The Measure Of A Heart Series

WWI probably is a forgotten war in the lives of Americans today. It was a war of loyalty to the treaties that were signed by the nations involved on both sides.

It was a war that introduced trench warfare. Germans dug in and our American troops were called on to storm the enemy’s

position.

That’s still the call of the church today. Storm the enemy’s position. Satan and his forces have dug in and God is looking for soldiers who will stand their ground and fight.

War is often decided by measurements. How far an army has advanced. How much territory has been taken, or taken back. The same is true in our heats.

How far has the enemy advanced, or persuaded us to give up or give in. The ultimate goal for the enemy is for us to surrender our hearts over to him.

But there’s another point we must observe. How does God measure a heart? If the enemy is out to get us and he is, then how can we know where our hearts are at any given time?

We may think spiritually we are here, but maybe we aren’t as close as we’d like to think. Is there a way we can know? Every Christian knows God looks on the inside but man looks at the outside, but what does our heart, our inside look like to God?

Our text examines that very fact. There is a measurement. A standard by which the Lord Jesus Christ, the final Word to man uses and the unit of measurement is written word if God.

Hebrews 4:12 says,

God uses two standards of measurements here in our verse two examine the hearts of His people:

I. Our Obedience to the Word of God

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow,”

Clearly the first part of our verse tells us that our Bibles, are not a dead book that should just sit on the shelf. Our verse says that God’s word is alive!

If our Bibles have become dead to us it’s because our hearts have been surrendering territory to the enemy. God’s Word is living and powerful!

His Word cuts to the heart and literally reveals it self to us and through us. God’s word is always clear, and the path we are to follow is always shown in front of us. The only problem we humans have is our obedience in following his Word.

One of my heroes was the most decorated hero of WWI. He is one of my heroes because he illustrates what it means to be a hero for God.

Many have never heard of him. That’s the real tragedy in America today. His name is Alvin C. York. Born in Pall Mall TN. A place I have visited several times. The valley of the three forks of the wolf river near the KY border.

Simple man from a simple time. He went off to fight in WWI but at the bottom of his draft card he wrote this words, “Don’t want to fight.” He believed the Bible said “Thou shalt not kill,” and he believed that obeying God’s Word was the first thing any man should do.

He wasn’t always that way. In his twenty’s he spent some time drinking, smoking and fighting.

After his father died Alvin became the man of the house. One day his mother had enough of his wayward ways and sat him down. She said, “Alvin when are you going to become a man like your dad and granddad were.”

God used those words of truth to cut to his heart. Shortly after he was saved and gone was the old Alvin.

The Word of God comes from His written word but the reference here also includes the total way that God uses to communicate His truth to our hearts,

It might mean a love of a mother, or father that through us speaking His truth God uses that to convict or encourage a heart.

It begs the question; Don’t you want God to use you? If the answer is yes then we must obey His written Word in order to be ready to speak his living Word.

But pastor how does God measure our hearts in obedience? I’m glad you are still thinking. You ready? No one is obedient if they are not first loving.

All through the O.T. if I counted right there are 59 times that God tells us to keep His commandments. Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep (obey) my commandments.”

5 times in 1 John the Bible tells us keep His commandments.

But the clincher is found in: 1 John 1:5, “But whoever keeps His Word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.”