Introduction
Praise the Lord, it’s good to be back again tonight. I have just a small short thought tonight. It has been on my mind for quite a while to speak on this topic, and I think right here might be a good spot to insert it. I hope it will help our understanding a bit. If you would, turn with me to Matthew chapter 15. This goes along with what we are looking at in the book of Romans, but I want to take a little diversion from Romans and just talk about the nature of sin a little bit.
In Romans, we got to the point where Paul was telling his readers there is no excuse for sin. And I said something in the sermon this morning that was very small and maybe it did not seem very significant, but I want to spend my short message this evening drawing attention to this one point.
I said that sin in your heart, like jealousy, hate, or lust, if that is in your heart—even if you don’t act on it—that thing in your heart is itself a sin. Jesus said if you look on a woman to lust, you have already committed adultery in your heart. That is a sin. If you are angry at your brother and want to hurt him, but you don’t hurt him, it’s already a sin in your heart.
We are not defiled by the things we do. When we do something sinful, we are already defiled by the evil in our heart that led us to do that outward action. A murderer is already defiled in his heart with sin before he ever commits the murder. An adulterer is already defiled in his heart before he ever commits adultery. A thief is already defiled in his heart before he ever stole because he coveted. The murder, the adultery, the theft—that’s not what defiled the person; they were already defiled by what was in their heart before they ever carried out their action.
I hope you understand what I mean. I’m not saying any of those things are okay, but I’m pointing out that the moment you become defiled is not the moment you act on those things; it’s the moment they’re conceived in your heart that you’re defiled. And this is very important for us to realize because God judges according to the heart. It is important for us to realize this because if we get this wrong, we are actually not defining sin correctly.
And this is a huge problem where we come from. Where we come from, they have an incorrect definition of sin, and that is what permits them to justify many of their false beliefs. The incorrect definition of sin is baked right into the heart of what they believe. And when you get something so simple and so basic, like the definition of sin, wrong, then everything you build on top of that incorrect understanding is going to be faulty. You know why? I was there; I tried preaching these things right to them, and many of them understood. But I could not say things so plainly then because there was a preacher there who was deceiving the people, who had become very invested in his false definition of sin. But I will try and touch on this little topic and say things more plainly than I could then.
So, turn over to Matthew 15 with me and I will do some reading.
And before I start reading, let me make one more point. If I want to understand any topic in the Bible, Jesus has to be my starting point. At the foundation of my building, at the foundation of my beliefs, I need to start with what Jesus said. I don’t start somewhere else and then add in Jesus, but I start with Jesus and then use what He said as the lens to look at everything else. Some people don’t do that. That’s how they end up so badly off base. I don’t take what Moses said and use that as the lens to read the words of Jesus. And I don’t take what Paul said and use that as the lens to read the words of Jesus. No, it’s the other way around. I take what Jesus said and I use that as the lens to read the rest of the Bible.
So if I want to know what sin is, I want to start by seeing how Jesus defined it. Let’s read that here in Matthew 15:
Matthew 15:1-20 (King James Version)
1 Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,
2 Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
4 For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
5 But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;
6 And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
10 And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:
11 Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
12 Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?
13 But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.
14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
15 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable.
16 And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding?
17 Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
So right here in these verses, Jesus gives us a framework for understanding the nature of sin. I’ve heard people use these verses and just take a very narrow understanding of what Jesus says. They apply it simply to food. But what Jesus is saying here is much deeper than food; the principle He is conveying here is universal and applies to all sin.
Jesus is telling us the manner in which man becomes defiled, and defilement begins in the heart. Sin begins in the heart. Sin is from the inside out, not from the outside in. And Jesus’ explanation here is pretty simple. The Pharisees came to Jesus, concerned that external things were going to defile His disciples. But Jesus says there in verse 11 very clearly, it is not what goes into a person that defiles him. And in verse 19, He plainly says what are the things that do defile. And the things that defile a person are what come out of their heart.
Sin is a heart problem. Sin is something inside of a man that tries to get out. Sin is not something that is on the outside trying to get in. Understanding the nature of sin is important because if you get that wrong, all kinds of bad ideas will follow. Sin is something in the heart trying to get out; it’s not something on the outside trying to get in.
And that has some important implications. You can’t build walls, or prisons, or big sets of rules to control sin. You can use those things to control behavior, but sin is not in the behavior; sin is in the heart. You can control the behavior, but the sin is still there in the heart. And where those ideas get really off base is when people completely misunderstand sin and build systems that are designed to fight sin as though it is some external entity trying to get in.
Systems will build walls around themselves. They can get very extreme, like the Amish. They are completely cut off from the world around them. They totally and completely separate themselves from all sinful culture because they believe sin is out there, in the world. And if they get close to it, if they get around it, it will jump on them and defile them.
And that mindset takes different forms. The Amish is an extreme example of it, but in many places, like where we come from, they develop all kinds of rules to protect people from sin. But all those rules are predicated on the belief that sin is something external, and if you get close to it, it will jump on you and defile you.
But that mindset, that idea, is totally mistaken. It goes completely against the words of Jesus Himself. Sin is not on the outside trying to get in; it’s on the inside trying to get out.
Understanding the Nature of Sin
Even when people have completely walled themselves off from the world, completely cut themselves off from every sinful influence they think is out there, they still have sin in their midst. Take the Amish, for example. They have been separated from the world for hundreds of years. Yet, not too long ago, we saw in the news a report of widespread child molestation occurring among the Amish. How did that happen? It wasn’t caused by them watching TV, going to the movies, listening to rap and rock and roll, or going to public school. Everything we would point to as an influence, they had none of that.
So where did all this evil stuff in the Amish come from? It wasn’t on the outside trying to get in; it was in their hearts, trying to get out. All the rules, all the walls, and the protections they built to keep sin out proved to be totally ineffective. Why was it ineffective? Because they fundamentally misunderstand what sin is.
Instead of addressing the true cause of sin, which is the sinful heart of man, they were fighting external things as though that was the source of sin. But sin is an inside job. Sin hides on the inside and comes out to get you.
What I am about to say is very important, and I really want everyone listening to me to think deeply about it. What I am saying might be hard to understand at first because it contradicts what some have taught us. But I urge you to really think about it, pray about it, and spend some time studying it.
The places where we come from have a fundamentally wrong definition and understanding of what sin is. That fundamentally wrong understanding is deeply embedded in what we believed, going back to the very teacher of our movement. But this is the truth—what Jesus taught.
Followers of legalistic, Pharisee-type religions often do not grasp this. They cannot understand what I am saying here. Jesus said it is not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of a man. The true nature of sin, the thing that defiles a man or woman, is quite different from what people in legalistic systems are taught.
Legalistic systems redefine sin for two reasons:
- The Bible definition of sin cannot be overcome by legalism. To justify their legalism, they have to redefine sin in a way that legalism can supposedly overcome it. But in reality, their legalism has no power to overcome sin at all. It just deceives people into thinking that sinful things are not sinful.
- Legalists reorient sin so that it is something external trying to get in, rather than recognizing it as a heart issue.
Consider the Garden of Eden. What defiled Adam and Eve? When you apply the words of Jesus to what we have been taught about sin in the Garden of Eden, does it fit? It’s not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out. So I ask you, what is it that defiled Adam and Eve? That is a question to answer another day, but I want to point that out to you.
Now, I am not saying that it’s okay to live immorally or do wicked things. And I am not saying that having rules and building walls has no value or purpose. There is a place for prisons and walls because we live in a world where some people are not interested in controlling their sinful urges. An external law is one way we try to protect ourselves against those who have no interest in controlling their sinful urges.
But we must never think that the laws, rules, and prisons built to control sinful urges can actually address the sin in the heart of a man. If you don’t think that’s what we were taught in those other places we came from, then start listening closely. Try to understand why they are making up these rules. Do these rules actually deal with sin and the heart of man? If not, ask yourself if they are making those rules to protect us from sinful people who would harm us or if they have no understanding of what sin actually is.
I am not saying that rules have no place. Not at all. But the reasoning and rationale behind how people explained what sin was is fundamentally wrong. It contradicts Jesus Christ Himself and shifts the focus from our heart to our works. Sin is a heart problem. The root of sin is the heart. All the legalism in the world will never address the heart of the problem. Legalism is just bondage, but Jesus Christ is freedom.
Sin is an inside job, but legalism only deals with the outside. Legalism turns you into a whited sepulcher—the outside looks good, but inside are just dead men’s bones. Legalism does not deal with real sin; it does not touch the heart. That’s how a whole church full of people can sit by and watch their neighbors be abused, brutalized, and savaged, and do absolutely nothing about it—because they don’t know what sin is.
When you get such fundamental things wrong, like the definition of what sin is, it leads to all kinds of compounding errors. And you get to these really ridiculous out there statements like “Sin is unbelief” or “Unbelief is sin,” which is utter nonsense. And they have to twist certain scriptures far out of context to make such statements. Unbelief is not sin. And anyone who tells you that is a deceiver. Even the devil believes in God; the devil has always believed in God. Adam and Eve believed in God. Many people believe in God, yet they still sin. Sin and unbelief are two different things; neither is good, but unbelief is a product of sin. And as I said, where we come from, all of these things are backwards. Calling unbelief sin is just a way they prevent people from asking questions and to keep people trapped in a system which they believe will offer them escape from sin. When in reality, the system has misled them about the very nature of the sin they are supposedly helping them escape from. And by misdefining sin, they have completely blinded the people to the sin which fills their hearts.
And this is baked deep into the message.
Let me explain it like this. Remember the story we heard many times when the so-called angel came to William Branham and said, “Don’t ever drink, or have immoral relations, or defile your body in any way, because there is a work for you to do when you get older. All these things, you need to abstain from that, because if you take these things into your system, they will defile your body.”
The man, who the angel spoke that to, was already defiled. He was defiled without drinking; he was defiled without having immoral relations. He was born defiled. And if you listen to him tell about his life, if he was telling the truth, he had already told lies, he had already wanted to kill someone. He had already been defiled. But he did not understand what real sin was; he didn’t understand what real defilement was. And neither did the angel who told him how to avoid being defiled. Do you realize that? The angel who told him not to do this or that so he didn’t defile his body was directly contradicting Jesus Christ. So how can that be? And then William Branham took his incorrect and unscriptural understanding of what sin was and he baked it into the heart of his teachings, and it produced the legalistic system we escaped from.
And of course, it is legalistic. And anyone who tells you it was not legalistic, they don’t know what legalism is. Because the system itself has lied to them about what legalism is. But I will define legalism for you. It is a system of religion where the way to heaven is earned. It is a system of religion where you have to contribute something of yourself to make it to heaven. And that is exactly what they believe. They believe that unless you do x, y, and z, you can’t go in the rapture. Being baptized into Jesus Christ, and having faith that he already paid the penalty for everything you ever did wrong, and everything you ever will do wrong—they don’t believe that is enough for you to make it. And unless you believe that is enough to make it, you are believing in legalism. And that is exactly what they believe. That is exactly what they preach. They will tell you that to go on the rapture you have to believe the truth. But Jesus said, “I am the truth.” They will tell you if you want to go on the rapture you need the revelation from William Branham. But Jesus said, “I am the door, I am the way, and there is no other.” And then they come up with all these rules you have to keep. They tell you all about this life you have to live, but you can’t find half of the rules in the Bible. But Jesus said, “I am the life; if I live a life like Jesus that’s enough. I don’t need all your extra rules.”
And just like the Pharisees, if Jesus Christ was here today, they would tell Jesus Christ he is a sinner. They would tell you Jesus Christ cannot go in the rapture. They would rebuke Jesus Christ from their platforms. And in fact, they actually do that. They have done made Jesus accursed with their teachings. And they’d probably start by rebuking Jesus for the beard on his face. And they’d keep going down the list of rules they made up that Jesus himself did not follow, just like the Pharisees did to Jesus. And it was actually when the Pharisees accused Jesus of being a sinner that he rebuked them and, just like I am doing now, told them they did not even have a correct definition of what sin was. By their teachings, Jesus could not go in the rapture. By their teachings, Jesus is a sinner. And that is not an exaggeration. And Lord rebuke their wicked hearts for the corrupt and ungodly attacks on my Savior. They are going to answer to Jesus for that one day. One day, they will stand before Jesus. They will look up at his beard-covered face. And He will ask them, “Why did you make out to be a sinner? Why did you say those things about me?” And you know what? They are guilty. They will have no answer. And most of them listen to us here every Sunday. I welcome you all that are listening; God bless you! May you come to the knowledge of truth. But Jesus will say on that day, “You heard the truth, someone you abused and did wrong. He loved you so much he came back to take more of a beating from you just so he could warn you. Why didn’t you listen? Was it too complicated? Was it too hard to understand? Or was it your pride and ego that kept you from hearing the truth?” What are they going to say to Jesus that day?
Jesus, I know you said that it’s not that which goes into a man that defiles him, but the angel told your prophet otherwise, and we believed him. I hope you have a better answer than that.
This incorrect view of the nature of sin leads to an obsessive focus on the outward shell. It leads to externalism, to legalism, rather than a focus on the heart and the matters of the heart. And you end up with people who, so long as they maintain self-control, think the jealousy, or the hate, or the greed that is in their heart is not a sin. But here is the thing: those things in the heart are still a sin, whether they turn into action or not. Hate in your heart is a sin, even if it leads to no action. Greed in your heart is a sin, even if it leads to no action. Jealousy in your heart is a sin, even if it leads to no action. And when you define sin the right way, the way Jesus did—that sin is what comes from the heart of man—that is what defiles him. When you give it that proper definition, then all the people who practice legalism are all exposed as still sinners. Because legalism is founded on a heart of pride. And pride in your heart is also a sin. Pride that thinks you are capable of attaining something that you cannot attain. Pride that makes you think you are capable of contributing to your own salvation. That is itself sin. The legalism of Pharisee religion is itself built on sin. Legalism has sin baked right into it. It is not that which goes into a man that defiles him, but that which comes out. And here is the truth: when pride produces legalism, though the outside looks perfect, the pride in the heart that produced that legalism is still defiling the person.
The legalism of Pharisee religion does not deal with the heart.
Once you understand the nature of sin, it will give you a very different outlook on things.
Worldliness is a condition of the heart. Worldliness is something coming from the heart. You can take the man out of the world, but you can’t take the world out of his heart. Separation from the world does not fix worldliness. Jesus coming into your heart, that is the cure for worldliness. Jesus coming into your heart, that is the cure for sin.
Where we came from, they really only believed the sins of the flesh were sin, which is the fruit of sin. There was never any emphasis on sin of the heart – which is the real sin. It is that sin in the heart that actually defiles us.
And Jesus is clear in his explanation of sin. We are defiled by the sin in the heart. And when that sin in the heart produces a sin of the flesh in our life, we are already defiled before that sin of the flesh ever happened. And you can avoid and cut off the sin of the flesh, but you are still defiled. Because that sin of the flesh is not what defiled you. What defiled you was the sin of the heart.
Like the Pharisee here in Matthew 15, people can become so focused on externalism, so focused on being defiled by their surroundings, that they completely lose sight of the truth. Man is defiled by what is in his heart, not by the outward things he comes into contact with.
So I know this has been a short little message tonight, but this is something with a big impact. It is small, but is very important. Let me finish by reading the words of Jesus one more time.
16 And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding? 17 Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? 18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.