19 | May | 2011 | THE CUP OF SALVATION

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT HAVING A PURE HEART – BE AN ORGAN DONOR, GIVE YOUR HEART TO JESUS !!!

May 19, 2011

“Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:”

There is a very serious heart disease we should all know about, it is called “the disease of hard-heartedness.” Many times in the Old Testament, we read that God accused the people of Israel of being hard-hearted. In the New Testament, Jesus would sometimes tell the religious leaders, and even His own followers that their hearts were hard. Jesus told a parable of a farmer who went out and sowed seeds. You don’t have a to have a green thumb to know that the object of sowing seed is to get it into fertile soil so it can take root and produce fruit. Jesus pointed out that often when a farmer would throw seed, some would land on hard-packed soil. That seed was wasted; it would never grow. Jesus went on to explain what He meant by this agricultural story. Some people’s hearts are impenetrable, hardened, unresponsive, and callous. The Word of God just bounces off. It doesn’t even take root. One biblical character who had an iron heart was the man who was crucified next to Jesus. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, there was a criminal being executed on His right and another on His left. One was a repentant thief. In the last moments of his life, he softened his heart and said, “Oh Lord, would You remember me?” Jesus said to him, “Today you’ll be with Me in paradise.” But the other thief, who was being crucified for a life of crime and violence, had a hard heart. He was minutes from death, inches from the Savior, but his heart was like stone. He was busy hurling abuse and insults at Jesus. And this is what will happen ultimately to those people who spend their whole lives with an attitude of hard-heartedness. In the Bible, “hard-heartedness” refers to the unresponsive, stiff, angry, insensitive, rebellious, and independent attitude ruling our hearts. This attitude is first directed toward God, but also toward other people. People in Jesus’ time, like those in the time of Isaiah, would not believe despite the evidence. As a result, God hardened their hearts. Does that mean God intentionally prevented these people from believing in him? No, he simply confirmed their own choices. After a lifetime of resisting God, they had become so set in their ways that they wouldn’t even try to understand Jesus’ message. For such people, it is almost impossible to come to God, their hearts have been permanently hardened. Other instances of hardened hearts because of constant stubbornness are recorded in the Bible here, “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was met. And even as they did not like to keep God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;” Romans 1:24-28 KJV The Bible tells us that sin is a root cause for hard-heartedness. “But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” Hebrews 3:13 KJV We learn to sin at a very young age. We have a sin nature, and we make sinful choices. Our sins can build up and harden our hearts. When our hearts become hard, Jesus is distressed or grieved. He is hurt. The result of an unrepentant heart is the eventual wrath of God. Although God doesn’t always punish us immediately for our sins, his eventual judgment is certain. Our hearts are important to God. What is the heart? The heart is the soul or mind of man. It is the foundation of our thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, and endeavors.God wants our hearts to be right with Him and not just our outward appearances and actions. In the Bible, “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 KJV God told Samuel to go to the house of Jesse and anoint one of his sons to be the next king. Samuel saw one of Jesses’ sons, Eliab, and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” It’s the heart that matters to God.In the New Testament, Jesus condemned the Pharisees and religious leaders for outwardly appearing saintly and holy but inwardly remaining far from God. In the Bible it says, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” Matthew 23:27-28 KJV Brethren, it’s what is on the inside that matters to God. Since we are sinful people, we cannot create by ourselves the kind of heart that God wants us to have. David recognized this when he wrote in Psalms, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalms 51:10 KJV We need to go to God in prayer and ask Him to change our hearts. As Saul was being made the King, “As Saul turned to leave Samuel, God changed Saul’s heart.” Regardless of how far a person’s heart is from God; God can change it. Sin separates us from God. If sin reigns in our hearts and lives, then we are alienating ourselves from God. We have a heart problem when there is sin reigning in our lives. The Bible says, “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” Isaiah 59:2 KJV So what do we need to do to get our hearts back right with God? We need to confess our sins to God. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 KJV We can’t hide our sins from God, we must acknowledge them before God. When should we confess our sins? Right when the sin is committed. We must confess our sins immediately to guard our hearts from sin. A Proverb writer once wrote, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23 KJV We shouldn’t commit a sin and let that sin dwell in us all day. No, we need to guard our hearts from any type of sin that is trying to invade it! We need to turn away from our sins. Stop doing what God does not want us to do. The Bible says, “But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” Ezekiel 18:21-23 KJV This passage teaches that if we turn away from our sins, then God will forgive us and He will remember our sins no more. Isn’t that wonderful! That’s the kind of Loving God that we have. If we stop the sinning, then our hearts can be brought back to God. The heart is very important to God. It is the wellspring of life. We must guard our hearts against hardness and always have an open and healthy heart towards God. When you have a new heart, you have a desire to be submissive to God. Every morning you need to say, “I give You my life today, Lord.” You can start your day singing, “Have Your own way, Lord. Have Your own way. You are the potter, I am the clay.” You begin to pray, “Mold me, make me, do whatever you want with my life, it’s Yours.” It’s a submission issue, a flexibility issue, a surrender issue. Your life motto becomes: “Just say the word, Lord.” Your soft heart says, “Whatever the Scriptures teach, that’s what I want to do.” A responsive heart is one that always says yes to the Lord. Just be a donor and give your heart to Jesus ! We may fool others who see us only on the outside, but God sees the reality of our hearts, whether good or bad. It is wise, therefore, to humbly confess our faults to the Lord. He desires that we admit the truth. The only way to escape the sin and restore our fellowship with God is to acknowledge and confess it to Him. So why not today open up your heart to Jesus Christ, because He is the One that died on the cross and shed His blood and paid the penalty for your sins so you could have that free gift of eternal life. Amen