[Mark Welch] Thank you for the special music. That was very special. I always appreciate hearing from Mrs. Schreiber. And it was good to have Mr. Hoover up here accompanying her today. He did very well. I was hoping he would sing with her. I was trying to get him to do that, but maybe next time. But it was very well done, a very meaningful song. Well, brethren, hundreds of thousands of people have heart bypasses. They have open heart surgery every year in America. These people are told after their bypasses that they must change their lifestyle. Probably many of them were told years before they had their bypass that, unless they change their lifestyle, they would be looking at a bypass surgery. It seems most really didn't change much, and so a heart bypass is required. Now, the heart bypass is a temporary fix. If a person doesn't want to develop more heart problems, doctors tell them they must change their diet. They must quit smoking, quit drinking. They must exercise and reduce stress. They must change their normal lifestyle. In essence, the doctors say, "Change or you will likely die prematurely."

You would think that a near-death experience would forever grab the attention of these patients. You would think that they would vote for change. You would think the argument for change is so compelling that the patients would make the appropriate lifestyle alterations. Sadly, that is very often not the case. And I know this is simplified to some degree because I know that some people have heart issues without diet issues and other things. Sometimes it's hereditary and that sort of thing. I understand that. But roughly 90% of the heart patients do not change after a bypass surgery. They remain the same living the status quo. Study after study indicates that two years after heart surgery, most patients have not significantly altered their behavior. Instead of making changes for life, they in essence choose death. Change is that difficult. The majority of the heart patients choose not to change. They act as if they would rather die than make those changes.

So how about you? Are you one of the 90% that would refuse to change their lifestyle for the better? Or are you one of the 10% who is open to change, willing to change, and able to change? Do you know what remains the number one killer in the world today according to the World Health Organization? I think it's been many years running now. Is it cancer? Is it car accidents? Is it natural disasters like hurricanes and tsunamis and tornadoes all rolled into one? No, heart disease remains the number one killer in the world today, responsible for about 16% of the world's total deaths in 2019. As there often is, there is a very interesting parallel between the physical and the spiritual. God often uses the physical to teach us about the more important spiritual issues in our lives. This is certainly true when it comes to the human heart. And what I will refer to as the spiritual heart that God so wants us to develop in our lives. That spiritual heart is revealed in the Bible. The Bible talks a lot about the heart. How strong and vital is your spiritual heart? How repentant, how clean and pure is your spiritual heart?

Brethren, we're called to change our hearts from stony hearts to soft, malleable repentant hearts. God will create a new heart in us as we yield to Him and allow His spirit to change us. With Passover now just a little over a month away, we all need to do a thorough heart exam and ask ourselves, "Just how repentant is my heart? Just how clean and pure is my heart?" I've entitled this sermon, A Repentant Heart - Key to Salvation. It really is key to salvation. God looks on the heart, and He wants to see a repentant heart. That's the main thing that He's looking for when He looks at our hearts. So that's what this sermon is all about, how to change from a heart that the Bible says is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked to a clean and pure heart, a repentant heart. So let's go to Jeremiah 17. I'm sure many of you are not surprised that we're going to go to Jeremiah 17. But we're not just going to read verse 9 here. We're going to start in verse 5 and get a little context today.

Jeremiah 17:5-10 "Thus says the Eternal, the Lord, 'Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Eternal, for he shall be like a shrub in the desert and shall not see when good comes but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Eternal and whose hope is the Eternal." So we're seeing a contrast here, one who trusts in the Eternal and one who trusts in his flesh or in man. "This man shall be like a tree planted by the waters, those who hope in the Lord. They will be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought nor will cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings."

So here we see that God can contrast someone who trusts in Him and someone who trusts in the flesh. And if you notice in verse 14.

Jeremiah 17:14 It says, "Because they have forsaken the Eternal."

The one group of people have forsaken the Eternal, and so they're not growing, they're not developing. Their heart is far from God because they've forsaken the fountain of living waters. So there's a fountain of living waters that God wants us to tap into. He wants us to tap into his power, to his strength, and that will keep us growing. That will keep us healthy. It will feed that spiritual heart. We'll talk more about that as we go along. But we need to drink deeply from this source that God has for us. You don't need to go there, but in Matthew 5:8, Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes.

Matthew 5:8 It says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

We know that no one has seen God the Father at any time, but all who develop pure hearts shall spend eternity with God the Father and, of course, with Jesus Christ as well. So today I'd like to talk about four steps that will help us change our fleshly heart, our stony heart, from one that is deceitful and wicked to one that is truly repentant, that is pure and clean. So the first step in doing that is to believe what God says about your heart. Believe what God says. God says the heart is deceitful above all things. He says it's desperately wicked. Who can know it? We need to be willing to change that heart. So the first step is to admit your sins, to confess your sins. In Genesis 6, Genesis 6, we'll go back to the beginning, or almost to the beginning. Actually, it was not long before man was in trouble. Genesis 6, and they weren't in just a little bit of trouble, they were in a whole heap of trouble. They were really in bad shape here.

Genesis 6:5-8 "Then the Eternal saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." So when God looked at man's heart, this is what he was seeing on a continual basis. Now, how literal this is, I don't know that we can say, but it was pretty bad. "And the Eternal was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Eternal said, 'I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.' But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Eternal."

So we'll always see that there's always a way of escape with God. There's always a way of Him giving us deliverance, providing for us. And, in this case, there was a man named Noah. It says he was perfect in his generations. He was a righteous man. He walked with God. And so, because of Noah, thankfully, God didn't destroy everyone. But we know that everyone except Noah and his family were destroyed. And we'll hear more about that in the play later on today. But you notice in Genesis 8.

Genesis 8:21 "And the Eternal smelled a smoothing aroma." This is because Noah had built an altar, and he was offering up clean animals on that altar. "And the Eternal smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Eternal said in His heart, 'I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.'"

So even as small children, the heart is deceitful. It's desperately wicked from a very early age. And so it's not easy, is it, to be in the flesh but to learn to walk in the Spirit. Because that's really what we're talking about today, is learning to walk in the Spirit and not so much in the flesh.

Now, my own life's experience, and probably your life's experience, at least those who are about my age anyway, have proven the truth of these words. You know, we've been around... When I was 18 years old, God began to call me and work with me in a very intimate way. I developed a personal relationship with God the Father and with Jesus Christ. And I began the process of changing my young 18-year-old heart, my young 18-year-old evil heart, into a clean and pure heart. At age 68, I'm still in the process of changing a potentially evil 68-year-old heart into a clean and pure spiritual heart. So it is a process. It's not something that we conquer right away. We don't get over having a stony heart to having that soft, malleable, loving, kind, compassionate, godly heart. It's a process. It takes years and years. And even then, we won't reach perfection in this life, because we are flesh. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, and so it's a continual struggle. Paul told us to fight the good fight and to keep fighting because only he who endures to the end will be saved. So we have to continue to fight the good fight and realize that we are in a battle. The Bible says that we are to work out our own salvation with fear and with trembling because a lot is at stake. And so we do take it seriously.

At age 18, I came to see and to believe that I was very selfishly motivated. Do you know any teenagers that sometimes seem to be selfishly motivated? We could all raise our hands. I would say probably every single one of us was somewhat selfishly motivated at that age. Evil did lurk in our hearts and minds to some degree. Now, I sincerely wanted to change when God began to call me and show me just how awful I was. I mean, I remember reading the Ten Commandments book thinking, "You know, I've broken all of these commandments, at least in the spirit of the law, not in the letter, thankfully, but in the spirit of the law as God gives it to us, as Christ magnified it." We've all, to some degree, broken these commandments in the spirit of the law. So I sincerely wanted to change from a person with an evil, selfish heart to a man of God with a clean, pure heart. I still have that desire today. I'm just as determined to make changes in my heart and mind as I was at age 18. I wish I could say I never have any issues anymore, that it's never a problem, but I would be a liar. And then that would be a problem. So it's been a bit of a bumpy, difficult road for 50 years, but I'm grateful that, with God's help, He's kept me moving down that road that leads to eternal life and true happiness in God's kingdom. It is my continual prayer that God will create in me a clean heart and a truly repentant heart.

Now, I remember my son, Matt, at about age 5, and I may have shared this with some of you in the past, but it really made an impression on me. I thought it was very profound for a 5-year-old to tell me, "Dad, it's hard to be good." It's hard to be good. I can't remember the entire context of when he said that, but I had to agree with him. You know, it is hard to be good. You know, there are times when you just don't really want to do something you know you ought to do. It's like Paul, when he said, "The things I don't want to do, I find myself doing, and the things I should do, I'm not doing," or just vice versa. You know, Paul said that. So, in Galatians 5, it talks about a lot of different ways one can sin. Let's go there just for a brief moment, and, you know, I'm sure you've read this before. We don't dwell on it a whole lot because it's the works of the flesh. We like to dwell on the fruits of the spirit, which we should dwell on that more than the works of the flesh because we're trying to put the works of the flesh behind, but at the same time, as was mentioned in the sermonette, we have to be able to admit when we've sinned. We have to know what sin is, and Galatians 5 gives us a whole list of the works of the flesh. It says they're evident in -

Galatians 5:19-21 "The works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery."

Now, those are all pretty bad stuff. You know, those are bad things. Maybe we're not involved in the letter of the law with any of that stuff. But what about hatred, or contentions, or jealousies, or outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, it mentions, drunkenness, revelries, which is, you know, the party spirit, a bad party spirit, and the like? Anything that's like those things, he says, "Just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." It's very clear that we have to come out of those things, stop committing those sins, and that's why we keep the Days of Unleavened Bread every year. And we put leaven out as a reminder. We put the physical leaven out so we can be reminded that we constantly must be working on putting the spiritual leaven out. So this is spiritual leaven, all of these things that we just mentioned, the works of the flesh. I'm grateful that God gives us these spring holy days to remind us every year that we need to put sin out of our lives. That's an important aspect of these days.

So, brethren, even though we may be inclined toward evil, all these things that we just talked about, we are not bound to do evil. Let me say that again. Even though we may be inclined toward evil, we have a heart that sometimes wants to go that direction, we're not bound to do evil. That is a choice, and it brings with it consequences. And God says there are blessings when we choose life, and there are curses when we choose death. So we do need to choose well. So the first step in changing your heart from one that's deceitful and wicked to one that is pure and clean is to believe what God says about your heart. Believe what He says. He says it's deceitful above all things. It's desperately wicked. So we have to be on guard that it's not influencing us in that direction or that Satan is not stirring those things up to lead us down that path. So that's the first step is, again, to admit when you've sinned, realize that it is the human condition to some degree to fall short on occasion. How often that is, hopefully not too often, but realistically, in the spirit, it may be a lot more often than we'd like to realize or think because the heart is deceitful above all things. It's desperately wicked. Who can know it? So that's the first step. The second step... Oh, by the way, when we feel guilty for sinning, that's a good thing. You know, when we feel guilty, that's a good thing. But we should not carry the shame very long, and we'll talk about that later. So I appreciated the sermonette today. Guilt is a good thing when we're guilty. We should feel that. It helps us bring us to repentance. But then carrying the shame around is something that Satan would like to see us do because it will pull us down even further. So let's go on to the second point.

The second step in changing your heart from one that's deceitful and wicked to one that's pure and clean is to make a lifelong commitment in the waters of baptism. Now, a lot of you have already done that. So this is a reminder and a looking back at that commitment that you all made. Now, some of you are not yet baptized. In fact, quite a few in this room are not yet baptized. So it is something to think about, something to consider, because that is the second step, is to make a lifelong commitment in the waters of baptism. On the day of Pentecost, which was probably in 31 A.D., thousands of people were pricked in their hearts, the Scripture says, as they realized that they had actually killed the Savior of the world. They had killed the Son of God. They had killed Jesus Christ. They had Him crucified. But then later, when God's Spirit was poured out and people were being convicted, they ask, "What shall we do? What can we do? Now that we've done this horrible, awful thing, what shall we do? So the Apostle Peter tells them.

Acts 2:38-39 He says, "Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins," sin is real, and it needs to be remitted, forgiven, "and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

So when we go under the waters of that grave, those sins are being buried. We've repented of our sins. We've accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. We come out of that watery grave to walk in newness of life. And that's what will help us overcome sin, put sin out, and we will be covered by the blood of our Savior Jesus Christ when we accepted Him, we have faith in His sacrifice, and we are striving to continue to put sin out, having a repentant heart. Again, God looks on the heart. He wants to see a repentant heart. So there is a promise there that God says He'll grant us His Holy Spirit. That is a promise that you can accept. Surely, if you make this commitment in faith, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. God has promised that He will grant you the gift of the Holy Spirit. When hands are laid upon you, you can rest assured if you've repented of your sins and have accepted Christ as your Savior, it's genuine, it's real, then God will grant you His Holy Spirit. So as we yield, God's Spirit will change our hearts. God's Spirit will work in us to change our hearts.

Now, that day on Pentecost, about 3,000 people made this lifelong commitment and were baptized as a symbol of that commitment. No doubt some of them were martyred. You know, they were persecuted very quickly for what they believed and what they stood up for. Many lost their lives. Some had to run for their lives. But it was important that they make that commitment because they were on the road to eternal life. And nothing could deter them from achieving that goal except themselves in giving in to Satan and his influence and making those decisions that would certainly ultimately put them in the lake of fire. They were on the path to eternal life. And the Bible says, "Don't fear what man can do to you. Only fear what God can do." Man may kill you, but God has your eternal life in His hands. So we have to put our trust in God, always put Him first. So, early on, I made that lifelong commitment as I went under the watery grave of baptism. I never grew up in God's Church, but God showed me at a very young age that I did need to change my life for the better. I've never regretted that decision to be baptized, and I'm sure that those of you who are baptized, you don't regret that decision. It's not an easy life, but it's the only life for us. And it is a lifelong process of changing our hearts to the type of heart that God wants to see, a malleable, loving, kind, compassionate, repentant heart.

So let's go to Deuteronomy 4. We're going to read just a few verses in Deuteronomy 4, 5, and 6. This was just prior to the children of Israel going into the promised land. Moses is giving them final instructions, you might say. The Ten Commandments are going to be given again in Deuteronomy 5.

Deuteronomy 4:29-31 "But from there, you will seek the Lord your God." Talking about once you move into the promised land, "From there, you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all of your heart and with all of your soul. When you come in distress and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice," so it even applies to those living in the latter days, "for the Lord your God is a merciful God, and He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them."

So we are to seek God with all of our heart, and if we go down to verse 39.

Deuteronomy 4:39-40 "Therefore know this day and consider it in your heart that the Lord himself is God in heaven above and on earth beneath and there is no other." There is only one true God, one real faithful God. "There is no other, and you shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you," so there is a blessing to go along with this, "and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time."

So they were moving into the promised land very shortly. God was promising to be with them, to guide them, to direct them. They had already wandered in the wilderness for 40 years because they were not faithful, and, hopefully, they had learned some lessons in that wandering.

Deuteronomy 5:29 God says, "Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep all my commandments." So God was seeing the end from the beginning. He realized that these people were still pretty carnal. You know, the carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, and He knew that they were going to stray. And so in verse 29, He says, "That it might be well with them and with their children forever."

He wished that they had this kind of heart. Only a few really had that type of heart. Most did not. Some did, but many did not.

Deuteronomy 6:5 "You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children." Yes, God wants us to pass this on to our children. "And you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up."

So, continually, this is what we need to dwell upon, and we'll talk more about that in one of the other points as we go on in the sermon. But God wants us to learn to seek Him with all of our heart. He wants us to have that type of heart in us that He has. And we're told to love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our strength. Now, that's a tall order, but that's what we're called to. The human heart will become more deceitful and wicked unless we strive to seek God with all of our heart, soul, and strength. It goes one way or the other. Either you're moving in the right direction or you're not. This is what David did upon realizing his sin. He sought repentance. God granted that repentance to him. And we're going to go to Psalm 51 in a bit, not just yet, but I wanted to go to 2 Corinthians 7, which talks about what true repentance really is.

2 Corinthians 7:9-11 "Now, I rejoice not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For observe this very thing that you sorrowed in a godly manner."

So there is a sorrow, a human sorrow, that actually leads to death. Everyone's sorry when they get caught. You know, when they get punished, everyone's a bit sorry for that. But there's a godly sorrow that's much different. He says, "Observe this very thing that you sorrowed in a godly manner what diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves." So when someone truly repents, there's a diligence to want to do better, to put that sin behind them and to be more conscientious, to be more diligent in the future. There's a clearing of the self because there is guilt. When we sin, there should be guilt. And when we truly repent, then that clears up the guilt. It's a clearing of yourselves. We know that Christ died for us. And we're so grateful to have that sacrifice. So we're very, very thankful for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That helps clear us up. It helps clean us up. "What indignation," there is a certain indignation against sin and realizing what sin does to us. So there's an indignation that also swells up in us when we truly repent. "What fear," proper fear of God, to walk with Him. "What vehement desire," so there's a zeal and a desire that is fostered in us when we truly repent. We want to please God. We have a desire to please him, and that's a powerful motivator for us. "What vindication," it is good to feel vindicated once we've repented. You know, because, again, we know that we all fall short of God's glory, but because of our acceptance of Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, then our sins are forgiven. So there's a certain vindication that one feels.

He says, "In all things, you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter." So the Corinthians, you know, they were a pretty rough people in a lot of ways. They came from a very decadent city. The city of Corinth, it was well known for its excesses, its sins. They were coming out of that. They were changing their lives. And Paul is working with them, and he says at first they weren't really repentant. They were allowing sin to go on in the congregation. But then later they came to realize and to truly repent with a godly sorrow for what they had been doing and what they had been allowing. So it is important, again, that we know what repentance looks like. This is what it looks like right here in 2 Corinthians 7:9. It is so wonderful to experience true repentance. There really is a clearing of oneself. When we've sinned and we've admitted it, there's nothing like repentance to restore that relationship with God. And that's what we all need. We need to have that relationship restored, and God certainly does restore that with us. So the second step in changing your heart from one that's deceitful and wicked to one that is repentant, that's pure, that's clean is to make a lifelong commitment in the waters of baptism. So if you haven't been baptized and you're of a proper age, then think about it. Consider it. It is the best course of action for anyone who really wants to please God and to get right with God.

I'd like to introduce the third step to changing your heart by sharing with you an old Indian legend. Now, I'm sure you've heard this legend, maybe not every single person here, but I'll bet a lot of you have. But I'm going to share it with you anyway because it ties in well with the sermon. A grandfather was talking to his grandson. He said, "Grandson, there are two wolves living in my heart, and they are at war with each other," of course, this is a parable, "they're at war with each other. One is vicious and cruel. The other is wise and kind." Grandfather said to the alarmed son, "Which one will win?" The grandfather paused before he said, "The one I feed is the one that will win." So if we feed the vicious and cruel wolf, then that's what we're going to get. On the other hand, if we starve it and we feed the one that's wise and kind and loving, then that's also what we're going to get. So the third point, the third step to changing your heart from one that's deceitful and wicked to one that's pure and clean is to continually feed your heart with pure, clean thoughts and actions and also, to go along with it, to keep company with people of like mind. It's so important that we apply this third step in our lives. It is a key to changing, to overcoming, to growing spiritually, to creating a repentant, clean, and pure heart out of one that's deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. We have to feed it with good spiritual food. When we do that, then we will be stronger. We'll have a more repentant heart. God will bless us and be with us.

So learning to hunger and thirst for righteousness, that's something that I believe comes with that initial repentance at baptism. There should be a hunger and a thirst for righteousness, to want to become like God. And that's something that we should keep nourishing over the years, wanting to become more and more like God, hungering and thirsting for righteousness so that we might be more like Him. When we do that, we are feeding the spiritual heart. When we take time every day to study the Bible, you know, this Word needs to be written in your hearts and in your minds. This is God's Word. And these are the words of life, and the only way to put them in your heart and mind is to take some time in the Bible. You've got to read it. You've got to study it. You've got to put it into your heart and mind. Now, some of you, maybe you're good at just listening to the Scriptures. Whatever works for you, as long as it's working, I'm okay with that. For me, I like to read it, mark it, study it, you know, get into it in some depth. That's how I'm fed spiritually, is reading the Bible, doing it on a consistent, regular basis. I've been studying the Bible for over 50 years. I'm not tired of it. You know, it's a good book. It is the good book. And it needs to continually be studied, and we need to put that in our hearts and minds. And when we pray, we're drawing near to God. You know, we're communing with God. We're having that relationship with Him. We're discussing things. The sermonette this morning was about when things aren't going so well, and we feel like lamenting, it's okay, because God can take that.

You know, if we're stirred up inside, we're angry about something, we're disturbed by something, you know, God is a good listener. You can go to Him. You can pray to Him. He will give you comfort. He will strengthen you. So that's very important. Prayer, Bible study, fasting on a regular basis, fasting before the Passover, to make sure we got our minds in the right place when we come to Passover. That's important for us to really be willing to make that sacrifice. It's not easy to fast. I don't really enjoy fasting a whole lot. I don't mind it so much once I get into it. Once I'm doing it, it seems to be easier than thinking about it. So don't think about it. Just put it on the calendar and do it. That's probably the best advice I could give you when it comes to fasting. Just pick a day and make it happen. So feeding our heart is so important, feeding it with good spiritual food. Now, the second aspect of this was spending time with people of like mind. Rubbing shoulders with people of like mind, it's important. Obviously, coming here on the Sabbath is important. You know, we draw strength from one another. It should be encouraging to come to church services. We should love and care for each other. God's Spirit should be very evident in this building when we have a room full of people filled with the Spirit of God. So do whatever you can do to make sure that you're spending a lot of time with God's people.

You know, there have been lots of studies that have been made, just physical studies. Researchers from the University of Utah, for example, found that there's a price to pay when couples don't get along. You know, like married couples, if there's a lot of strife and friction in a marriage, then there's a price to pay for that. It's not healthy. It's not a good thing. So I would encourage all husbands and wives especially to be good to yourself. Treat each other with more love, more respect. Listen carefully perhaps, more than you have in the past, and don't get angry quite so easily. You know, I found myself getting a little bit angry this week. I'll tell on myself. I'm sure it was mostly my fault. It may have been a tiny bit my wife but mostly mine. And I was just not feeling really good, and I got a little louder than I should have. It reminded me of a song I heard from Taylor Swift, believe it or not. It's something about not being so loud, and I forget the name of the song, but some of you know the song. It's, you know, like, when you lose your cool and you're being too loud and angry, no one really wants to be around you. So let's be good to each other. Let's treat each other better. That'll be good for everyone.

So this study went on to say... They videotaped 150 husbands and wives discussing sensitive issues. I'm really glad a videotape was not going on this week when I had my issue. But people discussing sensitive issues like how money is managed, who does what, household chores, you know, things like that. They found the following. Women who buried anger rather than speaking out were more likely to succumb to heart disease than wives who were vocal, the study found. And when women became domineering and controlling rather than seeking consensus, damage was done to the husband's coronary health. So it's really not healthy for anyone. It's not healthy for the wife either to be that way. In fact, the Bible even talks about that to some degree. But husbands and wife can both treat each other poorly, and studies show that that's really not healthy. You know, treat each other better. And it doesn't just have to be a marital relationship. Any relationship that you have, being a friend to another, be good to each other. Now, that's healthy.

A British research project yielded remarkably similar results. After a 12-year study of British civil servants, most of whom were married, English researchers concluded that those with hostile intimate relationships were 34% more likely to experience chest pains, heart attacks, and other heart trouble. Even after typical contributing factors such as obesity, smoking, and drinking were eliminated from the equation, those in troubled relationships were still at 23% greater risk for a heart attack. So it really does affect us. It's stressful to have these kind of relationships. The study went on to say, "If you have good people around, it's good for your health," said lead researcher Roberto de Vogli, "If you have bad people around you, it's much worse for your health." So it is important, the company that we keep, so it is important that we spend as much time as we can with those of like mind that will edify us, lift us up, and help us. This was from a number of articles entitled, "The Fine Art of Marital Dispute," "Study Ties Marital Strife to Heart Disease," and another article, "A Bad Relationship Can Cause Heart Attacks." So those were done around 2007, so they're a little outdated, but I think they probably still apply. Things haven't changed that much.

All right. According to research by University of Chicago sociologist Linda Waite, divorce will break your heart and that health streak you've been on. In an article for the "Journal of Health and Social Behavior," Waite says people who suffer marital disruption through either divorce or widowhood are 20% more likely to have chronic health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, or cancer than married people. They're also 23% more likely to face mobility issues in older age. So this is another study from the University of Chicago. Keeping good company and having pure, clean thoughts is good for the physical heart. It's also good for the spiritual heart. Again, drink from the fountain of living waters. That's what we all need to be doing.

And one last verse or verses under this topic is Philippians 4:6-9, where Paul says we should meditate on these things. So I think we have time to go to Philippians 4, Philippians 4:6-9. You know, this is where Paul is talking to them about meditating on those things that are right and good, those things that are pure, those things that are lovely.

Philippians 4:6-8 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there's any virtue and if there's anything praiseworthy, then meditate on these things."

But I wonder how much time we spend on negative things. You know, I think that would be kind of a scary study if someone cataloged all of our negative thoughts throughout the week, all of our negative interactions with people. I think it would be shocking to many of us just how often our mind goes to those negative things. Again, the heart is deceitful above all things. It's desperately wicked. You know, it wants to pull us down. Paul says don't think on those things. Think on those things that are uplifting, that are right and good and true and pure and lovely. How much better off we would be if we could just learn to do that. So the third step in changing your heart to one that's pure and clean in both thought and action is to keep company with people of like mind and continually feed on those things that are right and good with God's truth, God's word. Put it into your heart and mind. Again, drink from the fountain of living waters, and drink freely from that fountain.

Now, the fourth step, the last step, in changing your heart from one that's deceitful and wicked to one that's pure and clean is to never turn from that lifelong commitment. Okay, we just talked about that lifelong commitment at baptism. Now, make a commitment to keep that commitment. Make sure that you're committed for the rest of your life to keep that commitment. You know, some people really frankly haven't been. They were baptized, but they lost sight of what that's all about. We cannot afford to lose sight of the commitment that we made at baptism. And I'm grateful that God gives us a yearly reminder in the springtime. It's called Passover. It's called the Days of Unleavened Bread. It gives us a yearly reminder of how we need to get our minds right with God. And we all know King David was a man after God's own heart in many, many ways. That's what God says, that's what the Bible says about him. But he also was a physical human being with physical issues, and being a king probably didn't make it easier, probably made it harder for him. Because he had some pretty bad issues, and we know about them. The Bible tells us at least a couple of his sins. It tells us more than a couple. But two that really come to mind are addressed in Psalm 51.

This is a Psalm of repentance. Psalm 51, it's one that many of us are familiar with. We often read it this time of the year. It is David's prayer of repentance after sinning with Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite. Now, it was difficult for David to come to grips with his sin. For months, he would not own up to his sin. He would not admit his sin. In fact, God had to send a prophet to him to finally get his attention. And you may remember the story that was told by Nathan the prophet about the little lamb, and David became incensed because someone took that lamb and killed that lamb. And what did Nathan say to David? He said, "You are that man. You are the man because you've taken a man's wife, someone he loved, and you've committed adultery with her, and you've also killed the husband." So a very serious sin, two very serious sins. And David finally came to grips when he was told point blank, "You are the man." You know, we all need to realize that we can also be the man or the woman who's at fault at times. You know, it's not always easy to own up to our sins, to what we've done. But we need to do that. David finally was able to do that, and here's what he had to say - 

Psalm 51:1-11 "Have mercy upon me, oh, God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies." Yes, he's throwing himself before God because he knew that he was in great danger. He was in great jeopardy for his life. "Have mercy upon me, oh, God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Forgive me my sins. Blot them out. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity." He was owning his sin here. "Cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions." Again, that was the first step in having a repentant heart, is to be able to admit that you've sinned. "For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, and you only, have I sinned," because ultimately all sin is towards God, because God is the giver of life, He's the lawgiver. Sin is the transgression of God's law, "Against you, and you only, have I sinned. I've done this evil in your sight that you may be found just when you speak. I know I'm to blame, God. I know that. You are blameless when you judge. I'm guilty. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin, my mother conceived me."

This just is an admission that, like all of us, human nature, the heart is deceitful above all things. It's desperately wicked. "Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts." Again, God looks on the heart. He wants truth. He wants to see truth there. He wants to see purity. He does not want to see hypocrisy. "And in the hidden part, you will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities." "Cover me, Father, through the sacrifice of your Son Jesus Christ," that's what we would say today. "Create in me a clean heart, oh, God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." So this is reminiscent of what we read in 2 Corinthians 7. This is what true repentance looks like. "Create in me a clean heart, oh, God. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me." David understood that, if God took the Holy Spirit away from him, then that would be the end of David. He would not have eternal life. He would not be given the gift of eternal life. Once God enlightens us with His Spirit and takes that away from us, there is no repenting after that point.

Psalm 51:12-19 So he says, "Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Restore to me the joy of your salvation." Again, repentance is the key to salvation. We must have a repentant heart. That is what God needs to see when He looks at our hearts. "Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me by your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways. Then I can be an instrument in your hands to help others," but first I have to get clean myself. I have to be cleansed of my sin. He says, "Then I will teach transgressors your way, and sinners shall be converted to you." So there was a zeal. He wanted to do better. He wanted to help others. "Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, oh, God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness." He knew he wasn't righteous. It was God's righteousness being applied on his behalf through the sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ, looking forward to this sacrifice. "Oh, Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth your praise, for you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These, oh, God, you will not despise. Do good in your good pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then you shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then they shall offer bulls on your altar." But God is most concerned about our sacrifice, a repentant heart.

So, Jeremiah 31 talks about a new covenant that God is giving to us. He says, "I will make a new covenant with the house of Judah and with the house of Israel. I will write my laws in their hearts and in their minds." And Ezekiel 36 basically says the same thing, "A new heart I will give you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh." We're called now, so God is already in the process of changing our wicked, deceitful hearts into loving, kind, generous, compassionate, godly hearts. We should all be very, very grateful for that. God is taking away the stony heart out of our flesh. Now, as Paul talked about the works of the flesh, he also talked about the fruit of the Spirit. And we know what those fruits are. We talk a lot about the fruit of God's Holy Spirit. That's what God wants to see. That's a repentant heart. Love, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, gentleness, meekness, humility, self-control. These are all aspects, the fruits of God's Holy Spirit. That's what God needs to see when He looks on your heart. That's evidence of a repentant heart.

So, Brethren, Passover is an annual reminder that we're all responsible for the death of the only person who never deserved to die. Christ was perfect. He was sinless. But our sins killed Jesus Christ. Your sins, my sins killed Jesus Christ. Sin is the transgression, the breaking of God's law, and we've all done it. Through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ, God has made a way of escape for us, escape from eternal death. Christ died to pay that penalty for us. We embrace that sacrifice, don't we? Every Passover. We go to Passover so very grateful that God is a loving, merciful, and forgiving God. That allows us to continue on, doesn't it? It allows me to continue on, knowing that my sins are forgiven on a regular basis when I repent of my sins. You know, again, God looks on the heart, and that's what He needs to see. Jesus makes it possible to be forgiven our sins and to receive the gift of salvation, to receive eternal life in God's Kingdom. God the Father has chosen to forgive our sins if we will humble ourselves, if we will repent of our sins, and if we truly have accepted Christ as our Savior.

And of course, we also must learn to forgive. We will be forgiven in the same manner that we forgive others. So as the Passover and God's spring holy days rapidly approach, we're less than a month away, we adults who are baptized are admonished to examine ourselves, and then we are to take of the unleavened bread and wine, symbolic of our acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Savior. God will deem us worthy to keep the Passover. It isn't that we're truly worthy, but God deems us or counts us worthy when He sees a repentant heart. To examine oneself means to pierce into one's heart. It means to look deeply within ourselves and to repent of any unclean thought or unclean action. We're now in a very important part of the year spiritually. It's important that we focus on God's instructions regarding preparing for taking the Passover. He says to examine yourself. Are you in the faith? It is important that we all take a pre-Passover heart exam or take a moment to look inside our hearts and to make sure that a thorough cleaning job is going on in there. If there's anything that we should repent of, let's ask God to show us what it is we need to repent of.

So the fourth step in changing your heart from one that's deceitful and wicked to one that's pure and clean, to a repentant heart is to never turn from that lifelong commitment that you've already made. Be committed to that commitment. Continue to keep the faith. The Passover is a reminder and renewal of that commitment for all baptized members. Those who are not baptized should carefully consider their calling as well. So, brethren, God looks on the heart, so should we. Ninety percent of those who have heart bypass surgery don't change their lifestyle, but remember 10% of them did change. Ten percent do change. It is possible to change, and especially with God's help. From his hospital bed on the eve of open heart surgery, a man asked his cardiologist, "Can you fix my heart?" The physician, known for being short and to the point, unlike most doctors, right? Now, he was probably a typical doctor. He said, "Sure, I can fix your heart." Then he quickly turned and walked away. Following the long surgery, the man asked his doctor, "In light of the blocked arteries that I had when I checked into the hospital, how much blood supply do I have now after the surgery?" "All you'll ever need," the terse surgeon said, who again ended the conversation by walking away. Upon his discharge from the hospital, the man's wife confronted the doctor, "What about my husband's future quality of life?" The doctor paused and then said to his wife, "I fixed his heart. The quality of his life is up to him."

You know, the quality of our lives are up to us largely. God has made us free moral agents. We're supposed to choose life. We're supposed to do the right thing. God wants us certainly to choose life so that we may live. Passover will be here very quickly, so let's be sure we do a thorough heart examination prior to Passover. A truly repentant heart leads to salvation in our Savior Jesus Christ.