Scripture:

Mark 7:21-23　For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil reasonings, fornications, thefts, murders, Adulteries, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, foolishness. All these wicked things proceed from within and defile the man.

I. The filthiness of human living:

  1. The whole world is filthy. It is filthy materially and morally. Go and take a walk in the street, and your whole being will be filthy.
  2. The filthiness of the world symbolizes the fact that the whole human living is filthy. Any activity in the human living causes you to be defiled. A man lying in bed for three days, doing nothing, will smell bad if he does not take a bath. Move, and you are filthy; be still, and you are filthy just the same.

II. Man’s effort to be cleansed:

  1. In that day the Jews had to wash their hands and feet whenever they did something, because they were defiled by their doing.
  2. Today people are just like the Jews, only paying attention to the outward washing and trying to make themselves clean by human effort. The washing of the hands signifies innocence, that you will no longer do evil things. Some who used to dance, watch movies, and gamble have now washed their hands and have quit doing these things. Man’s way is to wash his hands.
  3. All of man’s effort is outward.

III.  God’s saving way of cleansing:

  1. Man washes the outside, but God deals with the heart.
  2. The way God deals with the heart is by regeneration:
    1. He makes our deadened spirit alive. The dead people are the most filthy ones. If you really want to escape the filthiness and want to be made alive, you must have life.
    2. He renews our heart.
    3. He makes us partakers of God’s divine life and nature.
  3. God’s saving way of cleansing includes two aspects: outwardly, God uses the blood to cleanse the filthiness of our outward behavior; and inwardly, God regenerates us to resolve the filthiness within us.

IV. How to be cleansed:

  1. Confess that you are filthy within and without.
  2. Receive the Lord as your Savior. As soon as you receive the Lord as your Savior, the Lord’s blood cleanses the filthiness of your outward behavior, and at the same time the Lord’s Spirit regenerates you and resolves the filthy thoughts within you.