We're continuing this Lord's Day morning in a series on the heart. We have previously looked at the subject of a fainting heart and a broken heart. This morning we want to consider a renewed heart, and we take for our scripture reading in the Old Testament, Psalm 51, verses 1 to 12. The 51st Psalm, beginning at verse 1, hear God's word. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness. According to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight, that thou mayest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou wilt make me to know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Our New Testament reading is not that which is printed in your bulletin. Please turn with me to Ephesians, the second chapter. Ephesians 2, where I'd like to read verses 5 to 10. Paul says, even when we were dead through our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ by grace. Have you been saved and raise this up with him and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Then in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace have you been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works that no man should glory. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God aforeprepared that we should walk in them. And thus far the reading of God's word. The last couple of Sundays we have looked at problems that we can have with our hearts. Our hearts can be overwhelmed with fear, with grief, with experiences that just seem to lay us low and leave us helpless. Our hearts can be broken and we feel completely inadequate, shattered before God. You know, the time comes, I suppose, when we just have to admit for all of that that our hearts are just totally inadequate. There's something wrong with us inside. I remember very vividly, 11 years ago in my life, having the frustration of not being able to walk up a flight of steps without having to sit down and rest for 10 to 15 minutes to catch my breath. And because my heart, my physical heart was degenerating because of what is technically called aortic insufficiency, my aorta valve was not closing properly and therefore blood was constantly regurgitating back into my heart only to be pumped out again and the heart muscle was always overworking, always overworking. And the degeneration of that muscle had taken place over a period of time that I suppose it didn't shock me as much as it should that I was hurting so badly. And so I was at the University of Southern California one day. I remember going up about 15 steps and having to take 10 minutes to catch my breath to go on to the office where I was turning in some papers or doing something. The heart had simply gotten to the place where it wasn't doing its job. I went to the cardiologist or the internist that was tending to my condition and he said this doesn't sound good at all. A certain number of tests were run and finally the conclusion was this heart is not going to make it. You need a new one. I was sleeping all the time. I couldn't get through an afternoon without a nap. I was not as clear in my thinking as I might want to be because I was fatigued. Physically, I just could not put out. I mean, the point comes where the heart, because it's such a vital organ, if it's not working properly, nothing is working properly in your life. And so the doctor told me that some radical measures were going to be called for. Now, I might have liked to believe that radical measures would include maybe a stay in the hospital, kind of get my strength back up, or maybe a more heavy dosage of some kind of medication. The doctor said, no, the only thing that is going to take care of this problem now is open heart surgery. That's not a pleasant thought, but what I was going through wasn't pleasant either. The physical consequences of needing a new heart were very evident to me. I had been, by the grace of God, blessed that that hadn't come in such a dramatic or traumatic way that I faced the absolute collapse of my heart. And so I had an opportunity to have a renewed heart, a new one taken care of. I mean, the aorta valve replaced and therefore my heart renewed. And after I had that surgery, The pain was intense. I mean, for six weeks to actually four months before the sternum bone actually felt like I could lay down and not have pain. But after that, after the recovery from being in the hospital, all of a sudden the difference in my life was so clear. I was able to walk. I was able to exert myself, I could go out and play a little bit of volleyball or swim, and it didn't bother me. All of a sudden I could make it through an afternoon without being totally exhausted. A new heart had made all the difference in the world. Well, sometimes we reach the place in life, or that's what the doctor tells us. Radical surgery is called for. You need a new heart. Man's far greater need. is for a radical surgery of the heart of spiritual sort. Though we can draw parallels that I think we'll see in today's sermon between the debilitation of having a heart that's inadequate before God and the real joy that comes from having a heart that God makes over again. The doctrine that we're gonna be looking at technically today is the doctrine of regeneration. It's not a term you hear often. Maybe if you work in an auto shop, you hear the term referred to in terms of batteries that have to be regenerated and so forth. But theologians use the term regeneration to refer to the imparting of new life. new spiritual life by God to a sinner. And in the Bible, we find a number of different pictures or metaphors, figures of speech used for this act of God, where he renews our lives, where he gives us new life from above. This gracious saving act of God is seen in the Bible as a kind of creation, as a kind of birth. as a kind of resurrection and finally as a kind of heart surgery, a giving of a new heart. And I'd like to look just real briefly at how the Bible lays out these pictures of new life as God gives us new life by his gracious spirit. In the first place, the Bible speaks of the new life we receive from God as re-creation. 2 Corinthians 5.17 is probably as good an example of that in the Bible as you'll find. 2 Corinthians 5 at the 17th verse. Please turn in your Bibles there and follow with me. Paul says, wherefore, if any man is in Christ, there is a new creation. The old things are passed away. Behold, they are become new. Paul talks about the total renewing of life. When we are in Christ, when we are joined to Christ, when our lives are now hidden with the Savior and we are seen in God's sight as belonging to him, he says, if any man is in Christ, there is a new creation. Many of your translations will say he is a new creature. They're trying to smooth out what is an awkwardness in Greek, an awkwardness that needs to be taken account of because what Paul was doing here is he's marveling. He thinks of man being made new in Christ, and he says, behold, new creation. Technically, the Greek just says, new creation. God has done something over again, which parallels the marvel of his work at the origination of this universe. God once made the heavens and earth. We have a space probe that has gone out and brought back wonderful pictures of Saturn. Jupiter and so forth, we marvel at the size of the universe and the wonder of it all and how beyond us, we can't comprehend all the details of this universe. God made the universe in his own wisdom. Paul now says, but far more marvelous than that, is that God remakes people's hearts. God gives new spiritual life. Behold, a new creation where everything is passed away. Regeneration can be called a second Genesis then, where God once started the universe, he now starts it spiritually again. Genesis all over again in the soul. A second biblical picture of regeneration is that of rebirth. Perhaps the best known passage in the whole Bible on this subject, John the third chapter, where Nicodemus, a teacher of the Jews, a theologian of his day of some note, comes to Jesus secretly by night to have an interview with him. And in John the third chapter, I trust you all remember these words, Jesus says, beginning at verse three, Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except one be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except one be born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto thee, you must be born again. The wind blows where it will, and you hear the voice thereof, but do not know from whence it comes and whither it goes. So is everyone that is born of the spirit. Jesus tells Nicodemus, you have to be born all over again, Nicodemus. Here he's not thinking of a second Genesis, a new creation figure of speech, he's thinking of the birth process. Nicodemus, being so dull, thinks of Jesus somehow imagining a man going back into his mother's womb and being born again. Jesus says, of course not. I'm talking about being born from above, being born of the Holy Spirit of God and being cleansed by him. You must be born again. And if you are not born again, Jesus says, if you don't undergo that experience, you cannot see the kingdom of God and you cannot enter the kingdom of God. When all is said and done, one cannot apply for entrance into the kingdom, one cannot earn his way into the kingdom, one must be born into the kingdom by God's mighty power. I want to go on and talk about regeneration, but a couple of things call for notice before we leave this text, I think. Please note that in this text where Jesus says you must be born again, that that is not the good news. In fact, the call you must be born again is not good news at all, is it? Stop and think about that. For the preacher to stand up, for Jesus the Son of God to say you must be born again to a sinner who can do nothing to bring that about is not good news. because sinners are helpless to bring about their own regeneration. You couldn't call forth your first birth and nor can you call forth your second birth. You are passive in this process. And so when Jesus is telling Nicodemus, you must be born again, that's not a command. Jesus is not ordering Nicodemus to be born again. He's pointing out a theological truth. He's not prescribing something. He's describing something. He's describing what is necessary. But what is necessary cannot be supplied by Nicodemus, cannot be supplied by the sinner, can only be supplied by the Holy Spirit, like the wind blowing wherever he chooses. Notice as well that you must be born again is not equivalent to the gospel call to believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior. We are to call upon people to believe in Christ. We do not call upon people to be born again. And there's a reason for that. Regeneration is not something we can do. It makes no sense to call upon people to regenerate themselves. Regeneration is something God must give. And we pray for that. And sinners must be aware that they will not see the kingdom of God and will not enter apart from God's work in their lives. So we don't call upon people to be born again. We call upon them to see the kingdom, to believe, to follow Christ in faith. This text, more than any other, I think, points out how much regeneration is a passive thing for us. It's a matter of birth, spiritual rebirth. A third image for regeneration that we find in the Bible is resurrection from the dead. We saw that in our New Testament text this morning, Ephesians 2, and look especially at verses 5 and 6 again with me. Ephesians 2, 5 and 6, even when we were dead through our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ, by grace have you been saved, and raised us up with him and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Paul says, you were dead spiritually. You were not just languishing, you were not just sick, you were not just weak, you were dead. And by God's grace, you were made to live again. You were raised up with Christ. What took place historically in the life of God's Son has taken place spiritually now within you. There has been a resurrection. In fact, Paul goes on to say, not only were we raised with Christ, but were seated with Christ in his exalted position. Having been ascended on high, we have been raised from the dead and we are ascended now in Christ. You were dead spiritually and God gave you life again. You can note the helplessness of the sinner here. The sinner can't respond to the gospel call. The sinner is dead. I remember so vividly how Dr. Van Til, when I was in seminary, would tell a story about a man who develops a life-giving serum that can bring dead bodies back to life. And this man going out, as Dr. Van Teel loved to tell these stories, to the graveyard one Friday night, and setting up his truck with all the supplies necessary, and calling out to the corpses to get up and come to the truck, and if they would just exercise their free will, that then they could live again. Because this man had developed a sermon that would bring people back from the dead. Well, of course, the story is absurd. The story is intended to point to the absurdity of calling to spiritually dead people to do something for themselves. Dead people don't make themselves rise from the dead, nor can they take the first step down the aisle to receive Jesus as their Savior. Who does that work? Does the sinner do the work of regeneration? Does the sinner bring himself back from the dead? Of course not. God raises the dead. God raises the dead spiritually as well as historically as he made Jesus rise from the dead. And so recreation, the wonder of a new life, a new genesis, the beginning all over again. Rebirth. The Spirit of God moves where it will so that we have life that we wouldn't have had otherwise, and it's not something we chose. We had to be born again, born from above. Or we had to be raised from the dead spiritually. You can look at it that way. But there's one more image of regeneration, and as you know from my series, this is the one I'm going to focus on this morning. There's another image of regeneration in the Bible that's very precious, and that's the image of giving a new heart. of radical heart surgery, replacing a dead heart with a living one, a stone heart with a fleshly one. We find this in Ezekiel, the 36th chapter. Turn with me in the Old Testament to Ezekiel 36, where I'll read verses 25 to 27. Ezekiel 36 at verse 25. God says, I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean. From all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep mine ordinances and do them. God promises a day of revival, a day of regeneration, a day of renewal, which he says will be likened to tearing stony hearts out of our chest and putting fleshly hearts in their place. Stop and think about that, just in terms of the metaphor itself. If you had a heart that was made out of stone, what good would it do you? The stony heart is not just an attitude. We talk about hard-heartedness or being harsh or unbending. The stony heart is not just that you have a bad... attitude. The stony heart can't pump blood. The stony heart can't do anything. It's not a muscle that responds, that pumps, that keeps people alive. It's dead. It's cold. It's worthless. And God says, I'm going to take that heart out and I'm going to put a heart of flesh in you. I'm going to put a real heart muscle in there that is warm and alive and vibrant and will pump blood and keep you from dying. This metaphor of regeneration is placed side by side with the sprinkling of clean water and the cleansing of our lives. I'm going to take care of your sin problem. I'm going to wash your sin away, and I'm going to give you a heart that can respond to me. In the same way that people in their graves cannot get up and come respond to the gospel, The heart made of stone cannot hear God, cannot see the kingdom as Jesus said, cannot do anything for itself. It cannot respond. And you know, you could tell all the most wonderful things of God's grace to a stony heart and stony heart will do nothing. I'll bet you either remember a time in your own life when you were like this, or you know people that have responded to you when you've wanted to share with them the most precious truth, the good news of God's saving grace, and they just act like, what's the big deal? The heart of stone doesn't respond, it doesn't feel, it doesn't pump, it doesn't do anything. But God says, I'll change all that. I'll perform a radical surgery and I'll take that heart out and put a new one in its place. So let's talk about a renewed heart. Let's talk about that radical surgery, that regeneration where God gives us hearts that can respond to him. In the first place, what does the Bible mean when it talks of the heart? We hear a lot of false dichotomies, the most famous of which probably is, you know, the head and the heart. You know, we know things with our head, but we don't feel them with our heart and so forth. And though in English idiom, we may be able to make out what people are intending by such words, that is not a biblical way of speaking. When the Bible speaks of the heart, it speaks in the most, when it's not talking of the physical organ inside a person's chest. When the Bible speaks of the heart, it's speaking in the broadest sense of the inner life of a person. his private thoughts, his feelings, his plans, his desires, his intellect, his attitudes, his decisions. Everything that makes me who I am that doesn't simply put me on the same level with you as having a nose and eyes and shoulders and a heart in my chest and that sort of thing. Everything that makes me uniquely me is my heart. That's my inner life. It's my private life. And though I may share with you my private life, I may speak with my mouth what is in my heart so that you know something of that, still my heart refers to what is known only to God fully, exhaustively, because it's private. My thoughts, my hopes, my desires, my thinking, my reasoning, my plans, and my decisions, that's my heart. Let me give you just a real quick summary of what the heart is, looking only at the book of Romans, because this is the easiest way to do it. The heart is the intellectual center of man. We're going to see that it's the emotional center of man. It's as well the volitional center. It's where we think, the heart is where we feel, the heart is where we make decisions and do things. Romans 121 shows the heart as the intellectual center of man. Because that knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened. Vain reasoning is also called a senseless heart. The reasoning part of man, the intellectual part of man, is called his heart. The heart is the emotional center of man. Look at Romans 9, verse 2, how Paul now uses the word. Paul says, I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. And here he's talking about the grief that he has, that the Jews are being lost to Christ. And he says he feels that pain in his heart. Well, earlier he said that's the reasoning center, that's the intellectual center, but here it's the emotional center. In Romans 2 verse 5, you'll see that it's the volitional center of man. Romans 2 verse 5 says, well, verse 4 talks about the goodness of God. leading men to repentance. Verse five, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurous up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Those who do not choose to turn from their sin, those who will not repent are said to have an impenitent heart. The heart is where we make our choices. And so you get the point that in the Bible, the heart is everything that makes me the person that I am. It's my thinking, it's my feeling, it's my choosing. And so the heart determines the character of my life. It determines all of my outward activity. It determines all of my relationships. In Proverbs 4, Solomon wrote, keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Why does your life issue the way it does? Why do things come out the way they do in your life? Why do you feel the way you do, and act the way you do, and say what you do? Why do you get involved in the things you do? Because of your heart. Out of the heart are the issues, the springs of life. Matthew 15, Jesus speaking of the sinful part that our heart plays, says, those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemy. Out of the heart come our words and our thoughts and our deeds. In this case, all sinful ones that Jesus is referring to. So what does the Bible mean when it refers to our heart? It refers to everything that determines what I am as a person, my private inner life, what I am spiritually, that determines what I do, what I say, how I feel. And what is wrong with man's heart? What is wrong with your heart, according to the Bible? You've gone to the doctor, like Dr. Bronson went to the internist, the cardiologist, and the diagnosis is being rendered. What does the Bible say about your heart, this inter-center of who you are as a person? and what you are spiritually. In Psalm 51, which we read this morning, David traced the actual sins, which he is confessing back to a polluted sin nature, which he has inside himself. David is very honest about this. As he is confessing his sin and asking for God to have mercy upon him, to blot out his transgressions, to wash him from his iniquity, he says in verse 5, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. I was conceived in sin by my mother. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, in the hidden part, that wilt make me to know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. David talks about the inner part of his life, and he says, inwardly, I am unclean. Inwardly, I am helpless, because from the moment of my conception, I was in sin. I was under the controlling power of sin. When God sends conviction of sin, we realize down to the depth of our souls, as David did, that we can't bring forth anything good. We can't bring forth anything acceptable to God. We can't bring forth anything that God requires. If God says you need to believe in Jesus, I can't bring that forth. from my heart, because I was born in sin and I'm polluted within, and out of the heart are the issues of life, and from a faithless heart does not issue faith, and from a polluted heart does not issue clean living, from a disobedient heart does not issue obedience. You can't change the leopard spots. You can't change the Ethiopian skin. I am born in sin, and for that reason, being foul within and dead within, I cannot do anything that is acceptable to God. Ezekiel 36 says our hearts are unclean. They need to be washed with water. In John 3, Jesus says our hearts are blind. Without being born again, we can't even see the kingdom of God. It's not a matter of seeing the kingdom and seeing the world and its sin and choosing between them. We can't even see the other option. In Romans 8, verses 7 and 8, Paul tells us our hearts are powerless. Because they who are in the flesh cannot please God. And in Ezekiel 36, again, our hearts are as dead as stone. That's what's wrong with us. Everything inside is wrong. We're unclean. We're blind. We're powerless. We're dead. And so you see what David's prayer was, understanding the true condition of his heart. David's prayer in verse 10, which I want to focus on as we close this morning, was create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. David's prayer was for a recreated heart, for that kind of radical surgery that I talked about earlier, where his heart would be done over again. where his spirit would be renewed and his heart created all over again. You know, David knew the feeling, we've seen this in the last two weeks, David knew the feeling of having a heart that was overwhelmed, a fainting heart. In verse three, he says, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Do you know that experience? Do you know that experience of having your sin so constantly before your consciousness? In verse 8, he says, make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. David likens his condition to having broken bones. He knew what it was to be overwhelmed here by the conviction of his sin. And David knew what it was to have a heart broken with grief. We saw this last week. In verse 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. thou wilt not despise." David, in his fainting, overwhelmed condition, in the brokenness of his heart, was pointed to the inward inadequacy and inability of himself as a man before God. He said, inwardly I am nothing. Inwardly, I am not bringing forth anything clean. I cannot do what God requires. And in David's case, it was especially the conviction of sin, which made it clear that he could not work out his own problems on his own. There was something desperately wrong with him. There was something wrong with his heart. And because of that, it would require radical surgery to make things right, to make things new again. And so David had reached the point in his life where he could do nothing less than request a miracle from God. And that's why he uses the word, a very strong one, at the beginning of verse 10, create. He says, create again, God. Create a clean heart in me. Start over again with me, God. David sought God for an inward miracle. And it is nothing less than a miracle. I'm not going to mince words and play theologian's games about whether the word can be used. When God makes a heart over again, that goes contrary to the natural course of life. It goes contrary to anything possible by man or any power within the created order. It is nothing less than the transcendent breaking in upon this world in a redemptive way and changing the way things are. David says, created me that inward miracle of a renewed heart. so that he would become a new person. and would gain a new character. Self-help courses and personal betterment would be useless to David. Wishing and hoping that that better self within him might now emerge would be totally futile. David knew that he needed the transcendent power of God to remake him from within. He needed the power of the Holy Spirit. Verse 11 says, cast me not away from thy presence, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. The Holy Spirit would have to give him. this life in this new heart within. And only if God performed radical surgery on David's heart, would David receive a steadfast spirit. In verse 10, he says, created me a clean heart, O God, renew a steadfast or a right spirit within me. If he was going to have a spirit that had the assurance and confidence of God's acceptance, The confidence that he would have a truly new life under the control of God, it would have to come from God himself. Now we've been talking about regeneration, but before I end this morning, I want to point out something very unusual. We've been talking about regeneration and ordinarily theologians use that technical expression for the onset of the new life, the beginning of spiritual renewal, the initial stage of a changed life. But some of you who have been listening to the sermon might be saying, I'm a little confused, Pastor, because David, who is praying this prayer for a new heart, is a regenerate man. It's obvious from this psalm that we're dealing with a man who is already regenerated. David was not an unbeliever in this psalm, seeking for the first time the gracious forgiveness and new life that God promises as the Redeemer of his elect. David was not coming for the first time and laying himself before the Redeemer and saying, accept me, forgive me, make me new. David was a regenerate man who already possessed the Holy Spirit. Verse 11 says, take not thy Holy Spirit from me, And in verse 12, we see he was seeking, according to verse 12, the restoration of his saving joy. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. I've known the joy of salvation. I've had the Holy Spirit restore that to me. Don't take the Holy Spirit from me. You're dealing with a regenerate man, a regenerate man who's praying for a new heart. And what we need to learn from this friends. is that though there is a reason why theologians speak of regeneration as the initial onset of a new life in Christ, nevertheless, the spirit, the image, the figure of speech of renewal in the Bible, God's holy work of renewal within our souls is an ongoing and daily process. Yes, it has a definite beginning when new life is imparted to us from above, when we are born again, when we begin to experience spiritual life. However, the renewal which begins at that point does not end at that point. It's as though God keeps us alive and God is the constant source of inward life and renewal for us. Put it very simply, David, as a regenerate man, daily knew that God sustained him and daily would call upon God to renew him, to continue that process that began so long ago in his life. What are the consequences of this biblical teaching about spiritual heart surgery? Well, there are three that I can see very obvious. The first place, David teaches us we should be grateful for the grace of God. Verse 12 he says, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. And verse 15, O Lord, open thou my lips and my mouth, so show forth thy praise. The renewed man in Christ is a man who says, I've got to be thankful. I've got to be praising God. I've got to be grateful for what God has done. You say, well, that's obvious, Pastor, but it's not obvious from our lives that every day we ask to be renewed and to remember, I wouldn't be alive. I wouldn't have a desire to pray. I wouldn't even want to open this book. I couldn't understand anything in this book. I wouldn't have the ability to go up one flight of steps spiritually if God didn't give me that new heart and keep that heart alive. gratitude for God's grace. Secondly, the renewed heart leads to a life of good works. In Ephesians 2, where Paul, speaking now of resurrection, says that we have been made over again fashioned anew as Christ workmanship, that we should perform good works. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created that we might walk in those good works that he beforehand prepared us to do. If we understand that God has given us a new heart, a new life, then that means we're going to start doing new things in the same way that all of a sudden I started having strength in my physical body with the new heart the doctors had given me. So we're going to spiritually start finding ourselves able to do and willing to do things that please God, to do good works. And thirdly, I think if we understand God's radical surgery and the daily renewal that he performs for us, Then we're going to have daily joy. A joy like the day we were first born again. You remember that day? You remember all the difference it made when you realized that you were a different person. You've turned a corner. Not just turned over a new leaf, but you've been made new. And God did that by his grace for you. And the joy and the exhilaration and the strength and commitment that you had on that day will be renewed day by day. I'm going to end by asking those of you who have been relying on yourselves to consider David's prayer, create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me to acknowledge what David acknowledged that you have no hope before God without a heart that he'll give you. And the only thing that you can do is not more religious works, not coming to church more faithfully or on time, not giving more money, not even committing yourselves to helping orphanages or pro-life causes or anything like that. But those of you who have been relying upon yourself to this morning, maybe for the first time, to acknowledge you've got a problem inside. You've got a heart that needs to be changed and that your only hope is to ask God to do the changing for you. And I want to call out to those of you who have reached a point of spiritual despair. Some of you have been trying to be religious in yourselves. You've relied upon yourself for your acceptance before God, but some of you who have been trying that have been beaten down by the process. You know very well that you're not making it and that God is not accepting you. and that the harder you try in your own strength, the further you get behind spiritually. You can't bring forth anything good of yourself. Pray David's prayer, create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. And I would call out to those of you who have backslidden into sin, who are believers. You better believe that happens. People who have known the saving mercy of Jesus Christ, who nevertheless for a season give themselves over to their own waywardness. And it's as though they don't even want to hear the word of God. Are you in that condition this morning? Have you come this morning thinking I'm going through a religious ritual, but all of a sudden now God's spirit is touching your heart and saying, where have you been? Why have you wandered from me? What's wrong with your heart? Pray what David prayed. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. And there are those who, if not backslidden into sin, have become indifferent to holiness. You may not be wandering from the sorts of things you should be doing. You may not be living openly and publicly in sin, but you know very well that your day-to-day experience is not one where you care all that much for God, where you've just forgotten what it is to pursue His kingdom above all and to make that your highest aim and His glory your chief concern. If you've become indifferent to holiness, pray what David prayed, create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. And finally, I want to call out to those of you who have lost your first love. My guess is that breaks your heart too to think about that, that you somehow forgotten what the joy of salvation. You've forgotten that God daily renews his people, and you need to pray, create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. Only God can do the heart surgery that I'm talking about today. Let's pray. Father, we do ask you to renew our hearts We confess that our hearts are not what they should be. Indeed, in their natural state, they're as dead as stone. And so we ask for new hearts from you. Hearts that are clean, hearts that are alive, hearts that can respond, hearts that wish to obey you. Lord, I do pray for those who here today are yet relying upon themselves or who are frustrated because they find themselves unable to do that which you require. I pray that you would help them to give up and to call upon you to do the surgery necessary. And Lord, I pray for those brothers and sisters in Christ here this morning as well, who have somehow gotten themselves into terrible moral problems. either because they are living in sin that they have not confessed and turned from, or because they are just indifferent to the things of your kingdom. And I pray for brothers and sisters who are not full of joy, who do not have steadfast spirits, because they've forgotten their first love. Father, for all of us, do the surgery necessary. replace our hearts, create good ones within, and renew us daily. And we'll thank you from the heart in Jesus' name. Amen.