The Heart

Brinton 09-06-02

The HEART

This evening, I would like to consider the heart.

St Francis of Assisi once said: Preach the Gospel all the time – and use words if necessary.

Christianity is not, in my opinion a religion. What I mean by that is that Christianity is not a set of rules – Do’s and Don’t. and if you keep them, God will accept you. It is a lifestyle defined by our heart.

The glorious Gospel message is that God accepted us – while we were yet sinners and forgave us.

And he wants to change the way we live – not by forcing us to keep rules and regulations – as the old Communist regimes tried to do.

But he wants to change our hearts.

Let us start by looking at what the Scriptures say about the heart.

As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man. (Pr. 27:19)

My son, give me your heart and let your eyes keep my ways. (Pr. 23:26)

Most of our problems as Christians stem from the heart – because there are areas that are not yet sold out to God.

What is the heart?

One definition of the heart is that it is

That organ that DISTINGUISHES the LIVING from the DEAD.

In Hebrew thought, the heart was the seat of the intellect as well as the seat of emotions.

Speaking about the Hebrew word leb which is translated in English as “heart”, one scholar said:

“the will originates in the heart, (as does..).. the carefully weighed intention.” (Dictionary of New Testament Theology: Vol 2. - Colin Brown p.181)

With that definition in mind, I believe that there are three types of heart that people can have

I. A Degenerate Heart

II. A Divided Heart and

III. A Delivered Heart (or Divinely Orientated Heart).

If you are anything like me, your first reaction will be to say – well I know which heart I have, it is the delivered or divinely orientated heart.

I suggest that there is a bit of each heart in us!

Story: St. Paul in the book of Acts describes King David as a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22).

Yet David was an adulterer and a murderer. How was he a man after God’s own heart?

I believe it was his willingness to admit his sin and repent of it.

You will recall how Nathan the prophet went in and accused David of adultery and murder.

It was courageous of Nathan, because he could easily have been killed by the king for doing so. Less honourable kings did just that to God’s messengers.

What was David’s response: “I have sinned against the Lord” (1 Sam12: 13).

So let us look at the first kind of heart.

I. A Degenerate Heart.

Let us start by looking at what the Scripture has to say

about the degenerate or “unregenerate” heart

Jeremiah said:

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jer. 17.9)

Jesus - in Mark’s gospel - recognised the depravity of the human heart when he said:

What comes out of a man is what makes him unclean. For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. (Mk: 7: 20-21)

Given that you might want to throw your hands up in despair. But there is hope.

Jeremiah speaking prophetically about 600 years before Jesus - spoke of the new heart that God is dying to give his people – if only they would accept it.

Jeremiah said:

I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people and I will be their God for they will return to me with all their heart. (Jer. 24:7)

Jeremiah went on further to say:

"I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbour or man his brother saying: Know the Lord, because they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest" declares the Lord. (Jer. 31:33)

Ezekiel, looking forward to the Messiah speaks for God when he says:

I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you - A NEW HEART and put a NEW SPIRIT (the Holy Spirit I believe) within you. I will remove your heart of stone and give

you a heart of flesh. (Ez. 36: 25-26)

When we receive Jesus as our Lord, God gives us a new heart.

However, there are areas of our lives, that we do not fully open up to the Holy Spirit and that then leads on to the second type of heart – the DIVIDED HEART.