Salvation
If you have not accepted the salvation only through Jesus Christ,
Maybe you don’t know who He is, maybe you think you do
but don’t think this concerns you.
Guard your heart, renew your mind, for under the sun, there is nothing new,
Proclaimed throughout the ages and retold now,
so that on judgment day you need not be ashamed or stand surprised.
In the beginning, back when God created everything,
It was good, all creation, and the man was king.
God warned man about disobedience and the sin that follows,
But the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they did swallow
This fall led to the flood of Noah and later to the tower of Babel,
Where God delegated His care for nations, and instead chose Israel.
The devil influenced man to more evil, leading to Sodom and Gomorrah,
Finally, to understand sin and His standards, God gave us the Torah.
To restore all things, God gave His only begotten Son, Jesus the Messiah.
On the cross, for our sin, Jesus Christ died, rising again on the third day.
He fulfilled all Law’s obligations and reconciled us to God, our Father.
Return He will, to judge, renew, and to hand the Kingdom over to God, His Father.
In a heartbeat, this is what I preach, in a nutshell, this is what I teach.
The song remains the same, that to your ears must this good news reach.
That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
To understand His love, the peace He alone can give, our Lord Jesus calls us to know the path that He has paved.
As the Holy Spirit guides us to realize what is true,
I explain God’s grace through the Holy Bible; His plan to make our lives new.
Preamble
- The hidden person of the heart has an unfathomable depth that cannot be grasped—except by God.
- Our deepest thoughts and emotions are buried in the recesses of our heart.
- God wants truth in our inward being, duplicity will destroy us and our intimacy with God.
- Repetition of the Word is “safe” for you.
- Psalm 119:24 (NKJV) Your testimonies (statutes) also are my delight And my counselors. (NLT) Your lawsplease me; they give me wise advice.
- Proverbs 11:14 Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is
- Proverbs 24:6 For by wise counsel you will wage your own war, And in a multitude of counselors there is
- Proverbs 15:22 Without counsel, plans go awry, But in the multitude of counselors they are established.
God Deals with Us in Our Heart
God not only looks at our heart to see who we are, He meets us as persons that we are in our heart.
- God shapes our heart as an environment for dialogue with Him.
- He puts thoughts into the heart
- Ezra 7:27 Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem,
- God speaks words of comfort and love “to the heart” of his people
- 2 Thessalonians 2:16–17 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.
- He opens the heart of people to receive His Word
- Acts 16:14 Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.
- God shines “the Light of Christ” in our heart
- 2 Corinthians 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
- Christ and the Spirit dwell “in the heart”
- Ephesians 3:17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
- Galatians 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
- The heart is the place where his love is “poured out”
- Romans 5:5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
God deals with us according to His knowledge of our heart
God deals with us according to His knowledge of our heart.
- When Samuel went to Jesse to anoint one of his sons as king, the Lord said that He does not look at the things people look at; the outward appearance, but looks at the heart.
- 1 Samuel 16:6–7So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is before Him!” But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
- Similarly, Jesus told the Pharisees in Luke,
- Luke 16:15 And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
God judges us according to what is in our heart.
Most importantly, God judges us according to what is in our heart.
We are often told he judges us according to our deeds or works. Technically this is not wrong, but it must be understood that our deeds are
- not only the acts that are seen
- or the words that are heard;
Our deeds come from the hidden thoughts and motives behind them.
- Jeremiah 17:10 I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
- 2 Chronicles 6:30 then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men),
Likewise, the glorified Christ said:
- Revelation 2:23 I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.
- Speaking of the final judgment, Paul declared that God will “render to each person according to his deeds when God will judge the secrets [lit. hidden things] of men through Christ Jesus”
- Romans 2:6 who “will render to each one according to his deeds”:
- Romans 2:16 in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.
- Judgment according to our deeds is in reality the judgment of us as persons.
- The Heart is our true identity; no façade, nothing can be hidden from God.
- For the deeds that come out of our heart actually reveal the real person of the heart.
God makes us new persons by giving us a new heart.
Finally, God makes us new persons by giving us a new heart.
- Scripture speaks of the believer in Christ as “born again”, not a denomination!
- John 3:3–8 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
- A “new self”
- Romans 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
- Colossians 3:9–10 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
- “A new creature” or “a new creation”
- 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
- As we will study later, it is the “new heart” that is making us a new person.
- Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
- Romans 2:29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.
Summary: God Relates to the Inner Person of the Heart
The human life is much more than complex physical and mental life.
- It is a life lived responsibly before God.
God not only looks at our heart to see who we are, he meets us as persons in our heart.
- “God fashions the heart as a forum for dialogue with him.”
God deals with us according to his knowledge of our heart
God judges us according to what is in our heart.
- Judgment according to our deeds is in reality the judgment of us as persons.
- For the deeds that come out of our heart unveil the real person of the heart.
God makes us new persons by giving us and us receiving a “new heart”
- The New Covenant’s emphasis is upon the heart (vs the body).
The good news of Jesus Christ is concerned about the status of our heart:
- John 14:1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
The Heart is our true identity.