The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-23, titled "Questions and Answers--Part 51."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. Copyright 2001 by John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

Seeing that Christianity is the only true religion and God only accepts worship from a heart--a clean, pure heart (as the Psalms say over and over again: “clean hands and a pure heart”), why would you say it is that we’re constantly told even from the pulpit that we have wicked hearts? And if we don’t, if we do have new hearts, as the Bible teaches, could you clear that up for us?

Answer

Sure. That’s one of those things that has a simple and yet profound answer. No true Christian will say that he has no sin, right? I mean, if you’re truly a Christian, you’re not going to say that you have no sin unless you’ve been led astray by somebody who has told you that mistakes and sins are different--and there are some theologies that espouse that. We are all very much aware even as [we] grow in Christ of our sin. To say [we] enter with clean hands and a pure heart is simply to say that sin is as much as is possible being confronted and dealt with in our lives.

It can be illustrated in the words of Jesus who said, “If you have something against your brother, make it right; then come and worship.” It isn’t that you’ll never again have anything wrong with your brother, it doesn’t mean that you have to be a person who never offends anybody, but if you know there’s something wrong, you go make it right; then you come and worship.

In Hebrews--we were quoting some things from Hebrews early in the morning service today--there is a call in the book of Hebrews to a cleansing of one’s own heart. Hebrews, chapter 10, it says, “Having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus.” Well, I have to go into the holy place by the blood of Jesus because I’m a sinner. I don’t have any access there unless I go because Christ has made the way for me. So I go in, in a sense, recognizing that a sacrifice had to be made for me to even enter that place. I go through “a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,” and then this, “having our hearts washed from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

In other words, whenever you come to worship, you need to be going through a heart examination and seeking that the Lord would cleanse your heart. That’s what it’s all about. That’s the clean hands: there’s no unconfessed sin. There’s no sin in my life that I’m holding onto, that I’m harboring, that I’m entertaining, that I’m indulging in--that is unacceptable to God. The fact that I am a sinner is reality. If I’m going to come and worship the Lord, then I need to do what Hebrews 10 says: I need to draw near with a true heart, having my heart washed and my body washed to make sure that I have brought myself before the Lord for appropriate cleansing and that’s confession and repentance.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
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