A Propensity to Moral Failure 3

IS GOD REAL?

• Matthew 6:1–7 ¹ “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. ² Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. ³ But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly. ⁵ “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. ⁶ But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. ⁷ And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.
• Here Jesus urges to do “good deeds” in secret, and when you pray, do not use vain repetitions, without drawing attention to ourselves.
• He’s urging us to not grab attention or reward or recognition for basically good the things we do, because we don’t need to.
• When we do good things in order to be rewarded by those around us, we’re essentially saying that the only real reward we’ll get is from the people we can see
  • it’s an act of disbelief in God’s real-ness.
• God is real and can see all the secret things we do, and God is eager to “reward” us for those things.
• So do things so the only source of your reward can come from God. When you do that, you proclaim the truth—that God is real.

Review

Colloquialism is a word or phrase that is not formal or literary and is used in ordinary or familiar conversation.

• Study the Biblical truth, preach the colloquial Word.
• Perhaps God will use your words to bring the message of eternal life to those who sit in the shadow of death, unaware that eternal life is within their reach.
• Perhaps one simple quote from a famous person of the past or present may be enough to spark a nonbeliever’s interest in Holy Scripture.
• The definition of insanity (cited to Albert Einstein) is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

You will find that I quote from many well-known people, both Godly and secular

• The apostle Paul when he preached to the Athenians on Mars Hill cited secular Greek poets.
• Acts 17:28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
  • This is on our website
• The apostle Paul obviously wasn’t endorsing their lifestyles or promoting their poetry.
• Similarly, I am not in any way endorsing their lifestyles or promoting them.
• I, like the apostle Paul, am simply using their words, familiar to his listeners and to you, to help me proclaim the Gospel.
• Remember, study the Biblical truth, preach the colloquial Word.

No matter what is said and meant locally, Satan, the personal embodiment of all of the negativity of evil and its radical opposition to God, is rightly called “the evil one”

Perverse

The natural heart bent away from God is also described as perverse

• Proverbs 11:20 Those who are of a perverse heart are an abomination to the LORD, But the blameless in their ways are His delight.

The Hebrew word for “perverse” has the idea of not being straight forward or upright, not on the level, crooked, or twisted.

At its core, perversion signifies turning away from God and his “way” of life—“the wrong direction of the innermost being.”

The essence of this perverseness is

• the turning of loyalty, energy, and desire away from God and God’s project in the world:
• it is the diversion of construction materials for the city of God to side projects of our own, often accompanied by self-made ideologies that seek to justify the diversion.

Like an insane or mad person lives irrationally or contrary to reality, the evil heart lives against the reality of God and his good, ordered ways and thus suffers consequences.

The diverted or perverse way is also not an easy path to walk.

It is rightly called “crooked” and “twisting.”

The same word describes the “rough” places that are difficult to traverse—places that God makes smooth for his people.

• Isaiah 42:16 I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, And crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, And not forsake them.

Scripture warns us of the hurt and destruction that stems from a perverse heart.

• Proverbs 22:5 Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse; He who guards his soul will be far from them.
• Proverbs 28:18 Whoever walks blamelessly will be saved, But he who is perverse in his ways will suddenly fall.

The Hebrew describing the latter person whose ways are perverse may be more literally expressed as

• “the twisted one of double-dealing ways” or
• “the one who twists himself in double-dealing ways”

He or she masks his real walk by pretending another.

• Duplicity/facade is perverseness.

Diverted from the Lord’s straightforward way of life, the many twists and diversions of the perverse ways make for a stressful taxing life.

As the ancient Roman stoic philosopher Seneca the younger, who lived at the time of Jesus, noted:

• “Devotion to what is wrong is complex and admits of infinite variations.”

Proverbs straightforwardly summed up the product of the perverse heart:

• Proverbs 17:20 He who has a deceitful heart finds no good, And he who has a perverse tongue falls into evil.

This is saying that he finds nothing of the pleasant prosperity of the “good” of life.

• The Jerusalem Bible simply reads: “The tortuous of heart finds no happiness.”

We will continue our study on the nature of human heart next week by look more in-depth into two major defects of the heart; pride and deceitfulness.

• Proverbs 16:5 Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Though they join forces, none will go unpunished.
• We certainly don’t want to be an abomination to the LORD.

Deceitfulness, the second major defect of the natural heart flows directly from the first.

• The proud heart can be easily deceived.
• Jeremiah 49:16 Your fierceness has deceived you, The pride of your heart, O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, Who hold the height of the hill! Though you make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there,” says the LORD.

Remember: Duplicity/facade is perverseness.

• Matthew 6:7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

Do not mask your real walk with God by pretending another.

Scripture warns us of the hurt and destruction that stems from a perverse heart.

• Proverbs 11:20 Those who are of a perverse heart are an abomination to the LORD, But the blameless in their ways are His delight.
• Psalm 51:6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.