D1: The Heart - Troubling and Comforting Truths for My Heart

D1: The Heart - Troubling and Comforting Truths for My Heart

I. Three troubling truths for my heart.

➡Give all 3 blanks up front. These three troubling truths certainly address, characterize the unbeliever’s heart. But because of ind these three troubling truths still harass the believer (mixed condition).

1. What keeps the sinner from God is hardness of heart, Eph 4:17-19; Heb 3:8, 12-13, 15; 4:7.

• Read Eph 4:17-19. 4:18 “because of the hardness of their heart” = describes why unbelievers have a deeply ingrained ign is not an accidental ignorance; not an ignorance that caught them by surprise. They couldn’t say: “I didn’t see that ignoran This is planned ignorance; purposeful, willful. It is like the child who purposefully will not look into mommy’s eyes when she trouble. That little one wants to be ignorant of the disappointment on her mother’s face. So, to describe their ignorance Pa their heart. That is why they want to remain willfully ignorant of God and His will - their hearts are “hard” = dull, insensible; penetrated so as to feel or be moved from its current status or condition; petrified.

• Now let’s make our way backwards through the verses. Remember, this hardness of heart (4:18d) is the ultimate cause fo are so deeply ingrained in willful ignorance of God (4:18c). And THAT is the cause of them being alienated from the life of That is the description of what it means to have a reasoning process that is flooded with spiritual darkness (4:18a). And tha unbeliever’s mind has failed him and led him to a sinful walk of life, 4:17.
• The heart of man (every single one) is just this way because of Adam’s fall. But God also simultaneously warns man to no in the hardening of the heart - man is culpable. Hb 3:8, 15; 4:7. At the hearing of God’s voice in the call of the gospel, you the sinner to stop hardening his heart. But believer, beware of your current ability to still harden your inner man (heart). Re before Christ, all you could do without Christ was be hardened in heart. And one day in heaven, all you will be in heart is s in Christ, you are in a mixed condition in which you must fight against hardening your heart and fight to soften your heart. L appeal to the sinner in the preaching of the gospel, to stop hardening his heart, so we appeal to believers through the word refrain from hardening their hearts too.

2. Whenever possible, unbelief will naturally take root in the heart, not belief, Heb 3:12-13; Luke 24:25.

• What the author was addressing with the church he wrote to was similar to what Israel continually went through. Hb 3:12-1 church must also labor to root out this natural inclination to not trust the living God. Here is the stark reality: Because of in sin’s lingering e ects, if you do nothing with your heart - if you do not shepherd your heart with the word of God and the go ff rush into belief, trust? No. Rather it will slide easily into disbelief.
• Lk 24:25 - the disciples had hearts that were not quick to trust, but rather slow to believe Christ-centered, Christ-revealing S Everything they had just eye-witnessed - a substitute being o ered, blood being shed - was not registering for what it truly ff hearts were not quick to tie what they saw back to what the Scriptures revealed about Messiah. Therefore their hearts wer to believe the Scriptures, but rather slow to believe.

• The resurrected Christ had to work/labor against that natural, rooted slowness of heart that day! Slowness of heart to belie condition the believer will also face because of indwelling sin. Where you find sin, you will find it slowly dragging it away fro the Lord.

3. Self-made religion never moves the heart nearer to God, Matt 15:7-8.

• Suppose it crosses an unbeliever’s mind at some point that he must be religious. Read Mt 15:1-9. Perhaps those religious God will see THEIR teaching, rules, good deeds (their tradition) and be moved to set aside HIS for THEIRS (they actually h set aside His)! They are confident! Innovative. They appear very religious but God’s assessment of them is that even tho religious, their hearts are far from God, 15:8.
• So - let’s summarize these troubling truths: Hardness of heart keeps the sinner from God, or to put it another way, the hea unbelief naturally, like an ice cube at the top of a hot metal slide in August. But suppose it crosses the sinner’s mind to be Suppose the sinner, on his own apart from God, wants God to accept HIS version of religion over GOD’S own commands. heart is NOT open to God.

• What is the sinner’s hope then? God! And not just any God, but a God who wont be motivated to act on the basis of what the sinner, but was motivated to act by His own heart to save sinners.
• Let’s think about what happens to these conditions at conversion. The power of these to enslave the believer is broken, bu harass is not. These conditions have a lingering, harassing presence. In conversion, the believer is equipped to now fight lingering, harassing heart-conditions. We can still harden our hearts because of the deceitfulness of sin. We will still fall in and unbelief at times. We are still capable of having our hearts far from God while our lips make us sound like we just left

II. Five comforting truths for my heart.

• Watch God’s interaction with the heart from beginning to end! Here is the gospel! God overcomes hardness of heart, slownes believe, and God dispels foolishly o ensive self-made religion from the heart. At the cross and empty tomb of Jesus, God crea ff inner man to see what the sinner’s old inner man could never see on its own.

1. God enlightens dark hearts to know Christ, 2 Cor 4:5-6.

• If God shines into our hearts to give spiritual enlightenment, that means the heart was in darkness before. What kind of po light-power is this that can do this? It is the light-power/power-light that God the Creator has. How bad, devastating, formid our spiritual darkness? Only God, the Creator’s light-power could overcome it so we might know the glory of Christ. He do not wait for darkened minds, hardened, unbelieving hearts to turn on the light needed. . .
• Have you experienced this divine power from God at the heart level?

2. God cleanses hearts through faith, Acts 15:6-11.

• It doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or Gentile, the heart is filthy and in need of cleansing. God will be the one to do it. Mt 1 clear what self-religion does for the heart (nothing!). . . No self-cleansing is ever called for. By what means will God cleans the great act of looking away from yourself in order to entirely entrust yourself to God; “venturing your all on Christ” (J. Edw “Grace,” 15:11. As long as you remain in a heart condition where you are willing to look TO yourself, you will never trust G therefore you remain filthy before Him (the old Mt 15 thinking). THIS requires the work of God on your behalf!

• Have you seen your heart go from dirty in unbelief to cleansed by faith?

3. God frees the heart from sin to become obedient, Rom 6:17-18.

• When God saves the sinner, the first place He goes to work on is the heart, the inner man. That is where bondage to sin e hardness and slowness to believe; the quickness to establish self-made religion is nurtured there). By the grace of God, yo able to hear another voice over the voice of the old master, sin - you could hear God’s voice! We used to be only able to h commanding us. By God’s grace, He switched our heart’s allegiance; enlightened them; cleansed them by faith; and we fo obedience from the heart to God possible! “You were. . . you became!” Notice: “To which you were committed” = passive committing was done for you by Someone else. You do not have obedience to God by the hand. Rather, obedience to Go the heart!

4. Christ makes Himself at home in hearts by faith, Eph 3:14-19 (esp. v. 17).

• Read Eph 3:14-19. Whom is Paul writing to? Believers! Beyond conversion into the new creation; into the Christian life. . not the original indwelling of Christ at conversion being described. We are not to pray that THAT would occur - it already h pray for a richer, deeper, practical indwelling of Christ here. “May dwell” = intensified word for dwelling; not temporary dwe pitching a tent. Rather, it is a feeling very much at home kind of dwelling. Compare to Col 1:19; 2:9 (same word). How “at God’s Godness in Jesus? A perfect fit! That’s the way Christ’s practical indwelling is to be like within us. And like His orig came by faith through grace, this practical indwelling comes also by/through faith (ongoing trust).

• Guys - Christ dwells in us positionally. But what kind of residence does He find you to be for Him? Does Jesus find you he a hotel room or a home? What will help you? Divine strength through the HS, 3:16.

5. Christ establishes hearts without blame in holiness, 1 Thes 3:11-13.

• Explain the phrases in 3:13: “Make their hearts strong, settled, “established” -> without blame (negative); -> in holiness (po Where? Before our God and Father. -> When? At the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. In connection with lov well, 3:12.
• This looks forward to our glorification. It is tied to Christ’s presence, which will usher the saint into the presence of God, the From conversion all the way to glorification, God and Jesus (and HS) are active within us; they are powerful in us at the he commits Himself to us at the heart level from start to finish.

• Notice each of these comforting truths are about what God does for the heart (you don’t do it): God opens the heart. God the heart. God cleanses the heart. God frees the heart. Christ makes Himself at home in the heart. Christ establishes the future glorification). The gospel is all about God and what He does to create a new heart/inner man/new creature. What w hearts without Christ? Hard. Unbelieving. Eager to be religious without nearness to God. This is what God had to do to c hearts and secure us in heart all the way to the end (open, enlighten, cleanse, free, make Himself at home in, establish the

• So then what about us? What do we do? What is to by my/your response to God’s amazing, personal and powerful work In no way can we be neglectful of what God is so focused on from conversion to glorification! What He gives intense atten must also give intense attention to. My response to God’s heart work within me is to shepherd my heart to the word of God worship, love, fear, know, obey the God of the word! To keep my heart throughout the day soft to God’s word (with God’s w