Let us turn once again to God's
Word in that part of Scripture that we were reading in Matthew,
the Gospel according to Matthew chapter 15. And I'll read again
verses 10, 11, and 12. And He called the multitude and
said unto them, Hear and understand, not that which goeth into the
mouth defileth the man, but that which cometh out of the mouth,
this defileth a man. Then came his disciples and said
unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after
they heard this saying? In particular then these words
of the disciples as they speak to Christ, then came his disciples
and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended
after they heard this saying? And the theme I want to address
then is that of the offense of the truth, how it offended the
Pharisees. We know that the ministry of
the Lord Jesus was in many ways offensive to men He was set for
the fall and rising again, we're told, of many in Israel. And there were divisions, we're
told, on three separate occasions in John's Gospel, of division
because of Him, because of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
His very person was an offense. But normally the division was
because of His sayings. It was the manner of his preaching. It was the things that he declared. And what did he declare? Well,
obviously, he declared the doctrine of God, because he is the image
of the invisible God. In these last days, God has spoken
unto us by His Son, we're told, at the beginning of the Hebrew
epistle. how God had spoken in time past
unto the fathers in diverse ways by the ministry of prophets and
seers and so forth but ultimately God's revelation is completed
with the coming of his only begotten son God incarnates God's with
us, his name of course he's Immanuel and so he reveals God and in
revealing God he reveals to us the great truth of God's absolute
sovereignty for God to be God he must be a sovereign how could
he be God if he was not that one who is sovereign over all
things but how as the Lord preaches the truth of God's sovereignty
in election that is an offense to men and we see that quite
clearly in that long sixth chapter in John's gospel the chapter
of the great diminishing the multitudes at the beginning it
would make him king and yet at the end it seems that even the
twelve might forsake him And how was it that there was such
diminishing? It was because of Christ's teachings.
As we read through that particular chapter, it was what he said
that was so offensive to the people. And there at verses 65
and 67 he said, Therefore said I unto you that no man can come
unto me except it were given unto him of my father. From that
time Many of his disciples went back and walked no more with
him. It was what he had said, you
see, that no man could come except it were given of the father.
It was the doctrine of election that was such a great offense
to them. But yet in that doctrine we see
God as God, God as sovereign. He says at verse 44, No man can
come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him,
and I will raise him up at the last time. It is written in the
Prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. The only way whereby the sinner
can be saved is by the sovereignty of God. They must be taught of
God. and God is the one who must therefore
bring them to himself and that doctrine of God that is so evident
in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ was an offense but then
we have the corollary to that which is of course the doctrine
of man and man as God's creature But not only that, man as that
creature that has rebelled against his Maker, man as a sinner, the
corruption of man. Or we read in Isaiah 2,22, Seize
ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is
he to be accounted of. What is man? Oh, what is man
that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that thou visitest
him?" asks the psalmist. Now, the teaching of the Lord
Jesus, be it the doctrine of God or be it the doctrine of
man, is offensive. It's offensive. And we see it
here in what the Lord has been saying in this particular chapter,
the first part of Matthew 15. And He calls the multitude and
says, Hear and understand, not that which goeth into the mouth
defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth, this
defileth a man. Had He not been speaking to the
Pharisees? And it was what He was saying
here that was such an offence to them. Knowest thou that the
Pharisees were offended, say His disciples, after they heard
this saying? The Pharisees were only concerned
with the externals of religion. That's what we see really. In
the opening words of the chapter, then came to Jesus, scribes and
Pharisees which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples
transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their
hands when they eat bread. it's a reference really to those
ritual washings that they wanted to make so much of it's not a
matter of hygiene that's being spoken of but ritual they're
only concerned with the outside but as David says in Psalm 51
behold thou desirous truth in the inward parts man looketh
on the outward appearance The Lord looketh on the heart. And we know how the Lord Jesus
is that one who was God is able to see the very hearts of men. He needed not that any should
testify of man. He knew what was in the hearts
of men. Think of the words of that woman
there in John 4, the woman of Samaria. And as she speaks to
her neighbors, come see a man that told me all things that
ever I did. He's not this, the Christ. And here is the Lord Jesus Christ
and he can clearly see into the hearts of these people. This is the evidence really that
he is God. The heart, deceitful above all
things and desperately wicked. Says Jeremiah, who can know it?
I, the Lord. search the hearts. I try the
reins to give to every man according to the fruit of his doings. It's
the Lord Jesus who is here again revealing something of himself
as that one who is truly God. And this is a great offense to
these scribes and pharisees. He is telling them really of
what man is as a sinner and what the seat of that sin is the source
of all the sin of man and how he is in that sense upbraiding these scribes and
pharisees because all they're concerned about is their traditions
and not the truth of God and the truth of God's word he says
here at verse 17 Do not ye yet understand that
whatsoever entereth in at the mouth, and goeth into the belly,
and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed
out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the
man. 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 unwashing hands
defileth not a man. Well here is the real source
of man's problem it's what man is and what man is in the very
depths of his being what man is in his soul and it takes us
right back to the beginning to Adam and the sin of Adam, and
how that sin has been transmitted, and how that sin and all the
consequence of it has come down through all the ages and all
the generations. And how has it come down? Well,
there are those two truths, of course. There's the imputation
of Adam's sin, and there's the impartation, or the inheritance
of Adam's sinful nature. We speak of the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the only justifying righteousness. And how Paul was brought to see
that so clearly, that man who was once such a self-righteous
Pharisee, who thought he was blameless before the Lord of
God, touching the righteousness which is in the law, as a Pharisee,
he claimed to be blameless. He had kept the law, he was righteous,
and then he saw that he was not righteous at all. He saw that
he was a wretched man, a great sinner. And then his one desire
to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness which is
of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith, he says to the
Philippians. And it's the imputing of that
righteousness. Christ's righteousness reckoned over to the sinner. who by faith is looking only
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He has no righteousness of his
own. All his righteousnesses are filthy rags. But as there
is the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, so there is also the
imputation of sin. And Adam's sin, there in the
garden of Eden, is imputed to all those who were
in him. Adam, you see, is a federal head
in that sense. Just as the Lord Jesus is a federal
head. And this is brought out quite
clearly by the apostle when he writes in the epistle to the
Romans and particularly there in the fifth chapter. What does
Paul say? Romans chapter 5 and verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. He's speaking of one man. Who is the man that he is speaking
of? He's speaking of Adam, the first man. and Adam's transgression
there in the garden. By one man sin entered into the
world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men
for that all have sinned. The margin says, in whom all
have sinned. We all sinned in Adam. He is the head of the race. And
so he goes on. Later in the chapter, verse 18,
Therefore as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men
to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free
gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous." Adam's offense, Adam's sin, Adam's fall,
is reckoned to the account of all those who were in him they
were in his loins and his offense becomes their offense by imputation
but then over against that he says there's another man as by
one man's disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous." There's the imputation of the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and it's reckoned to the
account of all those who trust whose belief is in Him. The first man, Adam, we're told,
was made a living soul. The last Adam is made a quickening
spirit. The first man is of the earth,
earthly. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. And of course in our hymn that
we just sang, 89, we see those two men in the opening two verses. We have the first Adam and we
all sinned in him. And then we have the second Adam
or the last Adam. and therein is righteousness
and salvation for the sinner. O Adam's sin! His fall there
in the garden has come down. It's the imputation of that offence. He stood as the representative
head of all who were and are descended from him. But then
there is the last Adam. and he stood as that one who
is the representative head of all his church he is the head
of the body, the church as we read there in Colossians 1.18
and so sin is imputed but sin is also inherited it's imparted
and we see it, we witness it on every hand We see the universality
of sin. There is no man that sinneth
not, it says in scripture. There is not a just man upon
the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. All have sinned. and come short of the glory of
God. The Scripture has concluded all
on the sin. We can repeat so many verses
of Scripture that declare that very basic truth. Sin is universal,
it's everywhere. Because we're all descended from
the first pair, from Adam and Eve. And all of that is an offence
to me. Isn't this part of the reason why men want to do away
with any notion of a special creation? Any idea of one who
stands at the very head of the human race so they'll ream up
their various theories? And that awful, blasphemous theory
of evolution that discounts any idea of a creator god? Or any
idea of the first man standing at the very head of the race?
But that's where our sin has come from. And it has come down
through the generations and sin is therefore universal. We see it everywhere. And it's man's heritage really
from his very birth. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? How can he be clean? that he's
born of a woman. These questions are there, aren't
they, in the book of Job. And oh, David! David, by the
grace of God! What a man he was, the man after
God's own heart! What a remarkable experience
that man had of the grace of God, and we see it so clearly,
of course, in what we read of his experiences there in the
book of Psalms. And yet, what does David confess?
We know that David was a sinner, a sinner saved by grace. That
was all his boast, really, concerning himself. What does he say? Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. In his very conception, he was
a sinner because he was the fruit of sinful parents, and all of
us. This is man's heritage from his birth among whom we all had
our conversation in the loss of our flesh and in the desires
of the mind born dead in trespasses and in
sins That's true of each and every one of us. That's the heritage
of all men. We see it everywhere, the universality
of sin, the heritage that people have from their parents, and
then ultimately we have the fact of death. Why is there death? Well, what did God say to Adam
there in the garden? In the day that thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die. The margin says, in dying thou
shalt die. Oh, there was a death that came
immediately into the soul of Adam and Eve. There was a spiritual
death. There was a separation and they
knew it. When they hear the voice of the Lord God walking in the
garden in the cool of the day, what do they do? They hide themselves.
They want to conceal themselves. They don't want God to see them.
no more in fellowship with God. They're dead now, spiritually
dead, in the day that thou eatest thereof, dying. Thou shalt die. And then ultimately
there comes that physical death, that separation between the body
and the soul. And then we know that there is
also to some alas a third death. In the Day of Judgment, that
awful final separation. Depart from me, says God. I never
knew you. Or there's the fact of death,
but we see that physical death everywhere. By man came death,
says Paul. In Adam all died. It is appointed unto men once
to die, and then cometh the judgment. This is the constant theme that
we find here in the Word of God. This is emphasized time and time
again. And we read of some who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Oh, what a terror is death. Amen. don't want to face up to
the reality of it this is you see all because of Adam's original sin and as the Lord is speaking to
the scribes and Pharisees we imagine that somewhere or
other by keeping their traditions they can make themselves righteous
and acceptable to God. Now he has to show them that
by making so much of their own foolish notions they are dishonoring
the very Word of God, so making God's commandment void. That's what the Lord says. God
commanded, saying, Honor thy father and mother, and either
curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say,
Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift,
by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, and honor not
his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made
the commandment of God of none effect. All they say, you see, this is
a gift, this is that that we're going to make to the Lord God. And they seek to avoid their
responsibilities with regards to honouring father and mother.
And they make voids, God's commandments. And because they want to attend
more to their traditions and these vain traditions of men,
what are they? It's the way whereby they imagine
they can make themselves righteous in God's sight. But the Lord
says to them, ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you. And he quotes the words of Isaiah
29 verse 13. These people draweth nigh unto
me with their mouth and honoureth me with their lips, but their
heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. All the commandments
of men and the folly of the commandments of men. and man himself is one who is
full of sin and the Lord Jesus is teaching them that sad, that
solemn truth concerning what they are in their very natures
besides that awful doctrine of man's original sin and all the
consequences that come with that ultimately there is the fact
that man's corruption is such a corruption that he is totally
deprived he's totally deprived that doesn't mean as you know
that he is every man is as bad and as wicked as he possibly
could be but the words total refers to the fact of the universality
of it. It's everywhere. And it's not
just everywhere in the sense that it is spread over the face
of the whole earth, but it is everywhere in the nature of man. Every faculty of his soul is
deprived. He is altogether and totally
a sinner. And three things we can observe
with regards to this doctrine. First of all, the seeds of sin. And that's what the Lord is teaching,
isn't it? Out of the heart, He says. Out of the heart proceed
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man. Or what does the wise man say
in the book of Proverbs? Keep thy heart with all diligence
for out of it are the issues of life. Out of the hearts of
men. It has nothing to do, you see,
with what these scribes and pharisees want to make so much of. They
want to make so much of all the externals of their religion.
These things that might impress other people who might look at
them and say well look how religious those people are how diligent
they are in all their washings and so forth and we see it everywhere
men like the externals of religion they like they like the pomp,
the circumstance they like something that is appealing to the senses
that makes an impression with others but it's the heart of man and
as we've already quoted those words in Jeremiah 17 the heart
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked and the question
who can know it I the Lord search the hearts and how quickly it comes after
the the first transgression There
in Genesis chapter 3 we have that sad history of the entrance
of sin into the creation that was so very good. All God had
looked upon it and God pronounced it. Very good. And man created on the sixth
day, man standing as it were at the very apex of all that
great work of creation. and then just a few chapters
just the third chapter and man has transgressed, man has sinned
and then we move on just a few more chapters and we come to
chapter 6 and what does it say? God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth and every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was evil continually. Every imagination and the margin
tells us that word imagination it's such a a rich pregnant word
really it has the idea of his purposes his desires all that
is about everything about the man evil continually and where
is the seat of it all it's the heart of man and this sinning
is the habitual disposition of the soul of the man and remember
those words of Romans chapter 3 where Paul is quoting from
the book of Psalms and he's quoting from Psalm 14 but Psalm 14 is
virtually repeated in Psalm 53 so it's two Psalms that he is
referring to there in Romans 3 at verse 10 following as it
is written there is none righteous no not
one there is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after
God they are all gone out of the way they are together become
unprofitable there is none that doeth good no not one and so
he goes on as he's quoting there and all those words as I've said
we have them twice in the Psalms 14 and 53 and then we have them
again in Romans 3 it's that threefold chord that is not quickly broken
it's the word of God and there's an emphasis God does not repeat
himself in vain there's no vain words anywhere in our Bibles
you know that But what does it teach us? It teaches us that
man's habitual disposition is towards sin. It cannot help it. The Gentiles,
they walk in the vanity of their mind, it says, having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness. And the margin says,
because of the hardness of their heart. Yeah, we have these verses. You
see, the Bible, it reveals God to us, and as I said
at the beginning, the Lord Jesus Christ is that one who comes
as the image of the invisible God, and so he teaches us clearly
the great doctrine of God, who God is, and the sovereignty of
God, But as man was made in God's image and created after God's
likeness, it doesn't surprise us that the Bible also reveals
to us the doctrine of man. And all we see is that man is
a fallen creature. You know the words, again, Ephesians. Ephesians 2, in the opening three
verses, man is dead in trespasses. and in sins. The carnal mind or the natural
mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law
of God neither indeed can be. And I like the comment of William
Parkes you know that little book on the five points of Calvinism
by William Parkes Church of England minister And when he's dealing
with the doctrine of total depravity, he refers to that particular
verse, Romans 8, 7. And he makes the observation
that the carnal mind, he says, is not merely an enemy, but enmity. Enmity itself. Enmity personified. Enmity in
the abstract. That's what man's mind is. Enmity
against God, it's not subject to the Lord of God, neither indeed
can be. The whole disposition of the
souls of men, and this is what these scribes and Pharisees are
really offended at. They seem to have understood
something of what the Lord was saying. Then came his disciples and said
unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended? after
they heard this saying it's not the things that come and not
the things that go into the man it's the things that come out
of the man that defiled him because what comes out betrays what is
there in his heart and is the enemy of God or the seat of his
sin the disposition of the man's soul and so alas What do we see? Man's utter inability. What can a man do to save himself? He's impotent, he can do nothing.
Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?
Then may you who are accustomed to do evil, do good. We are what we are. We cannot
change our natures. There is none that seeketh after
God. Those are some of the words that
we have there in that passage in Romans 3 that we referred
to just now. There is none that seeketh after
God. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him.
Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. and how willful man is the Lord
Jesus says in his day ye will not come to me that ye might
have life men will not come and yet foolish men like to speak
of man's free will man has a will and man has that
ability to make certain decisions and he can decide to do one thing
and not another thing But with regards to the things of God,
man's will is not free. All his faculties have been infected,
affected by sin. In his very being he's God's enemy,
he's enmity. He will not come to me, nor sinful. Unbelieving man can never please
God. That is true, is it not? Whatsoever
is not of faith is sin. Without faith it is impossible
to please Him. And we can't, we can't give ourselves
faith. What a dreadful condition is
this that man is in. Titus 1.15 unto them that are
defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even their mind and
their conscience is defiled even our conscience defiled that's
what the scripture says our sinners then are shut up
and shut up really to their to their sinnership and if we know
anything of salvation we have to learn that in some measure,
we have to learn that, surely we have to Christ didn't come
to call the righteous, he came to call the sinners and he receives
the sinners, that's the wonder of it and though he cries out
there in Psalm 88, I am shut up and I cannot come forth and we felt it Again in the language
that we find in the book of Job, in Job 12, 14, He shutteth up
a man and there can be no opening. When the Lord begins to deal
with us so, He shuts us up to what we are. He shuts us up to
this awful doctrine, the doctrine of man, the doctrine of man as
a sinner. He was so noble a creature at his At his beginning, when
he comes forth pristine from the hand of his Creator, his
posture upright, he's in tune with heaven. And yet, alas, how
quickly the man falls into sin. And so man is shut up to what
he is as a sinner. This is the condemnation that
light is coming to the world. and men of darkness rather than
light because their deeds were evil. How awful it is when we really
contemplate these various statements that we find scattered throughout
our Bibles. We have to learn experimentally
then the truth of our spiritual impotence. But when we learn
that, and the Lord does teach his people, When we learn that,
what does God do? He shuts us off to His sovereign grace. Oh, that's
our only hope, you know. That's all our hope, is the sovereignty
of the grace of God. We have to cease from man, cease
from ourselves, whose breath is in our nostrils. Cease from
ourselves. What does God do? He turns the
man to destruction. brings him to the end of himself
and then he says return return from the doctrine of man you
see man as the sinner return to the doctrine of God and what
of God how good God is oh God is good and God does good and
God is a gracious God and a merciful God but God is a just God and
God is a holy God and how God in the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ has revealed himself and there we see all
the attributes of God harmonizing in the salvation of the sinners
because Christ comes and he comes to identify with the sinner and
to save the sinner He is made of the woman. The woman was first
in the transgression. He is made of the woman. He is
made under the law. He is subject to that law that
condemns the man. He stands in their law place.
He answers all the demands of the law. He lives the life of
righteousness. The only righteous man that ever
lived a full life. Adam was a righteous man in his
creation, as was Eve, a righteous woman, but they sinned. But Christ
never sinned. He was obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. And so He has not only answered
the Lord in terms of all its holy precepts and commandments,
He's honored it in terms of all its dreadful penalties. He's
borne the punishment that was the sinners just deserved. And
this is the revelation of God. It's the grace of God that we
see there in the person and work of Christ. By grace are you saved
through faith and that not of yourselves? Oh, it's not of ourselves, is
it? It's the gift of God. It's grace
and faith that comes by the operation of God. The sinner is born again. He's born from above. It's that visitation of God into
the soul of the sinner. What does God say? I will give
them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord. That's the promise.
That's the promise of the New Covenant, Jeremiah 24 7. I will
give them an heart to know that I am the Lord. And Lord there,
it's the covenant name, it's Jehovah. It's the great I am
that I am. And He gives us a heart to know
Him. A new heart also will I give
thee, a new spirit will I put within thee, I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh, I will give you a heart of flesh,
He says. And that's what we all stand
in need of. And where can we obtain it? We only find it with
God, He must do it. We're shut up to that. The sovereignty
of the grace of God, the doctrine of man as a sinner, God turns
a man to destruction, but it doesn't end there, does it? No,
Moses in the psalm goes on to say that God says, return. O return, ye children of men. Isn't that the great call of
the Gospel? We're called to look to God, to cry to God. to seek
God. Now these scribes and these Pharisees,
they would offend it, or that God's word to us might not be
an offence, but rather that it might come with that gracious
power of the Spirit that we might be those who are made willing
in the day of Christ's power. The Lord be pleased. to bless His truth to us. Amen.