Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us and I hope and pray the Lord will
bless you through the preaching of the gospel as we go through
His word, the Bible, studying His word. Now last week I began
preaching on this subject, issues of the heart. That was part one
last week. Today is part two. This will
be the final message on that. But I'm gonna be looking at Matthew
chapter 12. Last week we started Matthew
15, but today we'll start in Matthew chapter 12, where the
Lord Jesus Christ, in speaking to the Pharisees and the scribes,
the most religious men of their day, the ones whom all the people
looked up to, to be religious leaders, to guide them and teach
them in the ways of God. Christ had the harshest words
for these Pharisees because mainly they were teaching a false gospel. And that's what we need to be
concerned with now here. Somebody says, well I want to
live a good life. Well you can't live a good life
in God's sight without hearing and believing the gospel because
the Bible says there's none good, no not one. Now look at Matthew
chapter 12. And look at verse 34. That's
where we'll begin. Matthew 12, 34. Christ is speaking
to the Pharisees. He says, O generation of vipers,
poisonous snakes, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaketh. Now, they were evil. You say,
well, I know they were evil. They were just hypocrites and
all that. Well, think about this. Look at verse 35. He says, a
good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good
things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth
evil things. In verse 36 he says, but I say
unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall
give account thereof in the day of judgment. Verse 37, for by
thy words thou shalt be justified, vindicated. And by thy words
thou shalt be condemned, proven false. Now what is this all about? First of all, a good man out
of the good treasure of the heart. Now, the Bible teaches, now I
want you to listen to me very carefully. You know, as we go
through our lives and we meet people, deal with people, we
meet and deal with some people whom we would say are just bad
people. They'll cheat you, they'll rob you, they'll say, they'll
cuss you, they'll do you wrong. And then we'll meet other people
who are just honest, good citizens that we say are good people.
But when we talk about goodness, he says a good man out of the
good treasure of the heart. When we talk about goodness concerning
a right relationship with God, now you understand that. I'm
talking about goodness and a right relationship with God, not my
relationship with you and your relationship with me and how
we treat each other. We should all treat each other
kindly, compassionately, charitably. We should, much more than we
are. But when we're talking about
a right relationship with God, for example, when we're talking
about the forgiveness of sins, when we're talking about being
justified in God's sight, What is it to be justified is to be
forgiven, is to be declared righteous, worthy in God's sight. When we
talk about eternal life and salvation, we must suspend what we see and
what we know on earth as we relate with other people, and we must
go to the word of God, and we must judge goodness as God sees
it, as revealed in His word. Now with that in mind, turn over
to Romans chapter three and listen to the words of the scripture.
Now what Paul is doing here is he's bringing the whole human
race as fallen and ruined in Adam, ruined by the fall, born
spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, as we're naturally
born, he's bringing an indictment against the whole human race,
including himself by nature, that is as we are naturally born,
as being evil in the sight of God, naturally. And that evil,
it doesn't only show up in the immorality that we see of the
day, it shows up in the false religion, the false gospels.
You think about a person who comes to you and says, well now,
I'm doing my best to keep the Ten Commandments and that's my
salvation. Do you know that that's evil
in the sight of God? Now why is it evil? Because it's immoral? No. Because
in the eyes of men rather. It's immoral in the eyes of God,
and I'll show you why. It's immoral in the eyes of men. Is it insincere? No, a person can be sincerely
trying to do that, and thoughtward indeed. He's not gonna be successful,
but he can be sincerely trying to do that. Some people believe,
well, I know I can't be perfect, but I can do the best I can,
and they think that's good enough. Well, that's evil in the sight
of God. Why? Because it dishonors his glory, his character, his
nature. And how do you know it denies
His glory? It denies the Lord Jesus Christ. Why did Christ
come to earth? He came to earth to do what we
cannot do for ourselves. He came to earth to die on the
cross and put away my sins. I can't do anything. I can't
wash away my sins. What can? The blood of Christ.
Now if I think I can make myself good enough to be right with
God, I'm denying Christ. Paul said it in Galatians chapter
two and verse 21. He said, if righteousness come
by the law, by your works of the law, then Christ is dead
in vain. Why did he die? He died for his
people, God's elect, his sheep, because their righteousness could
not come from their law keeping. What the law couldn't do in that
it was weak through the flesh, God sent forth His Son to do. Made of a woman. That's why Christ,
God, the Son of God, became incarnate. The Word made flesh and dwelling
among us. God-man. That's why He obeyed the law
unto death and died on that cross. To be justified is to be declared
righteous. And the righteousness of the
law requires perfection. I cannot work that. I cannot
find it in me. I have to look to Christ for
all righteousness. And so that's why a person sincerely
trying to work his or her way into God's favor is evil. It
denies what the Bible says about me in these verses. Look at Romans
3 and verse 10. Listen to this. As it is written,
there is none righteous, no not one. Verse 11, there is none
that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God,
the true God now. People naturally seek after gods,
a god like themselves, but not the true and living God. If anybody
seeks the true and living God, you know why they do that? Because
God sought them out first and gave them a new heart. And then
he says in verse 12, they are all gone out of the way. They
are altogether become unprofitable. Now listen to this, there is
none that doeth good, no, not one. Now is that clear? All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. And what is the glory of God?
It's Christ and the perfection of righteousness that can only
be found in him. And that's why it says down there
in Romans 10 that with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.
That is with the new heart man believes in Christ. He is all
my righteousness. But did you notice that phrase
there in verse 11 says there's none good, no not one. You say
well I know all kinds of good people. You do in your sight
based on your standard. But what about God's standard?
What kind of goodness does God require? My friend, it's the
perfection of goodness, the perfection of righteousness that can only
be found in Christ. His obedience unto death as the
surety, the substitute, and the redeemer of his people. I had
a man tell me one time, what does God require for salvation?
He requires perfect righteousness without any sin. And the man
looked at me, he said, well, that's unfair. He says, nobody
can do that. I said, no, it's not unfair.
First of all, that's all God can require because of the perfection
of his nature. God is holy. He must punish sin. And he's just. He must be just. He makes himself known in judgment,
the scripture says. He's a God of judgment and His
judgments are always according to truth. He cannot come off
of that standard because He cannot deny Himself. That's His nature
as God. But it's not unfair because God
has freely and fully provided a righteousness for His people
and it's in Christ. That's why the Bible says, believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Christ is
my only goodness. So now back here in Matthew chapter
12, when he says in verse 35, now look at it. A good man out
of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things. Now
what is a good man in the Bible? It's not just a moral person.
It's not just a sincere person. A good person is a sinner saved
by grace whose only goodness and only righteousness is found
in Christ and empowered by the Spirit to work through him to
glorify God. That's what a good man or a good
woman is. And it says, out of the treasure of the heart bringeth
forth good things. Now we talked about it last week
how the heart is deceitful. We are not born with good hearts
in the eyes of God. Now you see that little baby
who's born, you say, well, he's so innocent and all that. In
our eyes, he is. And I relish that. I've got two
grandsons. I mean, they are the apple of
my eye. I love them. And I tolerate a
lot from them. But you know what they are? Ultimately,
not just when they make the first choice, They're born spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins, and they're sinners who are in
need of salvation by grace. And that's why I teach them from
the Bible. They go to a church in another
area where the gospel is preached. And their mother takes them to
hear the gospel, the good news of how God saves sinners. And
the preacher there preaches the true gospel, not a false gospel
like so many others. And it's my prayer that they
come to see the glory of God in Christ and believe in Him
and live their lives for the glory of God by His power and
His grace. So that's what a good man is.
And so for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
Now what he's talking about here in the context is the Pharisees
preaching a false gospel as opposed to Christ and His disciples preaching
a true gospel. If you're a sinner saved by grace,
truly, out of your mouth, out of your heart will come the good
things of God's glory. If you're a lost religionist,
out of your mouth will come a false gospel, evil things. And so he
says in verse 36 now, listen to this. But I say unto you that
every idle word that men shall speak They shall give an account
thereof in the day of judgment. And I've heard people say, well
now, if you speak a word, an idle word, or tell a joke, or
even a dirty joke, you're going to have to give an account. That's
not what it's talking about there. It's talking about those who
preach a false gospel as opposed to those who preach the true
gospel. Turn to Matthew chapter seven. Look at Matthew chapter seven.
This is a scene of the judgment as the Lord relates it. And listen
to verse 21. Matthew 7, 21. He says, not everyone
that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven. Now here's what's happening. Out of their mouths
is coming the words, Lord, Lord. We hear it all the time on TV
and churches. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord.
All right? He says, not everyone that saith
that shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth
the will of my Father which is in heaven, doing the will of
his Father. Now does that mean not everybody
who says Lord, Lord will enter heaven, but only those who keep
the commandments? No. Keep the Ten Commandments? No. In order to be saved? No. What is the will of the Father? Now think about this. He says,
everyone that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
What is the will of the Father? Well, the sovereign will of God
is stated in 2 Peter 3, 9 like this, that God's not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Now there, he's not talking about everybody without exception.
He's talking about His elect. And God's going to bring them
to repentance. And when He brings them to repentance,
that means He's given them a new heart and out of their mouth
will come the true gospel. They'll glorify God. They'll
preach Christ. Go back here in Matthew 7. Now
look at this. He says, many, verse 22, many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
or preached in thy name? And in thy name have cast out
devils, and in thy name have done many wonderful works. Didn't we do all that? And he
says in verse 23, and then will I profess unto them, I never
knew you. Now he knew who they were. He
knew their works. But this knowing here has to
do with that intimate relationship between Christ and his church,
his people. I never knew you in love, in
grace, in mercy, in salvation. And so he says, depart from me,
ye that work iniquity. Now, all of their preaching,
all of their casting out devils, all of their wonderful works
are relegated to iniquity. What's the problem here? Well,
their mouth revealed the state of their heart. And how did it
do that? Well, somebody says, well, they
were insincere when they did all this stuff, preaching, casting
out demons, and doing many wonderful works. Well, first of all, how
do you know they were insincere? The Bible doesn't say they were
insincere. It just simply tells us what
comes out of their mouth. Lord, Lord, haven't we? preached
in your name. Lord, Lord, haven't we cast out
devils? Lord, Lord, haven't we done many
wonderful works in thy name? They're not attributing all these
things to themselves, they're attributing these things to the
Lord. It's not me, I did it by the
power of God to give him glory. What's the problem? You say,
well, they were insincere. Well, you don't know that, first
of all, because the Bible doesn't say that. But secondly, let me
hit you with this question. If you claim they were insincere,
what are you? Are you sincere? You say, well,
yes, I'm sincere. Are you sincere enough? Enough
to enter the kingdom of heaven? And if you say you are, how do
you know how much sincerity is enough? to get you into heaven. Is there any verse in the Bible
from Genesis to Revelation that says that sincerity will get
me into heaven and it takes this much? Because if there's a verse,
if there's any place in the Bible that says sincerity will get
me to heaven and this is how much, then I'm gonna change the
gospel I preach. I'm gonna talk about how you
must be sincere. There's no verse like that. There's
no verse at all like that. I contend these fellows were
sincere. They're at the judgment. You can't hide at the judgment.
What's the problem here? I'll tell you exactly what the
problem is, and the context will bear this out. He began talking
about the narrow way and the broad way, the true gospel and
the false gospel. They were pleading. Now listen
to me. And their words revealed the state of their heart. Where
was their heart? Wasn't on Christ. It was on themselves. What they
did or what they believed God had enabled them to do in order
to enter the kingdom of heaven. And what it was, they were pleading
at the judgment something, things other than the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Now I mentioned this
earlier in last week. In Romans 10 it talks about how
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. What that
means is with the heart, the new heart that God gives him
in the new birth, man believes with the understanding in the
Lord Jesus Christ as his only righteousness before God. Now,
I've been over 30 years preaching in his name. over 30 years, by the grace of
God, a servant of the Lord. But when I stand before God at
judgment, you know where my heart is going to? Not on what I've
done. No, I'm not gonna stand up and
say, Lord, I've preached over 30 years. I've baptized many
people. I've evangelized, I've done this,
in your name, for your glory. No. What right do I have to enter
the kingdom of heaven? I'll tell you what, it's the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It's His righteousness
imputed alone. That's where my heart is. That's
what the new heart does. Look over at Romans chapter six
with me. In order to believe the gospel,
God has to give us a new heart. He said over in the book of Ezekiel,
go to Romans six, but let me just read you something in Ezekiel
chapter 36. This is a prophecy of the new
covenant. You see, the people of Israel
under the old covenant as a nation, they had the commandments of
God, but they didn't have a heart to serve God. But he said through
Ezekiel that when the time comes later in the new covenant, he
says in verse 26, chapter 36, 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, that is the unbending, stubborn
heart. And I'll give you a heart of
flesh, verse 27, I will put my spirit within you, cause you
to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and do
them. You see, that's the new heart.
We'll look over at Romans six, verse 17. Paul writing by inspiration
of the spirit says, but God be thanked, that you were the servants
of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin,
you became the servants of righteousness. You were the servants of sin.
You know what a servant of sin is in the Bible? It's an unbeliever. He can be immoral in the eyes
of men, he can be religious in the eyes of men. He can be like
the Pharisees of old, who appeared righteous unto men, but he's
a servant of sin. As long as you remain in unbelief,
I don't care what you do, how you appear, how sincere you do
it, you're a servant of sin. Because you see, Christ is the
only Savior from sin. He's the only one that can bear
my sins away. He's the only one that can make
me righteous before God. If I don't have Christ, it's
all sin. I'm a servant of sin. But he
said there, you've obeyed from the heart. Now the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. The natural heart
is deceitful, Jeremiah said, desperately wicked, above all
things, who can know it? If left to ourselves with that
natural heart, our mind, affections, we will not come to Christ. We
will not obey the gospel. But he says you've obeyed from
the heart. That's the new heart, regenerated. You must be born
again. or you can't see or enter the
kingdom of heaven. The new heart is the product
of God's power and grace in the new birth. So you've obeyed from
the heart. What have you obeyed? That doctrine
which was delivered to you or you were delivered to, the doctrine
of Christ, the gospel, which is the power of God and the salvation
to everyone that believe it. To the Jew first, the Greek also.
Therein is the righteousness of God revealed. You've obeyed
from the heart. that form of doctrine which was
delivered to you, being then made liberated from sin. That
doesn't mean you stop being a sinner. I haven't stopped being a sinner.
I'm a sinner saved by grace, but I'm liberated from sin in
that I'm no longer a servant, a slave to it, in the sense that
it can condemn me or be charged to me. See, sin cannot be charged
to me, I'm free. There's no condemnation in Christ.
So being then made free from sin, you became the servants
of righteousness. Now that doesn't mean you went
from being an immoral person to a moral person in the eyes
of men. If you are an immoral person
in the eyes of men, you need to be moral. But that's not necessarily
a change of the new heart. That could be outward reformation.
But when he says you became the servants of righteousness, that
means you became a servant of Christ. Christ is my righteousness. And that's your heart is set
on Him. That's the new heart. The new
heart is a heart of conviction, knowing that I'm a sinful person
and that if God were to judge me right now based upon my best
efforts to obey Him, I would be damned forever. The psalmist
said it this way, I believe it's Psalm 130, in verse three. Lord, if thy Lord shouldest mark
iniquities, who would stand? Not me. If God would impute or
charge or account sin to me, I'd be doomed forever, because
I'm a sinner. But you see, God does not impute
sin to me. That new heart is a heart of
conviction. It's a broken and a contrite heart. Yes, it's sorry. We're sorry for our sins, but
not enough. But how do we know we're sorry
at all? We're drawn to Christ. We're driven to Christ. And He's
the apple of our eye. He's my heart. And so this new
heart is the heart of faith, cleansed by the blood of Christ.
That's what faith is, believing that Christ alone saved me, keeps
me, and brings me to glory. It's the heart of faith. It's
the heart of repentance. Repentance is that change of
mind. I used to believe in a God who loved everybody and Christ
who died for everybody and the rest was up to me. That's an
idol. I've changed my mind. God's changed my mind. He's given
me a new heart. Now I look to the God of Scripture
alone. And I come to him pleading the
blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
where my heart is. When I stand before God at judgment,
I'm not gonna talk about all that I've done or been unable
to do by God's power. I'm gonna talk about what Christ
alone has done for me. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2-1. Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia
31707. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterrofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.