didn’t want it and Jesus rebuked him.

· Then Peter said for Jesus to wash his entire body.

John 13:10-11 “Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.”

Jesus washed them clean.

Jesus removed their defilement.

Jesus was gave them a new heart.

Now at that point, once you’ve got a new heart, then yes cleaning the outside is helpful.

You do need your feet washed.

But starting with the feet won’t fix anything,

You’ve got to start with the heart.

It’s what we read the youth on Wednesday night.

2 Peter 2:22 “It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”

· It won’t do you any good to give a dog a steak when he’ll eat his own vomit.

· It won’t do you any good to give a pig a bath when they love the mud.

It’s graphic but it’s so true!

You don’t need a new environment, you need a new heart,

AND JESUS CAN GIVE IT TO YOU.

That is what the Pharisees did not understand.

That is what the disciples did not understand.

Their doctrine of sin was all messed up.

Take it from Jesus:

John 3:1-3 “Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

I hope it makes sense to you now.

But there is ONE MORE THING I want you to understand,

For we don’t want to miss MARK’S POINT.

The greater theme here is that no one is RECOGNIZING JESUS.

The Pharisees clearly didn’t.

But as we said, even the disciples don’t fully understand how set apart or special or holy He is.

Do you see here the fundamental difference

Between Jesus and everyone else?

Sure, He’s more powerful, but that’s not it –

He shared His power with the 12.

The difference in Jesus is that,

Unlike the rest, He is not defiled.

I DON’T just mean that Jesus never sinned.

What we learn is that HE NEVER EVEN WANTED TO.

· His heart was clean.

· His heart was pure.

· His heart was righteous.

It had to be.

1 Samuel 16:7 “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

GOD LOOKS AT THE HEART.

And even when looking at the heart,

The Father looked upon the Son and declared “in Him I am well-pleased”.

This is what people are not yet seeing in Mark’s gospel.

This is why they can recognize His power.

This is why they can be amazed at His teaching.

But they still don’t see Him.

THEY CANNOT SEE HOW FAR ABOVE THEM HE ACTUALLY.

THERE ARE 2 THINGS THEY DON’T KNOW.

They don’t know how sinful they are

And they don’t know how holy He is.

And tonight, that’s what I would want us to recognize.