A Perfect Heart

11-18-04

A Perfect Heart

It is possible to walk before the Lord with a perfect heart!

God said to Abraham, "I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect" (Genesis 17:1).

God also said to the children of Israel, "Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 18:13).

David determined in his heart to obey this command.

He said, "I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way... I will walk within my house with a perfect heart" (Psalm 101:2).

Scripture also points out that Solomon fell short of God's command to be perfect: "His heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father... [He] went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father" (1 Kings 11:4-6).

We see the Lord's command to be perfect in the New Testament as well.

Jesus said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).

Paul wrote, "That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus" (Colossians 1:28); and, in the same letter he wrote, "...that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God" (4:12).

And Peter said, "But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you" (1 Peter 5:10).

Perfection does not mean a sinless, flawless heart.

Man judges by outward appearances, by what he sees.

But God judges the heart; the unseen motives (1 Samuel 16:7).

David was said to have had a perfect heart toward God "all the days of his life," yet he failed the Lord often.

His life was marked forever by adultery and a notorious murder.

The basic definition of perfect is: completeness, maturity.

In the Hebrew and Greek, the definition includes: uprightness, being without spot, without blemish, totally obedient.

It means to finish what was started; a complete performance.

Wesley called it "constant obedience."

A perfect heart is a responsive heart.

It quickly and totally answers the Lord's wooing, whisperings and warnings.

This heart says at all times, "Speak, Lord, for your servant heareth. Show me the path and I will walk in it."

A preacher once said about his life: “Once, during a long drive from the Teen Challenge farm in Pennsylvania to New York City, the Lord spoke to my inner man: ‘There is such a thing as a perfect heart. I want to show you what it is so you can seek after it!"’

“At that time God revealed to my spirit that Christ commits Himself to those who walk before Him with a perfect, responsive heart - and that three things distinguish such a heart.”

A Perfect Heart is Searchable

"The Lord searcheth all hearts" (1 Chronicles 28:9).

The perfect heart cries out with David, "Search me, O God, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me" (Psalm 139:23-24).

God also said to Jeremiah, "I the Lord search the heart" (Jeremiah 17:10).

The Hebrew meaning for this phrase is, "I penetrate; I examine deeply."

Scripture says, "For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God" (1 Corinthians 2:10).

Jesus, in Revelation 2:24, speaks about "the depths of Satan," of going down into the profound deepness of sin.

He was saying that evil goes down deep into the soul - that it has roots that go down into hell.

David said of the wicked ones: "The inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep" (Psalm 64:6).

These passages all are holy warnings: "You don't realize how deeply this association with evil affects you. It takes you down into the depths of Satan himself, depths that are mysterious, bottomless, profound. This path leads to hell."

In these final days sin has become complicated, subtle, sensuous and more sophisticated.

It comes disguised as art, culture and education.

I believe there are new depths to sin now, which never existed before.

It has taken on stronger, deeper roots.

Our children are confronted with depths of sin that we never did or never will know!

"Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark" (Isaiah 29:15).

The perfect heart wants the Holy Spirit to come and search out the depths of the innermost man, to shine into all hidden parts, to investigate and dig out and expose all that is unlike Christ.

Shallow sermons will not dig deeply enough to do this.

And those who hide a secret sin do not want to be convicted, searched or probed.

Let me illustrate what I mean with a true story I red.

A brother in Christ came to me weeping during a prayer meeting.