Prepared to Meet God

Preparing to Meet God Through 1 Thessalonians 3

We'll open your Bibles, please, to 1 Thessalonians, in chapter 3. I'll read the entire chapter, which is 13 verses. But the preaching will be from the last three verses, verses 11 through 13. You might recall in verse 10, which we preached last week, the Apostle Paul, who is the founder of that church in Thessalonica to which he writes here, in verse 10, he was expressing how he prays for them earnestly, night and day.

He prays that he'd be able to see them face to face, but he prays night and day. And in these verses that we will bring forth this morning, 11 through 13, we're going to have the content of the prayer that he speaks of in verse 10.

So if you please stand for the reading of God's Word, 1 Thessalonians, chapter 3, beginning at verse 1. Therefore, when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, and we sent Timothy our brother and God's co-worker in the gospel of Christ to establish and exhort you in the faith, that no one be moved by these afflictions.

For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

But now that Timothy has come to us from you and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us as we long to see you, for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction, we have been comforted about you through your faith.

For now we live if you are standing fast in the Lord. For at Thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith.

And now the verses that we will bring this morning, beginning at 11. Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

And God bless the reading and now the proclamation of his word. Please be seated. So as I said a moment ago, we have here the content of the prayers that Paul says he lifts up to God day and night for the Thessalonians.

God Directs the Christian Life in His Ways

And what he prays for, and what I'm going to ask you to begin this message, he prays for their preparation to meet God. And so I want to ask you this morning, are you prepared to meet God? Are you prepared to stand before God and have your heart examined by him?

In the 11th Psalm, verse 4, it speaks of how God beholds all men, his eyes behold, and his eyes test. His eyes see everything, God is aware of all that occurs, and then he does, as it were, close his eyes and bear down upon you and examine your heart.

And I ask you this morning, are you prepared to meet God? This is what the Apostle Paul prays for the Thessalonians. In verse 11 and 12, we have petitions that he brings to God. He petitions God that he would lead him to be able to see the Thessalonians again.

In verse 12, he petitions God again, and he petitions there that the Lord would increase and abound that church, those Thessalonians, in love. And finally in verse 13, we have the purpose of it all, which is the reason I ask you the question that I did a moment ago.

The purpose that we will see here is to prepare them to meet God, that great day of judgment, when the Lord Jesus Christ returns, and all men will stand before him. When I say men, I mean all humankind.

Are you prepared for that day? This is what the Apostle would have the Thessalonians become, prepared for that day. This is what he beseeches God to do for them, to prepare them for that day when they will meet him.

The vindication on the day of judgment is only going to come for those whose hearts are found to be blameless before God. Blameless before God. I ask one more time, and then we'll dig into the text. Are you prepared to meet God?

Will you be found blameless before him when the Lord Jesus Christ, at his return, presents you to him? This is Paul's burden. This is what Paul prays for. These are the petitions he brings, and this is his desire.

His desire that the Lord would prepare his people for his return when he, the Lord Jesus Christ, will present all men to his Father for judgment, and only those whose hearts are found to be blameless in holiness will be vindicated, will be saved.

So I ask you, are you prepared to meet the Lord? Are you prepared to have your heart open to him? It's the Lord who's the one who prepares us for this great day. It is the Lord who directs our steps, that's verse 11.

It is God who makes us abound in what he wants to see in us, which is love. And it is he who establishes us, that's Jesus Christ, establishes us blameless before him. And in all this, you are completely dependent upon him to accomplish this in you.

When we meet God, we're going to meet God on his terms, not on our terms, on his terms, and he will judge whether or not our hearts are found to be blameless. So let us prepare to meet God. You prepare to meet God by walking in his ways.

This is Paul's first petition, that's in verse 11. Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. Paul exhibits here the kind of trust that you need to have in the Lord as our good leader.

He's the captain and finisher of our faith. He's our elder brother. He's the one that we follow. Paul shows here his dependence upon the Lord to direct his own steps. That's what he says. He says, may the Lord direct our way.

He means him, himself, and Timothy, and Silvanus back to the Thessalonians. I'm applying it to us this morning. May the Lord direct our ways into his likeness. May the Lord direct our path towards him and towards the things that he would have us to do or to be.

The word direct means, of course, to guide, to lead. And here we have dependence and here we have trust. Trust in the Lord that he will make his will known to us. Trust in the Lord that he will guide us toward that will.

What do we have here when the Apostle Paul shows this dependence upon God and this trust in God to be guided by him, by the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, it's the ultimate fulfillment of really one of the most famous psalms, a psalm that is known by believer and many unbelievers alike.

Psalm 23, verse 3 says, He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And this is just what Paul prays for the Thessalonians, and we could say prays for us here today, even.

He trusts the Lord to lead them in paths that will prepare them to meet him. The Lord will prepare his people to meet the Lord. It sounds a little redundant and circular, but this is what it is. This is more than just assenting to the fact that God is able to lead or assenting or agreeing that the Bible says he does lead.

It is Paul's petition that God do for them as God had done for himself. Paul is speaking from experience here. Paul is saying he wants God, he petitions God through Jesus Christ to lead the Thessalonians, knowing that God does in fact lead his people.

He led Paul. In Acts chapter 9 we read of Saul, the Pharisee. When he meets the Lord Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, he becomes Paul, the apostle, the author of our letter to the Thessalonians. And there he received direction for his steps, direction for his path from the Lord.

In verse 6 of Acts chapter 9, Jesus says to him,. And you will be told what to do. And throughout Paul's life and his ministry was told what to do and followed that leading. So in petitioning God to lead the Thessalonians, Paul asks God to do what Paul knew himself God actually does do.

In Acts chapter 16 verse 9, Paul is given a vision of a Macedonian man who says to him, come over to Macedonia and help us. And Paul obeyed the vision as from the Lord. And the church that this letter was written to, the Thessalonians, is the result of that obedience.

He prayed for God to lead him back to see them face to face. In Acts chapter 20 verses 1 -6 you can read how about a year and a half later the Lord actually did that. But the point is, Paul prays for this leading.

Paul prays for the Lord to lead the Thessalonians. And he does this from a base of experience. Knowing himself that God in fact does do that. So there are many more we could cite, but the point is made that the Apostle Paul is speaking of that which he knows in his own life God actually does.

And we are no different here this morning. The Christian today no different than Paul 2 ,000 years ago. That the Lord God by His Spirit in accordance with His Word does lead. And what we have here in this verse where he says may our God and Father Himself.

Some versions say now may He our God and Father. To emphasize the singularity of God as the Father and then the Lord Jesus also God. Fully God as much as God the Father or God the Spirit. It is God whose will is accomplished by Jesus Christ.

It is God who leads us by way of Jesus Christ. It is God who has decreed all things from before the foundation of the world. As Jesus Christ His Son who accomplishes that will by His people. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 says for we are His workmanship.

Created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. As Proverbs 16 9 has it the heart of man plans his way but the Lord establishes his steps. It's the perfect intersection of divine sovereignty and human responsibility.

We are God's workmanship. God has created a people in Christ Jesus for good works which God the Father prepared that we walk in them. This is what Paul is praying for the Thessalonians. That God our Father that He who decreed all things whatsoever should come to pass through our Lord Jesus Christ would direct our steps.

God whose will is carried out by His Son. That's just what Ephesians 2 10 teaches us. That God prepares the path and it is Jesus Christ who puts us on the path and keeps us on it. What are we speaking of here is the flourishing Christian life.

Can we call it the successful Christian life? No success in the Christian life except by this that we follow the ways of our Master who is Jesus in whom alone we can fulfill God's will. Remember you cannot take God on your own terms.

God comes to us on His terms. How do we stay on this path? What is this to be led in the paths of righteousness? What does this actually mean? How does this get accomplished? Well too often we look first at our own will.

Then we go to God and we pray and somehow God seems to agree with us when we're done praying. And too often that sort of a way of accomplishing God's will leads us to afterwards looking back and saying, Oh Lord bless this mess.

Help me out here. I seem to have gotten ahead of you. No success nor is there any preparation to meet God except by following His directions. By following His way. His ways which were prepared beforehand in advance for us to follow.

And though Paul doesn't mention the Holy Spirit here specifically in this passage, it is the Holy Spirit who guides us by driving us back always to the Word of God. And that Word guides us by revealing God's will.

And this is the leading that Paul prays for here for the Thessalonians. That the Lord Jesus Christ would direct the footsteps, the paths, the life of His people. So one might ask just where am I being led?

If I'm following someone I want to know where he's taking me. If I'm on a path I want to know what the end point is. How long I'm going to be on it and all these sort of logistical questions we might ask.

But where am I being led? I can't answer specifically as to time and place. God deals with each of us according to our specific needs of growth and holiness. He may send you to this job. He may send you to this city.

He may give you this particular spouse. We're all different. But here's where we're all the same. Wherever the Lord would direct you, it's for your good. He's preparing you to be blameless on the day of judgment.

This is Paul's burden here. That the Thessalonians be ready that Jesus Christ would prepare them to be meet with God. And the first prayer he makes is that the Lord Jesus would direct their steps. Has he directed your steps?

Are you growing into the image of Christ Jesus our Savior? This is where he would lead you. To be like God. Not God's ourselves, but to imitate God. As it says in Leviticus so many times, Therefore you shall be holy, as I, the Lord your God, am holy.

Be holy because God is holy. Jesus Christ said, Therefore you shall be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect. Peter repeats Leviticus. Therefore you shall be holy, as I, the Lord your God, am holy.

This leading, this preparation is leading you in paths of righteousness as Psalm 23 once again. So that you do what? Become more and more like God. So when God sees you, when you meet God, you have in this life become as much like Him as those paths would lead you to be.

Abounding in Love for God and Neighbor

And what do those paths lead? Into the image of God? Yes. To be more like God? Yes. We always strive to become more and more like Jesus Christ. As Paul says in Romans 8, that's our predestined will to be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus.

But what specifically is this image? What is this quality? What is this characteristic that is being driven at here? Will you prepare to meet God by increasing and abounding in love? That's verse 12. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all as we do for you.

Now by the Lord here, of course, Paul means Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ who said, For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. Jesus Christ who as God became man, so that as man he might accomplish God's will on earth.

And so the apostle appeals in his prayer for the Lord to accomplish the Father's will in his people. And what does he ask? What is this direction? What are these steps? We ask God the Father and our Lord Jesus to direct our steps, to direct your steps.

To what? Where are you going? He asked that Christ would direct their steps so that they might increase and abound in love. Now two words, increase and abound, mean pretty much the same thing. Increase is from the Greek word plenadzo.

You don't have to remember that, but it means to super abound. It means to super abound. And then it's followed by the word abound, which is presuo. You don't have to remember that one, but it means to abound and to be rich, to overflow.

We could say that Paul is asking the Lord to make them super abound to the point of overflowing riches in that one quality which so defines God and must define his people. If Jesus Christ is leading you anywhere, he's leading us anywhere, it's toward being like God.

And this is the one quality of God that he brings forth in 1 Thessalonians 2 .12. Love. As the Apostle John said, God is love. It's so simple. And so also should we. What did Jesus Christ say to his disciples and say to us in his living word?

By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. The great Puritan Matthew Henry puts it this way. He says, This is what Paul prays for. This is how Paul would have them be prepared, I should say, in the passive sense to meet God.

Is it any different for us today? It is not. Preparation to meet God. By the Spirit of God leading you in the paths of righteousness, which here is to the image of God, which is love. Love for one another and for all.

Why love? Why is it love that Paul prays for? Why doesn't he pray that they be able to recite the systematic theologies? That they know the confession and they're able to follow it in all their life and be able to explain it to others.

Well, of course, those things didn't exist in Paul's day. But you take my point. Why is it love that he prays for? Well, Jesus said that the greatest command is love. Did he not? In Matthew 22, 37 he said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

This is the great and first command. It is love. It is love for God. And what does love for God do? What does love for God emanate from us? Jesus goes on. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Now I want you to keep that in mind. Law. On these two commands depend all the law. Because we're going to speak about this a bit in verse 13.

But I want you to remember that this love satisfies law. We'll come to that at verse 13. But I want that to be in your mind. But what is he saying here? Love for God is the necessary first step. Do you love God?

Do you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? None of us do perfectly. In this life we'll never do anything perfectly to please God. But as much as you can. As much as you are able with the Spirit's enabling.

As much as the Word of God would enliven your spirit to love God more and more. Do you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? If the answer is yes, and I pray that it is yes. If that answer is an affirmative, then it issues forth in something.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. No greater command than to love God who because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, that's Ephesians 2 .4, made us alive together in Christ.

And this love, this love for God, this gratitude, this thanksgiving we have for what he's done for us by his Spirit in bringing us to Christ, means something. That love issues into love for neighbor. Who is your neighbor?

I'm not going to read or repeat much of the parable of the good Samaritan. Most of us know that. But at the end of that parable, when Jesus asks the Pharisees for whom the parable was spoken, and says, who then was a neighbor to the man who was wounded, and the poor Pharisee, thinking of the hated Samaritans, could only say, I suppose, the one who helped him.

Love of God has to mean love for neighbor. Jesus makes it non-optional. The second command, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, derives so logically and so immediately from the first, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, that there's no proof of the one without the other.

This is why it's so important to the Apostle Paul that the Thessalonians become prepared to meet God by having this love for God and for neighbor. Doesn't he not say that the Lord makes them increase and abound in love for one another, which they had, love amongst the saints, love within the local fellowship, love within the church which you attend, and for all.

It's not optional. The second of the great commands derives from the first. There's no proof of the one without the other. In fact, failure in the second, failure to love your neighbor as yourself, where love of God demands love of others, is conclusive evidence that the love of God is not there at all.

We need to note that this love comes on God's terms, not our own terms. We don't get to define it and say, well, I'm going to love this way or that way. It's a love of God that we are to issue forth into the people around us.

But to remember what Jesus Christ said, that God sends the rain on the just and the unjust alike. Therefore, you shall love your enemies even. You know, a man wants to show, let's say, his love for his wife.

Just think of a man who wants to show his love for a wife, and he says, tell me, dear, in what way can I show my love for you? She thinks about it for a moment, and she says, well, that's easy. Here's what I want you to do.

This will prove that you love me. Spend one hour a week with me, free of distractions, and talk with me. Just one hour a week, free of any interference, and I want you to talk with me. And he says, okay, I get it.

So he goes on about his business for the week, and he has a busy week, and he remembers the conversation at the end of the week. And so far, he's spent zero time with her, just talking, and the week's almost out.

So what's he going to do? Well, that's easy, he says. I'm going to go to this florist. There's a florist on the way home, so out comes the wallet, and into his hand goes a bouquet of roses, and he goes home, and he says, here, dear, I love you.

Here's a bouquet of roses. He says, well, no, you asked me my terms, and I told you I wanted to talk. He said, well, here's your roses. This proves I love you. Well, they're the wrong color, and they're the wrong variety, and all these other things.

You see where this goes. This is the Christian who lays claim to God, but not his brother from whom Christ also died. This is you when you choose how you're going to prove your love for God by your love for your neighbor.

It's according to God's Word. It's according to the leading of his Spirit. This is on God's terms. We don't get to define love for one another or love for God in any way other than what he defines. Jesus' citations of the great commands is repeated by Paul.

It's repeated by James, just to name two New Testament authors. How important is love? It's the essence of your faith. It's the essence of your faith. In Galatians 5 .6, Paul says,. So the echo of the first and the second commands is like it.

It shines forth here, clear and bright. It's so important. It's so important that Paul prays for this, for the Thessalonians, despite the fact, if you remember in chapter 1 verse 3 of 1 Thessalonians, he speaks of their work of faith and their labor of love.

And now he asks Jesus to make them increase and abound in what? In love. Chapter 3 verse 6 of the same letter, Timothy brings a good report of their faith and what? Their faith and their love. And what does Paul pray for?

That their love would increase and abound. That's how important this is in preparation to meet God. There's another aspect to all this. You may not have thought much about this. I've been speaking about being prepared to meet God.

And that's from the last verse. That's from verse 13. And that's where Paul states the purpose which God works this abounding, super abounding love in you. So that he may, this is Jesus, so that he may establish your hearts blameless and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

You prepare yourself to meet God by walking in his ways. You prepare yourself to meet God by abounding, super abounding in love for each other and for all. And finally, the purpose of it. You prepare to meet God by having a blameless heart.

And this is what Paul says. So that Jesus Christ may establish, may strengthen your heart blameless. Remember I told you to remember this idea of fulfilling the law, that love fulfills the law and the prophets.

On this rests all the law and the prophets, said Jesus. The heart that will survive God's review is one that is blameless before him. When is Paul speaking of? Paul's speaking of this future time. Nobody knows when it is.

We're not going to date it. It's a time when Jesus Christ, according to John chapter 5, when the voice of the Son of Man will call everyone out of the grave to stand before him and hear their fate. The heart that survives this is the one that is blameless before God.

One that is ever increasing and abounding in love. One that has been directed by our God and Father and our Lord Jesus. A heart that only Jesus Christ can give you. A heart that only comes from the new birth.

As Jesus Christ told Nicodemus, you must be born again. As Ezekiel 36 .26 says, God says, I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. This heart that will be blameless before God is a heart that only God can give you.

So this whole thing comes full circle. If you think of it this way, as we prepare ourselves to meet God at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, God directs our paths in ways that increase our love for him and for each other, thereby establishing that your heart is in fact the new heart that only he can give you and that alone will vindicate your faith on the great day of Jesus' return.

Your heart must be found blameless. Does that sound a little intimidating? To stand before God Almighty, the holy, holy, holy God, and have him bear down upon your heart? As I said from Psalms 11, For his eyes behold, his eyelids test the sons of men.

I worked on Psalm 11 in my Hebrew exegesis class at seminary. And I found that what this means is God sees everything. God knows all things. He's declared all things from before all time. But then in this idea of judgment, it is, as it were, as if he looks upon you.

He bears down upon your heart. And his eyelids test. It's as if he closes his eyes and he concentrates on you or me and looks into your heart. And what Paul is saying, what Paul is saying, the purpose of God's leading and this increasing and abounding love for one another and for all is to be found blameless before God.

Did that standard sound insurmountable? It really is. I mean, the word itself means free from censure, free from fault or defect. It means any charge leveled against you will not stick. How can this be?

How can you or I at any moment in our life have a perfection that would pass muster with God Almighty as his eyelids have closed and have looked upon you or me? How are you going to survive that day? How would you be prepared for that day?

You have a courtroom scene. It's the same scene we read in Romans 14 .10 or 2 Corinthians 5 .10, both of which say we all stand before the judgment seat, the bema seat of Christ. And the question is, what heart will he find?

Paul wants their hearts to be found blameless. He asks Jesus to make their heart blameless. The apostle's prayer is that Jesus would make their love increase and bound for this purpose, that they be found this way, this blamelessness before God.

Now, is that even possible? To stand before God and be without blame. No charges would stick. No accusation would be able to be proved out against you. Well, it sounds impossible. If this is just what verse 13 says is the purpose of verses 11 and 12, especially verse 12.

This word blameless is not used very often in the Bible. It is used by Luke to describe John the Baptist's parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth, who walked blamelessly in all the commandments of God. And Paul uses it of himself to describe himself as a Pharisee in his former life, how he's blameless according to the righteousness of the law, but those are on the human plane.

This is looking upon someone and saying, boy, you know, I would sure like to be like Zechariah or Elizabeth. Man, they're the model. If I could only obey like they did, I'd be okay with God. No, that's not the blameless heart.

It's by grace you've been saved through faith, not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works so that no one could boast. It's not a matter of obeying the law. The law is another subject. I'm not going to open that up at all here this morning.

It's a matter of God seeing the new heart in you, the heart that loves him with all that you can. Not the human plane. On the human plane, you can do what God demands. James says if you would follow the law, if you would achieve the righteousness of God by following the law, go ahead.

But if you fail once, you've failed at the whole thing. So that's not going to work. And peering into someone's life and thinking, oh boy, if I could only do as well as they did, if I could only check it off like they must have checked it off, Elizabeth, Zechariah, Paul, others who you may know who seem to have such a consistent lifestyle, these people who can list out the demands of God, put them in order, follow them consistently.

Boy, if I could do that, then God would accept me, right? Then I'd be prepared to meet God. Then I could stand without fear. Then I could boldly come to the throne of grace and there find help in my time of need.

But look at this person. Just listen to their prayer. See how generously they give to the needy and contribute to the church. Is that the blameless heart? Well, the blameless heart must be possible because that's what verse 13 says is the purpose of verses 11 and 12, God leading and God increasing through Jesus Christ, our love for one another.

How can a mortal creature, though, how can one born in sin and iniquity be found blameless before a holy God? With every thought and motive laid bare, well, Jesus Christ said, with God, nothing shall be impossible.

But I want us to think about the time frame here. As we think about ourselves being prepared, this is all in the passive. This is God doing in you. This is Jesus Christ working in you. This is Philippians 2 .13, for it is God who works you to work and to will for his good pleasure.

But when does this happen? Well, the doing is in this life. The abounding, the superabundant love is in the here and now. It's something that Christ is working in you. But when can you have this heart?

I want us to think about this for just a moment. This is when Jesus Christ returns. Paul says, Establish your heart blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

I'm not even going to touch what it means for all his saints. That'll be for another time, maybe a lecture in Sunday school or something like that. I want us to think, as we bring this to a close, that the coming of the Lord Jesus is the end of history.

I want us to think in terms of the parable of the ten virgins. You had the five wise and the five who were unwise. And the five wise had their oil, and they were ready for the Lord's return. They were expecting the Lord's return.

They were prepared for the Lord's return. And the five who were unwise were unprepared. And, of course, the Lord returns. They went to buy some oil, and they couldn't find it. The shops are all closed.

History's over. It's done. This is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, when you will be called before God, presented by Jesus Christ as it were to God, each of your hearts laid bare, and God looking for that blameless heart.

What's a blameless heart? It's the heart of flesh that by repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is yours. It's the heart of flesh that God gives you that makes you able to repent and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When the Lord comes, he's not going to distribute this heart to you. It's not as if he's going to look and say, well, there's Debbie over there, and God's going to look at Debbie and say, you know, she did a lot of really good things.

She's really sweet. She was kind to her parents. She was generous to the poor, and so on and so forth. And, oh, but she needs her new heart now. No, of course that's not the way it's going to be. You must repent and believe the gospel today.

You must go to God now and ask for the new heart, the heart of flesh that believes the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because when the Lord returns, history's over. There's no more opportunity to repent and believe the gospel.

Will you be blameless in that day? Will you be acquitted of all wrongdoing? No, that can only be by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That can only be Jesus Christ who took your sin upon himself, who on the cross, as he suffered God's wrath for your sins, answered your sins, and paid the full penalty for them.

Only then can your sin be answered. And only with the new heart that God can give you by repenting of your sin and believing this gospel can that be yours. Only then will the Holy Spirit apply it to you.

And I said that in the wrong order, and I need to correct that. I did misspeak a second ago. The Holy Spirit makes you able to believe this. He doesn't see you believing and say, okay, that'll give you the new heart.

He gives you the new heart so you will repent and believe this gospel. Jesus Christ said, with God nothing shall be impossible, even standing before God blameless, absolved of all wrong, because Jesus Christ was credited with all your wrong.