Open Heart Surgery - Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. You see what you do externally doesn't mean anything to God. God is looking at your heart. Now, as evangelicals, we say, well, yeah, we don't want not like that. Maybe we are. You see, we do kind of the same thing. We actually think that the externals of how God will measure our devotedness.

My attendance, I attend church. That's good. I'm glad you do. And that's a good thing.

I wouldn't be against it. Well, yeah, but you also understand and I give to the church. Okay, that's good.

I read my Bible every day. That's a wonderful thing. But potentially, you know what all that means? Nothing. Doesn't mean a thing to God. In fact, it say it's a burden to me. It's a loathsome to me. If it doesn't engage your heart. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt.

Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again, he shows us how God's word meets our world. This may surprise you or it won't. But every single human being suffers from a very, very serious disease. And God offers a cure. But we have to a great deal of responsibility if we're going to be able to utilize that cure in our lives. You see, in the word of God, it's clear we all suffer from heart disease.

Every single one of us. In fact, in Jeremiah 17, nine Jeremiah, these very famous word says this. The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick.

Who can understand it? The heart is deceitful above all else and is desperately sick. That word desperately is the Hebrew word a nosh, and it's translated desperately here, but almost in every other time. It's used in the Old Testament. It's translated incurable. So if you look at it that way, the heart is deceitful above all else.

It is incurably sick. That's the heart of each and every one of us. Notice the symptoms are it's deceitful above all else. And you've heard me say this many times over the years. If your heart's deceiving, who does it deceive? It deceives you. Your heart deceives you.

And we run into this over and over again. Velma had found a quote this week and had given it to me. And the quote was, Don't believe everything you think. And I thought that is really sound biblical advice. It's not alone in the Bible. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes nine, this is the unfortunate thing about everything that happens on Earth.

The same fate awaits everyone. The hearts of all people are full of evil. And there is madness in their hearts during their lives.

And then they die. Jesus picked up on that Matthew 15 and said, But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart. And these things defile a person. For out of the heart comes evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

These are the things that defile a person. They come from the heart. The problem is with our heart. But the first question is, what is the heart? Now, he's not talking about the organ.

That's for sure. He's talking and it depends on the context, almost always metaphorically. It means your mind, your will. It means your soul, your inner man, the spiritual you, the decision making part. And I don't know if you're aware of this, but how important the heart is to God. In fact, I'll say this this morning. There's nothing about you that's more important to God than your heart.

Nothing. The word that the word for heart in the Old New Testament is used over nine hundred times in scripture. So I want you to see how important it is to God. Go with me to First Samuel, chapter 16 and verse seven. This is a chapter, by the way, where Samuel, the prophet priest, is to be picking another king for Israel. If you remember, they picked Saul. That didn't work out well. He was a big, handsome guy, but not much else.

All right. That that was Saul. So God decided we needed another king.

And so he sends Samuel out and Samuel winds up going to the house of Jesse and they go through a progression. And the logical one, the oldest son. How about him?

No. The next son. How about him?

All the people that would look at everyone. And finally, Sam said, do you have any other sons? And Jesse said, well, I have one. He's just a teenager and he's out tending some sheep.

He said, well, you better bring him in. And of course, you know, that is David. Now, the reason for all that is in verse seven. It says the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature because I have rejected him. For God sees not as man sees, for a man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.

There's the dilemma. Man has a tendency and a criteria for judging everything that's all based on outwardness. God says, I never look at anything that way, not anything. How I look at is a person's heart. That's what's most important from God's point of view. It's a very interesting thing. Go with me now to Isaiah, chapter one.

I'll show you an illustration of this. Isaiah, chapter one. Isaiah, this great prophet, is prophesying, trying to stop the nation of Judah from going into captivity in the Babylon.

And he's writing this incredible prophecy. But in the beginning of it, God wants to assess it. And he wants to assess what's going on in Judah. And from verse 11 to verse 15 in chapter one, he does.

And I want you to see what God says. He said, what are your multiplied sacrifices to me? Question. Why do they have multiple sacrifices?

Answer. God told him to. He said, what do they mean to me? He said, I've had enough of your burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls or lambs or goats. Why do they have a sacrificial system? Because God told him to.

Right. He says, I don't take any notice. He says, I take no pleasure in that. He says, when you come to appear before me, who requires you this trampling of my courts? He said, when you come to worship me, you defile me. He said, bring your worthless offerings. No longer incense is an abomination to me. New Moon and Sabbath, the Sabbath, the calling of the assemblies. He says, I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. I hate your New Moon festivals and your appointed feast. They have become burden to me.

I'm weary of burying them. And so when you spread out your hands in prayer, I'll hide my eyes from you. He said, yes, even though you multiply players, I will not listen.

He said, your hands are covered with blood. Now, they were doing every single thing God wanted him to do. It was all laid out in the Book of Leviticus. He said, this is how you come.

They're doing it. And guess what God says? I think the whole thing stinks.

I hate every bit of it. Why? Well, as you read on in Isaiah, you find out, he says, because your heart is far from me.

I don't care. You can never, ever impress God with externals. Nothing that external impresses God at all. God only goes with what the heart is. Now, notice these things were all things that God said to do, but you only do them if you engage your heart. Some of you come from very religious backgrounds and you know what this what I'm talking about. And so the whole idea behind your religious background is to show up and go through a religious ritual.

And so you come in and they chant, you chant, they kneel, you kneel, they genuflect, you genuflect, you say a few things. Someone waves the magic words over and you go out and you say, God's happy because I did this. I'm telling you, he's not.

He has no interest in that at all. You see, what you do externally doesn't mean anything to God. God is looking at your heart now as evangelicals. We said, well, yeah, we don't want not like that. Maybe we are. You see, we do kind of the same thing.

We actually think that the externals of how God will measure our devotedness to him. You know, we have to understand, I you know, my attendance, I attend church. That's good. I'm glad you do. And that's a good thing.

I wouldn't be against it. Well, yeah, but you also understand and I give to the church. OK, that's good.

I read my Bible every day. Oh, that's a wonderful thing. But potentially, you know what all that means? Nothing. Doesn't mean a thing to God. In fact, it say it's a burden to me, it's a loathsome to me if it doesn't engage your heart. You see, if it doesn't engage your heart, you're going through the motions.

And the evangelical church has almost got to the point where it's just like a very traditional church. They don't care what your heart's like. They only care about the motion you go through. You really see this in all kinds of different ways, but especially when it comes to giving. You know, whatever.

Look, I don't care what your motive is, you need to be giving that. That's when you say it over and over again. I just saw this last week. There was a church in the local area that lost power last weekend. And so they went online and they said they had lost power. That's a good thing.

Right. And then they said, make sure you get your giving in. You see, I don't care whether you're coming or not, but we need the giving.

We're trying to we're trying to raise money here. The same kind of evangelical churches over the years have talked about what we need to do to make sure we get that is to establish the tithe. OK, the problem with establishing the tithe is which one? They'll say, well, there's a tithe in the Old Testament. No, there's three tithes in the Old Testament. So if you want to be biblical with your tithe, you have to give two tithes once a year, one tithe every third year. So you have to give twenty three and a third percent if you're an Old Testament tither. And then offerings go above the tithe.

But they figured out that if I can just get the tithe, we'll do better. And that's all I care about. The only thing God cares about when you give anything is your heart. He doesn't care about how much you give.

He owns all the cattle and all the hills. You see, don't think for a moment that God needs money. You see, and I think it's pretentious of a church to stand up and say, well, we need it.

Now, I don't think so at all. I think we have to be stewards of whatever comes our way. That's the way this operates.

But the point of it is, you've got to be careful with thinking along terms like that. Churches are doing all kinds of things. Easter morning, we're going to have the Easter bunny in all of our classrooms.

Why? Well, maybe the kids will come out then. Now, you think that's a heart issue about the resurrection of Christ?

Or is that someone just simply saying that we need to get more people out and we'll do anything to get them out? See, none of that is in scripture. The only issue that matters is your heart. Even with music, we say this over and over again, the Lord loves a joyful noise. That's true. But the whole idea, the music should be good. It should be musical, no doubt about that.

But it really doesn't matter. You could have great music. You could have wonderful musicians and your heart's far from God. So don't think because you heard great music or stood up and saying that you're worshipping unless your heart's engaged in worshipping. What I'm saying is everything, as Jesus said, flows out of the heart. That's why it's the most important thing to God. What happens in your heart?

Let me illustrate this. Go with me to First Chronicles, Chapter 16. First Chronicles, Chapter 16. No, Second Chronicles. I said that in the first service, too. Second Chronicles 16.

And this shows how human beings think and how you and I think. In verse one, it says this. In the thirty sixth year of Asa's reign, he was the king of Judah. The kingdoms are divided. Judah in the south, Judah and Benjamin, the 10 tribes in the north called Israel. The 10 tribes in the north are always evil in God's eyes.

Most of the time, the tribes in Judah are good. They're at war with each other. So it says in the thirty sixth year of Asa's reign in Judah, Basha, king of Israel, came up against Judah and fortified Rama in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa, king of Judah.

Right on the border. It says then Asa, he's figuring, how am I going to handle this? He brought out silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the king's house, and he sent him the Benedad king of Aram, who lived in Damascus. He says, I know how to solve this. I'm going to send money to the king of Damascus.

Now, it becomes clear as to why. He said, Let there be a treaty between you and me and between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you silver and gold. Go break your treaty with Basha, king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.

Syria was a big army. He said, I'll give you enough money. I'll blackmail you. See, that's how this is going to work. I'll give you enough money. You'll break your treaty with them.

That'll scare the daylights out of them and you and I can be together. It says, so Benedad, listen to King Asa, and he sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel. And they conquered Lijan, Dan, Abel, Mayim and all of the store cities in Naphtali. It says it came about when Basha heard of it, that he ceased fortifying Rama and he stopped his work. Then King Asa brought all the stores of Rama and its timber, which Basha had been building. And with them, he fortified Geba and Mizba. Now, here's what happened. They were threatened by the northern kingdom. He came up with a plan.

He's going to bribe the king of Syria. And it worked. And that's what happens to us a lot. I've got an idea. You see, and I think I think this will work. Now watch what happens. Then Hanani, the seer, came to King Asa of Judah and he said to him, because you have relied on the king of Aram and not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Aram has escaped out of your hand. He said, we're not the Ethiopians and the Luban, an immense army with very many chariots and horsemen. Yet because you relied on the Lord, he delivered them out of your hand. Asa, the prophet or the seer, says to him, you know what you've done here? God was going to deliver Aram, the Syrian army, into your hand.

But you made a deal with him to protect yourself. Now, that's the context. Now, this famous verse, for the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth, that he may strongly support those whose heart is completely his. God says, I look everywhere for one thing, someone whose heart is completely mine.

That's what I'm looking for. He said, you have acted foolishly in this indeed. And from now on, you will surely have wars. Now notice Asa's response. Then Asa was angry with his seer, put him in prison, for he was enraged at him for this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time.

He didn't take it well. Notice how important this is to God for the eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the earth. And why? I just want to find someone whose heart belongs to me. That's never changed. Your heart and my heart is all that really matters to God. That's what it's not the externals, the externals, a part of it. But if only if it flows from your heart. In Proverbs four, Solomon wrote this above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life. Above all else, guard your heart.

Do you do that? That'd be a question. Notice it's above all else. It's above anything in the Christian life you can imagine. He said, above all else, I want you to guard your heart.

Because it's the wellspring. Everything in your life comes from your heart. Everything you do comes down to its motivation. Does it come out of your heart rightly or purely or are you just doing some external activity? Chuck Swindoll says, how important is the heart?

It is there that character is formed. It alone holds the secrets of true success. Its treasures are priceless, but they can be stolen.

And that's what happens. Do you guard your heart? You see, if you don't guard your heart, you're never going to practice your faith. It's more important than anything. It's easier for any organization to say, look, we have the externals.

Let's just go through the externals. None of that matters. You can't fool God. You see, he's not naive.

He's not foolish. Go with me to Proverbs chapter 19. Proverbs chapter 19. Again, I want to get another look at why we need to guard our heart from Solomon. Verse three. Solomon says the foolishness of man ruins his way. And his heart rages. Against the Lord. The foolish the man ruins his way and the heart rages against the Lord. This is Hebrew poetry.

And I said in the past, I'll say it again. Hebrews don't rhyme words. They use parallelism. This is called synonymous parallelism. What he says in the first line, he says again in a different way. In the second line, there are synonyms.

And so he says here. He says the foolishness of the man ruins his way. The word ruin is the word salaf.

And it means to pervert or twist or distort. He says the foolish of man distorts or twist or ruins or perverts his way, his life. The foolishness of man ruins his life.

Next line. He said the reason for his heart rages against the Lord. My natural heart will always rage against the Lord. That's where my fleshly nature, as Paul calls it, the flesh in the New Testament. He said it makes war.

You see, that's part of the Christian life. There is a way there is a way that seems right to a man and it ends in destruction or death. That's what Solomon said. Our natural heart wages war. In fact, it wanders us away from God.

Isaiah Chapter 53, this great chapter about the coming Messiah. Fifty three six says this. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has gone his own way. That's the way it works for you and I. That's the way our lives work. There is a way that seems right to us, but it's not. We follow our own heart, our own plans and we drift away from God. And what ends up happening is we never really, in a sense, receive what God has intended for us.

When Jesus said, I've come to give you a life and give it to you abundantly. What he meant by that is I want to fill your life. I want to fill your life with joy and peace and hope.

I want to just fill it with that. Ask yourself, is my life full of joy and peace and hope? You see, and I'm telling you, if you say no, it's because you have a heart problem. You see, you're listening to the wrong thing.

That's what I'm telling you now. Let me go on with this for a moment. Go with me to Psalm 51. Psalm 51, the great confessional psalm of David.

You know the story. David and Bathsheba got together. David committed adultery and then he had Uriah the Hittite, her husband murdered. And then David decided because I'm king, no one can hold me accountable.

And for about a year, no one did. And then Nathan the prophet showed up and confronted David. Now David is ready to confess his sin.

Now he finally is. Notice what he says. He says first in verse four, he said, against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. So that you are justified when you speak and blameless when you judge me.

Here's my question. Why did why did David commit adultery? You see, you want to think, well, well, well, he saw Bathsheba bathing.

And he said, wow, that's a beautiful woman bathing. I'm going to commit and I'm king. I can do what I want. That's not why.

Why? His heart. You see, it was in his heart. And he rationalized just like we do.

I'm king. Not only can I commit adultery, I can get rid of her husband. And remember, he had another plan for his husband. He wanted to have her husband come back and have her husband sleep with his wife so that no one will know that David. That's the way our minds work. Our heart operates. And then Uriah said, I wouldn't do that.

The other guys are out there fighting a battle. I wouldn't do that. I will not sleep with my wife.

So then he had Uriah killed in battle. That's how bad the heart is. Jeremiah said it's desperately wicked, deceitful above all things.

It's incurable. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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