A CHANGE OF HEART
God’s Heart Never Changes
Did Jesus love Judas - the disciple who betrayed him? Yes! Jesus had a soft spot in his heart for Judas Iscariot and gave him countless opportunities to repent of his sins before it was too late. Even after Judas had done the unthinkable and handed Jesus over to his enemies, the Lord continued to love this disciple up until the moment he died. Did the Lord love Adam and Eve even after they disobeyed him and gave up perfection for a bite of fruit? Yes! The Lord’s heart went out to this first couple of his creation and he immediately came down to this earth so that he could offer them the promise of a Savior. Did Jesus love his Jewish countrymen who not only rejected him but who even tried to kill him on numerous occasions for claiming that he was the Christ? Yes! His heart ached for those people so much that he once said, “How I have longed to gather you together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” Did the Lord love his Old Testament people of Israel even after they had refused to listen to him and had forgotten his Word so many times that they were punished with an invading army and thrown into exile in Babylon? Yes! We just read in the book of Ezekiel that the Lord’s heart yearned for his people as he continued to send prophets to them so that they would not die in their sins but “repent and live.”
Does the Lord love you even after you have done unmentionable things against his clear Word, even after you have said some very inappropriate words unbecoming of a Christian, even after you have thought absolutely disgusting things that would make most people blush? Yes! Your Lord’s heart has not lost an ounce of affection for you throughout all these years you have lived on this earth. No sin, no mistake, no fault, no rebellious attitude or guilt-ridden conscience has changed the heart of your God for you. He loves you just as much now as he did when he was hanging on that cross. He loves you just as much now as he did when he hand-crafted you in your mother’s womb. He loves you just as much now as he did on the day of your baptism. God’s heart never changes. Nothing we do can make him love us more. And nothing we do can ever make him love us less.
Matthew’s Heart
The apostle Matthew was well aware of this never-changing heart of his Lord. He had once been a tax collector, after all, and he probably wasn’t used to being liked by many people. Because a tax collector in that 1st century culture was a Jewish IRS agent who worked for the Roman government, collecting taxes from his fellow citizens on behalf of a nation they didn’t like very much. In fact, tax collectors were apparently supposed to collect more than what people owed so that they could make a living themselves. Matthew was undoubtedly hated by many of his own people. But Jesus loved Matthew and opened his heart to him. And so it is not surprising that Matthew recorded for us these particular words of Christ in his gospel account. Listen closely: “There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.”
Matthew, as a tax collector, was included in that “first son” of the parable, the one who had initially refused to listen to his Father but then had a change of heart and obeyed. Matthew understood the grace of his God and the mercy that he had shown him. The heart of the Lord had reached out to him through the Word, changed his heart and drew him away from sin and to his Savior. And throughout his life Matthew undoubtedly learned to appreciate even more the unchanging heart of his Lord - because it had changed him.
A Change of Heart
The Lord’s heart never changes, but our hearts do, don’t they? We like something one minute and we dislike it the next. We have an opinion in this direction one day and think just the opposite the day following. Even in the spiritual realm our hearts fluctuate to the extreme. We are very forgiving and compassionate to a person one moment, but the next time around we are anything but. We strive to keep the Lord’s laws and commands with every bit of energy we have for an entire morning, but for the entire next week his directives never even cross our minds. We firmly trust in what he promises and completely depend on his love in one situation, but when something else comes around we doubt and we worry and we second guess what he has said to us in his Word all along. Our hearts are up and down, side to side, strong and weak; never stable, always changing. Especially when it comes to repentance. We are really really sorry for our sins at times, but then at other times we just shake our heads and shrug our shoulders and don’t think much about them. We take our sins seriously when we have to deal with those feelings of guilt, but we tend to just brush those sins off if our conscience isn’t really affected by those sins that we have committed so many times before that it’s just second nature now.
Our hearts change for the worse all the time every day and so sometimes we need a change of heart for the better. A change of heart that is affected by God and his Word. Sometimes we need the Lord to change our hearts for us because we can’t do it ourselves. We need him to convict our hearts, to grab our hearts with his law, and to shake our hearts until he convinces us of the seriousness of our sins. Sometimes we need his Word to force us to reconsider what we have done and said and thought and admit that it’s ugly and repulsive and sickening, that it’s not OK, that it’s not an “Oh well, I’m sure the Lord understands, it’s not that big of a deal.” Sin is a big deal. Sin is damaging. That’s why we publically confess our sins together every single Sunday morning. Do you remember what we said together today? “Merciful Father in heaven, I am altogether sinful from birth. In countless ways I have sinned against you and do not deserve to be called your child. But trusting in Jesus, my Savior, I pray: Have mercy on me according to your unfailing love. Cleanse me from my sin, and take away my guilt.” This is a serious confession of sins, isn’t it? It’s serious repentance: a change of heart, an admission of our guilt and a trust in God’s mercy. And it is important for us to do that not only weekly as a congregation, but daily as individual Christians. Of course, it’s even more important to hear God’s response to our repentance. This is God’s response that we heard this morning:
A Forgiven Heart
“God, our heavenly Father, has forgiven all your sins. By the perfect life and innocent death of our Lord Jesus Christ, he has removed your guilt forever. You are his own dear child. May God give you strength to live according to his will.” Some more powerful words! And if I may be so bold: the single most important part of any worship service is the confession of sins and the announcement of forgiveness. But you are forgiven again! Every time! Each week you are the first son in the parable. A Christian who has sinned. A Christian who has done wrong. A Christian who has sometimes brushed off those sins and has occasionally forgotten about the seriousness of their consequences. But your heart has been changed. And so has mine. You heart has been forgiven. And so has mine. Your heart has been saved. And so has mine. We have entered the kingdom of God along with those tax collectors and prostitutes at the end of Jesus’ parable by believing in Jesus as our Savior. The Lord does not hold our past actions against us; he doesn’t even hold our future sins against us because of the incredible patience of our God, his love, and his compassion. And why would he do such a thing? Because his heart never changes.
And so we’re right back to where we started: God’s heart never changes. We need a change of heart at times, we need our hearts to be worked over and worked through, but the Lord’s heart is constantly full of love and mercy and forgiveness - and that will never change. And that’s why we are forgiven: not because of repentance but because of his love. Repentance doesn’t produce forgiveness; forgiveness produces repentance. We already know what he has done, we believe in what he has sacrificed, and so we are moved to confess our sins to him and cling to his promises. Repentance is not a prerequisite of being a Christian, it’s a product of being a Christian. Christian’s repent: humbly but joyfully, solemnly but eagerly. Because we know what’s coming after we confess our sins! And we can’t wait for his love! We can’t get enough of his forgiveness! And he can’t get enough of forgiving us again. It’s kind of a nice setup, isn’t it? We need; God gives. We fall; he picks us up. We turn away; he turns us back.
The psalm we sang today was Psalm 25. And like many of the psalms in Scripture it was written by King David - a man who needed a change of heart at times. You remember what he did: He slept with another man’s wife and then ordered her husband to be placed in the front lines of the battle formation so that he would be killed and never find out that David had gotten his wife pregnant. And for almost a year David never repented of his sins; he brushed them off; he ignored their consequences. Until that day a prophet of the Lord confronted him with his sin and changed his heart. Psalm 25 is one of those psalms that displays David’s sorrow over sin and his trust in God’s mercy. David wrote things like: “Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD… For the sake of your name, O LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great… Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart have multiplied; free me from my anguish. Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins.” David was sincerely sorry for all of the things that he had done. He was heartbroken because of the way he had treated his Lord. And just like Matthew he could have been compared to that first son in the parable: he had certainly sinned in many different ways, but he had a change of heart because the Lord’s Word had affected that change. David repented of his sins, believed in God’s forgiveness, and was saved.
The Lord’s heart has changed our hearts too, hasn’t it? The Lord has done the same things for us as he did for Matthew and David: He has worked faith in our hearts to believe in his sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection from the tomb. He has turned our hearts away from the control of our sinful nature. He has pulled our hearts closer to him. He has shielded our hearts from many of the dangerous attacks of the devil himself. He has assured our hearts that we will one day be in heaven with him forever. The unchanging heart of the Lord has done amazing things for us! He has changed our hearts through his Word for the better in every way! And he will continue to do that. Every time you come into contact with his powerful Word your heart will be affected. And through that Word you will continue to grow in your knowledge of him and your changed heart will overflow with affection for everything that he has done.
Amen.
“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy - to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!” - Jude 24-25
God’s Heart Never Changes
Did Jesus love Judas - the disciple who betrayed him? Yes! Jesus had a soft spot in his heart for Judas Iscariot and gave him countless opportunities to repent of his sins before it was too late. Even after Judas had done the unthinkable and handed Jesus over to his enemies, the Lord continued to love this disciple up until the moment he died. Did the Lord love Adam and Eve even after they disobeyed him and gave up perfection for a bite of fruit? Yes! The Lord’s heart went out to this first couple of his creation and he immediately came down to this earth so that he could offer them the promise of a Savior. Did Jesus love his Jewish countrymen who not only rejected him but who even tried to kill him on numerous occasions for claiming that he was the Christ? Yes! His heart ached for those people so much that he once said, “How I have longed to gather you together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” Did the Lord love his Old Testament people of Israel even after they had refused to listen to him and had forgotten his Word so many times that they were punished with an invading army and thrown into exile in Babylon? Yes! We just read in the book of Ezekiel that the Lord’s heart yearned for his people as he continued to send prophets to them so that they would not die in their sins but “repent and live.”
Does the Lord love you even after you have done unmentionable things against his clear Word, even after you have said some very inappropriate words unbecoming of a Christian, even after you have thought absolutely disgusting things that would make most people blush? Yes! Your Lord’s heart has not lost an ounce of affection for you throughout all these years you have lived on this earth. No sin, no mistake, no fault, no rebellious attitude or guilt-ridden conscience has changed the heart of your God for you. He loves you just as much now as he did when he was hanging on that cross. He loves you just as much now as he did when he hand-crafted you in your mother’s womb. He loves you just as much now as he did on the day of your baptism. God’s heart never changes. Nothing we do can make him love us more. And nothing we do can ever make him love us less.
Matthew’s Heart
The apostle Matthew was well aware of this never-changing heart of his Lord. He had once been a tax collector, after all, and he probably wasn’t used to being liked by many people. Because a tax collector in that 1st century culture was a Jewish IRS agent who worked for the Roman government, collecting taxes from his fellow citizens on behalf of a nation they didn’t like very much. In fact, tax collectors were apparently supposed to collect more than what people owed so that they could make a living themselves. Matthew was undoubtedly hated by many of his own people. But Jesus loved Matthew and opened his heart to him. And so it is not surprising that Matthew recorded for us these particular words of Christ in his gospel account. Listen closely: “There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.”
Matthew, as a tax collector, was included in that “first son” of the parable, the one who had initially refused to listen to his Father but then had a change of heart and obeyed. Matthew understood the grace of his God and the mercy that he had shown him. The heart of the Lord had reached out to him through the Word, changed his heart and drew him away from sin and to his Savior. And throughout his life Matthew undoubtedly learned to appreciate even more the unchanging heart of his Lord - because it had changed him.
A Change of Heart
The Lord’s heart never changes, but our hearts do, don’t they? We like something one minute and we dislike it the next. We have an opinion in this direction one day and think just the opposite the day following. Even in the spiritual realm our hearts fluctuate to the extreme. We are very forgiving and compassionate to a person one moment, but the next time around we are anything but. We strive to keep the Lord’s laws and commands with every bit of energy we have for an entire morning, but for the entire next week his directives never even cross our minds. We firmly trust in what he promises and completely depend on his love in one situation, but when something else comes around we doubt and we worry and we second guess what he has said to us in his Word all along. Our hearts are up and down, side to side, strong and weak; never stable, always changing. Especially when it comes to repentance. We are really really sorry for our sins at times, but then at other times we just shake our heads and shrug our shoulders and don’t think much about them. We take our sins seriously when we have to deal with those feelings of guilt, but we tend to just brush those sins off if our conscience isn’t really affected by those sins that we have committed so many times before that it’s just second nature now.
Our hearts change for the worse all the time every day and so sometimes we need a change of heart for the better. A change of heart that is affected by God and his Word. Sometimes we need the Lord to change our hearts for us because we can’t do it ourselves. We need him to convict our hearts, to grab our hearts with his law, and to shake our hearts until he convinces us of the seriousness of our sins. Sometimes we need his Word to force us to reconsider what we have done and said and thought and admit that it’s ugly and repulsive and sickening, that it’s not OK, that it’s not an “Oh well, I’m sure the Lord understands, it’s not that big of a deal.” Sin is a big deal. Sin is damaging. That’s why we publically confess our sins together every single Sunday morning. Do you remember what we said together today? “Merciful Father in heaven, I am altogether sinful from birth. In countless ways I have sinned against you and do not deserve to be called your child. But trusting in Jesus, my Savior, I pray: Have mercy on me according to your unfailing love. Cleanse me from my sin, and take away my guilt.” This is a serious confession of sins, isn’t it? It’s serious repentance: a change of heart, an admission of our guilt and a trust in God’s mercy. And it is important for us to do that not only weekly as a congregation, but daily as individual Christians. Of course, it’s even more important to hear God’s response to our repentance. This is God’s response that we heard this morning:
A Forgiven Heart
“God, our heavenly Father, has forgiven all your sins. By the perfect life and innocent death of our Lord Jesus Christ, he has removed your guilt forever. You are his own dear child. May God give you strength to live according to his will.” Some more powerful words! And if I may be so bold: the single most important part of any worship service is the confession of sins and the announcement of forgiveness. But you are forgiven again! Every time! Each week you are the first son in the parable. A Christian who has sinned. A Christian who has done wrong. A Christian who has sometimes brushed off those sins and has occasionally forgotten about the seriousness of their consequences. But your heart has been changed. And so has mine. You heart has been forgiven. And so has mine. Your heart has been saved. And so has mine. We have entered the kingdom of God along with those tax collectors and prostitutes at the end of Jesus’ parable by believing in Jesus as our Savior. The Lord does not hold our past actions against us; he doesn’t even hold our future sins against us because of the incredible patience of our God, his love, and his compassion. And why would he do such a thing? Because his heart never changes.
And so we’re right back to where we started: God’s heart never changes. We need a change of heart at times, we need our hearts to be worked over and worked through, but the Lord’s heart is constantly full of love and mercy and forgiveness - and that will never change. And that’s why we are forgiven: not because of repentance but because of his love. Repentance doesn’t produce forgiveness; forgiveness produces repentance. We already know what he has done, we believe in what he has sacrificed, and so we are moved to confess our sins to him and cling to his promises. Repentance is not a prerequisite of being a Christian, it’s a product of being a Christian. Christian’s repent: humbly but joyfully, solemnly but eagerly. Because we know what’s coming after we confess our sins! And we can’t wait for his love! We can’t get enough of his forgiveness! And he can’t get enough of forgiving us again. It’s kind of a nice setup, isn’t it? We need; God gives. We fall; he picks us up. We turn away; he turns us back.
The psalm we sang today was Psalm 25. And like many of the psalms in Scripture it was written by King David - a man who needed a change of heart at times. You remember what he did: He slept with another man’s wife and then ordered her husband to be placed in the front lines of the battle formation so that he would be killed and never find out that David had gotten his wife pregnant. And for almost a year David never repented of his sins; he brushed them off; he ignored their consequences. Until that day a prophet of the Lord confronted him with his sin and changed his heart. Psalm 25 is one of those psalms that displays David’s sorrow over sin and his trust in God’s mercy. David wrote things like: “Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD… For the sake of your name, O LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great… Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart have multiplied; free me from my anguish. Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins.” David was sincerely sorry for all of the things that he had done. He was heartbroken because of the way he had treated his Lord. And just like Matthew he could have been compared to that first son in the parable: he had certainly sinned in many different ways, but he had a change of heart because the Lord’s Word had affected that change. David repented of his sins, believed in God’s forgiveness, and was saved.
The Lord’s heart has changed our hearts too, hasn’t it? The Lord has done the same things for us as he did for Matthew and David: He has worked faith in our hearts to believe in his sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection from the tomb. He has turned our hearts away from the control of our sinful nature. He has pulled our hearts closer to him. He has shielded our hearts from many of the dangerous attacks of the devil himself. He has assured our hearts that we will one day be in heaven with him forever. The unchanging heart of the Lord has done amazing things for us! He has changed our hearts through his Word for the better in every way! And he will continue to do that. Every time you come into contact with his powerful Word your heart will be affected. And through that Word you will continue to grow in your knowledge of him and your changed heart will overflow with affection for everything that he has done.
Amen.
“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy - to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!” - Jude 24-25
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