Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 206. Hymn number 206. Wonderful
grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin. How shall my tongue describe
it? Where shall its praise begin? Taking away my burden, Setting
my spirit free For the wonderful grace of Jesus Reaches me Wonderful
the matchless grace of Jesus Deeper than the mighty rolling
sea Higher than the mountains, sparkling like a fountain All
sufficient grace to grieve and weep broader than the scope of
my transgression, greater far than all my sin and shame. O magnify the precious name of
Jesus, praise His name. Wonderful grace of Jesus, reaching
to all the lost. I, if I have been pardoned, saved
to the uttermost. Chains have been torn asunder
Giving me liberty For the wonderful grace of Jesus Reaches me Wonderful the matchless grace
of Jesus, Deeper than the mighty rolling sea, Higher than the
mountains, sparkling like a fountain, All-sufficient rest for even
me. broader than the scope of my
transgression, greater far than all my sin and shame. O magnify the precious name of
Jesus, praise His name. Wonderful grace of Jesus Reaching
the most defiled By its transforming power ? Making Him God's dear
child ? Purchasing peace and heaven ? For all eternity ? And
the wonderful grace of Jesus ? Reaching Wonderful the matchless grace
of Jesus Deeper than the mighty rolling sea Sparkling like a fountain, All
sufficient grace for you and me. Broader than the scope of
my transgression, Greater far than all thy sin and shame, Oh,
magnify the precious name of Jesus. Praise His name. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
176. 176. you Break thou the bread of life,
dear Lord, to me. As thou didst break the loaves
beside the sea, be on the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord. My spirit yearns for Thee, O
Living Word. Pass thou the truth, dear Lord,
to me, to me. Pass thou, disbless the bread,
my Galilee. Then shall all bondage cease,
all fetters fall, And I shall find my peace by all in all. Thou art the bread of life, O
Lord, to me. Thy holy word, the truth, had
saved me. Gave me to eat and live with
Thee alone. Teach me to love thy truth for
thou art love. O send Thy Spirit, Lord, now
unto me, that He may touch my eyes and make Show me the truth concealed within
thy word, and in thy book revealed, I seek the Lord. Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter
7. Start reading down in verse 14
to verse 23. And I'll start on Romans tonight.
Let me mention this. We got all the heavy tables. We got rid of them. They're out
here in this hallway, in the hallway and going into the kitchen.
If you want one of those tables, go get you one. And get you two
if you want them, if you need them. And they're heavy. You better have somebody help
you. But we're giving them all away, giving the heavy ones away. No chairs, just tables. No chairs, the chairs don't go
with them. All right, look in verse 14. And when he had called all the
people unto him, he said unto them, hearken unto me and every
one of you and understand, there is nothing from without a man
that entering into him can defile him. But the things which come
out of him, those are they which defile the man. And if any man
have ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was entered into
the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning
the parable. And he saith unto them, Are you
also without understanding? Do you not perceive that whatsoever
thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him,
because it not entereth into his heart, but into his belly,
and goeth out into the draft, purging all meats. And he said,
that which cometh out of the man, that defiles the man. From
within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,
fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit,
lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within
and defile the man. Lord, you're a blessing God.
so we come to bless you. You're God worthy to be praised,
so we come to praise you. You're God worthy to be glorified,
so we come together to worship and hopefully by your grace bring
all the glory to you. And Lord Jesus, we are a needy
people. We've gathered here with needs.
Needs of the heart, needs of the body, needs of the mind,
but especially needs of the soul. Oh Lord, meet with us today.
Come to us in power. Come to us in grace. Come to
us by the presence of the Holy Spirit. Oh Lord, leave us not
to ourselves. Leave us not to our own understanding,
not to our own will, not to our ways. But oh God, direct our
steps, direct our steps, lead us in the path of righteousness
forever and ever. Lord, we bring our children before
you and our sons and daughters, grandchildren, people in this
congregation that's never, ever clothed with you, never sought
you, said, Lord, I need you. So maybe this will be the day.
May this be the day, Lord, that you cause them to cry out from
their heart, Lord, I need you. I need you. I need you. Lord,
we thank you for your great and abundant mercy and grace. You've
given you people in this place through their trials, their tribulations,
their troubles, the frailties of their body. Lord, bring glory
to yourself, enable me to preach today to the good notification
of your dear people here. For Christ's sake I pray, amen. We'll stand together as we sing
the hymn of the day in the bulletin. It'll be to the first line of
the song. you. Sovereign ruler of the skies,
ever gracious, ever wise. All my times are in thy hand, all events at thy command. He that formed me in the womb
He shall guide me to the tomb All my time shall ever be Ordered
by His wise decree. Plagues and death around me fly,
Till he bids I cannot die. Not a single shaft can hit till
the God of worth sees fit. Be seated. you You know one thing that is a
blessing preaching through a particular book, you deal with all kinds
of subjects. And the words that I read to
you, the verses I read to you this morning, shows that man's
got a very horrible heart disease, a heart born of disease, born
with it, live with it if God doesn't intervene. But you remember
last week that they were upset with our Lord and His disciples
that they ate with their hands not being washed. They were afraid
that it would defile them. It was a tradition of the elders. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ,
you know, He said, You honor me with your lips. You got a
lot of things to say, but yet your heart, your heart is your
problem. Your heart's far from me. Your
heart doesn't worship me. You teach in vain. You don't
honor me with your lip. You honor me with your lip, but
your heart's far from me." And he goes on to talk about the
heart, the heart. And you know, when our Lord shows
us this, I don't know if you know what total depravity means
or not, but it means that a man is absolutely ruined with no
abilities whatsoever to do anything spiritually. That means a man's
corrupt inside and outside, he's dead in trespasses and sins.
He may not act as bad as he can, but he's as bad off as he can
possibly be in the God sight. That's what depravity means.
Adam, when he sinned, we all sinned in him. And we is born
wrong, and if God doesn't intervene, we'll die wrong. And here's where
the trouble lies. Look down here in verse 20. Here's
where the trouble lies. This is why our Lord's teaching
us this thing. He said, THAT WHICH COMETH OUT
OF THE MAN, THAT DEFILES THE MAN. FOR FROM WITHIN, OUT OF
THE HEART OF MEN. He said, OVER THERE YOUR HEARTS
ARE FAR FROM ME. FOR FROM WITHIN, OUT OF THE HEART
OF MEN, PROCEED EVIL THOUGHTS, ADULTERIES, FORNICATIONS, THEFTS,
MURDERS, COVETOUSNESS, WICKEDNESS, AND EVIL NIGHT, BLASPHEMY, PRIDE,
AND ALL THESE EVIL THINGS COME FROM WITHIN AND DEFILE THE MAN. Oh, they had criticized our Lord
for not following the traditions of the elders, not eating with
unwashed hands, but the issue wasn't hygiene, you know, staying
clean, but holiness, and our Lord exposed their holiness.
And then after He did that, He said in verse 14, and He called
all the people unto Him. All those folks that gathered
around there, He called them all unto Him, and He said unto
them, Listen to me. I've got something to say, and
I want you to listen to it. Hearken unto Me, hearken unto
Me, every one of you, and understand what I'm going to say. Understand. We just sung that song, Break
the Bread of Life, Lord, give me to understand Your Word. And He calls all the people unto
Him, and He says, and understand this, there's nothing FROM WITHOUT
A MAN THAT ENTERING INTO HIM CAN DEFILE HIM, BUT THE THINGS
WHICH COME OUT OF HIM, THOSE ARE THE THINGS THAT DEFILE HIM.
Now our Lord Jesus Christ shows us some things right here. He
shows us that salvation, He exposes these people, salvation is not
in touch not, taste not, handle not. It's not in things. It's not in what you touch, not
in what you taste, it's not in what you handle. Our Lord is
teaching us that here clearly. These fellas said, I ain't fixing
to eat nothing unless I wash my hands. But that was a subject
of holiness to them. And our Lord is teaching us here
that things, sin is not in things. I remember a preacher saying,
you know, I could take the word things and preach against anything
I wanted to preach against. But our Lord's teaching us here
that it's not preaching against things, it's not things, it's
sin. Sin's not in things. Sin's not
in things. Sin's not in alcohol. There's
not a thing in the world wrong with alcohol. Man abuses it.
There's not sin in alcohol. There's sins in the man. There's
not sin in tobacco. There's not sin in things. There's
not sin in dress codes. You know, wearing a bonnet on
your head and dressing in real dark clothes and all that. Sin's
not in dress codes. And that's what our Lord's teaching
us here. Sin's not in things that we're doing. I mean, God
gives us some wonderful blessings. wonderful blessings, and man
takes because of what he is, he turns around and makes it
to be sinful because of what s inside of him, what s inside
of him. Oh, my! And I tell you, if you
can do without alcohol, do it! If you can do without tobacco,
do it! But don t do them, but don t think because you don t
do these things, it s going to make you better off and give
you a better standing in the sight of God. It ain t going
to have a thing to do with your standing before God. If you never
touch a drop of, you know, Jimmy Swagger said this, he said, Cigarettes
never touched my lips, tobacco never touched my lips, alcohol
never touched my lips, and then they caught him running around
with a bunch of women. So that goes to show you sin
is not in THINGS. You can quit everything under
the sun, but your problem is not in what you do, the problem
is what you are. And that s what the scriptures
is teaching us right here. Oh my, don t think of anything
you stop doing. I remember years ago when you
know, when you first start in religion, I had long hair and
had a long beard. Oh my, I wore a big ponytail
and the first thing these folks told me when I wanted to get
religious, You got to cut that hair, you know, God won t, you
know, long hair is a sin. If that's so, you know, and then
it's, you know, long hairs, the women with long hairs, that's
their glory. They make sin to be in what you look like and
things you do. Clean up your act if you're gonna
come to the Lord. Oh my, clean up your act all
you want to, but that's not gonna help. That's not what our Lord's
talking about here. And then look what he says in
verse 16. He says, it's not that that comes
out of him that defile him. Things that he eats and things
that he does, that's not defile him. And then look what our Lord
said. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. You know
how many times our Lord made this statement? Six times. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. If you got ears to hear, where
you get hearing ears at? A lot of folks don't have hearing
ears. You know, hearing is a gift of
God. Do you know that? Hearing is
a gift of God. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing. And that's why our Lord said,
if you got ears, if you got ears, And that's what he's talking
about. If you got, if you got the ability to hear what I'm
saying, understand what I'm saying, that's what he's talking about.
A lot of folks don't have hearing ears and even believers, even
believers can be dull in hearing. They can really be dull in hearing.
You know, that's, I know that for a fact myself, but most,
you know, a lot of believers can be dull in hearing. Oh, folks
will come to service sometimes and say, Well, I didn't get anything
out of that, did you? I didn't get anything out of
that preaching. You know, it might not have been
the preaching, you know, it might have been your hearing. You might
have been the one that would have a hearing problem. I've
had hearing problems. You never listen to us, but you
know, you know. But anyway, we can be dull in
hearing. Every one of us have experienced
that. Every one of us experienced that dull of hearing. And all
my, God, we, let's pray. Pray, Lord, give me hearing ears.
Please give me hearing ears. Give me ears to hear what you
got to say. Oh, Lord, give me hearing ears.
Let me be like James said, let me be swift to hear, slow to
speak, slow to wrath. Oh Lord, give me ears, please
give me ears to hear the gospel. Give me ears to hear your voice.
Give me ears to hear your word. Give me hearing ears. Oh my. And I tell you, our Lord Jesus
Christ, when he told these fellas here, there's nothing from without
entering into a man that can defile him, that can defile him. But look what our Lord told him.
Look over in Matthew 15 with me. When our Lord told them people
this, you know, in Matthew 15 and verse 12, Look at it with
me over here, they were offended at him when this same thing happened
where he told them, you know, he told them there in verse 11,
he says, Not that which goeth into the mouth defiles the man,
but that which cometh out of the mouth, his defiles the man.
You know, and then look what happened here in verse 12. This
is what happened, the same thing. Then came his disciples and said
unto him, knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after
they heard this saying? He said, oh, listen, you fellas,
your problem is not what you're doing. They said, it's nothing
that comes in. And look what he said, the Pharisees
were offended after they heard this saying. But listen to how
our Lord answered them here. ever plant which my heavenly
Father hath not planted shall be rooted up." He went on just
a little further, you know why? He said, you know, and what's
ever planted my Father? Every one of God's elect, He
plants them. They understand that salvation's
by grace, salvation's by Christ, salvation's by the Lord and of
the Lord. And look what our Lord said about
them. Let them alone, just let them alone. Let them live like
they wanna live. Let them talk like they wanna
talk. Let them be hypocrites if they wanna be hypocrites.
Let them alone, they're blind leaders of the blind. And if
the blind lead the blind, they both gonna fall into the ditch.
They were offended because our Lord, what He did, He negated
everything that they trusted in. He said, Listen, you fellows
are worried about what's going in, what it goes into. But He
said, I'm telling you, it's not goes in that defiles Him, but
it's that that comes out of Him. oh, my! And I tell you, it takes
blindness. Now, listen to me, it takes a
blind man to believe you can be saved by doing things or not
doing things, by washings and by Sabbath days and church attendance
or anything else. A man s blind as a bat to think
he can be saved by what he does or doesn t do. by what he does. Now, you just can't do it. You
just can't do it. Can't be saved by not doing things
or doing things. And then look what it says in
verse 17, back over in our text. And when he was entered into
the house from the people, now he just made this statement to
the people. And he said, if you got ears to hear, and then they
entered into a house, It is just him and his disciples. Lord,
over in Matthews, it said Peter asked him. Peter being the spokesman
for the rest of them. But when he's into the house,
his disciples ask him, ask him. They're alone now. And they asked
him concerning the parable. They were alone, they asked him.
And he saith unto them, listen to this now. He saith unto them,
Are you so without understanding also? Are you without understanding? This reminds us of how the understanding
of the disciples, even with the Lord Jesus Christ and the donated
disciples, they're asking Him, What in the world was you talking
about? That's what they're asking Him. These are fellows that's
walking with the Lord. And that just goes to show you,
remember when, oh, look over in Matthew 6, 51, 52. Just look back over here, not
Matthew, not Matthew, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, I'm sorry.
Don't rush. Oh, boy. And look what it says. And when he went up into the
ship, remember he was walking on the water, and he went up
into the ship, and the wind ceased, and they were so amazed in themselves
beyond measure. And listen to this now. for they
considered not the miracle of the loaves, for the heart was
hardened." These disciples lacked understanding. They just didn't
understand. So much stuff they didn't understand.
What are you talking about? What are you talking about concerning
this parable? They didn't understand. He said,
Are you without understanding? Are you also without understanding?
Nothing from without ending a man can defile him. That's what our
Lord said. Do you not perceive? that whatsoever
thing without entereth into the man cannot defile him? Are you
without understanding about that? Don't you perceive that? Oh my,
do you perceive that? And he said, oh my. He said, you know why you don't
perceive? Because you're already defiled. And then he goes on
to say this, because it not entereth into the belly, because it not
entereth into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out
into the draught, purging all meat." He says, you know why
you're not without understanding? Because you're already defiled.
You know, whatever a man eats, it don't enter into his heart.
It don't enter into his heart. It goes into his belly, goes
into his gut, goes into his, and it goes out into the sewer,
goes out into the commode, goes out into the toilet, And that's
what our Lord's talking about here. Whatever you eat, it ain't
gonna bother, it don't get in your heart. It don't enter into
your heart. And that's what people's doing.
Nothing, you know, Paul said, nothing is unclean of itself.
Everything's to be received with thanksgiving from God. And you
know, when Peter, remember when Simon Peter was told to go over
and preach to Cornelius? And that sheet was let down.
He said, Oh, Lord, I can't go to a Gentile's house. I just
can't do it. And I, Lord, let down that sheet
three different times. And there was all manner of four-footed
beast and creeping things in there. And the Lord said, Arise,
Peter, slay and eat. And he said, Oh, nothing unclean's
ever touched my lips. There you go. Nothing unclean's
never entered my lips. Talking about what he eats, nothing
unclean's ever in my lips. And every time he said, what
God hath cleansed, not coal, not carbon, everything's good
to be received with thanksgiving. And that's what he's telling
about. Everything's clean of itself. But the problem, the
problem is in the heart. The problem's in the man. This
is the problem that comes out of man that defiles them. And
that's what he says, because it enters it not into the heart,
but into the belly. And that, and it said in verse
20, he said, that which cometh out of the man that defiles the
man. Now, let me put this problem
to you. Let me just ask you if you do
this. Take a man, put him in a perfect environment, put him
in the right environment. Put him in a place where he cannot
be tempted, where he cannot be enticed. Remove all bad influences from
him. Don't give him nothing to look
at, don't give him any books to read, don't give him anything.
Just put him someplace where there ain't nothing but wholesome
influence and surroundings. What do you think he'd do? What
do you think he'd be? And every one of you has raised
your children like that. Well, that fixed the problem,
putting him in the right environment, taking away everything, take
away all bad influences, put him in a place where there's
no temptation, there's nothing to tempt him, nothing to entice
him. Huh? PUT HIM IN WHOLESOME INFLUENCES
AND SURROUNDINGS? WILL THAT FIX THE PROBLEM? NO. NO, THE PROBLEMS IN HIS HEART. AND OUR GREATEST PROBLEM IS FOR
FROM WITHIN, VERSE 21, OUT OF THE HEART, PROCEED. NOW, LET
ME ASK YOU SOMETHING. OUR GREATEST PROBLEM, AND YOU
AND I HAVE, IS WITHIN US RIGHT NOW, FROM WITHIN, OUT OF THE
HEART OF MEN, There in verse 24, thou the heart of man. Well,
what does our Lord mean by the heart? What does our Lord mean
by the heart? You hear people say all the time,
trust your heart. I'm gonna follow my heart. Do
you know how many people's gotten trouble following their heart?
Trust your heart. Follow your own heart. Do what
your heart tells you to do. The scripture says only a fool,
only a fool trusts his own heart, only a fool. You know where the
first time heart is mentioned? The first time that God mentions
the heart. You know where it's at? Genesis
6, 5. God looked down and he saw that
the thoughts of the heart of man was only evil continually. First time he mentioned the heart.
And that, he looked down and the thoughts of every heart is continually evil. Not just
every once in a while, continually, continually, continually. That's the first mention of the
heart. The heart is the place of thoughts. THE HEART DEALS WITH THE WHOLE
MAN, HIS MIND, HIS INTELLECT, HIS WILL, HIS DESIRES, HIS AFFECTIONS. And do you know what Jeremiah
said about the heart? THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE
ALL THINGS, AND DESPERATELY WICKED. And the next word says, WHO CAN
KNOW IT? You say, am I that bad? Am I
really that bad? Have I got a heart like that? My heart, I'm gonna confess something
to you, my heart has deceived me countless times. How do I know? because I'll go
to great, great lengths to justify myself, to vindicate myself,
to clear myself of any wrongdoing. You don't do that, do you? Huh? Has your heart ever deceived
you? I've listened. Oh, how at length we
go to justify ourselves, to vindicate ourselves, to clear ourselves
of wrongdoing. But am I that bad? Yes, yes,
and yes. Ecclesiastes 8.11 says this,
I used to quote this all the time, it says, Because judgment
against an evil work is not executed, continually said in the hearts
of men to do evil because God people say if God's against me
doing that let him strike me dead right now because you don't
strike it dead they just go worse and worse and worse if God didn't
want me to do that he'd keep me from it hmm but oh my look what he says Oh, and verse 21, from within
out of the heart, out of the heart, it says proceeds, proceed. What does that proceed means?
It means it comes forth, it flows out of, it comes from, out of,
flows out of. Now let me ask you this, if I'd
have said at the very beginning, If I'd ask you right at the outset
of this message this morning, how would you describe, what
would be the sin that you think's the most awful sin that a person
commit? If I'd start out this morning
and I'd ask you, what's the worst sin you think a person, what's
the number one sin that you think people commit? That the number
one sin that you think man's guilty of? Well, our Lord gives 13, 13 different sins right here in
this, and you know what the first one is? Evil thoughts. Evil thoughts, that's what they're
accused of in Genesis. What's an evil thought? Well,
an evil thought is when you think bad of someone. An evil thought
is towards a person, towards a place, towards something that
you dislike very, very much, evil thoughts, evil thoughts. You can have evil thought against
a lot of things and a lot of people and a lot of different
things in this world, evil thoughts. That's the first thing. Nobody
would have thought, boy, an evil thought. He would have thought,
man, here's the first thing he would have told people about
is this. Well, you better stop this, you better stop that, better
stop something else. No, but he said the first thing
he thought, people's got evil thoughts. Evil thoughts. You say, well, I'm not like that.
Okay. All right. I won t say nothing
about it, but look what else he says here, adulteries, adulteries. You know what adultery is? It s being unfaithful to the
marriage covenant. We entered into a covenant between
God Almighty when we got married, and a covenant, and adultery
is is being unfaithful to the marriage
covenant, being unfaithful to it. Being unfaithful, I think
to me now, this is just my opinion, I'm gonna quit preaching and
tell you what I think. I think that adultery or cheating on your husband or on
your wife is the greatest betrayal other than betraying Christ that
anybody can do. I think it s the greatest betrayal. And oh, look what else he goes
on to say now, not only adultery but fornication,
fornication. That s sex outside of marriage,
fornication, and never mind. Look what else he says, murders, Well, how can a person, a believer,
how can anybody commit murder? Well, you can murder a man's
reputation, murder a man's character, and there is times when you,
if a man could get his hands on somebody, I think, I think
almost sometimes somebody would murder somebody if they got upset
enough at them. I really do. Murderers, murderers,
there's murderers everywhere now. Every day you hear somebody
shooting a whole bunch of people murders murderers murderers That's
one of the signs of the last days murderers murderers And
oh my then look what he says not only murders Murders oh Don't
never murder somebody You know how gossip starts with you, you
know how rumors stop with you and That's how they stop. And that's
what he's talking about here. You know, he says, you know,
fornication, murders, and then thefts, thefts. There's lots
of ways to steal from a man. Lots of ways to steal from a
man. If you charge him more than something's worth, if you buy
something for a dollar and you charge somebody $5 for it, you
stole off of him. You've robbed him. And I'll tell
you another thing, too. If you lay your hands on the
scale, and this is another thing God said, adjust scale, adjust
weight. And if you lay your hand on the
scale, whenever you're measuring somebody out something to eat
or some meat or something else, and you put your hand on the
scale to give it an extra half a pound or half a quarter of
a pound, you stole from that fella. You stole from him. And
I tell you, thefts, and to go into a store and steal something,
and shoplift, that's thefts. You know, I took a person one
time, I'm gonna tell you, I took a person one time and bought
them all, bought them and took them in the store and bought
them all the groceries they wanted. Everything they wanted, I mean,
filled up carts and went out to pay for it. Paid for it and
went out to help load up the car for him. And here comes the
manager out. Started going through everything,
going through her. Said, why? And she stole something
while I was in there. Stole something, the manager
called her. Said, don't you ever come back in here again. This
fella bought all your groceries and you are stealing. And they didn't even bash them,
just gave them back. Huh? Where'd that come from? She stole because it's in her
heart. Alright, let me go on to the next one. Cubbishness. Cubbishness. What's Cubbishness?
Avarice. Greed. Oh my. Greed. Cubbishness. Avarice. Greed. And then look what he
said, an evil eye. How do you give somebody an evil
eye? Look at them mean. Look at them
angry. You know, kids used to, their
mom all had to do was just look at them. They'd stop doing whatever
they was doing. Giving them an evil eye. But
them evil eyes is long gone. But I tell you what, you give
somebody an evil eye. I can't hardly do it. If I do
it, I don't know I'm doing it. But you'll know if I'm doing
it. Is that right? You ever give your boss an evil
eye? But on evil, I'm not trying to
make light of it, but I mean it's, and then look what he says,
blasphemy. Blasphemy. Blasphemy. Slanderous speech. Slanderous speech toward God. Slanderous speech toward man.
Oh, my. And oh, it goes on to say in
pride, pride. Pride groweth before destruction,
haughty spirit. Man's born with pride. It's as
natural to him as anything that he's ever had. Pride and self-righteousness
is just as natural to a man as anything ever. And then foolishness,
foolishness, thoughtlessness, senseless, recklessness. That's
foolishness, thoughtless, senseless, recklessness. And then he goes
on to say deceit. Deceit, that means to lie, that
means to manipulate, that means to make things come out better
than they really are, deceit. Then look what he says about
lasciviousness, lasciviousness, unbridled lust, excess sensuality,
lasciviousness. And oh my, and that word pride,
arrogant, arrogant, full of self, so proud, so proud, arrogant,
full of self. And then he goes on to say, all
these evil things, 13 of them, all these evil things
come from within. I ask you again. Am I really that bad? Am I really
that bad? Is this my heart? Well, I know
this, if you don't see that, don't understand that, then you're
blind and deceived. Oh, our Lord said all these evil
things in verse 23, come from without, come from within, come
from within and defile the man. Oh my, all these things are within. If our hearts were like a hornet's
nest and our hearts was like a wasp's nest, what would happen
to it if you poke it? If our hearts were hornet's nest
and wasp's nest, what would happen to us if you poke it? You poke somebody in the heart
and you find out. Fellow said, one time, you know,
said, said, well, the person said, well, they really, that
preacher really stepped on my toes today. Listen, we're not
aiming for toes. We're aiming for hearts, aiming
for hearts. Oh my. And let me tell you something. You can't, you can't change your
heart. You can't change it. People say all the time, I'm
going to make a change, I'm going to make a change. You can't reform it. You can't
reform your heart. You know what has to happen?
You got to have a new heart. Got to have a new one. Why you
have to have a new one? Because our other one is so damaged. A heart is so damaged by sin.
I need a new heart. Oh my, I need a new heart. Not
a changed heart, not an improved heart, but a new heart. A new
heart. God said, new heart I'll give
you. I'll take out the stony heart.
Oh my, what else we need? We need a new heart. Oh my soul,
we need a new heart. Tell you something else we need.
We need a clean heart. David said, oh Lord, cleanse
my heart. Oh God, give me a clean heart. Clean me. Oh God, cleanse me
and I'll be clean. Give me a clean heart. I need
a single heart. David said, oh Lord, give me
a single heart. Don't let me be double hearted.
Give me a single heart. Give me a single heart. Single
heart centered on you. If you got that kind of heart,
or you got that bad heart. Oh my, I need a pure heart, cause
mine's defiled. How do you get a pure heart?
God said he purifies our heart by faith. Need a pure heart. A pure heart. How many times
have we prayed? How many times, I won't ask you
this, you don't have to raise your hand, but how many times
have you say, oh God, Oh God, please, please do something in
my heart. My heart is, my heart's not thinking
right, not feeling right. Oh God, do for me what only you
can do. Don't let my heart think that.
Don't let my heart feel that. Don't let my heart do that. Don't
let my heart feel that. Don't let my heart do that. Oh, I need a broken heart, a
broken heart. Oh, my. Why? Because mine's so
proud, I need it broken, need it humbled. You know, if I break
that glass, that's bad. Break a dish, that's bad. Break
up a car, that's bad. Break an arm, that's bad. But
oh, the only thing that's good in God's sight is a broken heart,
and we get a broken heart. Oh God, break it, break it, break
it. Shatter it. Whatever it takes
to conform us to the image of Christ, do it. Break my heart. Oh my. Tell you another thing we need.
Oh God, give us a whole heart. Give
us a whole heart. Every time I get ready to preach,
Every time I get ready to preach, every time I get ready to read
the scriptures or whatever, I worry so much, care so much
that I'm half-hearted. Half-hearted? Oh God, give me
a whole heart, don't let me be half-hearted. A whole heart, not half-hearted. Oh, my. You know, man is utterly
and absolutely ruined and depraved, and he has no ability. That's
what our Lord's teaching us here. No man, no man can come unto
me except my Father sent me drawing. Someone with a heart like this,
and there's people here that, you know, I know exactly what
this is talking about. I know exactly what it's talking
about. Someone like this that I'm talking about, that from
within, out of the heart, proceeds these things. Someone like this,
you know what they need? The whole issue is need. They
need God's electing grace. God, elect me. Lord, if salvation's
by Your electing grace, if salvation's by Your electing grace, elect
me, choose me! Please, oh God, choose me! If
you're waiting around for God to choose you, Listen, you choose Him right now, choose
Him over everything you've ever thought, said, or done. Oh, someone
like this needs an atonement to cleanse them from all their
sin. Someone that's got a heart like this needs the Holy Spirit
to give them a new heart. They need irresistible grace.
They need to be kept preserved by God Himself. Oh my! The issue right here is need.
Do you need a new heart? Do you need a pure heart? Do
you need a clean heart? Need a broken heart? I can t do it, but God can. Oh,
the issue is need. The bottom line is, if your heart's
like I just preached this morning, this is what you need. You know what you need? This
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ
Jesus came into the world to do what? To save sinners. Save sinners. Huh? Oh, my. Our Lord, the Scripture
says that Christ came into this world and said, Thou shalt call
His name Jesus, and He shall save His people from their sin. You know how the Lord said, Come unto Me, come unto Me, come
unto Me. Oh my, if you've got a heart
like that right there, bad heart, bad heart, heart disease, we're
born with it. But oh, God could give you a
new heart, whole heart, clean heart, pure heart. He can do
it. But do you have the need? Do
you have the need? Our Father, oh, our Lord. I'm thankful the salvation's
of you. I'm thankful the salvation's by Lord Jesus Christ. I'm thankful,
Lord, that it's, you've got the power to give a new heart. You've
got the power to give a new nature. You've got the power to put in
a new heart and a soul. And Lord, When I read things like this,
see things like this, I understand how desperately, desperately,
desperately men and women need the Lord Jesus Christ more than
they need anything else in this world. More than they need health,
more than they need money, more than they need anything in this
world. They need Christ. God create
that need. Oh, God, create that need. Create
it in all of us, but especially in those who've never felt it.
Save, save, save, save for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's turn to 222
in the book, sing a couple of verses of this and you'll be
at liberty to go. God willing, I'm going to start
on What did I say? 222. 222 is what I want. 222. There is a fountain. Sing the first three verses. There is a fountain filled with
blood Drawn from Emmanuel's veins And sinners plunged beneath that
flood Lose all their guilty stains Lose all their guilty stains
Lose all their guilty stains ? And sinners plunge beneath
that flood ? ? Lose all their guilty stains ? The... ? Dying thief rejoice to see
? That fountain in his day ? And there may I though vile as him
? Wash all my sins away ? Wash all my sins away ? Wash
all my sins away ? Pentecost ? Though vile as He ? Wash all
my sins away This is my favorite verse out of all of them. Their
dying lamb, thy precious blood Shall never lose its power ?
Till all the ransomed church of God ? Be safe to sin no more
? Be safe to sin no more ? Be safe to sin no more ? Till all
the ransomed church of God be safe to sin no more ? See you
tonight, God willing, six o'clock.