Sermon Central
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It’s A Matter Of The Heart
Contributed by William D. Brown on Aug 2, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: The Bible tells us that the heart is the seat of all actions of life.
IT’S A MATTER OF THE HEART
PROVERBS 4:20-23 20My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. 21Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. 22For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. 23Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life
The Bible tells us that the heart is the seat of all actions of life.
The Heart is used in Scripture as the most comprehensive term for the real person. It is the part of our being where we desire, deliberate, and decide. It has been described as "the place of conscious and decisive spiritual activity," "the term for a person as a whole; his feelings, desires, passions, thoughts, understanding and will," and "the center of a person.
Lets examine our heart as we consider that salvation, sanctification, and service are all a matter of the heart.
1st of all Salvation is a matter of the heart.
A. The Heart of Man is the source of man’s lost ness.
1. Jeremiah 17:9 “"The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; who can know it?”
2. Proverbs 23:7 7For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
3. Psalm 51:10 10Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
4. Scientists say that a snowflake at times have been found to have a tiny piece of dust at its core. They say some of them, so to speak has a "dirty heart"
B. It’s the Heart of Faith not the Head that is the vehicle of Salvation.
1. Romans 10:9-10 9That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation
2. Jeremiah 29:13 13And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
3. Mark 7:6 6He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
4. True Christianity is far more than head knowledge of Jesus. True Christianity is an unsaved human being saved from the source and penalty of sin forever.
Many people who think they are saved are not. Why? Because they have never receive Jesus into their hearts by faith.
They believe in their heads, but not in their hearts. They are missing heaven by 18 inches (the distance from one’s heart to one’s brain).
II. Sanctification is a matter of the heart.
A. Outward separation is not sanctification but contamination
1. Matthew 23: 25Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. 26Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. 27Woe 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
3. Isaiah 29:13 13Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me,
Adolph Hitler was a master of outward religiosity—with no inward reality!
4. He made free use of Christian vocabulary. He talked about the blessing of the Almighty and the Christian confessions, which would become the pillars of the new government.
He appeared to possess the earnestness of a man weighed down by historic responsibility. He handed out pious stories to the press, especially to the church papers.
He showed his tattered Bible and declared that he drew the strength for his great work from it, as scores of people welcomed him as a man sent from God.
And that is also the way the Antichrist will seem & appear.
B. True sanctification begins inside.
1. Daniel 1:8 8But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself
2. 1 Peter 3:15 15But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
