The Lord Weighs the Heart

2 “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,

    but the Lord weighs the heart.

3 To do righteousness and justice

    is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

4 Haughty eyes and a proud heart,

    the lamp of the wicked, are sin.

6 The getting of treasures by a lying tongue

    is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death.

7 The violence of the wicked will sweep them away,

    because they refuse to do what is just.

8 The way of the guilty is crooked,

    but the conduct of the pure is upright.

10 The soul of the wicked desires evil;

    his neighbor finds no mercy in his eyes.

16 One who wanders from the way of good sense

    will rest in the assembly of the dead.”

Proverbs 21:2-4,6-8,10,16 ESV

Every way of a man is every way that is of our sinful flesh and not of the Spirit of God. And those who are still in the flesh, and who are still walking according to the flesh, are agreeable to living that way, and they may even justify themselves in the doing of what is evil by making excuses for their sins or by trying to worm their way out of feeling any conviction or conscience about their actions. For their sinful ways bring them pleasure, and so they keep returning to what is pleasurable to them.

The sad reality is that this is where many people are who profess faith in Jesus Christ, who claim that God has forgiven them of all their sins, and who claim they are assured that heaven is their eternal destiny, but regardless of how they live. And this is because they have a vain opinion of themselves thinking God will not judge them for their sins. But “regardless of how they live” is not biblical teaching, but that is a justification of human flesh in order to keep walking in sin while claiming heaven as their eternal home. 

But the Lord weighs the heart. He knows what is inside our hearts and what our real motivations are for why we do what we do. He knows what we are doing when no one else can see us, so nothing is hidden from his sight. And it is out of the heart that comes either good or evil. And out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. So a wicked heart is going to produce evil. So we need pure hearts (Luke 6:45; Matthew 15:17-20).

A lot of people, though, think that if they do some good things that it makes up for the evil that they do. It does not. For the Lord is not looking for what we are willing to offer him in the way of sacrifice. What he wants is our all on that altar of sacrifice laid with our hearts under Holy Spirit control, and no longer under the control of sin and of Satan and of the flesh. He wants those who will deny self, die daily to sin and to self, and who will follow him in obedience to his ways and to his commands (New Covenant).

For we don’t get to set the terms of our relationships with the Lord. He does! And his word does! And his word teaches us that if sin is what we practice, and not righteousness, and not walks of obedience to our Lord, that we will not inherit eternal life with God. For Jesus said that not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING the will of God the Father who is in heaven. So we need to take this seriously (Romans 6:1-23; Luke 9:23-26; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Matthew 7:21-23).

Yet many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ, even those who know this truth, will try to find wiggle room around this truth in order to keep on in their sinful practices, because of their haughty eyes and their proud hearts. For they want to still be the ones in control over their own lives. Thus, they are not willing to surrender their lives to the Lord and to let him take control. Their pride always stands in the way of true submission to Christ as Lord and to gaining true freedom from their slavery to sin.

Those who still live in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord, and against other humans, are also those who make a practice of lying in order to try to cover up and/or to make excuses for their continued sins. But those who know them well, if they are at all observant and discerning, should begin to recognize their patterns of deception and their sinfully addictive sin patterns and to be able to see what is going on. We cannot accuse them of wrongdoing, though, but we can ask probing questions to open discussion.

We who are following the Lord Jesus with our lives, and who are walking in the ways of righteousness, if we are at all closely associated with anyone who is living a lie such as this and who is still trapped in addictive sin, should be in tune to those addictive patterns. But we cannot accuse what we cannot see, but we can make observations and/or ask probing questions which may encourage the one still bound in sin to acknowledge the sin and perhaps we may be able to point them in the right direction, though they may refuse.

And a refusal doesn’t have to be verbal at all. For many liars and addicts may confess a desire to change, and may even perform as though they are making the effort to change, but while they continue on the same sinful course and while they silently refuse to do what they know has to take place for them to find true freedom in Christ from their slavery to sin so that they can now walk in holiness and in righteousness and in obedience to the Lord. And it is because, in their stubbornness, they refuse to do what is just.

For the way of the guilty is crooked, indeed, and they can only be made righteous in the eyes of the Lord by genuine faith in Jesus Christ whereby they truly die with Christ to sin so that they can now live to him and to his righteousness and no longer in sin. But, again, for many of them, their pride stands in the way to keep them from surrendering their all to Christ. And this is because the soul of the wicked desires evil, so until he is willing to surrender to Jesus, he will continue to do evil to other human beings.

And the sad reality in all of this is that the one who wanders from the way of truth and holiness and righteousness, which is the way of good sense, will rest in the assembly of the dead. He will die in his sins, and he will not inherit eternal life with God, even if he professes faith in Jesus Christ. For if sin is what we obey, in practice, and not righteousness, and not obedience to our Lord, we will die in our sins. And heaven will not be our eternal destiny. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow Jesus in obedience, in practice, then we have the hope of eternal life with God.

[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:15; Galatians 5:16-21; Galatians 6:7-8; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 10:23-31; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]   

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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