A Heart Cleansed By
Faith
Acts 15:9
Two of the most
tragic words in many of the lives of those who are sitting beside you
this morning and probably of your own life, two of the most tragic
words are these, "I can't. I can't. I can't stop being angry. I
can't stop taking tranquilizers. I can't stop losing my temper. I
can't stop these lustful, unclean thoughts. I can't stop being
critical. I can't, I want to but I can't", and then many of us
who have been in that position begin to understand a little about God
and what has been up to then just a personal problem of "I can't
do what I know I should do", assumes utterly different
proportions because we begin to realize that if you know what to do
and you don't do it, that's sin.
That's what James
4:27 says, "Whosoever knows what is right to do and fails to do
it, for him it is sin", and then the Holy Spirit begins to bear
in upon us and convict us and show us, "Look, this isn't just a
little personal difficulty you're having, this is sin against your
maker. This is rebellion against your God. This is the reason why you
will spend eternity in lonely dark hell of selfishness."
And we begin to
realize that the wages of sin is death and it's then that we start to
try other remedies and we start trying to go to church or we start
reading our Bible or we start trying to be better people and we try
to substitute all kinds of other cures besides the one that God said
is the only cure, "The wages of sin is death", and we try
to substitute other wages. "No, we'll do our best", or,
"We'll try harder", or, "We'll try the power of
positive thinking", or, "We'll try to be better people",
or, "We'll attend church", or, "We'll give money to
missions", and somehow none of those cures take away the guilt
that is lying on our hearts.
And then God's
Spirit lights up different words of scripture to us and we see why
we're getting no relief. We see that, "By the works of the law
shall no man be justified." Doesn't matter how hard you try,
doesn't matter how much you work at it, "By the works of the law
shall no man be justified", -- or that verse you remember in
the Old Testament, "All your righteousness," all the things
you think as so good about you, you try to tot up the good things and
weigh them against the bad things, "all your righteousness is as
filthy rags", and its then that most of us sink into despair and
helplessness and we see this thing is too big for me. There is no way
in which I can make things right with God. There's no way in which I
can make Him accept me. He has every right to destroy me eternally.
There is no way in which I can help myself. And it's in that position
of helpless despair that the Holy Spirit then brings home the truths
of the Gospel to us.
"God commended
His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us" and, "To Him that worketh not but believeth in Him
that justifieth the ungodly, His faith is counted as righteousness",
and we sink in relaxation and peace at last into the arms of Jesus
and we see that God has made it right, that Jesus has died for us,
and that God accepts us as His own children and we sink in faith into
Jesus.
Most of us at that
point in the evangelical atmosphere in which we now live, most of us
at that point enter into the Gospel that was preached by a Jewish
preacher called John the Baptist and you remember how it's described.
"John the Baptist came preaching a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins" and that's the Old Covenant. That's before
Jesus ever died. That's the Old Covenant, but most of us in that
situation and in this evangelical atmosphere enter into -- believe it
or not -- the Old Covenant. That's right love ones.
You know that is
true. You know that the primary truth that you grabbed hold of when
you became a Christian was "repentance for the forgiveness of my
sins" and that's the Old Covenant. If you say to me, "Now
Pastor, that's what's preached throughout the churches in America.
Now that isn't the Old Covenant. Why do you say it's the Old
Covenant", I'll tell you why, because you still, six months or
two years after you're born again, you still cry the original cry of
frustration that was expressed not by a Christian but by a Jew trying
to live under the law and up to the law, Paul himself. You still cry
out his cry in Romans 7:15, "I don't understand my own actions
because I do not do what I want but I do the very thing I hate",
and for many of us who are born of God, that's still the cry of
frustration, the cry of frustration that every Jew cried under the
Old Covenant.
And maybe you say,
"That's insane". It's insane. That's right what you say but
it's insane. That's where I started. That's where I started, that's
why I first felt guilt because I couldn't do what I knew I should do.
That's when I first sought Jesus as my Savior because I was unable to
deal with this power of evil within me. Do you mean I am back where I
started?"
Well, actually you
know you're not. You know you're not back where you started. You know
that you have experienced God's gracious acceptance of you because of
Jesus. You know that you have sensed a relief from guilt and you know
that you've experienced forgiveness of sins. Moreover, even though
you often resist God's Spirit in your life yet you know too that at
times you're able to obey His Spirit and you know that there is at
times within you a sense of Jesus' Spirit urging you to obey God and
to love Him and to want to serve Him.
So you know you're
not in the position you used to be in. You know you're aware of God
in a way that you weren't before you first gave your life to Jesus or
received His Spirit and yet loved ones you know fine well that there
is also coming up from deep deep down inside you, a fountain of filth
and dirt and sarcasm and anger and bad temper that you are not able
to control.
It's as if your
spirit is alive to God and you're regenerate and your spirit is born
again. It's as if even your conscience is alive to God and knows what
it ought to do. It's as if even your will wants to do it and your
conscience tries to constrain your will to do what you know you
should but there's this stream of evil that comes up from deep deep
down inside you, a stream that opposes both your conscience and your
will and feeds your will such a powerful stream of filth that the
will finds itself unable at times to hold it in and even when it does
hold it in, it holds it in by dint of powerful repression and great
strain in your own life but often it's not able to hold it in and
against your conscience, the will has to let that stream forth and
you lose your temper or you're sarcastic with somebody or you tell a
lie to somebody or you're absolutely dishonest to somebody or you
give a wrong impression to somebody else or you get proud of
something you've done and you know that there's something inside you
that is not Jesus.
Loved ones the truth
is that stuff comes from your heart and your heart is still as
unclean as it was when you were first born of God, that's what's
wrong. Your spirit is alive to God, even your mind and your will and
your conscience, but your heart, the deepest part of you, the place
where you really live, your own deepest self, is still as unclean as
it was when you first heard of Jesus, and that's the problem. The
heart needs to be cleansed.
Now how do you get
your heart cleansed? Same way, you got your sins forgiven, same way.
Same way, you got your sins forgiven, by faith. That's it. And that's
the way it happened in the New Testament. Cornelius, you remember,
asked one of the apostles to come and preach at his house. The people
in that house had never heard the Gospel before and the apostle came
and preached it and as they were listening, the Holy Spirit came upon
them and the apostle, looking back to that day said, "God gave
the Holy Spirit to them as He did to us and made no distinction
between them and us but cleansed their hearts by faith", that's
the way it happened in the New Testament.
People would hear of
Jesus and they would believe and they would give themselves all or
nothing to Him and the Holy Spirit would cleanse their hearts by
faith and they'd walk in an ever increasing victory in their own life
until they met Jesus face-to-face. Now if you say, "Well, why
did it not happen that way with me when I became a Christian? That
didn't happen with me. I am in a situation that you're talking about.
I do the very thing I hate and I can't do the things that I want. I
don't understand my own actions anymore. Why did that not happen with
me?"
Well, first because
on the whole, the Gospel that you and I listen to, here in our
society, is an Old Testament Gospel. It's not a New Testament Gospel.
On the whole, that's the situation loved ones. People preach at us
the same things the Jews listened to, the forgiveness of sins and
that's on the whole, the Gospel that we hear so you can't enter into
anything more than you believe and so that's one reason. We were told
that Jesus died for us so that God could forgive us our sins and
could take away our guilt but the power of sin we had to deal with
ourselves by works of law. And that's one reason why many of us are
in the situation we're in today.
Another reason is
that many of us do not see how exceedingly sinful and powerful sin is
until the Spirit of Jesus begins to influence part of our lives,
that's true. Many of us don't really see how absolutely intractable
the power of sin is until we can set it against something pure and
beautiful like the Spirit of Jesus. But the third reason is the most
important, the reason you did not enter into a clean heart by faith
and the reason you haven't entered into a clean heart by faith since,
is because you don't want a clean heart, that's right.
I mean you may say,
"Don't want a clean heart? That's what I want! That's what I
want! I want to be rid of this stream of filth that comes from inside
me. I want to be able to look a friend in the eyes and think all the
way through loving thoughts about them, not have those kind of
critical thoughts inside me that I don't let them see. I want to be
able to look my wife or my husband or my children in the eyes and
them to see outwardly all that is inside me. I want to be real. I
want to be rid of this. I want to be rid of this unclean heart, all
this sarcasm that spews up from inside me, this envy and jealousy
that makes me feel a creep, I want to be rid of it. I want the stream
of Jesus' pure and gentle sentiments coming up from inside my heart.
That's what I want more than anything in the world."
Well loved ones, you
want it, that's true. You want it in the sense that you desire it.
For all kinds of motives you desire it but you're not willing to face
the consequences and implications of having a clean heart, that's it.
That's true. That's what it was with me and that's what it is with
all of us who haven't a clean heart. God gives us readily, is more
anxious to give it to us than we are to receive it, but we cannot
receive it because we're not willing to face the implications and
consequences of having a clean heart like Jesus.
Look at it like
this: you remember last Sunday, I said to you, we at times notice
somebody of whom we say, "He has a very generous heart",
you remember that and if you ever say to that person, he has a very
generous heart, you know you see that he hasn't the attitude of
possessiveness that you have about your possessions and your
property. He just seems to be free and gives it away whenever anybody
needs it and you see he is different and you maybe say to him
sometime, "Boy, you have a generous heart", and you know
that the person will look and say, "No, no I haven't", and
you know why he says that. He is virtually unconscious of his
generosity and he is unconscious of it because he either has an
endless supply of possessions and property and so he doesn't miss
what he gives away or he has an absolute confidence that he'll always
have what he needs.
In other words, his
heart has a different attitude to his resources for life than your
heart has. Your heart kind of gets them and feels that it has to hold
on to them to ensure that you have them tomorrow or the next year. He
has just a different attitude to the resources for his life than you
have. That's why your heart is unclean. It has a different attitude
about the resources for life that you need.
You still look to
money and to a good house and to nice clothes for feeling safe and
secure. Your heart really looks to those things. Your heart still
looks to people's opinions of you for your sense of self-worth or
your sense of self-esteem or value. You still look to favorable
circumstances, nice looking friends, fast boats, fast cars for
happiness. Now Jesus' heart doesn't look to any of those things, He
looks to God. That's why your heart's unclean.
That's why you're
kind of only half converted. You want to obey God but you want to
depend on the world and not on God. You want to depend on the world
of people and things and circumstances for all that you need, not God
-- and so your heart sends up pride when somebody cuts you down, you
see it. Somebody cuts you down in front of other people, your heart
sense up pride. Why? Because your heart looks to those people's
opinions for your self-image. That's why your heart sense up anxiety
and worry when you lose your job because your heart, your own inner
being, your own inner self, the real you doesn't look to God for its
security, it actually looks to its job and to the company and to the
economy of the nation.
So you're kind of
half converted. Your nature is still that of a child of Satan
actually, because your heart looks to those things and those things
draw your whole being out so your mind is running that way. I mean
you hit the checkbook, the bank balance is wrong, the mind connects
right up with a heart that depends utterly on the bankbook and
depends utterly on your ability to have money and sends up anxiety.
So your heart now
has rearranged your whole nature, really not rearranged it, it always
had control of it and your nature, your mind and emotions in the way
they work in your body and your will, it still the nature of a child
of wrath. It's still actually an unchanged nature, that's the
incredible thing, part of why God says He does not deal with us
according to our sins or reward us according to our iniquities
because if He did, none of us would ever find Him.
You may sit there
and say, "Oh brother look, that isn't true. I mean I do have the
nature of Christ don't I?" Stop that silliness loved ones. You
can't have two natures. Nature is the deepest part of what you are,
it's what you really are, that's what we mean by your nature. It's
what you really are. You can't really be deep down two things. You
can really only be one thing and at times another and the truth is,
you're basically a child of wrath that depends on the world of people
and things and circumstances and from time to time, because of the
gracious influence of Jesus' Spirit upon you, you want what He wants.
You're really like
the disciples. You remember Jesus said to them, "The Holy Spirit
is with you", that's the situation with us. The Holy Spirit is
with you and then Jesus said you remember, "He will be in you",
and we're not at that place. We're not at the place where the Holy
Spirit is a permanent, abiding residence within us. He is just a
visitor.
He is the one who
said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my
voice and open the door, I will come in to Him", and we've
reached that stage. He has come in. He is our guest. We sit Him down.
We say, "Oh, we'll obey You now. Now we don't obey You. Now
leave the room please. We want to do this. Oh come in again now, we
want to obey You. Oh no, leave the room. I want to do this."
He is our guest but
we haven't reached the second stage. "I will sup with Him and He
with me." I will become the host and He will sup with me. The
Holy Spirit is not the host. The abiding ruler and master of our
hearts and lives, He is a guest. Now if you say, "How do I
change? How do I get changed? What do I do?" Enter into the New
Covenant. Enter fully into the New Covenant, that's it.
What's the New
Covenant? Well, you remember, John the Baptist pointed that out, he
said, "I am preaching a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of your sins but the one who comes after me will baptize
you with the Holy Spirit", that's it. That's the New Covenant.
The New Covenant is not the forgiveness of sins. The New Covenant is
the baptism with the Holy Spirit that changes your nature, that does
what the law was not able to do for the Jews over thousands of years.
The Holy Spirit changes your nature.
If you say to me,
"Oh, what do you mean baptized in the Holy Spirit?" The
Greek word has the meaning of 'immersed' in it and don't sit you
know, and say, "Oh well, you mean water immersion", it
doesn't matter about water immersion or not but it's immersion. It
means being immersed in the Holy Spirit, being washed inside and
outside by the Holy Spirit. Being saturated by the Holy Spirit, being
permanently surrounded by the Holy Spirit and supported by the Holy
Spirit like water as if you were swimming in the Holy Spirit, utterly
dependent on the Holy Spirit, that's what it means to be baptized
with the Holy Spirit. Looking to Him alone for all your real needs.
Your heart, utterly dependent on Him and you know in your heart it's
dependent on Him, that's what entering into the New Covenant is
about.
If you say, "Well,
what is it? How do you get baptized with the Holy Spirit?" Well,
Paul explained it to those who would come for baptism at the side of
the river in the first century. He would gather them around and he
would say, "Now, do you not know that all of us who were
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were
buried therefore with Him by baptism into death so that as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in
newness of life".
In other words,
being baptized into Jesus is seeing that what happened to Jesus on
Calvary, happened to us. That Jesus did not die just for the
forgiveness of our sins, He did not just died to bear the punishment
for our sins. In fact, you have all died with Christ and our old self
was crucified with Christ and you all died to the elemental spirits
of the universe that have enslaved you for so long, those chains and
fetters of greed and anger and desire for position and desire for
approval, those all were broken and shattered on Calvary in your life
in Jesus because you were in Christ when He died. Your nature was
changed in Jesus on Calvary, that's what the Gospel is.
It's in that sense
that Jesus died for us -- not that God took it out on His Son like
some madman who couldn't discern who was the real evil person, not
that God took it out on His Son -- but He put us in His Son and His
Son bore the pain that would otherwise have destroyed us utterly and
yet at the same time God with His wrath burned out that old nature of
yours and when He raised Jesus from the dead, He raised you up a new
creation.
Now how do you enter
into that? Believe it, believe it! That's it. Believe that, believe
that; reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin -- that is to
getting anything from the world of people and things and
circumstances, to getting anything good or bad from them. Die to
that, reckon yourself dead indeed unto sin, that's what sin is. It's
not just crime, it's not just immorality, it's the whole power of
life that operates independent of God.
It's the world of
things and people and events, die to that, reject that and look to
God as you did when you were in Jesus and say "into thy hands I
commit my spirit. I receive what You wish to give me in this life and
what You don't wish to give me, I don't want. I depend on You
utterly, Father, and now I turn away from this world of people and
things and circumstances for anything that I need and I look to You."
Then loved ones, God
will fill you with His Holy Spirit and cleanse your heart by faith
and you simply put off the old nature because it has already been
crucified. So you're actually doing something that has already been
done in the spiritual realm, you simply stop doing and stop thinking
and stop feeling the things that have burdened you for years.
If you say to me,
"Brother, if I have difficulty putting off the old nature what
do I do?" Loved ones, the problem is always impartial or a
partial surrender, a controlled surrender, an incomplete
consecration, an incomplete commitment --that's always the problem.
Just go to the Holy Spirit and ask Him to reveal to you what you're
still depending on the world of people and things and circumstances
for instead of God, He will show you that.
Yours may be the
situation like the dear souls in Los Angeles 50 years ago. You may
have to seek God in this prayer room, you may have to seek Him for
hours, you may have to weep before Him -- but the Holy Spirit will
show you because that's the only reason He's here on earth, to reveal
to you the things that you have in Jesus and the most precious thing
that you have in Jesus is a clean heart that the Holy Spirit is able
to give you. And so when you come to the very bottom of your heart at
last, there'll be a witness of the Holy Spirit that you're looking
only to Him for all that you need and you'll have that witness in
yourself and your faith will rise up and your heart will be cleansed
by faith and you'll be a different person inside, out as well, but
inside -- and so that you understand fully, there will no longer be
evil rising up from inside, that's right.
This may seem
miraculous to you and it is, it may seem incredible to you but loved
ones, there will be no evil rising up from inside. You remember I
said once before that's why I say, after you've got a clean heart,
it's just your own fault if you sin. It means you're choosing to;
you're not sinning because you have to, you're just choosing to. The
clean heart produces the very sentiments of Jesus, the very fragrance
of His own heart within you and it's easy to be a Christian because
you are one inside and you feel like one.
I would say to you
that you should get down to dealing with God and I would do it
whatever way you think it is best for you. The prayer room is open
right through the week, during the business hours, there are always
some of us here. As revival comes, I believe that it will be open all
the time, night and day, but it is open through the business hours,
Monday thru Friday and it's open all day today, then loved ones, this
building, you can take yourself anywhere in any of the rooms and just
get alone with God and get down to business with Him and find out why
He is not able to baptize you with the Holy Spirit this very minute
and He will deal with you and He will show you.
Now take time, take
time to be holy, you know it takes time because you have been
listening to everybody else for years and so it takes a while to get
on to the same wavelength as God's Spirit. But if I were you I'd do
that. Or go home and do it, but sooner or later, loved ones, sooner
or later you'll have to settle this. Sooner or later you have to
settle it.
I mean there'll
never be a convenient time. There'll never be a time that's better
than now, there won't often be time that it's as clearly presented to
you as now. So you'll have to do it sooner or later or live a life of
constant defeat that can easily end up, if you get tired of the
confessing and repenting over the years, can easily end up in hell
despite what God has already done in your life.
So loved ones, it'll
never be easy, you know. It'll never be easy to take time from going
out this afternoon or going out tomorrow. It'll never be easy. It'll
take you to give yourself to God and to at least give Him time. Yes,
there will be a day you know, very real, there will be a day when
each one of us will have to face it. We'll have to face the unclean
heart but on that day, the judgment day, everybody in the world will
see it and we will see that then we cannot change it.
So I would encourage
you and encourage your dear hearts to get down to business with God,
loved ones, and to come through to the New Covenant and into real
Christianity you know, and let's leave this Jewish Covenant, this Old
Covenant behind and let's go on to what God has given us in Jesus.
