Proverbs 23
26 My son, give me your heart, And let your eyes observe my ways.
Lot’s wife came out of Sodom, but Sodom was not out of her heart.
Our problem is not a circumstantial problem, but a problem of the heart. That’s why no politician can solve our problems. The heart must be changed.
There are millionaires who commit suicide because their heart-problem hasn’t been solved.
Ezekiel 36
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
There are people with hearts of stone. Everything they do is with stubborness.
But God wants to take that heart of stone out and replace it with a heart of flesh.
Jesus is the light of the world. If Jesus is not in your heart it is pitch black inside. But the blood of Jesus washes sin away.
Those who are baptised by sprinkling are dry sinners, and those who are baptised by immersion are wet sinners; for water cannot wash away your sin. Only the Blood of Jesus can take away your sin. Being baptised doesn’t help you, unless you’ve been washed by the Blood of Jesus.
He cannot remove that sin unless you confess it with your mouth.
People respect church buildings and don’t smoke there, but your body is God’s temple. There’s an Afrikaans which says, “weet jy nie jy’s ‘n tempel. Jy is ‘n tempel van die Heilige Gees” (Don’t you know you are a temple of the Holy Ghost).
There is also another terrible sin – pride. Pride was the sin that caused Lucifer to be cast out of heaven. He was cast to earth where he infected Adam and Eve with his sin of pride and they were chased out of the garden. King Nebuchadnezzar boasted that he had built the great Babylon and he was humiliated to become like an animal. King Herod spoke in front of people and they praised him, “the voice of a god and not a man”. He took God’s glory to himself and he was struck by an angel that he died and was eaten by worms.
How can man be proud? We were made from dust and will return to dust. Many young people are so proud that they cannot take advice from adults or their parents.
Another song says, “humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up”. Will you humble yourself in His sight so that He can lift you up? Acknowledge you’re a sinner in God’s sight and confess your sin.
The Bible says in Rev 22:15, 16, “outside (of God’s Kingdom) are the dogs”. A dog vomits and then goes back and eats it again. So is a person who confesses his sin and goes back to it. A dog also doesn’t get married but simply flirts around. Such people will be outside of heaven.
1 Cor 6:18 warns us to flee from sexual immorality:
1 Corinthians 6
18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
Today the Lord invites you, as He invited Israel in Isaiah’s time, ” ‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the LORD, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’ “