Now I want you to open your Bibles
with me to the book of 1 Timothy chapter 1. 1 Timothy chapter 1. I preached
from this passage last Sunday, but when I began to study this,
my goal was to deal basically with verse 5. And I want to read
up through verse 5. what I'm going to do here. The
title of the message this morning is Love Out of a Pure Heart. Love Out of a Pure Heart. And
I want you to look at this with me. Verse 1, 1 Timothy chapter
1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ,
which is our hope, or who is our hope? Christ is our hope. The certain assurance of our
salvation. Unto Timothy, my own son in the
faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus
Christ our Lord, as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus.
Now that's where Timothy was, at the church at Ephesus. Ministering
there, Paul had gone, had been there, but he had left, left
Timothy there. He says, when I went into Macedonia,
that thou mightest charge or command Some that they teach
no other doctrine. That's what I dealt with last
week. The doctrine of Christ. That word doctrine, you remember
it means teaching. It's truth as it is in Christ. The doctrine of God. We talk
about the doctrine of grace. That's what he's talking about.
Truth as revealed by God to his people in Christ by the Spirit
through the scriptures. So that they teach no other doctrine,
teach the truth, don't teach a lie, don't teach the commandments
of men or the ideas and philosophies and theologies of man, but teach
God's Word. And then he says in verse 4,
neither give heed to fables, endless genealogies, which minister
questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith, so
do, and I dealt with those three things. Now in verse 5, He says,
now the end of the commandment, the end of the commandment, that
word end means the finishing or in the sense of a goal. In other words, the commandment
that he's talking about in issuing forth that commandment, he had
a goal in mind. Everything that God gives us
has a goal, has a purpose. There's nothing done by accident.
There's no afterthoughts or plan B's with God. It's all according
to a sovereign, wise, predestinated purpose, if you will. And of
course, we know when we speak of the goal of gospel preaching,
for example, the number one goal is that God be glorified. Secondly,
that Christ be exalted. Thirdly, that sinners be saved.
And fourthly, that God's people be edified, built up. Those all
four go together. You can't have one without the
other. Now here he's talking about the finishing or the goal
of the commandment. The end of it. That's the same
word that Paul used in Romans 10 and verse 4 when he said Christ
is the end of the law. For righteousness to everyone
that believeth. Christ, He's the one who finished
the law. He's the one who accomplished
the goal of the law. That is, to bring forth righteousness. You see, our works can't do that.
But Christ's work did. His obedience unto death is our
righteousness. It's not our works because our
works cannot accomplish that goal. By deeds of law shall no
flesh be justified in God's sight. We're by the laws and the knowledge
of sin. So here's what we've got to ask ourselves in verse
five. It says, now the end of the commandment. Well, what is
the commandment there? When you think of the word commandment,
well, there's several things that may come to mind when you
think of it. Sometimes the commandment or
commandments plural refer to the whole revealed will of God. The whole revealed will of God.
Revealed will what I'm speaking of there is the the revealed
things that were held accountable for that were responsible for
you know God has a has a Sovereign purpose in all things his sovereign
will which cannot be broken He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will the scripture says that's Ephesians 111 and
And we don't always know about that until after it happens.
I mean, I don't know what's going to happen this afternoon and
tonight and tomorrow. God does, because he's determined
it. The determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. That's
the God of this book. Most people don't like that,
but that's him. That's the word of God. You say, well, I can't understand
it. That doesn't matter. That's what this book says. And
that's who this God is. And so we only know that will,
his, what the, you could say his secret will, Deuteronomy
29, the secret thing, belong to God. In other words, we only
know that after it happens. And so we're groping in the dark
as to the future and providence here as such. But we do have
the light of God's word. And what God commands. And somebody
says, well, if everything we do is the sovereign will of God,
it doesn't matter what we do. No, no, no. There's the revealed
will of God. And that's what we're responsible
for. And God has given us a mind and a conscience. We're going
to be talking about the conscience next week. But you think about
this now. This command is the whole revealed
will of God that we are accountable to. It's summarized in two commandments,
love God perfectly and love our neighbors ourselves. That's what
it's summarized. Comes in different forms in the
scripture. People talk about the Ten Commandments,
and that's okay, that was the old covenant law. But it's always
been love God perfectly and love our neighbors ourselves. And
then another way of looking at it is simply The commandment
that Christ gave to his disciples to love the brethren. That's
the commandment. Keeping his commandments. Believing
in him, resting in him, honoring him, and loving the brethren.
And then we could talk about the gospel. The gospel itself
is a command. It's not just an offer, you know,
or an invitation. It's a commandment. The king
issues forth a command. Christ said, come unto me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. That's
a commandment. But the context here shows us
exactly what Paul means by the end of the commandment. What
commandment? It's back there in verse three. Teach no other
doctrine. There's the commandment. That's
the context. Context shows us that he's instructing
Timothy to charge that word charge there I say command is it's really
another form of the same word in verse 5 commandment So you
could say command some that they teach no other Doctrine and again
remember that doctrine of which he writes is the doctrine of
God It's the doctrine of Christ. It's the doctrine of grace. It's
the gospel with all of its particulars and Everything that lines up
with the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ.
Anything that's out of line with that, you command them not to
teach. Anything that doesn't exalt Christ
in the glory of His person as God in human flesh, God with
us. The perfect, sinless God-man. I'll tell you something, this
notion that Christ had sin or that he was made a sinner and
all that, don't listen to that. That's other doctrine now, I'm
telling you. Don't write that off as just somebody going, listen,
that's heresy. Yes, He was made sin. How? By imputation. By our sin being
charged to Him. The same way we're made the righteousness
of God. By His righteousness imputed,
charged, accounted to us. And you charge some that they
teach no other doctrine, you see. The doctrine of Christ. The doctrine of how God saves
sinners. Now that's nothing to be trifled
with now. This issue. And it's God-given,
listen, it's God-given love for Christ as He's identified and
distinguished in this doctrine that binds us together in Christian
faith and love. Listen to what He says, verse
5. Now the end of the commandment. Now there's a goal. Here's the
goal of this commandment to teach no other doctrine. Teach the
truth. Preach the gospel. Preach Christ. And here's the
goal of that. And He says charity. Now you
know that word charity. Read about it in 1 Corinthians
13. Talks about how you can have
all kinds of great, marvelous things, but if you have not charity,
it means nothing. That's what 1 Corinthians 13
teaches. And that word charity is love. That's what it is. And he says
the end of this commandment, the goal of this commandment
to teach no other doctrine is love. Now he gives you three
things here. Love out of a pure heart. That's what I'm going
to talk about here in a few minutes. love of or from a good conscience,
and love of or from faith unfeigned, which is sincere faith. It's
not a hypocritical faith. It's not just acting, in other
words. Those three things. Now, there
are three things there that are essential to Christian living. And the common denominator is
this love. Love out of a pure heart. Not
just love, but love out of a pure heart. And not just any love. What kind of love? Well, this
is godly love. This is, you've heard the term
agape. This is what this is. This is
this love which no man or woman has by nature. If this love is
in you, in your heart, in your mind, your affections, your will,
in your center, in your being. If this love is there by knowledge
and by power, if it's there, then it's the gift of God. You
weren't born with it. Now, you were born with self-love.
I was. We were all born with self-love. We don't have any
problem. I know people, you know, talk about, you know, they have
problems loving themselves because they're so down on themselves,
but that's just another form of self-love. That's the kind
of self-loves that feel sorry for self. And we really had no
problem loving extensions of ourselves. We love our children.
And we do it pretty unselfishly, too. I'd venture to say there's
not one of us, saved or lost, who wouldn't give our lives for
our children. We love extensions of ourselves. May not give our
lives for somebody else's children, but we sure would for ours. But
now this love, this is the kind of love, this is the godly love
that John spoke of in 1 John 4. He said here in his love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us. And gave his son
to be the propitiation, the sin bearing satisfaction who brought
reconciliation by his death, his sacrifice. Sent his son to
be the propitiation for our sins. That's what this love is. This
is love that comes in the new birth as the Holy Spirit sheds
abroad within our hearts the love of God, His grace and His
mercy, which we don't earn and don't deserve. This is unconditional
love towards the sinner. Now let me tell you something,
you know there are conditions for this love, but they're not
on us. You see, God loves, but His love
is a holy love. And God loves, but his love is
a just love and a righteous love. So in order for God to love anybody,
he must be righteous and holy in doing so. How does he do that?
Through Jesus Christ, the son of his love. And sending him
to satisfy the justice of God against the sins of his people,
the people whom he loves. And this love removes every obstacle
that would hinder God's goal for his people, that
is the salvation of their souls. And it provides every means possible
and needed to bring them to that goal, which is eternal life. So this love is to his people,
his elect, that's what it is. And when the Holy Spirit brings
us to a saving knowledge of Christ, He shows us this love, and this
love gets hold of us, as it were, in our hearts. so that we cannot
get away from it. It's God-given love for Christ
as he's identified and distinguished in this doctrine. In other words,
it's kind of like this. Now, you men who love, you love
your wives, and you wives, you love your husbands. If somebody
were to come to you and give you a description of your spouse
that didn't fit the bill, but that spoke of your spouse negatively,
and you knew better, what would you do? What if someone come
to you and said, well, your husband's a thief and a robber and an adulterer
and all kinds of things. And you knew better. You'd defend
him, wouldn't you? You wouldn't listen to that,
would you? Or someone would come to you men and say, your wife
is a prostitute or an adulteress, sir. And you knew better. You'd defend her honor. And that's
the way it is with God's people in this love. You see, this love
respects and regards first and foremost the honor of God and
not the pleasure of men. You see, many people will compromise
what they claim to believe because they'll do it in the name of
love. That's not this love. That's self-love. This love is founded and grounded
in the truth as it is in Christ. We love Him because He first
loved us, and therefore we love the truth of Him. We love the
doctrine of Christ. You can't love Christ without
loving the truth of Christ. You can't. And so, therefore,
that's what binds us together in Christian love. You see, in
religion, man's religion, false religion, A strong dogmatic stand
in doctrine is not normally viewed as love. Now remember what Paul
said here. He said teach no other doctrine. Now the world will
say what? They'll say well it don't matter
what your doctrine is. Don't bring doctrine into it. Let's just put that aside. Doctrine
just divides people and causes controversy and division and
you can't know for sure that you're right anyway. That's just
how you interpret it. You forget about theology. Love
is all that matters. Now that's the world. That's
not this love. Paul says, teach no other doctrine. Jude said, contend for the faith. Paul wrote in Galatians 1, if
they come preaching any other gospel than that which we have
preached, let them be anathema. Don't listen to them. You see, there's no such thing
as biblical love, godly love, apart from sound doctrine. No
such thing. This charity, this love here
must be defined by God's word and not by our culture and not
by popular vote, not by popular opinion. People think that love
means being nice all the time, bearing our differences and never
criticizing or opposing anyone. But if that's what Paul meant
by it, he contradicts himself in this chapter. Look over at
verse 19 of chapter one. Don't get me wrong. We ought
to be nice all the time. But we ought to be truthful too.
But look at verse 19. He talks about
holding faith and a good conscience. Which some having put away concerning
faith have made shipwreck. In other words, their faith is
like a ship that's been wrecked. They've gone away from the truth.
Then he mentions two men, of whom Hymenaeus and Alexander,
whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. Well, wait a minute, Paul. What
about all that love you were talking about? Here, you've named
these guys by name. You're not supposed to do that.
Is that right? Well, now you understand now,
Paul's writing this by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is God's
Word. This isn't just Paul's Word or Paul's opinion. Look
over at chapter 2. of 2nd Timothy. Go to 2nd Timothy
chapter 2. Look at verse 14. 2nd Timothy
2. He's talking about the ministry
here. Standing firm for Christ in a wicked, opposing world. And he says in verse 14, of these
things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord,
that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting
of the hearers. I've seen that in our day. People
striving over words to no profit that don't build up the body
of Christ, but subvert their hearers. Study, verse 15, to
show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to
be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Shun profane
and vain babblings, for they'll increase unto more ungodliness,
and their word will eat as doth a canker, like a gangrene, of
whom is Hymenaeus and Philae. Oops, he named two other fellows
there. What about that love? Well, let
me tell you something. Paul is displaying godly love
right here. He said, who concerning the truth
have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow
the faith of some. You see that? What's he doing
here? Well, he's contending for the
faith, teaching no other doctrine. This godly love is from God. This godly love is love to God
first and foremost. It's love to the brethren in
Christ. And this godly love is love of the truth. Now what is
the purpose of this? Now go back to 1 Timothy 1 and
verse 5. As I said, there are three things here that are essential
to the Christian life. I'm going to preach a message
on each one of them. Three different messages. The
first one here, he says, love out of a pure heart. Now I got
to thinking about that. And I asked myself this question.
Not only do I have this love, that he's talking about here.
And secondly, do I have a pure heart? Now what is this pure
heart that he's talking about? Well, you know what the heart
is in the scripture. And we need to understand that.
We need to know exactly what's being said here. No need to speculate. But in the Bible, Old Testament
and New, when we talk about the heart, And the reason I think
it's such an issue today is because most people, when they think
about the heart, they think about not how you think or what you
know, but they think about how you feel. And so, you know, a
lot of people will judge true heart faith or spirituality of
the heart by emotions. And if that's the case, you could
say there's more heart at a good football game than you could
in most worship services. Think about the emotion that
goes on there. But you see, that's not what it is. What is this
thing of the heart? Well, it's the mind. The heart
is the mind. Now, we're talking about teaching
here. God teaches His people. And He comes through the mind.
But it's not just the mind alone. It's not just an intellectual
thing. It's not just a mental thing. It also involves the affections. What you love and what you hate.
The psalmist said, I love thy way and I hate every false way. So it is not just the mind, it
involves the affections. Feelings are involved. There
is nothing wrong with feelings as long as they are based upon
truth. But you can't judge it by feelings. Who was it? I can't
remember who wrote the poem, Feelings come, feelings go, feelings
are deceiving. And then it involves the will. The will, what you choose, what
you desire. The mind, the affections, and
the will. The heart is the inner man. Paul called it the inner man. It's what I am on the inside,
not just what you see on the outside. A person can look pretty
bad on the outside, but still have a pure heart. Or a good
heart. A person can appear beautiful
on the outside and have an ugly heart. An evil heart. It's the
inner man. It's the very center of our being. That's what the heart is. Don't
segment it off into just feelings. It's everything we are. That's
what the heart is. Now he's talking about a pure
heart here. What is a pure heart? Is a pure heart a perfectly sinless
heart? One with no impure thoughts? Has there been an impure thought
shoot through your mind today? Yesterday? You think they'll
ever come again? Impure thoughts? If what he's talking about is
a mind, affections, and will that has no impure thoughts at
all, then could I say that I have a pure heart? Could you? Honestly? Some people say, well, there's
part of me that has no impure thoughts and there's part of
me that doesn't. Well, now that's not what the scripture says.
Paul said this, he said, when I would do good, evil's present
with me. Over in Psalm 24 it talks about
this, it says, who's going to ascend unto the hill of the Lord?
He that hath a pure heart, whose soul has not been lifted
up unto vanity. And then think about this, Hebrews
chapter 4 and verse 12, listen to this. For the word of God
is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. Now that's
the heart. And of the joints and marrow,
that's the heart. Talking about the inner part,
spiritual. And a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. The heart thinks. Wait a minute,
I thought the brain thought. Well, the brain's part of your
heart. Not physically now. We're not talking about anatomy
here. We're talking about the soul, the spirit, the inner man.
The Bible says in Proverbs chapter, I think it's chapter 23. I'm
not sure but it says as a man thinketh in his heart. So is
he? You think with your heart you
may not agree with that, but you do And it goes on and says, neither
is there any creature that is not manifest in God's sight,
but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with
whom we have to do. So now when you, when me and
you, when we go to judging our hearts and taking inventory of
our hearts, we have to understand that God knows our hearts better
than we do. Did you know that? In fact, Jeremiah
said it this way in Jeremiah 79. He said, if the heart is
deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it? Thank God right
after that, he says, I the Lord search the hearts. I try to raise. The only way you can know your
heart is by the Word of God. Just your thoughts and opinions
will not do it. And certainly, the opinions of
others and the thoughts of others won't do it because they can't
see your heart. They can't know your heart. You remember when Samuel, the
prophet, went to David's house, went to Jesse's house, to find
whom God had anointed as king. Jesse brought his oldest sons
to him, and old David was out there tending sheep. Then he
brought one to him, and what did the Lord tell Samuel? Looked
at this fella, and you remember how Saul was, Saul, King Saul,
who'd been rejected. Saul was just a big, tall, athletic,
strapping man, you know. Somebody, you know, he just had
that appearance of a king. And here Samuel looked on one
of Jesse's son, and God told him, he said, look not on his
countenance, that is appearance, or on the height of his stature,
because I've refused him, he's not the one. For the Lord seeth
not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but
the Lord looketh on the heart. And then old David, I thought
about this, you know, some people say, well, you know, part of
you is pure, part of you is not. That's that dichotomy that is
not even taught in scripture. We have flesh and spirit. That's
what we're made up of in the new, we have the spirit, the
spirit of life. But David, you know, he was called
a man after God's own heart. That's 1 Samuel 13. A man after God's own heart.
And yet, well into his reign, he committed a great sin against
a man named Uriah. And committed adultery with Bathsheba. Committed murder and connived. And after the Lord brought him
to repentance, he made this statement in Psalm 51 and verse 10. He
said, create in me a clean heart. And renew a right spirit within
me. Look over at Matthew chapter
15. Look with me here. Look at verse 7. Here the Lord
is speaking to the Pharisees. And you know He said this about
the Pharisees. He said, they do indeed appear righteous unto
men. They do indeed appear righteous
unto men. But look here in verse 7. He
says, you hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,
this 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... And listen how this is exposed. Now, keep this connection. Remember
what Paul said, teach no other doctrine. That's the commandment.
And the goal of that is love out of a pure heart. Love out
of a good conscience. Love out of faith unfeigned.
Now he says, their heart is far from me, verse 9, but in vain
they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men. In other words, they are not
teaching God's word, they are teaching man's word. That tells
you something about their heart. If I stood before you today and
said, now listen, salvation is not in Christ, it's by your works.
You know what I've just revealed to you? My heart. I've revealed to you that I love
myself and not God. Not Christ. Not His truth. I've revealed to you that I think
too highly of myself. You understand that? That's the
heart. Now, what does all this teach
us? First of all, it teaches this.
Now listen. That by nature, our hearts are totally depraved. That's right. What do you mean
by nature? I mean, that's how we're born.
The natural man. As I said, the heart is a way
of describing our whole persons. Look back there at Matthew 15
again. Remember over there, he said in Matthew 15 verse 17,
now what this whole issue is about is the Pharisees got on
the disciples for eating with unwashed hands. And he's talking
about a ceremony there, a religious ceremony, not just the fact that
there's dirt on your hands. But it's a religious ceremony.
And he said, look at verse 17 of Matthew 15. Do not ye yet
understand that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the
belly and is cast out into the draft? But those things which
proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they
defile a man. Those things that come out of
the mouth that proceed from the heart is what defiles us. Now,
why is that? Well, look at verse 19. 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 defiles not a man. That's
why Christ taught that it's not only a sin to commit the act
of murder, but the thought of murder. is a sin. It's not only
a sin to commit the act of adultery, but the thought of adultery.
What's the problem? The heart is the problem. The heart is. The heart is the
center of our beliefs. The heart is the center of our
convictions, our moral character. It's the center of our desires
and our longings either towards God or against God. In Psalm 51, David said, in sin
did my mother conceive me. That's how we're born. Look at
Romans chapter 3. I mentioned that term totally
depraved. I've dealt with that on our television
program a couple of times because people really don't understand
it. When you hear the term total depravity, that's a doctrine
of scripture. In fact, you could say it this
way, that's the doctrine of sin in the Bible. It's a doctrine
that tells me this question, why do I need salvation by grace
anyway? That's what it tells me. Because
it's totally depraved, that's what I am by nature. Now, to
be totally depraved does not mean that everybody is as bad
as they could be. Because it's just not so. Everybody
is not. Think about this. If we lived
in a world where every one of us was as bad as we could be,
what kind of a world would this be? We wouldn't be sitting here,
would we? We'd be killing off each other.
So total depravity, to say that I'm totally depraved by nature
and you're totally depraved, doesn't mean that we're all as
bad as we could be. But here's what it means. It
means that every one of us by nature have been so affected
by sin, so affected by sin that we cannot save ourselves, we
cannot produce the righteousness required to be saved, and we
have no desire to bow and submit to God's way. We're spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. You say, well, I desire to be
religious. Well, that doesn't mean anything. Everybody desires
to be religious in some way. I desire to be a better person.
That's fine. And I hope you're successful. But when it comes to salvation,
what does the Bible teach us? Man at his best state is altogether
what? Vanity. Now, why is that? Well,
he says in verse 10, look at Romans 3. Here's a good definition
of total depravity. There's none righteous, no, not
one. What does that mean? There's none who have a righteousness
that equals and answers the demands of God's justice. There's none
that understandeth. That is, understand what? I can
show you people who understand a whole lot more than any of
us concerning certain subjects. But when it comes to God's way
of salvation, God's way of glorifying Himself, no man by nature understands
that. That has to be revealed. You're
not born with that understanding. I had a man down in Albany, one
time he said, well I've just always been saved. I said, well
that's impossible. That means you've never been
lost. Who'd Christ come to save? His lost sheep. What he meant was, he brought
up in a Southern Baptist church and he was on the cradle row.
You know what that is. But you see, no, we're not born
saved. He says, there's none that seeketh after God. It doesn't
say there's none that seeketh after a God. The God. The God
of the Bible. They are all gone out of the
way. That is God's way. Christ is the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
by it. They're all together become unprofitable. There's none that
doeth good, no not one. That's good according to God's
standard. Now that's total depravity. And so what does it mean? Well
look down at verse 19. Now we know that what thing soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before
God. Therefore, by deeds of the law,
shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. For by the law is
the knowledge of sin. What is it to be justified? It
means to be cleared of all guilt. Not guilty! That's what justified
means. It means to be righteous in God's
sight. Declared righteous in God's sight.
Well, that doesn't come by deeds of the law. Now here's the point.
If you cannot save yourselves, if you cannot be justified and
make yourself cleared of all guilt and righteous before God
by your works, you know what you are by nature? Totally depraved. And the heart shows it. Having
been ruined by our fallen Adam, our whole beings have been so
affected by sin that we will not submit. to the God of the
Bible and to His way of salvation by grace in Christ Jesus our
Lord. So it means that our hearts are totally prepared.
Secondly, it means this. It means that salvation is a
heart work accomplished by the power and grace of God. First
of all, we cannot change our own hearts. We can act differently
We can reform outwardly. We can get religion. But when
it comes to these issues of salvation and how God saves sinners and
pleasing God and having communion with God, we can't change our
own hearts. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin? Can the leper change his spots? Then may you also do good
that are accustomed to do evil. Christ told the Pharisees, He
says, you encompass sea and land to gain one convert, and when
you get that convert, you haven't changed his heart, you just made
him two-fold more the child of hell than you are. He may be
religious now. He may be moral according to
the standard of the world. But he's no more right with God
than he was before. In fact, he's worse off. He's worse off. Job had a lot
to say about the book of Job. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Not one. Not one. So we cannot change our own hearts.
Secondly, it means this, in salvation, God must give us a new heart.
He's got to give us a new heart. Over in Jeremiah chapter 31,
Jeremiah is prophesying here of the new covenant. That's the
coming of Christ into the world, the anointing of the Spirit to
bring God's people into the fold. And he says this in Jeremiah
31, he says, He says, behold, verse 31, behold
the days come, saith the Lord, that I'll make a new covenant
with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah, not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that
I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
You know what, what happened there is, is what we learn from
the scripture is that those, that the majority of the Hebrews
that were taken out of Egypt and put into the wilderness,
they changed location, but their hearts weren't changed. And you see he says, which my
covenant they break, although I wasn't husband to them, saith
the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. Listen, I will put
my law in their inward parts and write it on their hearts.
Now there's the new heart. The new heart is a heart in which
the law of God is written. Now you know that's not physically
or literally, he's speaking metaphorically there. And what does that law
of God do? Hold on. He said, I'll be their
God, and they shall be my people. And then over in the book of
Ezekiel, chapter 36, he says in verse 26, he says, a new heart
also will I give you. And a new spirit will I put within
you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh,
and I will give you a heart of flesh. That's one that's bendable
and pliable. A new heart. What's he talking about here?
He's talking about what Christ told Nicodemus in John chapter
3. You must be born again. You see,
naturally, totally depraved. If you're going to be spiritual
with a new heart, you've got to be born again. Why? That which
is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the
spirit is spirit. Flesh cannot produce a new heart. It takes
the Spirit of God to give a new heart. Salvation includes a heart
work. Now listen, salvation includes
a work done outside of us. That's our redemption by the
blood of Christ. That's our justification by His
righteousness imputed. That has nothing to do with our
works. That's totally His. Listen, that doesn't even have
anything to do with our experience. You weren't even born yet. But it also includes a work done
within us by the Spirit, the new birth, regeneration, conversion,
spiritual life imparted, graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit
imparted, a new heart. And that new heart is described
in various ways in Scripture. And here's how we come to know
if our hearts have been purified. Now, love out of a pure heart. Do I have a pure heart? Well,
if the law of God has been written upon my heart, if I've been given
a new heart, listen to these descriptions. First of all, the
pure heart is one that is convinced of sin. When the law of God is
written on the heart of a sinner, what does it do? It shows me
that I'm a sinner and I cannot earn or deserve salvation. that if God were to give me what
I deserve and what I've earned, it would be eternal death and
damnation. Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, who would stand? So the pure heart is a convicted
heart, convicted of sin. To know my guilt and my depravity,
Lord, I'm nothing. I have nothing in my hand to
bring you, to recommend me unto you. My best is not good enough. My best can only send me to hell
if I present that to God. That's a pure heart. That's a
new heart. We're cleansed by the blood of
Christ, not by our works and our efforts and our intentions.
God forbid, Paul wrote, that I should glory save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then the pure heart is the
circumcised heart. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
9. Let me show you this. Hebrews chapter 9. It's the circumcised
heart. Paul wrote about that in Romans
2. When he spoke of the heart that's been spiritually circumcised. But I want you to turn to Hebrews
9. And listen to this. Verse 14. He's comparing it with
the old covenant law and the blood of bulls and goats. He
says in verse 14, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God,
purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? What's he talking about? That's
the circumcised hawk. You know what circumcision was?
It was the cutting away of the filth of the flesh. The heart
that is circumcised sees this, that nothing of the flesh can
save him, keep him, or recommend him unto God. All my works aimed
at saving myself or keeping myself saved or making myself righteous
are dead works. I repent of those things. So
the new heart, the pure heart, is the heart of repentance. It's
the broken and contrite heart. Turn to Matthew 5 that brother
Joe read. This passage here really describes
the pure heart. It says in verse 8 of Matthew
5, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Well
look at verse 3, Matthew 5. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of God. The pure heart is the one
poor in spirit. Sees our spiritual poverty, take
sides with God against ourselves, sees that we have nothing to
recommend us unto God. He says in verse 4, blessed are
they that mourn. There's the convicted heart,
there's the repentant heart, there's the broken, contrite
heart. Mourn over sin, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are
the meek, that's the submissive heart. Lord, thy way is the only
right way. Christ said, I'm the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. That's what meekness is. It's not weakness. They shall
inherit the earth. It's submission to God's way
of salvation. And God's Word. Submission to
His righteousness imputed as my only righteousness before
God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Blessed
are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness. For they
shall be filled. We find it only in Christ. The
pure heart. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit. And a broken and a contrite The
pure heart is the heart that's been cleansed by the blood of
Christ. That's what it is. Even from the impure thoughts
that we have. Even from the sinful motives
that we have. The pure heart is the heart of
faith that looks to and rests in Christ continually for all
salvation. For all forgiveness. For all
righteousness. For all eternal life. and glory. That's the pure heart. Love out
of a pure heart is what he's speaking about.