He is Good | A New Heart | Mark 7:1-6,14-23 | Coleton Segars

We are in a series working through Mark now in chapter seven, and we're gonna look at actually the verses we looked at last week, some of them, because the way that Mark kind of writes his text sometimes is he he starts it with this layer of the sandwich, then he has like this other stuff in the middle of it that's not really connected to here or here, it's just kind of an intro.

And then he closes up the sandwich with this thing here, and so these two go together while this piece in the middle is kind of standing on its own, and that's what we saw last week.

Uh, and so we're gonna look at some similar text about um the Pharisees and their eating laws and being clean and defiled and unclean and all those different things.

And so uh looking at Mark's gospel, working through it bit by bit to uh to see what he says about Jesus being good.

So this is uh Mark 7, verses 1 through 6, and then jumping to 14 through 23.

Mark 7:1–6

It says the Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw that some of his disciples they were eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.

The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders.

When they come to the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash, and they observe many other traditions such as washing cups, pitchers, and kettles.

So the Pharisees and the teachers of the law asked Jesus, Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?

And Jesus replied, Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites.

It's a good way to start, friendship.

As it is written, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

In verse 14, again Jesus called to the crowd and said, Listen to me, everyone, and understand.

Nothing outside of a person can defile them by going into them.

Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.

And then there is no verse 16.

After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.

And then Jesus says to his best friends, Are you so dull?

He asked, Don't you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them?

For it doesn't go into their heart but into their stomach and then out into their body, out of their body.

In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.

He went on, what comes out of a person is what defiles them.

For it is from within, out of a person's heart, that evil thoughts come sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.

All of these evils come from inside and defile a person.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks, good.

When Rainey and I um first started going to counseling, many of you know our story of how we uh our relationship, we just obliterated it, and then our counselor had to put it all back together with the Lord.

Um and uh one of the hardest conversations was the initial one, was the was the first one that we had, uh, which was really just us coming clean about all the things that we were hiding away and trying to blame on the other person.

Like, the only reason this is a problem is because it's your fault.

You made me, you did this.

And then when it was like, well, what'd you do?

It was like, nothing.

I didn't do anything.

I was like perfect and people love me, and so we were just doing that back and forth.

And uh eventually our counselor did have to like pinpoint and like really lay in and say some hard stuff to try and drill out what was actually in there and do something.

And it was so helpful, even though it was really hard, um, because what it led us to ultimately is the truth came out and we were able to actually deal with reality and have those conversations.

Um, and in the midst of that time, what our counselor really did have to do was a little like a doctor with a scalpel, like had to go in there, and sometimes it didn't feel like a scalpel, it felt like a sword where she was just actually chopping stuff, like trying to get that stuff out.

And uh, as difficult as that process was, and as painful as it was to walk through a number of those weeks in counseling, it was so helpful for our relationship, and it was challenging.

And there were times where I was sitting there looking at this woman, and y'all have met her, most of you, and I'm like, I hate you, I can't believe that you're saying these things.

Like, just leave it alone.

Like, I it's not that bad.

And she was going, it is that bad.

Like, it is really that bad.

And if you want it to be better, we have to acknowledge it is that bad.

And so I say all of that because eventually we got there, and it was this space of going, like, okay, this actually is that dangerous.

This actually is a real problem.

You actually have pinpointed a real thing that needs to be dealt with.

Um, but it wasn't kind, or I guess it was kindness, it just didn't sound like kindness.

And I think here we have this space in this text where Jesus is pinpointing an issue.

We are all defiled.

We are he's calling us unclean.

There is actually, he doesn't disagree with the Pharisees.

We got a real problem.

And so he's leaning into this thing and saying, now you've misdiagnosed the problem, but you're not wrong.

You all have a problem.

There's all there's something wrong with each of you individually, something that no one else had any part in.

It's something that's wrong with you and you alone, and it infected everybody.

This is what it is.

So it sounds hard, but he's trying to do something in our lives that I think that Shannon was trying to do in mine and Rainey's life.

She's actually trying to uh help us, and Jesus is actually trying to get us to a space where he sees that we have this need in our lives that he ultimately can meet.

And so, what I want to do today is talk about this idea of having a defiled heart.

And I want to look at four things, but one, why God wants to give us a new heart, why he wants to give us one.

We need one because it's defiled, but why he wants to give us one, why we actually want a new heart, why we actually want a cleansed heart, uh, because it may be like, I don't, my heart's fine, leave me alone.

But it's like actually, I think if you dig down, you'd actually go, like, actually, I want one too.

So, why God wants to give us a new heart, why we actually want a new heart, and then two things we need to do in response to those things.

So, the first, why does God want to give us a new heart?

The reason is it's because our hearts separate us from Him.

It is our hearts that separate us from God.

And he says this, Jesus says this in verse 14 and 15.

Again, he called to the crowd, listen to me and understand, everyone.

He calls out to the crowd.

Nothing outside of a person defiles them by going into them.

Rather, it's what comes out of a person that defiles them.

And what he's saying is, you are not unclean, separated, defiled from God.

He you don't have this chasm between you and him because of what you do.

You have a chasm, you do have that, but it's based on who you are, not your actions.

It is not like, oh, I sinned and therefore I'm a sinner, which is what most people think.

I sinned and therefore now I'm classified as a sinner.

Jesus is actually saying, you sin because you are a sinner.

Like it is an outward reflection.

Your sin is just an outward reflection of what's actually internally going on in you.

And so it's not like I was sinless until I sinned and then I became a sinner.

It's like, no, you are a sinner filled with sin, filled with defilement.

And what comes out of you is just that, because that's actually what lives in.

It is who you are.

And your sin is just an expression of who you are inside.

And so what he's saying is the problem is not our actions.

Our actions aren't the issue.

It is our heart that's actually the issue.

William Lane in his commentary says this.

He says, the source of true defilement in men and women is the human heart.

And there is no heart in which this radical evil has failed to take root.

It's one all of our hearts.

Our hearts have all been won over to sin.

And so who we are, in the depths of who we are, we are sinful and we're filled with sin.

This is what Jesus is pointed out.

And it's important, again, because I think a lot of people believe like the Pharisees believed.

If we can just be better, if I can just fix myself, if I can just stop doing some of those things, if I can just start doing these other things that are good, then I can ascend to God.

Then I can not have this deep chasm between me and him.

I can actually draw closer to him, the separation that I experience with God.

If I can just be good and stop sinning, then I won't have any issue.

And that's what they they believe.

They're like, so we're gonna we're gonna have clean laws, we're gonna do this stuff, and if I can just make sure that I'm completely pure, I will then be able to close the gap between me and God.

And Jesus is going, that is not the way that it works.

You cannot do that by your, you cannot be good enough to actually close the gap between your separation with God, because even if you are sinless in your actions, your heart is still sinful, and so there's no way for you to actually move closer to Him because your actions don't really matter in that.

It's your heart that actually takes shape.

And so people like the Pharisees who think, God will love me, God will accept me if I just do good.

They wear themselves out trying to be righteous, they wear themselves out trying to do good works because they're trying to make God like them, they're trying to make themselves acceptable to God.

And the issue is doing good things cannot make us more acceptable to God.

Giving money to the church, being kind to poor people, all these things that we do as church, like it's great stuff, but it doesn't make us acceptable to God because even if we do those righteous things, it doesn't get into our hearts and make our hearts righteous.

There's something deeper that's actually the issue.

We cannot do good things to make ourselves righteous or acceptable to God.

Actually, Jesus says this in this text, it is possible and incredibly possible to be the most incredibly morally good person that you could possibly be and still be.

You're an incredibly moral good person.

You're amazing.

People would say, they're gonna write songs about you of how moral you are.

Like it's possible for that to be true, and still you will be separated from God.

And so you can be incredibly righteous and still, or incredibly doing righteous acts and do those things and still be separated from God.

This is what Jesus says.

He laments this in verse six.

He says this, he says, You do honor me with your lips.

You're doing the right things, but notice, but your hearts are far from me.

Like there's still this separation.

You're you're you're you're honoring me with your lips, your time, your your actions, you're you're doing all the right stuff.

And somehow in the midst of all of that, your heart is still wrong with me.

It's still not connected to me, it's still not close to me.

Because the reason is our actions aren't the problem.

Our heart is the problem.

Their hearts are still separated from him.

And Jesus is saying, not sinning doesn't make you any less sinful.

I haven't sinned a lot this week.

Doesn't change the fact that you are still a sinner.

Doing righteous things cannot make you more righteous because doing good deeds cannot clean your heart.

They just don't get in there.

They're not they clean your heart as much as clean food with clean hands cleans your heart.

Like I'm gonna wash my hands and eat some clean bread.

It's gonna be white bread too.

Like, is it gonna make your heart white?

Like, no, that's dumb.

Like, we know that.

We know that doesn't do that.

So, in the same way, Jesus is going, your righteous acts, doing good things, isn't gonna make your heart any less sinful.

It stays the same.

Mark uh William Lane, again, in his commentary, says, Jesus attacked the delusion that sinful people can attain true purity before God through the scrupulous observance of the law, which is powerless to cleanse the defilement of the heart.

Fulfilling the dictates of the oral law does not alter the heart with its warring impulses, bless you.

And it is powerless.

Fulfilling the dictates of the law is powerless to remove the pollution from the heart.

Your problem is internal, your problem is not external.

The thing that separates you and me from God is in us, it's in your heart.

And doing good things cannot change your heart.

It doesn't matter how good you are.

Now, this is hard.

One, actually, I'll say this: it should be freeing to us.

That message should be freeing to us because if that's true, then God will never demand us to do good things in order to earn his favor.

And most Christians live like, I gotta be good.

And because that doesn't work, God would never place that on you.

Because that doesn't work, the Bible doesn't say that.

It doesn't say be good and ascend to God.

It's actually, it we go the other way.

God's like, you can't be good, I'll descend to you instead.

And so there's this, it's supposed to be this really wonderful thing of like, oh, so I sinned this week.

Am I more acceptable to God if I was good?

No, you're not.

Am I less acceptable to God because of my sin?

No.

Your acceptance is based on what's in your heart, what actually exists in here.

And so it's supposed to be this thing where it's like, man, he wants to give me a new heart, not so that he makes me modify my behavior, not so that I'm a better human, although I think those things would happen.

But he wants to do that so that we can actually be close because our issue isn't our actions, it's our heart.

Again, um, moving forward with my notes, it's hard for people who, and I have these conversations with people just as a pastor over the years, people who have loved ones, friends, uh, who are just people in their family or whatever, who are just like, they're like, they're the nicest people.

Like they're the nicest people, they're the most moral, they're they're better humans than I am.

Like I know these people that are just better humans than me.

They're so kind and they're so moral.

And you're saying that because they don't know Jesus, that God wants to send them to hell, but they're so good.

And I I normally answer with a couple of different things depending on the thing, but I'm like, one, no, God does not want to send anyone to hell.

That is not his goal.

Like, he's I can't wait.

Like, he's not thrilled to do that.

But it is true that sin cannot live in his presence, and your actions don't make you a sinner.

Sin lives internally.

You need something new in here.

There's something that's actually broken in here.

It doesn't matter how good you are.

We're talking about two separate, completely separate things.

And so it's wonderful.

I don't doubt that they are the best people in the whole world.

That's not very difficult to do.

You can be really good.

It's not that difficult to be moral, especially if you're type A driven, you know, Enneogram one, you're just like, I know what's right and wrong, everything's black and white, I'm gonna be very, very good.

The issue is that being moral doesn't make you less sinful.

We still have this issue in our hearts sin in God's presence must be cast out.

He doesn't want to send anyone to hell, but sin must be judged, sin must be cast out, and if it still lives in here, not based on our actions, but if it still lives in here, it will be cast out.

And so it doesn't matter how moral a person is.

What Jesus is saying is you need a new heart, and I want to give you one.

That's your biggest issue.

Your biggest issue isn't how well you behave.

If it was, then I would have written the Bible differently.

But your biggest issue is you have a marred, stained heart with sin.

I just want to give you a new one.

I'm not asking you to do anything to earn it.

I'm not asking you to do anything to make sure you you like elevate your righteous works below your unrighteous works, and then at the end of time I'll just measure them out.

He's like, no, that won't do anything.

He's actually saying all of that doesn't matter.

What you need is something that's purified internally, something here.

And I want to give you a new heart.

And what he's saying is, just let me do that.

You actually get to rest.

I'm not telling you to work harder, not telling you to strive to be better.

I'm just trying to, I'm what the message of the scriptures and what Jesus is leading people to is like, I actually want you to rest and let me do all the work.

I want you to just sit there and you come to me and you'll find rest for your souls.

This is why he says that.

He doesn't say, come to me, and then I'm gonna give you a bunch of hoops to jump through, a lot of plates to hold on to, a lot of balls to juggle, I don't know how many illustrations we can do in that.

But like, I'm I'm gonna give you all these different things.

And if you can, if you can crush it, if you can do those things, then I will let you in.

But he doesn't say that.

He doesn't say, Come to me and let's see how much you can handle.

He says, Come to me and find rest for your souls.

I will do the work, I will clinch and purify your heart.

And so you don't have to live trying to be good in order to earn my favor.

I can just give you my favor by re uh you know, regenerating your heart and changing it completely.

And this is why Jesus said that, come to me.

Because what God did for Jesus, God made Jesus, who he made him just like us, but he knew no sin and he became our sin.

He became our sinful heart.

He basically took all of that on himself and he made Jesus sin so that we could become the righteousness of God, so that we could receive and become righteous people in his eyes, not because of the righteous things that we do, but because that's what he's made us because of what he's done.

And so consistently the invitation of Jesus is constantly, hey, not would you do more, but like, hey, would you let me fix it?

Like you do have a problem, and I'm not telling you to fix it.

I'm saying, would you just give me the space to fix it?

Let me get in there and do something for you that you need that will bring you to me.

And I'm asking nothing other of you other than would you just believe that I can do it for you and I want to do it for you?

And I'm not asking you to follow a hundred thousand rules in order to get there to me.

I'm just saying, just come to me and find rest for your souls.

Let me fix it.

This is why Jesus wants to give us a new heart, a clean heart.

It's not to make you good.

He actually, at the end of the day, just genuinely wants to be close to you.

If you honor him with your lips on Sunday mornings, and you honor him with your finances, and you honor him with your service to the poor, and you honor him with your Bible reading, your prayers, and you honor him, it's like that's awesome.

But if you never give him your heart, he's like, I don't just want your obedience.

I actually want your affection and your heart.

I want to get in there and shape and re-change every single thing in there, and I'm asking nothing of you other than just let me get in there and fix it.

Your heart separates you from him, not your actions.

And he's like, please, I want to give you a new heart because we are separated and I actually want to be close with you.

So that's the first.

Why does God want to give us a new heart?

It's because we're separated from him and he wants to draw near, he wants to be close.

The second, why do we want a new heart?

Probably a number of reasons.

I'm gonna pinpoint maybe one.

Why we want a new heart?

The answer is we want a new heart because if the good things in your life are going to be sabotaged and broken and destroyed, it's gonna happen because of your own heart, no one else.

All the all the things in your life that you're like, well, this might mess up my life, the number one thing, and there, you know, other people you know can get in your world and mess you up and that kind of thing, and bad stuff can happen.

But if your life, the good things, your joy, your peace, and all those things, if that's actually gonna be messed up in your life, the number one saboteur in your life will be in your own heart.

It's your own life, it's the thing that makes your own decisions.

It will be something that extends from you and not that something happens to you.

The sabotage will happen from within, not from outside.

This is what Jesus shows us in verse 20 and 23.

It says, It is from within come the evil thoughts, the sexual morality, theft, murder, adultery.

It's from within that greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.

All these evils come from inside and defile us.

These things exist inside of us.

And so if your life is going to, if your joy is gonna be sabotaged, it's it might happen from somewhere outside, but primarily it's gonna happen because you're with yourself 24-7.

It's gonna happen from you and not from someone else.

The good things in your life are gonna be sabotaged by your heart.

Jesus says, out of our hearts, these things, and he lists all these things, these things that come out of our hearts will destroy our relationships, they'll destroy your peace, they'll destroy the love that you once had for other people, they'll destroy your joy, your reputation, your contentment, your finances, your safety, your security, all the things that you want to see thrive, the things that live within are the things that will actually destroy those things completely.

Your anger or rage or the evil thoughts that you have, or the fact that you can't get a grip on your tongue.

There's no self-there's lewdness, like the inability to actually have control over yourself, like that's the thing that loses your job.

It's not your boss, although, you know, every now and then.

But like there's this space where it's like, it's me, I'm there for all of my issues, I'm there for all of my problems.

There's something in me.

If I just could have controlled myself, if I could have, and what Jesus is saying is like that stuff lives in you, that stuff will sabotage you.

What lives in our hearts are the things that will destroy the stuff that we actually want to see thrive.

This is why people who were so in love at the beginning of their relationship, so in love, fought for one another, not against one another.

All of a sudden their heart starts telling them, let's go this other way.

They start leaning towards other people.

And it's like, I don't even know exactly how it happened.

But like all of a sudden, my heart started leaning towards this other person.

It begins loving other people more than you love the persons you committed your life to.

Almost like you can't help it.

And Jesus would say, You can't.

There's something in your heart.

Adultery lives in your heart.

This is something that you will just have to deal with unless you let me get in there and cleanse it.

Because this will just be a thing that you face forever.

It will be the thing that ultimately shifts your affections.

This is why people cannot seem to get a hold of their finances.

It's their heart.

Their heart envies what other people have.

It lies to them and says that they need it.

I need it.

I need it over my financial security.

I need this thing.

They have it, I need it.

And the heart longs for that thing.

It doesn't long for financial, what is the financial peace university with what's his face?

It doesn't long for Dave Ramsey.

It longs for the other thing.

It's like, I just need more.

It is an open grave that just continually sucks down into these things.

It just wants more and more and more.

It's like, why can't I get a grip on these things?

Because your heart longs for the other thing.

It's not for you, it is against you.

Jeremiah would say it's deceitful above all else.

Like it is the thing that will get you into all the trouble.

Your own heart will do that, it will lie to you.

This is why people are perpetually discontent.

This is my biggest issue in my life.

This is why people are perpetually discontent, always chasing the next thing.

Their hearts tell them, you just need one more thing.

You just need one more thing.

If you just got, you know, it used to be like shoes.

I don't know, maybe it's still shoes.

For some of you.

Like, if I just get those clothes, man, then my high school life is going to be completely turned upside down.

It's going to be the best.

If I can just win this game, if I can just do this thing, if I could just have this.

And now it's like, oh man, if I can just get this promotion, if I can just make this much money, if I can just have this person, if I can just get married, if I can just have kids, if my kids would just behave.

And like on and on and on and on, if my husband, my wife would just be nicer.

Like, and you could just do that on into the future.

And your heart is constantly lying to me, like, you will eventually be happy.

Here's what you need to do.

And what it tells you is it normally aims somewhere in the future, promises a ton.

If you go out there and get it, sacrifice for it, treat it like your Messiah.

Like give everything to it.

And as soon as you get that thing, it lies to you.

And says, as soon as you get it, then you'll be happy.

As soon as you have that space, then you'll finally be like, I can breathe.

I have that thing.

And it's like, man, if you've done that a time or two or more, you know, eventually you get that thing and you go, you know what's better?

A little bit more.

That's that Rockefeller, like, how much money is is enough?

And he's like, a little bit more.

A little bit more.

Like, and it's that, it's that kind of space.

This is why people, again, they they they get into debt, and then all of a sudden they get raises and they have they now their money matches their expenditures.

And then somehow along the way, the next year they're sitting there going, like, how do I still not have enough money for my spending?

It's like, because there's something in you that's telling you just a little bit more.

Just just move forward a little bit more.

Do this, grab that thing.

You will be content if you have that house.

As soon as you get that house, then life will be better.

As soon as you get your kids off to college, life will be better.

It's like, man, okay, maybe a little, but at the end of the day, you're gonna wind up in this space.

And that for me is a thing.

I've told this to the men in our Bible study.

When Teddy was a baby, like he wanted really nothing to do with me.

I uh he wanted everything to do with Rainey.

And I was like, well, I can't wait for this season to be done.

And then, you know, you should wish away his baby years.

And then all of a sudden it's like he's three.

And I'm like, yeah, but when he's five, then we can be doing this.

And then when he's five, you're like, yeah, I'd be really nice when he's ten, then we can be doing this thing.

And I found myself wishing away every season I was in with my son.

And it was really sad because I was like, I am, I have, I'm just I'm not content where we are, and I'm constantly looking to the future.

And part of that is just my makeup.

I'm a vision person, I like looking five years down the road.

But I was losing the relationship I was having with my kid because I was sitting there going, I was like, man, there's something wrong with me.

Something in me looks at the space that I currently am in and goes, like, yeah, this is good, but as soon as we get there, that will be better.

And if I continue to do that, I will wish away the 18 years that he lives in my house, and I'll wind up going, like, looking back and being like, what an idiot.

But my heart had this thing that I was like, I do not want this in here, and our all of our hearts do that.

Constantly keeping us in a state of perpetually chasing happiness.

One day I'll get it.

And y'all, we've met people like this.

It's their hearts that are the problem.

You you would say this to them if you had the opportunity or you didn't feel like they'd break relationship with you.

But they're like, I don't know why this is this is this isn't going well.

And it's like, you know, you know as well as I do in their lives.

You go, what's standing in your way is you.

Like you are standing in your own way.

It's your views, it's your hatred, it's your anger, it's your fear, it's your lack of discipline, it's your lust that can't say no.

It's it's the way you talk to yourself, it's the self-deprecation that you speak into your soul, it's a lack of confidence.

It's like we you actually see this in people and go, like, you could you could excel so much more if you would just, and what you're referencing is something in them.

And it's like, but this is their makeup, this is how they're built.

And so the thing getting in the way of the thing that they want is actually them.

And they need a new heart.

And we want that too.

We don't want those things to be the blocks in our lives and the blocks in our relationship where it's like, well, this would just be good if, and it's like, there's something internal that we need fixed.

Other people can, when they're honest, admit it to themselves.

Like, I want to forgive and I just can't.

I want to move past that, I just can't.

I don't want to be as angry as I am.

I do not want to fly out the hand of the way that I do.

I don't want this to be a part of me, but it is.

And I can't figure out how to control it.

I don't want to feel the way that I feel.

I don't want to be drawn to the addictions that I'm drawn to.

I don't want those things.

What is that?

It's like the reason is your heart is filled with things that we're sitting there going, like, man, you cannot do anything to cleanse it yourself.

You can't fix it.

Your hearts are, the operating system of your heart is set against you to destroy the things that you actually deeply want.

And that's just a mark of the fall on us.

And so what Jesus wants to do is ultimately give us a brand new heart so that the operating system is shifted, bless you, so that the operating system shifts to where we were going against the grain the entire time.

I'm trying to, I'm trying to do like things that are that are worth doing, and I'm trying to just not allow these things in my life, you know, just pull me back in.

But you're constantly, if your heart's set up this way, you're going against the grain of what your heart wants to do.

And what Jesus wants to do is like, let's flip it and let's turn it back.

And actually, let's, it's dead.

You're trying to make it live.

I want to bring it to life so that now you can actually move forward in life and experience the things where your heart is not against you, trying to crush you and kill you, but it's actually a thing that now works for me.

It will teach you.

I will place my commands in your heart and it will teach you to do righteousness.

It will teach you to do things that lead you in better space.

That's what he wants to do.

And we want that too, deep down.

We don't want our hearts sabotaging the life that we actually could have.

We don't want to be the reason for all the things that are going wrong.

We don't want that.

And Jesus is like, I don't want that either.

I want to give you a new heart.

I want to give you a cleansed heart.

So God wants to give us a new heart because it separates us from him.

We want that too.

Because it ultimately keeps us from experiencing the life that he wants to give us.

So what do we do?

First thing is we need to ask Jesus for a new heart.

Ask Jesus for a new heart.

Notice I didn't say like do a bunch of stuff.

We need to ask Jesus for a new heart.

Jesus is the only person who can remove the sin that is actually in our hearts because he's the only person, and this is I'm gonna roll through a very simple gospel.

Like if you're like, what's the gospel?

I'm gonna roll through very simply how Jesus and why Jesus is the only person that can cleanse your heart.

Okay.

It is possible to think that, like, I think if I just do this, I could do this myself.

If I could just, I'll tell you, if I just crush some yoga, pretty sure my anger will go away.

Like, okay, maybe a little bit.

Um, but he can do something better.

He's the only one that can actually remove the sin, and I'm all for yoga, I don't care if you do that.

Um but there's this space where like if I could just, if I could just do this myself, you cannot do it yourself.

You have to go to him to do it.

Jesus is the only person that can remove sin that's in our hearts because Jesus is the only person who has ever taken the actual penalty of sin.

I don't have any of this on the screen, so if you're looking over there, it's not over there.

He's the only person that's actually taken the penalty that sin requires.

There's a sin penalty.

He's the only one that's ever taken it upon himself.

So the penalty is sin requires death.

And that's the way God set it up.

It's like if you do this, you will surely die.

And then Satan was like, you won't surely die.

And then for the rest of history, people have experienced death because of their sin.

Sin requires a death.

So if you sin, if your heart is marred with sin, you must die.

That's the penalty of sin.

If you want to take away your sin, if you want your sin taken away, someone has to trade you.

You have to have your sin taken away from you by someone taking your death on your behalf.

Someone's got to die for you.

The issue with getting someone to die for your sin is normally the people in your life are also sinners.

And so if that person dies for you and they're like, I'm taking, I'm taking Noah's sin and I'm gonna take mine too, sin would say, Sorry, that doesn't work.

You can only die for your own sin.

And so, because I'm a sinner, I can only die, I'm paying the penalty for my sin, I can't snag his as well.

What you need then is you need a sinless one.

You need somebody that's that's that's like us and made in the image of us, that has a heart like us, but doesn't have sin in that heart.

And that's where Jesus comes in.

Jesus was made like us in every single way.

He took on, we our identity is a sinner.

He took on, so he took on our identity.

He became a man, a human, like all of us.

But he was not made with sin because he did not have Adam's sin line running through him.

He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.

And so we didn't have that sin line in him, and so he's the sinless one.

And so what he does is that he was able to take our sin and all of humanity's sin upon himself and die, acting as a substitute, death, so that he could appease sin's penalty.

And so that's what he did.

And on the cross, he takes all of it, all every every bit of it, on himself.

And so his death would just act as a substitute for our death.

He literally died a death we owed.

It actually, that's what he did.

He died a death we owe.

When you see the cross, like what is that?

He is dying a death that someone has to pay.

And either the sinner has to pay for it or the sinless one who takes the sin of the world has to pay for it.

He chose to pay for it.

So, because of the cross and what he did in history, the penalty of sin has been paid for.

And so, what exists now, now sin has no rights on anyone's heart.

It has no rights on us.

It cannot condemn us, it cannot pull us down.

It we owe sin no death anymore because of what Jesus has done.

Because Jesus has satisfied the death that sin requires on your behalf, he now has the ability to remove the sin stain from your heart because it has no grasp on you.

Because you owed it something, and now it's like, well, now I'm not owed anything, it's been satisfied.

And so the person who satisfied it, um, well, let me just keep going.

It was holding you, sin was holding you by legal right.

You owed sin a death, but now it has no claim on you because Jesus paid what you owed.

So, sin, sin itself must release you to the person who bought you.

It has to.

Because if it only requires a death, and then someone pays that death, now I have no grip on you, I must release you.

The penalty's been paid.

Sin must release you to the person who paid for you if he wants you.

And it turns out he like really wants you.

He's like super obsessed with all of us.

He wants us.

And so sin cannot then say, like, hey, you can't wipe the sin off that person.

They need to die and stay with me.

He's like, actually, I took that death.

And so now I've cleaned that from their hearts.

And so now you have no grip on them.

You have no ability to call them towards anything.

You cannot hold them because I have purchased them from you and I have paid the penalty that you actually owe.

They're paid for, leave them alone.

And that's what Jesus does for us.

This is how he gives us a new heart.

Anyone who wants the stain of sin removed, all they have to do is just ask Jesus for it.

It's free.

It cost you nothing, and it cost him his life.

But this is how you that's how you get it.

And it's like he's just done this thing in history.

It's a gift.

All you have to do is ask.

And I know many of you are like, I've heard the gospel presented a billion times, and you've been a Christian for 800 years, and like you know all this.

And that's great.

But there is one message, there's one thing that God calls the power of God for salvation.

And it is the gospel.

It is the gospel is the power of God for salvation.

This thing that has happened in history, this thing that Jesus did, He broke the chains of sin.

We are singing that song.

He just broke like everything that was holding us.

And so, now anybody that just wants to, you want a new heart, great.

Just, I mean, he's giving them out for free.

Just go.

Like, and he'll do that thing.

And so all you have to do is ask.

And so, if you've never actually come to Jesus and found rest for your souls, ask him.

I need that new heart.

I want that thing.

You can, you know, it's even it's faster than prime shipping.

You can get that thing.

Okay.

If you have done that, if you have, you're like, I have, I have, I've asked for the new heart.

I've asked for that thing.

What a gift.

Um, I would say good for you, but good for him.

He his death actually bought something.

Um I have.

I wanted something.

I needed something new.

Then whatever I had, like growing up, I needed something brand new.

And so ask.

It's for the taking.

But he's not gonna force it on you.

He's not gonna force you into this space.

So ask.

He wants to give you one.

Um he wants to give you a new heart to bring you close to him so that he can be with you.

And he wants to give you a new heart because it's like that thing's gonna sabotage your life.

Let me let me trade you.

Let me give you something that won't sabotage your whole life.

Let me lead you into abundance.

So ask.

Uh and then if you've done this, if you have asked, I would encourage you to not settle for less than the newness of heart that he has purchased for you.

Do not settle.

Paul says that if you have asked Jesus for the new heart, if you've taken him up on this offer that he has, if you've asked him for this thing, then this is what's true of you.

He says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, if they've asked him of the thing, if they've become a part of what he's done, they receive his death on their behalf, paying the penalty of it.

If they're in Christ, that person is a new creation.

They're a new creation.

The old has gone, the new is here.

All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, not counting people's sins against them.

You know why they're not counted against them?

Because he's like, paid for those suckers.

They're mine, I've already paid for them.

And so you have been, what Paul is saying is if you've asked for the new heart, you've become a new creation.

You are a brand new thing, okay?

You're not, the old nature is is is dead and gone, and you've become a new thing.

You've been given a new heart, which means you stand righteous before God, you can draw near, you have a new heart.

And you will continue to sin and struggle with sin, okay?

Just because the penalty has been paid for, we still have this new way of living that we haven't figured out.

So you've been made a new creation from the old thing, but you're learning to live as the new thing.

So, a simple way to understand this is Rainey and I got married August 6, 2011.

August 5th, 2011, I'm still single.

And I've spent most of my life not married, and that's all I know.

I know how to be a bachelor, bro.

Like, that's what I know how to do.

Then we get married, and it's like, act like a married person, and it was a struggle.

It was like, I would have like guy friends over late at night and all this stuff, and she'd come home and she's like, What's he doing here?

And I'm like, we're just like hanging out, watching a movie, and she's like, We're married now.

Like, you have to live differently.

Like, we you get we have to ask you, I was spending money, like it was just spending all kinds of like, I don't know, I got money, like we should do this other stuff.

And she's like, hey, where's all our money?

I'm like, it's over there in that thing that I bought.

And uh it was always shoes or hats.

I love that's always that way.

And she'd be like, You can't spend money like this anymore.

Like, you gotta ask us these things.

And I was like, I don't know, I'm gonna talk to Shannon about this.

This can't be right.

Talk, talk to Shannon, she Rainey was right.

But it was this space for me of like, I had entered into a new covenant.

Like I had we had covenant together as a marriage, and I was like, I only know how to be single, and I have to learn to live.

I am my the the standing of my life is I am married.

I'm not an unmarried person acting like I mean, I am a married man.

I'm just still acting as a bachelor because that's all I know.

And for us, you have become a new creation, but you've lived in the old creation for so long that it's hard to get that out of you.

And so, what Jesus does is is over time, he actually, it's called sanctification.

He purifies you, he sanctifies you.

He actually, all the things that initially in your life were like, I don't know, I just do this stuff.

He's like, Yeah, we're not gonna do most of that anymore.

Um, and so, but I'm gonna I'm not gonna do it all at once.

I'm gonna do it bit by bit, just over time, and I'm going to, yes, you have a brand new heart, but you do not know how to function with it yet.

And I'm gonna teach you and walk with you.

That's what Titus says somewhere in Titus, where it says that uh the grace of God, what he has done for you, teaches us to love righteousness and say no to unrighteousness.

We have to learn this new way of living in the same way.

I had to learn a new way of living of being married.

Pretty good at it now, crushing it.

Uh just ask my wife.

But I say, but I say all that to say, uh, don't settle.

Because if you if you you have received a new nature, and what I see so many Christians do is like they don't live into that new nature.

It got hard.

And so they just gave up.

Like, whatever.

I guess this is just, I'll just struggle with this sin my entire life.

And they elevate struggling, and it's like, this is I'm like, that's not struggling, that's a stronghold, but whatever.

Like you actually have a real thing that you you're not actually dealing with.

You know you don't have to live this way.

You are a brand new creation, and there's old created things, there's the old way that's cropping into your life that you don't have to live that way.

You actually get to live a different way.

It doesn't have to take over.

That old heart, that stuff that lives in there, it doesn't have to define you anymore.

Actually, he will remove those things.

And so I think of the people, if you know the Old Testament, the people in Israel, when God promised them the new land, and he's like, hey, that land is yours.

You can have it.

It is your land.

You can go in there and take it.

I'm gonna defeat all the enemies that are there.

We're gonna drive them out.

It is gonna just think of it as a heart.

Israel will be a new heart, and you will live in a new heart, and I will drive out all the enemies.

And and God says to the people of Israel, do not get weary of driving them out.

Don't get like it will be your land.

That is now your land.

And so drive them out.

Don't don't ever make a peace, don't make peace with them and let them live there, because they will be a thorn in your flesh.

It will be something very, very difficult for you.

And what happened is they get in there in this new space, it's their land, it's now called Israel, not Canaan.

It is a new, they live in a new land, but that old people still live there and they start driving them out, but it gets difficult and they get tired.

And all of a sudden, what they do is they just make peace with their enemies, and it ultimately crushes them and it makes them into something and they don't live into the fullness of what's available to them because they just made their peace and they settled for, well, those guys are pretty big, let's not drive them out.

And it's like, man, you you missed out on what he was gonna do for you.

And I think for us, we live in new land, we have new hearts.

Don't settle for staying in this space where like all of this stuff still defines your life.

Don't get tired of going to him and saying, hey, there's something in me that's from my old self, and I don't want it anymore.

I it still defines me, and I don't want it to define.

I want to I want to take aim at this and go to war against this thing, and I want to see, I want to see the lies that I believe, I want to see those things driven out.

I want to see the fact that like I struggle just to like my thoughts and my anger and like self-control.

I want to see that and not go like, well, I just I'm just I just struggle with self-control.

I'm impulsive, I'm impulsive.

Like, no, you don't have to be like you can be this thing because you have a new heart.

You don't have to be defined by that stuff unless you choose to go, it's fine, I'll settle and I'll stay there.

And we don't need to get weary of going, I'm a new creation and I see old creation stuff here.

I don't want that.

Jesus, would you please continue to cleanse my heart?

Cleanse that out of it too, drive that out of it too.

That's the way it's supposed to go.

And so for us, please do me the favor, do yourself the favor.

Ask Jesus for the new heart.

If you have never done that and you're like, I've just been trying to crush it and be really good, man, good.

That's awesome.

It's not gonna do what you think it'll do.

It's not gonna cleanse your heart.

You must go to him and say, I want, I want what you offer.

I want the new heart that you offer.

And so ask him for that.

And for those of you who have, do not stay in this space.

You are a new creation.

Settle for nothing less than the new created thing.

The space where you actually experience the fullness and abundance that God is actually promising you because he has brought you over from death to life.

He has brought you over from old creation to new creation.

Don't settle for less than that.

Let me pray.

Jesus, you've done a really beautiful thing.

You're just trying to set us free and you're trying to lead us into real life.

And uh so, God, I pray for us in this room for all of us.

Oh, that we would just search our own hearts and just consider.

Oh, we have we asked you for the new thing, that you offer this beautiful thing that draws us near to you, that draws you near to us.

This thing that no longer is set against us, trying to harm us instead of help us.

God, I pray that you would just set it on our hearts to ask for the thing that you offer.

Thank you for paying the penalty so that sin would have to let us go, so that you could make us new people.

God, I pray that we don't settle for anything less than what you have for us.

I thank you that in none of this you were trying to condemn or scare us or by fear lead us into making a decision for you.

None of that is in this.

It is just purely I want to help you, I want to bless you, I want to be near you.

Let me fix it so that we can experience life together.

God, I pray that we would respond in Jesus' name.

Amen.