Create in Me a Clean Heart

Well, brethren, a 2006 medical study reveals just how difficult change is for people. Roughly 600,000 people have heart bypasses, that is, open heart surgery every year in America. That's a lot of people going through open heart surgery. These people are told after their bypasses that they must change their lifestyles. Probably many of them were told years before that they would develop heart trouble unless they changed their lifestyle. They didn't change. At least, a lot of them didn't change. And so, a heart bypass was required. You know, the heart bypass is really just a temporary fix.

If they don't want to develop more heart problems, then doctors tell them they must change their diets. They must also quit smoking. If they're smoking, they should stop any kind of heavy drinking that's going on. They must exercise. They must reduce their stress. They must change their normal lifestyle, the way that they've normally been living.

So, in essence, the doctors are telling them, change or die. It's up to you. It's that serious when someone needs a heart bypass. You would think that such a near-death experience would forever grab the attention of such patients. You would think that they would really be serious about changing. And you would think that the argument for change would be so compelling that the patients would make the appropriate lifestyle alterations.

But sadly, that's not the case. This is according to some information in a book by Tom Rayner and Eric Geiger. This was from page 229. It's actually a book called Simple Church. They talk about how people just have a very difficult time changing, even those who have gone through heart surgery have a very difficult time changing. They say that 90% of the heart patients do not significantly change their lifestyles.

They remain the same, living the status quo. And study after study indicates that two years after heart surgery, most patients have not significantly altered their behavior. Instead of making changes for life, in a sense, they choose death. Change is that difficult. Change is not something that comes easy in many cases. And the majority of the heart patients choose not to really change. They act as if they would rather die. I'm sure they feel like, well, you know, things will work out. You know, it'll be okay. This will fix me up. I'm not going to live to be 150 anyway. So I don't have to stop smoking or stop heavy drinking or whatever it is that they've been doing to cause the problems.

I don't have to really exercise all that much. It won't make that much difference. So in a sense, they act as if they would rather die than make the changes that they really need to make. So how about you? Are you one of the 90% that would refuse to change their lifestyle if you were told that you really needed to change? Are you one of the 90% that would refuse to change?

Or are you among the 10% who is willing to change, open to change, and able to change? That's a probing question. Are you one of the 90% or are you truly one of the 10% that would make those lifestyle changes? Do you know what remains the number one killer in the world today? Is it cancer? We hear so much about cancer. Is it car accidents?

By the way, I think most of you knew my wife was in a car accident a couple weeks ago. She totaled the car, but she wasn't hurt, thankfully. It wasn't her fault. Someone turned out of a parking lot into her lane. Both of the car bags deployed, but she wasn't even really sore from that. She had a little soreness, but overall she was blessed, and God was with her. She was doing well as far as that's concerned.

She did get sick afterwards, but that had nothing to do with it. Is it car accidents? Well, a lot of people do have car accidents, but it's not the number one killer in the world. Is it natural disasters like hurricanes and tsunamis? There were over 200,000 people who died in a tsunami, but it isn't tsunamis, it isn't natural disasters, earthquakes and such. Is it smoking? Well, we know a lot of people do die from smoking, but I think probably most of us realize that heart disease remains the number one killer in the world.

Heart disease. As there often is, there is also a very interesting parallel between the physical and the spiritual. God often uses the physical to teach us about the more important spiritual issues in our lives. This is certainly true when it comes to the human heart and the spiritual heart that God so wants us to develop in our lives. So today we're going to talk about your spiritual heart. How strong and vital is your spiritual heart?

How clean and pure is your spiritual heart? I would like to take a phrase from Psalm 51, verse 10, as the title for today's sermon. I'm sure you've all heard this. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Create in me a clean heart, O God. And of course, this is taken from King David.

It was from his psalm of repentance, his prayer of repentance, when he went to God asking for forgiveness for his sin with Bathsheba and with Uriah the Hittite. Create in me a clean heart, O God. And it is true that God is the one that has to do it. He's the one that has to create the heart in us. Now we can do our part, but God is the one that actually makes the difference.

We have to willingly submit to God and yield to Him and surrender to Him, but He's the one that can clean us up and He's the one that can clean our hearts. So that's what we'll be talking about today in the sermon, how to change from a heart that the Bible says is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked to a clean and a pure heart. And since change is so difficult, we realize this is not an easy task.

Let's go to Jeremiah 17, where we read that the heart is deceitful above all things. Jeremiah 17. This is one of those memory scriptures, probably, that's on those Scripture cards that we'll be getting. Jeremiah 17. I know it was one of the memory verses that we had at Ambassador College. Jeremiah 17. Let's begin in verse 5.

Thus says the Eternal, Cursed is a man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength. Do you lean to your own place? Do you make flesh your strength? God says, Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Eternal. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness in a salt land which is not inhabited.

In other words, there will be a curse on anyone who does not turn to God and whose heart departs from the Eternal. On the other hand, Blessed is the man who trusts in the Eternal. Blessed is the man who trusts God and whose hope is the Eternal. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters which spreads out its roots by the river and will not fear when heat comes. But its leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. So there is a great blessing in turning to God and in allowing God to make changes in our lives and to guide us and direct us.

On the other hand, verse 9, the heart is deceitful above all things. The human heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Eternal, search the heart. I test the mind. I am the eternal man. The mind and the heart are closely related. God says, I search the heart. I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. Certainly it is true that we will reap what we sow. And God does look on the heart. And God tests the heart. And God searches the heart.

So this is an important topic as we approach the Passover. We're told to examine ourselves, to look deep within ourselves. We need to look at our hearts. And we need to be honest with ourselves. Just how pure and clean is your heart. In Matthew 5, this is from the Beatitudes, Matthew 5, Jesus Christ says in verse 8 of Matthew 5, blessed are the pure in heart. For they shall see God, those who are pure in heart shall see God.

There is great reward in having a pure heart. Now we know that no one has seen God the Father at any time. This is what Jesus Christ said. But all who develop pure heart shall spend eternity with God the Father and of course with Jesus Christ as well. Christ also said that if you've seen him, you've seen the Father. So from that perspective, the Father has been revealed to us. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. It's talking about those who are pure in heart will live forever with God.

They will see God. They will become like God. So I'd like to share with you four steps in changing your heart. Now they're pretty basic in many ways. But I believe it's something that we need to meditate upon a great deal as we approach the Passover. And the first step in changing your heart from one that is deceitful and wicked to one that is pure and clean is to first of all believe what God says about the heart. You have to believe that the human heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

I think for many of us we don't have any problem seeing that because we're disgusted at some of the thoughts that we have and some of the things that we think. But maybe for some they have a hard time believing that the heart is all that deceitful and all that wicked. So the first step is understanding and believing what God says about the heart. If we don't see our hearts as they truly are, then how are we going to change those hearts? Let's go back to Genesis 6. It does talk about the heart and the mind as well. As I said, the mind and the heart are closely related. We often find the heart and the mind referred to together. In Genesis 6, verse 5, Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. It didn't take long before mankind had become corrupt, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, and the Eternal was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. God was grieved in his heart. Of course, God has a pure, perfect heart. So the Eternal said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. So Noah was pleasing to God. Noah walked with God, and thankfully Noah was the kind of person that God could start all over with. And that's essentially what God did at this time. We know that God sent a great flood upon the earth, and everyone died except for Noah, his wife, and their family. It was because Noah found grace in the eyes of the Eternal. But the reason this happened was because man's heart was wicked, and the thoughts of his heart were evil continually. And today we see a society where so much evil goes on, you know, it makes you wonder how different it was back then at this time than it is today. Was there much difference between the evil that was going on then and the evil that goes on today? In Genesis 8, verse 21, Genesis 8, verse 21, and the Eternal smelled a soothing aroma, and the Eternal said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination, and let's see, my margin says the intent or thought, the imagination or intent or thought of man's heart is evil from his youth, nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. So here the Bible shows that man's heart is evil from his youth. It doesn't take long before mankind begins to think in carnal ways, fleshly carnal, evil ways. In fact, I remember my son was only like five years old. And I know I've shared this with many of you. You may remember this. My son had done something wrong. I don't know exactly what it was. I don't remember. He was like five years old, and because I love him, I was going to punish him for that. And I think I spanked him for it. And then a little bit later, he was pretty repentant, and he came to me and he said, you know, Dad, it's hard to be good. It's hard to be good. See, he knew when he was doing something bad that he shouldn't be doing it. But it was hard to be good, and so he did that which was bad.

He admitted it. So I've always remembered that. I thought, you know, son, I agreed with him. I said, you know, it is hard to be good. And he said, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. It's hard to be good. And I find it still hard to be good. Perhaps you find in yourself the same thing. Sometimes it's hard to be good. It's hard to always do the right thing, to do the godly thing. So a man's heart is evil even from his youth. It doesn't take long. Now, I know Mr. Armstrong felt that human nature at birth was neutral. It wasn't good or evil. You know, Adam and Eve, when they were created, you know, God said everything was good. So it wasn't that they had such an evil heart in that sense, but when they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, when they chose to disobey God, then that carnal mind began to well up in them. I was listening to Mr. Holiday's sermon on the nature of man, and I don't think we played that here, but it was an interesting sermon. He was talking about the nature of man, and he was saying that Christ could not have had a carnal mind in the same way that we do, because the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So the way I took that was, you know, Christ had human nature, but Christ never sinned. So Christ always made the right decision. And, you know, as Mr. Palmer was saying, He never got close to sin. He stayed away from sin, He made the right choices. Whereas very early on, as human beings, we yield to that carnal side, that evil, fleshly side, and we make the wrong choices. We choose to do evil, and Jesus Christ never chose to do evil. So it is important that we see ourselves as we truly are. The Scripture says the heart is deceitful above all things, it's desperately wicked. The Scripture says that man's heart is evil even from his youth. And my own life's experience has proven to me the truth of these words. I was only 18 years old when God began to draw me to Him. He began to call me and work with me intimately. I know some of you were called before you were even 18 years old. You grew up in the church, you were very young. I was not in the church. I grew up outside the church, even though my mother had gotten the plain truth. For a long time, I think I was 3 years old when she started getting the Plain Truth magazine. She did understand much of the truth. But we went to Sunday School, we went to Methodist Church, and we weren't keeping the Sabbath. I didn't grow up keeping the Sabbath. I didn't eat a lot of pork because Mom said we shouldn't. My dad had bacon, and I would have it once in a while as a child. Even though I thought maybe I shouldn't, I did it anyway.

When I was 18, God began to really change my mind. He began to really work in my heart and mind. I began changing a young 18-year-old evil heart into a clean and pure heart. I'm still in the process. I haven't arrived yet. My heart is still not as clean and pure as I would like it to be. It continues to be a struggle. It continues to be a process. I would imagine that you are battling the same battle. At age 56, I'm still in the process of changing a potentially evil 56-year-old heart into a clean and pure spiritual heart. It is a lifelong process. It's a battle that I'm sure will continue on until Christ's return. Or until I die, whichever comes first. At age 18, I came to see and to believe that I was very selfishly motivated. When God was calling me, I had to really be honest with myself and realize that at 18, I was pretty selfish. I had to admit that evil lurked in my heart and in my mind. I sincerely wanted to change from a person with an evil, selfish heart to a man of God. With a clean, pure heart, I still have that same desire today. I'm still determined to fight that battle, to make changes in my heart and mind. I've had to do that all these years. It has been a bit of a bumpy, difficult road at times, but I'm grateful that with God's help, He has kept me still moving down that road that leads to eternal life. It leads to true happiness in God's Kingdom. It's certainly worth the battle, isn't it? To struggle and strive against our wicked hearts and minds. There is great reward if we will continue to fight the battle and gain the victory through Jesus Christ, because it is clearly Christ living in us that gives us the victory over sin. It's nothing that we can do of ourselves. We know that we don't earn our salvation by keeping God's laws. We know that we're supposed to keep God's laws because God tells us to, and the wages of sin is death.

So it is a battle that we all need to fight, and we need to continue to fight it. We must not become weary in well-doing. Sometimes we get weary of the battle, but it is well-doing when we fight that battle, and when we don't give in and don't give up. So I would encourage you not to become weary in well-doing, but continue to fight the battle, and continue to look to God for the help and the strength that you need.

So again, the first step in changing your heart from a deceitful and wicked one, to one that is pure and clean, is to believe what God says about your heart. You know, if you think you have no sin, then you're a liar, and the truth is not in you. That's what the Scripture says. So if there's anyone here that thinks they have no sin, then God says you're a liar. God says the truth is not in you.

Back in Numbers, Chapter 15, there was a man who had broken the Sabbath day. I'm sure you remember this account. He was gathering sticks on the Sabbath. Six days shall you labor and do all your work, but he was out gathering up sticks, evidently for a fire. I must not have used the preparation day, hadn't gathered them already, and was out breaking the Sabbath. So they looked to God for what to do with him, and God said to stone him to death.

This man had broken the Sabbath, and he was stoned to death for his actions. Let's go to Numbers 15, verse 39. Numbers 15, verse 39.

And you shall have the tassel that you may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined. So back during the time of ancient Israel, God says that their hearts were inclined toward harlotry or hordom, toward evil, toward spiritual adultery, as well as even physical adultery. Verse 4. And that you may remember and do all my commandments and be holy for your God. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Eternal your God. God says we are to be holy as He is holy, and we are to obey His commandments. God wants us to remember the commandments. This man was an example. He was used as an example of how seriously God does take sin. And Ananias and Sapphira were used as examples in the Bible, in the New Testament. They were also struck down dead because of disobedience, because they lied to the Holy Spirit. They lied to God. And God uses certain examples in the Bible. Uzzah was another example of one who didn't follow God's instructions, and God required his life. Obviously, God doesn't do that where many more people would have died. God doesn't just require everyone's death. And under the New Covenant, of course, there is forgiveness, there is mercy when someone repents.

But the point I'm making here is that their hearts were inclined to do evil. So even though we may be inclined toward evil like this man was, that was out breaking the Sabbath, we're not bound to do evil. It's not something that we have to do. It is a choice, and that choice brings consequences.

Again, we reap what we sow. There are blessings for obedience, there are curses for disobedience. So the first step in changing your heart is to admit that you have an evil heart. That you have a carnal mind and a carnal heart. Once you turn to sin, we all followed Adam and Eve, didn't we? Adam and Eve sinned, and we've all sinned and followed Adam and Eve since then. So that carnal mind and that carnal heart is there, and we have to resist. Again, as the sermonette was talking about, we have to resist this carnal nature that is evil and is prone to sin. We have to resist it. So we have to understand that we have it in order to resist it. So the first point is to know what we're dealing with and to believe what God says about your heart. The second step in changing your heart from one that is deceitful and wicked to one that is pure and clean is to make a lifelong commitment in the waters of baptism. I mean, that's the second step. And a lot of you have already made that commitment. Some of you haven't made that commitment yet. You will be contemplating that in the next few years, many of you. Those of you who are of age. On the day of Pentecost in probably 31 A.D., thousands of people were pricked in their hearts as they realized that they had actually killed the Savior of the world. You remember the account on the day of Pentecost in the book of Acts. Remember, they asked, what shall we do when Peter gave that sermon and he convicted them through his preaching that they had indeed killed Jesus the Christ? And they asked, what shall we do? So let's go to Acts 2, verses 38 and 39. For those of you who have made this commitment, this is a reminder that we are to stay faithful to that commitment. Acts 2, verse 38.

Acts 2, verse 38. Then Peter said to them, after they asked, what shall we do? He said, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So we have to repent of our sins. Sin is the transgression of the law, so when we repent of our sins, we have a godly sorrow for having broken God's law.

And we have a desire to turn from that into change. Repent means to turn and to change. So instead of continuing to break God's commandments, we are to keep God's commandments. And we are to make that a goal in our lives, is to live by every word of God and to keep God's commandments. The promise of the Holy Spirit is given here. Once a person repents of his sins and is baptized, that means he's accepted Christ as his personal Savior and is repentant of his sins, then upon the laying on of hands, he receives the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. God is continuing to call people today. God will continue to call people up to the return of his Son, Jesus Christ. So the second step is to make this lifelong commitment. It is a commitment that does need to be made in the waters of baptism. That's what Peter said we ought to do because of our part in killing the Savior of the world. We all have had a part in killing Jesus Christ. Christ died because of our sins. Anyone who is sinned is responsible for the death of Jesus Christ because Christ died that our sins could be forgiven. We all know that. We all understand that we are responsible for Christ's death. It only makes sense to admit that and realize that it takes a commitment on our part. It is a commitment that happens at baptism. We accept Christ as our Savior. We realize that Christ certainly did die for us. And it's only through Christ's sacrifice that our sins are forgiven.

So this promise that was made in Acts 2, verse 39, that the promise is to you and to your children. This is a promise that you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit if you repent of your sins and if you accept Christ as your Savior. You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is yours to accept or reject.

It is a promise, though, that's been given by God. And it is a promise that He will keep. If you make this commitment in faith, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That's what God tells us. So as we yield, God's Spirit will cause a person to change their hearts.

So, yes, we have to strive against a carnal human heart, but with God's Spirit we can change. And the more we learn to yield to God's Spirit, then the more we do change. The more we walk in the Spirit, then the more pure our heart becomes.

So the more you practice walking in the Spirit, then the more pure your heart becomes. And the more you yield to the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, then the more your heart becomes dirty and filthy. So it is important that we do take seriously God's commandments and that we strive to put sin out of our lives. God's Spirit will cause us to change our hearts. Our hearts will change if we are yielding to the Spirit of God. Now, on that day of Pentecost, over 3,000 people made this lifelong commitment and were baptized as a symbol of that commitment. No doubt they were all persecuted for the choice they made that day. The heat was really turned up in the first century for those who became Christians. They had to flee from city to city. We know that the disciples, all except John, were martyred. They were all killed. And undoubtedly, many of the brethren were chased and had to run for their lives. God protected some of them, we know, as the Scripture tells us. They went to Pella at God's direction, and they were protected, but many lost their lives.

So, it isn't an easy life that we've chosen to make our own. To be a true Christian is a difficult life. And again, it isn't easy to change our hearts from desperately wicked and deceitful to clean and pure.

So, it was at age 19 that I made that lifelong commitment as I went under the watery grave of baptism. As I said, I never grew up in God's church, but God showed me at a very young age that I did need to change my life. And I, of course, never regretted that decision to be baptized and to begin this lifelong process of changing my life and changing my heart from one that was frankly bent on evil in many respects. It wasn't that I was a serial killer or anything like that, but I also knew that my heart was bent on evil to a large degree, and that I needed to change. So, I've had a heart that has hungered and thirsted for righteousness over the years, and I certainly give God the credit for that. I want to do the right thing. I do hunger and thirst for righteousness, as you do. And that is the key to changing and overcoming, is if you have a hunger and a thirst for righteousness, and if you really have a desire to change, then you will change. You will make progress. You will produce fruit. Sometimes it's very difficult to see the progress that we're making. Sometimes it seems that we're just not making much progress at all, and perhaps at times we're not. But, by the same token, I think there are many times that God is probably more pleased with us than we are. Sometimes we can be harder on ourselves than even God would want us to be. There's a fine balance there. We have to put a prod on ourselves to change, and guilt is a good thing because guilt helps us change. When we see that we've been guilty of breaking God's laws, then that's healthy for us. If we have no guilt, then that's a big problem, unless we have no sin. But, as I said earlier, we all have sin, so there should be some guilt associated with our sins, which should help us change and repent. So the key to changing and overcoming and growing spiritually is to truly hunger and thirst for righteousness. When we do that, we will be feeding our spiritual hearts. The weekly Sabbath is obviously a tremendous blessing for all of us. We get together once a week as God's people, and we are reminded of who we are when we come here together. We are reminded that God has called us out of the world. He has opened our minds to understand the truth of God's Sabbath, what it pictures and what it means. It's a day to be taught by God and to be instructed by God, and it helps us stay on the straight and narrow path. When we neglect observing the Sabbath or coming to church and fellowshiping with God and His people, then we are certainly doing ourselves spiritual harm. It is important that we are here faithfully, that we do observe God's Sabbath faithfully, and that we are taught by God, and that we have an infusion of the Spirit of God in a special way on the Sabbath, being around God, hearing God's truth, being taught, being around God's people. It's a very wonderful and rich blessing to know the truth about God's Sabbath and to keep the Sabbath day. And the annual Holy Days as well, because they are yearly reminders of God's plan of salvation. And without them, I'm sure we would lose track of what God is doing in our lives. If you desire to please God and serve Him, then you will be feeding your spiritual heart. If you really have a desire to please God and to serve Him, then you're going to feed your spiritual heart. In Deuteronomy 4, verse 29, it says that we are to seek God with all of our hearts.

Deuteronomy chapter 4, let's turn there for a moment. Of course, this is in the Old Testament, but remember, the Old Testament and the New Testament are one. They are God's Word.

Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 29. Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 29. For from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all of your heart and with all of your soul. God does want us to be wholehearted, and that's one of the things that He appreciated about David. King David was a man after God's heart, because David was wholehearted in his approach. He did seek God with all of his heart. He did seek God with all of his heart. He wasn't perfect. He had a heart that He had to strive against His will as well. He had a deceitful heart. And it did deceive Him at times, certainly with Bathsheba and with Uriah the Hittite.

But He thankfully repented of that sin and continued to seek God with all of His heart. And then in Deuteronomy 5, verse 29, Deuteronomy 5, verse 29, the God of the Old Testament, actually the one who became Christ, said, Oh, that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and always keep all of My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever. See, the problem is, they didn't have that type of heart, however, but certainly God expressed His desire that they would have this heart, that this heart would be in them.

So God is working with all of us these days under the New Covenant to have such a heart. Remember, we are to write God's laws in our hearts and in our minds. God's law isn't done away. Instead, it's written in our hearts and in our minds. And that's the kind of heart that we need to have, the kind of heart that has God's laws written there. And we want to obey God and we want to serve Him. We want to keep His commandments. We want to do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And then in Deuteronomy 6, verse 5, Well, let's read verse 4, 5 and 6. Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. And you shall teach your children diligently the ways of God and the truth of God. We are to love God with all of our heart, soul, and strength.

So this human heart will become more deceitful and wicked unless we strive to seek God with all of our heart, our soul, and our strength. So it does take tremendous effort on our part.

Jesus Christ had to put great effort into His life. We know He was without sin, even though He was tempted in every point as we are, but it didn't come easy.

He was tempted by Satan the devil. He was tested and tempted throughout His life. But Jesus Christ never sinned. He prayed fervently just before He was crucified. It shows that He was praying all night long for God's strength. God wants us to be wholehearted as well. He wants us to put our hearts into serving Him.

So the second step in changing your heart from one that is deceitful and wicked to one that is pure and clean is to make a lifelong commitment in the waters of baptism.

Now I'd like to introduce the third step to changing your heart by sharing with you an old Indian legend. You've probably heard this.

It's an old Indian legend. One some of you have heard probably a number of times. But a grandfather was talking to his grandson, and he said to his grandson, There are two wolves living in my heart, and they are at war with each other. One is vicious and cruel. The other wolf is wise and kind. Grandfather said the alarmed grandson, Which one will win? And the grandfather paused before he said, The one that I feed. The one that we feed is going to win. So I use this as an illustration. The third step in changing your heart from one that is deceitful and wicked to one that is pure and clean is to continually feed your heart with pure, clean thoughts and actions and to keep company with people of like mind. Again, this goes along well with the sermonette. We are to continually feed our hearts with pure, clean thoughts and actions. We are to keep company with people of like mind. And obviously we are to resist Satan, the devil, and to resist those who would follow Satan. Those that would be his instruments, we should not follow their course. The course shouldn't follow what they do, but we should follow those who are following God.

Researchers from the University of Utah found there is a price to pay when couples don't get along, by the way. Oftentimes it's in our marital relationships that we are truly tested. Video tapes recorded 150 husbands and wives discussing sensitive issues, such as how money is mannised or doing household chores. They found the following. Women who buried anger rather than speaking out were more likely to succumb to heart disease than wives who were vocal, the study found. And when women became domineering and controlling rather than seeking consensus, damage was done to the husband's coronary health. Researcher Timothy W. Smith understood that there will be disagreements in a marriage, but how can you handle yourself in resolving disagreements is important. Can you do it in a way that gets your concerns addressed, but without doing damage at the same time? That's not an easy mark to hit. So a British research project yielded remarkably similar results. By the way, I'm taking these statistics from a couple of different articles. One was the Fine Art of Marital Dispute. Another one, Study Ties Marital Strife and Heart Disease. And then, A Bad Relationship Can Cause Heart Attack.

So after a 12-year study of British civil servants, most of whom were married, English researchers concluded that those with hostile intimate relationships were 34% more likely to experience chest pains, heart attacks, and other heart trouble. Now that isn't hard for us to imagine, is it? Because we know what stress does. We know what stress does in our lives. When we're stressed out, then it makes us sick.

Even after typical contributing factors such as obesity, smoking, and drinking were eliminated from the equation, those in troubled relationships were still at 23% greater risk for a heart attack. So be good to yourself. Stop fighting in your marriage. Stop squabbling and fighting so much. Be good to your hearts. You'll be glad you did. If you have good people around, it's also good for your health. Lead researcher Roberto DiBogli, if you have bad people around you, it is much worse for your health.

So it is important, the company that we keep. So surround yourself with good company.

Also, according to research by the University of Chicago sociologist Linda Waite, divorce will break your heart. Divorce is obviously very stressful. As she says, it will break your heart, and that health streak that you've been on. In an article for the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Waite says, people who suffer marital disruption through either divorce or widowhood are 20% more likely to have chronic health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes or cancer than married people.

They are also 23% more likely to face mobility issues in older age. So the same thing is true spiritually. For the spiritual heart, there are certain things that we can do to cause damage to our heart. In Philippians 4, instruction is given to us to meditate on certain things and to avoid other things.

Philippians 4, verse 6.

Philippians 4, verse 6.

Paul says, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. So there are tremendous blessings in having God's peace in our lives.

It will guard our hearts and minds. So if we are close to Jesus Christ and we learn to trust in God and not have so many fears, in this life, and if we are truly thankful to God, then there will be blessings for your heart, both physically and spiritually. Your heart will be blessed in both ways. Verse 8. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, then meditate. Think on these things.

The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. We're told to meditate on those things that are right and good and pure and lovely, and not become obsessed with critical negative thinking. That will really mess up our hearts, both physically and spiritually. A critical heart takes people out of God's church eventually. Grumbling and complaining and having a critical heart will eventually lead to separation from God's people.

It is very, very important that we meditate on those things that are right and good and pure and lovely. So the third step in changing your heart from one that is deceitful and wicked to one that is pure and clean is to continually feed your heart with pure, clean thoughts and actions, and to keep company with people of like mind. The Bible says to keep yourself unspotted from the world, to keep company with people of like mind. People who are striving to serve God and obey Him, please Him. So that's the third step. Be careful what you think about, what you meditate upon.

Be good to yourself and follow the instruction here in Philippians 4. And then the fourth step in changing your heart from one that is deceitful and wicked to one that is pure and clean is to never turn from that lifelong commitment that you made at baptism. So we're going back to that commitment that was made at baptism. That's the fourth step, is just don't turn from that commitment. If we yield to God and allow Him to help us, it is possible to never turn from that commitment. We have people in this room that have never turned from that commitment.

We have some that have turned from that commitment for a time, but they repented of the direction they were headed and they came back. And they have gone back to that commitment that they made at baptism. So repentance is the key to never turning from this commitment that we make at baptism. We know repentance is a process. Repentance is something that we have to do on a daily basis. We have to continually repent of wrong thoughts and wrong actions. We have to continually be aware of the things that we think about. We do need to try to put those wrong thoughts out of our minds. We need to focus on those things that are right and good. And repentance is the key to continually staying steadfast in that commitment that we made at baptism. Let's go to Psalm 51, and this is where we got the title for this sermon, Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God.

Psalm 51, let's read together this powerful prayer that David made to God. Psalm 51, it was recorded for our benefit. As it says in probably your subtitle there, this was a Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba, after he had sinned with Bathsheba, after he had Uriah the Hittite killed. Remember, Nathan the prophet was sent to him, and at first, he didn't see that Nathan was talking about himself. Remember, I gave a sermon on, You are the man? And we talked about how we're all the man. We've all sinned, and we've all fallen short of God's glory. So, you are the man, you are the one who has sinned, you are the one who needs to repent. And David came to see this, and so this is a prayer of repentance. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. So, David is looking to God's mercy. David is looking to God for his forgiveness and his loving kindness. He says, blot out my transgressions. In other words, forgive my transgressions, forgive my sin. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. And that was the first step, is to acknowledge our evil hearts, acknowledge that we have sinned. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. And against you and you only have I sinned, because ultimately God is the law-giver. God is the one who makes the laws, and when we break the law, we sin against God.

Against you and you only have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak, and blameless when you judge. Of course, God is perfect. God is blameless. We're the ones to blame. Remember, the problem has always been with the people.

Paul said God's law is holy, and just, and good. And the problem has always been with the people who did not keep the law. But God is blameless. Verse 5, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Now, this is just talking about the nature of mankind who has followed Adam and Eve. We have followed Adam and Eve into sin, every single one of us. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom. You know, God does work in our hearts. He works in the inward parts. God searches the heart. God looks at your attitude. He looks at your frame of mind. The way you think, the way you express yourself toward others, and the feelings that you have. toward other people, and toward Him.

He says, Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom. It is God who gets the credit for any understanding that any of us have regarding His truth. God is the one that opens our minds. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Again, God is the one that has to do the cleaning. We can't clean ourselves up. Only God can cleanse us through forgiveness.

Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. God, forgive me for my sin. Forgive me for my iniquities, and create in me a clean heart. David understood that his heart was dirty. When he sinned with Bathsheba, his heart was dirty. When he killed Uriah, his heart was dirty.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Undoubtedly, Jesus Christ always yielded to the Spirit. He had God's Spirit from the very beginning. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God was in him. He had human nature, because he was a human being. But instead of yielding to the carnal human nature, the evil human nature, he yielded to the Spirit of God. So he never sinned. He obviously was tempted, as it says, in every point as we are. The temptation was there. Satan was tempting him. But he was not inclined to do that. The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So Christ did not yield to that at all. He didn't go there at all. And we need to think about that ourselves. What can you do to yield to the Spirit of God instead of your carnal human nature?

We've all sinned, and the more we sin, the more carnal we become. The more evil we become. When we repent of our sins, certainly that washes away those sins when we repent of those things, we have a chance to begin anew. But nevertheless, that human heart is there, that carnal human nature.

And we need to, again, resist that and yield to the Spirit of God.

So, creating me a clean heart of God, renew a steadfast spirit within me. God's Spirit is steadfast, and we need to have that spirit renewed through repentance. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. David knew that he was in jeopardy of having the Spirit even taken away from him because of his grievous sins.

He said, Restore to me the joy of your salvation. There is great joy in the salvation of God, and uphold me by your generous Spirit. David realized that it was only through the grace of God that he would be saved, that he would attain salvation. He prayed that God would not take the Holy Spirit away from him, but that he would uphold him by his Spirit. Passover is an annual reminder that we are all responsible for the death of the only person who never deserved to die. Jesus Christ was the only one who didn't deserve to die. All the rest of us have deserved to die, because we've all sinned, and the wages of sin is death. It's clear that our sins killed Jesus Christ. Sin is, again, the transgressing, the breaking of any of God's laws, and we've all done that. So it was through the death of his Son, through Jesus Christ, that God made a way of escape from eternal death. Christ died to pay the penalty for our sins. We all know that. We've heard that thousands of times. Jesus never sinned, but still he died. He didn't deserve to die, but he died on our behalf. He was crucified for you and for me. Our sins are forgiven through Jesus Christ, and we receive the gift of salvation, which is eternal life in God's kingdom, because of our willingness to surrender to God and to accept Christ as our Savior, to repent of our sins, not to make light of our sins, but to repent of our sins. And also, the Scripture shows us that we must also be forgiving people if we are to be forgiven. And God wants us to put on love, to become unleavened. Jesus Christ was perfectly unleavened. The Father is perfectly unleavened. Christ said that if you are His disciples, you will have love for one another. So as the Passover in God's Spring Holy Days approach, we adults who are baptized are admonished to examine ourselves. We are to look at ourselves to do a bit of a heart examination.

And we are to look into our hearts and analyze ourselves just how pure and clean is your heart.

On Passover, we are to take of that unleavened bread, which pictures the broken body of Jesus Christ. It also pictures the unity that we can have in God's Church. We are all to become unleavened. We all take a little bit of unleavened bread. We are to become unified in the Church of God. So let's examine ourselves. Let's prepare ourselves to keep the Passover, to eat the unleavened bread, to drink the wine, which is symbolic of the shed blood of Christ. We have accepted Christ as our Savior, so we drink that wine, that's symbolic of Christ's blood that was shed for us. To examine oneself means to pierce into one's heart. That's what it really means to examine oneself, is to pierce into one's heart. I remember that on the Day of Pentecost, it says they were pricked in their hearts, or they were pierced in their hearts.

To examine oneself means to look deeply within ourselves and to repent of any unclean thought or unclean action, anything that we've done or anything that we thought, anything that we've said. So we're now in a very important part of the year spiritually. It is important that we focus on God's instructions regarding our preparation for keeping the Passover and for observing the days of unleavened bread. Our hearts need to have a thorough cleaning each year. We will clean our homes of leaven. We also need to clean our hearts of leaven. We need to put the leaven out of our hearts, put the sin out of our hearts.

So the fourth step in changing our heart from one that is deceitful and wicked to one that is pure and clean is to never turn from that lifelong commitment that was made at baptism. The Passover is a reminder of that commitment. It's only for baptized members. The Passover is for baptized members. It is a reminder of that commitment.

And it's one, obviously, that we need to consider very fully at this time of year. Remember, God looks on the heart and so should we. As I said in the beginning, 90% of those who have heart bypass surgery don't change their lifestyles. 90%. Even though their lives are in jeopardy from a physical standpoint, they refuse to change their lifestyle. But remember, there are 10% who will change. 10% who will actually do something about it. From his hospital bed on the eve of open heart surgery, Pastor Bruce McIver asked his cardiologist, Dr. Dudley Johnson, Can you fix my heart? This is from a story by Bruce McIver. Stories I couldn't tell while I was a pastor. This is a story I guess he told afterwards when he was no longer a pastor. He asked the cardiologist, Dudley Johnson, Can you fix my heart? The physician, known for being short and to the point, said sure. Then he quickly turned and walked away. I can fix your heart. Following the 12-hour surgery, McIver asked Johnson, asked the doctor again, Dudley Johnson, In light of the blocked arteries that I had when I checked into the hospital, how much blood supply do I now have? All you'll ever need, replied the surgeon, who again ended the conversation by walking away.

Upon his discharge from the hospital, McIver's wife, LaWanna, asked the doctor, the same doctor, What about my husband's future quality of life? Johnson paused and then said, I fixed his heart. The quality of his life is up to him.

He fixed his heart, but the quality of life was up to him. What he did with his life from that point forward was up to him. It was based on the decisions that he would make. So I'm sure a lot of doctors, they probably feel like, I fixed the heart, you can go do whatever you want to do. Physically, you don't have to worry about it. Now, not every doctor feels that way, obviously. A lot of doctors feel like there are certain things that a person needs to do to maintain good health. But again, the important point I'm making here is a spiritual one. It is up to us what we do with our lives. God has given us life. He's given us understanding, and the choices that we make dictate the quality of our life. The quality of our lives is largely up to each of us individually, especially from a spiritual standpoint. We make choices that affect our lives every day. We have all made some wrong choices in the past. But with God's mercy and forgiveness, we have been allowed to repent and carry on. Many, many times God has been merciful and granted us repentance. It won't be long, and Passover will be here. So let's be sure we do a thorough heart examination prior to the Passover.