Satan’s Great Lie Part 8: “God Knows My Heart”
Last year during bible study when we were discussing sin and our ability to live a perfect life, Bro. DeWayne recommended that I make this subject a part my series on Satan’s Great Lies. Now let me explain this first, the statement is not a lie, it is absolutely 100% true. God knows our hearts, the Scripture bears this out. However, the reason I am including this in the series is because we lie to ourselves “because” we know Gods know us. It is sort of like thinking I will not be punished and receive a ticket for speeding if I truly in my heart did not want to speed. I remember talking to someone after I forgot to do something and I asked the person to count it to my head and not my heart. What I was saying to the person was that what I did was not done intentionally, or from my heart, but as a result of my mind and how it works. If my mind forget some things, that is normal. However, if I choose not to do something from my heart, then the results and impact is different. Now here is the true danger, if we continue sinning because in our heart we believe that it is not what we really want to do, the God will “let the sin go”. Some people believe this even though Hebrews 10:26-27 says “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.” NAS. There is a consequence for sin and we must accept that when we choose to sin. We will look at this more closely later, but I want you to gain an understanding of the heart – as used in Scripture. The scriptural definition of heart is not the physical organ that beats and sends blood throughout our bodies, but the center of the human spirit, from which springs our emotions, thoughts, motivations, courage and action. In other words, it is what makes us who we are and different from everyone else. The heart is our core and is what we must choose to turn over to God. The Bible speaks of the heart being glad (merry), heavy, experiencing pleasure and the source of depression and grief. It is also the center of courage and faith.
The heart’s role as the center of our emotions is important, but its role as the center of will and purpose, intention and decision making is even more significant. Some belive that there are times when we cannot control our emotions, they just are. But everyone agrees that we can control our will (or should be able to) and our purposes. Will and purpose originates in the heart. When the scripture speaks of the “heart’s desire” it is often referring to determination. Idolatry starts in the heart. Luke says in Luke 12:34 that “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” In other words, the things you hold near and dear will also be the things your heart clings to. Likewise reluctance or indecision can be seen in the scriptural expressions “slow of heart to believe”. Persistence in a decided course of action even against sound advice is stated as stubbornness of heart.
Our intellectual activity, perception and knowledge originate in our hearts. In the New Testament heart and mind are closely related. Both designate the self as willing, intending, thinking, etc. The heart does not simply store up ideas and impressions; it can devise plans to put these ideas quickly into action. Creative thoughts have been ascribed to the heart – remember in Genesis when God spoke of the “intent of the thoughts of his heart” (Gen. 6:5). The heart is also the seat of understanding and knowledge – also know as wisdom. The heart is also the center of our religious life. In the OT it is the heart that most closely approximates what we call conscience. 1 John 3:20 speaks to our hearts being able to condemn us. By nature the human heart is not pure or faithful, it tends to be perverse. The heart can function ethically only by the help of God.
With that background of the heart, one thing hopefully should be clear, the heart of man is not the organ, but that which makes us who we are. If the heart is that part of us that makes us different from everyone else, then it is also very important that God knows our heart. When we use this statement, we are really saying that God know me. He sees me for who I am so there is nothing that is hidden from Him. I cannot hide from Him when I make a decision and because of this He knows why the decision was made. There are those that believe and confess that since God knows our heart, He takes that knowledge and understanding into consideration when He sees us sinning. And if in our hearts we really do not want to be doing what we are doing (the sin) that He make allowances for us – that He will not punish us as bad as if we really wanted to be doing the sin. Consider and think on this as we look at a few Scriptures.
Romans 10:10 “For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
Luke 6:45 “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings for what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”
Understand and realize this truth, what is in our hearts will come out. The good and the bad, the pretty and the ugly will all eventually reveal itself. Our faith walk starts when we accept Christ by believing in our heart that He came and died for our sins. Once we believe in our heart, then naturally what is in our heart will come out through our mouth – so we confess with our mouth what we now believe in our heart. If you listen to people long enough, you can find out what they are about by what comes out of their mouth. Jesus said that a tree would bear fruit based on the type of tree it is. In other words, if I am seeking an apple, I will not find it on an orange tree – I will find oranges on an orange tree. In our spiritual walk, what is in our heart comes through, whether it is love or hatred, peace or confusion, bitterness or forgiveness. It starts with the heart. What is in our heart is illustrated – like a drawing – in what we say and how we act. That is why Jesus spent a lot of time teaching on the heart – because of it’s overall importance to the makeup of who we are as individuals.
When we accept Christ, not everything that is bad within our heart is gone. The blood covers it, but we must choose to clean it out by taking on Christ image. As Christians we continue to transition into His image – as we yield our hearts to Him. To yield you heart means that you seek to understand your Father and learn how to do things by following His example, Jesus. We are not strong enough to change our own hearts, only through the Spirit of God once we accept Christ can our hearts be changed. As we have discussed before, we can become perfect, it will require hard work and sacrifice, but it can be done. So after we get saved, there are still things in our hearts that have not been turned over to God through the Spirit. Those are the things that every now and then (some more often than others) will rise up to the top and be known.
Now this brings us back to the statement “God knows my heart”. If you hear someone make this statement, what do you think about? Do you think about the fact that this person may have sinned and did not mean to? Do you think that this person is really trying in their heart, but sometimes they fall? There is a saying that says, “Ignorance of the law does not justify you breaking the law”. Recently on my job we had to take a series of tests on all of the “guiding” policies of the company. In our review of the policies, there was a statement in each policy that said "not“ knowing or understanding this policy does not relieve you of the "repercussions” of breaking it.” In other words, because those policies are in writing and I have a copy of those policies, I cannot claim ignorance if I break them. The company did its job in making sure that I had copies of the policies, now it is my job to actually take them, read them and ensure my understanding. The same applies to God’s word and ordinances because we have access to God’s word and therefore we are responsible for it. If there is something that we do not yet understand, God still expects us to seek understanding and come into the full knowledge of who He is and how we should be. Because God does know our hearts and the statement is absolutely true, that is not a license to sin or do whatever we want because deep down within us we may not want to do it. I read an article in the paper a couple of weeks ago about a lady who won the lottery. When she came forward, another lay also came forward and stated that the ticket was hers, that she purchased it and dropped her purse and lost the ticket. She basically accused the other woman of finding the ticket and cashing in on the winnings. A lawsuit was in the process of being filed. A few days later I read another headline on the case, the woman who claimed to have lost the ticket came forth and said she was wrong. The headline read “I am not a bad person!” What I found interesting is that she never said she lied, but that she was wrong and that she was not a bad person. The article went on to describe why she did it and what she wanted the money for, her family and helping the families of police officers. This part of the article seem to come across as a way to control the public’s view of this lady. The police department was now considering filing charges against her. I tell you this because in her heart she may have believed her motivation gave her the “right” to do what she did – ever think that way? If I sin and in my heart maybe I really do not want to, yet I do anyway, am I relieved of the results of my sin? I do not think this is so for as we discussed a several weeks ago, God has made provisions for us to become perfect – complete in our faith walk with Him. If we sin because we have no choice, then God could not in His love for us, hold us responsible for that sin. It goes against everything that we know and believe of Him.
Proverbs 24:11-12 says “Deliver those who are being taken away to death, and those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back. If you say, ‘See, we did not know this, does He not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does He not know it who keeps your soul? And will He not render to man according to his work?”
In this verse we find a reference to God being able to take care of those who may truly be innocent of a wrong. The reference to sparing them if they say “we did not know this” and how God weighs that lets us know that God is a just God. However, the true question is when God weighs it, will He come to the same conclusion that we do when we claim innocense? Remember what I said earlier that if we sin because we do not have a choice God could not hold it to our charge? Well because He does know our hearts, He does know our motivations and the rationale behind our decisions. Here is where responsibility comes in and why we should truly be careful if we are doing something wrong although in our hearts our motivations may be “righteous”. There is a process that we go through whenever we make a decision. Here is a simplified model of that process:
• Opportunity Arises: First the opportunity arises. Something comes up that requires us to take action and make a decision. This happens frequently every hours – we literally make hundreds of decisions per day.
• Evaluation Phase: Next we evaluate the “what ifs” of our decision. We evaluate options and weigh the cost of each option. (Cost as in positive and negative benefits associated with the decision.) We decide if it is worth the risk, the potential up or down sides. We eliminate choice in order to make a final decision.
• Decision: We make the decision.
This is a simplified process that we go through for every decision that we make. We have become so good at it that it can take seconds in some cases to do and weeks or months in others. The point I am hoping that you see is that every sin that we commit, we in some form or fashion make a choice to do it. The fact that we do it by choice, even if that choice is made in a few seconds, we own the action and become totally responsible for the sin. Therefore, because we made the decision to act, all is left is repentance and the request for forgiveness. Because God knows our hearts, He also knows when that decision is made, why we made the decision. Yes God knows our heart so we cannot lie to him.
Remember the example I started with, the one when I forgot to do something. When I asked the person to forgive me and do not count it to my heart, they accept my apology at face value. But what if in my heart I meant not to do it, or I thought about it and kept putting it off. Regardless, unless I told the person, they would not know. This is not the case with God and we need to be very aware of this. There are no secrets with Him, He truly knows what is going on within us. We cannot hide and we cannot run where He cannot go. David asked the question in Psalms 139 “Where can I go from Your Spirit?” His conclusion was that no matter where he went, he could not escape God’s presence. It is the same with our hearts. When we ask Christ into our hearts, we are inviting His presence to dwell within us. When that happens, the “junk” that is within us is exposed and we must work to get rid of it – but it is our choice and our responsibility to do it.
I want to close by posing this question to you, something that I truly want you to think about. If you had me shadowing you wherever you went, watching everything you do, would you change anything that you do? I mean I could see everything. Consider this, not only does God shadow us and is everywhere we are, He is also able to penetrate the inside of us and know what is on our inside also. God knows my heart. Yes He does and for that we should be even more afraid when we choose to sin and break His commandments.
