A New Heart

Well, good afternoon again, brethren. Again, it's good to see all of you. Glad we're able to meet together in a nice warm hall, so we'll be able to study the Word of God with some warmth and appreciate Mike and his sermonette how we need to continue on our plan of overcoming. God wants us to do that. However, what we might do to help us do that, how we can learn to better do that, that's certainly what we want to do.

And I know the brochure, or what was that? That's a booklet. I think that's the newest booklet, apparently, that we have published. It gives a number of aids to be able to help us in our study of the Bible and help us be able to grow in our closer walk with God. So I hope that all of you will study that and take a look at the guide that is there, because I think there's actually – it looks like it's designed for somebody who would be very new.

That would certainly be helpful if people had an interest in the Bible, but it's something we can use, too. Even for those of us who would be familiar with a lot of those things, then we can benefit from doing them as well. Well, I was thinking back, trying to figure out how long ago this was. I started to think it was 40 years, but now I think it was 50 years ago when I was a teenager. I tried to make that a little less. No, it was 50 years ago. I remember – I didn't have a whole lot. I was growing up on a farm, and we had a black and white TV, and we had some reading material.

And I remember, of course, my dad and I guess dad and mom received the Reader's Digest on a regular basis. It was a pretty popular magazine. I know it's kind of gone through transformation at this time, but it's still available, I think, in different formats. But I remember looking at different articles in the Reader's Digest, and I thought that some of them, of course, seemed to just be talking to me because they came out with a series, and they were going through different descriptions about parts of people's body.

And, of course, the name of these were, I am Joe's Lungs. I am Joe's liver. Usually it was internal organs. There were about 15 of them as I looked this up. And, of course, the one that I looked back, and I even read the one that I thought of when I was thinking of this sermon, and that particular one was I am Joe's heart, because that obviously related to me. And they were relatively simply written. You could understand kind of how the circulatory system, or maybe the respiratory or the elimination system in your body worked. And so that one really caught my eye whenever I read that.

And it actually gave a lot of clear information, and it gave a lot of pretty good instruction on how to take care of your health, how to take care of your heart in this case. And so I mentioned that here at the beginning of the sermon. I thought that was a neat article. But I also mentioned it just because I think it relates to what I want to talk about in the sermon today.

I'd like for us to go to begin with here to the book of Ezekiel. And here in Ezekiel 36, I want to be able to cover some information to begin with. And I'll say to start with, the book of Ezekiel, when you read through it, obviously Ezekiel was a prophet. He dealt with the nation of Israel. He said what God said to say. And actually, in many ways you read through the book, and I've not read through the whole thing here recently, but I've paged through it, and I can see that there are a number of sets in the book that are warnings.

Warnings to Israel. You need to wake up. You need to pay attention. You need to do what's written. That's what the warnings essentially said. And yet, each time after those warnings, and maybe even a statement that, well, you're going to go into punishment, you're going to go into judgment, or you're going to go into captivity. Even, of course, the nation of Israel was to go into captivity. But after each one of those warnings, you always had a section that described renewal. Being renewed, being restored, being uplifted.

And this chapter 36 is actually one of those chapters. And actually, as you look at this, you'll see that this speaks, and it appears to be even thinking or projecting into a future time. The time of the world tomorrow, you see down in verse 35, it's talking about a land that was desolate, would become like the Garden of Eden. This seems to be pushing the information into even the world tomorrow, the world to come.

And actually, I think when we read what is mentioned here about this renewal, it says God is speaking of his future work with spiritual Israel. Now, he was writing this, of course, and this was spoken to physical Israel, but he was really saying, what's significant about spiritual Israel? And for us today, as spiritual Israelites, and for people as they are going to be gathered, and they are going to be worked with, as God works with the population of the millennium, into the millennium and throughout that time.

It's talking about a conversion process. It's talking about spiritual transformation.

So I want us to begin here in verse 22. It says, therefore, say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I'm about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.

He was telling Israel that, well, you have been given some information, you have not been obedient, you have actually profaned my name, and so I'm going to act. You're going to go into captivity. But, he says, it's not really because of you or your great abilities at all, but for my name, for my sake, I'm going to restore you. I'm going to rescue you. And actually, you see in verse 24, I will take you from the nations, and I'll gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. That clearly looks like returning them from a captivity, or as we know, as we go into the world tomorrow, nations are going to be gathered from all over the earth. Israel will be gathered. And if we drop on down to verse 25, I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from all the idols that I'm going to cleanse you. And so clearly, they had been idolatrous, they had been rebellious, they had been resistive, they had done very little to try to honor God or to please God. And he says in verse 26, a new heart, a new heart, I will give you and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

I will put my spirit within you, and I will make you follow my statutes, and be careful to observe my ordinances, and then you shall live in the land that I will give to your ancestors, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. And you shall, in verse 31, you shall remember your evil ways, as Mike mentioned in the sermon that, you know, we begin if we're going to be transformed or changed, we're going to repent. You're going to remember or see your evil ways and your dealings that are not good, and you shall over yourself for your iniquity and your abominable deeds. And again, he says, it is not for your sake that I'm going to act, but, you know, for, says the Lord God, let that be known to you. He reminded them again, I'm doing this out of care for you, out of love for you, out of concern for you, that I'm going to create this transformation in you. And what I want to focus on in this section is what is mentioned here in verse 26.

A new heart I will give you, a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I think sometimes it may be a little difficult to understand exactly what is God describing. What is He telling not only Israel at that time, but what is He telling us today? What is being referred to when He speaks of this new heart that needs to be changed from a hard, stony heart to a heart of flesh, which the contrast here is obviously from hardness to softness to a soft, pliable, malleable, workable heart. A heart that is sensitive, a heart that is easily untreated, a heart that is like the one that God wants all of us to have. See, what kind of transition is God speaking about? Well, it's between, it's like hot and cold, it's between hard and soft. This heart of flesh is described to be a soft. And of course, maybe even more importantly, is to ask each of us, how do you see God achieving that process in your heart? How do you see God giving that new heart to you, achieving the moving away from the stony heart to having more of a soft and pliable heart? How is that taking place? Well, I have four different points that I wanted to mention this afternoon. I hope they would be helpful to us because this statement that is made about a new heart is very direct to all of us. It's very needful for each of us because it's spoken of quite a bit in the New Testament, in the New Covenant as we go to that. And so the first of the points here of the four that I want to give is that true circumcision is a matter of the heart. True circumcision is a matter of the heart.

I think we all realize that in the Old Testament, physical circumcision was given to Abraham and then others in the house of Israel, Isaac, Jacob, and their tribes. It was given as a sign. It was given to set them apart. It was given as a part of the covenant discussion that God was having.

And Israelites often relied on that, or they, as we see in the Jews that Jesus dealt with, you know, they relied very heavily on their genealogy, on how it was that they were the people of God, and how special that was, and how that they had. You know, and they were even called the circumcision. And of course then they called the gentile world, apart from Israel, they called that the uncircumcision. But what I want to point out, and I know many of you would be ahead of me in this, in Romans chapter 2, in Romans chapter 2 you see a statement that Paul makes, and actually he mentions, you know, the whole subject of circumcision a number of times because he had been called to be an apostle to the gentiles. Primarily, you know, the gentiles were not circumcised physically, and he was telling them, no, that's not even required. That's not necessary. Circumcision, he said, is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing. That's not what God is wanting to achieve. But here in Romans chapter 2, he's writing to the church of Rome, and of course there were some Jewish people who were a part of that congregation, but there were many other gentiles. And he says in verse 28, a person is not a Jew or not an Israelite, or you could say a spiritual Israelite. They're not a spiritual Israelite. A person is not a, in a sense, as Jew in the King James. A person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something that's external and physical. But rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart. It is spiritual, and it is not literal, and such a person receives praise not from others, but from God. So here he points out how that real circumcision, not just a physical circumcision that set apart a physical nation, but real circumcision for the true Israelites, the spiritual Israelites, is going to be circumcision of the heart. A transformation is going to be actually giving or receiving a new heart, a transformation from the stony hard heart to the soft and pliable new heart.

And so I want to point this out as well over in Colossians chapter 2, because again, I mentioned Paul writes this in a number of different of his books. But in Colossians chapter 2, he says in verse 6, as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith just as you were taught abounding and thanksgiving. This is Paul's encouragement to them. They've been brought into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That focus needs to be maintained. And he says in verse 11, in Him you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, a circumcision that was not by hands. It wasn't a physical circumcision, but it was a spiritual circumcision. In Him you were circumcised with the spiritual circumcision by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ. When you were buried with Him in baptism and you were raised with Him through faith in the power of God who raised Him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with Him when He forgave all of your trespasses. So that's where our spiritual circumcision began.

It's where our journey of overcoming began and where it started with repentance. And it started with a desire to be baptized and with a desire to honor and to serve God with all of our heart.

And so the first thing that I mention about this and about a new heart that God is wanting us to have is that this true circumcision is a matter of the heart. The second point that I want to make is that the new heart that God is giving us, the new heart that He wants us to live with, is sensitive to the law of God. See, we can read verses in Romans and in other places in the New Testament where it talks about our human nature and that human nature being resistive of God and not subject to God and not subject to God's law. People don't like to be told what to do. They don't like to have God tell them what to do. You know, they like to resist that. They like to refuse that.

And of course, we recognize that when we were brought into the church, brought into a part of spiritual Israel by our baptism, we began that process. And yet, let's turn back to the book of Zechariah. Zechariah is in the latter part of the Old Testament, the part of the prophets here. And Zechariah has a section here that points out what it was that Israel did that was wrong. And it ties in with this point about being sensitive to the law of God. Actually, you know, it's very pointed here. It says in verse 8, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, render true judgments and show kindness and mercy to one another. Do not oppress the widow. Zechariah 7 verse 8. I don't know whether I said that wrong or not. It wasn't where it sounded like most of you were going. Mike and I are sharing today because this is in Zechariah 7. Starting in verse 8, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, thus says the Lord of hosts, render true judgments and show kindness and mercy to one another. Do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the ailing, or the poor. Do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. And so that was the statement. That was what they were told to do. That's the responsibility that they had. But in verse 11, it says, But they refused to listen, and they turned a stubborn shoulder, and they stopped their ears in order not to hear. It appears they were resisting God. It wasn't that they didn't know what He said. They just refused to do it. They resisted God. And in verse 12, they made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. See, here's part of what was wrong. You know, they had the stony heart. They had the heart that was resisting to God. It was not paying attention, not insensitive, not concerned. And so when we go over to the book of Hebrews, and we talk about, here in Hebrews chapter 8, we talk about the New Covenant, and we talk about what it is that God does with us today, and He'll do with others in the future. Well, He's going to, you know, provide a certain benefit to us here in Hebrews 8, verse 8. The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. And He says in verse 10, this is the covenant. So this is the New Covenant, the covenant that all of us embrace, the covenant that we received whenever we were baptized and forgiven of our sins. It says, this covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, and I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write my laws. I will write my laws on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Here He's talking about this new heart not being resistive to God's law, but actually coming to love God's law, coming to appreciate that law. You see this written about even a little more here in Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, Ephesians 1 verse 15. Paul says, I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I don't cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. See, that's what Paul could encourage them with. He could encourage the church there in Ephesus that you are able to be, you know, you are lifted up in my prayers because I see such a delightful outlook, a delightful attitude that you have. He says, I pray in verse 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know Him so that, in verse 18, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, with you having a heart that has become pliable, with you having a new heart that is becoming soft and able to be worked with, so with the eyes of your heart enlightened you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power for us who believe according to the working of His great power. So He said, the new heart is one that's sensitive, sensitive to the law of being written on our heart, one where we want to know, where we want to learn, where we want to be guided.

And actually, when you go back to, say, the longest Psalm in the book of Psalms, Psalm 119, at least it has the longest number of verses, you see David enumerating over and over. Many of the verses say something about the law. Many others say something about statutes or judgments or ordinances or the way of God. I think all of the verses have some kind of a connection to that.

And certainly in verse 97, David proclaims, oh, how love I thy law. That was a part of what, in a sense, made his heart a little different. Whether all of his compatriots did or not, you know, David had a sense that, you know, the law needs to be written on my heart. I need to be guided by that law. And I think it's in Psalm 105, verse 105 there of Psalm 119, where it talks about the law being a lamp to guide our heart, to guide us and lead us. And so we are, you know, asking God then to care for us and nurture us. And so the second point that I make is just simply the new heart that God is giving us is one that comes to love the law, one that is able to be inscribed. It's pretty hard to write in rock. Now, I know that God was able to do that, and yet it's very hard. You know, you have to really work to try to inscribe anything in a rock, a heart of stone, but in a soft heart or a soft tablet, you know, it's a lot easier to write. And that, of course, is what the New Testament explains about the new heart that God has given us.

You know, the third thing I want to mention is I've already mentioned this to a degree, but the new heart that God wants us to have is a heart that is soft and that is tender.

You know, in Ephesians, I guess, a page or two over one page in my Bible here, in Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 4, he says in verse 31, Put away all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander together with all malice, and be kind to one another. Be tender, hearted, and forgiving one another as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you.

You know, be tender hearted. See, that's talking about the type of a tender, a type of sensitivity, a type of being easily entreated, easily guided.

You know, that's the type of a tenderness that God wants us to have in the new heart that He has given us. He doesn't want us to be hard or harsh. He doesn't want us to be stubborn.

Actually, you find descriptions of the mind and the heart in a pretty similar category as far as being like stone, being rebellious and stubborn. But the new heart that God is giving us is one that's tender, as it's mentioned here. And actually, when you think about it, as we go through trials, which we pretty well expect, we don't enjoy or want, but when we go through trials, that's pretty hard on us. That's difficult on us. And we want, we can be, I guess at times, we can be discouraged. We can be down. We can be frustrated.

We can even be tempted to, in a sense, harden our heart. We have a new heart, but we can be tempted to harden our heart. And then when we do that, then we start asking, well, why is this happening to me? Why is God letting me go through this? And sometimes we are not receptive to His word or to His guidance, His rebuke, His mercy, even His peace, if we harden our heart. But if we come to God whenever we're tried, and we come to God with a desire to draw closer to Him, if we have a softened heart, if we allow our heart and remember that our heart needs to be sensitive, it needs to be tender, well, then we're going to, if we're seeking God's help, and we continue to implore Him for help, but we also do that with thanksgiving, we're going to find, you know, that we are more aware of God's purpose in our life, that we're more sensitive to the guidance and moving of His Holy Spirit, that we're more aware and appreciative of the mercy that He extends to us. And so, you know, I think it's important that, and I guess we could say that whenever we're going through difficult trials, you know, we can almost say that well, our heart seems broken, you know, we feel broken, and sometimes we could say that. Yet, you know, we've been wanting to maintain a guard over our heart, and that we are susceptible, you know, to looking to God for help and to asking Him for the soft heart, not the hard heart, but the soft heart that He wants us to have. Here in Matthew, Chapter 20, you see an example that I know reflects the type of heart that God tells us that He wants us to have.

Here in Matthew, Chapter 20, you see the perfect example of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You know, the one who was here to set us an example, the one who was the pattern for us to follow, the one who ultimately was the Lamb of God and the one who enabled us to be forgiven. But in setting this example, you know, He showed us what it was to be transformed. He showed us what it was that we are going to be transformed into. Of course, obviously, He didn't have to be transformed. He didn't sin. He never sinned, and He didn't have the corrupt background that we have. We've had to come out of that, and then we've sought a new life, a new way. And yet, the description that I'm using here is, we've sought a new heart. We've sought a soft heart. Here in Matthew 20, verse 29, as they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Jesus, and there were two blind men sitting on the roadside. And when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they shouted, Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David. And the crowd sternly ordered them to be quiet, but they shouted even more loudly, have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David. And David stood still and called them, saying, What do you want me to do for you? And they said to Him, Lord, let our eyes be opened. See, obviously, they began to perceive He could potentially help them. They were crying out for help. And so Jesus asked what appears to be a pretty obvious, at least a obvious question as far as what the answer was going to be. Well, we'd like to see. We'd like for you to open our eyes. And of course, what we see in verse 34 is it moved with compassion. Jesus touched their eyes and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him. See, He perhaps had not intended to run into them. It appears that they kind of figured out where He was and were yelling at Him as He was walking by. And yet moved with compassion, moved with tenderness, moved with a heart like God. See, that's what we find even in reference to David. David had a... He was a man after God's own heart. And of course, this is reflected, I think, in what Jesus said and what He did because He was able. He was a vehicle through, you know, Jesus was a man. He was a man when He was here on this earth. He came to dwell in flesh. And yet, He took on a human form. He was a human servant. And yet, He was a servant through which the power of God could perform miracles. The power of God could walk on the sea. He could calm the storm. He could feed the thousands. He could heal the sick. He was able to do that. He was a vehicle through which the Father... He said, the Father does all these works. He said, I can do nothing of myself because He was, of course, the right type of sensitive and understanding, even in the form that He took as a human being. You know, He still was God. When Jesus was on the earth, when He was a human, as a man, He was still God. And yet, He was able to be used by God to heal and care for and nurture and, in this case, show what a new heart is. Show what the type of care and compassion that God wants us to have, not only for one another, but that He wants us to have toward Him.

See, we need to be sensitive toward God. Sensitive toward God as our Father. Sensitive toward Him in asking Him for help and certainly thanking Him for what He does for us. So, the third point is that our new heart, you know, is to be soft and tender and, of course, we have to think about that sometimes. We have to, I guess, probably more than think about it or, in some way, try to work that up.

I think we need to realize that I need to ask God to give me that soft heart. I need to ask God to give me that tender, sensitive, easily entreated heart where I am sensitive to others, where I'm concerned about others, and where I'm concerned about what God has in store for me. The fourth point, the last one that I'll make here today, is that our new heart is one that has been cleansed and purified. See, all of us, you know, we've got to come out of our corrupt past. We've got to come out of our, in a sense, bad habits. Much of that comes from our human heart. We can go to Psalm 51 that I mentioned a little bit more about David and the repentance psalm that he wrote here in Psalm 51 after he had been identified by Nathan as the one who had committed adultery and the one who had committed murder. And I think it's good for us to see, in this case, what it was that David was coming to see. And when you study the life of David, you see, you know, that he certainly had, and I want to talk more about this here in the future, but he certainly had a sensitivity toward God. He was said to have had a heart or a, you know, the type of heart, you know, that would be like God's, a man after my own heart. That's the statement that we find. And that was a remarkable quality. And yet you find about David's life that there were ups and there were downs, you know, pretty severe downs. And then later, you know, he would appear to be elated. He would appear to be extremely high. But of course, he had a lot of ups and downs in his life. And yet here in Psalm 51, you see him... Actually, I think you see him coming to see himself. You see him coming to see how much he needed God, how much he didn't want God to turn away from him, how much he wanted to be in in a rapport with God, in a close relationship to God. And so here in verse 3, he says, I know my transgressions and I know my sin is ever before me and against you and you alone have I sinned.

And in verse 6, he says, what you really want, what you truly desire, you desire truth in the inward heart. You desire truth in the inner being. Therefore, teach me wisdom in my secret heart. See, what was David saying? Was he saying, I'm an adulterer? Was he saying, I'm a murderer?

Well, he would have to admit, you know, those were correct descriptions. Those were descriptions he needed to seek forgiveness for. But what he was really saying in verse 6 is that I see it wasn't just the adultery and it wasn't just not only the murder of Uriah, but the whole way I set up and then covered up that. What's wrong is I have a hard heart. I have a bad heart and I need to ask for a new heart. And that's what he's going to do here. He says, purge me in verse 7 with hyssop and I will be clean. Wash me and I'll be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins. Bought out my iniquity in verse 10. He says, create in me a new heart. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.

And don't cast me away from your presence. Don't take your Holy Spirit from me, but restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain me in my willing spirit. See, he wanted to have a soft heart before God, but he noticed that it isn't very soft whenever I'm not paying attention to the law. It isn't soft whenever I'm ignoring God. It isn't soft whenever I kind of wonder why is all this stuff happening? Because he had a lot of times to think about that sometimes. You know, why is my family in chaos? That's something David had to deal with. And yet what he was doing, he was looking at his heart. He was asking God, I need a new heart. I need a heart transplant. I need a clean heart. And of course, you know, it's amazing to see, you know, we can see here in Mark chapter 7.

Mark chapter 7. Actually, let's go to Matthew 15 because it's a similar account. And yet, you know, it will point out the same thing. In Matthew 15, verse 10, when Jesus called the crowd to him and said, listen, understand, it's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of that mouth. It's what comes out of the mouth and comes out of the heart that defiles. And after he had given an example, he said in verse 17, do you not see that whatever goes into your mouth enters the stomach and goes out into the sewer? Verse 18, but what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart. And that is what defiles. For out of the heart comes evil intention and murder and adultery and fornication and theft and false witness and slander.

These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a person.

See, here he was pointing out, of course, how that the hard heart, the heart of stone, produces a lot of bad results, produces a lot of sins, produces the bad results that Jesus said. These are what defile the man. But what do we read in 1 Corinthians 13?

See, this is reflecting the new heart. This is reflecting a tender heart. This is reflecting a soft heart of care and concern and love. And of course, that's the whole description of 1 Corinthians 13 because this chapter is a chapter that Paul writes to show how significant the love of God is, how significant that that love is reflected from us as a being. And it's going to have to be a part of our new heart. It's going to have to be, and we've got to not only read it, but we've got to ask God to provide that heart that's described here. Now, Paul obviously is making a mention. He's making comparison here from several different gifts that had been discussed. And he was saying, no matter what gift, if I have a gift of tongues or knowledge or service, or if I give everything away, if I don't have the love of God, then I am just simply nothing.

But he starts in verse 4 by saying, a new heart. The new heart that is the true circumcision that God wants all of us to have is going to be cutting away the defilements of our old nature and asking God to give us that new soft heart that is going to reflect what we read in verse 4, where it says that the love of God is patient and it is kind. It is not jealous.

It is not boastful. It is not arrogant. It is not rude. It does not insist on its own way.

It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.

It bears all things. It believes all things. It hopes all things. It endures all things. Love never fails. Here he could very much talk about how it is that the love of God should be expressed in our lives, and that's going to come from our new heart, a new heart that's sensitive to the Word of God. It's sensitive to other people and to God Himself. It's reflecting of a true circumcision, and it is one that is being cleansed, the old taken away and the new. This new love, kindness, not jealous, not boastful, not arrogant or rude, bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things. We have to want those qualities as our qualities, as our values. See, how should we be reflected as a Christian? Well, we can say we should follow Jesus, and that's clearly what we ought to be doing. That's his example is perfect, but we can also read the fruit that God says comes from His Spirit. We can read more about the divine nature, and this is describing the divine nature. This is describing the true heart, new heart that God is giving us as His children. You actually see through the remainder of the verses there in 1 Corinthians 13 that he points out. He says, love never fails. He says it is absolutely permanent. It is absolutely complete, and it is absolutely superior to any and any other gift. He says, faith, hope, and love exist. They abide, but the greatest of these is love. Down in verse 13, I think. Now, faith, hope, and love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love. So this is the type of a new heart, the type of new heart that God is wanting us to have, a cleansed heart, one that has been cleansed through asking for help, asking to be transformed that way, asking for a new heart, a different heart, a heart that truly does love the Word of God, a heart that is sensitive, a heart that is easily untreated, and yet a heart that also reflects the love of God. And you can also say in connection with this last point about our new heart needs to be cleansed and purified. Matthew 5, verse 8, one of the Beatitudes says, blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. They shall see God. That's what we're going to do. We're going to see God in the future. We have a part of the transformation that is yet to happen. We've begun on the way. We may be well on the way. We don't know how much more time we're going to be allowed, but we are ultimately going to be a part of God's divine family, and because we are headed in that direction, we need to seek the new heart that He says. It's not a heart of stone, but a heart of flesh, a heart that is soft. So this is the heart that God is offering to us. Not one that's a heart of stone that's hard-hearted and uncaring and selfish and rebellious, but a new heart that is soft and tender and responsive and reflecting the nature of God. That's the transformation, brethren, that we are engaged in. God has invited us to be engaged in that transformation.

And in a sense, we want to just allow God to perform that process. We can, I guess, we could say we could we want to ask God to perform our heart transplant and ask Him, you know, I want to be a willing participant. I want this new heart. I want to be able to reflect your divine nature.

And so as we do that, as we, you know, see the need and as we, I think, yield ourselves to God, because clearly that's what Jesus did as He was here on the earth, as He was living a life that was ultimately to be a sacrifice for all of us as His blood was going to be shed. And we have then forgiveness through that. We see Him in His lifetime exemplifying that new heart. He was the one who was able to do that with the help of God. He was actually this human form through whom God could work to display what God is like. He said when He talked to His disciples, I think it was Philip asking, you know, well, where's the Father? Well, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father, you've seen what God is like, you see what the Father is like, and the Father, you know, can work through you in a similar way if you are asking, you know, to have that new heart. So let's not resist, you know, what God's desire is for us. Let's not resist that, but let's ask to be transformed to have the same type of heart that our Savior Jesus Christ had.