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Weekly Devotional Recap Page
Learn to Discern
Failing to Discern - Romans 1:28-32
Dull of Hearing - Hebrews 5:11
Got Milk? – Hebrews 5:12-13
Exercising Our Senses - Hebrews 5:14
Judge All Things - 1 Corinthians 2:14-15
An Exhortation Towards Peace - 1 Thessalonians 5:14
Do Not Render Evil for Evil - 1 Thessalonians 5:15
This is the Will of God - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Do Not Quench the Spirit - 1 Thessalonians 5:19
Abstain From Every Form of Evil - 1 Thessalonians 5:20-22
Overcoming Obstacles to Discernment
Overcoming Immaturity: Meditate on the Word - Psalm 1:1-3
Overcoming Immaturity: Abide in Christ - John 15:4-5
Overcoming Immaturity: Be Discipled - Matthew 28:19-20
Overcoming Sin: Understanding Sins Origin - James 1:13-15
Overcoming Sin: Learning to Hate Sin - Romans 14:23
Practice Makes Perfect
Five Practice Questions – Selected Scriptures
Practice Discerning – Part 1
Practice Discerning – Part 2
Practice Discerning – Part 3
Practice Discerning – Part 4
Discernment or Defilement
Tradition – Matthew 15:1-6
Vain Worship - Matthew 15:7-9
Hear and Understand - Matthew 15:10
Offensive Truth - Matthew 15:11-12
Blind Leaders - Matthew 15:13-14
Ask - Matthew 15:15
Without Understanding - Matthew 15:16
From the Heart, Out the Mouth - Matthew 15:17-18
Heart Problems – Part 1 – Matthew 15:19-20
Heart Problems – Part 2 – Ezekiel 36:26
Daily Scripture Reading - Ephesians 4
Verse of the Day - Ezekiel 36:26
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Devotional Thoughts
We have seen how discernment is necessary if we are to avoid defilement. Embracing the traditions of men as if they were the Word of God will indeed ensnare us, but even more dangerous is misunderstanding the truth. If we miss the truth then how do we know how to act, or why to act that way? Without discernment, without understanding, we cannot hear, know, understand, or do the truth. We fall easily to false doctrine and are entrapped by the traditions of men.
It does not help that as we studied in Part 1, we have a heart problem. Each of us is born with a terrible condition – we are dead! And our hearts are deceitful and wicked. As we studied, Jesus tells us that our hearts are full of “evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.”
So what then is the cure? Can we clean our hearts up? Can we remove the evil? Can we renovate the inner man and salvage what is good while getting rid of what is bad?
Our fallen, wicked hearts are truly beyond hope. We have, as it were, hearts of stone. Rock hard, darkened, past feeling, dead and bound in sin. There is not a shred of good there, there is no divine spark, there is nothing to renovate. If left in this state with this heart we are doomed.
But we must remember that the gospel is the good news. It is a message of hope, for Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost. We may be beyond renovation, but we are not beyond redemption! Jesus has paid the penalty for our sin, taking God’s wrath toward our sin upon Himself and giving us His righteousness. This is what we mean when we talk about “getting saved.” When sinners are converted they by God’s grace turn from their sin in repentance and they turn to Christ in faith, trusting Him to save. They repent and believe, obeying the gospel.
We know from the Scriptures that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. We know that repentance and faith are both gifts of grace, not something inherent in us, but a gift given by God to us when we need it. We know that we cannot save ourselves. We cannot be good enough to be saved, we cannot merit salvation on our own, and we cannot work for it either.
So how do we deal with our heart problem?
The answer is that we don’t do anything – God does something! We are dead. Lost. Impotent. Unable to hear, understand, or respond to the Word of God on our own. But praise be to God, the Holy Spirit is able to use the Word of God to call us to life. We, who were once dead, He has made alive! The solution for our heart condition is a transplant. We need a new heart.
And that is just what God does when He saves us. He gives us a new heart. He takes out our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh – a new, living heart capable of repentance and faith. This is regeneration. That point in time when God calls a sinner to life from the dead. Just as He did with Lazarus in the grave.
When Jesus called to Lazarus in the tomb, Lazarus was dead. He had been dead for 4 days. He could not hear, respond, or answer. But the authority of the call of Christ – the power of His voice – brought Lazarus back to life from the dead. One who was dead was raised to new life.
So too we, by the power and authority of the Holy Spirit, are effectually called to new life. We were dead, children of wrath. And the next moment we are alive, able to hear, understand, and believe the Word of God. This is why we say that salvation is by grace alone. It is not a decision we make on our own having weighed the gospel against whatever else we might believe. A dead man has no options to weigh.
The cure then is indeed a new heart. Not a renovated heart. Not a repaired heart. The old is put off and the new put on. The hard heart is removed and a soft, pliable, believing heart replaces it. This is why there is so much that is new about us when we are saved.
Consider this newness today:
We are given a new heart. We are a new creation. We are renewed in the spirit of our mind – in the inner man. We are transformed by renewing our mind, as we have the mind of Christ now. We, who were dead, are now alive, and our life is hidden with Christ in God. We are members of the New Covenant. This is indeed new life.
Today, how is your heart? Dead, hard, stone cold? New, alive, full of the joy of the Lord? If you do still have a heart problem there is a cure. We find the cure for this curse in the cross of Christ. Look then to Him, turn from your sin, and trust Him. That is the only rememdy!
Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)
Regeneration Preceeds Faith by RC Sproul
Regeneration or The New Birth by AW Pink
Bible Reading For Further Study
Recommended Songs for Worship
The Gospel Shows the Father’s Grace
Gracious God, My Heart Renew
Daily Scripture Reading - Jeremiah 17
Verse of the Day - Matthew 15:19-20
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.
Devotional Thoughts
As Jesus continues to explain the parable to His disciples He reveals the truth that He is speaking about heart problems! The problem is not as the scribes and Pharisees see it – a problem with outward practise that has been added to the Word of God as a legalistic man made tradition. The true issue here is a heart issue. For it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles. It is not the kind of food or the manner in which that food is or is not eaten that causes us to sin. It is what comes out of the mouth that defiles. For the things that come out of the mouth originate in the heart. And those things that are sinful and come out of the mouth from the heart are the things which truly expose our sin nature.
He explains further then that “out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” As we look at what the Bible says about our mouths and we realise that the things that come out of our mouths start in our heart, we begin to see how serious a heart problem this really is. Our hearts are wicked. They are full of darkness and deceit, transgressions, and tyranny.
We are each born with this heart of stone. We are conceived as sinners and sin from the first moment we are able to decide for ourselves how to behave. The sad and horrible truth is that as sinners our hearts are desperately wicked. There is no such thing as a good person outside of Jesus Christ. No one is good. We are all born with this heart condition and we are all in need of a cure!
Let us look then at this list given by Jesus and diagnose the problem we all have with our hearts.
Evil Thoughts
Literally this means to be thinking about things that hurt us! Our hearts, left to their own thoughts, are full of peril, danger, harm, and evil. Wicked thoughts, evil intentions, hurtful ideas, and destructive imaginations. This is the heart of a lost, natural man. He is carnally minded which is of course deadly. This is not just thinking about sin, it is an intention to commit sin, premeditation to transgress the Law of God.
Think about it – what are our first thoughts, even as believers, when we see a competitor succeed? At times we are so selfish that we truly do wish harm upon people. We have evil thoughts that lead to gossip and slander and other hurtful actions and words. It is not “natural” for us to think better of others than we do of ourselves. Often we meet someone new and without even trying to think about it we figure out how they measure up (to us!). We compare them to ourselves and our friends and we either are impressed by them or we think they are below us.
These are the evil thoughts that originate in the hearts of men. Thoughts that lead to evil words and evil actions. Thoughts that destroy faith and hope. Thoughts that cause despair and depression! This is precisely why the Bible tells us to think on things that are pure, lovely, just, and true. Things that are contrary to our own evil thoughts. Things that require a power and ability that we do not naturally possess. Things that require faith and humble dependence upon the Holy Spirit.
Murders
Just as it says, out of the heart proceed murders. Literally the slaughter of innocents. And we might understand how our hearts are full of evil thoughts but then in our spiritual pride we draw the line and insist that we do not have hearts full of murder for who among us has actually killed another person? And yet Jesus says that our hearts are full of murders. And He proves it simply and easily in the Sermon on the Mount when He shows us that to be angry toward our brother without cause is the same thing as to kill him! The motive for murder is equal to the act of murder before God.
He states, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.”
There is a righteous anger, a wrath toward sin, but this anger Jesus is speaking about is an anger based on pride and hurt feelings. It is not righteous. It is the motive that would, if carried out, slaughter another human being. This starts in the heart! And it is there present every time we criticize and judge another person. It is that motive that would lead us without restraint to aweful sins that we in our pride would deny that we were even able to commit. And yet we think about it all the time!!
Adulteries
Unfaithfulness. Whether within marriage or within covenant with God, this speaks of unfaithfulness. Breaking promises, violating vows, chasing after that which is not ours. This unfaithfulness starts in the heart as we are drawn away from right relationships and into sin.
This may be “cheating” on a spouse or it may be placing an idol in the place of God in our lives. All are equally wicked. And as many as would never think to enter into a promiscuous relationship outside of their marriage often we are guilty of chasing after other men and women in our thoughts and with our feelings. This ties into the next attribute so let us take it up and continue to elaborate on the theme here of unfaithfulness.
Fornications
This refers to immorality. It is any perversion of the gift of sex given by God to those who are married. It starts with unfaithfulness in our hearts and works it way out in our actions and words and feelings as we sin sexual sins.
Jesus had already preached that to lust after a woman was the same as committing adultery with her in our hearts. Lust leads to sin and sin to death. And that lust starts in the heart.
Let me address another form of adultery and forncation that is prevelent in the church today. It may not be that church members are actually committing adultery and being unfaithful sexually – but they are having affairs! (What a horrid word. We have made the sin of fornication and adultery sound like an amusement park ride. It is not an affair – it is unfaithfulness!) They are having emotional attachments that are sinful!
Listen to this closely. In our hearts we find the root of discontentment and selfishness. We begin to think that our spouse is not meeting our needs. We forget the truth that in marriage it is not a 50/50 give and take. No. It is a 100/100 give. We are to give all of ourself to our spouse – expecting nothing in return. Boy, there is a premise for a marriage self help book that might sell 2 copies – but it is the truth! Marriage is not about what we can get from our spouse. It is about what we can give to them!!
But when this discontentment grows we begin to rely on others, even others at church, for spiritual and emotional support. That which we are supposed to be getting at home we begin to get from others. And that is adultery! It is emotional fornication. It builds up relationships that are sinful and will, if unchecked, lead to more serious sins! Pastors need to be teaching their congregations how to be faithful in their marriage – faithful in their minds, emotions, bodies, and in their hearts!! For a sinful rebellious heart is quick to find an opportunity for sin, sin that will destroy marriages and split churches and wreck ministries, and leave all involved hurt and bitter.
Thefts
Also from our hearts proceed the desire to have what is not ours. This greed, this temporal discontentment, finds us craving what is not ours to the point that we take it. This can be as simple as a selfish heart that steals the credit and as complex as actually taking other people’s property just for the thrill of the take!
Instead of relying upon God to meet our needs we try to do it on our own. We rely on self. We deceive. We steal. And trust me, we are not theives because we steal. No. We steal because at heart we are theives. Always wanting what is not ours.
From birth we know how to grab! As soon as we can speak it is not long before we utter the word “mine”. We want to possess, to the point that if we can’t have it, no one can! What destructive tendencies are found in our hearts.
We take what is not ours and claim it as our own. This desire is never satisfied, for there is no such thing as a satisified crook. There is always one last job, one last take, one last big score. And Jesus says this all starts in the heart.
False Witness
We also are prone to lie. To bear false witness. Here it means to give a false testimony. To deceive. You know, when you think about it, we don’t have to teach our kids to steal or lie. We do have to teach them to share and tell the truth! It is that sin nature, that natural man, that depravity.
Our hearts are full of deceit. When we are under pressure and when we do not meet others expectations at work or at home or at church how quickly does our mind turn to making something up to cover for our lack of meeting what was expected of us? It is staggering at times when we think about it to see how in a stressful sitaution the first thing we do is think up a lie to try and get out of the situation!
Lying is easy. It comes naturally. But is is never right and will never be rewarded. Ever. The Bible never condones lying, it always condemns dishonesty. And any attempt to prove otherwise is either a misreading of Scripture or the reader has introduced some sort of situational ethic to the text where it was not present before. Lying is always a sin and always has negative consequences.
Blasphemies
The last phrase here means literally a slanderous detraction or an attempt to harm someone’s good name. It is to speak hatefully to discredit and destroy. It can speak of blaspheming God or others. How often does out heart seeth with hatred and with anger and with animosity? A desire to harm another, or to at least take them down a notch in front of those who might respect or think highly of them.
What an utterly selfish act. To work at destroying someone’s credibility or reputation. And yet it happens every time we gossip or undermine someone at work or at church. Every time we repeat negative and judgmental things, every time we join in with group dissections of this person or that, every time we twist the story or even tell the truth with a motive to hurt someone or put someone down, every time we blaspheme!
Conclusion
How do we relate to others? How to react when others get the credit, the glory, or the praise, even if we know they do not deserve it? How do we feel? What do we think?
These things come straight from the fallen heart. It is really frightening to think about how often we contemplate sin. To realise how often we are right there on the brink ready to step across the line God has drawn in His Word, simply in order to uphold our own rights, puff up our own self, and gratify our own flesh.
This all starts in the heart. It is the fallen heart of man that is deceitfully wicked. It is from the heart that these things which defile pour forth. And these things – this wickedness, this self serving sinfulness – this is what defiles us. It is not to eat with unwashed hands. It is to dwell in our hearts on sin, to think, contemplate, imagine, and play with sin in our hearts. This is the greatest of unfaithfulness, for we have been given by Christ a new heart! We have been given the ability to do what is right, to think what is right, and to say what is right. And yet we still find it such a struggle.
Tomorrow we will continue to look at this heart problem and we will discuss the cure! Until then, beware your heart! Turn that discernment on yourself and seek to know the tendencies of your own fallen heart so that together we can combat them!
Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)
A True Map of Man’s Miserable Estate by Nature by Christopher Love
Man in His Fallen Estate by John Newton
Bible Reading For Further Study
Recommended Songs for Worship
Righteous Father, We Have Wronged Thee
Rulers of Sodom, Hear the Voice
Daily Scripture Reading - Ezekiel 36
Verse of the Day - Matthew 15:17-18
Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.
Devotional Thoughts
In out text, as Jesus has been answering the accusations of the scribes and Pharisees and teaching the truth about their traditions, the disciples have been without understanding. And Peter, acting as their representative, has asked Jesus to explain what He has meant by what He has said. And so Jesus answered them, precisely and concisely.
The scribes and Pharisees taught and believed that to eat with unwashed hands caused defilement and was a violation of God’s Law. But to the contrary Jesus stated the following:
Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.
Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.
It is really quite simple. It is not what goes into your mouth that defiles you. It is what comes out of your mouth. It is not food, but words!
Not to be graphic, but Jesus states an obvious fact about our bodies. We eat. The food is digested. The waste is eliminated. Food serves it purpose, nourishes our bodies, and whatever is left is removed from the body just as God designed. So there is no defilement from food, even if it is eaten with unwashed hands. For whatever is not used by the body is discarded. There is nothing left to defile.
Isn’t that simple? Food enters the mouth, goes into the stomach, and then is eliminated.
However, just as what goes into the mouth does not defile, what comes out of the mouth does indeed defile! Why? Because Jesus says that what comes out of the mouth – the words we speak – proceed from the heart. This is a truth we all know, but we need to be reminded about the significance of this statement. What is in the heart comes out of the mouth and can truly defile.
The Bible has so much to say about the heart and the mouth. These two parts of the body, these things that are part of who and what we are, they get us into so much trouble! The mouth reveals so much about the heart. It becomes easy to diagnose indwelling sin by listening to the words that we utter.
There is so much to cover here that I really only need to let the Word of God speak for Him. Here is just a sample of what He says about the mouth (we will study the heart tomorrow).
Psalms and Proverbs on the Mouth
For there is no faithfulness in their mouth;Their inward part is destruction; Their throat is an open tomb; They flatter with their tongue.
His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression; Under his tongue is trouble and iniquity.
They have closed up their fat hearts;With their mouths they speak proudly.
The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit;He has ceased to be wise and to do good.
You give your mouth to evil,And your tongue frames deceit.
The words of his mouth were smoother than butter,But war was in his heart; His words were softer than oil, Yet they were drawn swords.
For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips,Let them even be taken in their pride, And for the cursing and lying which they speak.
They set their mouth against the heavens,And their tongue walks through the earth.
Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth,And they lied to Him with their tongue;
For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitfulHave opened against me; They have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
Whose mouth speaks lying words,And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
Put away from you a deceitful mouth, And put perverse lips far from you.
For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, And her mouth is smoother than oil;
You are snared by the words of your mouth; You are taken by the words of your mouth.
A worthless person, a wicked man, Walks with a perverse mouth;
The mouth of the righteous is a well of life, But violence covers the mouth of the wicked.
Wise people store up knowledge, But the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.
The hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor.
By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted, But it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.
In the mouth of a fool is a rod of pride,
…the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness…the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil.
A fool’s lips enter into contention, And his mouth calls for blows.
A fool’s mouth is his destruction, And his lips are the snare of his soul.
A disreputable witness scorns justice, And the mouth of the wicked devours iniquity.
The mouth of an immoral woman is a deep pit; He who is abhorred by the LORD will fall there.
A lying tongue hates those who are crushed by it, And a flattering mouth works ruin.
Psalms and Proverbs on the Tongue
You love all devouring words,You deceitful tongue.
Who sharpen their tongue like a sword,And bend their bows to shoot their arrows—bitter words,
They sharpen their tongues like a serpent;The poison of asps is under their lips.
The Lord hates….A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood…
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, But perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
He who has a deceitful heart finds no good, And he who has a perverse tongue falls into evil.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.
Our Most Troublesome Member – James 3:1-12
My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
Conclusion
Now with all of that staring us in the face, don’t you feel just like Job?
“Behold, I am vile; What shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth.”
The words we use can be so dangerous, so hurtful, so sinful, and so defiling. And they come from the heart. Want to know what is in your heart? Listen to what you say and how you say it! The words and tone we use say so much about us that it is a wonder that we even open our mouths at all sometime!
In searching the Scriptures and in being searched by the Holy Spirit what can we say? What do the words we use, sometimes even without thinking, say about the condition of our hearts? What do our words confirm about our heart? What rememdy is there for a wicked heart? Ah, now we are getting ahead of ourselves. The next two days we will take a look at this heart condition and its cure.
Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)
Self Examination by Charles Spurgeon
Taming the Tongue – Part 1 and Part 2 by John MacArthur
Recommended Songs for Worship
Daily Scripture Reading – John 14
Verse of the Day - Matthew 15:16
So Jesus said, “Are you also still without understanding?
Devotional Thoughts
Peter has asked Jesus to explain the parable even though it seems that the parable is really not all that mysterious. Jesus had in fact already explained what He was saying – the tradition of the elders was wrong, because how and what you eat does not defile you. What is so hard to understand about that?
But Peter and the others did not understand. They could not grasp the truth here. They themselves were bound in tradition. And so Jesus’ question hits right at the heart of their dilemma. “Are you also still without understanding?” Did they still not get it? What we eat does not defile us! It is what comes out of our mouths that defiles.
Why was this so difficult to understand? Well, let us think about that for a moment. Peter and the disciples were Jews. They believed the Scriptures and had grown up under the religious influence of the Old Covenant. And what does the Old Covenant say about food? There were rules, laws, and restrictions about what foods were clean and which were unclean. And eating an unclean food made you unclean. It defiled you!
Wait a minute. Was Jesus speaking of eating forbidden foods? No. Jesus was not changing the Law. He was not amending the Old Testament. He was not endorsing the eating of any unclean food whatsoever. What He was doing was shining the light of truth upon the darkened understanding of men who were bound by extra Biblical traditions that had been crafted by men. And the disciples got lost in the discussion.
This was not about what made you ceremonially clean or unclean. It was about the truth that this tradition had no basis in fact and no foundation in Scripture. There was never any divine revelation to back up the accusation of the scribes and Pharisees that to eat with unwashed hands caused defilement.
This was about sin. And eating a food, any acceptable food, without washing ones hands does nothing to defile! It is not a sin to eat without washing your hands. It may be poor manners and a little on the unsanitary side, but it is not a sin (unless your mother has told you to wash your hands before you eat and then in that case to disobey her is to sin indeed – Eph 6:1).
Jesus was looking at the heart. He was focusing attention on the root cause of sin. But the disciples missed it. They did not understand. They did not discern this simple truth even as He explained it. And so they questioned Him. And His response was one of surprise. You can also hear a little exasperation in what He says.
“Are you also still without understanding.”
In looking at what He says we see that there was a time that the disciples had been without understanding – and Jesus is saying they should be past that time now. We are all at some point in our lives without understanding. We will not understand specific things and might even not understand the big picture. When we are immature we cannot understand. But we are expected to grow out of it!
But He also uses the word “also.” He lumps them in with the crowd, with the scribes and Pharisees. Are you also, along with these, still without understanding? It seems that by this time, after traveling with Jesus and ministering with Him and hearing His teaching, that they would have grown past this level of mis-understanding. But they had not. They still, they also, did not understand.
Jesus rebukes them often for this – for having little faith or for not understanding. He asks, “Have I been with you so long, and yet……” There is a genuine expectation on His part that by now, after all this time, they should be getting it! But they were only human and they did not understand. They loved Him. They trusted Him. But sometimes they just did not get it.
Are there times that you just don’t get it? You read a passage of Scripture and wonder what in the world that it means? That is okay! While we do not want to stay in a place of not understanding, it is not unusual for us to misunderstand. That is why we must rely upon the Holy Spirit and upon those God has given us to teach and disciple us. These same disciples, remember, were timid, scared, and did not understand, but after the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost they boldly turned the world upside down with the gospel.
If you come to a point where you think Jesus is saying, “Are you also still without understanding?” then it is time to humble yourself, pray, get back in the Word, and search out the truth. God tells us that we would seek Him and find Him when we seek for Him with our whole heart. Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Be persistent. Keep at it. We will not understand it all in this lifetime – but the more we do understand the Word of God the more we learn about Jesus and the better we know Him.
And why do we grow? To glorify God. So that when people see our good works they might praise God and give Him the glory He deserves. Are you without understanding? Go to the source – the Word of God illumined by the Spirit of God will help us understand!
Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)
An Instructive Truth by Charles Spurgeon
How to Study Your Bible by John MacArthur
Bible Reading For Further Study
Recommended Songs for Worship
Daily Scripture Reading – Matthew 7
Verse of the Day - Matthew 15:15
Then Peter answered and said to Him, “Explain this parable to us.”
Devotional Thoughts
Amidst the discussion about the Pharisees and scribes, and the disciples noticing different reactions to what Christ had stated, Peter, as usual, spoke up for the group and came right out and asked a question. They had heard the tradition of the Pharisees and scribes. They had heard Jesus’ reply and rebuke of their conscience binding traditions that attempted to invalidate the commands of God, and they were wondering what exactly Jesus was saying.
So Peter asked Jesus to explain the parable to them. A simple statement that revealed an eager heart. Eager to understand what Jesus was saying. This was after all a parable.
The Parable, a teaching style used frequently by Jesus, is a method of imparting truth by way of a story. The story may be true, or it may be fiction. And the “moral of the story” is often hidden. It is left to those who are mature, truly hungry for truth, and illumined by the Holy Spirit to understand what is being communicated. In fact, we would say that the lesson within a parable was there for discovery by those who have discernment!
The disciples in fact had asked Jesus earlier in Matthew 13 why He spoke in parables.
Here is the exchange:
And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:
‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’
But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
The parable, you see, was an opportunity for Christ to teach and for those whom God had blessed with the ability to hear and see and understand to receive truth. When Jesus was ministering here on earth it was a fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah that not all who heard Him would hear Him – know what I mean? As we have discussed, they would hear but not understand. They would see but not comprehend what it was they were seeing.
As Jesus explains it, it had been given by God to the disciples to see and hear and understand the kingdom of God. But this was not given to everyone! Many in fact who heard Jesus parables learned nothing. Many left Him. But to those to whom God had given the ability, they heard, they saw, they learned, they believed!
We are indeed right back where we started with our study on discernment, for many in the crowd that heard the parables did not hear and understand. They were dull of hearing. Their ears were stopped. They could not understand. This is evidence of the fact that without the intervention of the Spirit, fallen men and women just do not get the cross or the gospel or the church!
The disciples at times, exhibiting what Jesus referred to as “little faith”, also would miss the point. Many of the parables are followed in the text by a passage wherein the disciples came to Jesus after the telling of the parable and they asked for an explanation. They wanted to understand. They wanted to be taught by Him. They wanted to know the truth.
This is just such an occassion, only instead of waiting for a latter time in private Peter just came right to the point – in the very middle of the conversation Peter asked Jesus what the parable meant. He asked. He wanted to know. He desired to learn. He believed that what Jesus said was important.
This should remind us of course of Jesus’ words in the sermon on the mount, in Matthew 7:
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Jesus told the disciples and those who would hear and understand the truth that they must ask, seek, and knock. If there is a need – ask. To find something – seek. To have the door opened – knock. Simple, yes? But so utterly profound. Because the lesson behind asking, seeking, and knocking is a lesson about the very nature and character of God and a lesson in faith. Who do we ask? Who gives to us? Who opens? It is God! We ask Him. We seek Him. We knock and He opens.
Here is a picture of God, our loving Father, who when we ask gives us the illustration of an earthly father. If a child asks his father for bread what will his father give him? A stone? If he asks for a fish will he receive a snake? Any semi-normal human father, though fallen, knows how to grant the request of his children. How much more then does God know how to give us what we need, what we want, and what will benefit us? He gives good things – and only good things. He answers those who ask.
In James 4:2-4 we learn that when we ask and do not receive from God it is because we either do not ask or we ask amiss. Think about this. How often do we pray expecting God to give us what we want when we want it, as if God were some heavenly ATM machine and if we have the right Bible code to punch in then He will give us whatever we ask? How many teachers and preachers teach and preach the Bible this way? They twist Scripture saying that if we delight in the Word and ask in faith in Jesus name then God is forced to give us what we want. But in truth, if we are delighting in the Word of God then our desires will be transformed and we will want what He wants.
If in our selfishness we ask and ask for the wrong things then we cannot expect God to give it to us. Just as an earthly father would not give his child a poisonous snake no matter how that child pleaded. There are times that God knows that we need to wait, to persevere in prayer, and to have our hearts tested before the answer comes. There are other times He just says no. And there are times when we are asking for the wrong thing. But in His time, asking according to His will for us, He will give us what we ask.
Here Peter simply asks. Explain the parable to us. And Jesus does just that. We will follow up with that throughout this week to see what He was teaching His disciples and those of us who have ears to hear. Until then, do not be afraid to ask! Need something? Ask. Want something? Ask. Don’t understand the Scripture you are reading? Ask! While He may not answer in the way we think He should, we have this guarantee – He will answer.
Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)
Praying in the Name of Christ by Thomas Boston
What Shall I Give You? by Robert Hawker
Bible Reading For Further Study
Psalm 2:8; 21:4; 105:40
John 15:7, 16
Recommended Songs for Worship
Daily Scripture Reading - Matthew 13
Verse of the Day - Matthew 15:13-14
But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”
Devotional Thoughts
These two verses today, Matthew 15:13-14, are so packed with information that we must heed. They are not only relevant to our discussion about learning to discern or about how we are called to hear and understand and do the truth even though it may be offensive. These verses are relevant to so many areas of our lives. So let us look briefly at what Jesus says to His disciples.
Jesus has spoken the truth, contradicting the man made traditions with which the Pharisees and scribes were trying to discredit Him and His disciples. He stated the truth plainly and the disciples noticed that this offended the religious leaders who had come to challenge them. And when the disciples told Jesus that these religious hypocrites had indeed been offended, He replied:
Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.
He starts by telling His disciples that men are like plants, and if they have not been planted by God the Father then they will be uprooted. He then tells the disciples to leave them alone and identifies them as blind leaders who are leading the blind and when the blind lead the blind inevitably they both fall into a ditch. Let us see what He is saying here.
God’s Garden
Throughout the Word of God we see parables and analogies that use plants to make a point. Isaiah and Jeremiah identify Judah as a vineyard planted by God. The Psalmist refers to those who meditate on the Word of God as a “tree planted by the rivers of water.” And just a few chapters back, in Matthew 13, we read a list of parables about soils, seed, planting, and growing. John 15 speaks of Christ as the vine and we are His branches. And the Holy Spirit produces in us fruit. So this is not something new or unusual.
In Matthew 13 Jesus referred to the world as a field and said that a man planted some wheat and his enemy planted some tares. The wheat grew and the tares grew, and the only difference between the two is that wheat bears fruit but tares do not. Otherwise they look identical in the field while growing! So identical that the tares are not to be pulled up until the time of the harvest (judgment) for fear that wheat might be pulled with the tares.
And with that backdrop, in an agricultural society, Jesus says that the scribes and Pharisees who are seeking to discredit Him and who use the traditions of men to make void the Word of God are in fact plants that have not been planted by God! They are tares! The enemy is planting them and encouraging them in their mission to destroy Christ and the gospel.
However, we have this assurance – the tares will be pulled up, they will be uprooted, and they will be thrown into the fire and judged. They are not God’s plant, they are not a branch in the vine, they are not in the vineyard of the Lord. He has not planted them and so they will be uprooted.
But let us then look at what Jesus says. I find this next phrase fascinating and am truly still trying to work through the significance of what it means!
Leave Them Alone
Jesus identifies the scribes and Pharisees as having not been planted by the Father. They will be uprooted. And so Jesus says next, “Let them alone.” Leave them to their judgment. Leave them alone. Do not harass or bother them, do not mock or provoke them. Leave them alone. God will deal with them in time.
Now why would Jesus say this? What is the rationale behind leaving false teachers alone? Why should the disciples be told to leave them alone?
Often today it is believed that we are to actively work to confront false teachers and go after them for all we are worth, unmask them, fight them, debate them, expose them, and stand against them until they repent or die!
I understand that there is a proper place for apologetics. I have great respect for men like Ravi Zacharias and James White and others who do an excellent job at defending the Word of God in the face of the culture around us. But we do need to stop and think about this admonition. There are religious leaders spreading false doctrine, voiding the Word of God with their traditions, and Jesus says, “Leave them alone.”
If we all took the time necessary to study every cult and false teaching out there and if we all worked around the clock to expose every error, then all we would do day in and day out would be to study heretics and heresies. And here is the truth that we can glean from this statement and from the testimony of Scripture. Within the church – get that? it is an important distinction - within the church there are to be safeguards against false teaching and false teachers. Without the church however we have a different responsibility.
Within the church we have been given pastors (elders) who have as part of their mandate from Christ the duty to protect the congregation against false teaching. Further, each member of that church is also responsible to test whatever the elders teach and preach against the Word of God so that they are sure that what is being taught is the truth.
Without the church are we then responsible to confront each error and stand against each heresy? No. Outside the church we are responsible to proclaim one message – the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have not been given a mandate to subdue the culture around us with a christian-like standard of living or even a Biblical system of morality and law. We have instead been called to preach the gospel and invite sinners to come to Christ so that they might be saved. Our goal is not subduing the false teachers or even refuting them at every turn. Our aim is to preach Christ, to present the gospel.
Why? Because the gospel is the power of God to salvation – and to be blunt, if the people in the culture around us are not regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit then no amount of morality really matters at all! For without Christ there is no morality, no righteousness, and no goodness.
Within the church our goal is doctrinal purity – hearing and understanding and living (doing) the truth. Without the church our goal is evangelism!
So Jesus tells His disciples that these guys are going to be uprooted and judged. God the Father did not plant them. Leave them alone.
Blind Leaders
Jesus tells His disciples that these tares among the wheat are worse than just tares. They are in fact blind leaders. They do not know the truth (ever learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth), they do not have wisdom, they surely do not have discernment (understanding), and so we see that they are blind. They cannot see the truth. They cannot see their error. They cannot see reality!
And the people who follow them are also blind. Their eyes are shut, they are ignorant of the truth, they have no wisdom or discernment, and they are being led far astray from the Word of God and reconciliation with Him.
Blind leaders are men and women who elevate tradition above the Word of God. They teach to tickle ears. They fear men more than God. They try to make the offensive truth appealing and at the same time deny the gospel and the Word of God. They center their theology on man instead of on God. They trust their own understanding and learning and reject truth. They refuse to retain a knowledge of God in their minds and they have been or will quickly be turned over to their own depravity.
Simply stated, blind leaders and blind followers are people without discernment. And what happens when the blind lead the blind? This almost sounds like a cruel joke but it is a serious reality. If a blind person leads another blind person, neither of them can see where they are going. And eventually they will both veer off a safe course and fall into a ditch!
Can you imagine people getting offended and upset because we would speak out against the idea that the blind should be lead by the blind? Well, Jesus makes His point. Those who worship tradition and deny the Word of God, those who have no discernment, truly they cannot see. And unless God opens their eyes they and those who follow them will slip off the the road into a ditch.
Don’t let yourself be tripped up and dragged down into a doctrinal ditch! Ask God to open your eyes so that you can see! Learn to discern, for only then can you see the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)
Exposition of Matthew 13 by John Gill
Reaching the Happy Thinking Pagan an interview with Ravi Zacharias
Bible Reading For Further Study
Psalm 92:13; 128:3; 144:12
Isaiah 5:1-7; John 15:1-8
Recommended Songs for Worship
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