In this tape of the sermon series, the speaker emphasizes the importance of having a broken heart and turning to God. He assures the listeners that even if their hearts have become hardened, God can break and soften them if they sincerely ask for it. The speaker urges the audience to take this opportunity to repent and turn to God. The tape concludes with the announcement that the message will continue on the next tape.

This is tape number four in a series. We urge you to listen to all the tapes in the series in numerical order so that the whole teaching can be received and understood. Listening to a part of the series or to the tapes out of sequence can lead to a misunderstanding of the nature, the intent, and the importance of this series. All right, now notice this. Here's what God's desire is. Verse 26. We hear a lot about blessing today. God, listen to tell you something, God wants to bless you far more than you've ever heard any preacher or any teacher or any prophet or any evangelist or any apostle even be able to enumerate to you or tell you. Because things which I have not seen, ears not heard, that's never even entered your heart, God wants to be a blessing to you. We have never understood how much God wants to bless us. But I want you to notice verse 26. For you first, God raised up his servant and sent him to do what to you? Why was Jesus sent? He was sent to bless you. Jesus was sent to bless you, but don't miss the last part of that verse. How's he going to bless you? He's going to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways. How many of you see that? Now let me tell you what that means. That's covenant because here's what he's saying. You don't have to do anything nor can you do anything to earn the blessings of God. Are you with me? You simply must do one thing. God's part is to bring you the blessings. His desire is to bless you. You don't have to do anything special for it. All you got to do is walk in covenant with God. The very nature of covenant in God's heart is everything that belongs to him belongs to you. Are you hearing what I'm saying? God wants to live his very life for you. He wants to bless you before you even ask him for it. Are you with me? But now here's what he says. The only way he can do that is to turn you from your wicked ways. See because when you turn from sin you turn from living for yourself and as we saw last night you step into covenant with God. Are you with me? And then the covenant blessings of God as it says in Deuteronomy 28 literally overtake you. Are you with me? But they're not going to overtake you if he can't turn you. He's got to have your whole heart. Are you hearing what I'm saying? If there's idols in your heart, if there's greed, if there's selfish ambition, if there's resentment, if you listen to gossip, if you gossip, if you slander, if you reject, if you do those things, you're not in covenant with God because you haven't turned from your sin. I don't care if everybody else in the church is doing it and the preacher says it's all wrong. You're still not in covenant with God. Are you with me? Now turn with me to Zephaniah. Yeah, that's in your Bible and it's not in the New Testament. It's really easy to find. It's right after Nahum and Habakkuk. What I usually tell people to do, it's really easy to find. Here's what you do. You just take your Bible, close it, hold the edges up like this and wherever you see the whitest pages then open it up and you'll be real close to it. Those are the ones that haven't been yellowed by youths. All right, turn to Zephaniah chapter 1. Zephaniah chapter 1, verse 2. I will completely remove all things from the face of the earth, declares the Lord. I will remove man and beast. I will remove the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea and the ruins along with the wicked. And I will cut off men from the face of the earth, declares the Lord. So I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Now before you read on, I want to just say something to you. There's a whole lot of people coming out of things today and saying they're the remnant. Can I tell you something? You are a remnant. But you're either going to be one of two remnants. You're either going to be a remnant of Baal or you're going to be a remnant of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're the idols, selfish ambition, greed, and the lust of the flesh in your heart, you're a remnant of Baal. Are you with me? Look what it says. And I will cut off the remnant of who? Of Baal from this place and the names of the idolatrous priests along with the priest. Now let me tell you how you can tell a remnant of Baal. Here's what a remnant of Baal does. He's going to describe what a remnant of Baal is like. Now notice this. Verse 5. Here's a remnant of Baal. And those who bow down on the housetops to the host of heaven. Who is the host of heaven? The hosts of heaven are the powers of darkness. In Acts chapter 7 we're told that the children of Israel, now listen to this, God said, can you imagine this? He said to the children of Israel who were so religious, He said it was not to me that you offered sacrifices for 40 years in the wilderness. Can you imagine that? They spent 40 years offering sacrifices thinking they were worshiping God and God says you didn't even offer one sacrifice to me because your heart wasn't right. It's a good thing that doesn't happen today. You know what they thought? They thought right up until the last minute they were going into Canaan. They didn't make it. They died in the wilderness. Now listen. He who bows down on the housetops to the host of heaven. He's talking about those who serve the host of heaven. Now let me tell you, here's how it says, here's how it says in Acts 7 that the children of Israel served the host of heaven. It said they made a golden calf and they worshiped the works of men's hands. And so God says and so I turn you over to the host of heaven. The remnant of Baal are those who worship the works of their own hands. Do you hear me? There's another remnant of Baal. Look here. Here he is right here. It says those who bow down and swear to the Lord and yet swear by Milcom. The word Milcom means their king. Do you know what it means? You're a part of the remnant of Baal. If you swear to the Lord with your lips but you've got another king besides him. The king of self-idolatry, the king of selfish ambition, the king of idolatry, of materialism, religion, persons, whatever it is. If you have another king, in other words, listen to me, if you give allegiance to something else, just like you give allegiance to Jesus, you have the remnant of Baal, not the remnant of God. Examine your heart. Does Jesus have all of it? What remnant do you belong to? He also says in verse 6, and those who have not sought the Lord are inquired of him. They're of the remnant of Baal. Be silent before the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near, for the Lord has prepared a sacrifice. His name is Jesus, and you must come to him with a whole heart. The Lord has prepared a sacrifice. Then it will come about on the day of the Lord's sacrifice that I will punish the princes, the king's sons, and all who clothe themselves with what kind of garments? Foreign garments. Now let me tell you what that means. When you enter covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ, I mention this to you last night and the beginning of tonight, he makes an exchange with you. He takes off his robe of righteousness, and he puts it on you, and he takes your robe of sin, and he puts it on Jesus. Is that right? But now, if you decide to be a remnant of Baal, if you give God lip service, but your heart doesn't really belong to him, you're going to clothe yourself with a foreign garment. It's not his righteousness. You don't walk in righteousness, you don't walk in holiness, and you don't use your heart to it. Now folks, I want you to examine your life. When's the last time, when's the last time the Spirit of God convicted you of something in your life that wasn't like him? I'm so amazed. I'm so amazed at the people who sit in church Sunday after Sunday and think everything's okay, and yet they go to church and they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never, they've never shed a tear, they've never, they've never gotten down on for years and years and years, and I'm not placing a premium on crying, but for years and years and years they've never stood before God and said, God, forgive me, I see that sin, it's not like you, and I repent. They haven't done it for years, and yet they think they're right with God. I'm telling you, if you're like that, you're not right with God, you don't even see His holiness. God's holier than you are. And if you're walking with Him, you're going to see His holiness. And I say to you, Repent, draw near to Him with the whole heart so He can start convicting you of your sin. See, God will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever turn His back on you to where you can't repent. But if you stay hardened in your heart like that, you won't even feel the conviction of the Lord Jesus Christ. Examine your life. Are there things in your life, when you first got saved, they were unthinkable to you. You wouldn't do them. You wouldn't do them. You repented. They broke your heart. But now, they're acceptable to you. And there's no longer the conviction for them. It's because your heart has got hardened, got stoned. If you stay in that state, you'll reach a place where your heart won't even reach out to repentance. There'll be no place for repentance down in your heart. Are you hearing what I'm saying? I say, are you hearing what I'm saying? Turn with me to Hosea 4. Excuse me, I want you to... Let's don't go there. Turn with me to Proverbs 21. Proverbs chapter 21. Proverbs chapter 21. Proverbs chapter 21. We're going to look at verse 27. And look what it says. Proverbs 21, 27. The sacrifice of the wicked. What is it? It's an abomination. And we're going to see in a moment what the sacrifice of the wicked is. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination. How much more when he brings it with evil intent. Look at verse 1. The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he wishes. Every man's way is right in his own eyes. Now, that's the problem. Do you know that? Every man's way is right. Everybody thinks he's right. They don't examine the word. Every man's way is right in his own eyes. But what does the Lord weigh? But the Lord weighs what? The heart. Now, you understand what it's saying? God is not the least bit interested in whether you think you're right or not. He's weighing the heart, and he's judging it by his words. Are you with me? Alright. And he said the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to God. Turn with me to Malachi chapter 1. Malachi chapter 1. Malachi chapter 1. At least you'll get a good Bible drill tonight. Malachi chapter 1. I promise you, if you'll stick with me, by the end of the week, you'll know the books of the Bible better than you knew them before. Malachi chapter 1. Malachi 1, verse 6. Malachi is right before Matthew, if you're having trouble finding it. Malachi chapter 1, verse 6. A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Now, look what God says. Then if I am a father, where is my honor? That's a good question, isn't it? If he really is your father, where is your honor toward him? And if I am a master, where is my respect or where is my fear? Says the Lord of hosts to you, O priest, who despise my name. Now notice this. They're deceived because they think that their way is right. In their own eyes, it's right. And so when God says this to them, look what they say. You say, how have we despised thy name? How many of you see that? How many of you see that when God spoke his word to them, they were so blinded and so convinced that their way was right, they're so convinced their way was right, they said, God, now let's get serious, how have we despised you? And here's what he tells them. You are presenting defiled food upon my altar. But you say, here it is again. Every time the Lord begins to try to bring conviction, I want you to notice what they do. But God, you couldn't be talking about me. You couldn't mean me, God. I mean, how have we defiled thee? And God says, you say, the table of the Lord is to be despised. And I know that they said, because it says it later on in this chapter, Lord, how have we said that the table of the Lord is to be despised? Look what he says again. Verse 8. But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Why not offer it to the world? Would he be pleased with you? You know what he's saying? Now look at this. We're going to go on. We're going to see. But now will you not entreat God's favor that he may be gracious to us with such an offering on your part? Will he receive any of you kindly, says the Lord? Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the gates that you might not uselessly kindle fire upon my altar. I am not pleased with you, says the Lord, nor will I accept an offering from you. Verse 12. But you are profaning it in that you say, the table of the Lord is defiled. And as for it, now what would the table of the Lord be? Is this the table of the Lord right here? The word of God, is this the table that he comes to ask you to eat of? Did he tell Jeremiah to eat his word? Is this the place he wants you to eat from? The table of his word? Is everything that he's prepared for you found right here in his word? And so they were despising the table or the word of the Lord. And so here's what's happening. The table of the Lord is defiled. And as for its fruit, its food is to be despised. And you also say, my, how tiresome it is. I wonder if that could be anything like, well, it's 12 o'clock. I wonder if he'll ever shut up. Ain't that what I'm saying? You know one of the reasons people don't come to these meetings? Because they've already heard they're not going to get out by 9 o'clock. And you've just got more important things to do. I've watched people sit out here as we're going through the word. And just be following along and following. And then it gets to be 9 o'clock. And I see the anger start coming on. I watch them start looking at their watches. I've got time to run a marathon and endorse with you. And if the Lord's not saying anything, I need to shut up. But I believe he's still saying something to you. And if your life, you don't worry, I'll tell you something. Because we've got other things that are too important for us. And that's why we just sniff at the word. And oh my, how tiresome it is to be called to repentance. How tiresome it is to hear somebody speak night after night after night about getting right with God. Oh my, how tiresome that is. And you disdainfully sniff at it. You smell it, but you don't eat it. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Says the Lord, and you bring what was taken by robbery and what is lame or sick. So you bring the offering. Should I receive that from your hand, says the Lord? Now let me tell you something. In the Old Testament, in order to make atonement for sin, they had to bring an offering. The offering couldn't be whatever they chose. It had to be what God chose. God chose that the offering that they brought had to be unblemished. Are you hearing what I'm saying? God sent an offering to us on unblemished land. His name is Jesus. But now, I remember reading about some men by the name of Cain and Abel. And it says that God rejected Cain's sacrifice. Why? I've heard people say it was, well, Abel's was of the flock and Cain's was of the ground. That's not why he rejected it. Because you see, God had already told him to cultivate the ground. The ground was good. Even after the curse. The ground had been cursed, I understand that. But he told him to cultivate it. But what was wrong with Cain's sacrifice is that it was blemished because of his heart. The reason we know that is because the Lord didn't look at his sacrifice. He looked at him and he said, why is your countenance falling? If you'd done right, if you do well, would not your countenance be lifted up? And he said to him, Cain, it's not your offering that's wrong. I see your heart. And the way that you and I offer a blemished sacrifice to God is that when we come and we offer a sacrifice of a divided heart and we come before God expecting him to cleanse us, expecting the walking covenant, when our heart is tied to the world, the things of the world, and idols. Are you hearing what I'm saying? You're offering to God a blemished heart and he won't take it. You draw near to God with a whole undivided heart. That's all he asks from you. That's all he asks from you is your whole allegiance and loyalty and loyalty to nothing else. Are you with me? Now look at this. Turn with me. Did we see that the Lord weighs the heart? Is that what we saw? Turn with me to Psalm 51. And we've been moving to a point, and this is one of the most important things that you can see out of all that I've said tonight because we're going to see what kind of heart God accepts as a unblemished sacrifice. Verse 1. Be gracious to me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness. Now this just happens to be a psalm of David after David had sinned. He committed adultery and he had committed murder through ordering Uriah killed. And he's coming before God, and he says, Be gracious to me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness. According to the greatness of thy compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my sin. For I know my transgressions. My sin is ever before me. Does it sound like he's trying to justify anything? My sin is ever before me. Against thee, the only I have sinned and done what is evil in thy sight so that thou art justified when thou dost speak and blameless when thou dost judge. You know what he said? He said, God, I've sinned. I'm not trying to hide it. I'm not trying to justify it. I'm not trying to cover it up. I'm not trying to pretend it wasn't serious. As a matter of fact, God, it is serious enough that when you judge me, I'm worthy to be judged. But God, this is not what I want for my life. Instead, verse 7, Purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I'll be whiter than stone. Make me to hear joy and gladness. Let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God. How many of you see that? And renew a steadfast spirit within me. He said, God, I want to offer you a sacrifice of my heart. I want you to cleanse my heart. I want to give you my whole heart. I've sinned. I'm not going to hide it. I'm not going to justify it. God, it's open to your sight anyway. Here it is. God, create in me a clean heart. Verse 11, Don't cast me away from your presence. Don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation. Sustain me with what kind of a spirit? A willing spirit. Did we read in Hebrews 10 that the sacrifice that he desired is not in burnt offerings or sacrifices but, behold, I come, O God, to do your will. And look what he says. Verse 14, Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God. Thou God of my salvation. Then my tongue will joyfully sing of thy righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare thy praise. For thou dost not delight in sacrifice. Otherwise I'd give it. Thou art not pleased with burnt offerings. Listen to me. There are people trying to come to God with sacrifices and burnt offerings today. They sin and they do everything to get that conscience clean and everything to offer God. They try to do it through works. They try to do it through offerings. They try to do it through working on committees. They try to do it by spending more time in the Bible, spending more time praying. I'm not saying those things are not important. But there's only one sacrifice for your sin. It's coming to Jesus. If you carry the guilt of it, it's because you're not offering it your whole heart. You're looking for some way to make atonement and to please Him into forgiving you. And you can't offer any sacrifice. Are you hearing what I'm saying? But this is the sacrifice that God will accept from you. It's the only one. Here it is. Thou dost not delight in sacrifice. Otherwise I'd give it. Thou art not pleased with burnt offerings. Verse 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrived thought. Heart. Oh God. Thou wilt not despise. God won't despise it. Now let me tell you something. The word contrived, the word contrived means a repentant heart. A heart that's willing to turn the different direction. You know what a broken heart is? The Hebrew word comes from a, the word comes from a root Hebrew word. Broken. Now I want everybody to hear me. Listen to me carefully. The word broken heart there literally means disabled. Disabled. Disabled. You know what characterizes a disabled man? He no longer can do what he used to do. He's disabled. A broken heart is a disabled heart. It's a heart that can no longer stand to do what it used to do. That's the only heart God will make covenant with. Are you hearing what I'm saying? It's for that kind of heart that God grants repentance. Are you hearing what I'm saying? A broken heart. A disabled heart. Absolutely cannot stand to live in its rebellion. It can't stand it. It can't stand it. When your heart gets to that place, your battle is no longer with sin, with weakness. For the God of covenant meets you right there. At His mercy. He does battle with your enemy. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Turn with me to Acts chapter 13. I will probably read this scripture to you more than once. Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. Verse 38. There are those people, now listen to me carefully, There are those people who claim, and who make a great issue out of this, that I'm in Christ Jesus, and therefore I can't come under any curse. I agree with that. If you are coming to Jesus with a whole heart, repentance is not an act, it's a walk. You are walking a walk of repentance before God. And that when God shows you something that doesn't line up with Him and His word and His will, you repent, turn in the other direction, and walk with Him. My friend, you are delivered and free from the curse. Are you hearing what I'm saying? But if you're coming to God offering a blemished heart, and expecting to be out from underneath the curse, my friend, you are badly mistaken. Notice what he says in Acts 13. Is this the new covenant? I say, is this the new covenant? Now notice what he says. We like to read about the blessings of the prophets, but we don't like to read about the cursing that the prophets spoke as a result of broken covenants. Now look what he says. Verse 38. Therefore let it be known to you, who's he talking to? Brethren. Let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. And through Him. Who's Him? Jesus. Everyone. Everyone who believes is freed from all things from which you could not be freed through the law of Moses. Does that clearly say that in Christ Jesus you've been freed from all things? Is He talking to brethren? Then if there cannot be any curses come upon you, why did He bother to say, verse 40, take heed therefore, so that the thing spoken of in the prophets may not come upon you. How many of you see that? Is He clearly warning the people that even though you are freed from all things in Christ Jesus, take heed that what the prophets warned us about will not come upon us. Is He clearly saying that? Turn with me to Ezekiel, if you would. Turn with me to Ezekiel. I'm going to have you turn to verse 33, chapter 33. Ezekiel chapter 33. Let me ask you again. Did the word that we just read in the New Testament that applies to us say that even though you're freed from all things in Christ Jesus, that you're to take heed that what the warnings of the prophets were don't come upon you. Was Ezekiel a prophet? Is he one of those that we need to take heed about what he said? Ezekiel chapter 33, verse 10. Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, thus you have spoken, saying, surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we are rotting away in them. That's what it does. How then can we survive? Now look what God says. Say to them, prophet. Say to them, Ezekiel. Say to them, as I live, declares the Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked. How many of you see that? God has absolutely no pleasure. We read what God's pleasure is. God's pleasure in Acts 3 is to bless you. Is that what we read? By doing what? To bless you by turning you from your wicked ways. By turning you from sin. But you must come to him, not with a blemished heart, but with a whole heart for him. And God's will is to bless you. He says, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back. Turn back from your evil ways. Why then will you die, O house of Israel? And you, son of man, say to your fellow citizens, the righteousness of a righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression. And as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will not stumble because of it in the day when he turns from his wickedness. For as a righteous man will not be able to live by his righteousness on the day when he commits sin. How many of you see that? You know what he's saying? Now listen to me carefully. God is saying, I'm not the least bit interested in where you used to be. If you were in the deepest, darkest pit, if you were in the lowest gutter, if you committed the most vile, the ugliest, the most repulsive sin yesterday, I'm not the least bit interested in where you used to be. I'm only interested in you turning your heart, whole heart, from that wickedness and coming today. The church has proclaimed that message, except they never told him that he'd come with a whole heart. But we've openly proclaimed that if a wicked man will turn from his sin and come to Jesus, we'll accept him. God will accept him. But we never said anything to the righteous man over here who committed sin and trusted in his experience. We never told him. We never told him. We never told him that in the day that that righteous man commits sin, if he doesn't repent and turn from his sin, his righteousness will not save him, but in his sin he shall die. In Christ Jesus you have been freed from all things, but take heed that the warnings spoken by the prophets don't come upon you. And then in the next verse, verse 13, when I say to the righteous, he will surely live, and he so trusts in his righteousness that he commits sin, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered, but in that same iniquity of his which he has committed, he will die. What are we going to do with that? Send one of them out of town? We're going to pretend it's not there because it's in the Old Testament? I want to tell you something. The most secure place you can be is in Christ Jesus. You are safe and secure. He's made every provision for you to walk in Him. Are you hearing me? He's covered every base. He not only forgave you and made the sacrifice which you cannot make, but He even supplies His grace for you to walk in that which you cannot do. He lives His life for you. You cannot live the Christian life. It's all Jesus. I don't care which way you look at it. I don't care how you cut it, how you consider it. It's all Jesus. But see, I know, because I can see it on some of your faces, not many, but the Lord has let me see that some of you here tonight, you've never heard a word I say. Your heart's been troubled because of seeing it. It's been agitated. May I say to you, I'm not here to condemn you. I'm not here to challenge you. But the Word of God is going to judge you. You're either going to turn to Jesus with your whole heart, you're either going to stop playing around with Him, you're going to stop pretending, and you're going to give Jesus your whole heart, or you're going to die in your sin. It's not going to deliver you. Are you hearing what I'm saying? The righteousness that you had, you're going to die in that sin if you don't give Him your heart. But now listen to me. Listen to me. You can't make sacrifice. You can't do anything to get right with God except give Him your whole heart. Don't walk with condemnation on you. Condemnation will not get you close to Jesus. The only thing that God will accept is to say, God, I give You my heart. I give You my whole heart. I give it to You, Lord. I don't want to keep it. I don't want anything reserved. I don't want to walk in stubbornness. I don't want to walk in religious traditions. I don't want to walk in my own desires. God, it's You and You alone that I desire. And I lay everything else down. Now when you do that, God meets you right there. That's all you need to offer Him. Are you hearing what I'm saying? That's all He accepts. Want to ask you a question? Can you say that? With a broken heart? The kind of heart that says, God, I'm turning right now. I'm disabled. I can't walk that way anymore. I want to tell you that God so loves you that even if your heart has gotten so hard that you're not sure He can say that, if you will ask Him to break it and soften it, God will break it and soften it. He loves you that much. If you will even come to Him and say, God, I'm not there, but I want to be there. God, I will give you my heart. It's got so hard. I hope more God's going to say, but God wants us to stop right now. He wants to have you close your eyes. He wants to give you an opportunity to repent and turn from God. This concludes tape number four. Please proceed to tape number five where this message continues.