How Are Our Hearts Cleansed?

God Centered Theology

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And today, before we partake of the Lord's Supper, I want to cover the subject, hearts cleansed.

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Everyone has a heart and needs cleansing. Well, the first question we need to ask is, do our hearts need cleansing?

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Yes! Yes, they do. They need cleansing. And we're going to start out, if you have your

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Bibles, dealing with these narrative passages, there's far too many verses to put on the screen. We're in an epistle, and we're covering, say, two or three verses.

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It's a little bit easier. But with the narrative ones, there's going to be a lot more than what I can put on there. So, if you have your

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Bibles, I encourage you to turn with me. We're going to spend some time in a couple different books this morning.

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We're going to begin in Jeremiah chapter 17. Verse 1, it says, "...the

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sin of Judah is written down with an iron stylus. With a diamond point, it is engraved upon the tablet of their heart."

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Our sin, the sin nature, who we are as lost, unregenerate people, when we're born into this world, is not something that is done to us.

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We're not victims. We are sinners. We are fully deserving of the wrath of God for our sin.

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We're fully deserving of the consequences of our sin. We're fully deserving of an eternity spent in Hell.

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And just as the prophet was pointing out to the Israelite people here in the book of Jeremiah, and they went from sinning to repentance, turning back to God, and they'd serve

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Him for a while, then they'd have the downward slope back into sin, into idol worship, and they'd find themselves in full -blown sin, and then they'd come back around.

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And you've probably seen in Sunday school class coming up, that big circle the teacher would draw on the board to demonstrate this.

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It's a circular thing where they just keep coming back around. And they kept saying, Well, come on, it's not really sin.

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We're not really sinners. It's just, you know, it's all these other people coming in trying to take us over. It's this, it's that, it's excuse after excuse after excuse after excuse.

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And Jeremiah says, No, the sin of Judah, the sin of every single human person, is written down with an iron stylus.

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It is engraved, which is permanent, on the tablet of the human heart.

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Now every time, now I imagine there's probably some cases in the Bible where it says heart, and it's actually referring to the human organ, the heart.

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But typically speaking, when you see the word heart used in the Bible, particularly in the

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New Testament, it's not referring literally to the organ, and the muscle, and everything that's involved with the vessels and all that, the heart.

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It's talking about the inner man, the will, the seat of man, by which direction and decisions and the things that we desire are controlled.

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It is upon that heart, upon the unregenerate state before salvation, that our sin is engraved on the tablet of our human heart.

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Skipping ahead to verse 5, it says, Thus says the Lord, cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the

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Lord. The unregenerate man, the lost person, who needs their heart to be cleansed, is in a perpetual, eternal state of turning away from the

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Lord, unless something intervenes and cleanses his heart. And as we fast forward, we know that to be what

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Christ offered on the sacrifice of Calvary, and our repentance of our sin, our faith and trust in Jesus Christ cleanses our heart.

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So, we understand that in our day, that sacrifice, the way of salvation, as we talked about last week in Acts chapter 16, when the slave girl, remember had the spirit of divination, and she said, these men, referring to Paul and Silas, are going around teaching the way of salvation.

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So, even the spirits, the demons, Satan's angels, recognize that Jesus Christ is the way, the exclusive, unique, only way of salvation.

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This is why the Bible says that the spirits know there's a hell, they know there's a

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Christ, they know there's a God, they believe the scriptures, and they fear and tremble. And cursed is that man.

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It said in the Old Testament scriptures that cursed is the man, or cursed is a man that hangs from a tree.

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Prophetic of Jesus Christ, they had a lot of terminology. In the book of Galatians you see similar terminology pop up there.

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It talks about the curse of being unsaved. The curse, anathema. They said the person that brings to you a different doctrine, or a different gospel, other than the one true gospel, is to be anathema, they are to be cursed.

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Same thing here, cursed is that man whose trust is in his flesh, whose trust is in the inner man, whose trust is in the heart of a lost, unregenerate man, or woman, or boy, or girl, all ages.

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For he will be like a bush in the desert, and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony waste in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant.

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However, we get a contrast here. So we've got the unregenerate man, now we're going to have the saved, the regenerate, the spiritually alive person.

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This person, it said, that blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is in the

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Lord. You see in the harmony and the consistency of Scripture, this is why you hear a lot of preachers, and even you as Christians, you'll say salvation is repentance, or a turning away from sin, and a turning to, and a placing of faith, and trust in Jesus Christ, which is the only requirement for salvation.

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No works, and we're going to get to that in a minute, but just faith. Because even Jeremiah, and those that try to say the

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Old Testament was for another day, and it really doesn't matter as of today, I submit to you

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Jeremiah 17, 5 -9, it is perfectly consistent with the New Testament.

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Cursed is the man who trusts in himself, who trusts in mankind, who trusts in his strength, his own flesh for strength rather, but blessed is the man who trusts in the

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Lord. Now, this man that trusts in the

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Lord, familiar Scripture here, he will be like a tree planted by the water that extends its roots by a stream.

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Isn't it interesting to y 'all? This just makes me so excited when I see how consistent and in harmony

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Scripture is. Remember in Colossians, when we had the sermons about being rooted in Christ? And how

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Colossians 2, I believe it's right around in 5, 6, 7, and 8, walk in Him, you've been rooted in Christ, and because you're in Christ, so walk in Him.

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Do not be taken away by deception, elementary principles of the world, but pursue that which is righteous, holy, and is the wisdom of Christ.

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All the way back in Jeremiah, same thing, like a tree planted by the water that extends its roots by a stream.

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In context, these roots that are being put down by the stream are the roots that are in the

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Lord, of which we're putting our trust in. And we'll not fear when the heat comes, but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought.

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We could probably park here and have ten sermons on this verse. The saved person, their leaves, when they face the storms of life, remember last week, will be green, they will not be anxious in a year of drought, because their trust will be in the

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Lord. But then verse 9, the heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick.

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The heart, the inner man, the will is deceitful, meaning crooked, you could translate it crooked, you could translate it deceitful, is desperately sick.

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And I, the Lord, search the heart. Remember I've referenced it many times, but Romans 8, 6 -8, the mind set on the flesh is death, the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.

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Why? Paul is describing two different people in Romans chapter 8. The mind set on the flesh is unregenerate, lost man, pre -salvation, has not been saved, they are destined for hell.

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Their mind is set on their flesh, it is set on the heart, the heart's desires. The mind set on the spirit is indwelt by the spirit, they are saved, they are regenerated, they have been raised to spiritual life, and they have life, eternal life,

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John 3, 16, and peace, Colossians 1, 19 or so, somewhere in there. When it talks about the fact, remember when we went over it?

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It says you were formerly engaged in hostile deeds, you were formerly this way, and now you're this way.

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Why? You've been reconciled to the Father. Jesus Christ reconciled us. We now have peace.

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Romans chapter 5, verse 1, the justification we have is what provides us and produces the peace with God.

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American evangelicalism doesn't like to think about us being at war and enmity with God. But Romans chapter 8,

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Colossians chapter 1, Jeremiah chapter 17 are very explicitly clear that man in his natural state, unregenerated, unsaved, is not neutral, he is at enmity, he is hostile, he is in his rebellion against God and His sin.

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He chooses his sin, he loves his sin, and if left to himself would die in his sin going into eternity.

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No single person in the history of mankind will ever find themselves in Hell that does not deserve to be there because of their own sin.

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On the flip side, not one single person in all of humanity that finds himself in Heaven will be there because they deserve to be.

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They'll be there by the grace of God. Lewis Allen is in Heaven right now because he had a cleansed heart.

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He put his trust in the Lord. He'd be regenerated, raised to spiritual life. He put his faith in Christ.

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And it is on the basis of what God's Son did, it's on the basis of Lewis' faith in that Son that he is in Heaven.

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Not because he deserves to be, but because God Almighty extended grace and mercy towards him and towards all of us.

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And if we place our faith and trust in the person that hung on that cross, we too will spend eternity in Heaven.

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Our next stop along the way for turning in your Bibles is Ezekiel chapter 36. Ezekiel chapter 36, now

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I'm going to move through these quickly because right about 10 till, I've got about 15 -20 minutes, by around 10 -8 till I want to cut this off so we'll have time for our

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Lord's Supper. So you listen quickly, I'm going to preach quickly and we're going to move through this. Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 22, "'Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the

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Lord, God, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went.'"

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Notice God says, "'I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations which you have profaned in their midst.

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Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the

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Lord God, when I prove myself holy among you in their sight.

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For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land.'"

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Now this is prophetic for the Israelite people, and while Old Testament Scripture largely has the specific context of the

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Israelite people, there are principles and things that do apply to us.

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So He says He'll gather them from the nations, this is still yet future. And here's the part we're coming into that pertains to our subject matter for this morning.

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He says, "'Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean.

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I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, or your sin, and from all your idols.'"

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He's speaking to His people here. God has a people.

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The unsafe person this wouldn't matter to. The person that will never be saved, this wouldn't matter to.

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They love their sin, they love their idols, but God's people should reject idols, should reject filthiness, should reject sin.

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We should be continually being cleansed. Notice in verse 26, "'Moreover, I will give you a new heart,

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I will give you a new heart, and will put a new spirit within you.

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I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh.

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I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe

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My ordinances.'" God says He's going to cleanse His people.

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He's going to give them a new heart, give them a new spirit, and then

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He will cause them to walk in His statutes. Works and obeying

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God's commands are the resulting effect of salvation, and of regeneration.

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Not the cause or producer of one's salvation or regeneration.

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I don't have the reference on me. I'm probably wrong. I want to say it's like Ephesians 2 .10.

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I probably got the wrong book. I should have looked this up before I came up here this morning. But there's a verse that talks about the fact that we are

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Christ's workmanship. We are created, not original body, life, or when we were born, but we're created spiritually in Him for good works.

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So that's why you'll hear me say all the time the biggest fruit, the biggest evidence of a transformed heart, of a new heart, of a new indwelling

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Holy Spirit is the resulting effects. The works, obeying

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God. The verse in the Gospel says you will love the Lord your God. It's also in Deuteronomy 4

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I think it is. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your strength, all of your might, is not possible for the unsaved person.

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But it is possible for someone that's been raised in spiritual life. That's why you'll hear in a lot of sermons it's very common, especially evangelistic sermons, they'll say something to the effect of, you know, for the unsaved person the only message the

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Bible has to you is that you're a sinner and you need Christ. But when you're in Christ and you're saved the Bible has a whole lot more to say to you at that point because now you have the heart and the

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Spirit to actually walk in it. He says,

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I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

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What He's saying and you'll notice there's a lot of consistency here with everything we've been through in the book of Colossians and in the book of Acts.

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External change, remember we talked about unity in Christ would have to come from an internal desire not external compulsion.

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Same consistent theme here with salvation. External change, external conformity does not alter the inward reality.

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But an inward change, a new heart, a new spirit, guarantees a change in outward behavior.

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Now we're saved from the penalty of sin, not the ability to sin. There's a sermon from the other day about progressive practical sanctification in the walk of a believer.

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We still reside in sinful humanness so we will still have temptations of sin. And to the degree that Satan can get us walking in sin instead of walking in Christ, our testimony is burdened and hurt by it.

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So we need to be careful to make sure we're walking in Christ. A Christian will not do this with sinless perfection, but there will be a change.

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There will be a difference. Moving on to Acts chapter 15. Acts chapter 15 verse 1 if you want to turn there with me in your

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Bibles. Acts chapter 15 it says, "...some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses you cannot be saved.

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Mankind from all existence has tried to add things to salvation, particularly post - cross, well even pre -cross, but you know we're a

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New Testament church so I'm going to focus a little bit more on post -cross. But they're always saying, you've got to do this, or you've got to do that.

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Legalistically, Pharisaically, like the ones I grew up in, independent fundamentalist

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Baptist churches. They say you must do this, or you must dress this way, or look this way, or talk this way.

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And they don't actually say it, and they would deny it if you confronted them on it, but implied down underneath the service it's a test of fellowship.

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A test of fellowship meaning you're only Christian if you do such and such. This Bible, and any qualified elder or pastor of God will never preach such garbage.

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That book doesn't say it. I don't say it. Your Christian witness doesn't say it. Anybody who's honest, anybody who has truly experienced the salvation of God understands and knows it is by the grace and mercy of God we could not earn it.

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And here's the thing, we're born with a sin nature. Any of you that have had children know you don't have to teach your children to sin.

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It's just natural. Well the second you begin to sin, how many works?

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Do you do a certain amount of works and you've made up for what you've done at that point? Well what if you go out and sin tomorrow? Does that negate everything you've done?

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We don't have any instruction in that. You know what the Bible says? We're going to get to it in a minute in Romans. If you want to try to keep the law, sure that's a benefit to you.

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If you keep it perfectly without sin, and guess what? Man don't do that, does he?

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He's incapable. Romans 8, chapter 8 verse 7, the heart set on the flesh is enmity against God.

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It's hostile towards God. It does not subject itself to the law of God. Why? Because it's not even able to do so.

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And here it is, you have these men in the early church coming down saying, well you'd better get circumcised if you want to be saved.

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Hogwash! I don't know what it would look like today, but I don't know, I don't keep up with this too much in the things

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I read. But I'm sure somewhere there's still this in existence somewhere where people say, you must do this, you must do that.

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Well it's good that you have faith, but you better do this or you're not saved. That's not Christianity.

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It's something else. Skip ahead, they debate and go over this, so on and so forth.

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And then verse 7, after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, brethren, you know that in the early days

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God made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe!

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Not work! Not get circumcised! Believe! And God who knows the heart,

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God who knows the heart, Acts chapter 15, where did we just see that? Jeremiah chapter 17, verse 10, verse part says,

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I the Lord searched the heart, searched the heart.

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God who knows the heart testified to them, giving them the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the proof and the evidence by which we know we've been changed, because the

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Holy Spirit of God, the third person of Trinity testifies within our spirit that we are saved, we are sons of God, we love

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God, we want to serve God, albeit imperfectly. And that is because we have the literal

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Holy Spirit of God indwelling us, and it is this God that searches the heart. Verse 9,

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He made no distinction between us and them, meaning between Jews and Gentiles. The dividing law was broken down.

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And notice He says at the end of verse 9, He cleansed their hearts by faith.

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He cleansed their hearts by faith. Not by circumcision, not by keeping the law, not by filling out a checklist of do's and don'ts.

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No, it says on these slides I showed you these things that we want to do, these ways in which we want to obey

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God, submit ourselves to the Word of God, submit ourselves to Christ, walk in Christ's likeness.

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We do that because we've been saved, not to get saved. I'm not going to dwell on it long, but just to point out in Colossians, if you want to turn there,

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Colossians chapter 2, I'm going to read two verses for you to give you the heart of Colossians here as far as why these sermons are important.

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We were going through Colossians, we took a break, picking up in verse 11 it says, and in Him, meaning in Christ, you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, and the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

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The circumcision of the heart is what we need. Circumcision, not going to go into the details, but it's a removal of physical flesh.

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In the same way with our spiritual union with Christ, Christ circumcises our heart in that He removes the dominion and the power of our sinful heart and sinful body over us because He cleanses our heart, washes it white as snow, gives us a new heart, a new spirit, and even though we reside in sinful humanness, we now in Christ have been circumcised with the heart, and we are no longer under the dominion or the bondage of sin's power.

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We are under the dominion and the power of Christ. And it is only by being a slave to Christ that you have true freedom in this life.

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Verse 12, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith and the working of God who raised

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Him from the dead. Now we're going to pick up later in Colossians on another date, but notice it references

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Romans chapter 6. The first part of Romans chapter 6 when it talks about being baptized with Christ.

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This is a spiritual union. We're baptized into the body of Christ when we believe, when we place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

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What we do in the baptismal pool after someone is saved is an outward demonstration.

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It's typically the first step of obedience a believer will take. It is also signifying and showing to the world that I've been saved,

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I've been regenerated, I've been washed clean, my heart's been cleansed, and now I want to obey, love, and serve my

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Christ. And it is this spiritual union so that when we are saved

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Christ's death becomes our death. His resurrection becomes our resurrection. His righteousness becomes our righteousness.

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His holiness becomes our holiness. So that as it says earlier in Colossians chapter 1, we can be presented before God holy, blameless, and beyond reproach.

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Why? Is this something we didn't know? It's because of what Christ did. And it's imputed to us because our sins were imputed to Him.

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God treated Christ as if He was us, and He was a sinner. And now because of our salvation

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He treats us as if we were Christ. Something about this should make you smile people.

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This is good news! Last step for this morning,

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Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2, we're going to wrap this up with these verses.

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It says, for indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the law. It's of great value if you can keep the law perfectly, if you never sin, if you're perfectly righteous in and of yourselves, but we're not.

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But if you are a transgressor of the law your circumcision has become this is why you don't preach a whole lot of sermons on circumcision because it's a hard word to say.

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Your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Why? Because if you keep the law perfectly, well then being circumcised, yeah, great have at it, it's part of the law, do it.

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But if you're a transgressor of the law, present tense verb, ongoing, you continually break God's law and break

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His commandments. You can be circumcised all day if you want to. And guess what? It does nothing for you!

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You can come to church, have perfect attendance. You can dress better than anyone else. You can say all the right things.

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You can put more money in the plate than anyone else. And if your heart hasn't been cleansed you'll be in hell. That's what the

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Bible says. Now all those things I just mentioned are good things. It's good to come to church. It's good to put money in the plate.

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It's good to dress nicely on occasion. It's good to say the right things and be sweet and nice to people. But if that's your righteousness, if that's your salvation, you'll be in hell.

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Because it's not based on what you do, it's based on what Christ did. And that's the good news of the

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Gospel, is a simple message, my friends. It's good news. We shouldn't hide it. We shouldn't keep it to ourselves.

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Share it! Live it! Let someone else come and understand the celebration, and the joy, and the energy, and the greatness of God through salvation.

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So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

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And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the law, will he not judge you, who through having the letter of the law and circumcision are a transgressor of the law?

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We'll get into this another day, that contrast being drawn there. I want to focus on the last two verses here. He says, for he is not a

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Jew who is one outwardly, external change, external conformity, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.

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But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the

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Spirit, not by the letter. Obeying God is a good thing.

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Walking in Christ is a good thing. Safe people are expected to do it. But external conformity, whether it's circumcision, or anything else, will get you nowhere.

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Christians may have certain things we do, but it is not those things that save us.

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Jewish people had certain things they did. Circumcision was one of them. I believe on the eighth day, I believe when a boy was born, they'd do and do it.

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It's not what saved them. And before we go piling on the Jewish people, remind ourselves that we're no different.

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We think so many times that these things we do, or the amount of money we give, or our attendance, or however many committees we're on, or even for pastors, how many sermons we've preached, or how many people we've counseled, and thank

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God I'm not like that. But sometimes the temptation can be there to think, because you've done this, or you've done that, or you've done this, or you've done that, boy

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I'll be in the front line. And Jesus says, no the first will be last. Get rid of the pride.

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Humble yourselves. Submit yourselves to Christ. Repent of your sin. Place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.