My Heart Condition
Matthew 15:1-20
• I submit that this story is a microcosm of the life of Jesus and His focus on the truth.
• This past week I read a statistic that over 40% of deaths in America are caused by issues of the heart. Ultimately, every death is caused by heart failure. When the heart stops beating, stops functioning, and stops doing its job – life cease.
• However, the reasons so many death occur at the hand of an unhealthy heart seems to be many. First, the initial signs can be so subtle that we ignore them. Next, those initial signs can resemble other conditions (indigestion, cough, fatigue, etc) and it’s easier to dismiss them as a heart issue. Today, if caught early enough, most heart problems can be treated today. While this is indeed “Good news”, it is required that we notice when symptoms develop and get checked out.
• The same is true with our spiritual hearts. Just like we tend to ignore the initial signs of heart problems in our physical bodies, perhaps we do the same with our spiritual heart. By the way, it’s real easy to do. However under God, we should be diligent each and every day, let alone when we come to the Lord’s Table, to check our hearts. Proverbs 23:7 says, “As man thinks in his heart.”
• The Apostle Paul is very clear about how we should approach “The Lord’s Table.” We should do our best to come with a clean heart and life. From our text, let’s focus on two thoughts:
1) The Problems with the Heart – We are born with a heart problem. While we don’t care to admit it, since the Garden of Eden, man’s heart is faulty, flawed, and failing. Watch:
a. It deceives us – For the last 16 months, as we made our way through the gospel of Mark, we witnessed the Sanhedrin (the church going people, the church leaders) fighting against Jesus.
• Do you think they thought they were fighting against God? No, they were trusting their hearts and minds. They actually believed they were doing God’s will & were likely amazed at Jesus’ response.
• In their minds, they had taken the Law of Moses and developed it into the Rabbinical law (600+ laws) and were literally, forcing people to follow it. Surely they were pleasing to God. Basically they had raised the standard of their man made laws and traditions to the level of scripture. They thought they had ‘cornered the market’ on God and their hearts were telling them they were right. Jeremiah 17:9 says this; “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.” This kind of blows a whole in the sentimental approach of “He’s got a good heart.” Yea, says who? Make no mistake, our heart will deceive and thus:
b. It defiles us – (Verses 10-11, 18). The word “defile” is used in both verses and both times the same Greek word is used – which means to render unclean, unhallowed, unholy, and even profane. The Pharisees were so convinced of their ‘godliness’ that they missed the deep spiritual truth which God’s word teaches – that our heart cannot be trusted. When something comes out of your mouth, it was born in your heart. We may not like to hear this, but unless we want to argue with God, we would do well to recognize it as a condition of our heart. Those evil thoughts, false witness, slander, and other evil, it begins in your heart and defiles you. It’s a problem. One more:
c. It directs us - Verse 8 is a revealing verse. Your lips alone cannot overcome where your heart is. We can sing a good song, pray a good prayer, or even talk a good game, but if your heart is far from our Lord, you may find yourself being self-deceived. If your heart is in, with, and for the world – then YOU ARE THERE! Please don’t miss this: We cannot love God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths – if we love this world. It’s a physical & spiritual impossibility. We follow our heart. When sin is president or just resident in our lives, we fall in love with the things of this world and out of love with Jesus. I submit this is epidemic today.
• Around 1946 J.R. Baxter wrote the widely popular gospel song, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through.” In fact, many of the great gospel tunes about going to heaven and just can’t wait – were written in the first half or ¾ of the 20th Century and do you know why? Because those were difficult days (I.E. 2 World Wars, Other Wars, the Great depression, etc) and people were longing for their heavenly home. They knew God had a better place prepared for them. Today our hearts, which deceive, defile, and direct, tend to tell us that “THIS IS ABOUT AS GOOD AS IT GETS” and we buy into the lie. That is the problem with the heart.
2) The Power of the Heart – The heart of a person has the power of life and death, love and hate, and heaven and hell. This past week I have spent much time reading the literally hundreds of scripture which speaks about the heart. I offer you four Biblical truths about it:
a) It controls – It controls every part of your life. In the Jewish culture the heart was considered the center of their being – and truly it is. In verse 8-9 we discover Jesus quoting the prophet Isaiah that it affects your worship and your belief system. If your heart is not connected to God, then your worship is empty, vain, & pointless. And if your heart is not connected to the Father, then you’ll teach the traditions & doctrines of man as important as the doctrines of God. Your heart has great power. If Jesus doesn’t have your heart, then you are controlled by the enemy. By the way, it is with the heart that you can walk away. What happens it this: You have a hot heart for God, His will, and His ways, and then this old world (I.E. sin, pleasures, etc) find a place, a little space in your life, and your heart fire goes out which dulls your response & even love for the Father. Turn back to Matthew 13:14-15 (Read & Explain). This is what happens to us.
• One of the most startling pictures of the heart controlling us is found in John 13:2 (Read). We should never forget that even if ‘we don’t believe’ the heart is our control center & that evil in the heart means evil in life, then we should be aware that the enemy knows it & uses it.
• By the way, it is also in the heart where we ‘love the Lord God’ and fulfill the great commandment. Jesus said the greatest of all commands is to ‘love the Lord God with all you are & then love your neighbor as yourself. James, Jesus’ half-brother calls this, the “Royal Law.” It starts in the heart.
b) It conveys – (Read the first phrase of verse 18). Never forget, ‘whatever is in our hearts, comes out of our mouths.’ To the disdain of many, I don’t prescribe to the human notion that “No one knows what’s in the heart of another.” It seems to me that the Bible says just the opposite.
• In Matthew 12:34, the words of Jesus are, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” It would seem that Jesus felt you could indeed tell what was in a person’s heart by listening to what they said. If they are wicked, then slanders, false accusations, words of viciousness & evil would come forth. It they are righteous, then words of help, hope, life, and love would come.
• But that’s not all, you can see where a person’s heart is by what they place value on. Matthew 6:21 says, “Where your treasure is, that is where your heart is.” Your heart is revealed by where your treasure is AND by WHAT your treasure is. Who you really are is conveyed by your heart.
c) It convicts – Although I don’t see conviction happening in this text (I wish I did because I hurt for the Pharisees who gave their life to the church & the word and missed Jesus, the Savior), there are many places in God’s word which point us to this truth – but for the sake of time, I’ll take only one passage. In Acts 2, after the Holy Spirit fell on the 120, after the crowd assembled to see what was happening, and after Peter preached a 10 minutes message, the scripture says that they were ‘cut’ or ‘pricked’ in their hearts. When your heart come face to face with the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ – it will be felt in your heart. You will know, as they knew, that you are not right before God. Different people have different responses, but one thing is constant – when we encounter God, we know how small, sinful, and in need we really are. Our hearts convey to us that we need help.
d) It converts – Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you confess with your mouth & believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” This is an issue of the heart. By the way, the scripture goes on to say that “Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame” and “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Has this happened to you?
• I wish I could tell you that once you are saved, you never sin again – but that is simply not the truth. However, the scripture we read in Matthew 13 about the ‘heart’s grown dull’ speaks directly to those who have been saved. It is the sin in our lives which cause our heart’s to grow dull, to make us hard of hearing, and to cause us to close our eyes. It is at this point we end as we prepare for the Lord’s Table.
• Before God, I ask you to look into your heart as God looks. Can you see the sin which God sees? Has this sin caused your heart to grow cold toward Him? Does it seem more difficult to hear His voice? Here’s the payoff question: Since your heart is cold & your hearing of His voice is impaired: Do you simply desire to close your eyes and not deal with it? Could that be what’s going on today? If so, why not open your eyes to see what He sees, why not your ears to hear what He’s saying, and in the process let Him, once again, ignite your heart with the flame of His Spirit?
