Saying and Doing

Well, we return now to to Matthew 7 and as we've been for several weeks, we are in the home stretch of chapter 7. And as we begin this new section here in verse 21, it's really held together verse 21 22 23.

And in some ways we're gonna just look at verse 21 and some something specific within verse 21. But that's going to carry through next week and then it's also going to be a theme that we'll see all the way to the very end all the way up to the End of chapter 7.

It's this matter of Saying as opposed to doing and of course the emphasis being on doing not having mere words. But action in other words as we've been saying Jesus sermon demands a response and that response is To apply all that he has taught to work it out in our lives.

Are we on the narrow path or are we on this broad path that leads to destruction? Do we have the qualities that are held out at the very beginning by the beatitudes or are we like the hypocrites of chapter 6?

We have some external form, but we don't have the inward reality. These are all the things that we've seen as a theme throughout the sermon on the mount and they're all Pressing us toward a response as we come to these last verses.

It's not those who merely hear but those who do that will be likened to a wise man building his house on the solid rock. So we're gonna begin that theme that focus on saying and doing and we're gonna look at that in a specific way as I said.

This morning really one point this morning once we get underway next week. We're going to look at the verses and perhaps dig through their context a little more carefully. And we're gonna especially key in on that word new in verse 23 depart from me.

I never knew you. We don't want to read past that too quickly because that's very really important to this whole matter. What does it mean to know Christ in? Such a way that we are those who do rather than merely here or merely say Lord Lord.

So knowing Christ or what it means to be known by Christ. That'll be our focus next week in light of verses 21 through 23. But this morning we want to key in especially on verse 21 and those who have an empty confession.

Lord Lord. But as we'll see their heart is far from him. Matthew 7 beginning in verse 21. Not everyone who says to me Lord Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven. He who does the will of my father in heaven.

Many will say to me in that day Lord Lord. Have we not prophesied in your name cast out demons in your name done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them. I never knew you. Depart from me you who practice lawlessness.

False Profession and the Difference Between Saying and Doing

Well, Jesus of course has just finished warning us against false teachers. Within that as we saw last week these broad contours of the difference between a good tree and a bad tree. Jesus says in verse 18 a good tree cannot produce bad fruit nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.

What we said was the the tree will always bear a fruit that shows the character of that tree. I don't need to inspect the bark. I don't need to do a spectral analysis of the DNA. Just show me the fruit and I'll tell you what kind of tree it is.

The fruit will always show the character of the tree. That fruit may not be readily apparent. It may take some time. It may be hidden behind a lot of religious foliage. But the fruit will always show the true character of the tree again.

Jesus has warned beware of false prophets that come in sheep's clothing. Inwardly, they are ravenous wolves. So we've seen in chapter 7 especially as well as chapter 6 as well as chapter 5 in the whole Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus concern is about the heart. About the inward relationship and knowledge of God and the way that will bear out in one's life. Not hypocritically, but in the truth of the Beatitudes in meekness and humility as one hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

Jesus has been pressing this inward reality. We're reminded again that God sees that which is within us not as men see. Men only see the surface. There's fruit on the surface. Fruit can be inspected. That's how we beware of false prophets.

But God sees in a way that no human eye can see. God discerns the very thoughts and intentions of the heart. God knows us better than we know ourselves. The false prophets the false teachers, they're the they're just like the hypocrites of chapter 6.

They appear to be one thing inside, but they're quite another. The problem is as we said, we're born thorns and thistles were born under the curse. That's our dilemma. But that's also the good news of the gospel of God's glory.

God alone can create us and replant us to be good trees. He alone will cultivate and prune groweth so that the life of those who have faith in God will bear good fruit. But the emphasis through this all is it's not how we appear.

It's what we produce. Do not be like the hypocrites. Now Jesus says here fully in line with that not everyone who says Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my father in heaven, so not everyone who says Lord Lord.

The only ones that enter into the kingdom of heaven are those who confess Jesus as Lord all right, so Everyone who enters the kingdom of heaven says Lord Lord, but not everyone who says Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Really important. We understand that the only people entering the kingdom of heaven are those who say Lord Lord in the context of Romans 8 ABBA father I can only be cried out by the Spirit of the Lord, but Not all those who say Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven.

There's a difference between the mere words and The fruit the character the inward reality that leads to those words. In other words, Jesus is saying talk is cheap.

Talk is cheap.

It's as cheap as a little gold necklace with a cross on it worn by the most godless debauched celebrities. Like why are you wearing a cross. You're just profane you're just condemning yourself worse you're profaning that Talk is cheap.

Paul condemns in 2nd Timothy Paul condemns holding to a form of godliness. Maybe a good way to think of that a silhouette of godliness a mirage of godliness. It seems to look alright. But in reality, it's denying the power.

What is the power of godliness. It's the power of Christ's blood to sanctify the life of a believer. So as the form the outward appearance of godliness, but there's no inward reality. There's no cleansing from within it denies the power.

Remember some weeks ago. We gave the analogy of antiques roadshow, you know and some oh we use it as a crock pot. We used to scoop mud in the backyard and oh, that's a that's a priceless vase. That's a 19th century Urn from China, it's worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Well, this would be the very reverse of that. This is the thing we were never allowed to touch growing up. It's been behind that glass case. My parents brought it back from Japan we know that it's worth perhaps hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars and Then the expert says no, this was just a tourist trinket.

It's worth about $8. Those are my favorite moments.

To watch the devastation.

Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap.

Isn't that what James said James to. You believe there is one God great. You're confessing the Lord. The Lord thy God is one great. You believe there's one God you do. Well demons believe that and in believing that they tremble.

Does they understand what we don't in our profane speech. God is holy. He's a consuming fire.

That's a terror to darkness.

Well James spells this out. Therefore he says laying aside all filthiness overflow of wickedness. Really interesting that this is front-loading. This is James 121. It's in doing this that something is able to happen.

This is essentially how repentance and faith are simply two sides of the same coin. It's not that one happens prior to the other but The faith that saves is a repentant faith and The the repentance that saves is a faithful repentance.

It's it's it's both and they belong together. You can't have faith without repentance nor repentance without faith and James is saying in laying aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness. Love that imagery overflow it's the overflow you ever have those moments where you You hit the plunger on the toilet and the water is supposed to go down but it instead comes up and You dial blue vowel or whatnot.

This is supposed to go the other way. It's the overflow. Laying aside all filthiness all overflow of wickedness. Receive with meekness the implanted word. This is all held out by James that Notice whatever he's gonna say in chapter 2 about how faith and works cohere together.

One says I have faith without works. I'll show you my faith by my works. So that one who says I I'm justified by faith apart from works. It's not actually accurately understanding the way that faith and works cohere.

Now James is in complete harmony with Paul. We can put it this way that Paul is emphasizing the discontinuity between the law which condemns us and This gospel of grace freely given to those who trust in Jesus.

But of course within that the law is holy just and good. Paul is leaving and teaching from a place where there is room for continuity. But he's emphasizing the discontinuity. James on the other hand is emphasizing the continuity.

It's the royal law of Liberty. That's that one's free that sets one free. This is what is borne out by faith. He's emphasizing the continuity. But of course, he's leaving room for discontinuity. Why we can say that just from verse 22 receive with meekness the implanted word.

What's the word there? I think in context. It's the gospel. Receive the gospel notice the gospel is something that has to be planted in you. How does a bad tree bear good fruit? It can't it has to be uprooted.

You have to be made new you have to be born again. You have to receive in meekness this implanted word in repentance. You lay aside all wickedness all overflow of the filth of the flesh. You say God saved me and he implants that gospel grace in your life.

And as James says that is able to save your soul. Maybe even a better translation save your life. The gospel will save your life. Because it's given you a whole new life. It's an implanted word. Now notice what immediately flows out of this.

All right, we we come to this understanding in repentance and in faith in meekness in that place of humility God has planted his grace. He's made us a new tree given us a new life as a new creation in Christ Jesus we receive that implanted word that's able to save our lives and what immediately flows out of this.

But James says be a doer of the word. Otherwise, you're deceiving yourself. You're thinking that you've received this implanted word. If you've received it, it must bear fruit. That's where he's going in chapter 2.

It must bear fruit. So don't deceive yourself that you've received of implanted word if you can't find the fruit of that implanted word. In other words, if the gospel is not at root in your life bearing the fruit of God's grace.

Do not deceive yourself be a doer of the word not a hearer only that's James point. He who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it. It's not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work he will be blessed in what he does.

In other words that really has been a new planting. There really will be fruit if he continues in it if he applies it if he doesn't settle for the cheap talk of Lord Lord without any fruitfulness to back that up.

You can dangle a cross necklace over anything. But a bad tree cannot bear good fruit nor can a good tree bear bad fruit. Not ultimately not. Comprehensively does that mean that we as as those who still struggle with the flesh?

We still have all sorts of pockets and crevices of sin in our lives. Are waiting to become good trees. No, as as one Puritan said though a field of wheat has tears in it. We still call it a field of wheat.

And.

Though a good tree has misshapen branches and some Insects ridden fruit it can still be called a good tree with good fruit. The difference is what's characteristic? What's at root? What's internal? These are the things that are born out?

And God's gracious acceptance of us his willingness to implant this word in our lives doesn't end our Obligation to obey him in some ways it creates it on a whole new plane. On a whole new footing. God's law is no longer condemning us.

It's no longer a burden neither. We nor our fathers could bear now as James says, it's a law of Liberty. Now now we desire to draw near to God in these very ways the law becomes as it were the walking stick of sanctification.

By the law, I know what sin is by the law. I'm able to examine myself by the law. I can reflect on God's perfections. It's only by the law that sin is known. As I was talking to a brother a few weeks ago, yes, amen, it's only by the law that sin is known.

But it's only by the gospel that sin is hated. The law will help you identify sin, but it's powerless. It's powerless. The gospel has power to transform. The gospel will not only help you. See what the law is pointing to it will help you to hate it.

Because of this stronger affection Christ has saved me from this and now that I see it though. It doesn't condemn me. I hate it even more. I used to hate it because it condemned me. I wanted to water it down.

I wanted to plug up my ears. I didn't want to hear the law, but now because the gospel has said I'm embracing the beloved now I really hate my sin now. I say let your logs him in my life. I know that I'm accepting you, but I just hate that this is where I'm at.

The gospel grace a royal law that leads to Liberty not that the law can liberate. But the law becomes a law of Liberty for those who have the implanted word of the gospel in their life. You see very very important.

We hold all these things together. Now what comes with that implanted word is the Spirit of God and dwelling the lives of his people. So that we no longer Walk in the flesh because if you walk in the flesh You'll die, but rather we walk in step with the Spirit because if we walk according to the Spirit we will live.

Our faith has united us to Christ. That's a repentant faith and a faithful repentance and that faith is an instrument. It's a way of laying hold of the gospel of Christ. Christ alone then being the ground of our acceptance with God our Justification fruit begins to work itself out in our lives.

What does that look like in Matthew 7 gloss? It looks like doing the word. It looks like not having an empty profession. It looks like our lives aren't saying Lord Lord in one area and then denying the Lord in every other area.

If I could just put it bluntly if our faith in Christ has not transformed our lives. We have not put our faith in Christ. What's new what's different? That's why Jesus will say in verse 23. I'm surprised.

You seem to have the wrong guy. I never knew you. There's a new life a new direction a new affection. There's a new way of carrying ourselves of understanding ourselves of understanding God and understanding the world and others around us.

It's a newness of life. Romans 6 4. Everything has become new. To those who have this implanted word. Now the sole point I want to establish this morning is simply this. The single point I want to establish is the difference between merely saying and doing.

What's the difference between saying and doing. It's everything the Sermon on the Mount has brought us to see. Merely saying is the external. Merely saying is what the hypocrites do. Merely saying is the form of godliness without the change.

Merely saying is the is the tree without the fruit. Merely saying Is to not have one's heart toward God. The difference in other words between saying and doing is Keeping the heart. That's the difference between saying and doing.

Keeping the heart talk is cheap. These people Worship me with their lips their hearts are far from me. What's the difference between saying and doing. It's keeping the heart. One says I won't do it. But later on he goes in the field and he does it.

The other says I'll do it. But he ends up not doing it all which one did the will of his father. You see it's the doing that is borne out by the heart. So the difference between saying and doing is keeping the heart now.

It's a lot more that we'll unpack even next week and even as we head through the rest of chapter 7. But this is the point I want to establish and really my whole direction for the sermon came from reading Charles Spurgeon and this great This masterwork of a sermon called the sieve one of my favorite Sermons that I've come to to read of late from Spurgeon and he's spending a lot of time in his language talking about Externalists, that's his word externalists those who have a superficial Claim to Christianity those who look the part, but they deny the power.

Those who can say the right things answer the right catechism questions. But there's no inward root of grace bearing fruit in their lives and he's simply Driving this home. There's no heart for God. And so for me that's been very helpful to reflect on the difference between saying and doing comes down to the heart.

We could bear this out in all sorts of ways, I'm gonna let Spurgeon speak in a moment fact if I didn't think it was You know To leave my task unfulfilled. I would just read Spurgeon for the next 45 minutes.

Such a great sermon, but the Lord clearly is keenest in from the very beginning. It's why he writes his law on our heart. When mankind falls and he denies that which corresponds to his conscience God comes to Israel.

And he he carves it by his own finger into stone because that's that's the picture of their heart this granite. This unfeeling Unmoving object within your chest that's that's I have to carve my law into it and still nothing will come out of it.

There's nothing living and so the promise of the New Covenant is I'm gonna take that heart of stone and get rid of it. I'm gonna give you back a heart of flesh. In other words, I'm gonna put a new heart in you a new spirit in you a new ability a new desire in you.

That's the result of God pouring out his spirit on his people. It all comes down to the heart keeping the heart. The difference between saying and doing is keeping the heart. So Paul so Spurgeon is talking about externalists and by that as we'll see he's talking about those who don't have a heart for God.

They have the form but not the heart the principle but not the core. They can jump through the hoops, but they don't have the reality. It's a shadow. It's a mirage. These are externalists and they only care to be externalists.

We're not looking for the heart. There as the people clamoring after Saul he's he's tall. He's comely. This will be the guy look at us when God is saying I chose a man after my own heart one who seeks to know.

Me.

One whose desire is for me. So my desire is for him. That's a difference between an externalist and one who has a heart for God. Listen to Spurgeon. There can be no doubt our Lord referred in the first place to a certain class of superficial externalists who said Lord Lord but there.

Their religion ended such persons still exist all around us. They say good things, but they never feel what they say. All their expressions only go as low as their throat never from the depths of their heart.

You're gonna keep coming back it's gonna keep drawing us back to the heart. The confession is only as deep as the throat. It's not coming out of the heart. They are of stony ground have no depth in the earth hard barren rock.

Barely concealed by a sprinkling of soil. They're called externalists rightly because they have a notion that they've attended to the outside of godliness and if they've done that and the whole matter is settled as long as I'm keeping the outward as long as I'm showing up and Going through the motions.

I must be good with God. I Go to mass. I rub the rosaries. I pay the time. I Go through the motions. I must have the heart. I must be accepted. It must be okay. It's those who settle in for priestcraft.

Those who think if they're in the right institution that somehow that means something toward God. What credit is that to you? If they sing with their voice they conclude Spurgeon says they conclude they've praised God.

And when the hymn is all uttered to melodious notes worship has been presented to God even if the heart has never praised him at all. You could have the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Singing some 19th century Protestant hymn that is hideous to God.

You can have a ragtag group as I've often heard and perhaps this morning when we lacked the accompaniment from the piano. You have a ragtag group of people that can't hold a note to save their life. And they would be on the the viral reels that come out of American Idol contests as the things that are hilarious to watch.

But if their heart is singing to God that is well pleasing worship to him. When they bow the head and close their eyes in public prayer, they think they're doing something very right and proper. But they're only thinking of their farm their garden their children their home their accounts.

Externalists are satisfied with the shell of religion whether there's life within or not you ever go to the ocean. We love finding little Hermit crimes when we go to the Cape every September and most of the time you flip them over and there's there's no life within it's always disappointing.

Spurgeon's saying the the externalist is happy to have the shell doesn't matter if there's life in it or not. The shell is all that's seen. If they read a chapter from Scripture every day, they feel very complacent.

They think they're searchers of the word, although they've never gotten to the inner sense. They just allow their eyes to run over the verses in the lines if they never get an answer to their prayers.

They still feel satisfied because they've never really worked out their prayers. They're like children who give runaway knocks. This is this was the 19th century equivalent of ding-dong ditch. Like boys who give runaway knocks.

They have no expectation of an answer. They only intended to give God the husks. They never think he will look to see if there's a colonel. They want to give him the outward sign. Imagine that that is satisfying to him because it's satisfying to them.

God must see as men see. God must be pleased because I'm pleased. They're content to have made clean the outside of the cup but the washing of the inside the new heart truth in the inward part. The giving of the heart and love to Jesus that is beneath their attention.

And if we talk of it, they are weary of it. They think we're puritanical. They imagine we're just judging them. After a lofty standard we're too severe with them. But Oh beloved it is not so. Does not every thoughtful man see that without the heart all religion is vain?

Isn't that the constant chorus from the Old Testament prophets. Isn't that why Jesus tells the woman. The father is seeking those who will worship him in spirit and truth. Not an externality not in superficiality.

Not an hypocrisy not in the outward manner. Not as this this coffin with bones on the inside but in spirit and in truth with a pure heart with a true desire. Now listen to Spurgeon. What can there be in a mere external form?

Put it to yourselves. What can there be? What would you think? If your children were going around the home home doing the things that they were told to do. But just in a in a cold manner not with any trust not with any confidence or delight in your love or in as a father.

Or in your care as a mother, but just going about the house mechanically doing what you tell them to do and nothing more. You see the image he's painting. Hey, you need to go do this. Oh, can we get this together?

Yes. Yes father a Plain expression just going through the motions. You might think what's going on there at some point as a parent that's gonna eat away you. Hey, what's going on? Why are you so wooden?

Why are you so cold? You seem really distant. Listen, okay, you're you're. I asked you to do something you're doing it. That's great. But is there what's going on here? Are you angry with me? Why are you distant?

What's going on here? That's what Spurgeon is keying in he would say you would feel the want of your children's love and you would Resolve I must have their hearts. I Must have their hearts. Now if that's true of imperfect parents.

How much more so of a perfect father in heaven? Who created us for himself if we're just going through the motions and there's no heart if we as it were spiritually speaking have Wooden faces and we're going through the motions and there's no desire to please him.

It's not done out of love for him. It's not done out of service for his sake out of that affection and warmth. It's not because we're responding to his care to his love for us. It's just wooden. It's mechanical.

It's empty. It's distant. What would that mean for him? He yearns with a holy jealousy, but that jealousy is not other than his love. It's a jealous love a parent's heart yearns with jealousy. They see their child jilted turning away, it's one of the most painful experiences as a parent and you feel perhaps helpless.

Well, how much more is God Yearning with a holy jealousy. Do you do you think I drink the blood of bulls and goats? Do you think I created this whole system for my needs? Do I need anything the sheep of a thousand hills belong to.

I made everything around you including you. I don't need anything if I did I wouldn't come to you for it. So you think you're appeasing me you think you're this is pleasing to God, even though I have no heart in it.

The whole point is the heart. The whole point is that you would know me. The whole point is that I would reveal myself to you. The whole point is that you would come to embrace me. Don't don't you see the dynamics of the prodigal son?

Just going through the motions having no regard for his father and even when he's turned around because of the consequences of sin. He's coming back wooden Lee mechanically. What's the heart of the father like is it wooden?

Is it mechanical? Is it cold? Is it distant? It's the same heart that causes Jesus to outstretch his hands as he overlooks Jerusalem and says I would have gathered you. You weren't willing. I was willing.

I've been willing.

This is the one who says don't say Lord Lord and Think that has accomplished anything. Don't think that this talk or the shell or this externalism has somehow commended you and rendered you Acceptable.

Do you even know me in that state? He's saying I don't know you. Maybe you coming in in some slavish fear. But perfect love casts out that fear. We're not saved to to dwell as as servants who have no regard and no desire for our master.

We're adopted in the beloved to be sons and daughters of God. Well later on in Matthew's gospel He keeps pressing this matter of what's inside what's from the heart? This is the great sermon and everything in a way flows out of this.

This is Jesus preaching the gospel to his disciples. And he's pressing the matter of the inside as we're saying now the matter of the heart. God our Father. Desiring us to know him and to love him because he made us for himself and he loves us so much.

He didn't withhold his own son. Well, Jesus has said at the very beginning that our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees. It would never enter the kingdom of heaven. And now we see that that righteousness Corresponds to that which is not just outward but inward.

Not just the appearance of fruit but actual fruit the fruit of knowing him and loving him. Not the the cheap talk of Lord Lord, but the profession of one's life. Lord Lord I do things now. I would have never done if I didn't know the Lord.

I refuse to do things now that I would have loved to do if I didn't know the Lord. That's what it means to have a right profession. It's actually made a difference. That's a tree bearing fruit. Well later on in Matthew's gospel.

When he called the multitude to himself, he said to them hear and understand. It's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out that defiles a man. Again you see it keeps going into this Internal inwardly.

Do you understand these things here and understand. That's what he says here and understand. Don't let your eyes go too quickly here. Listen understand. Think of yourself in light of this. Well, his disciples come to him and they say.

Don't you realize the Pharisees were offended when you said that their their standard of righteousness was Externalized. That's what Jesus is condemning and it seems that Jesus is playing fast and loose.

He's saying it's not it's not what you eat. It's not what you touch or taste or handle that will defile you. It's what comes out of you that defiles you. That's very offensive to the Pharisee. Our righteousness is bound up in what we eat what we avoid.

You think of Peter. You're getting the vision in Acts 10. No Lord Peter. I called it clean. Don't call it common. I've made it clean. There's that sense if it's bound up. But our prohibitions are our righteousness.

If we can avoid all those things without us we maintain the righteousness we have within. Jesus is saying dead wrong. The unrighteousness is within you it doesn't correspond that which is outside of you it comes from within.

It's what's within that defiles a man not that which is without. Parallel to this in Mark 7. He calls the multitude to himself and he says hear me everyone.

Understand.

You can't be more urgent than that. Are you listening? Are you paying attention? Have you actually grasped this not with a nod not with a yawning? Yes. Amen. I understand it but in a way that you're actually bearing it down on your soul.

Hear me everyone. If anyone has ears to hear let him hear this. What comes out of a man defiles a man? Because within out of the heart. That's the key. That's the difference between saying and doing.

Out of the heart.

Proceed evil thoughts adulteries fornications murders thefts covetousness.

Wickedness deceit.

Lewdness and evil eye blasphemy pride. Foolishness all these evil things Come from within and defile a man. We're talking about that which is within. We're talking about the heart. Jesus is teaching us that the only reason people are defiled is because of their hearts.

It's what's in the heart that heart of stone that needs to be made a heart of flesh. If we've used sin as something external to us. Something that we can handle by teaching tasting not touching not. We're missing the entire point.

Sin is not something that we do when we're born under Adam's curse. Sinners is what we are. It's not something Extrinsic to us. It's something intrinsic to us. That's what it means to be born in Adam.

Jesus was pointing out to the Scribes and the Pharisees what they should have already known. I desire mercy not sacrifice. We all alike are unclean. Our righteousness is like filthy rags. We're fading like a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.

What we saying at the very beginning of the service from Psalm 51. What's David's cry. Create in me a.

Pure heart.

That's the greatest need everything else flows out of that. That's the difference between knowing God and hating God between saying Lord Lord and actually doing the will of the Father. Created me a pure heart.

Oh God. We are as we've often said we are we are quick to distance ourselves from the Scribes and the Pharisees. Whoever we are. We are not them. Of course, we are them. Of course, we are them. You're just like me.

You have a little Pharisee that lives right on top of your heart when Jesus is warning us To beware of the Scribes and Pharisees. He's warning us to beware of the tendencies of being a scribe in a Pharisee.

So if this doesn't unsettle us if this doesn't splash water in our faces, we probably haven't understood it rightly. We probably assumed whoever Ross is talking to he's not talking to me. I'm talking to myself and all of you.

We all have this little Pharisee on our heart. Have we understood the heart is the difference between mere saying versus doing. As Jesus makes clear the human heart is the source of Sin it's a lot more in the biblical metaphor than just a muscle that circulates blood through our bodies.

The heart is the core the center in ways that we still use enigmatically. It's the seat of the mind. You know if you think of the if you go to the ancient Egyptian Exhibit at Fitchburg Art Museum, for example, they have a wonderful Egypt room and they have various infographics talking about the process of mummification and Of course the heart was a very significant organ that was true in the ancient Near East in general the scriptures reflect on that.

What they didn't put a lot of emphasis on was this stuffing in our heads. So as they're creating vessels to make sarcophagi out of these various precious organs, it's like let's get rid of this brain stuff.