Cain's Sinful Heart

For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

Matthew 15:19

Sin doesn't originate outside of you (with temptation) but from within your own wicked heart (compare James 1:13-15). So, you can't blame anyone else when you sin because the battlefield on which you win or lose the battle against sin is inside yourself.

In Greek the word for 'heart' in Matthew 15:19 doesn't just mean the emotional part of yourself, but your passions, desires, and thoughts as well. It could be translated as 'soul.' That means that you lose the battle against sinful thoughts, attitudes, and feelings long before you lose the battle against sinful acts.

 

I believe we find this illustrated in the first murder. Genesis 4:8 says, "Now Cain said to his brother Abel, 'Let’s go out to the field.' While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him." The text doesn't explicitly say that Cain's act was pre-meditated, but that seems to be the clear implication. It certainly reads like Cain intentionally lured his brother out to a remote place with the intention of killing him and hiding his body. 

Who knows how many times Cain thought about killing his brother before he actually did it? Who knows how many different ways of murdering Abel he considered before landing on a specific method? Or who know how many times Cain played the murder out in his mind before he acted on it? We don't know. But unless we're to believe that Cain spontaneously killed his brother after inviting him out to the field for no particular reason, we have to assume that Cain thought this through. If this is true, then Cain gave in to sin and indulged in sinful and murderous thoughts and attitudes towards his brother long before he ever raised his hand against him. 

What a powerful example of the truth Jesus teaches! When you are angry, be very careful what you allow yourself to think on or fantasize about. Be careful what thoughts you fill your mind with. Be careful what feelings you indulge or dwell on. Because sin begins in your heart and in your mind. If you lose the fight against sinful thoughts, desires and feelings, then you will never win the battle against sinful actions.

Heart Matters

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean." 

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Matthew 23:25-28

Far too often we have been guilty of the same sin as the Pharisees. We have focused on cleaning the outside of the cup and have left the inside untended. We are like white-washed tombs. Crisp and clean on the outside but the inside is rotten and decaying. Far too many of us harbor secret sin in their hearts. We have perfected the outward show while remaining full of sin inwardly. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be!

The condition of your heart matters to God. At least 25 times in Scripture we are told that God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). He probes the heart (Psalm 7:9). He weighs the heart (Proverbs 21:2). He tests the heart (Proverbs 17:3). And why does He do this? Why does God care so much about your heart? Let me give you three reasons God cares about the condition of your heart and why you should too.

1) God cares about your heart because it’s what directs your life

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Biblically speaking, your heart is the wellspring of your whole life. Everything you do begins and ends there. Your life is directed by what you love and what you hate, what you set your heart on and you take to heart. All these things have a profound impact on you.

Proverbs 27:19 puts it this way, “As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.” Your entire life...everything you do... is just a reflection of what's in your heart. Whatever is in your heart will eventually come out of your mouth or come out in your actions. So, when you guard your heart, you guard your life.

2) God cares about your heart because it’s where sin begins

Mark 7:21–23 says, “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” All these things begin in the heart! If you want to stop adultery or murder or sexual sin, or any sin you must fight and win the battle there!

What sin has taken up residence in your heart? Don’t you think it’s time you kicked it out?

3) God cares about your heart because it’s also where obedience begins

The first and second greatest commandments start with the heart. Matthew 22:37–40 says, “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

The two greatest commandments in all of Scripture are about feelings. If you love rightly, if you get the heart at right, everything else will fall into place easily. In fact, Scripture teaches that God doesn’t want obedience that doesn’t come from the heart. In the OT and the NT God indicted His people saying, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Isaiah 29:13). God wants obedience from the heart. 

It's time to take a long, hard look at your heart. In what ways is it directing your life? Are you hiding sin there? Or have you given your heart to God? Do you love Him above all else? Are you obeying from the heart or are you just going through the motions?

See Your Sin

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

Jeremiah 17:9-10

It's important to remember that sin isn't just something we do, it's who we are. We are sinful. I know that we all like to think that deep down we are all good people who sometimes do bad things, but we aren't. We are bad people. Not necessarily bad in the sense that we are worse than others, but bad in the sense that we fall far short of God's righteousness. If we aren't careful, we will forget this. 

"Is that such a bad thing?" You may be thinking. "Why should I feel bad about myself all the time?" Well, you shouldn't but you should see yourself as you truly are. You see, God doesn't want to just free you from low self-esteem; He wants to free you from the sin in your heart. Look at it this way. A good doctor tells you when you have cancer and prescribes a treatment that can save your life. She doesn't lie to you and tell you that you're healthy and then send you home to die. The lie might feel better in the moment but the truth will be far better for you in the long run. So too, seeing yourself for the sinner you really are allows you to confess and forsake your sin. Over time the act of seeing your sins, confessing them and learning to be free of them by the power of God's Spirit is called sanctification. This is what helps us to become more and more like Christ. But each forward step in this progress begins with you seeing your sin.   

Oftentimes we mistakenly think of our sin only in terms of the things we do. But many of our most dangerous sins reside secretly in our hearts where they are hidden safely away from the gaze of our fellow man and, if we aren't careful, away from our own gaze as well. That's why we must regularly pause to search out and confess our sin. You can't confess and forsake sin you don't realize you have.

One last thought, when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, He didn't respond with any of the many commands restricting behavior or any of the many commands prescribing behavior. Instead, He said that the most important command has to do with the heart. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37). So take some time to search your heart. What things do you love that you shouldn't? What things should you love that you don't? Pay attention to your heart. God certainly does. 

For further reading...

• I Samuel 16:7- God looks on the heart.
• Proverbs 4:23- Where your heart leads your life follows. 
• Matthew 6:21- Your heart follows the things it loves.
• Matthew 12:34- Your heart controls what you say as well.
• Luke 16:15- God knows your heart.

Public Praise

Hallelujah! I will praise the Lord with all my heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.

Psalm 111:1

It's just a little verse but it has a lot to say.

If we are to follow the psalmist's example, the first thing we find we must do is to praise the Lord. To praise God means to brag on Him, to tell how great and worthy of honor He is. In the first four verses of this psalm alone God is called unendingly righteous, gracious and compassionate. His works are called great, splendid, majestic, and wonderful. For me even the first word of the psalm rings forth as a call to praise. The Hebrew word 'hallelujah' is considered to be the highest form of praise in the Bible because it includes part of God's sacred name. It combines the Hebrew word for praise (halal) and the beginning of the name Yahweh ("I am who I am") by which God revealed Himself to Moses. It literally means "Praise the LORD!" Let's give heed to this admonition.

Second, we see how we are to praise Him. The psalmist commits himself to praise God with his whole heart. It would be insulting to offer up half-hearted praise to a God this deserving of worship. Praise ought to be the overflow of a grateful heart. It is the willing gift of one who has been awed by God's glory. When we glimpse God's true character we are driven to worship Him with all we have. Does this describe the praise you offer to God? Is your praise red-hot and pouring directly out of your heart or is it a half-hearted offering of lukewarm leftovers from your love affair with the world?  

Lastly we see that although we worship God with our hearts, it is not enough to merely worship Him in our hearts. The psalmist commits to worship God in the assembly and in the congregation. He will tell others of God's goodness! God is so wonderful, so amazing that those who are stricken with love for Him must tell others. This is what we do when we sing in worship. We are not only telling God about His greatness but we are singing it at the top of our lungs so that anyone in earshot can know how wonderful God is. Notice though that the psalmist is not talking about singing in this passage. Music is a wonderful way for us to praise God but it can't be the only way we praise Him. We must praise God with words too. We must declare His goodness publicly! When was the last time you bragged on God in front of other people? When did you last give Him the glory for answering a prayer or for providing for your family during a difficult time? 

Purpose in your heart today to openly declare how great God is! Don't be timid; do it wholeheartedly. Who knows, your worship just might give someone else the courage to publicly praise God too. 

God Weighs the Heart

Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.

Proverbs 21:2 (NASB)

When I was in high school, I worked for my father in the summer. He had a small civil engineering firm. I would work with his land surveyors. One day when I was working out in the field, it began to rain, so we packed up the electronic equipment and went to grab lunch. We made our way to a pizza joint in the area and waited out the rain eating pizza and playing video games. After about an hour the rain subsided and the sun came out. I thought it was about time to head back out, but my crew chief said it could start raining again any time. It really wouldn't be any use to get all the way back out into the field and set up the equipment just to have it start raining again, so we should just stay there and play video games a little while longer, he reasoned. I knew that was an excuse to play video games, but I rationalized that he was in charge and I really didn't have the right to disagree with him. I didn't want to seem like the kiss-up boss' son. And who knows? He might be right, I thought. It really could start raining again any time. So we played Ms. Pac-Man a little while longer. Rationalizations like this sound good in your head, but when your father walks through the door of a pizza joint and sees you playing video games when you should be out working, you suddenly realize how faulty they are. Needless to say I was more than a little embarrassed, and I imagine my crew chief was too.

We all make excuses to do what we want to do. We all rationalize our behavior. We find reasons to think that what we want to do is the right thing to do or at least that it's okay for us to do. But the truth is that God isn't going to judge us by our excuses. He will judge us by our hearts. Proverbs 21:2 tells us that "Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts." The Lord will look past our excuses and our rationalizations and He will look at what really motivated our behavior: our heart. The truth is that my excuses for staying and playing video games that day were just ways of explaining away my behavior. They weren't the real reason I stayed. I stayed because I would rather play video games than go work in the hot sun. I would rather play video games than stand up to my crew chief.

There will come a day when our heavenly Father will surprise you without warning just like my father did on that day. He will enter into judgment on that day against the whole world. And He will judge you for everything you have ever done. Most of us are all too eager to explain away our sin and make excuses for ourselves; but on that day our excuses will not matter. God isn't going to judge you based on the ingenuity of your excuses. He is going to weigh your heart. He will look at your intentions, what you loved and why you actually did what you did. He will look at the true motives behind your behavior. So resist the urge to explain away your bad temper, your filthy language, your tendency to gossip, your occasional drunken frolic, or your sexual activity outside of marriage. Focus today on doing what is right in God's eyes based on what His Word says instead of doing what is right in your own eyes. Ask God to open your eyes today so you can see the sin in your life that you have excused for too long, then repent and ask Him for forgiveness and freedom from that sin based on His Son's death and resurrection. 

For further reading...

• Proverbs 16:2- Do you think this proverb is restating the same point as Prov. 21:2, or is there some difference?
• Judges 21:25 & 2:11-23- The book of judges reveals a sad cycle of sin that happens when men do what is right in their own eyes. The people of Israel would turn away from God into idolatry until God punished them by means of oppression from a foreign nation. Finally, Israel would repent and God would send a judge to deliver them. Then in time, Israel would turn away from God into idolatry again, and the cycle would repeat.

A Moth Eaten Heart

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:19-21

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." For the longest time when I read that closing line I only saw half the point. I saw the more obvious half. The passage aims to convince us to spend our time and energy building spiritual wealth instead of physical wealth- wealth that will be there to greet us in heaven instead of wealth we must leave behind us as we pass through the portal of death. It reminds us that earthly treasure can be stolen (by thieves) or destroyed (as by moths or rust). It stands to reason that if I set my heart on earthly goods and they are stolen or destroyed, then my heart will be grieved and I will have suffered a great loss. This is the obvious half of Jesus' point. 

What I only just realized the other day is that there is another implication here that I have missed all along. If my heart is with my treasure and the treasure is stolen, then my heart is stolen also. If my heart is with my treasure when it is eaten up and destroyed by moths or rust, then my heart likewise has been eaten up and destroyed. When we set our hearts on the things of this world, we run the risk not only of losing our treasured possessions but of losing our very hearts. I am speaking of course not of the organ pumping blood in your chest but of that part of you that goes to the very core of who you are. When you choose to treasure, love, and put your hopes in the things of this world you become corrupt in your very nature. Riches, the approval of men, fame, sex, and power- these things (and all the others that our world has to offer) have a way of eating away at a person's soul just like moths or rust eat away at a fine garment or a precious metal. Little by little, what we set our heart on changes us. We serve the things which we love most, and when we bend the knee to the gods of this world, they corrupt and destroy who God intended us to be: worshipers of Him alone.

If the threat of suffering such great loss isn't enough to motivate you, then consider this. The Bible reveals to us that this world is not our home. We are merely pilgrims passing through on our way to eternity. The great heroes of the faith are described as understanding this well. 

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (Hebrews 11:13-16)

In the same vane I Peter 2:11 says, 

"Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul."

So imagine for example a family who lives in destitute poverty. Their house is in shambles. It does not keep them safe from criminals nor does it keep them warm in the winter. Year round they struggle to survive, scrimping and saving so that one week out of the year they can take an extravagant vacation. They fly off to some exotic location and are waited on hand and foot by the best attendants money can buy. For seven days they live in the lap of luxury only to return home and live in poverty again for another 358 days until the next vacation.

Doubtless there are those in our world that do choose to live their lives this way. There are certainly those who order their spiritual lives like this. We choose to live in luxury while on this journey toward eternity, spending all our time and energy on fleeting pleasures that we can enjoy while on the trip, only to step out into eternity in destitute poverty. Choose the better way. Heed the Lord's advice. Spend your time, money, and energy wisely storing up treasure in heaven and in so doing protect your own heart.

For further reading...

• I John 2:15- These two loves are mutually exclusive.
• Acts 5:1-10 (especially verse 3)- Ananias and Sapphira.
• Proverbs 4:23- The wellspring of life. 
• Ecclesiastes 5:10- This too is meaningless.
• Handling Money God's Way- A Word on Wednesdays guest post from October 2012

Little Sins: Potty Mouth

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Ephesians 4:29

“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Matthew 12:33-37

Last week we started looking at the so-called little sins that we as Christians like to let slide in our lives. These are the "minor" weaknesses we indulge even as we console ourselves with the thought, "I'm not perfect, but at least I'm not doing that!" The problem with this is that God hasn't called us to be a little bit better than those around us. He has called us to imitate His perfection; and He makes a big deal about all sins, even the ones we like to think are minor.

It isn't that rare for me to have teenagers ask me a question like "Why is cussing wrong?" The simple truth is that curse words are in many ways just societal constructs. Let me explain. Think of a curse word and see if you can think of another word or phrase that means exactly the same thing but is not considered cursing. It is pretty easy to do. There are acceptable substitute phrases for almost every curse word you know. For example, why is it acceptable to say poop or crap but sh*t is considered a curse word? Because our society says it is. Now Christians can turn our nose up at this and try to be counter-cultural but if we do it is Christ's name that suffers. Christians are ambassadors for Christ (II Corinthians 5:20). We represent Him and we are called to be all things to all people on His behalf so that by all means we might win as many as possible for the gospel (I Corinthians 9:19-23).

However, Scripture speaks less about curse words specifically and more about the type of speech that comes out of our mouths generally. Why is God so concerned about what we say? Because our words reveal the condition of our hearts. Matthew 12:34 says, "The mouth speaks what the heart is full of," and then goes on to say that "everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken." When your speech is laced with profanity and rough joking and belittling comments, then the condition of your heart is apparent not only to God but also to those around whom you are supposed to be serving as Christ's ambassador. This week I encourage you to make Psalm 19:14 your prayer, "May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer."

For further reading...

• Ephesians 5:4- Obscenity, foolish talk, and coarse joking.
• I Corinthians 9:19-27- Run to get the prize.
• Deuteronomy 6:6-7- This is what we should be talking about!
• Colossians 3:17- Whatever you do...