Salvation: A Matter Of The Heart, Part 1 & 2

“SALVATION: A MATTER OF THE HEART,” Part 1 & 2

Romans 10.10

Eight years ago, I began a series of Sunday evening messages from God’s Word that centered on the spiritual part of the inner man known as the heart. That study was interrupted by the protracted nightly services that we held beginning in the middle of July 2010 that lasted for almost three weeks. We will take up that study once more after an almost eight-year layoff.

I had intended to bring this message two weeks ago, on the evening of September 9th. However, at the last minute that evening I felt it appropriate to have a service devoted to Pastor People Time, in part to address pressing matters and in part to establish continuity knowing Pastor Wong would be here the following week. Therefore, though I will begin this brief series this morning, I plan to proceed with subsequent messages in this series on Sunday nights beginning next Sunday night.

Is it an important study for us as a congregation to resume? I think it is profoundly important, for at least four reasons:

First, because it is a very rare thing these days for a Church to allow a pastor to engage in the kind of evangelism we pursue here at Calvary Road Baptist Church, which is a heart-probing approach to bringing the lost to Christ. A heart-probing approach to evangelism sometimes evokes antagonistic reactions that are observed in very few other ministries. Why so? Because real evangelism, which is heart-probing evangelism, requires real grace. Real grace demands real humility in the face of so staggering an affront to the sinner’s inflated ego when genuinely considering of one’s sinfulness. Real humility is a matter of the heart, Psalm 34.18:

“The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”

God must work in any sinner’s heart for that person to be willing to put up with the anguish that is invariably encountered when the Spirit of God convicts a person of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

Second, because the heart, which is not the same as one’s mind and soul, is very difficult to understand fully. The heart, the mind, the conscience, the spirit, and the soul, comprise the immaterial part of every human being. Your heart is part of the nonphysical portion of you, and of each one of us. How do the heart, the mind, the conscience, the spirit, and the soul relate to each other in a person? How does your heart relate to your mind and your conscience and the other immaterial parts of you? I am not sure anyone other than God really knows the answer to that question. However, we will during our study over the next few weeks to try to understand more fully.

Third, this study is important because we are told by the Apostle Paul in Romans 10.10,

“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Is anything as practically important to a sinner as the salvation of his soul? Is anything more important to you than the salvation of your soul? I cannot think of anything that is, or that should be. So, while your soul’s salvation may not particularly interest you, there is nothing that is more important to your eternal welfare. Therefore, if it is with the heart that someone believes unto righteousness, studying matters of the human heart must be profoundly important even if such things do not seem important to you.

Finally, it should prove interesting to discover how the maternal instincts of some mothers have been or will be, manipulated by their children in their youngster’s efforts to resist the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. As well, for those moms who are fully aware of the attempts made by their children to manipulate their maternal instincts, perhaps some will come to see the damage that is done when a child can get away with such manipulation. So, for a variety of reasons and in several ways, our consideration of the heart should alter the way you think about several things. I will not pretend this will be an exhaustive study; only that it will be an important one.

In the New Testament, we find the Greek word kardia. Things cardiac in the English language, having to do with the heart, are derived from this Greek word. Of significance in studying matters related to the heart is that the New Testament use of the word agrees with the Old Testament concept of the heart, as opposed to the way the rest of the Greek-speaking world used the word in the first century. In the Old Testament and the New Testament the heart is seen to be the main organ of spiritual life and is the place in a person where God bears witness to Himself. This according to the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament.[1]

In Luke 21.34 we see the Lord Jesus Christ teaching about prophesy during the Tuesday afternoon before His crucifixion. On that occasion He said,

“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.”

Surfeiting refers to nausea that accompanies drunkenness.[2] The Lord was referring to the thoughts of people’s hearts as the central organ of the body.[3] Our Lord was advising His listeners against letting their hearts get so carried away by their busyness, by their hustle and bustle, and by their many activities, that they lost their sense of what was happening to their lives.

We also see the heart as the center of the person’s inner life and the place of the forces and functions of the soul and the spirit. In Acts 2.26 we see reference made to the heart of David rejoicing, where he is quoted as saying,

“Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad.”

As well, in John 16.22 the Lord Jesus said,

“And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.”

In John 16.6 our Lord remarked, “sorrow hath filled your heart.” So, it is in the heart that feelings and emotions, desires and passions, dwell.[4]

I remember being surprised myself many years ago to learn when studying this issue, that the heart is also the seat of understanding and the source of thought and reflection. This is seen from our Lord’s comment about a wicked man’s heart in Mark 7.20-23:

20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.

21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:

23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

Notice, also, the last half of John 12.40:

“that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.”

In Acts 7.23 the first Christian martyr, Stephen, mentions the heart of Moses as the seat of his thoughts and considerations:

“And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.”

Thus, no matter how illogical and irrational it might have seemed to some that Moses would risk his lofty and prestigious position in Pharaoh’s court to do so, he wanted to visit his kinsmen. It was a matter of Moses’ heart to connect with his people.

The heart is also shown to be the seat of a man’s will.[5] First Corinthians 4.5:

“Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.”

Second Corinthians 9.7:

“Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”

Your heart is the place where you make your decisions. You may come to know what you ought to do in the processes of your mind, but it is in your heart that your decisions to act are made, and your will is executed. In our PayCheck Sunday prayer banquet tonight, it will be with your heart that you mull over and come to a decision about your involvement in our PayCheck Sunday Offering next week.[6] My hope and prayer are that the preaching of God’s Word will so affect your mind that you will meditate upon the truth you are exposed to, and what enters your mind during Brother Walpole’s message will make its way to your heart to influence what you do next Sunday.

How many times people know they should not do something but go ahead and choose to do it because they strongly desire to do so in their hearts. As well, how many times people know they should do something, yet they seem unable to bring themselves to doing what they know is right because the evil inclinations of their hearts have not been affected by truth received into the mind. “Thus the heart is supremely the one centre in man to which God turns, in which religious life is rooted, and which determines moral conduct.”[7] First Peter 3.15 illustrates the importance of the heart’s place in the believer’s life and well-being:

“But 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.”

Peter charges believers to be accountable to anyone who puts us on the spot concerning why we think we are Christians and why we are justified in placing our faith in Christ. If they ask you, you are directed to answer and to defend the Christian faith and your part in it. The sacredness of the Lord God in your heart is at stake, depending on how you respond to the challenge of whether you are a Christian and why. Thus, the importance of the heart is firmly established as the center of the inner life of man and the place of the forces and functions of the soul and the spirit, as the seat of understanding, as the source of thought and reflection, and as the seat of every person’s free will.

How cautious we ought to be, therefore, and how well-informed it is necessary to be, considering Jeremiah 17.9, where we learn,

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

The answer to this question of who knows the heart? The next verse, Jeremiah 17.10:

“I the LORD search the heart.”

The foundation having been laid, when I revisit this matter of the heart I will divide our study into three main parts of unequal length; the belief of the heart, the behavior of the heart, and recommendations related to the heart.

The First Main Division Of Our Study Is THE BELIEF OF THE HEART

We know from Romans 10.10,

“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.”

To make sure we understand the person who believes unto righteousness, Who the person believes in unto righteousness, and the righteousness that results from a sinful individual’s faith, allow me to bring three doctrines to your attention:

First, mankind’s fall. Adam and Eve were made in the image and likeness of God.[8] How did man bear God’s image and likeness? In several ways: First, there was what might be considered man’s natural likeness to God, insomuch that our first parents (and we) possessed that twofold capacity to know self as related to the world and God and to determine self in view of moral ends. This distinguishes us from brutes. The brute is conscious but not self-conscious.[9] Next, there was man’s moral likeness to God. Adam and Eve were created innocent and enjoyed unhindered communion with our holy God because they were spiritually pristine and without any taint of sin. That communion with God was interrupted when Eve and then Adam sinned against God by disobeying Him. When they disobeyed they were plunged into sin in what is termed the Fall.[10] The immediate effects of man’s first sin are worth noting. They are six found in Genesis 3.7-13:

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

First, there was a sense of shame. This was due to the awakening of conscience. How the conscience relates to the mind and heart is a matter of importance that we will take up at a later time. Next, there was the covering of fig leaves. This was the result of the sense of shame. However, it should be noted that it was a bloodless covering instead of a proper atonement for sin that God later rectified, as is recorded in Genesis 3.21:

“Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.”

Third, there was a feeling of fear. They hid themselves from God because they were afraid, which arose from their guilty consciences. Fourth, there was an attempt at concealment. Adam and Eve foolishly thought that they could hide from the proximity and awareness of the omnipresent and omniscient God. Fifth, there was an effort at self-vindication. Though they were guilty, Adam and Eve still tried to justify themselves. Sinners still try to justify themselves. Finally, there was a shifting of blame. Adam laid the blame for his sin upon Eve, and Eve laid the blame for her sin upon the serpent. Attempts to blame another creature are thinly veiled attempts to blame the Creator of the creatures, God Himself. Blameshifting, when rightly understood, is akin to blasphemy.

Perhaps now, because of a better grasp of the sinfulness of Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God, and because we have acquired a better recognition that God is just, it can be better appreciated why He visited judicial consequences on the first sin. The first consequence was divine judgment. In Genesis 3.14-19, we see the serpent cursed with degradation:

14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Eve and all women who followed her were cursed with the judgment of sorrow and subjection. Adam and all men who followed him were cursed with the judgment of sorrow and toil. The second consequence was separation from the Tree of Life, from the Garden of Eden, and from the Personal and Visible Presence of God. The third consequence God visited upon our first parents and subsequent generations for that first sin was death. Physical death is experienced in the separation of the soul from the body. Spiritual death is the separation of the spirit from God.[11] Then there is eternal death, which begins with the torments of Hell and then escalates after the Great White Throne judgment to the unimaginable horror of “the blackness of darkness for ever” in the lake of fire.[12],[13]

A few additional comments by the venerable Baptist theologian John Gill concerning the corruption of the human nature by sin and the Fall are in order:

The heathens themselves have acknowledged and lamented it; they assert, that no man is born without sin; that every man is naturally vicious; that there is an evil disposition, or vicious affection, that is implanted and grows up in men; and that there is a fatal portion of evil in all when born, from whence are the depravity of the soul, diseases, etc. and that the cause of viciosity is rather from our parents, and from first principles, than from ourselves: and Cicero particularly laments that men should be brought into life by nature as a stepmother, with a naked, frail, and infirm body, and with a mind or soul prone to lusts.
Revelation asserts it; the Scriptures abound with testimonies of it, affirming that no man can be born pure and clean; that whatever is born of the flesh, or comes into the world by ordinary generation, is flesh, carnal and corrupt; that all men, Jews and Gentiles, are under sin, under the guilt, pollution and dominion of sin; that the imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart is only evil, and that continually; that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked; and that out of it proceeds all that is vile and sinful, Job 14:4; John 3:6; Romans 3:9; Genesis 6:5; Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 15:19.
Reason confirms it, that so it must be; that if a tree is corrupt, it can bring forth no other than corrupt fruit; that if the root of mankind is unholy, the branches must be so too; if the fountain is impure, the streams must be so likewise; if immediate parents are unclean, their posterity must be unclean, since a clean thing cannot be brought out of an unclean; and if God has made of one man’s blood all nations that are upon the face of the earth, and that blood is tainted with sin, all that proceed from him by ordinary generation must have the same taint.
All experience testifies the truth of this; no man was ever born into the world without sin; no one has ever been exempt from this contagion and defilement of nature, “There is none that doeth good, no not one”, Romans 3:10 that does good naturally and of himself; the reason is, because there is none by nature good; of all the millions of men that have proceeded from Adam by ordinary generation, not one has been found without sin; there is but one individual of human nature that can be mentioned as an exception to this, and that is the human nature of Christ; and that is excepted because of its wonderful production, and did not descend from Adam by ordinary generation.
The necessity of redemption by Christ, and of regeneration by the Spirit of Christ, shows that men must be in a corrupt state, or there would have been no need of these. The redemption of men from sin, and from a vain conversation, supposes them to be under the power of sin, and the influence of it, to lead a vain sinful life; and if men were free from the pollution of sin, the blood of Christ to cleanse from all sin would have been unnecessary; his being made wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to them, implies that they were foolish and unwise, that they were unrighteous and unholy, and slaves to sin and Satan: regeneration and sanctification are absolutely necessary to a man’s enjoyment of eternal happiness; “except a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” and “without holiness no man shall see the Lord”, John 3:3; Hebrews 12:14 but what occasion would there have been for man’s being born again, or having a new or supernatural birth, if he was not defiled by his first and natural birth; or of being sanctified, if he was not unholy and unclean? see 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.[14]

Man’s Fall has been so far, his resulting situation is so hopeless, that one might wonder what future is possible. However, we have yet to consider Christ’s glorious Gospel and the mystery of the sinner’s faith. It is only when we review those topics that we will be ready to observe the human mind in action, then proceed to the human heart in action, from Adam and Eve hiding from God in the Garden of Eden after they sinned, to the Israelites refusing the counsel of Joshua and Caleb to enter the Promised Land, and on to the way children seek with cleverness to manipulate their mother’s maternal instincts. After that is accomplished we will review what the Bible says about the battle for the mind, the proclamation of the Gospel, the persuasion that is employed to bring sinners to Christ, and the pulling down of strongholds that is sometimes necessary to accomplish our goals with resistant sinners. Along the way we will explore the group think mentality that can be observed when people are set on resisting the Gospel, where they sit, how they sit, the ways in which they congregate, and how they use family members, spouses, and friends to shield themselves from a thoughtful consideration of the glorious Gospel message. Adam and Eve were created in the image and likeness of God. As a result of the Fall mankind is a sinful race, though still a race bearing the image of God. Even after God judged the entire human race by the great Flood in Noah’s day, notice what God said in Genesis 9.6:

“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.”

With mankind a fallen race, we see that the effect resulting from our inherited sinfulness is our estrangement from God. Men are now born sinners.[15] Being sinners, each one of us comes into the world an enemy of God.[16] Tragically for us, this means that we are by nature children of wrath.[17] Therefore, punishment deservedly awaits every child born of woman for the sins he has committed against God.[18]

To Be Continued Next Sunday -

__________

[1] Gerhard Kittel, editor, Geoffrey W. Bromley, translator, Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965), page 611.

[2] A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures In The New Testament, Vol II, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1930), page 262.

[3] Kittel, page 611.

[4] Ibid., page 612.

[5] Ibid.

[6] PayCheck Sunday is our church’s annual special offering time, an occasion in which many members choose to reverse tithe, giving 90% of their weekly income and keeping 10% instead of giving 10% and keeping 90%. Our annual Paycheck Sunday freewill offering is extremely helpful with large expenses faced by churches to maintain property and appearance.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Genesis 1.26

[9] Emery H. Bancroft, Christian Theology, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, revised edition 1961), page 180.

[10] Genesis 3.1-19

[11] Romans 6.23

[12] Jude 13; Matthew 25.46; Revelation 20.11-15

[13] Bancroft, pages 190-192.

[14] John Gill, The Collected Writings of John Gill - Version 2.0, (Paris, AK: The Baptist Standard Bearer, Inc., 2000-2003), Book 5, Doctrinal Divinity Book 3, Chapter 11

[15] Romans 5.12

[16] Romans 5.10

[17] Ephesians 2.3

[18] Romans 6.23

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Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church