Proverbs 28. And we read the
first 14 verses, and I would bring to your attention again,
verse 14. Happy is the man that feareth
always, but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.
I want you to look down in verse 25 with me. He that is of a proud
heart stirreth up strife. He that putteth his trust in
the Lord shall be made fat. He that trusteth in his own heart
is a fool, but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.
He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack, but he that hideth
his eyes shall have many a curse. When the wicked rise, men hide
themselves, but when they perish, the righteous increase. This
hour, I would like to see three things. I would like to see,
number one, the condition of our heart according to God. And
that would remind us that the way God sees things is exactly
the way they are. The condition of our heart according
to how God sees it. Second thing is our need of a
substitute, our need for a new heart. And lastly, I would like
to see how God gives his people the heart of Christ. I've titled
this message kind of an odd title. I've titled it Let Jesus with
a question mark. Let Jesus with a question mark.
Now we know that we don't let the Lord Jesus do anything, do
we? In this chapter, we see three conditions of man's heart, and
this is the reason we can't let him do anything. Number one,
in verse 14, we have a hard heart, don't we? A heart of stone. In
verse 25, we see that it's a proud heart. that man has, a proud
heart, which is something the Lord hates. He hates a proud
look, doesn't he? Proud heart. We know that that's the refusal
to bow unto Him. And the third condition that
we see is our own heart. Our own heart. See, that's not
the required heart. It must be the heart of Christ
to please the Lord. Men say in religion, and I was
around several family members this Christmas, Many of them
believe what I'm about to tell you and we do not believe this,
nor do we preach this year, but they say let Jesus into your
heart. Let Jesus. Let Jesus into your heart. Let
him be Lord over your life. Boy, aren't you glad that we
don't let him do anything? That he has purposed all things
and he has hung the stars in the heavens and he is divided
the waters from the sands and he had saved his people. He raineth
he eternally raineth. We don't let Jesus do anything.
That's why I put a question mark after it. We're going to call
that into question. I let Jesus, how am I going to
let Jesus, me being the chief of sinners, how can I let him
do anything? We don't, do we? We don't let God do anything.
He controls all according to his purpose before time ever
began. Let Jesus into your heart. I wrote an article on this, so
you'll see this again on Sunday, but it's the most detestable,
the most deplorable, and it's one of the most blasphemous things
that men has ever come up with. One of the most blasphemous things. It's literally putting themselves
on the throne of God. That's what they're saying, and
they don't even realize that's what they're doing. The word
let, by definition, means to allow, not to prevent or to forbid. To allow, not to prevent or forbid. Let should never be put before
the Lord's name in any way. Let God should never be put in
our conversation because even as the scripture says, let God
be true and all men liars, there's a cause and effect there, isn't
it? All men are liars and therefore God is true. And us doing something
doesn't let that be. Apostle Paul was addressing a
specific situation. He says, stop looking to man,
all men are liars. Look to Christ, look to God, he's true. That
was the message given there. So let should never be put before
God. Let God let Jesus let the Lord. We don't we don't let him
do we? I was reminded that in trying
to figure out what men are trying to accomplish in obtaining salvation
from Lord by saying let it's likened to a quadruple bypass
of the heart. Man's heart is beating and in
order for their heart Because it's not functioning properly,
it's clogged. Four of the main arteries are
clogged and so they literally have to stop the heart from beating
and bypass all the way around each of those arteries during
that operation. where the surgeons are. They have to stop the heart
from beating. And that's what men are saying. They're wanting
God to operate on their heart. They can't fix the blockage that's
in their heart themselves. Do you see what I'm saying there?
We can't fix the problem that we have. Men don't realize that
the problem isn't that they need a quadruple bypass. We need a
new heart, don't we? We need a new heart. Our heart's
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, Jeremiah
said. So it's not surgery that we need and that trying to fix
what we are. We need a substitute. We don't
need to let Jesus into our heart. We need him to take out our heart
of stone and give us a heart of flesh. We need him to plow
the ground of our heart and cause the good seed to fall upon the
good ground that he has tilled, not the stony ground. You remember
the parable, the Lord said the sower went forth and cast some
seed on the stony ground and some seed on the thorny ground
and the sun came and cooked that which was on the rock. It couldn't
give root and the thorns choked it, but some fell on good ground.
That's what we need, isn't it? We need our heart to be made
good ground for the Lord to bring forth his word in power and call
us unto him. That's our hope. Problem with
the ideology of let Jesus is men believe that they need a
procedure done on their heart. But the problem is, is man's
heart's dead, dead and trespasses and in sin. It's not beating
a little bit and we can make a decision. It's dead. As dead as the graveyard behind
us, the men and women that are back there that live their life,
their heart stopped. That's where we are, dead in
trespasses and in sin, born in this world. We need a Savior
to pass by our dead corpse and say, live, and give us a new
heart that looks unto the Father, that pleases the Father. We need
the substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. By nature, men want to fix their
heart condition, their heart condition, and that's called
iniquity, that we've already read just a moment ago. That
is iniquity. That's what we, that literally
by definition is us trying to fix the problem, us trying to
fix our heart condition. But by definition, iniquity is
us trying to fix the problem. So whenever David said this,
we understand if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not
hear me when I pray. The Lord will not hear my cry.
The Lord will not hear me. What is he saying? If I try to
fix the problem, I'm not looking to Christ to substitute. That's
what he's saying. If I'm trying to correct all
the things that's bad in my life in order to please God for salvation,
the Lord's not going to hear me when I pray. Because we're
not looking to Christ, our substitute, are we? Thanks be to God, He
causes us to see that it's not of works, not of iniquity, but
it's by grace. By grace are you saved. How?
Through faith. Through the faith of the Lord
Jesus Christ that He bestows upon us. With faith there is not one iota.
There is not one inkling of self righteousness. There is not one
one little bit of iniquity in faith. Did you know that faith
looks to Christ because it's his faith? Faith just believes
God. Anytime that you have doubts,
anytime that you have fear, you're not looking to Christ. I'm not
looking to Christ. Thanks be to God. He causes his
people time and time again by the circumstances of this flesh
to cry out for mercy. Lord, I don't need a heart bypass. I need a new heart. I need the
heart of Christ because it's perfect. I need his heart to
be found in me. I needed substitution. Whenever
he died, he took my heart of stone and he gave me his heart
of flesh. He took my heart this deceitful
and he gave me his heart, which is true. He gave me his heart
that is perfect, that is pure, that is holy, that is good under
the father. And he took my wicked heart into
himself and the father put away. He put away our sin in his own
body by the death of himself. When the Lord made his soul and
offering for sin. Is that your hope? That's my
hope. See, we're not trying to let God do anything, are we?
We're crying out, Lord, save me, the sinner. Lord, have mercy
upon me. I see that I have a heart problem
and they're in a doctor anywhere on this earth that can fix it.
We need the great physician, don't we? We need the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are made to know that the
Lord searches the hearts, he says in Jeremiah 17, I search
the heart of the Lord. I try the reins and the word
reins there means the inward parts, the bowels. It literally
means the core, the heart. It's the same, it's the same
thing. I search the hearts and the reins even to give every
man according to his ways. What is your ways? What is your
ways? If your ways are iniquity and
my ways are iniquity, the Lord will not pardon us. The Lord
will not acquit the guilty. But Jesus Christ is the way,
isn't he? Jesus Christ is the way, the
truth, and the life. So what is your way? Our hope,
brethren, is that our way is His way, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our way is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we're hoping for.
If the Lord searched our heart,
what would He find? Well, we know left to ourself
what He would find. We've already said it. Our heart's
deceitful, desperately wicked. What's our hope? Is that when
He sees us, He sees the blood, because He said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass by you. We know that we bring nothing
to Him to merit our salvation, but yet everything required the
Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled and accomplished and produced for
His people. Even the perfect heart. I'm reminded
of men that try to come unto the Lord their own way. Their own way. Not coming to
Him begging for mercy, trying to fix a problem, a spiritual
problem with a physical application, trying to do something physically
to fix a spiritual problem. A good example of that is the
Maniac of Gadara. You all know the story, I know,
but the Lord literally, I love the fact that on the Sea of Galilee,
he goes from the northernmost part of the Sea of Galilee to
the southernmost part of the Sea of Galilee to save one man,
the Maniac of Gadara. Well, that's the type and picture
of the Lord condescending from glory in order to save his people,
isn't it? I love that. When he arrives
on the shoreline of Gadara, what does he find? Gadarenes. He finds
a maniac, doesn't he? A man that is naked, a man that
is in chains and fetters, often would break the chains and fetters,
a man that cut himself and cried out both day and night. Those chains and fetters are
keeping the law, aren't they? That's what men do to try to
fix their problem. They put chains and fetters on themselves and
they bind the flesh and they feel that if they do it more
so, God will be pleased with them. Do we see that? That's
exactly what that is a picture of. And what about this cutting
of the flesh? They're trying to crucify their
flesh that God may be pleased with their sacrifice. That's
what that's a picture of. It's the same thing the prophets
of Baal did, as we've heard many times. The prophets of Baal cut
themselves and cried out all day, didn't they? Elijah began
to mock them. That's exactly what this represents. This man
is out of his mind. He's a maniac. And you and I
are maniacs. I was talking to Terry just a
couple days ago. I was over yesterday, I guess
it was. I was over there speaking to him and we were talking about
the maniacic dare. And I said, you know, we'll be talking about
that tomorrow night. Being a maniac means that we're
out of our mind. We don't know which way to think. We don't
think properly. We don't have logical... We don't
think the way that God thinks because He has not been revealed.
Why? Because we're dead and trespassers and in sin. And all we do all
the time is we went, some of you and I, the same as I was,
went from religion to religion, trying to figure out which way
to please God. That's just putting more chains and fetters. Well,
that one didn't work. We broke free of that one, didn't we?
We would cut ourselves and we would cry out and think we were
doing everything we needed to do to please God. All we were
doing is trying to get a quadruple bypass. That's what we were doing.
And yet we see that when the Lord showed up on the shore,
what did that maniac do? He worshipped Him. God reveals
Himself. That's what the Lord's people
do is they worship. They bow before Him, confessing
His righteousness, not their own. Confessing they are the
sinner, that they have no righteousness. They have no hope. They don't
need a fix of the heart they have. They need a new heart.
They need the heart of Christ. And that is exactly what took
place with this maniac. You all know the rest of the
account. Whenever the Lord demanded that the demons come out, they
said, well, let us go into the swine. Is that not the world
that we live in? We know that the swine represents those that
are not elect in the scripture. It was an unclean animal. The
Lord said, yeah, you can have them, but you can't have my sheep.
You cannot have my sheep. They're my sheep. My sheep hear
My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, the Lord said.
And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
John chapter 10. So we see that this maniac is
exactly us. Exactly us. The demons departed,
went into the swine. The swine ran headlong, and they
killed themselves. And that's what men in religion do. End
up killing themselves. Don't even realize they're doing
it. They think that they're doing God a favor, but they don't need
the heart of Christ because He hasn't been revealed. I love
what they say next about our brother. When they found him,
they found him seated. Well, that means he's not working
anymore, right? They found him seated. They found him clothed
in the righteousness of Christ. That's what that represents.
And in his right mind. Is that not where the Lord comes
by and says unto us live? He puts us in our right mind,
doesn't he? He clothes us in his righteousness and he says,
sit down. It is finished. That's what he does. He gives
us. That's the heart that he gives his people. That's what
I'm preaching to us about tonight. the Lord's heart that looks unto
him. See, the maniac didn't let Jesus do anything. He is Lord
over the heavens, Lord over the earth, Lord over the demons,
Lord over the devil. The devil's God's devil. No man
can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? He inhabits
the heavens. He's God and he is seated. And
he successfully saved his people. Well, what happened whenever
all the men came and they saw their swine gone, but they saw
this maniac who had been like that for so long seated in his
right mind? They said, away with this man. We'd rather have the
swine. Get out of our country. Get out of our town. And that's
what they, later on, you know how they treated our Lord. Every
time he would reveal himself in power, they would say, away
with this man. They would try to kill him. He would reveal
who he was. He would reveal his heart unto them. And what did
they say? They wanted to stone him, didn't they? So many times
we see it, but they couldn't touch him until the time was
fulfilled for him to die for his people. Christ only revealed
himself to this one and he saved this one by giving him. A new
heart. I think I preached a message
on that for you all. Actually, last year sometime
I think, I think I titled it The Master and the Maniac, and
that's what happens every time that the master meets a maniac.
That's his. He puts them in the right mind,
doesn't he? David prayed and cried out unto the Lord, just
as every elect sinner cries out unto the Lord, creating me a
new heart, O Lord, renewing me a right spirit. See, we've been
made to know we need a substitute. We've been made to know that
our heart's not good enough to please God. We've been made to
know that we need the heart of Christ. Everything He requires,
we find in Christ and He bestows it. Now in another place, Christ
actually responds to this let Jesus mentality. He was dealing
with the Pharisees. I want to show you that in Matthew
15. Turn with me there. Pharisees are a good example
of what religion will do. The Lord leaves a man or woman
to themselves. Lord calls him out for it by
calling them what they are in Matthew 15 in verse 7. You hypocrites, the Lord says. Well, did Isaiah prophesy of
you saying? The people draw with nine to
me with their mouth and honor with me with their lips, but
their heart is far from me. But in vain they wish to worship
me. Teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men. Anything
men produce in and of themselves is vain worship. We know that
God is a spirit, and they that worship must worship in spirit
and in truth. And we know that only those who are his, he reveals
himself to. He saved them, then he calls
them, and he gives them a new heart, and he gives them his
spirit. Therefore, we crowd unto him,
Abba, Father. We worship God in spirit and
in truth. That's what his people does. No matter the intentions, brethren,
no matter how good the intentions were of these hypocrites, these
Pharisees, these men, no matter how good our friends and families
intentions are in life, no matter how good they appear to other
men, there's none good. No, not one. The heart is not
good before God. He tries the inward parts. Our
very best is iniquity. This is why substitution is necessary. This is why we need a savior,
one that put away our iniquity in his own body. According to
Isaiah 53, we need one that bore our sin. And look at verse 18. But those things which proceed
out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile the
man. For out of the heart proceedeth
evil thoughts, murderers, adulteries, fornications, theft, false witness,
blasphemies. These are the things which fouleth
the man, but to eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man." We
see that the heart is the center problem. And if you want to see
what man at his very best state is, Ecclesiastes says it's altogether
vanity, but the Lord right here is telling us exactly what men
produce if left to themselves. That's all we can produce. It's
not because of what we do, brethren, that defiles us. That's what
the Lord's saying. It's because of what we are. It's because
of what we are in the gospel goes forth, not saying that we
have clogged arteries, but our hearts not beating. We need a
new heart, a heart that beats unto God, a heart that looks
to him. We're not trying to let God do
anything. We're begging Lord, give me a new heart, creating
me a new heart, a clean heart, a perfect heart, the heart of
Christ. This is what we need. Men liken God into the ideology
that if they do their best, if they do their best, God will
give them a participation trophy. Think about that. If they do
their best, then their reward is going to be heaven. God will
give them a mansion and a crown because of what they have done.
That's where we are in society and in religion. The Lord doesn't
give anybody a participation trophy. The Lord doesn't reward
anyone for their merits. The Lord rewarded Christ for
his merits. So what is our prayer then? Lord,
give me Christ, my portion. Lord, make Christ my reward.
Lord, shut me up to him and give me his heart, a clean heart that
looks unto him. He tells us how this is required,
why this is required in Psalm 24, verse three, who shall ascend
to the hill of the Lord or who shall stand in his holy place?
Who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord? Who shall go to
heaven? Who shall worship Him? Who shall stand in His holy place?
Who's gonna stand before the throne of God? He that hath clean
hands and a pure heart. That's a perfect heart, isn't
it? Clean hands, what does that mean? I've never sinned one time
is what God requires. That's our hope, is that whenever
Christ put away our sin, the Father no longer sees sin upon
us because it's not there. It's been put away. He took our
sin into His own body, and He put away our sin, giving us clean
hands. He took our heart of stone and
gave us a heart of flesh that looks unto Him. That is the perfect
heart, the pure heart of Christ. Yet men continually desire to
say foolish things such as let Jesus, or what they're saying
is God is not God. That's what men are saying. God's
not God. I have the choice. This was the lie from the very
beginning in the Garden of Eden, as you all know. What did he
say? The day that you'll eat of this
tree, you shall not surely die, but you'll be as gods. That's
what he was telling. You're gonna be God if you do
that. That was the temptation of Eve from the very beginning.
That's been the lie of the devil the entire existence of mankind. and man left to themselves believe
that they can make a choice, that they can do something to
please God. It's the natural response because
we are created to want to work. That is our curse as men, and
it's our curse to work with the sweat of our brow and labor.
And that's exactly what men try to do to save themselves. But
yet the Lord said, I will not have your iniquity. I will not
have the works of your hands. I require blood, the blood sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God that whenever
His blood was shed, He became our righteousness before the
Father. And when the Lord sees us, He
sees us as perfectly righteous, having the Lord's heart. It says, the Lord is nigh unto them
that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite
spirit. Now that word broken, that's not the word cracked,
is it? It's the word broken. That means crushed. to powder. Crushed to powder and have a
contrite heart. That word contract means dust.
What is the Lord saying? The Lord's nine to them that
he has crushed and showed that they are nothing but sin and
that's all they can produce. And he saved as such as be of
nothing but dust. Have no confession, no hope in
the flesh whatsoever. See, this is the state where
the Lord then reveals his Gospel. I want us to see that in Ezekiel
36. This is how the Lord gives His people
the heart of Christ. This is how He does it. Ezekiel
36, right before Daniel. Ezekiel 36 v. 25 tells us, Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you and you shall be clean. Don't you love the way that the
Lord words that I will and you shall. There is no. It's all
of him. Do we see that it's all of what
he chose to do? I will sprinkle clean water upon
you and you shall be clean from all your filthiness and from
all your idols. Will I cleanse you? A new heart also will I
give you and a new spirit will I put within you. and I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give
you the heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and
cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments
and do them. See, this is God's gospel. This
is God's sovereign right to choose. This is God saying I will and
you shall and that's exactly what he did for everyone that
he died for. He took out our heart of stone
and he gave us a heart of flesh He cleansed us with his clean
water. What does that clean water represent? That's the Gospel,
isn't it? He tells us in the New Testament that he might sanctify
and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. This is
a cleansing of the Lord himself through the preaching of the
Gospel for his people. Why did the Lord do this? Well,
we can look in Psalm. Last place will turn to tonight
is in Psalm chapter 40. God did this for Christ's sake. I meant to read in the chapter
that we were just in, the very last verse there, it says, not
for your sakes do I this, not for your sakes do I this, saith
the Lord, be it known unto you, be ashamed and confounded in
your own ways. He says, I didn't do this for
you. I did this for Christ's sake. What does the Lord say?
And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you, Ephesians
4.32. He did this all for Christ's
sake. Now you're in Psalm chapter 40 verse 12. For innumerable evils have can
pass me about. This is David speaking prophetically
of Christ on the cross. For innumerable evils have can
pass me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I am not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart felleth me. Brethren,
he took our polluted sin. bearing our sin in his body.
He took our polluted heart, bearing our sin in his own body. And
he says innumerable evils can pass me about. And then he calls
them mine iniquities. He owned the iniquity of his
people as his own. Do we see that? He owned the
sin of his elect. We find this in Isaiah 53. The
Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. And we see at the
very end of this verse a glimpse into the suffering, into the
agony that the Lord was facing on the cross for His people.
And it says, my heart faileth me. Brethren, this is called
substitution. As the Lord's heartbeat stopped
for His people, It was the guarantee that everyone that he just took
his last breath for would have the breath of life, that they
would be given that clean heart of Christ. As his blood flowed
from him, it was our guarantee that we would be made the righteousness
of God in him. As he said, it is finished. It
was our promise that all that for whom he died would receive
the faith of Christ would receive the life of Christ as their own
and would own the heart of Christ before the father. That's our
hope. That's our only hope. If that's
not true, if he's still looking at my heart, we know what our
heart is. We've heard about that already.
He sees the heart of Christ. He sees the blood. He sees His
Son because of substitution when He looks at His people. This
was promised in the covenant of grace before time began that
we would be given the heart of Christ. Somebody said, well,
I don't see it. Brethren, we don't see what the
Lord has done, but we believe it, don't we? We believe it.
Why? We've been made to. We've been made to believe that
God is sovereign. We've been made to believe our heart is
a stony heart and those who have been made to believe that have
actually been given the heart of flesh. Instead of bearing
guilt, we have freedom. Instead of having instead of
death, we have life and life more abundant. Instead of a heart
of stone, we have a heart of flesh. Instead of being blind,
we have sight. Did you know the qualification
for being a believer is being blind? Christ told the Pharisees
the reason that you are blind is because you say you see. Whenever
the Lord shows you that you're blind, he gives you sight instantaneously. Isn't that glorious? You say,
well, all I can see is that I'm blind. Exactly. That's all you're
supposed to see. That's what makes you look to
Christ, isn't it? All I can see is that I'm lame. I can't do
anything right. Well, that's exactly what makes
you run to Christ, isn't it? That's what he does for his people. The cause for all this is found
in Jeremiah 31. You don't have to turn there. One verse says,
but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my law in
their inward parts. You know what inward parts is?
Their heart. Their heart, and will write it
in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be
my people. I will, and they shall. We read
last, I think it was last Wednesday even in Ezekiel where he said,
I spread my skirt over you and I made you mine. You became mine. Isn't that glorious? He bought
us with his own blood. Men say, let Jesus into your
heart. How silly is that? Make him Lord of your life. He's
already Lord. We can't make him do anything. We can't let him
do anything. Thanks be to God. He put away our sin without us
being involved in any way, shape or form. The elect doesn't say
things like this. We've been made to see the condition
of our heart as God sees it. We've been made to see our need
of a substitute, a need of a new heart. We've been made to see
how God gave his people that heart, the heart of Christ, the
heart of Christ. We've been made to cry out just
as David created me a clean heart, oh God, give us that heart that
pleases you, calls us to look into you. We're not made to say let Jesus,
but we're made to say Lord Jesus, let us cause us. We don't let Jesus, but we say
Jesus, let us. Calls us to be found in thee.
Lord, if thou wilt stocks can't makes me whole. If thou will
thou can makes me whole. Lord said I will. We say Lord
save me and he says be thou saved. Lord, let us be found in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'd remind us of these two
verses that we read in Proverbs 28. He that is of a proud heart
stirreth up strife, but he that putteth his trust in the Lord
shall be made fat, fat on the milk and honey of Christ. He
that trusteth in his own heart is a fool, but whoso walketh
wisely, he shall be delivered. Well, that means all I have to
do is walk wisely then, right? Well, what does walking wisely
mean? Looking to Christ. as all of your wisdom. That's
how you walk wisely. Looking to Christ as all of your
wisdom. Christ Jesus is the successful savior that gave his heart to
his bride. Isn't that glorious? For his
people. Father, thank you for giving
us your heart. Cause us to look to you. Forgive
us of our sin, of what we are. In Christ's name we pray, amen.