In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, God’s Son, whose blood cleanses us from all sin, my dear friends:

“You are what you eat.” Have you ever had anyone tell you that? I’m not really sure who came up with that saying or what the circumstances were that led to those words being said. But I think people use those words to get you to think about what you eat, before you eat it. If making Hostess Twinkies a regular part of your daily food intake is going to turn you into a big soft, light and delicate cream-filled snack, I think you just might change your mind about eating Twinkies.

Now combine the idea of the words “You are what you eat” with the idea behind the old saying “Sugar and spice and all things nice--that’s what little girls are made of” and you have to come to the conclusion that little girls must eat nothing but candy and cake and cookies. Well…I’m pretty sure we all realize how ridiculous that kind of thinking would be.

But the idea behind those words—the idea that eating certain things could change a person’s character, who they are and how they act—that was actually the suggestion of the Pharisees who found fault with Jesus, when they saw His disciples eating with unwashed hands.

This morning Jesus takes us to the heart of the matter—literally, when He says, “There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.” What makes us clean or unclean before God has nothing to do with what we eat or what we do outwardly. Man looks at the outward appearance. God looks at the heart. Cleanness or uncleanness before God is not a physical matter, but a spiritual one. Before anything we do can be clean, the source of all our actions must be clean.

David recognized that need in his own life when he said in Psalm 51, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” David realized that his entire spirit was filthy. The adultery and murder he committed didn’t make him sinful. He committed adultery and murder because he was sinful. His heart needed to be cleaned up.

You and I are certainly no better than David. Every Sunday we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have filthy hearts—unclean before God. But Jesus has cleaned up our hearts and purified our spirits with His blood. Our heavenly Father has kept His promise through the prophet Ezekiel, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness…I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you…”

We may not turn into Twinkies by eating lots of Twinkies, but we do become clean before God when, like David, we look in faith to our Savior and pray: Create in me a clean heart, O God.

Dirty hearts produce dirty deeds. That’s the simple truth of Jesus’ words, when He says: “From within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.”

That list includes just about everything, doesn’t it? What’s really frightening is that Jesus’ list applies just as much today as it did when He first spoke those words. In just about every newspaper or on every TV news show we can find examples of the dirty deeds that Jesus says come from dirty hearts.

Jesus says that those acts are evidence of the filth inside us that needs to be washed away. When our hearts are clean, then the way we live will also be clean. But that’s easier said than done. Try as we might, we can never wash that filth away. Time and time again, we refuse to forgive our friends and our enemies. We rebel against the idea of spending time at church or helping others, when we could be relaxing or sleeping. And all because our hearts are still dirty, keeping the things we do from being any different.

Guilty! That’s what we are. Jesus doesn’t list all these dirty deeds so we can point the finger at other people. He lists them because these are the dirty deeds that expose the dirty hearts of all people—mine and yours included.

We’re guilty. We can’t deny it. Our conscience accuses us. We climb into bed at night unable to get down on our knees and admit our guilt to God. We toss and turn, unable to sleep because of a voice inside us that won’t leave us alone. It won’t let us hide the unkind word we said. It won’t let us forget the lie we told. It won’t keep still about the needy person we passed by without any concern. It robs us of peace. If only we could wipe the slate clean and start over again. If only God would set aside our “guilty” sentence and turn away His wrath, so we could be at peace again.

Well, God has done just that. He has turned away His wrath. He has cleansed our consciences—not with new commands to keep, but with the precious cleansing blood of His perfect Son, as the writer to the Hebrews reminds us: “The blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, shall cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

With that promise of God, we can quiet those voices in the night. With that promise of God, we can find true peace and contentment in life. Those aren’t just words. They are the very promises of God. Jesus has washed our lifestyle clean by washing our hearts clean. Hold on to God’s promises through the cleansing blood of His Son, Jesus. For through those promises He turns our dirty deeds into clean living and our guilty conscience into a conscience at peace.

The Pharisees tried to make a relationship with God a matter of washing and keeping rules and following traditions. They tried to turn God’s cleansing promises into a system of obedience. But Jesus exposed their false thinking. A true relationship with God begins in the heart.

Jesus teaches us how to be clean before God—not from the outside in, but from the inside out. What makes us unclean is not the visible acts that people see, but the condition of our hearts that only God sees.

Let’s listen to Jesus, and in faith let’s ask Him to wash us inside out. Let’s admit the wrong attitude of our hearts and confess our pride and our attempts to justify our sins before God. And let’s wash ourselves in the blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanses us from every sin. Our sins are washed away. Let’s rejoice! We are a new creation with a new heart—a clean heart.

God has washed us in the blood of His Son Jesus. One day we will all be among those about whom John says in the book of Revelation: “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” In the certainty of that future may we always pray like David, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, for Jesus’ sake!” AMEN