Do You Want A New Heart?

I am living on charity from God, but I am proud of my wealth, even though I don’t have two nickels to rub together, unless God chooses to give it to me.

I came into this world naked, and I must go out of it naked.

Now, the strangest thing of all is that a man who has a heart that’s full of adultery and all types of idolatry, and lust, can talk about being a good person, and take pride in himself and claim to have some good points about himself, which deserve the admiration of his colleagues, and some consideration from God.

It’s human nature, then, for a man to be proud of himself, while he has nothing to be proud of.

Let’s put our pride away, and let God give us something new for the old nature, since it can never be made better.

It is helplessly insane, decrepit, and defiled.

What's more, I am pretty certain that human nature cannot be made better, since many have tried to do it, but they have always failed.

I have seen men try to make themselves religious, but they wind-up making a mess of themselves when they try to do it.

They go limping along in the service of God, and everyone soon discovers the inconsistencies in their life.

It might be easier for a leopard to change its spots than it would be for a man to imagine that he can conceal the wickedness of his nature by any attempts at religion.

I have tried for a long time to improve myself, but I never had much luck at it.

I found I had a devil within me called the flesh or the old nature.

Instead of becoming better, I became worse.

Now I had the devil of pride and jealousy and lust, and many others had come to take-up lodging with them.

My friends, you may try and reform, but you will find you can’t do it, but even if you could, it still would not be the work that God requires.

He will not accept reformation, because He wants renovation.

He wants you to have a new heart, and not a heart that’s changed a little-bit for the better.

There’s another reason why we must have a new heart that becomes apparent when you consider how Christ wants Christians to live and enjoy Him.

Can you imagine that a lion will lie down with a lamb, and eat straw like a cow, so long as it is a lion?

No; there must be a change.

You may put sheep's clothing on it, but you cannot make it a sheep unless the lion-like nature is taken away.

Try to improve the lion as long as you like; try for a thousand years, but you’ll never make it into a sheep.

There must be a total change of character, so if you ask me if it is possible for a man that is a drunkard, and an adulterer, and has cussed God, to sing the high praises of God in heaven as well as a man who has loved and had communion with Christ for a long time?

My answer is no, never, unless his nature can be entirely changed.

So long as his heart is what it is, he will never be capable of having the spiritual nature of the child of God.

Therefore, folks, there must surely be a new nature put into us.

I want to conclude the first part of the message with this point.