SPIRITUAL FOR 7/10/2022 8:14 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“The Correcting Teacher”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
15:10-20
Message of the verses: “10 And after He
called the multitude to Him, He said to them, "Hear, and understand. 11 “Not
what enters into the mouth defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth,
this defiles the man." 12 Then the disciples came and said to Him,
"Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this
statement?" 13 But He answered and said, "Every plant which My
heavenly Father did not plant shall be rooted up. 14 “Let them alone; they are
blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will
fall into a pit." 15 And Peter answered and said to Him, "Explain the
parable to us." 16 And He said, "Are you still lacking in
understanding also? 17 “Do you not understand that everything that goes into
the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? 18 “But the things that
proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. 19 “For
out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts,
false witness, slanders. 20 “These are the things which defile the man; but to
eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.’”
What we will be doing this morning is an
introduction to this section and then we will be breaking it down into looking
at different sets of verses to explain it better.
All
one has to do to learn about pollution in our world today is listen to the news
as it has a lot to say about pollution.
Pollution of another kind had been plaguing mankind for a very long
time, since the beginning of time. This
kind of pollution is different and it cannot be seen, smelled, tasted, or
measured. The problem is that this is a
lethal, more lethal than anything modern environmentalists oppose. John
MacArthur writes “The New Testament uses five different verbs, three nouns, and
one adjective to represent the idea of pollution, or defilement, and various
forms of those terms are used dozens of times.
The five uses in the present text, of defile and defiles (vv. 11, 18,
20) are all from the verb koinoo
which means to make common, unclean, or polluted.”
God
is concerned about the defilement of all of His creation; however He is
especially concerned about the defilement of man, who is made in His image, and
most especially about the defilement of His own redeemed children. James tells us to hold to the following in
1:27 “pure and undefiled religion” Paul warns against consciences that are weak
and defiled in 1 Cor. 8:7). The Bible
shows us that it is terribly serious matter for Christians to defile
themselves, because their bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit as seen in 1
Cor. 3:16-17. The Lord commends the
church at Sardis for not having soiled, or defiled, its garments as seen in
Rev. 3:4. Also in the eternal heavenly
kingdom, there will be no object or person who is defiled and this can be seen
in Revelation 14:4; and 21:27. However
even in our present earthly life, we are commanded to grow into the likeness of
our Lord Jesus Christ as seen in Ephesians 4:13, who is “holy, innocent,
undefiled” (Heb. 7:26). MacArthur
concludes this introduction: “Like His
Son, God’s people are to be clean, pure, holy, spotless, unpolluted, and
undefiled (2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:27; 2 Pet. 3:14).”
“In
Matthew 15:10-20, Jesus first states the principle of spiritual defilement,
then describes the violation of the principle, and finally elucidates the
meaning of the principle.” This is the
outline that we will follow as we study these verses.
7/10/2022 8:38 AM
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