Subject Seventy-five

THE FILTHINESS OF THE HEART

Scripture: Mark 7:1-23
This is a very good gospel subject, but it is one that is not so easy to begin, because you cannot start with the filthiness of the heart. The Bible first presented a story to illustrate the point; then it goes on to say that such filthiness is not from without but from within.

1. The filthiness of human living
   1. The whole world is filthy. It is filthy materially and morally. Go and take a walk in the street, and your whole being will be filthy.
   2. The filthiness of the world symbolizes the fact that the whole human living is filthy. Any activity in the human living causes you to be defiled. The Jews followed the tradition of washing their hands and feet, because both the hands and the feet are the members related to man’s activities, the points of contacting things. This is to say that whenever you move and touch something, you are liable to be defiled. Not only is doing evil things filthy, but even honoring your parents is also filthy, because man also has pride and self-glory growing within him when he is honoring his parents. When you are not doing anything the filthiness does not show. Once you do something, the filthiness shows right away. There is no need to mention that it is filthy to do evil things with your hands and feet; even doing good things is filthy. Of course it is filthy to pick up dung with your hands, but even if you are holding some clean things, it is still filthy. A man lying in bed for three days, doing nothing, will smell bad if he does not take a bath. Move, and you are filthy; be still, and you are filthy just the same. You need to speak to such an extent that you leave no escape for them.
2. Man’s effort to be cleansed
   1. In that day the Jews had to wash their hands and feet whenever they did something because they were defiled by their doing.
   2. Today people are just like the Jews, only paying attention to the outward washing, and trying to make themselves clean by human effort. The washing of the hands signifies innocence, that you will no longer do evil things. Some who used to dance, watch movies and gamble now have washed their hands and have quit doing these things. Man’s way is to wash his hands.
   3. All of man’s effort is outward. You need to speak in a serious way that all man’s efforts are merely washing the outward things.
3. The source of man’s filthiness
   1. Man’s filthiness shows on the outside, but the source of his filthiness is not outside of him.
   2. The source of man’s filthiness is in the heart. You need to quote the words of the Lord Jesus, “There is nothing from without the man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man, are those that defile the man.”
   3. So just to cleanse the outside is useless. You must deal from within.
4. The content of man’s filthiness
   Pick three or four items out of the thirteen mentioned in this passage of the Scripture and hit them. It would take a special conference to cover all thirteen items in detail: Evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickednesses, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, and foolishness. Before you speak, you should prepare yourself thoroughly on these items. You should speak to such an extent that people dare not lift up their heads. For instance, when you are talking about the evil thoughts, you should say that you may seem to honor your parents outwardly, but within your heart you wish that they would die soon. Allow the heavenly x-ray to manifest the real situation of man.
5. God’s saving way of cleansing
   1. Man washes the outside, but God deals with the heart.
   2. The way God deals with the heart is by regeneration.
      1. He makes our deadened spirit alive. The dead people are the most filthy ones. If you really want to escape the filthiness and want to be made alive, you must have life.
      2. He renews our heart.
      3. He makes us partakers of God’s divine life and nature.
      4. God’s saving way of cleansing includes two aspects: outwardly, God uses the blood to cleanse the filthiness of our outward behavior; and inwardly God regenerates us to resolve the filthiness within us.
6. How to be cleansed
   1. Confess that you are filthy within and without.
   2. Receive the Lord as your Savior. As soon as you receive the Lord as your Savior, the Lord’s blood cleanses the filthiness of your outward behavior, and at the same time the Lord’s Spirit regenerates you, and resolves the filthy thoughts within you.