A Heart of Flesh for All Mankind

So many evils in the world that we can see all around the world in our own country and in our own communities, we wonder why can't man change his ways and make it easier on all of us? It's almost like we're programmed to do bad.

A personal correspondence question that was sent to me this week, a person wrote asking, I am a sinner. I want God to come into my life and free me from being a bad doer, his words. I am troubled. How can I be a friend to God? How can I change my ways? I wrote back to him that we all are sinners and pointed out some things we can do to change our ways and become a friend of God. But what's wrong with us humans? It's obvious that something is wrong when you look at the way things are being done in the world.

Something fundamentally wrong. What's the problem? And how can it be fixed? And where do we go for the answers? Well, we know where we go for the answers to our spiritual questions and all spiritual matters. We go to God's Word, and the Scriptures indeed reveal that there is something fundamentally wrong with us. What is it? We want to understand that this afternoon.

The answer is revealed in a tragic story of an ancient nation, the nation Israel. Let's begin the sermon and come in to see what is fundamentally wrong with us humans in Hebrews 8. Hebrews 8 and verses 7 and 8. Hebrews 8, verses 7 and 8. For if the first covenant that had been faultless, and God made this covenant with the nation Israel, we'll get to that in just a moment.

If that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. What is that fault that He found with Israel? Let's go back to the Old Covenant Scriptures when the Old Covenant was made.

We find that in Exodus 24. This is the beginning, the start of the Old Covenant. This is when the Old Covenant was made between God and ancient Israel. And there was a fault in that covenant. And that's why there was a need for the new covenant, another covenant. In Exodus 24 and verse 3, Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all His judgments. He told them the Ten Commandments, He told them the other judgments.

You can read them in chapters 20 through 23. Moses told the people all the words then of the Lord and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, All the words which the Lord has said, we will do.

You know, they meant it. I believe these people who had come out of Egypt, they had come out of slavery, they meant that they would do all of the words of God's covenant and law. Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar. And they did sacrificing burnt offerings in verse 5, and they sprinkled blood on the altar, verse 6. And verse 7, Then he took the book of the covenant and read in the hearing of the people, and they said, All that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient.

And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words. And so that blood is sort of like sealing that covenant, making it final. Finalizing that covenant between God and ancient Israel. Where Israel promised to do all that God commanded them and to be obedient. But brethren, what happened?

Well, we all know the story, but let's read a few verses on it. Did Israel obey and keep the covenant? We know that they did not. They rebelled in the wilderness. They rebelled when they came into the land under Joshua and were disobedient.

They were disobedient under the Judges and under the kings of Israel for hundreds and hundreds of years. Their failure is well documented in Numbers and 1 and 2 Samuel. 1 and 2 Kings.

1 and 2 Chronicles. A pretty good portion of the Bible documents ancient Israel's failure. And finally, after hundreds of years, then God allowed Israel, the ten northern tribes first, and later, about a hundred years or so later, the two southern tribes. He allowed Israel and Judah to go into captivity. In other words, He gave them a writing of divorce. He divorced them because of their unfaithfulness.

Well, let's read in 2 Kings 17 about how God, first of all, allowed ancient Israel, the ten tribes, to go into national captivity.

And they were no longer His nation. He was no longer, you might say, married to them.

In 2 Kings 17 and verse 7, And so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And they had feared other gods.

Let's skip on over to verse 13.

Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah by all His prophets, namely every seer, saying, Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. Nevertheless, they would not hear, but stiffened their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. And they rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them. They followed idols, became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them.

And so the end result of the ten northern tribes of Israel in verse 18, therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight. There was none left but the tribe of Judah only. And Judah had two tribes, Judah and Benjamin.

In verse 22, for the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam, which He did. They did not depart from them until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria as it is to this day. So God allowed the ten northern tribes to go into captivity to Assyria around 720 BC. Well, what about Judah? He allowed Judah to remain a little bit longer, but in the days of the prophet Jeremiah, then He allowed Judah also to go into captivity to Babylon around 600 BC. Let's read just a few verses on what happened in Judah. In Jeremiah, Jeremiah has a good account of what was going on in the southern empire or southern nation of Judah.

Judah chapter 5 and verses 1 to 3, Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the capital city of Judah.

Run through the streets of Jerusalem. See now and know and seek in her open places if you can find a man, if there is anyone who executes judgment, who seeks the truth, and I will pardon her. Though they say, I mean they were religious, as the Lord lives, they surely they swear falsely. O Lord, a knot your eyes on the truth. You have stricken them, but they have not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction.

They have made their faces harder than rock. They have refused to return. So the southern nation, Judah, had followed in the footsteps of the northern nation, Israel. Let's go to chapter 7 in verse 22. Jeremiah 7 in verse 22, I did not speak to your fathers nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.

It's not really what God was interested in. What was he interested in? But this is what I commanded them saying, Obey my voice. That's really always been what God has wanted. Obey my voice and I will be your God and you shall be my people and walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you. Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in the councils and in the imaginations of their evil heart and went backward and not forward.

So Judah followed in the same footsteps or way as Israel, and God allowed them to go into national captivity around 600 BC to Babylon. Well, many of the Jews came back and they were then a nation under Persian control, under Greek control, then under Roman authority in the days of Christ.

But both Israel and Judah failed as far as doing what they had promised God they would do.

Finding fault with them. What was the fault? The fault was their disobedience.

The fault was that they did not do what they said they would do. They did not obey God's laws and God's judgments and God's commandments. Why were they not able? We have to believe as they came out of Egypt and they stood there at the foot of Mount Sinai and they saw all these wonders and Moses delivered these laws from God, they said, we're going to do it. You have to believe that they were sincere, but they were not able to do it. And they failed. Why were they not able to do what they had promised God they would do? You know, something was fundamentally wrong. What was it?

Well, let's turn to Psalm 78. Psalm 78. And begin to understand what the fault was.

Because this is very important today for us to understand because we don't want to follow in the footsteps of ancient Israel. And we have all this huge portion of Scripture where they failed. It's there for a purpose. It's there for a reason. We can learn from it. In Psalm 78 and verse 5, For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, well, that was at Mount Sinai, wasn't it? Which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children, that the generation that come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children. So it's to be passed on generation by generation. By the way, there's something there we can learn. We are to pass it on to, aren't we? Generation to generation. And not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments. And may not be, like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart a right and whose spirit was not faithful to God. The fundamental problem, the fundamental fault is that there was something wrong with the heart of ancient Israel. In the same chapter, Psalm 78, verse 36, Nevertheless, they flattered Him with their tongue, they lied to Him with their flattered Him with their mouth, they lied to Him with their tongue. For their heart was not steadfast with Him, nor were they faithful in His covenant. So there was something lacking in their heart, something... there was a fault. The problem then is the heart.

They did not obey God then with all their heart and mind and soul and being.

They went their own way. Let's go back to some verses in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 29. Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 29.

We're going to read some verses here in Deuteronomy that are amazing.

And God made a covenant with ancient Israel. He said, Obey me, keep my commandments, realizing when He made the covenant that they would not be able to do it.

In Deuteronomy 5 and verse 29, O, that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear me and always keep all my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever. So the clear implication of this verse, they did not have the heart to keep God's commandments and to fear God. They didn't have it. They didn't have the heart.

Yet they thought they did, maybe, when they stood at the foot of Mount Sinai, but they didn't. They did not have the heart to really fear God and keep His commandments. Let's go to... and why was that? Ultimately, it goes beyond them. Let's go back to one more verse here. Deuteronomy 29 and verse 4.

Deuteronomy 29 and verse 4.

And these are two amazing verses here in Deuteronomy.

Chapter 5 and verse 29, chapter 29 and verse 4. Almost a reverse of those numbers.

Deuteronomy 29 and verse 4. Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear to this very day. And we marvel at that.

Mr. Armstrong mentioned at times that it's obvious that God used ancient Israel to prove a point, and that is that we cannot keep the commandments of God. We cannot fear God. We cannot have a heart that is right, just on our own. A human of his own can do nothing apart from God and God's help.

So it is obvious that God was proving a point when he made the covenant, the old covenant with ancient Israel, and said, keep my laws, keep my commandments. And Israel said, we will. We will be obedient. We will do all these things. And yet God realized that he had not given them a heart. The Lord has not given you a heart to perceive. He's not really given you a heart to obey and to do my will and do what's pleasing. So they utterly failed.

The old covenant between Israel and God, the Israelites utterly failed. Let's go to one other Scripture that is so graphic in Zechariah chapter 7. Zechariah chapter 7 and verse 9.

Here's what happened. Zechariah chapter 7 and verse 9. Thus says the Lord of hosts, execute true justice, show mercy and compassion, everyone to his brother. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor, that none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother.

In other words, keep God's laws and commandments that regulate all these things. But what happened?

Kind of sums up what we've been saying here. Verse 11. But they refused to heed.

They shrugged their shoulders. How graphic is that?

God told them to do something. They just shrugged their shoulders.

And stopped their ears. They stopped their ears so that they could not hear. Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by the Spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. Therefore, it happened that just as he proclaimed that they would not and they would not hear, so they called out and I would not listen, says the Lord of hosts. But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they had not known and thus the land became desolate after them.

And so it was sad when you look back upon ancient Israel and the covenant relationship they entered with God and yet they didn't really have the heart that was necessary. God did not give them his spirit. They were not given the Spirit of God. And so they prove a point of what we're able to do without the Spirit of God and without a heart that God provides for us. It's obvious then that God was proving a point in ancient Israel. The natural human heart is just not programmed then to do us right. And that's why we have so many evils in the world today. God is not granting his spirit to the world at large. So we have all these problems. Mankind as a whole is proving the same point that without God's spirit we can only have problems not solutions. Or look at the in Jeremiah 17 9. Look at the human heart. No wonder we have all the problems we have today. Mankind does need a different spirit. Mankind needs a different heart. And that's what the new covenant is all about.

Jeremiah 17 verse 9, the heart is deceitful above all things. Just the natural human heart with which each of us is born. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

It goes on to say that I the Lord search the heart. I test the mind. God is continually testing and trying us, our hearts. But the heart is deceitful. It's desperately wicked. And isn't that true? Look at the world. Look at the world that we live in. In Romans chapter 8 and verse 7. Romans chapter 8 and verse 7. Then it talks about the fleshly mind. That'd be the same thing as the human heart.

In Romans 8 and verse 7, because the carnal mind, just our natural fleshly mind or nature, is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. And so we're kind of programmed not to go the right way. And without God's spirit and some without conversion, then of course we just go that way. It's just natural. That's the way the world is going.

But the solution, then, already we have alluded to, and that is a new heart and a new spirit. And that's what God is proposing in the new covenant. The second covenant, the new covenant, proposes a new heart, a different heart, and a new spirit. And that's the solution to man's problems. A heart that can obey God from the heart and seek to do God's will. It does not want to displease God, but instead to please God and to do what is His will, not our own will. Let's notice some verses on this, several verses in the prophets. Jeremiah 31 and verse 31. Jeremiah 31 and verse 31. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. You know, actually, as far as making it with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, this has not happened yet.

God has not made this new covenant yet with the house of Israel and Judah. He will when Christ returns. I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke. Though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. That covenant relationship was a marriage relationship, and Christ was the husband, and Israel was the wife. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And verse 34, No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For they all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin, I will remember no more.

So God is going to make another covenant with the Israelites at the coming of Christ. It's going to be quite a different covenant than the one in the Old Testament. And they're going to have the heart to obey God, and to have God's laws written upon their hearts and minds.

Let's read in Jeremiah chapter 32 and verse 37.

Jeremiah 32 verse 37. We read more about this new covenant with Israel.

Jeremiah 32 verse 37, Behold, I will gather them out of all countries where I have driven them in my anger, in my fury, and in great wrath. I will bring them back to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. They shall be my people, and I will be their God. At the deepest level, that's what God wants of humans. He wants us to be His people. He wants to be our God.

Then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever. Now, this new covenant then brings about a fear that is a good kind of fear, that we would fear to go a wrong way. We don't want to go the wrong way, because we know it doesn't work. We have all of history, and we have all that is in the world around us to prove that any other way than God's way will never work. And we would fear to go any other way. But they may fear me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them. This new covenant then is a permanent one. And that I will not turn away from doing them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts so that they may not depart from me.

And that's what God wants, and should be, of course, what we want. We want that kind of relationship where we are drawn together in an everlasting covenant with the great God.

Let's go to some verses in Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 11 and verse 17.

Ezekiel 11 and verse 17, Therefore say, Thus says the Lord God, I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. Again, it's talking of that new, well, that new covenant that God is going to make with them.

They will go there and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there. Then I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them. That new covenant involves then a new heart and a new spirit and take the stony heart out of their flesh.

How about that? There's something stony in the human heart. There was something stony in the heart of the Israelites of old.

And God is going to take out or take away that stony heart and give them a heart of flesh.

What is the stony heart? He will take away. What is the heart of flesh?

Now, this is what the new covenant does. The new covenant is when God takes away the stony heart and He then provides something new, a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my judgments and do them and they shall be my people and I will be their God, what God really wants.

So God is going to take away the stony heart and give a heart of flesh. I want to read from the Expositor's Bible commentary. It gives just a little bit of explanation about this stony heart and heart of flesh. The new covenant promised, number one, a change of heart and number two, a new spirit. This new spirit would be the outpouring of the spirit promised by the prophets.

The new heart and spirit would replace Israel's old heart of stone. The people would be empowered. That's what the new spirit of God's spirit does. The people would be empowered to live in the godly manner set forth in the stipulations of the Mosaic covenant. Finally, they would truly reflect the Mosaic covenant formula. They would be God's people and He would be their God.

And it goes on to say, Christ, the mediator of the new covenant, made it possible for all believers to receive the spirit's divine enablement. See, mankind needs enablement. He's not enabled. He's just enabled with that heart of... that stony heart. But with the taking away of that and the heart of flesh and the new spirit, He becomes enabled. They might live according to God's righteous standards revealed in the Mosaic covenant. I like the way the expositor puts this. They don't say that the laws in the old covenant are done away. It says with the new covenant that we are enabled. We are empowered to do the provisions of the law, far from the law being done away, as we know.

So they're exactly right on in the way that they put that. So there will be, then, no longer a stony heart, but a heart of flesh and a new spirit. Let's go to Ezekiel 36. We read even more about this heart of flesh and the new spirit that God will provide in Ezekiel 36 in verse 17. Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds. To me, their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary impurity. Therefore, I poured out my theory on them, for the blood they had shed on the land, and for their idols which they had defiled it. So I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries. I judged them according to their ways and their deeds. Let's skip on down to verse 24. I will take you from among the nations, yes, this is when Christ returns. I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers. You shall be my people, and I will be your God. So let me read what the Adam Clark Bible commentary says about this passage. The New Covenant. Now I've got the wrong one here. Here we go with Clark's commentary. A new heart also will I give you. I will change the whole of your infected nature and give you new appetites, new passions, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will renew your minds, also enlighten your understanding, correct your judgment, and refine your will so that you shall have a new spirit to actuate your new heart. To actuate, in other words, to empower or to enable to actuate your new heart. I will take away the stony heart, that heart which is hard, impenetrable, and cold. The affections and passions that are unyielding, frozen to good. I will entirely remove this heart. It is the opposite to that which I have promised you, and you cannot have the new heart and the old heart at the same time. And I will give you a heart of flesh, one that can feel and that can enjoy, one that can feel love to God and to all men and be a proper habitation for the living God. So what the Israelites didn't have in the Old Testament was this kind of heart. A heart of flesh. They had instead the stony heart.

The heart of flesh is one that is humble and teachable. It's one that is soft and pliable. Obviously, just thinking about a heart of flesh versus a heart of stone, you think about something that is soft and pliable versus something that is hard and unyielding. The heart of flesh desires to obey God. It seeks to do God's will at the deepest level in what's to do what is pleasing to God, not its own will. Whereas the stony heart is set in its ways. It is not capable of changing, does not desire to repent, seeks its own will instead of God's, and therefore is not able to be really obedient to the laws of God. Stony heart tends to look at the outward appearance. The stony heart can make the outward appearance look nice. The Pharisees were very guilty about that. And Jesus in Luke 11 brought out to the Pharisees that they were very concerned about cleaning the outside of the cup, whereas on the inside there was greed and corruption and evil and wickedness and extortion. So God is concerned about what is deep inside at the deepest level.

And that's what the New Covenant does, is to get to the deepest level of our thoughts, the deepest level of our desires, the deepest level of our motives and intents, the very deepest level.

We have a good example that is a contrast of the stony heart of man versus the fleshly heart that God provides. Let's go to Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18. We have a good contrast here of these two hearts. Luke chapter 18 and verse 9. We're very well aware of this story. Let's put it into the context of this sermon. Luke chapter 18 and verse 9. He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others.

Well, right away you can see that that's not the heart of flesh. Those who are trusting in themselves and are righteous and in their own eyes and despising others, putting them down.

Two men went up to a temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am not like other men. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice in a week or twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. He felt very good about himself. You don't find anything here where he felt like he was coming up short. Well, meanwhile, the tax collector, verse 13, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, would beat his breast saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. So he did not even feel like lifting up his eyes to where God felt that about himself. He saw his spiritual need.

And he said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus said, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. So which one do you think had the stony heart?

The one that thought he was so good and so righteous. And which one had the heart of flesh?

One that was willing to recognize his shortcomings and no doubt also willing to change.

So the stony heart is proud of, in this case here, self-righteous. So he's no native changing.

But the heart of flesh is humble and repentant and lowly in spirit with a continuing need to change and grow. We have an excellent example in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ had the heart of flesh. He exemplified it. Let's go back to a few verses. First of all to Psalm 40. Psalm 40. And beginning in verse 6. Psalm 40 and verse 6. Sacrifice and offering you did not desire.

My eyes, my ears you have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering you did not require. It's not really what God is looking for. Animal sacrifices. Then I said, Behold I come. In the scroll of the book it is written to me. It's talking about the first coming of Christ. In the scroll of a book it is written to me. I delight to do your will, O my God, and your law is within my heart.

Just notice that this is talking about Christ. This is talking about what he exemplified, the heart of flesh. I delight to do your will. He said, Not my will, but your will be done. And he came to do the Father's will, not his own. I delight, he says, to do your will.

When you delight in something, you like it with all your heart. So with all of his heart, Jesus delighted in doing God's will. And your law is within my heart. He loved the laws of God. He did not want to go any other way. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 10. These same verses are quoted by the Apostle Paul. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 5. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 5.

Therefore when he came into the world, and this is talking about Christ and his first coming, when he came into the world, he said, sacrifice and offering. Here's the direct quote of what we just read in Psalm 40. Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me.

And burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come, in the volume of the book it has written of me, to do your will, O God. And Paul commenting said, previously saying, sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings and offerings for sin you did not desire, nor have pleasure in them, which are offered according to the law. Then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God. He takes away the first that he might establish the second. Jesus certainly made that or made that second covenant then or brought it to pass. And so Jesus Christ exemplified the heart of flesh. Jesus just wanted to do what was pleasing to God. There are other examples of ones that exemplified the heart of flesh. David, after he repented from Bathsheba in Psalm 51, also exemplified that heart of flesh. Because David just said, Well, God, you want truth in the inward parts. He just repented utterly. He was a man after God's own heart. And so there are examples in the Bible of the heart of flesh as opposed to the stony heart. Brethren, in the millennium, God is going to give all people a heart of flesh, not just the Israelites in the flesh, but also the Gentiles will be given a heart of flesh. The stony heart will be taken away. They will be given a new spirit that will empower that heart of flesh and enable it to keep God's laws. And can we imagine that? The whole world keeping God's commandments and having that heart of flesh wanting to follow in the footsteps of Christ and do God's will. And the knowledge of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

And people everywhere will have that new heart. It won't be the pride, the ericancy and stubbornness that we have in the world today. Let's go to Zephaniah chapter 3.

It just describes it so beautifully in this little book of Zephaniah, Zephaniah chapter 3 and verse 8. Zephaniah chapter 3 and verse 8. Therefore, wait for me, says the Lord, until the day I rise up for plunder.

My determination is to gather the nations to my assembly of kingdoms and pour on them my indignation, all my fierce anger. And Christ will do that at His return.

Verse 9, then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, that they may call on me on the name of the Lord to serve Him with one accord.

And skipping on down to verse 11, and that day you shall not be shamed for any of your deeds, which you transgress against me. For then I will take away from your midst those who rejoice in your pride, and you shall no longer be haughty. They be wonderful. We won't have pride and arrogance and haughtiness in God's kingdom. You no longer haughty in my holy mountain. Verse 12, I will leave in your midst a meek and humble people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel shall do no unrighteousness and speak no lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth. For they shall feed their flocks and lie down, and no one shall make them afraid. It's going to be wonderful, isn't it? Everyone will have a meek and humble spirit and attitude, just like that of Jesus Christ when He was here. Let's read that passage in Matthew 11. I forgot to read that as we were talking about Jesus had or exemplified this heart of flesh. Here it is very well described in Matthew 11, verse 28. Matthew 11 and 28. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. We all need to do that when we have our problems that come along, our difficulties. We need to bring them to our Father, bring them to Jesus Christ, and He says, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So that's the heart of flesh for you. Jesus Christ was not... He did not have pride. He had no pride whatsoever. No arrogance, no haughtiness, but He was lowly in heart and mind and gentle. And that exemplifies that heart of flesh that we want to have as well. All the world is going to then have that heart in the millennium. Guess what? In the Second Resurrection, the whole world, the stony hearts will be taken out. And those who had stony hearts in this age will have that stony heart taken away, and they will be given a heart of flesh. And they will then be given a new spirit to go with it. And they will be able to grow and change. What about us today? Do you know that God has... For those that God has called, He has given them a... He's taken away the stony heart, and He has given them a heart of flesh. Let's read from 2 Corinthians. This is a wonderful chapter here about what we're talking about today in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. And we'll begin reading in verse 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 1.

Paul said that we begin again to commend ourselves. See, in some way trying to build Himself up as something great. Certainly not at all. He says in verse 2, You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men. So the people, the brethren were actually the proof of His ministry, and they were His epistle written in His heart. In verse 3, You are manifestly an epistle of Christ, ministered by us.

So really, you know, the church belongs to God, and Christ is the head of it. So an epistle of Christ, but ministered by us. There's a human ministry written... What kind of work is going on? Describes that work of the New Covenant, the stony heart taken away in the heart of flesh upon which God's laws can be written. It goes on to say, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh that is of the heart. And so it shows God's Spirit here at work. God's Spirit is writing something upon the tablets of our heart, the tablets of flesh, that heart of flesh that God gives to us.

So yes, this chapter then shows that God is given to the church a heart of flesh, and that we can go on to have the very nature and the mind of Almighty God. So God has given us... Well, let's read just a little bit more in this chapter. He says...

It compares the Old Testament writing of God's laws upon tables of stone. You know, that was for a purpose. Why did God write the laws upon tablets of stone? Well, the Israelites had the stony heart, and that kind of goes together. But God's laws in the New Covenant are not written upon tables of stone. They're written upon the fleshly tables of our hearts and minds by the Spirit of God. And he goes on in this chapter then to show how much more glorious it is, the New Covenant, compared to the Old Covenant. But he talks about the Old Covenant a little bit more in verse 14. Their minds were hardened, for until this day the same veil remains un-lifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. So the world cannot really understand it. It just hasn't been given yet, that heart of flesh and that understanding.

Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, and that's based upon a calling from God, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. That's where real liberty is, God's Spirit and God's law. And verse 18 is a verse to meditate and ponder a lot. It kind of summarizes a lot of what is brought out in this chapter. It says, But we all with unveiled face, in other words, with that heart of flesh that God has given to us, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed. And thus God's Spirit is at work. We are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. So you know, this shows the process of transformation that goes on under the New Covenant. And it shows how God's Spirit is taking us, well, from glory to glory. The glory we have today should be greater than the glory yesterday. Why? Because we've grown. More of God's Spirit has been working. More of His law is written upon our hearts and minds. And tomorrow we should have more glory than today. So God's Spirit is transforming us into the image of Christ, the divine nature of God. We're going from glory to glory in this process by God's Spirit. So God has given us in His Church a heart of flesh. He's taken away the stony heart. This heart of flesh makes it possible for us to repent. It makes it possible for us to admit the need for change. It makes it possible for us to not be set in our ways, to be teachable.

This heart of flesh makes us soft and pliable. We are capable of receiving impressions of God's law, daily impressions of God's law by the Holy Spirit. This heart of flesh makes it possible for us to not only receive correction but to seek it. I remember very well Mr. Armstrong telling the ministry, we don't want to be wrong. If you see somewhere that we're teaching something that is wrong, let us know and we'll look into it. And if you're right, then we'll change. Because he said, we don't want to be wrong, we want to be right. But you know human beings will stake out their territory and stubbornly cling to it. That happens. Even though they, if they were to look at it, objectively they would realize that maybe what they're defending is not even right.

Such is the nature of the stony heart. But the heart of flesh is able not only to receive correction, it seeks correction. Where are we wrong? We want to correct it. The heart of flesh delights in doing and wants to do God's will, not its own. Oh, there's still the human nature there that is pulling in the other direction. There's the law of sin that is in our members that we have to battle every day. At the deepest level, we're like the apostle Paul to will is in us. We want God's will. We want to do what is right. We delight in doing God's will, just as Jesus did.

You know, to anyone not baptized, God is offering, I believe, those who are here today, anyone not baptized, He's offering to take away the stony heart. And to give you a heart of flesh means that you can repent, you can be baptized, and you can receive that new spirit, the Holy Spirit, if you accept God's offer. And we certainly, of course, encourage everyone to do so. That is the new covenant. That is the everlasting covenant. God is offering us a heart of flesh and His Spirit so that we can prepare for entry into His kingdom.

Brethren, today, God is preparing a people. That's why He's giving the heart of flesh to certain ones. That's why He's taking away the stony heart of a few. He's preparing a people that will reign with Christ. And then, in the millennium, when God will take away all the stony hearts, we'll be able to work with human beings that have a heart of flesh like we have. Won't that be wonderful? Everybody will be looking at Himself and finding how He can begin to do God's will and do what is pleasing in God's sight. We're going to be working with some wonderful people who no longer have stony hearts, which is really the cause of the problems we have on the earth today. One final admonition. If you've been given a heart of flesh by God, could you ever lose it? The answer is yes. You could go back to the stony heart. Let's see that in Hebrews chapter 3.

We don't want that to happen. Always keep your attitude correctable, teachable, humble, lowly in heart like that of Jesus Christ. Never let pride or ego or self begin to influence your life and harden you so that you could go back to the stony heart. In Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 7, therefore as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

This shows that church members could harden their hearts. We could go back to that old stony heart.

Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. In the day of trial in the wilderness where your fathers tested me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart. We've got to make sure we don't ever go astray in our heart. And they have not known my ways, so I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest. That's a quote from Psalm 95, several verses. Verse 12, the writer of Hebrews, says, beware brethren, this has been a warning for us, beware lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily while it's called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. So we've got to keep our heart teachable, soft, correctable, maintain a repentant heart, and let God's Spirit continue making those, etching those impressions upon us daily. And if we do go on, then we will be able to help many. Maybe you'll have a city or two. You'll have thousands of people during the millennium, and as I've already mentioned, they will have hearts of flesh. They will be a pleasure to work with. They will not have stony hearts. God will take away the stony hearts. They will have hearts of flesh. And then in the Second Resurrection, even many that we know are relatives and friends, they will have the opportunity to have the stony heart taken away and to have a heart of flesh and a new spirit. It's going to be wonderful during the millennium and the Second Resurrection to assist Jesus Christ that mankind has a heart of flesh and God's Spirit. But today, our stony heart has been removed. We have the heart of flesh. We can have God's laws written upon the fleshly tablets of our hearts.