encountering the Jesus of the new heart. Ezekiel chapter 36 verses 24 through 26. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness. And from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and a new spirit and I will put this within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." And then in John chapter 3, as Jesus is dealing with Nicodemus, I'm going to read from verse 1. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus said to him, how can this be? Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly I say to you, we speak what we know and we bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except He who is descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Let's ask God's blessings as we Father, we thank you for this precious word. We thank you for the truth, for the life-giving power and force it has. We thank you that the Spirit will work in our lives now to understand what it means to be having a new heart, a heart of flesh. God, grant wisdom. Grant understanding. Grant conviction of sin where it's necessary. change of life where it may come through this. God open our hearts and our minds to understand you better, to grow in you, to love you for you so loved us. In Jesus name, Amen. Is this better? Everyone hear me back there? Here we go. Everyone, that includes everyone here, anywhere else, would love to start over, to be able to live out of a new and wonderful life. And when we get really bold, we look at ourselves and we wonder why our supposedly new life in Christ seems so uninspired and devoid of love and power. We want these things, we wonder what's going on, what's wrong with me, what is wrong. We live in such a way that we wonder if anyone ever sees anything of Christ in us. In John chapter 2 verses 24 and 25 we see Jesus entrusting himself to no one. You remember why? Because he knows what is in every man. He knows the heart of everyone. He knows what's really going on within us. And yet, just after Jesus said this, this man Nicodemus, this man came to Jesus And yes, Jesus knew the heart of Nicodemus as well as he knew the heart of the money changers and the hearts of those he threw out of the temple. He knew the heart of Nicodemus just as well. What Jesus did in his encounter with Nicodemus may appear somewhat harsh, maybe even abrupt, but it's the kindest and it's the most loving thing that he could do, because he told Nicodemus the thing he most needed to hear, and that is, you must be born again. He told Nicodemus that Nicodemus' greatest hope of entering the Kingdom of God would never happen if Nicodemus was not born again. And here's Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin, probably the leading teacher in Israel, and he needed to be taught. He needed to realize that nothing that he could do, nothing that he would do, would save him. Nothing would make him acceptable in God's sight. Nicodemus needed a spiritual rebirth that can only come from God. Now why is this so important? Because this spiritual rebirth is the entry way into the Kingdom of God. Without it, Jesus says, no one can enter the Kingdom of God. For Nicodemus, entry into the Kingdom of God rested upon being religious, rested upon being moral, rested upon being, probably above all the others that I just mentioned, a keeper of the law. But Jesus is telling this teacher of Israel that salvation does not rest on us. It does not rest on our deeds. Even if we happen to be, and even if Nicodemus happened to be a perfect law keeper, salvation rests upon being a recipient of a supernatural birth, a birth from the Spirit, a birth from above, a birth that, like, unlike anything else, has connected with it nothing to do with your own effort. You can't make yourself be born, you can't make yourself be born again. You do not get born by making the effort to be born. And you're not born again by any effort of your own. The new birth is the completely supernatural work of God and the work of God alone. You're born again. You're made alive from the dead. You're enabled by it to believe savingly in Jesus Christ. And this miraculous new birth is wrought by a Savior who gave himself on the cross for sinners just like you and me. In fact, Jesus went on to explain to Nicodemus that he, Jesus, must be crucified so that all who are possessors of this new birth and enabled because of it to believe in him would have everlasting life. And Jesus then continued by revealing his motive for such an extravagant as well as sacrificial gift for the world. He said to Nicodemus in verse 16, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. This is Christ's love offering to the world, to a dead and dying world. This is his offering. Nicodemus is amazed. Nicodemus is staggered by this brief teaching of Jesus. Because his whole life, in that brief teaching, his whole life has just been turned upside down by Jesus. He was being told by Jesus, that what was involved in being a true Jew is something far different from what he had thought. That involves the heart. It involves a rebirth. But Jesus tells Nicodemus that this shouldn't be something new for him. That he should have known this already. You're Israel's teacher. An amazing statement. He doesn't say, you're a good teacher in Israel. He says, you're one of the top teachers. He says, you are Israel's teacher. And you don't understand these things? Jesus is telling him that he, Nicodemus, one of the most powerful men in Israel, must be born again, and that this should not be new to him. He should know this, that Nicodemus should have known it already. Jesus is implying that Nicodemus should not have to be told about the new birth, that he should have known about the new birth. But could Nicodemus have known about the new birth? Was it possible for him to know about it? What was made available to Israel through the scriptures? What was it that would have made him understand the new birth? Well, let's take a look for a minute. Jeremiah tells us that God searches the heart, Jeremiah 17.10. And both Solomon and David declare that God knows the hearts of all men, 1 Kings 8.39 and Psalm 44.21. And what is the condition of our heart? What is it like for our hearts without God's intervention? In Genesis 8.21, what we read is this, the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth. And Jeremiah declares that the heart is more deceitful than all else and that it's desperately, desperately sick. Who can understand the heart? Jeremiah 17.9. God repeatedly told Israel of their uncleanness. He told them of their deceitfulness, of the deceitfulness of their hearts. Their need for them to be made clean so that their hearts would not be corrupt and deceitful. God told them there was a way out for them from the desperate condition that they were in. A way which was provided by Him, that God Himself was providing this for them. They are repeatedly instructed to seek God with all their heart. And they are given the promise, if they seek God, they will find Him. Jeremiah 29, 13. But just seeking God is not nearly all that Israel needs to know of the new heart. There was circumcision. Israel knew the importance of circumcision. They knew also the centrality of circumcision. They lived as if this circumcision was the sum and substance of what the new life was all about. They never stopped long enough to realize that the circumcision of the flesh was always meant to be a cutting away, a sign and seal of a deeper cutting. Not just of the flesh, but of the cutting of their hearts. Those who were not circumcised were outside of the covenant and outside the people of God and they were forbidden entry. This is how far it went. They couldn't enter into the sanctuary and into God's presence. Just take a look at Ezekiel 44.7 and chapter 7 verse 9. Yet circumcision was never meant to be more than a sign. A pointer. That's what a sign does. It points you to something else. In this case, it's something far greater that God was calling his people to. Circumcision of the flesh was a pointer to a circumcision of the heart. In Leviticus 26.41 and in Jeremiah 9.26, God refers to Israel as having an uncircumcised heart. And in Jeremiah 9.25 we read, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, that I will punish all of you who are uncircumcised and yet uncircumcised. Well, how is that possible? How is it possible to be circumcised and uncircumcised at the same time? Well, that's simple. Israel was circumcised in the flesh, but their hearts were uncircumcised. And for that, they would be judged. What's the answer? The answer to escape God's judgment, Deuteronomy 10.16 says, circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer. And Jeremiah 4.4 declares, circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the four skins of your heart. You see, what is required, what was always required, is a circumcision of the heart. But how can we do this? The answer is, as with being born again, you can't do this. You can't circumcise your heart. Only God can circumcise your heart. The answer is already given to them by God. The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, so that you may live. Deuteronomy 30, verse 6, and Ezekiel 36, verse 26 is even clearer, I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. It's amazing. What God does in saving his people is absolutely astounding. It's amazing. You see, the message was clear and was in front of their eyes all along. Without God's intervention, we are lost. Because God knows our heart. God sees our sin. In order to be made right with God, we need a new heart. A heart that is circumcised to God. And only God can do it. Only He can do it for us. Should Nicodemus, should Israel have been surprised at this message from Jesus? You must be born again. No! I don't think they should have been any surprised about it. It had been the message to them all along. Only they had, for the most part, ignored His saving message. Do you realize that Nicodemus, as much as he knew, could not have answered the following question accurately. What is the condition of your heart? And by the way, I'll tell you, we talk about community and communion and fellowship, I hope frequently with one another. I'll tell you one of the things that will really help your community and your communion and your fellowship if you ask one another, if you speak with one another, and your concern is how is your heart? How is your heart? You know, it's just, when I say that I think of something because I was doing a conference down in Southern Ontario a number of years ago, and I didn't get to know the people I was staying with because I was out and in at different times. Finally on a Saturday night, Sunday morning, after the last service I was doing, I was going to be leaving, I spoke to the man, he said, he was an elder in the church that sponsored this conference, and he says to me, You know, I've got to talk to you about something. Two of my brothers died of heart attacks this past year. One of them, right in this room, right here on that couch, in front of my eyes. And you know, do you know what my question to him was? First of all, I said, I am so sorry to hear that. My first question to him was this, how is your heart? And you know what he said to me? He said, you know, I've just come from the checkup. My heart is fine. I said, oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't meaning to that. But that's what you asked me. I mean, how is your heart? He says, could you be more... Your heart with God. How is your heart before God? He said, well, no one's ever really asked me that before. I said, well, I'm asking you that now and I'm concerned because you're telling me about your brothers dying of heart attacks right here in your house, one of them right in this room. And I'm concerned. It could happen as a sudden thing. It could happen to you today. You could be dead. Are you ready? How is your heart before God? Are you ready to meet God? Oh, wow. Yeah. If I were to die today, I would be ready to meet God. I'm ready because I said, why are you ready? How are you ready? What's the basis? I said, I trusted in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I repented of my sins, turned from my unbelief. I really do believe in God. I'm serious about this. I said, I'm so glad to hear that. So let's pray about this because we don't know what could happen to you or to me. Let's pray. And I left there that day. And he stood there on the road with me as a car picked me up to take me to the airport. And I get home and there's a telephone call and I pick it up. Richard, this is Agnes, that's his wife. Martin died this afternoon standing as he was waving goodbye to you in the car. And he said, wow, I just had the greatest discussion I've ever had in my life about my faith and I am trusting Jesus Christ. And then he dropped dead right on the road. I didn't know the man, but I was the one they asked to speak at his funeral. His son gave a talk and he talked about his dad who was a math teacher and he said, the dad used to use this, oh wait, this example. When you're born, you start with 71,000 something days, then you go to 10 years old, you have this, 30 years old, 50 years old, 70 years old, and then the day you die you have zero. And I've been wondering and praying, God, what do I say? I met him on the day he died really, that was it. And then the son gave me my message because I walked up there and I just said, I had the privilege of meeting this wonderful man and having a wonderful conversation with him. Only once I met him on day zero. And none of us know when day zero is, so we better have our hearts ready and right. I was so thankful. I sat there, I thought, he's an elder in the church. Do I want to get into that level of conversation? Yes, you do want to get into that level. You know something, that's the only level that really matters. If you love each other, do you know what each other believes about this? Do you know what their hearts are? Have you spoken about that? Or like today, you get together and you go, How's it going with you now? Depends. That's what you call the Penguins, right? Depends. They won last night. I was staying somewhere and they had it. I didn't realize they had a replay of it. I said they've won the series. He said, have they won the series? They won the third game. I said, no, they had another one. They won it again. They said that was a replay of the game. You jerk. But anyway, they'll probably win their next game. But this is so important to me, that's what fellowship is, that we speak to each other. You know, in my congregation, I'm not the greatest talker with them, going around hanging out and talking, going for coffee and stuff, but when I'm meeting and talking with them, how's your heart? How's your soul? How's your walk with God? That's to me what's important. So, Israel ignored that. I don't know if they probably ever had a conversation like that. The Church should. The Church of the Living God should. It was for that reason, the ignorance of the people that Jesus says he came to offer himself in love, in love to a dead and dying world. Jesus had not only come to bring the new heart to honorable teachers of the law, he also came to robbers and greedy merchants and corrupt money changers who were turning God's house into a market and a den of thieves. Did Jesus only love the upright ones like Nicodemus and ignore everyone else? Actually, there's no evidence that Nicodemus is any more upright in God's eyes than anyone else, because all of them have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and thus for all of them, and for all of us, the wages of sin is death. You see, nothing Absolutely nothing in Nicodemus makes him right with God. In fact, like us, spiritually, Nicodemus is hopeless. He's born in sin. He's dead in sin. And nothing he was capable of doing was able to change that in the least. But Jesus adds something to that future death verdict of Paul in Romans 6.23 that I was just saying to you a moment ago when he says, But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. See, the gift from God alone in the new birth is a gift bringing everlasting life. For whom? For all for whom the Messiah has come. The Jews believed it was for them and for them alone. And they were wrong. The church seemed to believe that it's for us and us alone. At least we act that way. We're so hesitant to talk to people about our faith. You know, I mean, I'm driving up to the Presbytery, Presbytery meeting with fellow pastors last week, and I say, hey, it's great, we're going to be, we have an opportunity to share our faith with the customs agent. They go, you don't share your faith with the customs guy who's checking your passport, he doesn't have time yet. I said, of course we do, you'll see, he'll want us to share his faith, he'll ask us questions that'll demonstrate that. We get there, we're at the border, and we give our passports, we go in, they say, so what are you doing? We're going to a church meeting. And then he says, he asks a question, well what's this church meeting about? What are you going to talk about there? And so one or two of the guys start going, well we have meetings and we discuss what's happening in each... I said, could you guys stop for a minute? We're going to a church meeting because what we're dealing with as pastors is faith in Jesus Christ, what it means to have faith in Christ, what it means to be born again. Do you know about Christ as well? What do I have to know? You have to know that you're a sinner. You have to know that you need to trust Him for your salvation, to repent of your sins. And he goes, I don't really have any more time to talk about that. Thank you so much. And the guy said, oh, that's what you meant. Of course that's what I meant. You know, of course that's everyone. Everyone's ready, waiting, everyone's asking you, in some way or other, what must I do to be saved? It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, and certainly not to those of us who are pastors. I mean, what are we here for if we're not here to bring people to faith in Jesus? Am I right? Am I right, pastors here? God bless us as we share the Gospel, and God silence us if we don't. We have nothing left to say. So, God knows, you see. He knows exactly what you've been. He knows exactly what you are. And when it comes to electing love, amazingly, He knows everything about you and loves you anyway. And by redeeming you, and granting you the new birth, He turns you from an object of wrath, you know what, into a spotless bride. And here, friends, we're brought to an amazing reality. If you're in Christ, then even while you, like me, deal with your pride, your arrogance, your selfishness, Jesus deals with you, His people, not as some wretchedly sinful people, catch this, it's important, but as a bride whom He loves. And if the incongruity of that seems too much to understand, let alone embrace, maybe the question is not so much, how can Jesus love us while knowing us? I don't think that's the question, as much as, how can we embrace such a marvel of love, knowing who we are, and knowing, in that limited sense, knowing our hearts? Jesus really wants those of us who possess a new heart to understand what such a new heart means. And because most of us don't understand, there's a huge problem in the church. We know that our hearts are at the heart of the matter. What we don't understand is our heart and the fact that in Christ our heart is brand new. In fact, I'm going to go so far as to say that we have believed a lie. And it's a very big lie. A lie that says we, and I'm talking about born-again believers, that we have a new life in Christ, but that we still have really old hearts. We still have corrupt and deceitful and wicked hearts. But this is simply not true. You want to see your life change in Christ? Try and catch what I'm saying. That's how important I think it is. How could we ever be conformed to Jesus Christ if the heart into which he enters is still rotten? But you say, what about Jeremiah 17.9 that says, the heart is deceitful and desperately sick? In counseling, I have probably quoted that verse thousands of times to point out the wretchedness of people's hearts. Well, did I make a mistake then? Well, the answer is yes and no. It's not a mistake to say that unbelievers' hearts are corrupt and desperately sick. But it's wrong to speak that way of our hearts when we are new people in Jesus Christ. I'm not talking here about how you feel. I feel like I've got a really great new heart. No, because that's not what it's about. Because I know how easy it is to feel rotten about who you are and what you are. I'm talking even less about what you do, because I also know how easy it is to do what's contrary to everything that you believe. We all know that. We do it. All the time we do it. I hope not all the time, but we do it enough of the time to make it really unpleasant. Even Paul said that the good that he wanted to do, he did not do. The evil that he didn't want to do, he did. Romans 7.19. I'm talking about your heart. Jesus didn't cause you to be born again in order to give you a new heart that is filthy, deceitful, old, wretched. A heart that in practical terms is just as corrupt and maybe even more corrupt if that's possible. than the heart that you had before you were born again. When Jesus caused you to be born again, He gave you a new life and a new heart, a heart that's spotless, friends. I want you to know that if you're trusting in Jesus Christ for your salvation, then you do not have a corrupt and sick heart. And I want you to see this. And I want you to leave here, from here, this evening, at the very least, freed from the bondage of seeing your new life and your new heart as corrupt and depraved. Christ did not give you a new heart just for it to be as corrupt as it was when you were dead in sin. Those whom He has purchased with His blood are those whom He can keep. And He keeps them as clean and pure. After all, think about this. We are what? We are the righteousness of God in Christ. Now! That's what we are now. It doesn't say you will be. You are now the righteousness of God in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5.21 Knowing this, how will you embrace this gift of a new heart and a new life? Now, in answering that question, I want you to start with one great, freeing, liberating truth. And the starting point is this. Your new heart is a good heart. Because God is good. And He hasn't redeemed you with a corrupt heart. I mean the idea is repulsive actually to think about. He hasn't made the core of your being in Him to be corrupt. The cry in Psalm 51.10 is this, Create in me a new heart, O God. The answer from Ezekiel 36.26 is this, I will give you a new heart. And we know We know so well what we've been. We know that before we came to Christ we were filled with sin, that we were vile, that our death sentence applied perfectly to all that we were, but then we were redeemed. Redeemed. The devil lost us. We know that Romans 6.14 teaches, sin shall no longer have mastery over you, but it often feels. Here we go to feelings, and that's what our conference this weekend was all about. Feelings. It feels just the opposite. We also know what we think, and we also know the things that we do, and we think to ourselves, what's wrong with me? I'm supposed to be a Christian, but I'm as bad as a pagan. And then a voice inside whispers, that's right, you're corrupt, your heart is sick and wicked. See, in effect, you come to think of yourself somewhat like this. I was vile, I became new, but now I'm vile again. And the devil encourages all that kind of thinking and also encourages you to view such thinking as a deepening expression of what? Of piety. You're being pious when you see yourself and your heart in Christ as being a wretched heart and you pray almost as if you're a raging pagan without any faith at all. Friends, Do you know what it means to be born again? It means that you have been transformed, metamorphosized. You have been made completely new. The command in Romans 12.2, it's amazingly simple. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And I know what you say. I keep doing all this old stuff. Of course you do. But if you're transformed, you know what happens? Slowly. Slowly, all these things will be dealt with as you become more and more like Jesus. But the real question again is simply this. Having been saved, who are you when you're saved? How does God see you when you're saved? Do you have a warrant from the scriptures to see yourself as radically transformed in Jesus Christ? Friends, you do. You are a new person in Jesus. God says that if you're in Christ, your heart is not only not desperately wicked, it is pure, it's beautiful. You know, sin is so deep. and so pervasive that everything good, even your new heart, gets infected by a virus of your own sinful thinking, a kind of thinking that makes it hard for you to really believe that what I'm saying and what the Bible is saying is true. But I want you to step back for a minute. Do you remember? Do you remember when you came to faith in Christ? Do you recall the depth of something that was there? It was the depth of joy that you experienced. And of course you remember. All you have to do is go back and remember those things. Wasn't it joyful? What happened? Slowly it ebbed away. Did you ever wonder why it ebbed away? Maybe you asked people about it and you told them. And maybe good willing people said to you, Well, it's because you're not meant to be joyful all the time. Well, who says we're not meant to be joyful? What, are you supposed to be miserable half the time? Split it up, you know? Be miserable, you know, evenings first three weeks miserable, then three weeks joyful, you know, then reverse it. Of course not. Does the Bible teach that? Romans 15.13 teaches, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace. All joy and peace as you trust in Him. Do you know what this verse is? This verse is just one of many calling you to a life of joy. Even in the midst of sorrows and suffering. Now I think that such a joy and peace has to do with the very reality that was meant to give you the greatest joy. You know what that is? Forgiveness. Huh? What do you mean? How is forgiveness meant to give you joy? I'll tell you. It's simple. I think we become joyless precisely because we recognize that we keep sinning. I think that's what robs our joy. We see in our sins deep moral failure. And we're correct as far as that goes. But we also see in our sins a proof of the ugliness of our hearts. And you know what we do at that point? I've seen it hundreds of times. People giving up. And this is a lousy, rotten, sinful response to sin. We forget that forgiveness wasn't just meant to get you into the Christian life. Forgiveness was meant to get you through life. It was meant to be used again and again and again, over and over as long as it's necessary. Jesus even says to use it seven times seventy for a particular sin. That was one sin. Meaning, use it always. Forgiveness is always to be used. You are to employ a continual source of restoration to keep you being what you are, which is pure, which is joyful. But instead of being thankful for forgiveness, keeping you right with God, once again your adversary is right there to remind you what a piece of junk you are. You're sinning again? I'm not surprised. New life? Yeah, right. Show me that new life. I don't see new life. And sin by sin, you come not to see glory, you come to see something else. It's certainly not the glory of the newness of your life in Christ. And the greatness of forgiveness. But what you wind up seeing is the renewedness of your oldness. And you come to think, even as a believer, that you're no different than you ever were. And that is a lie. This is what you tell yourself. And it's also what people might say to you, because maybe you've sinned against them. You're no different. In marriages it can happen all the time. It's the best way to destroy faith between each other, faith and love with Christ and God. You know, when you do something and to say, you haven't changed at all, you're the same rotten person you always were. Yeah, you think I'm rotten, you've never seen anything, except looking at you from my side, you're the worst person. I mean, look at, that's how easy it is. to destroy faith and to destroy a marriage and to destroy the deepest relationship on earth apart from our relationship with Christ that we're called to live in. There's always someone there to remind you of how rotten you are. And you really do not need people like that. Believe me, you don't. You need to surround yourself with people who, knowing your sin, don't condemn you, they don't accuse you, but instead they bring you always to the cross for forgiveness. It is so easy to live with a sense of hopelessness invading your heart. Do you know how it strikes? I'll never be as good as I want to be. And the devil, knowing he can't take your eternity, you know what he does? He'll try and keep destroying your present. And he's wicked, and he uses wicked emissaries to attempt to keep you from even recognizing that the death of Jesus didn't just save you for the future, but was instead intended to function like an atomic bomb in your life right now. In Ezekiel 36, after God told His people how they defiled themselves with idols, how they shed innocent blood, how they profaned His name, this is what He's talking about. After all this, what do you think that God's word for His people who live in such rebellion against Him is? What do you think He'd say at that point, having laid out how terrible they are? Here's what He says. In verses 24-26, I will take you out of the nations, I will gather you from all the countries, I will bring you back into your own land, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean, I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols, I will give you a new heart, I'll put a new spirit in you, I will remove from your heart of stone, your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Oh my! Isn't this thrilling to any struggling, sin-ridden person who trusts Christ to see what's involved here? This is what God is giving us. This, friends, is the extent that God goes. And it wasn't for friends. It was for covenant breakers, for whom He had already done what? Everything. And so, instead of thinking of yourself as vile, Friends, you need to remember and keep reminding yourself regularly, I'm a different person because I'm a new person and I'm a new person because now I have a new heart. This isn't meant to give you license to sin. Please don't take it that way because that would be ridiculous and sinful. This is just meant to give you hope in the face of your sin. Can true believers do the same sins again and again? Of course they can. How do I know? Because I do it. That is my only basis. Because you do it. That isn't my only basis. Because we all do it. That's my basis. We all do it. And if we're honest about it, we know that that's true. Even though we love Christ, we do it. But your hope is not in your behavior. That's the point. It's not even in the amount of change you make. I'm really following Christ's way. I've never followed Him before. I'm having a walk with God that's supernaturally new and exciting to me and everyone around me. So what? That's great, but that's not your hope. Your hope is never in yourself, no matter how good yourself may be. Friends, you know, it's hard to face the frustration of continuing sin emanating from your new life, I want you to know that it is possible, possibly equally hard to face the fact that in Christ you are a radically new person. They're both hard for us to grapple with and grasp. Perhaps you're wondering what can make you able to embrace the newness of your life within the context of your life, so often being nothing more than a sin-filled experience. This, friends, again, you know what this is? This is what the cross is all about. Of course, Jesus went to the cross so that we would be forgiven, but the cross is also meant to empower you to live the life Christ died to give you As Paul puts it, listen, it's the life that I live, I now live by faith in the Son of God, who, and he's taking us to the Course, who loves me and gave himself for me. Living the life of the new birth, this incredible life that comes with a new heart, is a life of faith from beginning to end. In faith we believe in Christ. In faith we believe we are no longer slaves to sin. In faith we believe that God has truly given us a new heart out of which we face the fiery arrows of the evil one. Ephesians 6.16, and in faith we believe that by His grace we will persevere through the end. Hebrews 10.36, and it's by faith that we know that we don't just resignedly live out our threescore in ten years, but rather we expect to see God's new mercies in our lives every day of our lives. Lamentations 3.23, God's mercies, friends, are new. every day. And they are really making us to be more like Jesus. They are mercies that apply to hearts that have truly been touched by God and changed. You are not just forgiven, you are holy in God's sight and you are free. As Jesus said in John 14, 6, If the Son shall set you free, you shall be... No, that's John 8, 36. If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. Your freedom is a freedom of the heart. You are new and your heart is new. And as the Spirit of God breaks into your heart and you listen to Him, you'll see this and you'll see it more and more. We'll conclude in a few moments by singing Psalm 34, the A selection. I call it the freedom anthem of the sons and daughters of God. It's a song in which David put it like this. Those who look to Him are... Now, what do you think? You think they're dirty? You think they're filthy? Do you think they're wretched? Do you think that's how He looks at you when you look to Him? He says, oh, and that wretches back again in my sight. Listen, those who look to Him are radiant. Those who look to Him are radiant. Their faces are never covered with shame. Friends, go from here. Go from here living, living as a spotless and radiant bride of Jesus Christ. But one last word first. You haven't yet experienced the joy and freedom of the sons and daughters of God. Take hold of it now by faith, this night, right here in this place, as you let go of the sin that's held you in bondage. Because your sin, no matter what level of pleasure it may bring, is not your friend. Sin is your tyrant, sin is your enemy, because sin is killing you. Let go of sin. Jesus will take your sin from you, and Jesus will take it for you. And when you believe in the only begotten Son of God, in the place of sin, He will give you His righteousness, and you will be the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5.21 You don't have to stay in the pits. The miry pits are not the home of the people of God. And they never will be the home of the sons and daughters of God. Instead, friends, by faith, take hold of Christ. Take hold of Christ, my friends. Take hold of Christ and live, remembering that in Jesus you are now the spotless and the radiant Bride of Christ. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for making us to be new. Thank you for the new life, making us to be the radiant bride of Jesus. Thank you for what you've done to us. Thank you. that you've washed our sins away. Thank you that you're always there to provide that foot washing when there's a sin or sins that need to be repented of. Don't let us be slow in this, Lord. Help us to run to you quickly so that we don't incur a wrath and a judgment from satanic forces encouraging us to see ourselves as wicked, evil, and never with any hope of seeing righteousness. It's a lie for the children of God, Lord. Because that hope is always there. You're always with us. You never leave us. You never forsake us. And for this, we thank you. We do thank you now. But we thank you forever. In Jesus' name, Amen.