Keep sharing good news without ads.
“With All Your Heart” Series
All right, anything else? Yes, Carissa. Oh. That's right, yeah yeah, we prayed Wednesday night for Seth and Kevin who were leaving the next day to meet Justin somewhere between here and Where is he in South Dakota?
They were keep seeing skiing in South Dakota. Yeah anyway, so. Right. Yeah, so he ended up having a wipeout skiing and fractured his wrist. Seth did. Seth did so pray for his recovery. All right. Well, let's pray and shall we.
Our father we do. Thank you this morning for the opportunity of gathering together. Thank you that we can study your word. We can get some better insight into Ourselves as well as into you and into your desires for us.
We pray that you would bless this time of studying the word today. I pray that you would open our hearts and our minds. And open our open your word to us that what we take in in the mind would affect our desires.
And therefore our will. We do pray for these needs. We pray for Carolyn runners family and and her death. I pray that You would give comfort to them and especially to Jim. Father we pray for Dan's brother Rick pray for his recovery from this Heart surgery pray that you would meet his needs.
Also pray for Seth and ask that you would give a speedy healing to his wrist. Pray that wouldn't cause any further problems or complications, but it would just heal swiftly. Father we ask for your again for your blessing on our time and meeting with us this morning and we pray it in Jesus name.
Amen. All right, well we've been talking about the heart what is the heart and I was Thinking about this in relationship to the culture and how the culture Typically thinks of the heart as our feelings how we feel and Reflected on a few Pop songs that bring in the idea of the heart and You know, one of them talks about putting putting your heart above your head.
I put my heart above my head. Which is basically saying I put my feelings over my thinking and. And There was there was a song that was I don't think it was connected to the movie. I don't think the movie had the song in it.
I think it was written after the movie remember that movie ET. Again, I'm dating myself, but it goes back to the 1980s that movie X ET the extraterrestrial. There was a song written after that. About turning on your heart light and let that heart light guide you wherever you go again, the idea is Basically following following your feelings.
What are your feelings telling you to do? Well, we we're wanting to know what the Bible has to say about the heart. What does the Bible mean when it's talking about the heart? And so by way of review.
We we gave this definition and again, we're using that book with all your heart by Craig Troxell, by the way I found this was interesting I was doing I was doing a little walk the other day doing a little 30 minute walk and while I was walking I was listening to I was listening to the truth for life message for the day and Alistair Begg, you know speaking and he's his message was on on the need the church's need for love.
From first Corinthians 13. But anyway at the end of that they said our our giveaway this month. You know you contribute any kind of contribution to the ministry and are you can receive if you ask for it the book?
With all your heart by Craig Troxell. I know well, that's a good That's a good resource to be giving away and it really is it's very been been it's being a very helpful book. But anyway in that book Craig Troxell defines the heart summarizing all that as was Discussed in chapter 1 he defines the heart as your governing center when used simply it reflects the unity of your inner being when used Comprehensively it describes the complexity of your inner being as composed of your mind.
What you know. Your desires what you love and your will what you choose. That's a rather elaborate Definition of the heart but it really takes that doesn't it? Because the Bible does use the heart in both those ways.
It uses it simply and it also uses it Comprehensively and there are synonyms at different places in different times in the Bible that connect to the the heart and those synonyms and the heart itself Refers to those those Aspects when we're in our complex definition of the heart or a comprehensive definition of the heart.
So the heart simply is the unity of your inner being. Describe that as the control center of your being everything that you everything you do everything you Think you want etc. Everything about you is connected to and comes from Your heart.
That's why the Bible says Guard your heart with all diligence. Because out of it flows the issues of life Springs forth that all the issues of life spring forth from your heart that control center within the center of your being but then comprehensively Talk about that Trinity of functions that are the hearts functions.
Your mind what you know. Your desire what you love your will what you choose and we pointed out and Troxell very effectively points out that those that threefold function of the heart corresponds to the three primary expressions of sin.
The general concept of sin has to do with falling short and we're going to talk about that in a few minutes and then Sin and then iniquity. Iniquity another word for sin has to do with perversion connects with our desires and then trespass or transgression.
Sin is a transgression of the law. It is a going beyond it has to do with our will our choice where we deliberately trespass or transgress the boundary the borders that God has established and then we also said that Corresponds to the threefold work of Christ as our prophet priest and king.
Now what what this book does and it's very helpful and I if there's a if there is a Grassroots call for it. I can order some copies of this and and make them available. But what this book does is it looks at each of those?
Threefold functions of the heart the mind the desires and the will and. And first talks about that in a in a general sort of definitions way. You know What is the mind. And we we did that last week with the mind and in talking about the mind the mind?
Aspects of your heart. We pointed out that the heart the mind the heart Reasons it reflects it remembers and it hears. Now those are those are functions of the mind, right? Reasoning reflecting remembering.
Hearing or understanding those are functions of the mind. The Bible talks about those as functions of the heart. All right. Now the same thing is going to happen in a future chapter a future lesson. With our desires as well as our wills.
But then what what Troxell does after dealing with the the the general function. The heart's function like the mind he then moves to the corresponding sin. That is related to that function of the heart.
So today for example, we're going to look at the fact that sin plays mind games. Sin plays mind games and Let's turn first of all to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew 5 I just want to point out. Point out a couple of places where Jesus Jesus makes it clear that the the root of our problem of our sin problem is The mind and what he does.
What Jesus does is he exposes the fact that The mind is permeated by sin. So in Matthew 5 verses 21 and 22 He says you've heard it said by them of old that thou shalt not kill. All right, shall not murder and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.
But I say unto you and notice how Jesus moves from the outward action which is an action that may be an expression of desire or passion and the will to kill somebody that outward action and he deals with the mind and He says in verse 22, but I say it to you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause Shall be in danger of the judgment.
Who shall ever sell whosoever shall say to his brother? Raka shall be in danger of the council. Whosoever shall say now fool shall be in danger of hellfire. So he gets to the heart of the matter. By dealing with the mind if you are angry, that's just something that's going on inside of you and then in verse Verses 27 and 28 he deals with another of the Commandments.
He said you've heard it said of old time one of the Ten Commandments thou shalt not commit adultery. But what does he do? He goes on in verse 28 to say I say unto you that whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed Adultery with her already in his heart.
So there's something going on in the mind that is just as That is also guilty before God for for violating his moral law of not committing murder not committing adultery and so on so this Idea that the sin that the mind is permeated with sin is exposed by Jesus.
What's the root of all of it that Sin permeation of the mind what's the root of it? He goes all the way back to Eden, doesn't it? Think about what happened in the Garden of Eden with the serpent when he came and Came to entice Eve.
What did he do? What did he attack? What did he attack? He attacked her mind. First of all, didn't he? Because he came to her and he said Did God say? That you can't eat of any of the fruit of the of the garden.
So the first thing that that Satan did was was deal with her ability to reflect to remember to think about to reason and She replies and said well we can eat of any of the tree any of the garden the fruit of any of the trees in The garden, but this tree we cannot eat so she knows.
See, there we go her heart mind knows What God's will is what God's law says? You may not eat of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and then What does he do?
He attacks that thinking that Revelation that she's reflecting upon and remembering he says you're not gonna die. The Lord knows God knows that when you eat that you're gonna be like God then what does she do?
What does she do next? She starts reasoning. She starts thinking There's a well look at this fruit, you know, it's it's good-looking fruit it's just as good-looking as any of the other fruit in the garden and I mean if it's gonna make me wise how can it be wrong?
This is all going on in her mind in her thinking. See, does she is there a problem with her knowledge? Does she not know? What God has said? No, she does know what God has said. She knows what the border what the boundaries are.
Now Jeremiah 17 verse 9 brings out also the idea that the mind is permeated with sin. When Jeremiah says that the heart is what? It's desperately wicked and what what does it say first? The heart is Deceitful and it is desperately wicked.
The heart is deceitful. That is it is bent toward Distortion. Distortion of reality distortion of God's revelation delusion. And folly and self-deception that's why there's a there's a book written a couple of books written a few years ago.
What's the guy's name? Just it just I had it here and it just went Rogers looking at me smiling. I think we I he came in this morning. He says, how you doing this morning? I said, ah pretty good for an old fella.
He said oh, you ain't seen nothing yet. Well, here's evidence. This guy's name was right on my mind I but I do remember his books. One of them was called wild at heart and his whole premise is that men ought to follow their heart now to follow their heart and he completely dismissed.
I remember, I read the book, I remember him completely dismissing Jeremiah 17 9 and saying, you know, when God saved you, when you were converted, he gave you a completely new heart. Your heart, therefore, is no longer deceitful and desperately wicked.
Well, I would disagree with that and so we'll discover that later in our study here too. But the heart is permeated with sin. And here's how we know that. We know that because, secondly, the mind, which is that function of the heart, the mind knows better but falls short.
The mind knows better but falls short. So, do we know God's standards? Do we know God's law? Look at Romans. Let's turn to Romans and I'm going to have you flip between two chapters in Romans. So, Romans 1, first of all, Romans 1 and verse 21.
So, now Paul is talking here in this verse, Romans 1 21, he's talking about the unconverted mind, unconverted person, somebody who's not saved, he's not a follower of Christ, and someone who has not even had the blessing and the benefit of God's special revelation.
He is, though, a recipient of God's general revelation. Remember those two distinctions between general and specific revelation, special revelation. They're brought out in Psalm 19. General revelation.
The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech. Night unto night shows knowledge. There's no place on the planet where the voice of creation has not spoken to testify of the glory of God.
Okay, so all are without excuse because of the witness of general revelation, of God's reality, of God's glory. Now, verse 21 of Romans 1 brings out the fact that people, human beings, unconverted man, knew God.
Know God. He says, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. So general revelation testifies to every human being, God is. This is the work of the master craftsman, the creator, God.
And this creation testifies to his glory, his grandeur, and so forth. So the unconverted mind knows something, to some degree, about God. All right, now look at chapter 7. Keep your finger here in chapter 1.
We'll come back to it in a minute. In chapter 7, verse 22. So Paul says in Romans 7, 22, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. Now here he's a converted man. So he's saying, I delight in God's law as a converted man.
I know what God's law says. I know what God wants of us. And we do. You know what God wants of you. I know what God wants of me. He wants truthfulness. He wants purity. He wants us to be content, you know, whatsoever state.
I find myself therein to be content. Be content with such things that you have, and so on and so forth. God wants us to be contented. God wants us to love. Remember the summary of all of the Old Testament, all of God's law.
Love God with all your heart, right? Love your neighbor as yourself. Summarizes all of God's law. We know what God wants. He wants us to love. We know that he wants us to engage in selfless service. We know what God wants.
So we know the standard, but we fail to measure up. So look at verse 23. He says, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
And go back to verses 14 and 15. He says, we know that the law is spiritual, but I'm carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not, or I know not. I don't even know what I'm doing. I do, but I don't know what I'm doing.
And what I would do, I don't do it. But what I hate, that I do. You see, this is all a battle in the mind. It's going on in the mind. I know what I'm supposed to do, but I don't do it. I'm doing, and I don't even know what I'm doing.
I want to obey God's law. There's a desire, but I don't. I do what I hate. So this is just a constant struggle in the mind where we know the standard of God, but we fail to measure up. And so do the unconverted.
So back in chapter 1, verse 21, he says, because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful. What did they do? They became empty in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Again, he's talking about the fact, particularly about that function of the heart that we call the mind. Their foolish heart was darkened. And there'll be more to be said about that darkness in just a minute.
So, all right, we know the standard, whether we're converted or not. We know the standard, but we fail to measure up. In other words, we sin. We sin. And that's the idea of that word, sin. Whether you're talking about the Old Testament Hebrew word or the New Testament Greek word.
So let's talk about those two languages and the words. Turn to Judges chapter 20. Judges 20. And I want to show you an example of this word's definition. But in the Hebrew, the word that's often translated sin is the Hebrew word kata.
And it means to miss the mark, to fall short of the target, to miss the way, to err or to fail, to miss the mark, to fall short of the target. And Judges 20, verse 16, we read about these very skilled Benjamites who were expert marksmen when it came to slingshots.
And it wasn't, they didn't have the, they didn't have the the modern version of the slingshot with the Y and the big rubber band where they could point it back and aim and, you know, you know, maybe get a better.
These were the guys that they had the the rope slingshot, the string slingshot, a little pouch with, you put the the the projectile in the pouch like David had and and you'd swing that thing around. Okay, this is what, this is the, this is the slingshot.
Verse 16 says, among all this people, the Benjamites, there were 700 chosen men, they were left-handed, and every one of them could sling stones at a hair's breadth and not kata and not miss, not fall short, not miss the mark.
Okay, so that's that's the idea. There's another, this word is also used in Proverbs 19 too, and we'll refer to this verse a couple of times here. Proverbs 19, verse 2 says, also that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good, and he that hasteth with his feet misses the mark, he katas, he falls short of the target, he misses his way.
So that's the Hebrew word. In the Greek, the the Greek language, the word is hamartia, hamartia, and the words translated sin, and it means the same thing as the Hebrew word. It means to fall short of the target, to fail to measure up.
Now that word hamartia is not used in Romans 3 23, you all know that verse, right? Say it with me. For all have sinned and done what? Come short of the glory of God, fallen short of the glory of God. And and that verse is describing the reality of hamartia, of sin.
It is falling short of the glory of God. So the Westminster Catechism, the shorter catechism, has a question in question 14, you know, what is sin? And the answer is, sin is any want of conformity unto the law of God.
Sin is any want of conformity unto the law of God. Lack of conformity, falling short of conformity to the law of God. Commenting on this, Troxell says, he says, we have sinned even though we know better.
Okay, anybody here exempt from that? This is not me. And that's that that's really the essence of sin, isn't it? I know what I should do, I know what I should think, I know what the attitude I should have, I know how I ought to behave, I know where I ought to go, I know what I ought to stay away from, etc. etc.
But I do it anyway. I go anyway. I think that anyway. I have that attitude anyway. I say those things anyway. Sin. I fall short. So let's think of some ways in which we fall short. How do we fall short?
I've got four different examples here. So one of them is inaction. Inaction. I know what I ought to do, but I don't do it. I don't move. I don't act on it. All right, so think of a couple examples of this.
Remember, remember the story of Eli in the Old Testament, the priest Eli. He's the one that Hannah encountered in the temple and she was, you know, she wanted to have a baby so bad and she was all upset.
The family had gone there for the festival and, you know, her rival wife, one of the problems of polygamy, her rival wife was able to have kids. She couldn't have kids and she wanted a child so bad, wanted a son so badly, and she's just all upset.
She goes to the temple to pray about this and to weep and all this and she encounters Eli and that Eli and then she ends up, of course, you know, Eli blesses her and so forth. But Eli had a couple of wretched sons and they were they were the prototype of ministers who use their office for selfish gain, selfish purposes, and take advantage of people to get their stuff, to get what they want.
They were committing immorality with the women. They were getting the best stuff in the sacrifices that they weren't entitled to and so on and so forth. And Eli knew about it. He knew what his sons were doing but he sinned by not doing anything about it.
Oh yeah, he rebuked them. He said, you guys, you really shouldn't, you really shouldn't do that. You really shouldn't behave that way. No, he was the high priest. He had the right and the responsibility of removing them from office and he had good precedent for doing so.
Remember Aaron's son who took the sons, his sons, who took the illegal incense, burning the incense and the Lord struck him dead. And you know, so there's the precedent that there is no, there's no room for falling short in the carrying out of the priestly duties.
Well, Eli knew. He knew what his sons were doing and yeah, he fussed at them but he didn't stop them. He didn't prevent them. In action, he fell short of what he knew. Another example of falling short is imperfection.
Imperfection. Not doing, thinking, behaving, etc. the way we should to perfection. So well, there's none of us is perfect. That's not an excuse, you see. All that is is an illustration. And think of the ways that we excuse our imperfection.
Oh, I forgot. I forgot. I know what I'm supposed to do but then when called about it, oh, I forgot about it. Now, many of you here are parents and you've had children and you've heard that excuse, right?
Why didn't you, I told you to clean your room before you left, before I left this morning, right? Yeah. Why didn't you do it? Answer, I forgot. I forgot. Do you, as a parent, just say, oh, okay, well, let's do it tomorrow?
Well, no. I mean, I'm not suggesting that you give the harshest form of punishment for such a thing. But there needs to be some kind of consequence for that because you're communicating, you communicate the truth that forgetfulness does not excuse you not doing what you know you need to do.
Forgetfulness. Laziness is another cause of imperfection. A lack of diligence. Here's another, and this problem and excuse for our imperfect following through on what we know, this problem is becoming more commonplace today.
It's the problem of distraction. I know what I should do but I allow myself to get distracted with all kinds of other things. I've read it, I read, I like to read every so often books having to do with, you know, usage of time and productivity and that kind of thing.
And in the recent years, there's always a chapter dealing with the problem of distraction because of, because of these little guys, you know, and the fact that even right now, you know, I can go like this, pop in my password and say, you know, I'm just wondering, you know, I sent, I sent, I sent an email, a Facebook message to someone this morning and, and I'm wondering if they responded yet, you know, because, because it was kind of an important thing.
So let me, let me check here real quick. No, but I got a notification here. A little bell has a one on it so I got to see what it says. Oh, a church is live now with their, their morning message. I should, I should find out what that's all about.
Oh, I can watch it. Oh, all right. You know, and I get going on this thing and the next thing you know, I've gone down this rabbit hole called Facebook or YouTube or whatever. I've gone down this rabbit hole and the next thing you know, I wake up and it's an hour later.
Boom! And, and there's this stuff that I was supposed to be doing, I knew to do, but I fell short because of distraction. Imperfection. Cowardice is also a cause for our falling short. Passive rebellion, you know.
All right, so inaction, imperfection. A third way that we fall short is incomplete obedience. Incomplete obedience. That is, I perform most of what God requires. Yeah, who's the, who's the quintessential example of that?
Saul, right? Wipe out the Amalekites, everybody, all of them, everything. Leave nothing. The Old Testament, they call that the ban. The whole thing is supposed to be gone, wiped out. Because God knows what's going to come down the road if you don't.
So Saul wipes out most stuff. Spares Agag, spares the best of the stuff, and he comes back with an excuse for it all, excuse-making for that falling short, for that incomplete obedience. But, but what's, how does Samuel reply to that?
You know, God's not interested in your sacrifices. He wants your obedience. He wants your obedience. Incomplete obedience. And then back in Proverbs 19, looking at that verse again, verse 2, says, He that hasteth with his feet sins.
This has the idea of missing the way or wandering from the way. So we fall short by wandering from the right path or missing the right path. Now there's several expressions in the Bible that communicate that idea.
Turning away, turning back, turning aside, backsliding, going on ahead, turning to the right or turning to the left. You know, this is the way. Walk in it. See, there's, there's what, there's a standard.
This is the way. Walk in it. Right? This is what I know. God's communicated the way that I'm to walk. This is the way. Walk in it. But I start down this way and then I turn aside. I go off this way. Or I turn back and go the other way.
Or I just completely turn around and head back this way. Or I'm still kind of head in that direction but I take steps back. Or I wander off the path and so on. Missing the way. Alright, so the mind knows better but falls short.
Sins. And what the mind knows in our fallenness, it knows imperfectly. Let me give you three reasons why we know imperfectly. Back in Romans chapter 1, verse 18, there's a, the way that King James translates this verse is a little incomplete in that we don't get the full sense of what's going on here.
Verse 18 says, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, King James says, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. What that word hold really means is they suppress the truth.
So one of the reasons why the mind knows imperfectly is because of willful suppression. We put the truth down. So in verse 21, again, they knew God but they didn't glorify God. They became empty in their imaginations.
Foolish heart was darkened. Verse 25 says, they changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator. So all of these are examples of willfully taking the truth that you know and suppressing it.
In Paul exhorts us who are believers not to live like this, suppressing the truth. He says, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as the other Gentiles walk in the emptiness of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over until lasciviousness to work all in cleanness with greediness.
Willful suppression. A second reason we know imperfectly is because of willful rejection. Willful rejection. So in Romans 8 verse 7, Paul says, the carnal mind or the mind of the flesh, the minding of the flesh is enmity or it is in hostility against God.
For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So this is talking about how in our fallen mind and our fallenness, our heart will know what God says, but say, I don't care. I don't care what God says.
And this is a really precarious position for someone to be in. And I've heard those who profess to be Christians, because of what they want to do, they say, yeah, I know that the Bible says that. I know the Bible says it would be wrong for me to do this, but I've got to follow my heart.
I've got to do what's true to me. And they willfully reject. And then thirdly, the mind knows imperfectly because of satanic influence. So look at 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 3 says, if our gospel is hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who's the image of God, should shine unto them.
So this verse tells us that the wicked one has such influence on the unconverted that their mind is blinded to the truth. So to summarize this imperfection of the mind's knowing, Troxell says this, the mind cannot see clearly.
It's presuppositions. What are presuppositions? What are presuppositions? Those are the ideas that you have before you engage something else. So for example, we just landed, NASA just landed the Mars rover, another probe on the planet Mars.
Why? Why? What's the whole purpose behind that? To find life. What's the presupposition behind that billions of dollars worth of endeavor? The presupposition is that there's life out there. What's the further presupposition?
That there's life out there somewhere that is going to be similar to life as it originally was here on the planet before the whole process of evolution occurred that brought us to where we are. So maybe we can find a place out there where there will be the evolving of human life like we see here.
All this is presupposition that's behind the action. So the mind can't see clearly. It's presuppositions, perspectives, and agenda are all tainted by sinful self-absorption and self-importance. So the mind knows imperfectly.
But lastly, note this, the converted mind begins to see clearly. The converted mind begins to see clearly. So verse 6 here says, God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
So the converted mind begins to see clearly. Yet, as every converted person here today would testify, the battle still rages, doesn't it? It still rages. So again, Troxley says, the mind, whether fallen or reborn, is always biased, motivated, and impassioned by the state of the heart in general.
Reason functions as it should. It is our mind. It functions as it should only if the heart as a whole is rightly disposed toward God and willing to submit to His truth. So the heart involves the function of the mind and the mind falls short of what it knows.
Next week, Lord willing, we'll see how Jesus is the answer because He is the prophet. Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for this helpful understanding of ourselves and what's going on inside of us through this exploration of the heart.
Bless these thoughts to our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. All right, well, we'll gather back for the morning service here in just a few minutes.
