What does God do with your heart?
Last time we looked at the heart of man. The heart is the problem. Jesus defines the heart as the place that sin is birthed. He says that OUT of the HEART of man proceeds the evil things – Mark 7:20-23.
In Gen 6 we see the reason why God destroyed the earth with a flood.
- The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
It is only fair to expect that when God saves someone He must do something with the heart of a man or a woman. We see that the failure of the Old Covenant was that they had the Law, but the Law was not on their hearts. Look at what God says to Moses in the book of Deuteronomy.
- “Now this is the commandment – the statutes and the rules – that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may belong. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
We see that God wanted them to have the Law on their hearts. They never did and they tried to live in a way to please God but their hearts were unchanged. Jesus reminds them of what the prophet Isaiah said to them hundreds of years earlier.
- And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.
They were giving God lip service. They had people teach them the Law but their hearts were never in it. Here is what Jesus says:
Mark 7:6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “This person honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
The inability of the Old Covenant to change their hearts was obvious. It was not that the problem was with the Law of the Old Covenant, because the purpose of the Law was to point them to Christ. They just wanted to keep God at a distance and try to work it out for themselves. When God spoke to all of Israel in Exodus 19 and 20, they requested Moses to go and get close to God.
Ex 20:19 Then they said to Moses: “You speak with us and we will hear: but let not God speak with us lest we die.
I love the way that the writer of Hebrews writes about it. He talks about the Old Covenant and why it did not work. Then he also states what the New Covenant will be and why it will be different. He finds fault with them (not having the law on their hearts).
Two things are different in the New Covenant.
- He will write the Law on their hearts.
- He will not remember their sins.
- For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
We see the difference in the New Covenant. This is what God wanted for them from the beginning. His Law on their hearts and His Law on our hearts. So how does God write His laws on our hearts? Something amazing happens when we get born again.
Next time we will look at what the born again experience does with your heart.
