The Heart of God (or the New Heart)

The title today is The Heart of God or The New Heart. You can call it The Heart of God or The New Heart. You've heard the song, You Gotta Have Heart. And so we ask ourselves today, do you have heart? And when someone says that he or she has a lot of heart, what do they mean? There are two words that are used somewhat interchangeably, and that is soul and heart. Soul is used by the religious world to represent a supposed immortal essence within a person. And the religious world speaks of saving souls. It doesn't matter whatever else happens, we'll tread like the Pharisees, the seven seas, and forge the rivers and streams and climb tall mountains to save your soul. But the use of soul when they are talking about it in the sense, do you have soul doesn't mean what the religious world means when they use the term soul. Then there are people who use soul in the sense, in the same sense as do you have heart. And by that, they mean are you loving, are you kind, are you compassionate. The Bible uses the word heart to denote the center of thought and emotions. You might hear somebody say, oh have a heart. It's like, be understanding, be kind, be compassionate. Look at Proverbs chapter 4 verse 23. Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 23.

Proverbs 4.23 here is one of the great scriptures in all of the Bible, not to say that any of them aren't great. But in Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 23, keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life. It is the center of thought and emotions in the Bible. So why would God inspire those words to be communicated to us? Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life. The answer is simple and yet complex, and as we shall see, requires great effort, energy, and focus on our part. Now, a companion scripture to that, if you turn forward to Proverbs 23 and verse 7, in Proverbs 23 and verse 7, we'll see what the writer writes here. Proverbs 23 verse 7.

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he, as he thinks in his heart. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life. Thought is the precursor of action. Remember the axiom, sow a thought, reap an action, sow an action, reap a habit, sow a habit, and reap character. What you really are. God tells us clearly what to think. If you look at Philippians chapter 4 and verse 8, keep your heart with all diligence, out of it flow the issues of life, as a man thinketh. So is he. So what should we think? The Bible even tells us in general terms what to think. In Philippians 4 and verse 8, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. Books have been written on the power of positive thinking. Perhaps the most notable person who's written a lot along those lines was especially popular a few decades ago was Norman Vincent Peale, and he wrote a book titled The Power of Positive Thinking. And indeed there is a lot of power in positive thinking, and he gives a lot of valuable insights into positive thinking. However, we cannot think our way into the kingdom of God, and we cannot become pure in heart just through positive thinking, but it is a step. Let's know what God says about the heart. First of all, Jeremiah 17 and verse 9, the heart might be likened in this sense to the natural mind. Paul writes in Romans 8-7 that the carnal mind is enmity toward the law of God, not subject to it, neither indeed can be. And here in Jeremiah 17 and verse 9, we see the following, Jeremiah 17 and verse 9, the heart is deceitful above all things. See, here is the seed of thought and emotion in human beings. This says that it is deceitful, not just deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

But the good news is you can have help. We can have a new heart. We can have, through the Spirit and Word of God and participation on our part, we can have a new heart. Look at Jeremiah 10-23.

Jeremiah 10-23, O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself, it is not in man that walks to direct his steps. If we're just led by our own mind, our own thoughts, or on the thoughts of others, I don't care how great the intellectuals of the past, the philosophers of the past, or any of that is or has been or will be, it has to come from God if you want to really, really be able to direct your steps in the right way. Now, let's look at Proverbs 28-26. Proverbs 28 and verse 26.

He that trusts in his own heart is a fool.

I mean, these background scriptures about the way we are apart from God are very revealing and sobering. He that trusts in his own heart is a fool, but whoso walks wisely it shall be delivered.

God pronounces a blessing on the pure in heart, and we want to come to the point that we are pure in heart and that we have the heart of God, we have a new heart. Let's go to Matthew 5 verse 8. The Sermon on the Mount, you see those called the Beatitudes, means blessings. The various blessings that are listed there, and one of them is the pure in heart. In Matthew chapter 5 and verse 8.

Now this word pure is catharos, k-a-t-h-a-r-o-s. It means it's translated pure 17 times, clean 10 times, and clear one time. This word appears 28 times in the New Testament. So we can say it means to be clean, to be clear, to be pure, related meanings, purified by fire, free from corrupt desire, free from sin and guilt, free from an admixture of what is false, to be sincere, to be genuine, to be blameless, to be innocent, pure in heart. So let's examine ourselves. Do we have a pure heart, and is our heart right with God? Let's notice David's prayer back in Psalm 139, Psalm 139, and verse 23. David's prayer with regard to heart in Psalm 139 and starting in verse 23. Psalm 139 verse 23, search me, O Lord, and know my heart. Of course, as we shall read in just a moment, God does search our heart, and God does know our heart. We can fool human beings. We can even fool our spouse, our wife, or our husband, but you cannot fool God. God knows our hearts. And David is saying here, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts.

As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life. Thought is a precursor of action. So a thought reap in action. So in action reap a habit. So a habit reap character. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and leave me in the way everlasting. Now let's look at the first part of this chapter, beginning in verse 1, Psalm 139, verse 1. O Lord, you have searched me and known me. And of course, he does search our hearts. He does know us. Now if you were to continue there, when we read in Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceitful, desperately wicked. Who can know it? Goes on to say, of course, that God knows our hearts. You can fool maybe everybody on the planet, but you cannot fool God. He knows where you are, what you're doing, and he knows what your thoughts are. Verse 2, you know my down sitting and mine uprising. You understand my thought afar off. You compass my path with my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, you know it altogether. You have beset me behind and before and laid your hand upon me. So there is no way to hide from God. God knows it all. Solomon, upon becoming king of Israel, if you turn now to 1 Kings 8, of course you know so much about Solomon, the wisest man who had ever lived, saved Jesus Christ. Solomon was given great wisdom and gave some moving words at the beginning of his reign. Here we'll note a prayer of Solomon, part of it, in 1 Kings 8 and verse 39. 1 Kings 8 and verse 39. Then here I, you in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive and do, and give to every man, according to his ways, whose heart you know, for you even you only know the hearts of all the children of men. The Bible is just amply clear on the fact that God knows our hearts. That they may fear you all the days they live in the land which you gave unto our fathers. And continuing with us, we pick it up again in verse 54. Verse 54. And it was so that when Solomon had made an end of praying all his prayer and supplication unto the Lord, he arose from the altar, the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees, and his hand spread up to heaven. That was a position of prayer that was taught in the Old Testament. And he stood and blessed all the congregation of Israel, and with a loud voice crying, blessed be the Lord God that is given rest unto his people, Israel, according to all that he has promised. There hath not failed one word of his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses, his servant. Now look in verse 60. That all the people of the earth may know that the eternal is God and there is none else. Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God to walk in his statutes to keep his commandments as at this day.

A person can fool others, as we've already noted, even his spouse, the wife, the husband, but you cannot fool God. Many of us saw many surprises and have seen many surprises over recent years. But God knows all, he sees all. Words are cheap, but the price of correct action is oftentimes steep. So you get cheap versus steep. Words are cheap, but sometimes, doing the right thing, you have to pay quite a price. And sometimes that separates the men from the boys, as they say. Look at 1 Samuel 16. Verse Samuel 16. In verse Samuel 16, of course, you know the story of the people chose Saul to be king over Israel. Saul, they basically chose Saul, it seems, by the seeing of their eye. But then when God chose David, he chose him by what was in his heart. So in 1 Samuel 16.6, we see somewhat of this search for David. Samuel told to go to the house of Jesse. In verse 6, it came to pass when they were come in that he looked on Eliab and said, Surely the Lord's anointed is before me. But the eternal said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord sees not as man sees, for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. And God looks on the heart. And of course, that's one of the great things that those who are in positions of leadership need to understand. And so to some degree, perhaps we've been a personality cult. The person with the flowing, nice looking, good personality and all of that, we tend to exalt. But God looks on the heart. And so David, the shepherd boy who was out in the fields, was anointed king of Israel. And God looks on the heart and not the outward appearance. So let's talk about two things here. What does it take to have a pure heart, and for my heart to be right with God, for your heart to be right with God?

First, we have to assess where we are, our current state of being. So we must ask, you must ask, I must ask, is my heart right with God? Not whether or not it's right with my wife, or my husband, or my neighbor, or anybody else. Is my heart right with God?

You can even think at times your heart is right with God and yet be deceived. So we want to go through some things that will help us understand how to get our heart right with God and so that we will have the new heart and the heart of God. See, God chose David, so in one sense you could say that David was a man after God's own heart and that God chose him. Now, as far as the flesh is concerned, David was as carnal as any other person who ever lived, maybe more so, but upon sinning and upon making mistakes, he did seek God with his whole heart and he did repent. Here's a man who committed murder because he had committed adultery with Uriah's wife and he didn't want it to be found out. Of course, she was pregnant and then the baby that was born from that episode died. David numbered Israel and thousands died as a result of it. And so, we could go on and on. Absalom fled after he had, in essence, raped his sister and killed his brother. And finally, Absalom comes back and leads a revolt against David. You could go on and on, but at the same time, David would turn to God with his whole heart and seek repentance and forgiveness. Look at Matthew 7. There will be a lot of people who will be deceived and thinking that their heart is right with God. In Matthew 7, verse 21, just saying here, first thing we're talking about now is to examine your own heart, whether or not it is right with God. In Matthew 7, verse 21, not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter in the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father, which is in heaven, and the will of God is revealed through the Spirit and the Word of God. So if you will not surrender or submit to the Word of God, you can't expect to have the new heart and be right with God. Many will say in that day, Lord, Lord, that we not prophesied in your name, and in your name cast out devils, and in your name done many wonderful works, and then I will confess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me you that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, of course James write, be ye doers of the Word, not hearers only, I will liken him unto a man which built his house upon a rock. And of course, the winds of life and the storms of life beats against all of us, and whether we'll be able to stand will depend to a large degree on what we have built upon and what we have built with. You can be deceived and not even know it. You can think that you're doing the work of God, as, for example, in John 16, verse 1. Now here are people who put people to death thinking that they do God a service. I guess the people who put Jesus Christ to death, the Jews are the ones who handed him over to the Romans. The Jews were the ones who, in essence, passed sentence on Jesus Christ, when Pilate asked, whom shall I release unto you? Shall I release unto you Barabbas? Now Barabbas was a thief or robber. Or shall I release unto you the one who claims to be king of the Jews? And they cried with the loud voice, Barabbas, Barabbas!

In John 16.1, these things have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogue, yea, the time comes, and whosoever kills you thinks that he does God service. And so we have a whole culture that is emerged in a whole religion that is inspired by Satan the devil, killing people who do not see the world as they see the world.

So you can be deceived and not even know it. And we read from Matthew 24-24, if it were possible, the very elect would be deceived. And great deception is coming upon the earth. At the end of the millennium, let's turn to Revelation 20 verse 8, at the end of the millennium, Satan is loose for a little season. He goes out and does what? He deceives the nations. There are people that will be living in the millennium where the knowledge of God covers the earth, where the knowledge of God is taught, where a voice behind you says, this is the way walk you in it. We could go on and on with the instruction of the knowledge and everything that will be restored in the millennium. And yet, in spite of all of that, there will be people who will be deceived at the end of the millennium.

In verse 7 of Revelation 20, and when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog, Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sin of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth and accomplished the camp of the saints about. And the beloved city and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.

You can have a form of righteousness and deny the power of God. 2 Timothy 3.5 says that, and through the power of God, what does it mean to deny the power of God? It is to not really surrender, submit, and serve God from the heart and to develop such a heart within you. Through the power of God, we can be transformed into the image of his dear son by becoming a new creation. This is not the old man made over. It is something new. Now, here are some of the criteria to judge whether our heart is right with God. So we turn to 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 2. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 2. I said 2. I want 22. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 22.

Seeing you have purified your souls, you see, here is a place even in the Bible where soul is, to some degree, used interchangeably for heart. Soul is your potential for being, your potential for life, not something you possess, but something you are, your very being. Seeing you have purified your very being and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren.

You don't get anything back in return for it, and see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently, being begotten again of incorruptible, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which lives and abides forever. Notice in Proverbs 3 some ways, criteria to know whether or not your heart is right with God. There is no feigning. There is no putting on with God. He knows. He knows each one of us, as we've already read the various scriptures, giving testimony to that fact. In Proverbs 3, verse 1, My son, forget not my law.

So many. That's what they want to do. They want to forget God's law, the immutable spiritual law of God. The law of God is perfect, converting the soul. If it's perfect, you can't improve upon it. It is good, as holy as right. Forget not my law. Keep my commandments. For length of days and long life and peace shall they add to you. Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Bind them about your neck. Write them upon the table of your heart. Write them upon the table of your heart. And we'll talk more about how that's done later. So shall you find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, everything you've got. And lean not unto your own understanding. Don't make God over in your own image, as I've been talking about in previous sermons, saying that God I know would do such and such. Let God speak to you directly through his word and spirit.

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths. And look in verse 4 and chapter 7. In chapter 7, My son, keep my words, lay up my commandments with you. Keep my commandments and live in my law, as the apple of your eye. Bind them upon your fingers. Write them upon the table of your heart. Then Matthew 22, of course, is a great summary scripture, in one sense, summarizing the whole Bible. Did you summarize the whole Bible in two or three verses? Well, Jesus said it did. In Matthew 22, verse 35, Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him, tempting him, saying, Master, which is the great commandment, Jesus said unto him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind. Heart, soul, and mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Now, verse 40 tells you this is sort of a summary statement of the whole scriptures. On these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets. That's what it's all about. So how can you and I have such a heart?

The answer is a new heart, to have the heart of God, a heart that is created in the image of God, the kind of heart God wanted Israel to have. You look at Deuteronomy 5, verse 9. Deuteronomy 5, 9, where God, I would think almost an exasperation, cries out this verse. In Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 29, as you recall, as they came out of Egypt by the time that they sent out the 10 spies, and they came back, they had now tested God 10 times in three months.

No water, no meat, no this, no that, murmuring. They had it better in Egypt and all of that. And God says, Deuteronomy 5, 29, oh, that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me, keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever. To have such a heart with them. A new heart begins with repentance, and it comes from God. Now let's look back a page to chapter 4 and verse 29. Chapter 4 and verse 29. But if you from thence, going forward, you shall seek the Lord your God, you shall find him. So perhaps you or I have strayed away. Perhaps our heart is not right with God today. It is not all lost. You or I have strayed away. Perhaps our heart is not right with God today. It is not all lost. This says, if you seek him with all your heart, you can find him. If you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul, when you are in tribulation and all these things are come upon you, even in the latter days, even in the latter days, if you turn to the Lord your God, and shall be obedient unto his voice, for the Lord your God is merciful, God. He will not forsake you, neither destroy you nor forget the covenant of your fathers, which he swore unto them. For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there had been any such thing as this great is, or hath been heard like it is.

The true God is a merciful God, a long-suffering God. True Christianity is really the only religion that provides a remedy to the sin problem.

Whereby you can have your sins remitted, whereby you can have a new knowing within, where you can have a new heart. So let's notice what David did. We've talked about David a little bit, that after he made mistakes that he sought God. Look at Psalm 51. Please, Psalm 51. And verse 10 here, Psalm 51. And verse 10. This could be a starting point with all of us this day.

Have we really sought God with our whole heart? Have we really gone to Him and cried out to Him in the day of trouble? In Psalm 51, verse 10, Create in me a clean heart, O God. Blessed are the pure in heart, clean in heart, for they shall see God, as we've read from Matthew 5.8. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast not away me away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. How frightful would that be to have once tasted the good gift and to be cast away from which there is no return. The key to a new heart is to respond to God's calling. God draws us, John 644. No man can come to me unless the Father draws him, and I will raise him up the last day. John 644. Many in here could quote John 644. God is the one who opens our heart. Look at Acts 16 in verse 14. This is quite a scripture.

In Acts 16 and verse 14. In Acts 16 and verse 14, and a certain woman named Lydia, a cellar of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, and she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. By the fact that you sit here today, that I'm here today, is pretty much an indication that God has opened your heart. See, God calls us. He opens our heart. Now look at Luke chapter 10 and verse 21. Luke chapter 10 verse 21. And one of the main points I wish to get across to anybody, myself, all of us that are here today, the fact that God has called you, has opened your heart, and led you to this point to understand the precious words of truth. That doesn't happen to everybody every day in this age. And if it has happened to you, how precious is that?

See, God does not view it lightly that He would invest the time, the energy, and whatever all that's involved in it to bring us to the point that we are now, and us to treat it lightly. For us to become complacent. For us to become lukewarm. For us to sit back.

Of course, we've read in recent times from Hebrews, if any man draw back, my soul has no pleasure in him. In Luke 10 verse 21, in that hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes.

Not many noble, not many wise, are called now, even so, Father, for as it seemed good in your sight, all things are delivered to me of my Father. No man knows who the Son is but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. So God calls, opens the mind, the Son reveals through the Spirit and the preaching of the Word of God. Now note this, and he turned him unto his disciples and said privately, blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see. For I tell you, I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen them, and to hear these things which you hear, and have not heard them, the so-called great men of today, the leaders of this present evil age. Oh, they may use the name of God in this and that in the other, in trying to promote themselves, but to have the revelation of God, God calling your heart open, Christ revealing to you the words. Christ says kings and prophets have desired to know what you know, and they don't know it. They are blinded. See, that is a way of saying, this is so precious. Don't let it slip.

In Romans chapter 10, we see that the Word of God has to be preached. And as you're turning there, you can be listening, you're turning to Romans chapter 10, but I'm talking from John 16, 7, and 8, and Christ said he would send us the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will convict us of sin. How does it do that? Well, there's the spiritual element, the unseen element of God calling and opening the heart, but he does it through preaching, preaching and teaching of the Word of God. You look at Acts, you know what I said in Romans, Romans chapter 10.

Paul is writing here and says in Romans chapter 10 verse 14, "'How then shall they call on him, whom they have not believed, and how shall they believe in him, whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent as it is written?' So Christ raised up the church, and he sent us forth to preach the gospel, beginning in Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the world. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah said, Lord, who has believed our report." Then this very key scripture, "'So then faith comes by hearing,' you have to hear it, and hearing by the Word of God. It is up to you and to me to respond. You respond by surrendering your being to the will of God.

You surrender by submitting to him in obedience. You respond by serving him and crucifying the flesh. I call it, I talk about the three C's, conviction, commitment, and courage, but the three S's. Surrender, submit, and serve. If you do not respond, you are quenching the spirit and casting aside the wisdom of the ages, what the prophets, what the kings, what the great men of all ages have desired to know, the mystery of the ages, the great secret, even the prophets, some of them desire to look into the things, and even the angels don't fully understand, apparently, what God has prepared for those who love him, but he has revealed it to us. To some degree, in the scriptures, you look at 1 Peter chapter 1, just trying now to get across this point of how precious is the calling, how precious is the fact that your heart has been opened, how precious is the fact that Christ has revealed the truth and the Father to us, how precious is that he died for our sins. In 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 9, receiving the Talos, result, outcome of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, and it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should reveal, unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Spirit, sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into. How precious is it? It is up to us to respond. If you walk according to the Spirit and Word of God, God will write His laws on your inward parts, and you can become a new creation with the Spirit of God abiding in your heart and mind. Look at 2 Corinthians 1, verse 22. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 22.

With this, you're not just left to your own mind, to your own heart. You have now an additional component, essence, the very essence of God, the eternal Spirit that has been given to us upon repentance and faith in the sacrifice of Christ. This is a very short verse, but it's an awesome verse. It's 2 Corinthians 1, verse 22. Who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts, the very center of the seat of thought and emotions. He has given us the earnest, the down payment we have received, the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. Now, note 2 Corinthians 3, verse 3. 2 Corinthians 3, verse 3. For as much as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, in other words, you are an open book, you are an example, you are a record, you are a witness, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. Now, forward to 2 Corinthians 5, 2 Corinthians 5, and verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things are become new, and all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and given unto us the ministry of reconciliation. Now, along these same lines, once again, remember we read those scriptures from Proverbs chapter 3 and chapter 7 about writing God's law on the table of your heart.

Well, they did it basically in a physical way. They had the commandments written on tables of stone. They would write the commandments and put them on the doorpost. They were to be frontlets between their eyes, a continual reminder. But they did not have such a heart. The Holy Spirit had not written them on the inward parts. But now you, I can have. Look at Hebrews 10. That immutable spiritual law of God, written on our inward parts, on our hearts, the center and seat of emotions and thought. Hebrews 10 verse 15, Whereof the Holy Spirit also is a witness to us, or after that he had said before, this is a covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord. We are the Israel of God. We have entered into the terms of the new covenant. When Israel is restored in the millennium and they look on him whom they have pierced, and they accept Jesus Christ, they too, as can have the law of God written on their inward parts. But we have that opportunity now. I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Removing our sins as far as the east is from the west, we may remember, but he says remembering them no more. Now look at Romans chapter 2.

In this process, the stony parts of the heart, the parts that are carnal, the parts that are deceitful, the parts that I read about in Jeremiah 17 verse 9, the heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked, who can know it? That can be cut away, that can be removed.

In verse 28 of Romans 2, for he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, not just having the physical member of the body circumcise, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God. So you have a new heart. The old parts, deceitful, wicked, have been cut away. The key to a new heart is to respond to God's calling, as we have said. The new heart is to crucify the old heart. We get a glimpse of the new heart in Psalm 51. Remember, David had prayed in Psalm 51 verses 10 and 11 that God would create a new heart within him. So what is a new heart like? This tells us what a new heart is like, a description of it.

In Psalm 51 verse 16, where you desire not sacrifice, else would I give it you delight not in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. O God, you will not despise. So more about this new heart. The new heart is to crucify that old heart, the one that is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. Look at Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. We have made a covenant of sacrifice with God. That covenant of sacrifice is we will surrender, we will submit, we will serve, we will crucify the old man, the old heart. In Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6 verse 1, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live it any longer there? Ye know ye not that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. This is the symbolism. The old man, the old heart, is to be put to death, the one that is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked.

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism unto death, that like his Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father. Even so, we also should walk in newness of life, for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be planted in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed and henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin. The old man buried in the watery grave of baptism. This new heart is to become the image of God, the stamped image of God. Look at Romans 8 and verse 29. Romans 8 and 29. Just think about being in the stamped image of God. In Romans 8 and verse 29, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Jesus Christ is the firstborn. He lived in the flesh. He's gone before. He was able to keep the law of God without sin. He is the stamped image of the Father. And so we are to become the stamped image. This word image in the Greek is icon, meaning figure being likeness. You hear about the icons being on the walls in the Catholic churches and in the Catholic hospitals and all of that of the crucifix and the Madonna and all those things. Those are icons, and some worship the icons and all of that. But we are to become literally the image of Christ and the Father. Look at Hebrews 1. In Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3, as you're turning there, I'm turning there, I'm going to read this after we get to Hebrews 1 and verse 3. I want to read this 29 again. Let's get the immediate relationship and link. So here's Romans 8, 29 again. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And so he is firstborn from the dead. Firstborn to live in the flesh and to be resurrected to spirit life.

In essence, a new order of beings, resurrected to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead. That's Romans 1.4. Revelation 1.5, the firstborn among many brethren. Firstborn from the dead. Okay, in Hebrews 1.3, who being the brightness of his glory, Jesus Christ, and the express image of his person. And this is that word that was used so much in the big discussion about the nature of God and Christ. This word that is translated person is hupostasis. Hupostasis has a wide range of meanings. Perhaps the most accurate is ground of being or the foundation who is the express image of his hupostasis, his person in upholding all things by the word of his power, when he hath by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. So we are to become the image of Jesus Christ. And the proof of whether we are becoming the stamp image of Jesus Christ can be tested by many scriptures in the Bible. I would encourage you to read Colossians chapter 3. If you be raised to newness alive, seated with God in heavenly places, be not conformed to this world. Now, this new heart that is within us has to be nourished. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Now, remember the first scripture we read, Proverbs 4.23, Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life. So if that heart is to be conformed to the image of God and be like God in Christ, it has to be nourished.

And Psalm 119, I want us to hit a few highlights here. In fact, the scripture of the day that I did not read, the scripture of the day, How shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed according to your word? Your word have a head in my heart that I might not sin against you. So this, the heart, the new heart, the heart of God is nourished by the word of God. Psalm 119 verse 11, Your word of a head in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Continuing in Psalm 119, in verse 36, we're going to hit some highlights here. In verse 36, and the first like, I don't know, 50, 60 verses in Psalm 119 have these action-oriented command verbs where it's like the author is praying to God and saying, like, just make me do the right thing. And here's one of those action birds related to the heart.

Psalm 119 verse 36, Incline my heart unto your testimonies and not to covetousness. Verse 69, verse 69. Let's read these verses. Psalm 119 verse 69, The proud have forged a lie against us, but I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. No matter what people say about me or this, that, or the other, the psalmist writes, I'm going to keep your precepts. Look at verse 80. Let my heart be sound in your statues that I may, that I be not ashamed.

Verse 111, Psalm 119 verse 111, Your testimonies have I taken as an heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart. Verse 112, I have inclined my heart to perform your statues always, even unto the end. And then in verse 97, verse 97, these verses here are really the keys of keys in one sense, with regard to nourishing the heart and training the heart and getting your thoughts in line with Psalm with Philippians chapter 4 verse 8, whatever things are.

Psalm 119 verse 97, O how love I your law, it is my meditation all the day. You through your commandments have made me wiser than mine enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. See, meditation has to do with thinking, focusing on, thinking, focusing on the Word of God.

So time after time, the Bible talks about nourishing the heart. In 2 Corinthians 4 16, it says, the inward man is renewed daily. So that nourishment, just like you go to the table three times a day for physical nourishment, the inward man has to be nourished. Now let's look at a prayer for the heart in Psalm 19. I mean, if we could pray this and it would be answered for us on a daily basis, what a different difference it would make in our lives, what a different world it would be.

Psalm 19 verse 14. If you haven't memorized this one, let's please do it. Let the words of my mouth and meditation my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. So, brethren, we have come to the time. The time is now to rend our hearts, to rend our hearts, to seek God with our whole heart, come to the state of being or the state of the heart, that you're willing to forsake all and follow Him. Just like baptismal counseling, Luke 14 verse 26 to the end of the chapter, any man comes to me, loves not less, father, mother, yea, even his own life, he is not worthy to be called my disciples.

Then you talk about counting the cost. You see, once God has called, you open your mind and your heart and you've come to the place you are. Prophets, kings have desired to be here and you treat that as a light thing. It's hard to understand. Once you have come to that point, really, there is no choice. You either go forward with it or you die. It is the choice that is given in Deuteronomy, choose this day whom you will serve. Whether you serve God unto life or the flesh unto death, so rend your heart. You remember the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and said, Master, what good thing must I do to enter into life?

He said, keep the commandments. And he said, well, I've done this for my youth. And then Christ said, if you'd be perfect, go sell what you have and give it to the poor. The young man went away sorrowful because he had great riches. He cannot rend his physical goods, much less his heart.

So in summary, we must rend our hearts. We rend it by surrendering our heart and mind to God. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. The second is like it unto it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang all the law and the prophets. So today, today is the day. If you would hear his voice, harden not your hearts.