EPISODE 227 GOSPEL OF MATTHEW CHAPTER 15 ""What is Wrong with People?"

Welcome to Share the Word, a Great Commission project bringing you the big ideas of the New Testament chapter by chapter. If you're just joining us, welcome. We are at episode 227, and Pastor Paul Nitz brings out the big idea of the Gospel of Matthew chapter 15. The point he brings out is something I know I've asked myself dozens of times each day. Ready? Paul, Matthew chapter 15.

What is wrong with people? I find myself saying that often. Just the other day, I read a story about someone dumping off their elderly dog along the side of the road and driving away. And I thought, I think I even said this out loud, What is wrong with people? One of my kids then told me about a table of six at their restaurant that ran them ragged for two hours, changing their orders, asking for endless refills, their children leaving a big mess all over the floor, and then leaving with no tip at all. What is wrong with people?

Or even much more seriously, a high school teacher I was reading about this week who posted cruel, mocking memes about Charlie Kirk being murdered just for sharing his beliefs. High school teacher. I mean, it seems like every day, sometimes more than once a day, I experience things or watch things or read about things and find myself saying that, What is wrong with people? I bet you do the same. When we ask that question, we're probably not looking for an actual answer. It's more like an expression of disbelief or a question at all, a rhetorical one we don't expect any answer to.

But believe it or not, you clicked on the right podcast episode because you're going to get an answer. And not just my answer, my opinion, as if I had the world figured out, but Jesus' actual answer to this very question, because it comes up in today's chapter, Matthew chapter 15. Before we carefully examine that text, let me think with you for a minute about how some people would try and answer this if they felt they had the need to. What is wrong with people? Well, some have tried to convince themselves that there's really nothing wrong with people. People are basically good.

If people could be just left alone to do their own thing, there was no religion trying to jam down their throats their version of right and wrong, or if there was no government police state trying to force them to conform to laws they don't like. For some reason, if left alone, we can determine our own values, and if everyone is just left alone, we'd be just fine. A few years back in Seattle, Washington, a large group of anarchists took over several blocks of a city's downtown, kind of with that philosophy. They claimed they were setting up their own autonomous zone, as they called it. Remember this? Actually, they called it CHOP, or Capitol Hill Organized Protest.

I don't even remember what they were protesting, but they blocked off major streets and booby-trapped barricades to keep people and police out. This went on for weeks that summer. There was free food, free concerts, and free love in the autonomous zone. I suppose the young people doing this thought they had set up utopia. But that summer, four people were shot just in those city blocks in the CHOP zone, and there were other crimes, big and small. In short order, the organizers had to create their own security force to police the CHOP.

The local businesses on those streets were all robbed and vandalized. Where else did they get their supplies and food? And after only about eight weeks, it all came apart, and the real city government ordered the police to dismantle the barricades and remove any squatters who wouldn't leave on their own. By the way, do you know the word utopia, what it really means? It's from a Greek root, and it means no place. The concept of utopia itself, it's a pipe dream.

When that happened, it reminded me of my own generation when I was young, the hippies. Remember them? How many communes they began here and there in America. We're all going to share, and there will be no rules. You should join. It's about sexual freedom and music and just, you know, doing your own thing with no uptight adults around.

That sounds pretty good to 18- and 20-year-olds, and communes sprang up all over the country. I read someone now in their 60s recollecting that time where they lived with a, you know, a bunch of wannabe hippies in utopia. He said they seemed to be centered around drug use mostly, looking back, but some members had to stay straight for long enough to organize things like shelter for us, water, growing food for us. Free love was definitely in the air, but the populations were generally small and with high turnover, he said. With high turnover. Yeah, I bet.

Because what happens at the old commune when someone takes your stuff, or someone takes your man, or a few get stuck doing all the work or responsible to come up with all the needed food? Those who imagine there's nothing really wrong with people and if left to themselves all would be well. are naive and end up learning again the hard way that never works. Left to ourselves, things only get worse. Another approach to the what is wrong with people question admits that there are serious problems, all right, but these problems are caused by things around us, they're environmental: inequality, poverty, lack of education, class warfare. If we can only level the playing field, if we can only properly educate people beginning in very early childhood, if we can only redistribute all the wealth, if we can only create a truly classless society.

Well, those are lofty goals, and a lot of people have risen to power promising they could make those happen. Places like Communist China and the old Soviet Union, in Cuba, in Venezuela, and as of about a week ago, in New York City. Amazing that every new generation has to learn the hard way that what's wrong with people won't go away by stealing from the productive to give to the unproductive, or by re-educating everyone with socialist ideals. It runs deeper than that. That's why a lot of smart people, like tens of thousands of them, are fleeing New York City right now before these serious problems there worsen. But believe it or not, those who believe what's wrong with people is outside of them are not all secular socialists, progressives as they like to call themselves nowadays.

No, religious moralists believe the same thing. Only their prescription to fix the problem is different. You know, I don't find satisfactory the recent answer to what's ailing American society, the hate and division, that kind of thing that boiled over in the last month or two since Charlie Kirk was assassinated. The just go to church prescription. If we could just get everybody to go to church, if we could just get the Ten Commandments back posted in our schools, then we'd have a much more godly society. Well, probably in some external ways, if enough peer pressure comes to bear to make people see it's in their best interest to conform to a higher moral standard, there would be marginal improvement.

But listen to this. This is from Colossians chapter 2. Why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as don't handle, don't taste, don't touch? Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate even as we use them. These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, self-denial, and bodily discipline, but, but they provide no help in conquering a person's evil desires. They provide no help in conquering a person's evil desires, Paul wrote.

Whatever is wrong with people, biblically speaking, the answer is not from the outside of us. You may make some external improvements on people if you can provide enough external pressure and external motivation to make them want to conform to a higher moral standard, but that approach will never help people conquer their evil desires. Why? Well, that is exactly what Jesus explains in Matthew chapter 15, verses 10 and following. Some Pharisees—this is the context—some Pharisees had criticized him and his disciples for eating without ceremonially washing their hands first. This is the context, and this wasn't about hygiene; it was a religious ritual of theirs.

Remember those hedge laws we were talking about recently. They taught people that if you didn't perform a certain kind of ritual washing before you ate, or if you ate certain kinds of food that they considered unclean, that you defiled yourself that way. That was the word, defiled. You made yourself spiritually unclean and unholy in God's eyes. It was in responding to that kind of thinking that Jesus revealed what's really wrong with people. Listen.

Then Jesus called to the crowd and said, Come and listen to me. Hear me, he said, and try to understand this. It's not what goes into your mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of you. Later the disciples came to him and asked, Do you realize you offended the Pharisees by what you just said? Jesus replied, Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be uprooted, so ignore them. They're blind guides leading the blind.

Then Peter said to Jesus, Can you explain to us the parable about people not being defiled by what they eat? Because, yeah, that was very much a part of his culture. Don't you understand this yet? Jesus asked. Anything you eat passes through your stomach and then goes into the latrine. But the things that come out of you, from out of your heart, that's what defiles you.

For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all kinds of sexual immorality, theft, lying, slander. These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands, that won't defile you, Jesus said. It's funny to me that when his disciples told him, Do you realize you offended the Pharisees when you said that thing about their ritual washings not really having anything to do with defilement? Jesus' answer was essentially, Who cares? The every plant not planted by my Father will be uprooted.

Yeah, that was a reference back to his parable about the wheat and tares. The tares, remember, represented false teachers. Satan plants in God's field in that parable. That's how Jesus saw the Pharisees and their teachings. It was false religion. They were spiritually blind men trying to lead others.

Theirs, like every other religion before or since, and every religion now, whose prescription for what is wrong with people is outside of us, that teaches some form of do this, don't do that, keep these rules, participate in these sacraments every week, perform these rituals. The problem of what's wrong in you can be addressed by outside stuff, by religion, things you can perform. It's all off base. Tragically, tragically off base. So what did Jesus say is really the root of the problem? What is really wrong with people?

He said, The things that come out of you come from your heart. That's what defiles you. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all kinds of sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. Man, I could never forget this, you know, even if I wanted to, because there's a church close to my house. I pass it several times a week, and there's a sign out by the road. You know those signs that churches have that show their service times and usually some kind of message on them?

Well, this one says, It's always a matter of the heart. It is one of those signs you can change the message. It's not painted on. It has letters you can change out. Someone could get in there and put a funny message or a different message like, Come as you are. We have free continental breakfast every Sunday, or, I don't know.

But it says instead, and it said this for as long as I can remember, it's always a matter of the heart. I look intentionally now every time I drive by that church to see if that's still there. It's always a matter of the heart. You know, it used to annoy me. I used to think, hey, I could stop in there and give them something better and more clever to put on their signs, like, Treat others as you want to be treated, or, Looking for a lifeguard? Ours walks on water.

But no, no, no. It's always the same. Maybe someone lost the key to get in there and change it. But if so, I think it's probably for the best because I need the reminder. The answer to the big question, what is wrong with people? is it's always a matter of the heart.

That's what Jesus said. That's the authoritative and true answer. What's wrong is inside of us, and it's inside of all of us. There aren't, from God's perspective, people who are naturally good and others who are naturally bad. We're all bad. Some of us are more obviously bad than others.

King David wrote in the 51st Psalm, Have mercy on me, O God, because I need your unfailing love. According to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash away my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. I know my transgressions and my sin are always before you. Against you and you alone have I sinned and done evil in your sight.

You are right in your verdict and justified when you judge me. And then he wrote, Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Do you know these psalms were actually songs that they sang at worship in the Old Testament times? They sang over and over again, Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. We should know this. No one has to teach us this, but we forget.

Children, children, innocent little children, right? Does anybody have to teach them how to be mean, or how to be dishonest, or how to be selfish? They don't. These things are in little children's hearts, quite naturally from day one. As we grow up, some are taught better than others how to suppress those evil things that are in their hearts. Some are fortunate enough to be in a better environment with higher standards where it's more necessary to conform to expected moral and ethical norms to be accepted.

And in time, we, and I'm thinking about myself here, speaking for myself now, we take a great deal of pride in feeling we're pretty good, we're pretty righteous compared to other people. But you know what? That is exactly the spirit of the Pharisees that Jesus was so critical of. They believed and taught that goodness, righteousness, could be impressed on people from the outside. With enough pressure on people and enough motivation, people would conform and become righteous like them. But Jesus could see through all of that: the white robes, the extensive codes of conduct, the constant performance art of all the religious rituals like the washings that come up in this chapter.

He taught because he knew this was the truth. That the real problem is deep inside us, and nothing we can do outside can fully resolve it. The human heart is desperately wicked, Jeremiah said. Are you honest enough to admit that? Humble enough to admit that? So Jesus pinpointed the problem as our hearts, hearts defiled by sin.

And that fact is universal. We're all born with one. But Jesus also knew and offered the true remedy, the only real solution for this, because he was the only real solution to this. Only he was born without sin because God was, in fact, his Father. Only he perfectly fulfilled all righteousness, never disobeying or disappointing the heavenly Father. Then he did what only he could do.

Perfect, sinless Son of God laid down his life as a sacrificial atonement for all of us sinners, the righteous one for the unrighteous, to bring us to God, as Peter put it, or as Paul put it, God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we could become righteous through him. This is biblical theology's prescription for what's wrong with people. Not religion's answer, that's for sure, and not any school of philosophy or psychology's answer. It's a solution from inside of us, the inside out, God changing a person's heart who wants to turn away from what's wrong and will humbly call on the Savior that he sent for us. That's why David prayed, Create in me a clean heart, O God. He knew he couldn't create that by himself.

And that is why the New Testament teaches that when anyone is really in Christ, has really received him in faith, they become a new creation. They are changed inside. Their hearts are changed. We've had a spirited exchange in my family's group chat this week, just yesterday actually. It revolved around a young guy we all know. He's been in some trouble in the past.

He's had issues with drug use, alcohol abuse. He's done some pretty bad things, criminal things. How it came up was, I'm heading out of town for a few days this weekend, and just so happened that both of my adult kids who live in this area are also going away on the same weekend. So, I suddenly needed someone to stay at my house and take care of my pets. I got four pets. When I realized this, I let them know we had a problem, and I told my son, and he said, I'll ask Michael, not his real name.

I'll ask Michael to stay over at your house and pet sit for you this weekend. Then the crap hit the fan, as they say. When someone else in our family learned that that was our plan, they said on the group chat, Michael so-and-so? You're going to have Michael so-and-so stay at our house? And someone answered, Yes. They said, Are you kidding me?

You don't remember what he did? Are you crazy? Someone else piped up, Yeah, but he's changed. He's sober now. Just recently turned his life toward following Christ. In fact, he was just baptized at our church to announce that a couple of Sundays ago.

But this other family member, who is not a Christian, by the way, was not buying that. They brought up something Michael did a while back, something seriously wrong, and made their point that leopards don't change their spots. Like, he's a bad guy, period, and you're crazy if you're trusting him again. I finally spoke up and said, Only time will tell if he's really saved, if his faith is real. If it is, his heart's been changed. But from what I've seen and heard lately, I believe God really has changed him, for one reason, because he came to me on his own and asked forgiveness for things that he had done when he lived at my house a while back, things I didn't even know about.

They weren't convinced. I don't trust him. I'm not brushing off the stuff he's done because he says he's had a come to Jesus moment. I left it here. I said, We're all sinners, all of us. Some, for different reasons, don't act it out as obviously as Michael has.

But the new birth Jesus talked about is real. I've seen the drastic change in too many people to doubt that. Whether it's true in Michael's case, only time will tell. But I like the early evidence I'm seeing, and I know that if anyone is really in Christ, their heart is changed. They've become a new creation, and I believe Michael's faith is sincere. I'll have to let you know how things go with Michael going forward.

I'm praying, and we'll do what we can to encourage his new profession of faith in Christ. And honestly, I'm hoping the heart changes will become so obvious to this unbelieving family member of ours that Michael's conversion experience will be hard to discount. It will be proof to them that Christianity is real, that God is really in the heart-changing business. If Jesus was telling us the truth, what's wrong with people is our sinful hearts, and only He is the solution to really fixing that. Thanks for listening. This is Paul for Share the Word.

Thanks, Paul. Have you ever heard the phrase, Follow your heart? The fact of the matter is that the Bible warns against it. In Jeremiah 17:9, it says the heart is deceitful, and in Proverbs 4:23, it tells us above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. You see, what we should be doing is following God. And as Pastor Paul said, the religious leaders during the time of Jesus spent more time focused in the wrong direction.

Take a look at your life and ask yourself, are you focused on what you think is right or what God says is right? Matthew 15:19, Jesus says, Out of the heart comes evil thoughts. In Numbers 15:39, the verse instructs us as believers to remember God's commandments, reminding us not to follow your own heart and your own eyes. So as you examine your life, ask yourself, are people saying, 'What is wrong with people?' and it's about you.