Matthew 15:19-20..Working

Matthew 15:19-20..Working

15:19  For out of the heart (deceptive, corrupt, heart, True character, nature-(New) come evil thoughts (devising, scheming, evil-planning) murder (homicide) adultery(infidelity) sexual immorality (fornication, premarital-sex, prostitution, homosexuality, etc.) theft, (fraud, embezzlement) false testimony, (deceit, lying) slander (insult, slur) 20 These are what make a man ‘unclean’; (sinful, ungodly. Taken together what shows up in what we say, do, and think.) but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.” (sinful, ungodly)

Extended Sermon Notes

“Teaches since all sin begins in the the heart, it’s the heart that needs to be renewed the most and changed.” ⇒ A question arises how is this worked out? Before your actions can change your heart has to be changed first. You have to move from focusing of the “Horizontal” in what others are doing, to focusing on the “Vertical”. When your heart is right with God then right behavior’s will follow.

“Teaches how we don’t need behavior modifications we need a heart transformation.” ⇒ Maybe instead of trying to stop doing sinful things, we need to ask what’s leading us to those things in the first place. Evaluate what’s going on the inside before you start addressing what’s happening on the outside.

“Teaches no matter how hard we try we can’t regulate and filter out sin when those evils are already in our hearts”⇒  All the sinful evils that Jesus listed are already planted in our hearts. Pornography is not a good thing, but let’s not kid ourselves, getting rid of it will not rid us of sexual immorality, because it is already there. Porn just brings out what was already there. We can look at the violence that is in this country and advocate for better gun control, which is good, but we cannot fool ourselves into thinking that will solve the problem. The murder and malice originate from within us. If guns didn’t exist, we would just find another outlet to kill each other. Social media gives an outlet for pretty much the rest of the list. On social media, you see a lot of greed, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly, but abolishing social media would not solve the problem. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat have just made an outlet for what was already in a person. We like to blame external things for our ills, but the source of sin is our own hearts. It is not because we sin that we are sinners, but we are sinners and that is why we sin. We are the source of evil. We cannot be tempted to sin, if the desire were not already there.

“Even today, we often blame sin on something else. We blame it on our parents, environment, poor upbringing, genetics, Satan and whatever else. When the source of sin is within us.” ⇒ It’s other people who are at fault. It’s society that’s to blame. It’s our finances. It’s our job. It’s social media that’s the enemy. It’s TikTok or Instagram to blame. It’s poor genetics that’s to blame. Or we use sin as a coping mechanism in dealing with whatever is going on in our lives, and we needed an outlet. We all do it, we try to excuse and rationalize our sin away,. It’s not because were bad, it’s because bad things happen to us. Though these things may play a part, but they are not instrumental or the primary reason we sin. We can’t blame them because it’s our own inward sinful nature that is causing it. We may be influenced or enticed by them, but in the end it’s ourselves that’s at fault! It’s our own heart that loves it! It’s the poison at the center of one’s own heart which is the problem. We can no longer stand on the argument; “That’s not what was in my heart” because it was!

    Additional Notes & Applications

Teaches no matter our good intentions or how hard we try, even at our very best we will always fall short.

Teaches how it’s the thoughts we entertain in our heats that drive our actions, our responses, and our behaviors.

Warns against thinking we can avoid sin by setting up boundaries without dealing with the heart first.

Teaches how there’s many professing Christians who are comfortable in spreading manure with their mouths, than singing God’ praises. Then you have many others who are at home in receiving manure from other peoples mouths (gossip, slander) than they are at receiving the Word of God straight from scripture.

Teaches how it’s not outside pressures, influences, or forces that are making us do sinful things. But rather it was us who were committed to that stuff. We can’t say we did this because we were tired and stressed. Or we wouldn’t have done this if they hadn’t kept pushing our buttons.

Teaches how bad behavior is the result of a corrupt heart, and not the other way around!

Emphasizes the importance of the condition of our heart. It’s our heart that really needs to be changed. We can’t use the law or religious rules or disciplines to change our heart. With a lot of discipline we might be able to change some of our deeds, but the law or any form of rule cannot deal with the issue of the heart!

Jesus’ list is not meant to be exhaustive; there are far more sins than just these. Jesus lists only the major evil character traits raging in each heart. Nor is Jesus denying the capacity for us to show love and kindness. But what He is denying is that the solution is within ourselves.

We should not use the list of sins given here to excuse or condemn oneself, but rather is only showing that if you can do one you can to them all, that sin springs from the same place.

The bible Lexicon defines “Sexual immorality” as unchastity fornication of every kind of unlawful sexual intercourse. Which means it is not true to say that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality. He purposely used a word that everyone would have understood to have included all of the sexual sins forbidden in the Torah, including homosexuality. The Lexicon also defines “Sexual immorality” as a persuasive sensuality as indecency, sexual excess, lewdness, depravity, impropriety, etc. Much of which we find in the Western culture of today. With all i’s sexual innuendo as displayed in advertisements, R-rated movies, commercials, video-games, websites, etc. What’s also interesting is that the Greek word translated “fornication” here and which is translated as “sexual immorality” or simply “immorality” in other passages, is “porneia”, which is where we get our word “pornography” from.