The God of the Bible is extremely interested in our true selves. God has never been interested in bare external observances even when those observances have been based on God’s commandments. In fact, God sometimes angrily rejected Israel’s divinely prescribed sacrifices because they were nothing but ritualistic externals without life-changing internals (see, for example, Isaiah 1:10-17). God wants God’s will and God’s Word to take up permanent residence in the center of ourselves.

I have believed this for a long time. But I was still surprised when I went through the New Testament and read every occurrence of the word "heart" or "hearts" found there. R. C. Dentan in The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (vol. 2, p. 549) well conveys how the biblical world primarily used the word for the human heart. He says that the heart "denotes primarily the psyche at its deepest level." In other words, it is the person’s true self. Underneath all the facades is the heart. And the heart is what God wants.

Listen to just a few of the passages which clearly reveal how much emphasis is placed by the New Testament upon the heart. To a people who were highly concerned about food laws Jesus, in Mark 7:15-23, says,

"Don’t you see that nothing that enters a [person] from the outside defiles? For it doesn’t go into the heart but into the stomach, and then out of the body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")

He went on: "What comes out of a person is what defiles. For from within, out of the human heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and they defile.

Notice that defiling involves the heart, the inside of a person, the person’s true self.

Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower and, in Luke 8:15, explains the good soil of that parable by saying, "these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance." What makes the people represented by the good soil a people who bear good fruit? Jesus says they receive and hold fast the word of God "in an honest and good heart."

Stephen, a very early Christian, was preaching to angry accusers in Acts 7 when he said, "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do." In Acts 28:27 the apostle Paul was preaching to a group of Jews in Rome who refused to believe in Jesus. As they were leaving Paul quoted these words from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah,

"For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn—and I would heal them."

The focus is on the people "understanding with their heart."

And listen to even more words from Paul; listen to Romans 2:29. There Paul says, "a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart—it is spiritual and not literal." In Ephesians 3:16-17 Paul writes,

I pray that, according to the riches of [the Father’s] glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian Christians was that Christ might dwell in their hearts and that the Spirit’s power might strengthen their inner being.

In Hebrews 8 the writer of Hebrews is quoting from the thirty-first chapter of the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, and in the midst of doing so, in Hebrews 8:10, we read, "I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." God wanted his will to be imprinted on the inside of people, on their minds and hearts.

1 Peter 3:15 calls upon its readers to "sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts." And 1 John 5:10 says, "Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts."

We could read many more relevant biblical texts, including lots of passages from the Old Testament; but I think these are sufficient to make the point: The Bible is primarily interested in the state of our hearts, our inner selves. God desires that the truth of the gospel live and work within our hearts and that transformation take place from the inside out.

The horrific events a few months ago at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, have caused this nation to do some needed soul-searching. What is wrong with a nation where such bizarre and murderous rampages take place? Blame has been laid along lines that we have grown accustomed to in our polarized nation. The fault is the easy access to guns, some say. Others disagree; they believe it is the outlawing of prayer in public schools; that is the root of these problems. Some lawmakers think that posting the Ten Commandments in all of our public schools could go a long way toward solving the problem.

I find it interesting that all three of these responses which I have heard the most have one thing in common. They all seek to change the nation by legal changes, by externals. "Let’s make laws to control guns." "Let’s make it legal to pray in our public schools." "Let’s put the law of God on the walls of our schools." Only God knows how much good any of these changes would really make, and I want to be clear in saying that I do not have the foresight needed to deny or to affirm much about any of these proposed changes. They may all do good; they may all help not a bit. I lack the insight needed to say anything with certainty about such matters.

But I do know that as a people of the Bible we go first to Scripture when we try to respond to any issue of any kind. And I find it interesting that Jesus was opposed and condemned by Jewish leaders who read and revered the Ten Commandments and who certainly would have insisted that prayer took place in all Jewish schools.

Now please do not mishear me. Posting the Ten Commandments might have a positive impact in our public schools. Having public prayers there might too. Any number of changes might help, changes that no one has even thought of yet.

But we must be clear, brothers and sisters. We must stay focused on what God wants most of all. The changes that are most important to God do not take place this way. The changes God wants begin on the inside; they happen by the power of God working within the human heart.

Be reminded of our Scripture reading. Nicodemus was a leader of the Jews. He knew the Ten Commandments. He knew how to pray. But even if he had been able to articulate the best possible view on laws regulating weapons, Jesus would still have made clear that Nicodemus’s real need would only be met when he was born again by the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

I have no problem with any believer entering energetically into the debate concerning gun control. I have no problem with any believer entering energetically into the debate concerning public prayers in public schools. I have no problem with believers who enter energetically into the debate concerning the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools. I would not be surprised at all to learn that some are called by God to participate in such debates.

But brothers and sisters, I think God has a problem with us when we become so focused on change regarding those issues that we forget the real change God desires. God desires for people to be born again by the power of the Holy Spirit, because God knows that new birth means new person, and new persons create a new nation of righteousness, justice, and peace.

Sisters and brothers, may we quit looking to laws made by secular bodies as the answer to America’s problems. Americans need new birth from God. That is the answer. We know it. We have it. Let’s share it. Let’s spread the Word that has saved our lives and will save our nation and the world as God wants them saved.

New birth, new nation. New nation by new birth. That’s our goal. No other will do. Let’s focus on the goal of God. New birth, new nation. May the sound of God’s vision ring in our ears. May God’s vision be imprinted on our hearts.

Brother Scott Mack is going to come and lead us in a prayer for our nation. Let’s all join him in that prayer. Let’s all pray that more and more people will be born again by faith in Jesus and by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Scott come lead us.