MESSAGES
Demands of Commitment-Part III
From Egypt to the Promised Land
Overcoming Obstacles part - II
Overcoming Obstacles Part -III
Receiving the Promises of God -I
Receiving the Promises of God - II
Reformation: Going Beyond the Obvious
Well Done is Better Than Well Said
When the Church is Gone - Part II
When the Church is Gone - Part III
When the Church is Gone - Part IV
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THE HEART OF MAN JERM. 17:5-10 The heart is center of the physical, mental, and spiritual life of humans. The Bible shows the heart to be the centre not only of spiritual activity, but of all the operations of human life. Eating and drinking are spoken of as strengthening the heart. Genesis 18:5 And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts. “Heart” and “soul” are often used interchangeably, the heart and the intellect being closely connected with the heart being the seat of intelligence: Matthew 13:15 - For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. “The heart
is connected with thinking: As a person “thinketh in his
heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). To ponder something in
one’s heart means to consider it carefully (Luke 1:66; Luke
Not only is the heart associated with the activities
of the mind and the will, but it is also closely connected to
the feelings and affections of a person. Emotions such as joy
originate in the heart (Psalm 4:7; Isa 65:14). In the Old Testament
fear is described by the phrase: “his heart died within him”
(1 Samuel 25:37; compare Psalm 143:4). Discouragement or despair
is described by the phrase “heaviness in the heart”
(Proverbs Finally, the
heart is spoken of in Scripture as the center of the moral and
spiritual life. The conscience, for instance, is associated with
the heart. In fact, the Hebrew language had no word for conscience,
so the word heart was often used to express this concept: “my
heart shall not reproach me so long as I live” (Job 27:6).
The Revised Standard Version translates the word for “heart”
as “conscience” in 1 Samuel 25:31 (RSV). In the New
Testament the heart is spoken of also as that which condemns us
(1 John Sometimes the heart is used to represent a person’s true nature or character. This true nature is contrasted with the outward appearance: “man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7 RSV). Often times when I have been trying to witness to people
about knowing Christ they become defensive. They think that when you tell them that apart
from Christ they are a sinner that you are judging them. Those who become defensive will often respond
with “the Lord knows my heart.”
My response to that is, He most certainly does.
However, they respond in that way as if it allows them
some sense of safety or assurance that God is satisfied with them
as they are. But there is no safety in the realization that
God knows our hearts, especially if our hearts do not know God. Let’s look at what God says about the heart of
man. Mark 7:14 – 23 Webster says defile means to contaminate or corrupt. Jesus here gives a list of things that defile a person and says that these things come out of the heart of man. Note that the things that Jesus lists fall both in the category of actions and of attitudes. Also note that some of the things listed here, in our society today, are not thought of as being that bad. In our society, fornicating or having sex in any form before marriage, is not even considered a real sin. In fact, those who are not participating in such acts are made to feel as if something is wrong with them. No-one ever talks about pride being a sin. Greed, covetousness, and deceit are treated as the building blocks to successful careers. But regardless to how our society views these things, Jesus says they are evil things and proceed out of the heart of man. When God looks at your heart, what is He seeing? Genesis 6:5-7 –
The people were so wicked that
God was sorry that He had ever made man. He said that every imagination of man’s
heart was evil all the time. If
God looked at the state of man now and compared it to then, what
would He see differently? Maybe
there are a few more who like Noah are trying to live
righteous and upright, but the vast majority of
people are growing continually more wicked.
When God could no longer stand the wickedness in Noah’s
time, He caused a great flood to come over the earth, leaving
only Noah and his family alive.
Noah preached repentance 100 years before the flood came,
but none would listen. Why, because their hearts were evil.
Jerm. 17:9-10
Look at how God here, through the Prophet Jeremiah describes the
heart of these people. He
calls it deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
But He also promises to judge man based on His heart.
We say the Lord knows my heart, as if we want Him to judge
us based on the state of our heart.
I am here today to let you know that apart from Jesus,
the heart of man is desperately wicked in the sight of God.
Without Jesus, do we really want God to judge us based
on our hearts? I don’t think so. I believe that if we are really honest with
ourselves, none of us want God to judge us based on our actions
or our heart. So what can
we do? Ezek. Ezek. 36:26-27 – God promises to provide man with a new heart. He will take away our hard, rebellious hearts and give us a heart that will be yielded to Him. He promises to give us His Spirit within us to help us to live up to His expectations. How can we get this
new heart? Acts
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