If you would open your Bibles
with me now to Exodus chapter seven. Exodus chapter seven, we'll read
the first seven verses. And the Lord said unto Moses,
see I have made thee a God to Pharaoh and Aaron thy brother
shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command
thee and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh. that he send
the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh's
heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.
But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand
upon Egypt and bring forth mine armies and my people, the children
of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And
the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch
forth mine hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel
from among them. And Moses and Aaron did as the
Lord commanded them, so did they. And Moses was fourscore years
old and Aaron fourscore and three years old when they spake unto
Pharaoh. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we carefully and
reverently and thankfully come into your presence this evening
and bow before your throne of grace. Thankful that you have
commanded your people that we can come boldly, confidently
to your throne of grace at all times because of the Lord Jesus
Christ, because of who he is and what he's accomplished for
his people. And Father, we bow before you in worship, thankful
that you're God alone, thankful that you always do your will.
Thankful that nothing in this creation is moving one iota out
of your eternal will and purpose, but that you're bringing it all
to pass just the way it's happening to accomplish your eternal will
of the salvation and glorification of your people in such a way
that your son gets all the glory. Father, how thankful we are.
Father, we bow before you beg your presence this evening, that
you would send your spirit upon us. Father, enable us to worship
thee tonight in spirit and in truth. I pray that you would
be our teacher, that you would speak to us through your word,
speak to our hearts. And Father, give us faith to
believe. Give us a heart that hungers and thirsts after righteousness,
that hungers and thirsts after Christ. and then be pleased to
fill us with Christ through the preaching of your word this evening.
Father, I thank you for this place. I thank you for a family
of believers that you have called together with one heart, with
one accord, seeking you, seeking your presence, seeking your glory,
seeking your gospel, seeking to hear from thee. Father, I
pray that you would cause us to be faithful and cause us to
be a blessing to our generation. by preaching Christ faithfully
to it. And Father, for those who are away from us, they're
sick, they're afflicted, they're heartbroken in deep waters and
difficult places, Father, we hold them up to thee. We pray
that you'd heal. We pray that you would comfort
their hearts with your presence and bring them back to us, Father,
as soon as it could be thy will. And all these things we ask in
that name which is above every name, the name of Christ our
Savior. I've titled the message this
evening, God's Sovereignty Over Man's Hard Heart. As I read through
this passage and read some of the commentaries and different
things on this in the past couple weeks, got COVID and was sick,
and so I've had a long time to prepare this message. Just buckle
in here. I've had a long time to study
this. And I think a lot of people that I read fell in the trap
of trying to explain how that God is sovereign and man is responsible
for his own actions. I've got no intention of trying
to explain that tonight. I'm just gonna declare it as
God's word says it, and this is one of the most clear declarations
of this that you'll find in all the word of God. Now beginning
in Exodus 7, verse one, the Lord said unto Moses, see I have made
thee a God to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.
Thou shall speak all that I command thee and Aaron thy brother shall
speak unto Pharaoh that he send the children of Israel out of
his land the Lord tells Moses and Aaron you go to to Pharaoh
and you preach to him you tell him what it is. I've commanded
you to tell him but if you look back in chapter 6 in verse 12
Back here in chapter 6 Moses told God I preach him, but nobody's
listening to me Nobody's gonna hear me, especially Pharaoh is
not gonna hear me. Look at verse 12. And Moses spake
before the Lord, saying, behold, the children of Israel have not
hearkened unto me. How then shall Pharaoh hear me,
who am of uncircumcised lips? He said, Pharaoh's not gonna
hear me. But the Lord told Moses, you go speak, you go preach,
you tell Pharaoh what I've commanded you to preach to him, because
I've made you a God to Pharaoh. Now you know Moses is not gonna
be God to Pharaoh in the sense that he's the Almighty. What
the Lord means there is I've made you an ambassador of God.
And you go preach to Pharaoh as an ambassador of God with
divine power that's come straight from God Almighty. Now we would
think when we hear that, ooh, Pharaoh's gonna listen now. I
mean, he's been giving Moses a hard time up till now. He's
been giving the children of Israel a hard time, but now he's gonna,
listen, now he's gonna let Israel go free because Moses is gonna
come speak to him in divine power. But that's not what's gonna happen.
Look at verse three, because the Lord goes on. He tells Moses,
you go preach, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply
my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall
not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring
forth mine armies and my people, the children of Israel, out of
the land of Egypt by great judgments. Now the Lord tells Moses, you're
gonna go speak to Pharaoh as an ambassador of God, but he's
not gonna believe you. He's not gonna hear you, he's
not gonna listen to you, he's not gonna do what you tell him
to do, and here's why, I'm gonna harden Pharaoh's heart. God says,
I'm gonna do that. Now I'll come back to that here
in just a few minutes. But you know, somebody might wonder,
why is it that God, who is in control of everything, nothing
can happen to his creation that's on his will, then why would God
allow such a wicked man to reign and prosper? God says, Israel's
my people. So why would he allow such a
wicked man to hurt his people over and over and over and over
again? That's all Pharaoh does. And
I tell you why that question is pertinent to today, because
God's still allowing the same thing to happen today, isn't
he? He's still allowing the wicked to hurt his people over and over
and over again. All they do is prosper by it.
And we often wonder, why would God do that? Well, I believe
I know, because he tells us here. God does it that way so that
he's gonna get all the glory when he displays both his justice
and his mercy when he saves and delivers his people. That's what
he says in verse five. The Lord is talking about he's
going to deliver my people out of the land of Egypt by great
judgments. And when he's done doing that, the Egyptians shall
know that I am the Lord. When I stretch forth mine hand
upon Egypt and I bring out the children of Israel from among
them. God says, when I'm done doing
my will and my purpose in Egypt, here's what the Egyptians are
gonna know. I'm not just one of these idols that they worship.
They're gonna know I'm God Almighty. The Egyptians will know that
I am Jehovah, who saves my people by my strength, by my power,
by my will. They're gonna know beyond a shadow
of a doubt, I'm God overall. Now that was God's promise. to
Moses. The Egyptians are going to know
that when I set my people free. And Moses is preaching. But it
doesn't look to anybody like anything's happening. Israel's
not going free. Their life is getting worse and
worse. Their taskmasters are treating them worse and worse
and worse. The results that Moses and Aaron expected from their
preaching weren't happening. Nothing was happening. As a matter
of fact, it looked like it was getting worse. So what did Moses and
Aaron do? whether it's really they did
the only thing they can do, they kept doing what the Lord told
them to do. Look at verse six. Moses and Aaron did as the Lord
commanded them. So did they. And Moses was four
score years old and Aaron four score and three years old when
they spake unto Pharaoh. I don't know if that, if that
time of man's 80 and 84 years old thing about retirement or
not, Moses and Aaron are just getting started. And this is
tough business. It's tough business. And you
know what happens in this story. This story gives us a picture
how God is sovereign over the hard hearts of all mankind. God sent 10 plagues to Egypt. You know the story, what's gonna
happen next. And God used those plagues to set his people Israel
free and to harden Pharaoh's heart. I want us to look at just
the end of each one of these plagues real quickly. Remember
how Moses showed Pharaoh, he could throw down his rod and
it would become a serpent. Moses could pick it up again
and the serpent, it would become a rod. Look at the result of
that in verse 13 of Exodus chapter seven. After Pharaoh saw that,
and God hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he hearkened not unto them
as the Lord had said. Then, The Lord turned all the
waters of Egypt into blood. If there was water in Egypt,
if it was in the river, if it was in the pond, if it was in
your cup, wherever it was in a pitcher, that water was turned
to blood. Now, how horrible. What's the
result of that? Verse 22, and the magicians of
Egypt did with their enchantments, and Pharaoh's heart was hardened.
Neither did he hearken unto them as the Lord had said. Then the
Lord sent a plague of frogs Frogs were everywhere. I mean, in every
container, in every bed, and just everywhere you go, look,
the frogs, just gross, stinking, smelling frogs everywhere. How
gross, you have to live in that. Well, what was the result of
that? Chapter eight, verse 15. When Pharaoh saw that there was
respite, he hardened his heart, and he hearkened not unto them
as the Lord had said. Well, then the Lord sent a plague
of lice. These lice covered everything and everybody. I mean, they just
covered the whole land of Egypt. I mean, can you think of anything
more gross? I mean, everything covered with lice. You'd think,
surely this would make somebody ask the Lord to give me relief.
What was the result of that? Chapter eight, verse 19. Then
the magician said unto Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. I
mean, even these false prophets, they said, this is the finger
of God. And Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not
unto them, as the Lord had said. Then the Lord sent a plague of
flies, and those flies fouled everything in the land. I mean,
you know, you got some meat here set out for dinner, and you come
and it's covered with flies. You got, you know, whatever it
is, everything's covered with flies. It's just fouled. You'd
think surely this would make a man cry out and beg God for
mercy. Well, what was the result of that? Chapter eight, verse
32. And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also. Neither
would he let the people go. Then the Lord sent a moraine.
It's a disease that kills all the livestock. Now this is how
this society at this time, probably most of the world in general,
kind of counted their wealth. This is what they banked on.
This is my wealth. This is my strength. And Lord
sent a disease that killed all their livestock. What was the
result of that? Chapter nine, verse seven. And
Pharaoh said, and behold, there was not one of the cattle of
the Israelites dead. Now all of them were of the Egyptians,
but none of the Israelites cattle were dead. And the heart of Pharaoh
was hardened and he did not let the people go. Then the Lord
sent a plague of boils that covered everyone. I mean, the pain of
that, just, I mean, you don't have to put me in much pain till
I start crying for mercy, till I start crying uncle, you know,
I'd be a horrible spy, somebody could torture whatever I know
out of me very easily. These things are so painful.
Well, what was the result of that plague? Chapter nine, verse
12. And the Lord hardened the heart
of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had
spoken unto Moses. Then the Lord sent a plague of
fiery hail, and that hail killed almost all the crops in the land.
Now their people will be starving to death. They don't have the
cattle, they don't have the crops. What's the result of that plague? Verse
34 of chapter nine. And when Pharaoh saw that the
rain and hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more
and hardened his heart. He and his servants. Then the
Lord sent a plague of locusts that ate everything that the
hail didn't kill. What's the result of that? Chapter
10, verse 27. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's
heart, and he would not let them go. Then the Lord sent a plague
of darkness. I mean, it immobilized almost
everyone. Now, in the land of Goshen, there
was light, but everywhere else in Egypt, you couldn't see your
hand in front of your face. People wouldn't move because
they were so afraid. They couldn't see anything. What's
the result of that? I'm sorry, I skipped. Back up
there where the locust ate everything, it said in verse 20, the Lord
hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let the children
of Israel go. And after the plague of darkness, verse 27, the same
thing. The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart
that he would not let them go. Then the Lord sent the Passover. And on that night of the Passover,
Pharaoh wouldn't listen to Moses. He wouldn't put the blood on
the doorpost. And Pharaoh's son, everybody's son in Egypt, was
killed, and they thrust Israel out. But after Israel went out,
old Pharaoh got buyer's remorse. Look what happened in chapter
14, verse eight. Now, Israel's gone. They're gone,
they're out, Pharaoh's free from them. And the Lord hardened the
heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children
of Israel. And the children of Israel went out with a high hand
The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he chased after Israel
and he and his army drowned in the Red Sea. The whole entire
military might and leadership of Egypt was drowned in the Red
Sea like that. Now in all these cases, what's
the issue? The issue is the heart. It's
the heart. That's where God does business
with men and women. It's in the heart. Now, eight
of these times, the scripture says, the Lord hardened Pharaoh's
heart. Three times, the scripture says,
Pharaoh hardened his heart. And you know, both of those two
things are true. God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and Pharaoh
hardened his heart. You know, God is sovereign over
all of the acts of men. He's sovereign over all of them.
And man is responsible for what he does. It was God's sovereign
purpose to destroy Pharaoh and his army at the Red Sea to give
us a picture of redemption in Christ. That was God's eternal
purpose, and it was Pharaoh's own fault that he was destroyed.
Pharaoh had nobody to blame but himself. He couldn't go into
judgment and tell God, it's your fault that I got killed in the
Red Sea. I would've lived longer and had
a chance to repent if I just lived longer. No, it was Pharaoh's
fault he was destroyed at the Red Sea. God hardened Pharaoh's
heart. That word hardened means to make
stiff and stubborn. Made it just stubborn. But this
is also true. Pharaoh never did one thing he
didn't want to do. He didn't say, well, I don't
want to do this, but God's forcing me. No, Pharaoh did everything
that he wanted to do and he hardened his own heart. He stiffened and
made stubborn his own heart. Now God is sovereign over all
the free what we call the free will, the free actions of the
hearts of all men. He's sovereign over them because
he's sovereign over their hearts. Listen to what Solomon said,
Proverbs 21 verse one. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it with or
so ever he will. Why do kings and rulers do what
they do? Because God turned their hearts
to do it. That's true in the palace and it's true of paupers
like you and me. Why do we do what we do? God
turns our hearts to do it. That's exactly right. And he
does it that way to accomplish his eternal will and purpose.
Now, like I say, as I'm studying this this week, I read people,
they try to explain what's going on here and they say, well, God
hardened Pharaoh's heart because that's what Pharaoh was going
to do anyway. But that can't be true. Because that's not what
the word says. God says, I will harden Pharaoh's
heart. And he did harden Pharaoh's heart.
And God has every right to do that. Because he's God overall. When God hardens the hearts of
men to do what they will, you know why he does that? It's the
same reason God does everything. It's to accomplish his eternal
will and purpose. To save his people in such a
way that his son gets all the glory for doing. That's exactly
right. Now somebody's going to say,
well, that's not fair. That's not fair for God to harden
my heart and then punish me for the sin that I commit with my
hard heart. That's not fair. Look at Romans
chapter nine. The apostle Paul anticipated
that. Maybe he even heard it. And he
gives us an answer to this objection. That's not fair. And here's the
answer. Who do you think you are to question
God? Who do you think you are? Romans
9 verse 17. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy. And whom he will, he hardeneth.
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who
hath resisted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou? Who are you to reply against
God? Shall the thing form, say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay Of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honour, And another unto dishonour? Well, of course he
does. God has the right to do whatever
he will with us. Because he made us. We're his
creatures. He made us and he can use us
to serve his purpose in whatever way that he chooses. One way
or another, God's going to use us either for his justice or
his mercy. To glorify his justice or to
glorify his mercy. One or the other. And it's up
to God which way he uses us. It's simply up to him because
he's God. God destroyed Pharaoh and his army at the Red Sea to
show the glory of God's justice. At the Red Sea, Pharaoh got exactly
what he earned, didn't he? He got exactly what he deserved.
God's justice was carried out. And you know the same thing will
be true when God casts people into hell. Now you and I can't think about
that right now. To think about and understand God sending people
into hell, it's too much to comprehend. It won't be then, but now it
is now, it's too much. But I know this, I don't like
to think about hell or study on hell or just to, You know,
it's too much, but I do know this. Here's why hell exists.
To glorify God's justice. God's justice demands that all
sin, without exception, be punished with death. And when God casts
people into hell, he's gonna show there's no exceptions. There's
no exceptions to that. Everyone will receive exactly
what they deserve. And that's gonna glorify God's
justice. He'll give them no more and no less. And that will glorify
God's justice and that's pretty much all I need to know about
that issue right now. But on the other side, God's
gonna save his elect people too. He's gonna save them so God's
mercy and God's grace will be glorified. His justice will also
be glorified, won't it? Because his justice was satisfied
in his son. That God might glorify his mercy
and his grace when he saves the likes of us. But now in order
to see the glory of God's mercy to his people, the first thing
we gotta get a look at is our hard, dead, depraved, sinful
hearts. If we understand something about
our sin, then we're gonna see more of the glory of God's mercy
and God's grace. And the issue is the heart. This
is the issue. I looked up that word heart,
it's used 884 times in the word of God. And obviously we can't
look at all of those tonight. We don't even have time to turn
to the ones that I've selected to show us the depravity, the
darkness, the sinfulness of our hearts. But I'll read most of
them to you, and if you want you can jot them down, look at
them later, or go back and listen to the recording and jot them
down, whatever you want. But the heart. As it's used in
scripture, it means the inner man. It's what our mind is. It's the way that we think. It's
our affections. That heart, it determines what
we love and what we hate. Our heart is our nature. It's
what we truly are. What we truly are. Here's how
the word of God describes our natural heart. Genesis six, verse
five, the thoughts of our heart is only evil continually. Now that's our nature, it's only
evil. Nothing else, only evil and it's
evil continually, it never takes a break. Jeremiah 17 verse nine,
the heart is deceitful above all things and it's desperately
wicked. Our heart, our nature, we're
not just wicked, we're desperately wicked. Hosea wrote in Hosea
four verse eight, They set their heart on iniquity. I mean, our
nature is set on iniquity. It's set on chasing, it's set
on getting it, it's set on going after it, it's set on committing
it. We're set on iniquity. Deuteronomy 10 verse 16 describes
our heart as stiff-necked. We're so stubborn. You know,
sometimes stubbornness can be a good thing. Stubbornness to
refuse to compromise, to refuse to, you know, worship idols or,
you know, whatever. But this is not what that's talking
about. It's being stubbornly wicked. It's refusing to change
for doing anything but wickedness. That's our nature. That's what
we are. David said in Psalm 95 verse 10, that we're a people
that do err in our hearts and we've not known God's ways. Now
here's why false religion is so crazy. There's so many different
crazy false religions out there coming out of left field. It's
because everything that we think about God by nature is wrong. It's an error. Everything that
we do to try to please God is an error because we err in our
hearts. We can't do anything else. In
Proverbs 20, verse nine, Solomon asked, who can say I've made
my heart clean? Who can say? Who can say I'm
pure from sin? I've made my heart pure. Not
one. All of us have an impure heart
that's polluted with sin. I mean, sin's not just something
we did wrong, it's a pollution. It's a defilement, and we can't
change it. Solomon again described our hearts,
Proverbs 12, verse 18. as a perverse heart. It's perverse. And the word means crooked and
twisted with iniquity. Twisted with iniquity, with sin. It's perverse. Isaiah said in
Isaiah 1 verse 5 that our whole heart is faint. And the word
faint means sick and polluted with sin. That's our nature. Our natural hearts are fountains
of sin. They can't do anything but spew
sin. You know, our sin, and this tells
us, our sin is not God's fault. It's our fault, because it comes
from our heart. And when God looks at you and me, that's what
he looks at, the heart. And all it can do is spew sin. Our Lord said, Matthew 5, verse
28. God looks on the heart now. This is where he's dealing with
us in the heart. I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman,
to lust after her, hath committed adultery, already with her in
his heart. In his heart, that's where the
problem is. Matthew 15, verse 19, the Lord said, out of the
heart, proceed, here's all that can come out of our hearts, evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
and blasphemies. That's the only thing that can
come out of our heart, because that's the only thing that's in it.
And not only do our natural hearts not believe the gospel when we
hear it, our hearts resist the gospel when we hear it, the same
way Pharaoh did. We resist the gospel when we
hear it. Acts 7, verse 51. He's stiff-necked and uncircumcised
in hearts and ears. You do always resist the Holy
Ghost. We resist in our hearts. And
that natural heart, that nature of man that we have in us, it
cannot change. It can't be improved. Somebody
might be able to teach us to not act on it outwardly as much,
but it's not gonna change the nature. It's not gonna change
the nature. Even God doesn't change that
nature when he saves a sinner. When God saves a sinner, he gives
that sinner a brand new heart, a brand new nature. And that
nature is holy and it's righteous. It's a heart that can never sin. It's a heart that always loves
God. It's a heart that always trusts
Christ. Now, if God the Holy Spirit puts
that heart, a holy, righteous, sinless nature in you, we have to glorify God's mercy
and grace for doing that, don't we? You have to. because we didn't
do anything to deserve it. God just did that of his own
free grace and mercy. If we would be saved, dead sinners
have got to be given a new heart. See, we must have the work of
all three of the Godhead if we would be truly saved, completely
saved. We've got to have the work of
the Father in divine election. God must choose us. Based on
what I've just read to you from the word of God about our heart,
about our nature, We can't possibly think, if left to our own devices,
we'd ever choose God, would we? No, we need Him to choose us.
And we must have the work of the Son for us, the work of Christ
on the cross to put away our sin, because we can never put
it away ourself, because all we can do is commit more sin.
But salvation cannot stop there. We also need the work of the
Holy Spirit to give us a new nature in the new birth, Now
you've heard me read to you what the scripture says about our
old heart. Now I want you to listen to what the scriptures
have to say about this new heart, this new nature that God, the
Holy Spirit gives in the new birth. Ezekiel 11 verse 19, God
says, I will give them one heart and I'll put a new spirit within
you and I'll take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them
a heart of flesh. God gives his people a soft heart. Not that cold, dead heart of
stone that we are born with. A soft heart. A heart that can
be moved. A heart that can be squeezed
and feel things. That new heart God gives his
people is a heart that's moved with love. If you trust Christ
tonight, You can remember a time your heart was not moved with
love for God. It wasn't moved with love for
Christ. It wasn't moved with love for the gospel. But it is
now. You might come in here, drag
yourself in here on a cold, rainy Wednesday night, and you feel
as hard as stone. And for long as the gospel is
preached, you feel yourself moved. That's a heart of flesh that
God gives his people. It's a heart that's moved by
excitement with the gospel of Christ. There was a time nothing
was as boring to you as hearing the gospel preached. A little
girl I know was at a Bible conference. She was a little thing. She's
just old enough that she couldn't stay in the nursery anymore.
Now she's coming out into the service and went to a Bible conference. It's one where they have services
Friday night, Saturday morning, and Saturday evening. Well, Friday
night was okay. Saturday morning was okay. And
then they broke the news to her, we're going back again now on
Saturday night. And she said, are we gonna go
to church forever? She was not excited. She just
not excited. You can remember what that felt
like too, can't you? But now do you find yourself
excited to hear the gospel? Oh, this is what I need. You
know why? God's put a new heart in you.
That old heart couldn't have ever been, this is a new heart.
Isn't that amazing? I never used to care a bit about
the gospel, but now I do. That's a gift of God's grace.
That's amazing. And that new nature, you don't
ever have to worry about that nature quitting. They're never
gonna quit trusting Christ because the gospel's written on the heart.
Proverbs 3 verse 3 says, let not mercy and truth forsake thee,
bind them about thine neck, write them upon the table of thine
heart. You do it, you write them upon
the table of thine heart. God will do it for you too. Just
like Pharaoh hardened his heart and God hardened his heart, you
write them on the table of your heart. You seek after, you be
where the word is preached. You bind these things on your
heart and God will do it too. God'll do it too. In Luke 24, verse 32, this is
the disciples on the road to Emmaus after the Lord had departed
from them. And they said, did not our heart
burn within us? This didn't just tickle my fancy.
This didn't just answer a bunch of intellectual questions for
me. My heart burned within me as
he talked with us by the way. And he opened unto us the scriptures. He didn't just use psychological
mumbo-jumbo, he opened the scriptures to us. That's what made our hearts
burn within us. That's a new heart, isn't it?
That God gives, that feeds on the gospel, that loves the gospel. Proverbs 3 verse 5, Solomon says,
trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not into thine
own understanding. That new nature, will always
trust Christ completely and fully, always, because that's its nature. And it's that new heart that
believes Christ unto salvation. In Acts 8, verse 37, the eunuch
asked Philip, what doth hinder me from being baptized? And he
said, if you believe with all your heart, you may. And that
eunuch answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is a son of
God. Now that confession can only
come from a new heart that God gave him as Philip preached to
him. In Acts 5 verse 9, the new heart is described as being purified,
purified by faith in Christ. In 1 Peter 1 verse 22, Peter
says, seeing you purified your souls, in obeying the truth through
the spirit, through the spirit unto unfamed
love of the brethren. See that you love one another
with a pure heart. Love one another with a pure
heart. God gives his people a pure heart. There's no sin in it. It's pure. Now, when you consider
how sinful we are, that's amazing that God could put a pure heart
in such an impure flesh as this. but that's the nature that he
gives his people. It's a pure nature. In Acts 16
verse 14, this new heart, this new nature is described as Lydia's
heart that the Lord opened. Oh, the heart that we have by
nature is so closed off to trust in Christ is closed off to the
gospel. It's closed off to anything spiritual.
but God opened her heart. He gave her a new heart that
was open. It was opened so that it could understand the gospel,
so it could believe the gospel, so it could love the gospel,
so it could desire the gospel. If you desire to hear the gospel,
and I'm assuming that you do, since you've come out here on
a Wednesday night, that's an amazing gift from Almighty God
in it, because that's the opposite of the heart we were born with.
Paul in Romans 6 verse 17 describes this new heart as a heart that
obeys God. It obeys God by believing on
Christ. Paul says, but God be thanked
that you were the servants of sin, but now you've obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine, which was delivered unto you.
Somebody preached the gospel to you, the gospel of Christ,
and you obeyed. You believe Christ. You believe
Christ. because God gave you a heart
of faith. Now, you know that's true. If you believe Christ,
you know good and well that faith did not come from you. That faith
is a gift of God that he put in you. That's amazing. That someone
who stubbornly refused to trust Christ, who's set on iniquity,
who can only sin, Shouted with those of old, I
will not have this man to reign over me. That God will put a
heart of faith in us so that we believe his son. In Hebrews 13 verse nine, the
writer describes this new heart as a heart that's been established
with grace. Established with grace. This
heart that God causes to be born into his people. How is it established? So it'll never be like the pig
that will return to its own vomit. How will it be established? By
grace. It's established by God's grace
that establishes us and strengthens us and won't let him leave us.
Leave him and it's established by the preaching of grace. Made
stronger and stronger and stronger in faith in Christ. God gives
his people a pure, righteous, sinless heart that trusts Christ
and will never, ever, ever go back to trusting our works of
law. If somebody quits the gospel and goes back to trusting the
works of the law, it's because God never gave them a new heart,
never gave them a new nature. But if God gave them that new
heart, they'll never quit trusting Christ. Now, you know what that means?
That means if God the Holy Spirit has caused you to be born again,
you can never sin and make yourself lost again. You can never sin
so much that God will cast you off, ever. And knowing that and
believing that will never make you say, well, it doesn't matter
how I live, I'll go sin that grace may abound. No. You don't want to be separated
from God. Now, I mean, we're gonna hate
our sin, we're gonna do our best not to sin, and we will anyway.
And it's gonna bother us so much, it's gonna drag us down so much,
it's gonna be so depressing and make us just worry and worry
and worry, but you hang on to this. If God the Holy Spirit
has caused you to be born again, you can never be lost. It's an impossibility. That's
two natures. I want to ask you this question.
What's the difference between the unbeliever and the believer?
What's the difference? The difference is an act of God's
grace on undeserving sinners. It's the only difference. It's
an act of God's grace in birthing a new nature in the hearts of
his people. Now God is sovereign and I am
responsible. Both of those things are true.
I'm either going to depend upon myself for righteousness and
eternal life and salvation and forgiveness, or I'm going to
depend on God for it. Who do you want to depend on?
Now, I can't put a new nature in me. I can't put a righteous
nature in me, but God can. God can. He said he does for
his people. Then what am I to do? If I can't put a new nature
in me, I cannot put in me what God requires. Then what am I
to do? I can beg God for it. Look in
Psalm 51. David, the man after God's own
heart, did just that. He begged for it. Psalm 51 verse
10. Go look up verse 9. Hide thy face from my sins. and
blot out all my iniquities, create in me a clean heart, oh God,
and renew a right spirit within me. That's what God's gonna have
to do for us if we would be saved. He's gonna have to create that
in us. Did I tell you what let's do? Let's beg him for it. Let's beg him for it. All right,
I hope that'll be a blessing to you. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word Your word that deals so honestly, shows us who
and what we are. We're nothing but fallen, dead,
depraved, defiled flesh. It shows us our need of Christ.
Father, how we thank you that your word deals honestly with
who you are and how you save sinners and what you do for them
and in them. And we cry with our brother David,
the man who you said is after your own heart. Lord, create
in us this new nature, this new heart, this right spirit. Father,
cause us, make us to believe you and trust you and cling to
you and be established by your mercy and by your grace. Father,
we ask this for the glory of Christ our Savior. If you would
be pleased to save sinners like us, Rebels like us who are so
stiff-necked to your gospel, who take it for granted because
we hear it every week, week after week after week. Father, if you'd
be pleased to save us, surely your grace and your mercy and
your power would be glorified. And we give you all the thanks
and all the honor and all the praise for it. It's in Christ's
name, for his sake we pray, amen. All right. Before y'all leave,
if some of you men would set up the tables and the vestibule
for dinner on Sunday, I would greatly appreciate it. All right,
Sean.