evening. Let's look in our Bibles
to Ezekiel chapter 36. I've been thinking a lot about
Lydia, whose heart the Lord had opened and what it means to have
your heart opened and what it means to have a new heart. And
I've titled the message tonight, A New Heart. And that title comes
from this passage of Scripture in God's Word. Ezekiel chapter
36, beginning of verse 24. For I will take you from among
the heathen and gather you out of all the countries, and I will
bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and you shall be clean. from all your filthiness and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. 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 an
heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause
you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and
do them and you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your
fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
I will also save you from all of your uncleanness, and I will
call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you,
and I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase
of the field, that you shall receive no more
reproach of famine among the heathen. shall you remember your
own evil ways and your doings that were not good, and shall
loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and
for your ambitions, abominations. Not for your sake do I do this,
saith the Lord God, being known unto you, be ashamed and confounded
of your own ways, O house of Israel. Let's pray together. our merciful
heavenly Father. We take great hope and comfort
in the promises of your word, taking us out among our own people
and making us to be thine. Lord, taking out that heart of
stone and putting in a heart of flesh, changing us, giving
us a new will and affection and new understanding and clear conscience
as we are able by your grace and through the gift of faith
to look to the Lord Jesus Christ for the hope of all our salvation.
Lord, we have nothing that we can do in the power of our flesh
or our will or determination to accomplish this great new
birth, this great change. And we look to you and for your
mercy, for your power and for your strength. Cause us, Lord,
to be willing and to look in faith to thy dear son, our Savior. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. Let's stand together again and
we'll sing hymn number 352 in the hardbacked hymnal, number
352. Jesus, mother of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly, while the nearer waters roll, while the
tempest still is high. Find me, O my Savior, ? Till the storm of life is past
? ? Safe into the haven kind ? ? O receive my soul at last
? ? Other refuge have I none ? ? Hangs my helpless soul on
thee ? He will lead me not alone, still support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is staid,
all my help from Thee I bring. ? Cover my defenseless head ? ?
With the shadow of thy flame ? ? Thou, O Christ, art all I
want ? ? More than all in need I find ? ? Raise the fallen,
cheer the faint ? ? Heal the sick and needy ? Just and holy is thy name. High thou hold on righteousness. False and full of sin I am. Thou art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, They can keep me cool. Please be seated. A new heart. Every believer desires
to be a man after God's own heart. We want to love the things that
he loves and hate the things that he hates. If we're to have
the heart of God, God's going to have to give it to us. He's
the one who has the keys of David, and he's the only one that's
able to open that which no man can shut. He's the one that has
to, as we just read in Ezekiel 36, take out our natural, cold,
lifeless heart of stone and give us a living, warm, beating heart
of flesh. And when we've tasted of His
grace and of His goodness, we want more of that. because we
see more and more of the coldness of our hearts. We see more and
more of the fleshly desires of our hearts, and we grieve over
our sin, and we are always crying, Lord, give me a new heart. Give me that heart of grace.
Give me that heart of love. Give me that heart of faith.
That's what He promised to do. And the hope that we have that
he will do it is that we stand on the surety of his promises. God is faithful to his promises. And so he's given us his word.
This is the ground on which we stand. This is the hope that
we have when we come before him for this new heart, that he's
promised to do it. Not because of something that
he sees in us, not because of the sincerity of our prayers
or the desperation of our situation. We just read it in Ezekiel 36.
I do this not for your sake. In other words, I'm not doing
it because I see something in you that warrants this blessing,
but I'm doing it for my name's sake. I promised it. And to uphold
the glory of my name, I'm going to do this. And so we come before
the Lord, Lord, for Christ's sake, for your glory and for
the hope of my salvation. Lord, give me that heart. Give
me that heart of flesh, a beating heart, a living heart. I'm reminded
of what the Lord said to the church in Ephesus over there
in Revelation chapter two, when he commended them for all the
things that they had done. And then he said, but I have
someone against thee. Thou hast left thy first love. Remember from whence thou art
fallen and do the first works. Oh, what a, what a, A thrilling,
exciting blessing it is when the Lord first gives you that
new heart and he gives you a knowledge of Christ and an understanding
of your own. It causes you to say what Ezekiel
said, you will loathe yourself. There's a big difference between
knowing the doctrine of total depravity and being made totally
depraved. And when the Lord makes you totally
depraved, when he makes you to be a sinner, you realize that,
Lord, behold, I am vile. There is nothing in me, Lord.
I've got to have Christ. And Lord, it's going to have
to be by your grace. You can't do this for my name's
sake. You're going to have to do it for Christ's sake. And
this is the blessing, this is the new heart that the Lord has
promised. Listen to what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed
away, yea, all things are become new and all things are of God
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. preaching of the gospel is the
ministry of reconciliation. We need to be reconciled to God,
and when he reconciles us to himself, he gives us the new
heart, and he makes all things new. Everything's different. What we believe is different.
How we feel is different. What we desire is different. Now, I'm not suggesting that
we do what the self-righteous religionist does when he gives
all of his attention on the things that he's not doing anymore,
like he used to do, and finding the hope of his salvation in
that, or that he's doing things he didn't used to do, and that's
the evidence that he's a Christian. No, the Lord, this is a matter
of the heart. This isn't just a matter of looking
at my behavior and seeing that I'm, I'm, I'm doing. Matter of
fact, if you listen to the testimony of those people and they tell
you about all the things they used to do that they're not doing
anymore, you almost get the idea that they, that they miss them.
You know, they, they wish they could go back and do them some
more. Uh, that's not the heart of the believer. That's not the
new heart. That's just, that's just washing
the outside of the cup. That's a sepulcher that's been
whitened on the outside, but it's full of dead man's bones.
The heart is a matter of the affections and the conscience
and the will and the intellect. It's who we are. That's what
this heart is, and that's what the Lord promised to do. If any
man be in Christ, he's a new creature. He's got a new heart.
I've taken out his heart of stone. I put in a heart of flesh. And
here's the other hope that we have, brethren. If he does that,
there's no reversing it. There's no changing it. When
the Lord calls you out of darkness into his marvelous light and
reveals the glory of Christ to you and gives you a love for
Christ, love for his gospel and for his people and for his his
word and for worship and hatred for your own sin and you you
really do loathe yourself you you see the the the sin that
remains in your old man and you and you find yourself always
coming to him saying oh lord return them to me my first love
um give me give me that heart A heart of flesh. Turn with me
to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. What is the
means that the Lord uses? We looked at the first part of
Hebrews chapter 4 Sunday morning in reference to the Lord Jesus
Christ himself being our Sabbath, being our rest. He has finished
the work. And we find the hope of our salvation
in his accomplished work of redemption. But I want you to start with
me in verse 12, if you will. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12.
For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than
any two-edged sword, piercing even the dividing asunder of
soul and spirit and of the joints of the marrow, and is a discerner
of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Here's the means
by which the Lord gives us this new heart. He reveals the intents
of our hearts. He shows us how self-righteous
and how sinful we are and how wicked our flesh is and our thoughts
are and how his thoughts are not our thoughts. He uses the
Word of God. It's the sword. It's a two-edged
sword. It cuts. and it heals. Look at verse 13. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of him with whom we must do. He sees everything. Did not the Lord say to Samuel
when he was looking at Jesse's sons to find a king? The Lord
said, oh no, man looks at the outward appearance, Samuel. Don't
be looking at Jesse's stalwart, kingly looking boys. There's
a little boy out in the yard there that's taking care of the
sheep. He's the man after my own heart. For man looks at the
outward appearance, God's looking at the heart. And when he looks
at the heart of his children and he sees the faith that he
has put there, and he's pleased, he's pleased with his work. Look
what he says, seeing then that we have a great high priest that
is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold our
profession. What is our profession? Lord,
I look at my heart, I see so many wicked thoughts and so many,
so much unbelief. But I have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, and I hold to that profession
that it is finished and that you have promised to give me
a new heart. I wouldn't loathe myself. I wouldn't have a love
for Christ. I wouldn't have an interest in
the salvation of my soul if it wasn't for your work of grace
in my heart. Lord, keep working in my heart.
Look at verse 14, 15. For we have not a high priest
that cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmity, but
was in all points tempted even as we are yet without sin. Oh,
when the Lord Jesus Christ bore in his body all of the sins of
all of God's people, he knew the shame and the guilt and the
sorrow for sin the fear of separation from the Father, all infinitely
more than you and I have ever experienced. That's what our
Lord's saying here. I understand your infirmities.
I bore them all. You only see the tip of the iceberg. I see everything that's about
you. And I bore them and put them
away by the sacrifice of myself. Let us, therefore, come boldly
before the throne of grace." And as I've reminded you many
times, that word boldly doesn't mean with cockiness or with a
nonchalant, presumptuous attitude. David said, Lord, forgive me
my presumptuous sin. We never presume upon God. It
means to come with confidence. Confident in what? Confident
that the Lord Jesus Christ has done everything that God requires
in order for me to come into the presence of a holy God. And
so it's a throne of grace. It's a throne of grace. Come
into the throne of grace that you might obtain mercy and find
grace to help in your time of need. So the means that the Lord
uses to give us this new heart is the preaching of the gospel.
What did Peter say? Peter said that the word of God
does not pass away, and then he went on to say, and this is
the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. If the
gospel of God's free grace and the glorious person and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ is not being preached, God's
word's not being preached. You can do Bible studies and
historical studies and theological debates all you want using the
Bible, but you haven't studied the word of God unless you've
looked to Christ. That's in the volume of the book
it is written of me. Look at, you remember, When Peter
preached on the day of Pentecost, there in Acts chapter 2, the
scripture says, and they were cut to the heart and cried, men
and brethren, what shall we do? God did a work of grace in the
heart. Religion is all about You know,
putting patches on holy garments and putting new wine and old
wineskins and dressing up the outside. And because why? Because
it's only interested in impressing men. It's not interested in impressing
God. In order to be able to come boldly
before the throne of grace, God has to do a work in the heart.
In the heart. That's the new birth. And it's
a continual work. If he's done it once, he's going
to keep doing it. And so we, we never get beyond
that. Lord, Lord, you speak to my heart. Don't let me, you remember the
parable. Here's the believers plight. How many times have you,
have you been spoken to by the word of God and 15 minutes after
the service in conversation with somebody, you can't remember
what it was. And what are you reminded of? Yeah, I would say
what I'm reminded of. God says that when he gave the
parable of the four soils and he said some of the seed will
fall on the wayside soil and And the birds of the air will
come pluck it away and take it right out of their heart. Oh,
Lord, don't let that happen to me. I can see the potential for
that in my own life. Lord, I need you to plow the
furrows of my heart and plant seeds that will grow. And you
see, this is always the believer's prayer is the point I'm trying
to make. We never get beyond our need for God to do a work
of grace in our hearts. We get so concerned with outward
appearances and outward behavior and outward things. Lord, you've
got to change my heart. They were cut to the heart. Paul said in Hebrews chapter
13, verse 9, the heart must be established with grace. With
grace. Who's grace for? Grace is for
sinners. Grace is for those who can't find anything in their
own heart to offer up to God, unless God puts it there. That's
who grace is for. And scripture says our hearts
must be established with grace. Turn with me to Proverbs chapter
16, verse one. Proverbs 16, verse one. You know, I think the other thing
the Lord is telling us is God speaks to the heart. You
bow. You know, no place in the Bible
does God say, well, you know, you just need to go home and
think about that. Or, you know, work that out a little bit and
process it. And, you know, maybe in time,
something will know that the command has come, isn't it? come. Today is the day of salvation.
Now is the acceptable time. And so the Lord is always calling
us. And when God speaks, the new heart bows and rejoices and
delights in the blessings that God has given. You have your
Bibles open to Proverbs 16 verse 1. The preparation of the heart
in man and the answer of the tongue. is from the Lord. It's from the Lord. Everything
that the Lord prepares in the heart, conviction of sin, faith
in Christ, belief in his word. These are
the preparations of the heart. And the confession of the tongue. Robert, you brought this up Sunday
morning after the message. You said, you know, you reminded
me of that passage in Romans where it said, if you believe
in your heart and confess with your mouth, you know, that those
are both of the Lord. The preparation of the heart
and the answer of the tongue is both from God. And so we,
this is not something that if it's from God, then where does
that put us? It puts us in needing it from
him. Lord, you're going to have to prepare my heart and you're
going to have to, you're going to have to give me a proper response
to the gospel. This is all from the Lord. Scripture says out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So we find out what's in a man's
heart. The Lord said a good tree cannot
bring forth bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bring forth good
fruit. And so by your words, you shall be justified. And by
your words, you shall be condemned. In other words, what God puts
in the heart comes out of the mouth. What does God put in the
heart of his people? Christ is all, it is finished. I'm in need of grace. Salvation
is of the Lord. It's all of Him. That's the new
heart. And the mouth speaks from what's
in the heart. What is the heart? we were speaking physically,
we would be talking about that muscle pumping in your chest
that's circulating blood through every cell of your body. But
that's not what we're talking about, is it? We're talking about
our intellect, and our affections, and our conscience, and our will,
and just like the physical heart pumps that life-giving blood
to every cell in the body, so the spiritual heart that God
gives, when he gives a heart of flesh, a warm, living, loving
heart, it affects every part of our body. That's why Paul
said, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. All old
things are passed away, everything has become new. Why? Because
the heart's been changed. heart's been changed now does
that mean we don't we don't struggle with some of the same old sins
we had before the lord changed our hearts no but it means we've
got a whole different look and a whole different view of them
doesn't it we loathe them we We, we find our, our, our flesh
wrestling against our spirit and spirit against our flesh.
Whereas before we just, we were, we were just all flesh. We didn't
have a, we didn't have a new heart. It was no conflict before. We say things like, I love you
with all of my heart. Well, we know what that means.
All my being. or put your whole heart into
it. You know, don't be, don't be halfway about it. We know
what that means. We say, or if we say to somebody,
oh, that rejoices my heart. I got a, I got an email this
afternoon and I just was rejoicing, just delighting that the Lord
was doing a work of grace in someone's life. And my heart
was so full. And then we, We say, well, that
hurts my heart. I'm really grieved over that
in my heart. We're not talking about that
muscle in our chest. We're talking about our whole
being. That's who we are. The Lord says he opened Lydia's
heart. He gave her a new heart. Now
I'm going to take out their heart of stone and put in a heart of
flesh. When the Lord opens the heart, he, He changes our understanding. He changes our desires. He changes
our conscience, our will. Turn with me to 1 John chapter
3. 1 John chapter 3. You know, I was talking to somebody
today, and we were talking about how politicians and preachers
have a lot in common. in that they use fear to control
the masses. And that's, you know, that's
what religion's all about. And we see it happening now,
you know, with this pandemic thing, you know, it's that we
can keep people controlled with fear and intimidation. This is where the Lord has given
us a new heart. Look at, we're not, Perfect love, the scripture says,
casteth out fear. So what do we have to be afraid
of? We fear not the wrath of God. That's been extinguished. That's been poured out in the
full bowl of its fury on the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's
cross. We know that we're sinful. We
know that everything we think and everything we do is tainted
with our fleshly sin. But with the new heart and the
new man, we know that we have a perfection before God in Christ
that's without reproach. It's perfect. As he is, so are
we. And so there's, if God before
me, who can be against me? So there needs not be any, there
need not be any fear in the heart of the believer in terms of his,
we're drawn by, by this heart to, to come into the very presence
of God. And look what, look what the
Lord tells us in first John chapter three. And I'll begin reading
in verse 18, my little children, let not Let us not love in word,
neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know
that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before
him. For if our hearts condemn us,
God is greater than our hearts and he knoweth all things. But if our hearts condemn us
not, then we have confidence towards God. You see, whether
our hearts condemn us, God knows everything, and He's got everything
already established perfect in Christ. And if our hearts condemn
us not, then we have some confidence. But here's our hope. Look with
me to Hebrews chapter 10. I think this will clear this
passage up. Hebrews chapter 10. This is the... Our hearts condemn us because
we're not doing or being what we ought to be doing. The Lord
knows, and he knows how to correct his children, doesn't he? And
he brings us back into that confident union with him. But look here
what, look here, Hebrews chapter 10, verse one, for the law having
a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the
things can never with those sacrifices, which they offered year by year,
continually make the comers unto perfect. So nothing that I do
and no, no offering that I bring can, can make me perfect before
God. For then would they not have
ceased to be offered? Because that the worshipers once
purged should have had no more conscience of sin. Now you see
where this is going. But in those sacrifices, there
is a remembrance again made of sins every year. What's the law
do? The law just remembers sin. That's all it does. We've got to have our conscience
purged of sin. How is that going to be? For
it is not possible, verse four, that the blood of bulls and goats
should take away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith, sacrifice and offerings thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared me, in burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou had no pleasure. Then said I, lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God,
Above, when he said, Sacrifice and offerings and burnt offerings
and offerings for sin, thou wouldest not, neither hadst thou pleasure
therein, which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I
come to do thy will. O God, he had taken away the
first, that he may establish the second, by the which will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once and for all. made holy and perfect. Peter says it like this in 1
Peter 3, he says, we have the answer of a good conscience toward
God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Not because we're without
guilt or without sin, but because the Lord Jesus Christ has put
that sin away, how can my conscience be clear only if I have no sin? And so we have a clear conscience
towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He goes on to say, who has gone
into the heavens and is seated at the right hand of God. We
have an advocate. My little children, I write these
things unto you that you sin not, but if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.
We have a righteousness before God. This is the new heart. And the new heart leaps for joy
to hear that. Because our conscience is always
condemning us until we're able, through faith, to look to Christ
and be able to say, if God be for me, who can be against me? This matter of the heart is the
conscience. It's the intellect. I suppose the most intelligent
man who ever lived in the Old Testament was Moses. He was educated, as good as you
could get. Very capable man. And yet, what
did the Lord have to do? Send him on the backside of the
desert, the scripture says, to tend sheep for 40 years. to humble
him. And when the Lord called him
out, what Moses say, Lord, who am I? I can't speak. 40 years before he was trying
to take charge, wasn't he? He was trying to do it himself,
but now he's been humbled. Why? Because God's giving him
a new heart. The apostle Paul in the new Testament. I just can't imagine the intellect
that this man had. And yet, what did he say? I've
determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
him crucified. And those things which I thought
were gain, I now count loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus, my Lord. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination to God. What is highly esteemed
among men? One of the things that's highly esteemed among
men is superior intellect. And men love to intimidate one
another with that, don't they? And yet, no matter how intelligent
a person is, they can never come to the understanding of the gospel
apart from a work of grace in the heart. God has to open the
eyes of our understanding. Intelligence will never understand
depravity. Intelligence will never understand
justice and holiness, righteousness, sanctification, election, and
redemption. These are the mysteries of the
gospel that are hid from them. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit, for they are spiritually discerned,
neither can he know them. person can can have incredible
intellect you know you've met people that most people I meet
are a lot more intelligent than me but they don't you know they
don't know anything you talk to them and and this is one of
the problems I have with the whole reformed movement as well
Oh intellect is highly esteemed among our our reformed friends
aren't they isn't it and they they love to compete and intimidate
one another with their intellectual achievements. And you talk to
them. We had some here Sunday. You
talk to them and just in a few minutes you realize you don't
know anything. You really don't know anything.
And you're not impressing me. God gives you a heart, you discern
those things. And you realize that what men
try to impress one another with and intimidate one another with
is just... The new heart is the only hope
that a man has to have any understanding at all of the gospel. God has
to do that. The smartest people in the world
can't come to those conclusions. Don't you love it when the disciples
were drug in before the Sanhedrin and they marveled that these
were ignorant and unlearned men, but they took notice of them
that they had been with Jesus. Where does this boldness come
from? Where does this confidence come from? Where does this understanding
of scripture come from? They've not been to our rabbinical
schools. They don't have our credentials. They had been with
Jesus and he had given them a new heart. They had some understanding
of the gospel. That's what the new heart does.
It changes the intellect. And it causes us to count as
dung those things that we once prided ourselves in. and realize
the only thing I know is that which God's taught me in the
new heart. The new heart. It does. It does
change the intellect. These things are hid from the
natural man. The gospel is a mystery. the absolute sovereignty of God. Listened to some people on TV
the other day debating where good and evil comes from. And
they're obviously very intelligent people. They didn't have a clue. And I wanted to, if I could have
jumped in the TV and told them, I wanted to. Look at, turn with
me to Isaiah chapter 40. You ever do that? God's given
you a heart of understanding. You see the foolishness of religion
and you see the foolishness of man trying to explain things
and trying to understand things. He cannot bow. He does not believe
that God is absolutely sovereign and in control of all things.
He doesn't believe that. He thinks only those things which
are easy for me must come from God, and the things that are
hard comes from somewhere else. What does God say about that?
Isaiah chapter 40. Where is the verse that I'm looking
for? God created evil. Well, you know it. The passage
that I thought was in Isaiah 40, perhaps I'm mistaken, but
he creates evil. He brings about the good. 45,
okay, I missed it, Isaiah 45, thank you. Yes, Isaiah 45, thank
you, Tom. Verse five, I am the Lord and
there is none else. There is no God beside me, I
girded thee, though thou hast not known me. that they may know
from the rising of the sun and from the West that there is none
beside me. I am the Lord and there is none
else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Has evil come to the city and
the Lord has not caused it? Our God is sovereign. Don't you
love that? Don't you love that? And he's working all things together
for good, for those who love him, those whom he's given a
new heart to. I form the light. I send darkness. I bring peace. I create evil.
Our God is in complete control. He's the first cause of all things.
We don't have any reason to be anxious about the things that
seem to be out of place. No, they're right where they're
supposed to be. Right where they're supposed
to be. Man cannot understand without
the new heart that Jesus Christ is fully God, absolutely sovereign,
successful Savior of sinners. Our surety, the fullness of the
Godhead bodily, all the attributes of God are in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and at the very same time, he is fully man. made in
the image of sinful flesh, burying in his fleshly body the sins
of his people, offering up himself as a sacrifice for sin. Men try
to explain it some other way. Well, you know, he was partly
God and partly man, or he was God here and man here. No, he
is fully God and fully man. The new heart just believes that.
The new heart believes everything that God says. There's our understanding. Our
understanding is what God has said. It's the word of God that's
sharper than any two-edged sword and able to discern the thoughts
and the intents of the heart. The new heart believes without
question that the Bible is the inerrant, inspired, infallible
word of God. Every word of it just believes
that. not threatened by anyone's question
about that or by any of his lack of understanding of what might
be said. We know that this is God's Word. We know that it's
all been given by inspiration of God. We know that every word
of it is profitable for doctrine and for reproof and for correction
and for instruction in righteousness that the man of God with a new
heart may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. O God, make
me a man after thine own heart. Lord, don't let me get caught
up in pretending to be religious when you've really not done anything
in my heart. Lord, give me a new heart. Change
my heart. Change my intellect. Change my
affections. The scripture says the Gentile,
when the Jews rejected the gospel, the Gentiles heard and were glad. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. That's the affections of the
heart. When God changes the heart and causes us to love the things
that we used to have no interest in. We're glad now. We rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord
always. And again, I say rejoice. Let
your gentleness be known unto all men. Why? Because the Lord
is at hand. The Lord is at hand. We believe
that. Why? Because He's given me a
heart of faith. He's given me a living, beating
heart that has changed my affections about things. It was a time when we had no
interest in the gospel. Now we can't live without it.
Our affections have changed. I've got to have Christ. The
time when the church was, you know, just a religious activity. Oh, now I've got to, I've got
to be there. I've got to hear the gospel.
Why? Because God's given me a heart for it. You've heard me say before,
if you don't want to come, don't come. We're not interested in
trying to manipulate people to do things they don't want to
do. God gives you a new heart. You'll come, you'll need to be
there and you'll want to give and you'll want to serve. And
these are the things of the new heart. It's a changed affections. There was a time when we did
not love God's law? That's right. What was the evidence that we
didn't love God's law? We thought that we were keeping
it or that we were doing our best to keep it. And that we,
in other words, we lowered the Holy standard of God's law down
to where we were. We, we profaned the law of God
by pretending to be able to keep God's law. Now we're able to
say with David, Lord, I love thy law. Thy law is Holy. Thy
law is just and thy law is good. It's perfect. Lord, I can't keep
it. Thank you. Thank you for the
law keeper. Thank you for the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's my, he's my delight. He's
my rejoicing. Oh, a good marriage is a, is a joyful
thing in Indiana. I was going to ask Robert, but,
uh, I should, I should say to Robert,
uh, you know, the affections grow deeper over years. They
really do. And, um, and, and it just becomes
more, more precious and you love one another more than you did
before. And how could that not be true? in the union that the bride of
Christ has with the Lord Jesus Christ being our perfect husband.
Oh, he is perfect. And we grow in grace and in the
knowledge of Christ, we learn more and more that we love him
because he first loved us. Peter, lovest thou me? Oh, Lord, you know that I do.
Feed my sheep. That's your motivation. Love
for God. Love is the principal thing.
It is the meat of the gospel. 1 Corinthians 13 says love never
fails. It never fails. If God's given
us a new heart and he's given us a love for Christ, that's
not gonna go away. I have somewhat against thee,
what the Lord said to that church in Ephesus, Thou hast left thy
first love. Repent and do those first works.
And that's how we're always repenting, aren't we? That's what the new
heart does. Repents of its fleshliness and
of its coldness, and it's always coming back. Lord, refresh the
love of Christ in my heart. Not only does the new heart change
the conscience and the affections, and the intellect, it changes
the will. It changes the will. I want to read a statement that
I wrote. If by free will, men mean they
are free to do whatever they will, I will take that even a
step farther and say you cannot do anything except that which
you will. Everybody does everything they
do because they willed to do it. You cannot act contrary to
your will. So if that's what you mean by
free will, that you're free to do whatever you will, I would
say yes. But if by free will, you mean
that you are free to will that which is contrary to your nature,
that's impossible. God does not have a free will. Not in that sense. He cannot
act contrary to his nature. He cannot deny his people. He
cannot change His word. He cannot lie. He cannot... Oh,
so many things our God can't do. Why? Because that's His nature. This
idea that I can will to do that which is contrary to my nature.
No, you can't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ because you're
dead in your trespasses and sins. God has to make us willing, doesn't
He? And that's what He does when He gives us a new heart. That
which we were unable to do before, now we will to do it. God doesn't,
he doesn't save his people against their will. He gives them a new
will. He makes them willing. You will
not come unto me that you might have life, for your deeds are
evil. And when God gives you a new
heart, you say, amen, my deeds are evil, I'm coming. I'm coming. So when the Lord gives us a new
heart, he changes our affections, he
changes our conscience, he changes our intellect, he changes our
will. He uses the means of his word
to reveal to us his dear son and causes us to find all our
hope in Christ. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, make us to be men and women after
thine own heart. Lord, make us willing. Give us
the love of Christ. Give us understanding of your
gospel and your word. And Lord, give us a a clear conscience
as we're able to look to our Lord seated at thy right hand
for all our righteousness before thee. For we ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. Number nine in the spiral hymnal.
Let's stand together.