Garland, Texas - Searching the Heart by J. Edwin Orr

Because it enables me to give a continued ministry, if we want to know how God works in times of revival, we must consider the forgotten doctrines of revival. Now, evangelism is a different thing. An evangelist knows that some people will come one night and not come the next night, so he wants to present the gospel. That's why you have "Pack a Pew" night, senior citizens' night, young people's night, and so forth. That's evangelism. But one happy thing is here we have people who have been coming each night. That's what I want to stress.

I talked first on the first word of the gospel: repent. Repentance means to change your attitude. Then, when I came back from the engagement in Chicago, I spoke on conscience and conviction. You remember I asked you if God should show you something wrong in your life, would you put it right? Many of you said yes. I didn't ask you to stand up and say it because if the Lord shows me something wrong, I'll put it right. Then last night, I talked about confession. I think it's quite clear: if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If a non-believer wants to get right with God seeking salvation, he must repent and be converted. But if a believer, already converted, finds himself out of fellowship with God, he must repent and make confession of his fault. I said let the circle of the sin be the circle of confession. If you've sinned against God, put it right with God. If you sinned privately, put it right with the person you've wronged or someone hurt by it. If you sinned openly, put it right before those who know about it.

So tonight, I want to give some scriptures to help you in searching of heart. I told you that I was talking to George Gallup. Not only did he say that the number of people who claimed to be born again has risen, but he said the lifestyle of church members isn't much different from the lifestyle of non-church members. So I wanted to speak to you about the Lord's standards for believers, and we're going to turn to that well-known passage. I'm sure you know it; it's called the Sermon on the Mount. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them.

To whom was the Sermon on the Mount directed? To disciples, to believers. Now, I'm not going to deal with the Beatitudes. I'm not going to deal with these statements: "You're the salt of the earth," "You're the light of the world." But I want to deal with his challenges, and I'm going to begin with a well-known passage. If you look at verse 21, if you're following me there, you will find, "You have heard that it was said to men of old, 'You shall not commit murder, and whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.'" Now notice what he was saying. Everyone knows that murder is wrong. The Jews knew that murder was wrong. The Greeks knew that murder was wrong. The Romans knew that murder was wrong. There was nothing new here. And today, we could say that murder is wrong not only in the United States but in Canada, in Cuba, and in any country you care to mention. Murder is a social crime.

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. What a contrast! In one breath, he's speaking of murder; in the next breath, of bad temper. To whom is he speaking? To his disciples. In other words, I'm telling you that you must be more particular. Now, why should he make such a comparison? Well, you see, when a man loses his temper, he's possessed of a desire to hurt someone. He may do it with his tongue; he may do it with his fists. Have you ever heard someone say, "I'll beat him within an inch of his life"? In other words, "I don't want to go to jail for murder, but I'm going to make him feel it." That's bad temper.

But now, a man wouldn't say to his wife, "I'm going to beat you within an inch of your life." Oh, there are some that do that; they're battered wives. But perhaps he'll give her a tongue lashing. That's bad temper. Desiring to hurt is sin. Now, I'm Irish, and most Irish people think that they're especially privileged to lose their temper. Irish people are noted for quick temper, aren't they? They're noted for good humor, that's true, but they're noted for quick temper. And as I told you in another meeting, I had my share of both. I had a bad temper, but I never admitted it was wrong. I called it righteous indignation, but it's bad temper.

It's amazing how people can control their temper when they have to. I served in the Air Force. I remember there was a sergeant in our outfit with such a bad temper that the men said of him, "When he spat on the ground, the grass burst into flame." He was a rough-tongued man. One day, he came into the enlisted man's mess hall. Somebody had put a vase with chrysanthemums there. He thought, "Of all the things for a military man, that was a sissy." So he said, "Who put those flowers there?" and nobody answered. He was provoked. He said, "I said, who put those flowers there?" and a PFC answered very evenly, "The colonel put them there." And the sergeant said, "Pretty, huh?" He could control his temper when he wanted to.

I have seen drivers on a freeway cut in on each other and shout abuse and make obscene gestures. I've never seen them do it to the police. You can control your temper. Now, if I want to know whether or not you have a bad temper, I wouldn't ask how you behave in church. You're an angel here, comparatively speaking. I would ask those who have to take it from you: your family, your employees, your workmates, those who have to take it from you, whether or not you have a bad temper. A bad temper is a sin, so we must repent of it.

While we're at it, maybe we consider some of the other sins of the tongue, not only bad temper. By the way, the scripture's full of it, you know: "Cease from anger, forsake wrath." Could you put that in plain English? Quit your bad temper. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Well, there are other sins of the tongue. One is profanity. I remember the time when you never heard a word of profanity on radio, TV, or the movies. But these days, you're shocked beyond measure. But when I look around a Christian audience, there isn't anyone here foul-tongued. You'd be ashamed of it, wouldn't you? But I notice that euphemisms are often used. In other words, when a man comes back from the war where he has used very rough language, now he notices ladies' presence, he uses softer words that sound like the swear words. You look up the dictionary; you may be surprised to read this.

Take, for instance, the word "gosh." Look up in the Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. It says, "Gosh, a euphemism for God." Look up "gee." It says, "A euphemism for Jesus." In other words, people who don't like saying the ugly word say something that sounds like it. This may be a new thought to some of you. That's why Jesus said, "Let your conversation be yea and nay," just plain talk. The English language has 750,000 words. Surely there are enough words without indulging in either what you call swearing or in minced oaths. That's what the dictionary calls them: minced oaths. So take care of your tongue. You know, the word "darn" is just a euphemism for "damn." Of course it is.

Now, I doubt if there's anything more clearly condemned in scripture than lying. The Lord Jesus characterized the devil as a liar. He said, "When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies." Now, when we apply this standard that the Lord Jesus gave us, everyone knows that murder is wrong. No murder in your hearts. Everyone knows that lying is wrong. No deceit in your heart. Finney said, "Anytime you give an impression contrary to the naked truth, you're guilty of lying."

Now, you can say what is not true without telling a lie. You might say, "Where is your brother? You've got a brother, haven't you?" I said, "Yes." "Where is he?" I said, "He's in London." If you looked him up when you got over there and found he had moved to Glasgow in Scotland, did I tell a lie? No, I said what I thought was true, though it was not accurate. You can say what is not true without making a lie of it. But likewise, you can say what is true and give a totally wrong impression. I was speaking at a Christian college in New England, and I saw the president of the college kissing a pretty waitress. If I didn't add the fact that he had just come back from the Congo on a mission trip and this was his little daughter and he hadn't seen her for months, I would have made a lie out of the truth.

There are some Christians who wouldn't be caught lying, but they deceive. They know they're giving a wrong impression, and that's the same test. You all know that lying is wrong. No deceit in your heart. I think we can go further than that. What about this subject of criticism? Now, that's a word that is used in two ways. An art critic is one who goes to an art gallery and says, "Well, now, I like this. He's very good with the colors. That's the sunset all over." But he goes to this, he said, "No, this isn't quite so good." That's criticism, but it's legitimate criticism. It's constructive. But the act of criticizing people unkindly is a vice. Scriptures don't call it criticism; they call it malice.

You know, I miss my wife a great deal. It hasn't been quite so bad here in Garland. My wife back home tries to organize me, and she says, "Well, I tried, but now I've got John Kamp organizing me." And so it hasn't been quite so—I miss her organizing me, you know. Now, my wife criticizes me, but because she loves me, that's why she wants me to. She said, "You know, the first time I ever saw you, you hadn't combed the back of your hair." She's so determined to keep me up to scratch, as it were. Do I resent this? Well, sometimes I'm weary of it, but I know her motive is good, loving criticism. But when you criticize to take someone down a bit, that's a sin.

I remember when I was in New Zealand, I got a letter from a man who had criticized me so bitterly in Canada that he persuaded people not to go to hear me in Massey Hall. We had started in the People's Church, ended up in the big auditorium in Massey Hall. And now he was convicted, four pages of sincere apology. I began to get curious, wonder what it was he had against me. Then I discovered, you know, I was just in my 20s. I was 23, so I grew a mustache to look a little bit more mature. Today they grow a beard; that's the mark of trying to look mature, you know. But he said, "A man with a mustache, that couldn't be living very close to God." I thought that that was the funniest thing I had ever heard. But on the other hand, when I got married, my wife persuaded me to shave it off. But however, that was before that. Then it suddenly struck me, the reason he criticized my mustache wasn't the mustache. He didn't like me. He was pulling me down. That's what he was convicted about. And when you criticize people, you're looking for faults because you don't like them. Is that your weakness?

What about levity? Now, there's a distinction between humor and levity. Humor is really the spice of conversation, but levity is making light of sacred things. We shouldn't do it. Jesting is condemned in scripture. Grumbling was the first sin of the church. It's also a sin of the tongue. Grumbling was the first sin of the Christian church. And of course, foul talk, impure conversation, is condemned in the Ephesian letter. But perhaps we could consider it in another category because it's a form of impurity.

Now look at the Sermon on the Mount, verse 27 this time. Here we find the same principle: the Lord Jesus Christ saying, "No murder in your heart." And here he says, "You have heard that it was said by them of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.'" Adultery was a sin to the Jews, to the Greeks, to the Romans. I don't know any political party in any part of the world, whether the United States or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, any party that advocates adultery because the family is the unit of society, and adultery is a sin against the family. Now the Lord says, "You all know that adultery is wrong, but I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." The same principle: you know that adultery is wrong, but no impurity in your heart.

I had people come to me and say, "That's my trouble. If I told the people what I thought about half the time, they wouldn't speak to me." Impurity, sins of the thought, sins of conversation, sins of behavior. Out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, leads to fornication, adultery, lust, the evil eye. Those are the words of Jesus Christ. Most temptations are in the imagination. I was walking down Swanson Street in Melbourne just a few weeks ago with Glenn Shepard of the Home Mission Board and Ivor Jones, an Australian evangelist. And one of these, I don't know what you would call them in Texas, barker people who try to sell you something, came out and tried to persuade us to go in for what they call adult entertainment. What a misnomer! I would say adolescent entertainment, certainly not adult. It's not responsible. You know, young people growing up get curious about sex, but how you call this adult, I wouldn't know. Of course, we walked on, but then Glenn Shepard and Ivor Jones were quite surprised when I went back and spoke to the man. I said, "Why fool around with calico when you've got silk at home?" I hope that sank into his mind. Maybe he didn't understand what I was talking about, but it's true.

We suffer a lot of temptation today that we didn't have 30 years ago. I travel a great deal. I have to sort of get used to homesickness. Someone asked my wife just last week, "How do you put up with all these—I mean, how do you come for your happy married life?" So to tease me, she said, "Well, he's away half the time." But I think, to be fair, when we get back together again, we can show our affection. But I was staying, preaching at a big Christian college, and they put me up in a Holiday Inn. I like to be a horizontal Baptist every afternoon directly after lunch. But I like to turn on the TV while some kids' program about The Flintstones or something is going on. I just go completely asleep. It doesn't keep me awake, but the sound of the room helps me to sleep. I left the TV on, and when I wakened up, what was on was what they call soft porn. I thought, "What's the world coming to at 3:00 in the afternoon?" So I switched it off. As I say, why fool around with calico when you've got silk at home? So I just switched it off. But you know, the enemy came along and said to me, "Don't you think as a preacher you ought to know what's going on these days?" God gave me the grace of saying, "No, I don't want to be my mind." But perhaps there's someone here that this word is meant for. You have indulged in purity of thought by watching X-rated stuff. Shame on you.

Conversation: let your conversation be pure. Deeds: well, it says, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults." It begins in the imagination, but it leads to fornication and adultery. At a Christian college not too long ago, a girl came to me and said, "My boyfriend says there's nothing in the scriptures against premarital sex." I said, "You must be kidding." She said, "I couldn't find any verse." I said, "Well, I'll give you one. It says, 'Flee fornication. Every other sin that a man commits is outside his personality, but the immoral man sins against his own body.'" She said, "What has that to do with premarital sex?" "That's what the word fornication means." "Oh," she said. She came back the next day and she said, "My boyfriend says don't quote the Apostle Paul to me. Jesus was more understanding. He said, 'Neither do I condemn thee.'" I said, "Finish the verse: 'Go and sin no more.'" But actually, when he said that, he was speaking about adultery, which is extramarital sex rather than premarital sex. But I said, "Would you like me to give you a quotation from the Lord Jesus himself on premarital sex?" She said, "If there is one." "Oh," I said, "there is one. It's not what goes into a man and defiles a man, but what comes out of his heart. And out of his heart come evil thoughts, murders, fornications, robberies." She said, "Why does it put such a nice thing, a sex relationship, in such bad company?" "You've got a point there too," I said. "God ordained the relationship between the sexes for the procreation of the race and for companionship. The relationship is the highest act of love between a man and a woman, but it's always wrong outside commitment, marriage, always wrong." But you see, so many young girls today—well, I sometimes ask my grandchildren what it's like in high school today. They're not taught this; they're taught the very opposite. But we've got to keep ourselves clear at this point.

I'm going to mention something else, and that's the sin of wrongful possession. Again, we'll apply the principle the Lord Jesus has given us. Everyone knows that it's wrong to steal. The Romans knew that it was wrong. The Greeks knew that it was wrong. The Jews knew it was wrong. Today, they know that