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. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. If
you'd like to follow along in your Bibles, I'm going to be
preaching from the book of Matthew, the first book of the New Testament,
the gospel according to Matthew, chapter 15. And we'll begin around
verse seven of Matthew chapter 15. And the subject for today,
and I have two messages that I'm going to preach on this subject,
several passages of scripture has to do with issues of the
heart. This is part one, issues of the
heart. And I want us to consider some
very, very vital issues. You know the heart, the physical
heart, is what we call one of the vital organs. in the human
body. And because if the heart doesn't
pump the blood through the body, then the body dies. And it's
pretty much the same with the spiritual heart. When God saves
a sinner by his grace through the Lord Jesus Christ, one of
the things that is said in the scripture is that God gives that
sinner a new heart. It's a heart transplant, you
might say. Somebody called it years ago.
I heard a preacher say it's radical spiritual surgery. And so we're
going to talk about the heart. But now what exactly in the Bible,
Old Testament and New, is the heart? when it says the heart. Let's look at some scripture
here to begin with. And you know, this is the Lord
himself talking to and about the religious generation that
he confronted in his earthly walk. Mainly the Pharisees, the
scribes and the Pharisees. And you understand now that these
were men who everybody looked up to. as the living examples,
the perfect examples of what a right relationship with God
is about, what religion should be about. These were men who
appear righteous outwardly to men. And there were all kinds
of different ones. There were sincere ones, there
were hypocritical ones, just like in religion today. But I
want you to notice as you go through the gospels, Matthew,
Mark, and Luke, and John, that the Lord had his harshest words
for religious people who were religious, but they had no truth. They didn't have the gospel of
God's grace. They were ensconced in works
salvation, salvation by the works and the wills of men. And it
was all their efforts. It was all about them. And he
tells them here in verse seven, speaking to them, he reproves
them. He says, you hypocrites. Calls them hypocrites. And what
a hypocrite is, you know, the word hypocrite is the same Greek
word that would be used for an actor playing a role on a stage. And what he's saying is you're
just acting out things and leading people to think that you're something
or someone that you are really not. And he says in verse seven
of Matthew 15, you hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you
saying. Now listen, he says in verse
eight, this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, that's
what they say, and they honoreth me with their lips, but their
heart is far from me." Their heart. Now, does that mean they
were all insincere and all consciously playing a part, acting out something? I don't believe so. I believe
it's like people today who are sincere in religion, who draw
near with their mouth, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, but
their heart is far from God. And why is their heart far from
God? Well, let's read on. He says, verse nine, and this
is key now, don't let this verse pass you by. He says in verse
nine, but in vain, and you know what vain means, that means to
no profit, to no good, but in vain, they do worship me teaching
for doctrines the commandments of men." Now, the state of their
heart, their heart being far from Him, the state of their
heart was revealed because they taught wrong doctrine. What is doctrine? Doctrine is
the teaching of the Scripture. So he said, they teach for doctrines
the commandments of men. In other words, they don't teach
the Word of God. They don't teach what God says. They can't say,
thus saith the Lord and be true about it. You know, if I tell
you on this program, thus saith the Lord, I've got to back it
up with the word of God. I've got to show you where it
is in the Bible. People today are religious. They claim to
be Christian, but they don't know or don't believe the doctrines
of God. We call them the doctrine of
grace. For by grace are you saved, through faith, that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
The Bible says that the gospel, in Romans 1 16 and 17, is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the
Jew first, the Greek or the Gentile also. Verse 17 says, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. from faith to faith, as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. Now, are you familiar
or do you know what the righteousness of God is in that verse? Because
that's important. If you're teaching a gospel that
is not a revelation of the righteousness of God, whatever that is now,
according to scripture, you're teaching the doctrines of men. And your heart's not right with
God. But let me stop there and just give you this to think about. What exactly is the heart in
the Bible? Well, when we think of the heart,
we think about emotions, we do, we think about feelings, we think
about intuition, what we might be inclined to do or not to do. Many people today, especially
in Western culture, in our country and in the Western philosophies,
they look upon the heart as being almost anti-intellectual. And they'll talk about, well,
you know it in your head, but do you believe it in your heart?
And I heard a preacher say one time about people who in false
religion, he said, well, their doctrine is wrong, but their
hearts are right with God. Well, that's impossible. The
Bible will not back that up. So what is the heart in the scripture?
Well, it's not this physical organ. I've heard people say
that salvation is the difference between saved and lost is 12
inches. And what they're saying, they say from here to here. You
might know it here, but do you believe it here? Well, here,
that's a metaphor now. I can't believe anything from
here. Everything I believe is in my mind. Now, I believe it
sincerely from the heart. Well, what is the heart? Now
listen to me real carefully. The heart in the Bible is the
mind, It includes the affections, what you love, what you don't
love, and the will. The mind, the affections, and
the will. It includes the conscience. The
conscience is the, you might say it's like the courtroom of
our mind. In other words, it's the place
in your mind where you judge the difference between right
and wrong. Back over in the book of Judges,
It says, as an indictment against the people of Israel, it says
that every man did that which was right in his own eyes. In other words, however they
judged, right and wrong, that's what they did. They didn't go
by God's judgments. If you wanna know what really
the real difference between right and wrong, you've got to go to
God's judgments, God's word, God's commandments. So that when
we talk about salvation, for example, how is a sinner saved? On what ground? Upon what basis? Well, you can think in your own
mind certain things that are wrong. Many, many, many people
do. They preach a false gospel, a
gospel that revolves around man's works and man's will. Free willism,
see? That's not in the Bible. But
now, how does God save sinners? What does He say? Well, He says
that He saves sinners by His grace, through the righteousness
of God, which is found only in the obedience unto death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's why Christ came, that's
why He died, that's why He was buried, that's why He arose again
the third day. The Bible knows nothing about
an atonement or a salvation that is just an offer that's only
successful if men accept it, men and women accept it. So the
heart is the mind, the affections, and the will. Well, look at verse
10 of Matthew 15. It says, and he called the multitude
and said unto them, hear and understand. Now, you know, in
salvation, the Bible says God gives us an understanding. So
there is knowledge, there's understanding, the mind, the intellect is involved.
It doesn't mean that you have to be an Einstein to understand
these things. These things are so simple that
a little child can understand them. And you gotta remember
one thing about the gospel and salvation. Even though the preacher
who preaches the true gospel to you is an instrument to communicate
truth to your mind, It is God who really does the teaching
if you learn it unto salvation. If you are truly brought by the
truth unto salvation. It means God's given you a new
heart. God's the one who taught you by the Holy Spirit. He may
have used a poor pitiful vessel like me to bring you the message,
but it's God who saves. I can't save you. I can't persuade
you into the kingdom of heaven. I can't argue you or debate you
into it. I can't emotionally draw you
to it. It's God who saves his people. That's what Christ said about
His death on the cross. He said, if I be lifted up, I
will draw all unto me. That means drag. How does He
draw them? He changes their minds, their
hearts. He gives them a new heart. So
He says here, hear and understand. Look at verse 11. Now here's
something that they had to understand about sin. Sin is not just something
you do or not do. It begins in the heart, it begins
in the thoughts. He says, verse 11, it's not that
which goeth into the mouth, not that which goeth into the mouth
defileth a man. No, it's not what you eat or
drink and put in your mouth that defiles you. Now, understand
now, he's not, are there things that we shouldn't eat and drink?
Well, sure. And whatever it is, even if the things that are lawful
were to be temperate, We're to do things in moderation, but
he needs us to understand that that's not what causes the sin. That's not the source of sin.
If a man picks up a bottle of liquor and drinks it and gets
drunk, It's not the drink that is the sinful part, it's the
sinner who abused the drink. And he says, but that which cometh
out of the mouth, this defileth a man. That's what he says. Now,
in essence, you've got to keep the context here. In essence,
what he's saying here has to be in line with the Pharisees
and their doctrine, their teachings. They teach the doctrines of men.
And that's what comes out of their mouth, their teaching.
Verse 12, he says, then came his disciples and said unto him,
knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard
this saying? Well, sure they were offended.
He called them hypocrites. In another passage, he called
them poisonous snakes. He said, you vipers. But verse
13, he says, but he answered and said, every plant which my
heavenly father had not planted shall be rooted up. God did not,
he uses the metaphor of farming now. These Pharisees who were
teaching a false gospel of works salvation, man's works, man's
will, he said, God didn't plant these. They'll be rooted up. Satan planted them. And verse
14 says, let them alone. They be blind leaders of the
blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into
the ditch. You see, the responsibility is
not only on the one who preaches a false gospel, it's also on
those who listen to him and follow him. And that's why you need
to test the spirits, as John said in 1 John chapter four. You need to, whenever you sit
in a church service and hear a man preach, or anybody preach,
you need to test what they're telling you by the word of God.
And if they're truly God's servant, number one, they'll be preaching
the truth of the gospel, the gospel wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed. Now what is that righteousness?
It's the merit, the value, the worth, of the obedience and death
of Jesus Christ as the surety, the substitute, and the redeemer
of his people. It's that message that tells
us that the only way that my sins are forgiven is by the blood
of Christ. It tells me that the only way
that I stand in a right relationship with God is Christ's righteousness,
imputed, charged, accounted to me. Now that's the gospel. Romans 5.21, as sin hath reigned
unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto
eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. The gospel, now listen
to me, and I don't want to offend people, but I know what I'm saying
can be offensive, but that's okay. I'm doing it because I
want to tell you the truth. For a preacher to stand up and
tell you that God, tell everybody without exception, God loves
you and Christ died for you, now the rest is up to you, that
is the doctrines and commandments of men. That's a false gospel. That's what I'm telling you.
Now, how do I know it? Because the word of God doesn't
say that. The word of God shows us who
Christ is, God manifest in the flesh and what He accomplished
on Calvary's tree when He died for the sins of His people. He
put away their sins. That means that God cannot charge
them with sin. God cannot send them to eternal
damnation. They must be saved. They must
be given life and brought to faith in Christ and repentance.
They must be given a new heart. That's what this is all about.
So he said, they're blind leaders of the blind and they'll both
fall into the ditch. Verse 15 now, Matthew 15. Then
answered Peter and said unto him, declare unto us this parable. Now, Christ was speaking in symbolic
terms and that's why it's called a parable. In verse 16, and Jesus
said, are you also yet without understanding? Verse 17, do not
ye yet understand that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth
into the belly and is cast out into the draft, but those things
which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and
they defile the man. Now, specifically, he's talking
about the words that these Pharisees were preaching concerning a right
relationship with God. And somebody says, well, how
did he know that they were hypocrites? By what they said. Now, I'm not
gonna tell you that I can go around and tell you everybody
who's saved and everybody who's lost. But the Bible teaches this
now. If you wanna know the state of
the heart, the mind, the affections, the will, the understanding,
the conscience, what you believe, what you don't believe, what
you love, what you don't love, how you live, it has a lot to
do with how you live. All right? How can I know the
state of my own heart? Have I been given a new heart
or am I still the bearer, the carrier of a natural sinful heart? That's the problem of man. We're
sinners. We fail in Adam and we're born
dead spiritually in trespasses and sins. And our hearts aren't
right with God. So how can I know the state of
my heart? Well, when you talk to a person, what do they believe
about God? Who God is? What He's like? What do they believe about themselves?
Do they think they can work hard enough to, as the song says,
we're working hard to get to heaven. Do you think you can
work hard enough to get to heaven? Well, if you do, that shows me
the state of your heart. You don't believe the gospel.
I know, I'm telling you, listen, I know that I cannot work hard
enough to earn my way into God's glory in heaven. I can't do it,
I'm a sinner. I know this, my only righteousness,
I can't work my way under righteousness. The best that I have to do will
fall short. I'm a sinner. So I'm telling
you that my only righteousness before holy God is the imputed
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. That's what I'm telling.
And that shows you the state of my heart. Now, can a man say
those words and not really, or a woman, can she say those words
and not really believe them? It's possible. It's very possible. That's why perseverance is an
evidence of salvation. We continue in the faith. I've
had people who tell me they agree with me and then the next year
they're over in a false church trying to do their best to gain
their way to heaven by their works. And that's wrong. But he says those things which
proceed out of the mouth, verse 18, come forth from the heart
and they defile the man. Look at verse 19. For out of
the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witness, blasphemies. Verse 20, these are the things
which defile a man, but to eat with unwashing hands defile not
a man. That refers to the ceremonial
washings of the Old Covenant that the Pharisees thought really
did cleanse them before God. But you can, and so for the disciples
to eat without washing their hands ceremonially, it's not
talking about eating with dirt on your hands. It's talking about
eating before you've gone through the ceremonies of the washings.
So to eat with unwashed hands, that doesn't defile a person.
And the heart, he talks about evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemy. Now, when you read
passages like that, let me help you to learn to think biblically. When you read passages like this,
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, what
do you think of? You know, back over in the book
of Genesis, chapter six and verse five, this was before Noah. where God called out Noah as one who found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. Listen to this in Genesis 6,
5. It says, and God saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart, see, the thoughts of his heart, you can't use this
organ here to think, you gotta use this one. So that tells you
the heart involves the mind. And he says, every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Every day. Every day. Over in the book of Jeremiah.
Let me show you this. In the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah
17. This is verse nine. Jeremiah
speaking of his generation in Judah. He says, the heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know
it?" Now, he's talking about the heart of the natural man.
But when you read passages like that, what do you think of? Well,
many people relegate these things to just the immoral segment of
society. In other words, when you read
back here in Matthew 15, evil thoughts, well, that's talking
about people who have lustful thoughts, lusting after a woman
or lusting after a man. Or you say, well, here was murders,
adulteries, fornication, all that. If you relegate that to
the moral segment of society, you're not thinking biblically.
Now certainly, anybody who is totally immoral in their thoughts,
according to man's standard of morale, that's evil. But this
includes religious people, the Pharisees, evil thoughts. It's evil to think that God could
save me based on anything but His grace revealed in Christ
and His righteousness alone, His blood alone. If you think
God will save you based on your works or your will, that's evil
because it denies the glory of God. It elevates the sinner to
a position that he doesn't have. We're sinners. There's none good,
no not one. There's none that seeketh after.
There's none righteous. That's what we are by nature.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
neither can he know them. That's why I need a new heart.
I need a new understanding. I need a new mind, a new life,
all of that. Murders, Christ taught them in
Matthew chapter five, when he said, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven, Matthew 5 20. And
then he begins to show them the reality of the law, that it reaches
not only what you do and what you don't do, it reaches to the
thoughts. Therefore to be angry enough
to kill is murder, sinful. And he says, he talks about adultery,
fornication, that could include spiritual adultery and spiritual
fornication, worshiping an idol, worshiping a false god. If you
think God will save you based on your works or your will, my
friend, you're worshiping an idol. You're committing spiritual
adultery and fornication. False witness, that's telling
a false gospel. Blasphemy, that's a false, see
what I'm saying? That's how we learn to think
biblically. These things do not just apply to the immoral segment
of society, they apply to the false religious segment of society. People who are sincerely trying
to work their way under righteousness in God's favor. I'll talk more
about this next time, but the Bible says, for with the heart,
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession
is made. What is it to believe unto righteousness? It's to believe
in Christ. That's what it is. It's to believe
that all of my salvation, that God conditioned all of my salvation
on Christ and Christ came and as my surety, my substitute,
my redeemer, fulfilled all those conditions and secured my salvation. That's what it means. Well, we'll
pick up there next week. 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
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today and may the Lord be with you.