A New Heart from God

Well, good morning again, brethren. Certainly thank Tom for going over what he did not only today, but last week, and being able to focus on an understanding of something that I think in many ways people may have some perceptions of. I know I've thought about it a lot in the past week, and I think that it's wonderful to be able to learn more about the nature of God, more about an understanding of how unbelievable God is, and what he and his Son, as he sent him to the earth, what he did and what he continues to do, because he, of course, is the one who's going to help us and cause us to be successful. Well, I wanted to start the sermon today, just kind of thinking back. About 40 years ago, I was a youthful teenager, 40 or 50.

No need to haggle over that. I remember seeing a series that came out in the Reader's Digest. Now, some of you would not be able to know what this was. Some of you might. A series that came out in the Reader's Digest that, as a young person, and that was one of the things that we had available to us at the time, and I was excited to read some of the things in that Reader's Digest. But this particular series, you know, seemed to be significant to me, because, and of course, it was using my name.

And the series was about Joe. It was about, I am Joe's lungs. I am Joe's liver. I am Joe's heart, and I am Joe's heart is the one that I wanted to point out to you. I thought it was a neat article. I was excited to read it at the time. I've looked back over it recently. It gives, you know, pretty basic information, and information that would help people if they were trying to live healthy, and certainly gave several things that would cause a person's heart, that they realized what they were doing sometimes to their heart, and help them to be able to live more healthy. And so, I thought that was interesting back then. I think it is interesting even today, and it kind of leads into what I want to discuss with you this morning. And it's about, not Joe's heart, but about the heart that God truly wants all of us to have. And I want to go back to the book of Ezekiel chapter 36 as a lead into what I want to discuss, because it talks about a heart here. And I'll tell you, in Ezekiel, when you read through the bulk of the book, you see that Ezekiel is warning Israel or Judah. I'm not always familiar with everything as far as what is being discussed, but I can see as I read through it, or lead page through it, that you can see that there were warning after warning after warning that God would give His people. But also, you see that whenever Ezekiel was asked to give a warning, he often followed that up with God's words about how, well, you're not doing well, you're going to be punished, but then you're going to be restored. You're going to be restored. He mentions this restoration kind of over and over. And here in chapter 36 is one of the places where the renewal or restoration of Israel is spoken about. And I want us to look at, starting in verse 22, and God is, of course, when Ezekiel stated this, under God's direction, it was to the people of God. It was to the people of God physically at the time. And, of course, you know, when we read it, you know, we need to realize that some of these restorations or these renewals were actually words for us, words for spiritual Israel, for the people of God here in the New Covenant time, here at our age, if we're going to be the Israel of God, a spiritual people of God, then these words apply to us today, and they're going to apply to people as they go into the Millennium, because ultimately Israel's true restoration is going to begin in earnest when you get to the world to come.

But here in verse 22, it says, and God is saying through Ezekiel, Say to the house of Israel, 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 actually told them, and he's going to tell them, you know, there's going to be restoration. There is hope. There is importance and significance to what is being done in your life. And truly, there is great significance in what God is doing in our lives. But he says, I'm going to act not really because of your actions, but in order to sanctify my name. I'm going to point out that I'm the one that people need to look to, to be successful. And he goes on in verse 24. He says, I'm going to gather you out of the countries. I'm going to bring you into your own land. I'm going to sprinkle clean water over you, and you'll be clean from all your uncleanness. From all the idolatry, I'm going to cleanse you of that. And of course, that was a big problem that Israel had. You know, they couldn't keep their eyes. They couldn't keep their mind focused on the God who had brought them out of Egypt, the one who was willing to help them. And yet, of course, you know, they were pretty limited. They were pretty limited. They would chase after other gods. You know, they would chase after idols. But in verse 26, he says, a new heart, a new heart, I'm going to give you, and a new spirit I'm going to put within you. And I'll remove from your body the heart of stone, and I'll give you a heart of flesh.

I'll 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 give to your ancestors, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. Now, this is marvelous. You know, actually, there's more to this whole section that I won't try to read through. You're welcome to read through it. Actually, it appears later in the chapter to be clearly referring to the time of the millennium, the Garden of Eden, and you know, the restoration of the earth. And yet, here in chapter 36, he mentions a new heart, and that's what I was thinking when I was thinking of the article about Joe's heart. You know, a human heart does a certain function. It has certainly connections that run throughout the entirety of the body through the circulatory system and the arteries and the veins that affect everything in us. And yet, here God is telling Israel, and he is telling us, as his people today, that I'm going to give you a new heart. See, I want that new heart. I want you to have that new heart. And so, I think it would be good for us to think about what type of a new heart is God referring to here? What kind of a transition? I mean, he's making a pretty big contrast here, and even the way it's worded, sometimes it seems a little unusual. A new heart that I'm going to give you, a new spirit I'll put within you, and I'll remove your heart of stone, and I'll give you a heart of flesh. Now, he's making a contrast there. You know, the heart of stone, you know, referred to the way the Israelites were and the way that human beings are, as we're surrounded by the wavelength that Satan interjects into us, or injects into us, that we're exposed to everywhere. And yet, that's a human heart. That's the type of a limited heart that we have. Actually, when you see the description of being a heart of stone, what does that immediately think? You think of, well, hard, hard-hearted, a kind of a stubborn heart, and that can, of course, apply to our mind as well. And, of course, Israel is referred to stiff-necked and stubborn and rebellious, and yet that was because of the hard heart. But he says, I want to contrast that with the new heart that is a soft heart. A soft heart, that is a heart of flesh. At least, that's my understanding of what that refers to. The type of heart that we want is a heart that is certainly not hard, not stone-like, but one that is like a heart of flesh, a soft, malleable, and I'll point out a few other things about this. And I think the question that we should think about is just how God is achieving that process in my heart. How is God achieving that new heart in you? Is it even something we think about? Is it something that we ask for? Because I think we should. It tells us that this is going to be achieved, and it's achieved through a process of conversion, and we are a part of that conversion process today, and ultimately in the millennium and beyond, you know, many people, millions, billions of people are going to come to understand the process, and they're going to come to understand and see a part of the problem is most people don't realize that they have a heart of stone. They don't realize that that's, you know, how they project themselves by their disobedience, by their lack of responsiveness to God, or even lack of awareness of what God is doing.

So how do you see God achieving this process in your heart? I've got four different points that I hope I can be able to quickly go through here for the remainder of the sermon, but I hope that it is significant to us, you know, that we think about how it is that this process of transformation involves changing our heart and maybe more correctly, you know, asking God to change our heart.

You know, the first point I want to make is one that I think all of you would be able to probably look up of two or three scriptures about, and it's simply the fact, you know, that in the Old Testament, you know, physical circumcision was a sign. There was to be a cutting away, and this was, in a sense, kind of setting apart the people of God, the people of Israel with Abraham, and then later Isaac and Jacob and the tribes of Israel. Circumcision was a physical thing. It was an action that, in a sense, denoted the people of God. But in the New Testament, and as we read it today, you know, we wanted to see that, well, true circumcision is a matter of the heart. In Romans chapter 2, again, I think most of these scriptures would be familiar to you, but I just start out with this. In Romans chapter 2, you find that, as Paul is writing to the people there in the area around Rome, the congregation there, you know, there were Jews there, there were Gentiles there, there was a mixture of people.

And I'd like for us to start here. He mentions verse 25, circumcision is indeed a value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. He was telling them, well, you know, you want to be the people of God, you want to be Christians, you want to be servants. Well, that's not depending on whether or not you're physically circumcised. There's something far more needful. He goes on in verse 26, if those who are uncircumcised, talking about the Gentiles, if they keep the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? And then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law will condemn you that have written, have the written code and circumcision, but you break the law. He was telling them, well, clearly, obedience to God involves keeping the law. Clearly, it involves obedience. But he goes on in verse 28 and verse 29 of what I want to cover. He says, for a person is not a Jew or is not an Israelite, who is one outwardly, nor is trussic circumcision something that is external and physical, but rather, in verse 29, a person is an Israelite or Jew who is one inwardly. And real circumcision is a matter of the heart. It is spiritual and it is not literal. Such a person receives praise, not from others, but from God. So if we want to receive praise from God, well, then we want to understand the need for true circumcision, a need for our heart to be circumcised. We can go on over to Colossians 2, another section that talks about this. In Colossians 2, verse 6, it says, As you therefore have received Jesus Christ our Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and build up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. And so Paul, in this case, was telling the church at Colossae that you need to continue to be built up in a broader understanding, in a greater recognition of the foundation that you have in your life, which is a dependence on Jesus Christ, an understanding of His value to your life, and of course, the link that He gives us to God the Father.

If we drop down to verse 9, it says, In Him, talking about Christ, the wholefulness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in Him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. And in Him also you were circumcised, and so in verse 11 is what I'm getting to, in Him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, a circumcision made without hands, I think the King James says. You were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision by putting off the body of the flesh, the circumcision of Christ, and when you were buried with Him in baptism, you were raised with Him through faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.

And so, you know, you see this mention not only in these two places, but it's referred to in other places as, you know, an understanding that true circumcision truly taking on a new heart involves, you know, cutting away the old, the bad, the hard-heartedness that, you know, that we automatically come by just as human beings. The second point that I'll make, and I'd like to go back to Zechariah chapter 7. Zechariah chapter 7, and this ties directly in with what we've heard earlier today, but that if we're going to have a truly circumcised heart, we're going to have a new heart, well then we're going to have a sensitivity toward the law of God.

And whenever you read the verses in Romans 8 primarily that tell us how that it is, a carnal mind is not subject to God and is not subject to the law of God. People just don't like to be told what to do. They just don't like it. And even for us who know better, sometimes we don't like it. Sometimes it's hard for us to focus on, well this is what God says, and this is what we should do, and this is the law that I want in a sense to guide my life. And that of course is what we're asking. But here in Zechariah chapter 7, I want to point out just a verse or two here. Starting in verse 8, it says, The word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, Thus says the Lord of Hosts, render true judgment, show kindness and mercy to one another.

Verse 10, Do not oppress the widow or orphan or alien or poor, and do not despise evil in your hearts against one another. This is what was being told to Israel. They weren't listening, but this was clearly a description of what God wanted their heart to be. And yet in verse 11, he says, they refused. They refused to listen, and they turned a stubborn shoulder, and they stopped their ears in order that they do not hear. 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 his prophet.

There's a telltale sign there in verse 12 that Israelites' hearts were hard, and we don't want to be that way. We don't want to have that type of heart. And of course, in Hebrews chapter 8, when we're talking about those of us today who desire to please God, and where it talks in Hebrews 8 about a new covenant, you know, a part of that transition, a part of that change that should be taking place in our lives, is a change where the law is written on our hearts. Here in Hebrews chapter 8, starting in verse 8, the days are surely coming, says the Lord, that I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. And so that's a covenant that God has made with us, as we saw. We were to be spiritually circumcised as we were baptized, as we began a new life, as we were to live in a different type of way. And here in this second point of having a sensitivity toward the law, he says in verse 10, this is the covenant that I'll make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws in their minds. I will write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Again, the transition from not wanting, hating, being hard toward God and hard toward His Word, that's what the Israelites represented throughout their continued rebellion. And of course, the new heart is a heart that is to be sensitive to the Word of God. Let's go over to Ephesians chapter 1.

I'm giving an encouragement to the church that is in Ephesus. It says in Ephesians 1, verse 15, I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward the saints, and for this reason, I don't cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. And I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, will 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.

Here it's reflecting on, or it's expressing this new heart. It's expressing this soft heart, this heart that is willing to have the law of God written in our inner being. It says in verse 18, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance, your 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. See, that's a transformation, having an enlightened heart. We want to be, as I mentioned, having a sensitivity toward the law. We want to have a heart that is enlightened, and that the law is our guide. I mean, you read that back in the Psalms. In Psalm 119, you read through the longest psalm, or at least the psalm with the most number of verses. It mentions the law numerous times. It mentions in almost every verse something about the law, the law, the statutes, the judgments that David said in verse 97, I think, that that's what I delight in. I delight in the law. It also says in verse 105 that that law is a lamp, and that guides us, and so it is to guide our heart. And so if we're going to understand the new heart that God is giving us, then we want to understand spiritual circumcision, the transition that takes place there, but also we want to understand how that a new heart is a heart that desires to understand the law, to know the law, and to do the law, even as, again, we were encouraged to walk in the commandments of God. Now that's got to be something that comes from from the inside out. We'll do it physically, but that's got to come from our heart. And so that is a part or a way that we can understand this new heart that God gives us. The third thing that I want to mention about the new heart that God is creating in us is that the transition from hard, the heart of stone, to a heart of flesh, represents having a heart that is soft, that is malleable, that is impressionable, that is sensitive, and that is tender. Actually, that's here in Ephesians over a page in my Bible. Here in Ephesians chapter 4, in talking about a transition of the old way of life and then the new way of life that God wants us to live, 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 tenderhearted." Tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. I think that's a very important part of a new heart, a new heart that we ask God to give us, a sensitivity not only toward others, but also even a sensitivity, a tender heartedness, a soft heartedness, instead of the hard-headed and hard-hearted attitude toward God. That's not only toward other people, but toward God.

Because if we have a sensitivity, if we have a tender heart, then we're going to be receptive to God's guidance and lead in our lives. See, actually, we live through, in this physical life, we live through a number of trials.

And I know some of you have gone through different trials, different tests, and sometimes whenever we're tried, and whether that is through illness or whether it's through other circumstances or other difficulties or problems or even the weather, whenever we have difficulties and if we're enduring those trials, sometimes we can be tempted to run from God and, in a sense, kind of blame God. And then I think that fuels the question, why is God allowing this to happen to me? Why am I going through this? And it becomes almost pretty self-focused. And we're thinking that, well, God is doing something to us. So, you know, I think as we go through trials, you know, we want to remember, you know, that as we guard our heart, as we realize that, you know, we don't want to be hard-hearted, we don't want to be looking away from God, because if we harden our heart and don't seek the soft heart that God wants, you know, then we forget.

We forget what it is that God is doing in us, how it is that He's transforming us. And sometimes, you know, we certainly need to fight the tendency to harden our heart and ask God, you know, why are we being tried? We need to run to God. We need to run to Him. We need to, you know, in a sense, want to be as we are trying.

Now, often this is hard to have this type of focus, but whenever we have a trial or difficulty, you know, do we desire to be more aware of God, more aware of His purpose for us, more sensitive to His Spirit living in us, and to His mercy being extended to us? You know, I know, again, in thinking of several who have gone through major health issues, you know, it's very difficult to go through things that are extremely painful. And yet, you know, we've got, if we're going through something like that, we've got to remember that, well, I don't want to be hard-hearted toward God.

I want to be soft-hearted. I want to be pliable. I want to be malleable in God's working in His fashioning in my life, the soft heart, the tender heart that reaches out to others and certainly reaches to God in appreciation and gratitude. Continue to ask for help, but to do that in gratitude, to do that in an understanding of what God is doing. And, of course, if we do harden our heart at that time, and that's kind of at a time, usually, if we are going through difficult times, we, you know, our hearts almost seem broken.

Physically, you know, we seem kind of crushed. And yet, you know, we want to remember to be, you know, looking to God for help and not refusing to hear what He has to say, to hear what His Word has to say to hear, and in a sense we kind of resist His mercy and His direction in our life. Now, you see this pretty clearly. Of course, there's a number of statements that you could go to, but in Matthew 20 you can easily see this is what Jesus exemplified in this brief encounter that He has with two blind men here in Matthew 20.

Starting in verse 29, it says, as they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed them. There were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they shouted, Lord, have mercy on us. Son of David, the crowd certainly ordered them to be quiet, but they shouted even more, have mercy on us, Lord. Son of David, and Jesus stood still and called them and said, what do you want me to do for you? And they said, well, Lord, let our eyes be open. Obviously, they had a physical need. They were greatly impaired, not being able to see. And yet what we see in verse 34 is the soft heart, the pliable heart, the loving heart that Jesus had.

He says, move with compassion. He touched their eyes, and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.

That's a type of a tenderness, a type of concern and interest in others, a type of love that God wants to reflect in our heart. And clearly it is. And even as we've been thinking about Jesus in the human form, as I have been the past week, and I know you all were talking about it a long time last week, and we can probably talk about it more, but to truly understand how that Jesus was the perfect human form. He was the absolute perfect human form. Now, yes, He was God. Even as a man, Jesus was God. He was the Son of God. And yet He was a perfect human form because He was always willing to yield to the will of the Father. He was always willing to be used as a vehicle through which the Father would do miracles like this, miracles of healing. He was the perfect human example of that, and none of us can claim that we're that. You know, we're not the perfect example. We're shooting to be the right example much of the time, or we want to be. But see, Jesus was that perfect example. But He says in verse 34, move with compassion.

Jesus touched their eyes, and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.

And so again, we want to ask that God would give us a new heart that is soft, soft and tender and concerned. And again, as I said, willing to be directed, guided by God. The last thing I'll mention about the new heart that God is giving us is that that heart is a heart that has been cleansed and purified. That, again, it comes from us drawing close to God, for that. In Psalm 51, you read David's, you know, David was, you know, you think about, and I probably will try to talk more about this next time, but, you know, David had a lot of ups and downs when you read about his life. And yet he was said to be a man after God's own heart. You know, there was something about his heart. There was something about how God had worked in and transformed his heart, even in preparing him for service in the future. He is able to express in Psalm 51, and of course, this is the Psalm of repentance after he was recognizing his sins. And of course, he could say, yes, adultery was a sin, and yes, murder was a sin, but more than that, I think he saw that my heart is absolutely rotten. My heart is so hard, and I'm so hard-headed right now, that I'm not a human form through which God is working. You know, I think he came to see that because of what he wrote here in Psalm 51. Starting in verse 6, he says, you desire. Of course, he's saying, I'm wrong. I know my transgressions, my sin has ever reformed me in verse 3. But he says in verse 6, you desire truth in the inward being, and therefore teach us wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me. And so he was again looking at himself. He was looking at the inside. He was looking at the motivation. He was looking at the intention. He was looking at the failings that he realized were inside his chest and inside his head. It says, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquity. He was sinking deep down of the disappointment surely that God must have in him right then because clearly God was aware of what David was doing. And so he says in verse 10, 10, create in me a clean heart, O God.

Put a new and right spirit within me. Don't cast me away from your presence. Don't take your Holy Spirit from me. See, he realized he needed a new heart. He realized he needed the type of heart that God says would be soft and impressionable and sensitive to the word of God and that would be tender. And so he was asking for that. And of course, you know, whenever you read in Mark 7 about what Jesus says, actually, you know, in Mark and in Matthew both, you've got two accounts of what Jesus said. Mark chapter 7, where Jesus is talking about what really defiles a person.

Mark chapter 7, starting in verse 20, he said, it's what comes out of a person that defiles that person. Verse 21, it is from within. From within the human heart that evil intentions come. Fornication and theft and murder and adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly, all of these evil things come from within. And that's what defiles a person. See, that's the hard heart that God says he was going to change. He's going to take that away, and he's going to give us a new heart, a new heart that is soft, that is sensitive, that is sensitive to the law, that desires to be cleansed, and that, as it says here, you know, understands the need to get away from all of these things that are described as defiling human beings.

And, of course, what does he want? What does he say he wants us to be filled with? What is the heart from God, new heart, that is cleansed? What is it going to reflect? Well, we can go over to 1 Corinthians 13. And again, all of these scriptures I know are familiar to you.

But here in 1 Corinthians 13, you see the description of what a new heart from God, a soft heart from God, will value. Will value more than anything else.

And, of course, in 1 Corinthians 13, you know Paul is describing how it is, how important it is that the love of God is the single most important driving force in our life. And, of course, then he becomes rather descriptive about what that is. And, of course, as we read there in Mark about what's wrong and what defiles men, you know, those things come from the human heart. But, see, God is able to transform our heart not only with his law and not only with the sensitivity but with the power of his spirit, with the fruit of his spirit. And, of course, it says that that love is patient. Starting in verse 4, that love is patient. That love is kind.

It is not jealous. It is not boastful. It is not arrogant. It is not rude. Love does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable. It is not resentful. It doesn't delight in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things. It believes all things. It hopes all things. It endures all things. The love of God just simply does not fail. It is always the right thing to do. And, of course, he goes ahead to describe how it is that this kind of love, this kind of heart that is reflected in the love of God, that's the new heart that he's giving us. That's what he wants us to value. He wants us to think about and then delight in.

He concludes by saying that this love is absolutely permanent. It is absolutely complete.

And it is absolutely supreme. He later, of course, says, love, faith, hope. It will abide but the greatest of those, the one that is the highest, is love. So, you know, we see, you know, that the new heart that God has given us is quite different than our hard heart. But this is what he's talking about when he talks about the heart of flesh, that he wants us to have a soft heart that is close to God, that is desiring to understand and obey the law, you know, that is sensitive, that is tender, and ultimately is cleansed by the word of God and by the Spirit of God and ultimately, I guess you would say it's described in Matthew 5 verse 8 because he says, blessed are the pure in heart for they're the ones who are going to see God.

That's the new heart that God offers us and I would simply encourage us to seek that heart, to pray for it, to ask for it, and to pray that God will transform our hearts, no longer being a heart of stone that's hard-hearted and uncaring, and I guess you could also say selfish and rebellious because that clearly is what the description is of the Israelites.

But to have a new heart that is soft, that is tender, that is responsive, and that really reflects the nature of God. That's the new heart that he's talking about. He's talking about a heart regarding the new covenant where that heart has the law written on it, but it's got to be a heart, you know, where we desire. So we don't want to resist the desire that God has for us.

You know, he loves us immensely. He loves us as his children. He wants us to be a part of his divine family. He wants us to take on that nature, but he also wants us to have a new heart. And so I pray that you will, you know, see a need to ask for that, and as we don't resist, but as we ask to be transformed, that we can truly have the same type of heart, the same type of sensitivity toward others that we see Jesus exempt from.