Evil in Our Heart

A couple years ago my kids and I tried to grow a few vegetables in a small 4 foot by 4 foot raised garden bed.  It was more for the experience than the expectation that we might get anything out of it, but we wanted to give it a shot, so we planted some carrots and green beans. We had no idea what we were doing, but the one thing that we understood and got right is that when we put a carrot seed in the ground, it was supposed to produce a carrot, and it did. When we put a green bean seed in the ground, it was supposed to produce a green bean, and it did.  This simple principle of God’s created world is true of the “fruit” that comes out of our lives as well.  

READ: Luke 6:43-45

Just as the fruit produced by a tree proves the type of tree it is, what comes out of our LIVES proves what is in our HEART!  A facebook friend recently posted a quote from Anne Frank which says, "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart."  While I think we would all love for this to be true, evidenced by all of our behavior, it is not.  The Bible is pretty clear that we are all born bad apples!  Romans 3:23 says, “all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God.”  Ecclesiastes 9:3 says, “the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live.”  No matter how good we would like to think we are, we are all a bad tree.  How do we know if there is evil in our heart?

An EVIL heart is going to produce EVIL behavior (Luke 6:43) – A detective investigates a crime in order to compile evidence to determine the truth about something. Without solid evidence no one could be considered guilty of a crime.  If a detective wanted to discover the truth of what is in our hearts, where would he investigate?  According to God’s Word he would look at the words and actions that come out of our lives.  Matthew 15:18 and Mark 7:21-22 combine to make quite a list of evil behaviors Jesus says give evidence of the evil that resides in our hearts, “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander . . . coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, pride.”  Based on the facts of this evidence, we are all guilty of having evil and sin in our hearts.  It appears that the opposite of what Anne Frank thinks is true, in spite of any good things we might do, the Bible gives clear evidence that people are really bad at heart.  Just like a seed planted grows into a plant or fruit, the evil that is planted in our hearts grows into evil attitudes, words, and actions!  

Our behavior is evil because we TREASURE it in our hearts (Luke 6:45) – Marianne and I have a small safe in our house where we store a few of our most important and valuable belongings.  The safe protects these important and valuable belongings from being stolen or damaged.  Matthew 6:21 says, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Our heart is the place where we store and protect the things that we “treasure” in life because of their importance and value.  The sad truth is that instead of storing good, we all store evil and sin in our hearts.  Whether words, attitudes, or actions, sin comes out of our lives because we have got it locked up tight in the safe place of our heart.  Whether we are willing to admit it or not, we enjoy our sin, many times deceiving ourselves into thinking that our happiness depends on it.  And so, we store it deep down in our hearts, often times where no one else can see.  God designed us to treasure Him and His commands, but sadly, we treasure our sin and evil even more.

CONCLUSION

Hebrews 3:12 says, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.”   Our hearts will remain evil as long as there is any unbelief in Jesus Christ.  No amount of good words, attitudes, or actions will make our heart good.  We can even do more good than evil in our lives, but that does not make our hearts good.  God desires a good heart, one that is completely empty of sin and evil.  The only way to obtain a good heart is to give God the key to our heart, confess our sin to Him, and put faith in Jesus Christ for forgiveness.  Have you removed the evil from within your heart through belief in Jesus Christ?

God Tests the Heart

What is the hardest test you’ve ever taken?  The hardest tests I remember taking were in a college class called History of the Restoration Movement.  The tests always involved lots of facts, dates, and more information than I could ever fit into my brain at one time.  Nobody likes taking a test.  Taking a test requires lots of study and hard work.  Taking a test is nerve wracking.  As hard and time consuming test taking is, they are necessary in order to display whether we genuinely have learned whatever information we were expected to put in our mind.  Without taking a test there is no way of knowing whether we understand and grasp the information we have been taught.  When it comes down to it, test taking proves or disproves what we know.

Just as a teacher tests our minds in order to prove what we know, God TESTS our heart in order to PROVE who the REAL us is!  Proverbs 17:3 says, “the crucible is for silver, the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts.”  The intense heat of a crucible or a furnace is applied to precious metals in order to burn away and eliminate any impurities, anything that is NOT silver or gold.  God takes the human heart through a similar process to eliminate what is not intended to be there and see if the love and obedience He designed to be there genuinely exists there.  When it comes down to it, testing is God’s way of authenticating who we are.  How and why does God test our heart?

READ:  Deuteronomy 8:1-20

God tests our heart by bringing HUMBLING circumstances into our life (Deut. 8:2-3) – God applied “heat” to the lives of the people of Israel by leading them away from their prosperity in Egypt and leaving them hungry in the wilderness.  Their “hunger” was a humbling circumstance intended to expose the reality of their dependence, or lack of dependence, on God.  The Israelites were not to depend on bread, but rather the word of God!  God leads us into humbling times of sadness, disappointment, struggle, trial, frustration, sickness, and even persecution for the purpose of seeing whether our belief in and our dependence on Him is real.  We pass the test if we go through these times without grumbling, complaining, or blaming God, and instead patiently loving, trusting, depending, and remaining obedient to Him.

God tests our heart by DISCIPLINING us (Deut. 8:5) – Disciplining my children is never fun.  Whether I apply discipline through training or instruction or enforce consequences or punishment, disciple is painful.  And yet, discipline is for my children’s good.  Discipline involves creating undesirable circumstances in order to discourage them from doing something foolish or wrong.  Just like I discipline my children, God disciplines us!  God applies the “heat” of discipline in our lives in order to give us the opportunity to eliminate foolishness and sin from our hearts.  Discipline is a gracious and merciful effort on God’s part to inspire repentance and change.

God tests our heart so that we REMEMBER and not FORGET His provision (Deut. 8:2, 11, *14, 18-19) – When is it most easy to forget that God is all we ever really need to be satisfied?  When our lives are easy, comfortable, healthy, and enjoyable.  Humbling circumstances and discipline provide important opportunities for us to “remember” God and not “forget” Him.  Whether we are rich or poor, healthy or sick, happy or sad, loved or lonely, we must remember that with God in our lives, we have all we need in life to be satisfied.  God allows these opportunities sometimes (and for many, often) in order to remind us that HE is all we should ever really want or need!  Difficult circumstances should not push us further away from God, but closer to Him.

CONCLUSION
Psalm 26:2 says, “prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and my mind.”   This is a dangerous prayer but a necessary prayer.  We must be willing to go through times of testing in order for our love and obedience for God to be proved genuine.  It is through testing that not only does God proves the genuineness of our heart for Him, but we get to see the genuineness of our own heart.  Be ready, in His time and in His way, God will test our heart to prove that our love and obedience toward Him is real.  This is one test we do not want to fail!