With A True Heart
Hebrews 10:22
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, (Hebrews 10:19)
By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; (Hebrews 10:20)
And having an high priest over the house of God; (Hebrews 10:21)
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:22)
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The New and Living Way
Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith is a wonderful theme in this book of wonder, the book of Hebrews. As the Greeks in the days of Christ, we ask the Spirit of God, Sir, we would see Jesus, the very Author and Finisher of our faith, and that we would see Him with a TRUE HEART and that our TRUE HEART would have full assurance of faith for without faith we cannot please Him. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:6) Faith certifies and is ratified by the Holy Ghost: it is Christ in YOU and the hope of glory.
In this new covenant, or the New Testament in the blood of Christ, there is a NEW AND LIVING WAY to approach God. We have entered into the holy of holies through the veil of His flesh. This was the Body that was prepared for Him in Hebrews 10:5. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: This was the Body that parted the veil in the Temple. This allowed the passing away of the Old and replaced it with the veil of His flesh, the veil that was opened so that we might enjoy, as children of God, His presence in the holy of holies. Not only did He part the veil in the Temple, but by the parting of His flesh He opened the door for both Jew and Gentile that through the Spirit of Christ and the life within His Spirit, both Jew and Gentile can enter into the heavenly and the holies of all IN Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit used the words, a new and living way, showing us the life of Christ that the child of God possesses in this present day.
As we stand before God, we stand in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ by a NEW and LIVING way. It was Christ who took away the first and replaced it with ONE NEW MAN. Adam was removed and Christ became the Man of God’s own choosing to bring God’s righteousness to those who would believe in the Son of God. Christ established the second by a NEW and LIVING way. He took that which was dead in Adam, and through the gift of faith gave them life as the children of God. We also see the passing away of the old covenant made with the children of Israel in the days of Moses. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. Hebrews 8:13
As we examine the Law of Moses, we can only see the Law of Death for transgressors. Although the law is holy and true, it could NOT give life or cleanse the conscience. The law left mankind in a guilty habitation of his own flesh for his flesh was out of control because of sin. The law magnified that sin by exposing the root of sin that was in every person, and the more the law exposed sin, the more sin abounded.
We live in an era of tremendous communication. We are bombarded every day with news and happenings from all over the world. Through the eye of the Spirit of God we see the spirit of man exposing all of his sin. We see things today that we would not have thought possible forty years ago. It is amazing how the face of the devil is stamped on all the media, and men and women LYING to cover up the sin of others, and yet, exposing themselves as liars and children of the devil. Man in his inherent sin has become an inventor of the most heinous sin and evil. Remember that evil was the second passion of the tree of the knowledge of good AND EVIL. Evil combined with the wickedness of man and man’s imagination has led man into the darkness of the deep, and his heart as one of enmity against God. There is a saying among men that history repeats itself. In our present day, are we not living AGAIN in the days of Genesis 6:5? And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. If Paul could describe his world in his day as the present evil world, Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: (Galatians 1:4) what must we say about OUR present evil world?
As children of God, we see the world with new eyes, it is the eyes of our faith in Christ Jesus. We see the world through the prism of its own sin, and through a TRUE HEART and we remember that not long ago, we were like minded before our salvation, and this TRUE HEART must have the Spirit of Christ within. If one has NOT the Spirit of life which is IN Christ Jesus then one cannot have a TRUE HEART. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. (Romans 8:9) And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (Galatians 4:6) Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (Galatians 4:7)
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The Full Assurance of Faith
Just knowing OF the Spirit of God is NOT knowing the Person of the Spirit of God. One must KNOW HIM and have a relationship WITH Him. The Spirit of Christ is the doorway to the mind of Christ. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: (Philippians 2:5) The Spirit of Christ is the chief examiner of life. He checks the pulse of faith. He looks within the heart for life, and He checks to see if we are breathing by the very breath of God. The spiritual life that we live in Christ Jesus is similar to our natural life with one great difference. The spiritual life is apart from sin.
And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. (1st John 2:3) He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (1st John 2:4) But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. (1st John 2:5) He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. (1st John 2:6)
In 1st John we have the words from the Holy Spirit of God. If you deny these words of the Holy Ghost in 1st John, then you deny the God who gave these very words. The occupation and/or profession of the church preacher have blinded the multitudes that they serve, thus, making the perception that a Christian is a weak vessel with no hope, and that the flesh is still the master over the Spirit. Why do we have this fallacy? Because the professional preacher has to keep the souls under bondage so that the lost of this world will supply the finances that control and feeds modern Christendom today.
The Bible teaches that there is great STRENGTH in Christ Jesus our Lord and that the Spirit of Christ within us will also quicken our mortal bodies. Paul stated that he could do all things THROUGH Christ who strengthened him. Paul’s strength was not found in Adam, nor the men around Paul. His strength was in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul KNEW Christ. Christ was the place of Paul’s power. Even in weakness, Paul was made strong. The TRUE HEART stands in the strength of Christ. And that TRUE HEART can ascend into great heights into the holiest of all. This is the place of strength at the right hand of God in the Man in heaven, Christ Jesus. Stephen had the strength of legions of angels watching a man full of the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven exercising the strength that he had in Christ Jesus. He ministered the gospel of Christ to the rebellious Jews in Acts Chapter 7, and this was he closing argument. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, (Acts 7:55) And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. (Acts 7:56) This was the finalization of this wonderful message from heaven by the Holy Ghost. Stephen began with the vision of Abraham seeing the God of glory while in Ur of Chaldees and then he spoke of Moses and the prophets.
Stephen exposed his accusers of killing the prince of life. Then He finalized his message by SEEING the Son of man, the Lord Jesus Christ AT God’s own right hand. This broke the dam of the Jewish enmity for they rushed upon Stephen with murderous rage. They were all exposed and they were all condemned and there was no room for faith in their evil hearts. And yet Stephen, with a TRUE HEART had compassion for them that God would not lay this sin upon them. We have a wonderful comparison when the Son of God finished His work on earth for in His final hours on the cross, He commended His Spirit to the bosom of His Father.
Stephen knowing that his death on earth was certain for he could see and hear the murder that was in the hearts of the Jews as they picked up stones to kill him, he looked up to heaven and spoke to the Man on God’s right hand and said, Lord Jesus receive my spirit. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. (Acts 7:59) To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, (Hebrews 12:23) This was the Spirit within Stephen, spirits of just men made perfect.
Stephen, kneeling down with a TRUE HEART, commended his spirit into the everlasting arms of the Lord Jesus Christ reflecting back to 1st John 2:3-6.
And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. (1st John 2:3) He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (1st John 2:4) But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. (1st John 2:5) He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. (1st John 2:6)
Stephen was the evidence of a person who walked the walk of Christ. This is what we do not see in the homogeneous churches of today. The men of the cross are far and few, but thanks be to God that we still have a few who will give up their freedom and their lives for the Christ of the cross. And from that holy mountain they stand over the whole world and the world will hear their voices. Evil governments and tyrants can only destroy the flesh, they cannot enter in or destroy the TRUE HEART. The Lord expressed to His disciples, If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before [it hated] you. (John 15:18) This hatred was confirmed by the apostle John in 1st John 3:13, Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. This is always the position of the TRUE HEART, for the TRUE HEART recognizes that they are here in opposition to the world.
The TRUE HEART has a message from heaven from the Man of God’s right hand. It is His gospel sent down by the Holy Ghost into the TRUE HEART that is in opposition to the whole world. Amen and Selah. The TRUE HEART has found a place of rest in the Person of Christ.
Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. (Hebrews 4:7) For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. (Hebrews 4:8) There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. (Hebrews 4:9) For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. (Hebrews 4:10)
His rest is in the NEW and living way. His eyes are opened within the holy of holies, and the child of God has a greater vision of all that is around him, and all that is within him. We have been saved by the perfect life of Christ. And this life was an example for us to follow that we, as the sons of God, should obey the Father of lights and perfection. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? (Hebrews 12:9) This would also put us in the category of the spirits of just men made perfect. To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. (Hebrews 12:23)
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Enter Into the Holiest with Boldness
As the spirits of just men made perfect, let us have boldness with a TRUE HEART as the children of God to enter into the holiest of all. For the highest Himself has opened a door in heaven for us. And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her. (Psalm 87:5) God declares this and that man was born in her. Zion was the place of their birth. John came to pave the pathway of repentance and to close the pages of the Old Testament and then the ONE who was before him, and was preferred before him, the ever existent ONE, the Lord of glory was Jesus Christ the manifest image of the invisible God, the brightness of His glory and the express image of His Person came as the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And it was He who fills all in all. Heaven has no problem with the deity or the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only the inferior dust, which is man, who rebels against the deity and the sovereignty of Christ because man in his sin, in his conscience, stills echos the words of Satan, ye shall be as gods. How can dust, the least of all, take a greater height than the holy one, the highest Himself, the beginning of the creation of God: Jesus the Christ.
Was Christ deity on earth in His manifestation? Yes. He came to do the works of God AS God. He was the Man from heaven. And He came to reveal Himself AS God with complete sovereignty over His world and the over the peoples of the world. He proclaimed His sovereignty when He broke the rules of His own creation: turning the water into wine. He revealed both His sovereignty and His deity over the elements of the world when He stilled the storm and calmed the waves. He showed His sovereignty and His deity over the needs of man when He multiplied the fish and the bread and fed the five thousand. He showed both His deity and His sovereignty apart from the world, and the sin of the world when He touched and cleansed the leper. He showed His own heavenly glory to Peter, James and John on the holy mount in the presence of both Moses and Elijah. And heaven proclaimed both His deity and His sovereignty when the heavens opened and the declaration was heard, This is my beloved son, hear ye him.
John in the first Chapter of his gospel tells us that grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And you cannot have grace without truth. Truth is the divine seal upon the grace of God. Today, in the amelioration of the world church, they have grace without truth which is NOT the grace of God. It is a figment of their imaginations for grace is anchored in truth and truth has revealed the grace of God. The world cannot accept that Christ was the FULLNESS of the Godhead bodily, as the Spirit of God tells us in Colossians 2:9. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. The Lord Jesus told us in the 14th Chapter in the gospel of John that in His revelation of the Son of God to man that He was also the REVELATION of God the Father to mankind. That this unity could not be broken. Again, the dust, the lowest element on earth will not receive this truth in Adam. From the very beginning of Church history, deceivers, the new men of renown, have been denying the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and His sovereignty over all things.
The early church was so corrupt that they took on nationalism through Constantine and gave themselves to the corrupt world ordinances and accepted the headship of Constantine over the Church. And what is worse, Constantine declared that he was deity, and the church did not refute him, but instead the church turned away from the Lord Jesus Christ and gave themselves over to vain deceit, to multiple philosophies, and embraced the rudiments of the world; thus, they embraced a doctrine that Christ was not deity, and that He was not sovereign over all things. And this lie is still with us today in all men who declare that they have the freedom of choice in their salvation. What man on earth can add to their own self whether it is stature or the spirit within or the facilities of mind and heart? What man can cleanse his own conscience? Yet man cries out, even within the professing church that his rights are more important that God’s rights that man is sovereign over his own destiny, and that man holds his salvation in his own hands and not the nailed pierced hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. The plague of untruths grows by leaps and bounds every day. It is Christ who is the FULLNESS of God. It is Christ who is the FULLNESS of our salvation. He has left nothing out concerning our salvation for He sealed it and sanctified it by the offering of His flesh on the cross of Calvary and by the shedding His precious blood, the blood and water that fell upon the earth from His wounded side.
The same earth that had received the blood of Abel and the blood of the prophets received the blood of Zechariah, the priest, the son of Jehoiada. It was because of Jehoiada’s faithfulness that he was the ONLY priest to be buried among the kings of Judah. And yet, his faithful son, Zechariah, was killed by an ungodly king. When Zechariah was dying, he said, The LORD look upon it, and require it. And God did remember for when the Lord Jesus was upon the earth, He proclaimed the blood of Abel and the blood of the prophets and the blood of Zacharias, truly, God remembered. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. (Matthew 23:35)
God remembers each one of you, who have been saved and cleansed by that water and blood that flowed from the side of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. (Acts 20:28) Christ left nothing out concerning our salvation, and He is the deity of our salvation and the sovereign over our salvation.
For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; (Colossians 1:19)
And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. (John 1:16)
And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: (Colossians 3:10) Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. (Colossians 3:11)
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. (Colossians 2:9)
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A True Heart with Bold Assurance
Now the TRUE HEART is only mentioned once in all of scripture. It is not mentioned in 31,101 verses, nor in 1,188 chapters, nor does this phrase TRUE HEART occur in 65 books of the bible. It is only found in the book of Hebrews. So, I would say that God wants us to pay attention to our heart that it should be a TRUE HEART controlled by the word of God both living and written and with the guidance of God the holy spirit. So, what is a TRUE HEART? It is a heart of faith, never doubting God. It is a heart that sees the invisible, and the glory of the invisible God in Jesus Christ. It is a heart seeking the active presence of Christ to overcome this ungodly world. The TRUE HEART has the eyes of its understanding opened. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, (Ephesians 1:18) The TRUE HEART is one that has the assurance of faith, the assurance of salvation.
With the eyes of understanding opened, God allows the TRUE HEART to look into the eternal One to see His glories, to understand God’s profound truths, to see God’s majesty on His throne, and to look into the Eternal. The eyes of the understanding and the eyes of the Spirit of God has to be ONE and see the same truths that are IN Jesus Christ. As the eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the whole earth, those seven eyes of the Lord which are the seven Spirits of God minister to the eyes of our understanding so that we can see the frailties and fallacies of the SEEN and with those same eyes of our understanding we can look into the eternal and see the glories of the highest Himself.
With a TRUE HEART we can enter into the holiest of all. The TRUE HEART is one that has the assurance of faith, the assurance of salvation, assurance of eternal life, and assurance of the Spirit of Christ within the heart. The eyes of our understanding, through that TRUE HEART, sees the reality of the blindness of man, the world, and the church to the sin and evil of this world today. Through faith we have embraced the spirit of life which is IN Christ Jesus our Lord. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2) The eyes of our understanding enlightens our TRUE HEART and fortifies our soul and spirit through the Holy Ghost.
In Adam, we were, and we are, broken, and all the king’s horses and the king’s men could not put Adam back together again. Adam was condemned. Adam was finished. He had denied God and God’s word. He had partaken of both sin and death. He had given up his divine appointed position. He had given up his inheritance. Sin corrupted Adam right down to the last grain of dust that he was created from, and there was no remedy. But, there was a lamb slain from the foundation of the world, And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8)
Does this marvel, this wonder of God’s word trouble you? The sovereign God cannot be sovereign because you, as dust, have determined that the sovereignty of God is a lie? Man cannot erase the determinate counsels and foreknowledge of God who prepared the lamb, the very Son of God, and prepared a Body of true holiness and righteousness BEFORE it was needed. God saw in His beloved Son, a NEW MAN NOT THE OLD MAN ADAM, but a new creation, through the cross, to make of twain ONE NEW MAN so making peace with God.
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13) he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; (Ephesians 2:14) Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; (Ephesians 2:15) And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: (Ephesians 2:16) And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. (Ephesians 2:17) For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.(Ephesians 2:18) Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; (Ephesians 2:19)
The Man who came from heaven, came as that holy thing. And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35) He grew as that holy child. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, (Acts 4:27) And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, (Acts 4:29)
And above all, He was that Holy One, there was no other for He was DIVINE and the only one from heaven above. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; (Acts 3:14) Now, from the time that Christ was born and walked this earth and wept in the garden, and went to the cross, and finalized our salvation in the words, It is finished, the Holy One of God was not touched by the sin of the world. It was the Holy One of God who fulfilled all righteousness so that we can be brought into the heavenly family as children and sons of God. He completed His earthly ministry on the cross of Calvary as the manifest image of God on the earth. From the cross, to the morning of His glory as the resurrected Man, a heavenly Man come forth from the tomb of death, and He as one NEW MAN ascended into heaven itself to always be a witness to what He accomplished on earth, and He remained the true witness of God in both grace and truth. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; (Revelation 3:14)
The spiritual light beams would shower downward to man through the Spirit of His grace to give the children of faith both Light and Life in a dark and evil world. The door of heaven opened to the TRUE HEARTS of the redeemed so that with BOLDNESS we enter into the holiest of all. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, (Hebrews 10:19)
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A True Heart Believes
The TRUE HEART embraces Hebrews 11:6 for the TRUE HEART has bridged the heart of unbelief through faith which is in Christ Jesus for He is both the Author and Finisher of faith. He that is the beginning of all things is also the end of all things, for IN Him ALL FULLNESS dwells. He has given both the gift of faith and the will to finish that faith to the end. What He began He will also fulfill as the first and the last of all faith. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2) Faith is a gift of God IN Christ who is the Gift of God given to man. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. (John 4:10) If thou knewest the gift of God.
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:6) Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. (James 1:17) Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. (James 1:18) The good and perfect gift was Christ to us for we are the sheep of His pasture, and the good Shepherd has called us by name.
We see the TRUE HEART of Enoch, and we see the eyes of his understanding were sealed by his faith. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. (Hebrews 11:5) But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)
Enoch, with a TRUE HEART, walked with God and pleased God. He sought God with a TRUE HEART. Enoch not only walked with God, but he was also a prophet and preacher of God’s righteousness to an ungodly world. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, (Jude 14) To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him .(Jude 15)
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, entered into God’s rest, for the number seven is the number of God’s perfect rest. Enoch was also the father of Methuselah, and Methuselah lived the longest span of time of all of mankind. And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died. (Genesis 5:27)
This was all part of the long suffering of God before the great deluge. Methuselah as well as Noah were divine witnesses of God to God’s long suffering over an ungodly world. By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; (1st Peter 3:19) Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. (1st Peter 3:20) Enoch was one of the righteous taken out of the world because of the evil to come. The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. (Isaiah 57:1) Enoch, the seventh from Adam, walked before God with a TRUE HEART. God had pleasure in His servant walking WITH Him by faith for without faith it is impossible to please the Almighty God. Enoch BELIEVED God. Enoch preached God’s word. Enoch walked with God, and with that criteria God translated him from the evil world and the judgment that was to come upon all flesh. In the translation of Enoch, we see a future translation of the Body of Christ under the same criteria as Enoch. All those with faith in God and a TRUE HEART, a true Spirit, a true soul that pleased God, these will be in the translation of the Body of Christ. There will be NO translation for those who do not please God, for there is NO faith in them.
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. (1st Thessalonians 4:13) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. (1st Thessalonians 4:14) For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. (1st Thessalonians 4:15) For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: (1st Thessalonians 4:16) Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1st Thessalonians 4:17) Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1st Thessalonians 4:18)
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. (1st Corinthians 15:50) Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, (1st Corinthians 15:51) In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1st Corinthians 15:52) For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (1st Corinthians 15:53) So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. (1st Corinthians 15:54) O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? (1st Corinthians 15:55) The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. (1st Corinthians 15:56) But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1st Corinthians 15:57)
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The True Heart Separates from the World
There are so many in this world today who ignore God and/or ignore the existence of God, and the playpen of so-called Christianity is a tragedy before God, and before the world. It is Christendom that became the article and home of false faith all to appease the masses. Today, more than ever, man is of the flesh. The worldling does not believe that he has a spirit or a soul, and sadly, this filters into what is known as Christendom. The religious world is a world of human flesh WITHOUT the Spirit of God. Man does not look for the restoration of his soul, for in his perverted righteousness, he believes that his soul has no need for restoration. Both the world, and the flesh and the devil live by these words, If you can’t see it then don’t believe it. And yet, God walks as the UNSEEN throughout the entire history of mankind. His plan of redemption is to redeem a heavenly people and to restore the souls of man. The spirit of man is predominating in both the world and in Christendom because their values revolve around the things of the flesh in every unimaginable way. They have to reorganize their very flesh . . . I am trying to be polite. Some of the murals that are on ungodly flesh show that they have no thought of God within. They should read Leviticus 19:28 and 21:5. They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh. (Leviticus 21:5) Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:28) There has to be a demonic spirit behind the painting of one’s flesh. The symbols of skulls and crossbones and other demonic figures is a display of the thoughts and intents of the ungodly heart. In the painting of the flesh, they openly deny God and His word. The Jezebel of the Old Testament was a face painter. And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window. (2nd Kings 9:30) Now today, mankind wants to mimic the woman of whoredoms from the Old Testament by painting their faces and the faces of their children and calling it an art form and bringing this arcade of sin into the church. We can only say that these demoniacs are the same demoniacs who falsely call themselves Christians. They not only act like the world but paint themselves as creatures of the world and they will end up in the same place, the lake of fire. Sorry, I don’t care what you think. Save your breath, the truth is the truth.
Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. (Revelation 2:20) And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. (Revelation 2:21) Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. (Revelation 2:22)
This is only one of many abominations that came into the early church. The infant church at Corinth was totally given over to the flesh. The apostle Paul chastened them for their physical lusts, and for eating the flesh that was sacrificed to idols, and for the presence of idols among them. This was NOT the Church of Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of the book of Acts. Corinth was a Church of idolatry and fleshly lusts, and the flesh was so excitable that to be recognized they claimed false gifts from God which was another abomination brought into the church for the battle of Babylon. Corinth was the first Church that was recognized for false prophets and deceivers with the ministers of Satan. The wrong spirit was leading them to destruction. We need not try to understand their delusion. TRUE HEARTS clings to the ministry of the Spirit of Christ. The apostle had such doubt over the Church at Corinth that He stated, Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? (2nd Corinthians 13:5) The TRUE HEART sees with the eyes of understanding wide open. He examines his own testimony and the life that he now lives in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul had suffered from vain words from those at Corinth, and they even went as far as denying his apostleship; therefore, Paul had to remind them what he had suffered for Christ and that was the seal of his apostleship.
From the very beginning of church history Satan has been injecting error into the Church; thus, error multiples itself, and when more error comes in it is accepted on the doorstep of past error. We have reached the stage of Satan’s corruption that when truth enters in, all the ants gather around the ant hill to reject the truth. They side with the satanic lies of Satan before they will obey the truth.
If we use the Corinthians as examples of falling away from the truth, their lampstand was rent from them. They were left in utter ruin and only empty fields and broken walls remained. They battlefield of the TRUE HEART was all around them and there is nowhere to rest in this ungodly world, the TRUE HEART must find rest in the heavenly Man, Jesus Christ, who is the Shepherd and Bishop of souls.
The Holy Spirit, throughout scripture, describes the heart of man in Adam. It was Adam at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil who gave up all that he had in God. Adam had a change of life. He traded his mind, his heart, his soul and his spirit for sin and death. The Bible asks this question, What is man? directing us back to Adam. We never face the fact that Adam was not a fictional character but the author of sin and death. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (Romans 5:12) The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind? In Proverbs 21:27 we find the wicked mind from the evil side of the tree, and the evil side of man in Adam. Not only can the heart be hardened as in the wilderness with Israel (Hebrews Chapter 3), but the mind also is linked to the heart and shares the hardness of unbelief. Therefore, the mind and heart of man are stubborn and rebels against the Almighty God. But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: (Daniel 5:20)
The Lord Jesus used the great commandment to show man a true path to God. That man should love the Almighty God with a TRUE HEART, a true soul, and a true mind. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. (Matthew 22:37) And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. (Mark 12:30) And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. (Luke 10:27) In these three quotes from the Lord Jesus Christ we have all that man SHOULD be and yet they were given because man could not attain the love of God because of the enmity and sin within mankind. The Old Testament teaches that the heart is desperately wicked, and the heart is deceitful; therefore, it will take the flesh into great peril and judgment and in the end, without faith in Christ the heart will stand before God naked and undone.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it (Jeremiah 17:9) I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (Jeremiah 17:10)
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12) Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. (Hebrews 4:13)
And because of an evil heart God has given man over to a reprobate mind.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; (Romans 1:28)
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. (Romans 8:7)
Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. (Titus 1:15)
We see the end of the wicked heart and the reprobate mind and the spirit of man in Revelation 13:1. And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. It is here that the beast of man becomes one with Satan. The Beast becomes Satan’s king, and the manifestation of Satan’s person. This manifestation of the Beast will proclaim himself as God and will attempt to put the whole world under the bondage of his evil dominion. He will be the express image of all evil. He will be proclaimed through his false prophet the worship of the world to his image. In Psalm 31, verse 12, David wrote these words: I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.
We see the sin of Adam in the garden when he was driven out of the paradise of God into the wilderness of thorns and thistles a forgotten man because of sin and death . . . . like a broken vessel. . . . discarded and good for nothing.
Then God did a new thing. Adam was set aside for a man of faith. God chose Abel to be a man of righteousness in his obedience to God. It was with Abel that God began a new thing. It was faith that became the new thing. It is faith that creates a new man and transformed Abel from unrighteousness to righteousness. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. (Hebrews 11:4) Abel obtained the righteousness of God through the obedience of sacrifice looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of his faith. Abel received a new heart, a TRUE HEART, a restored soul, and the Spirit of Christ within, and the mind of Christ. (Philippians 2) Abel was translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: (Colossians 1:13) By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. (Hebrews 11:4)
We must look at our own translation in Colossians 1:13 for all the redeemed are translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. We can see these things because the eyes of our understanding have been opened by God’s Spirit and the word of God. When we step outside of our flesh and look back at the dead man out of mind, the forgotten man like a broken vessel, dead and good for nothing, we become the thing SEEN and UNSEEN, the temporal and the eternal, the dust and the spirit. We have become the temple of the Living God with the Spirit of Christ within. The outside world and the deception of Christendom want to raid that temple and take away what God has given to us. The marauders want our jewels, but the Spirit of God stands between us and the evil world. What Christ has begun in us He will finish for He is the beginning of the creation of God, and He has created us IN His Spirit to be the children of God. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; (Revelation 3:14)
As a child of God, the SEEN is the temple of God, we see this is 2nd Corinthians, in the marauders trying to loot the temple of God. One of the first things that they attempted to loot was the priesthood of all believers. Even today, the priesthood of all believers is taboo in the modern pulpit. In the modern pulpit there is only one voice, one star, one authority and that is the polluted seed of Babylon. This polluted seed rules the whole of modern Christendom. It is of the same seed of the tyrants who rule the world. They rule the buildings and the organizations of this grand scheme of Satan. The world screams about the pollution of the planet and global warming, yet the world of Christendom cannot see its own pollution within its own borders. The gates have been opened for Satan and his friends spreading false doctrines and lies until the whole head is sick. The Church has become so corrupt that it has become a capitalist organization in the richness and wealth of Laodicea. Satan must have his ministers rule. These same ministers continue to lead Christendom into the kingdom of the Beast.
The seeds of MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH were sown at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In many cases this amalgamation of evil has already triumphed over the world. The United States government prints on all its currency ‘In God We Trust,’ yet at the behest of Satan this same government removed the Bible from the schools. This was only one step in Satan’s master plan. If you go back to 1964 and examine the moral condition of the American society at that point, you will see that in our current age vast corruption has conquered the mind, the heart, the soul and the spirit of a nation. The next step in Satan’s plan was to take the true Bible out of the world church and to replace it with many satanic translations to be a ‘better Bible.’ I wonder, if any of those translators asked the Holy Spirit what He had to say about their ‘better and improved easier to understand words’ that attempted to remove God’s words from God’s book. We see a theme of this in Chapter 4 of 1st Timothy 4 and 2nd Timothy 3:1-11.
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. (2nd Timothy 3:1) For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, (2nd Timothy 3:2) Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, (2nd Timothy 3:3) Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; (2nd Timothy 3:4) Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2nd Timothy 3:5) For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, (2nd Timothy 3:6) Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (2nd Timothy 3:7) Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. (2nd Timothy 3:8) But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. (2nd Timothy 3:9) But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, (2nd Timothy 3:10) Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. (2nd Timothy 3:11)
As the government violated the right of the Church to govern itself, the Church became an added tyranny over the hearts of man because of the depth of the corruption within the Church. They fell in line with world government when the World Council of Churches was formed. True separation from government, from sin, from evil has become a thing of the past. When separation walked out the door then the world and government walked into the door of the Church. This has been a long process for we can go all the way back to the age of Constantine. It was Constantine who created the first government church.
I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. (Revelation 2:13) But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. (Revelation 2:14) So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. (Revelation 2:15)
During the era and edicts of Constantine the church was rewarded and encouraged to accept doctrines contrary to the teachings of the word of God. Satan had found the perfect place for his seat and for his lies. The gospel was never given to make the world a better place.
Separation is the first theme in the Bible when God separated the True Light from darkness and evil. And the theme of separation continues through the whole of God’s word. In every book we see the voice of the Holy Spirit showing us separation from evil and yet man wants to do what he feels is right in his own eyes.
The corruption in politics begins at the lowest level of politics and goes all the way to the pinnacle of the mountain of government. This is why God stops the world with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. How does He stop the world? By taking His children OUT of the world that is already condemned. At the new birth they become a heavenly people, and they are a people of separation from the world. The masses of the corrupt Church proclaims, Come one, come all, but God proclaims that He has separated His own. He has chosen them from the foundation of the world. The voice of the corrupt Church in some places teaches that no one will suffer the punishment of God, no one will go to hell, no one will be cast into the lake of fire, no one will suffer the second death, and no one has to repent of their sins. This is how corrupt Babylon the Great is. The gospel was never given to make the world a better place, for that is an impossible dream based on and believed by corrupt men with corrupt hearts. The TRUE HEART for God is separated from this present evil world. We have taken a position with Christ above in the heavenlies.
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. (Colossians 3:1) Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. (Colossians 3:2) For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3) When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4)
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The True Heart Overcomes the World
It is the TRUE HEART in Christ not the religious organizations of the world that overcomes the world. To overcome the world, one must be centered in the truth of the word of God and not the fiction of the world and the world Church. The Holy Spirit, the Comforter, has come to comfort the children of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has also come to condemn the world.
Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. (John 16:7) And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: (John 16:8) Of sin, because they believe not on me; (John 16:9) Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; (John 16:10) Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. (John 16:11) I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. (John 16:12) Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. (John 16:13) He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. (John 16:14) All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. (John 16:15)
Many never read this section of scripture, and yet, in these verses we see the complete work of the Spirit of God Himself. There is more fantasy today concerning the Holy Spirit than the truth that is found in the word of God. The world fantasizes about the Spirit of God, as they fantasize with Satan’s Santa Claus. The Holy Spirit of God has been given to JUDGE. What does He judge? SIN, yes, sin, all of sin, and when you echo the words from the pulpits of the world such as, Judge not lest ye be judged, it is the spirit of Satan taking away JUDGMENT out of this . . . which is impossible because the Spirit of God has come down from heaven to condemn this ungodly world. Satan uses these tactics so that sin may abound not only in the world, but in the ‘church of your choice.’ Which today is part of Babylon the Great. Their voices of the Church have been silenced by the amount of sin within the deceptive counterfeit church.
In John Chapter 16, the Lord was speaking to His disciples, showing them the conflict between the spirit of man, and the spirit of Satan, and their war against the Spirit of God. So, the Spirit of God has come to JUDGE this ungodly world, and the ungodly Church. The Spirit of God fights the battle of truth over the darkness and the prince of this world for Satan has not yet been cast into the pit, nor the lake, of fire. He is still a roaring lion and his voice, and his message is louder and stronger than it has ever been for mankind is LOVING evil more than truth. Darkness has swept over the entire world devouring countless souls every day.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: (1st Peter 5:8) Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. (1st Peter 5:9) But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. (1st Peter 5:10) To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (1st Peter 5:11)
Satan’s dominion IS this world. And although his dominion is only for a short season, the time period from the cross has been more than two thousand years. While Satan remains loose, he is YOUR adversary. Always remember that this old lion has been deceiving mankind from Adam onward and will continue until God finally casts that old serpent into the lake of fire. The aging wrinkles of mankind in their sin and iniquity will suffer eternal torment ending the tyranny of the devil over the souls of man. The old serpent, the red dragon, Satan, the wicked one, the prince of this world, the roaring lion, the angel of light (who in reality is the angel of darkness and death) will be cast into the lake of fire to be deservedly eternally tormented.
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The True Heart Hosts the Spirit of Christ Within
Let’s return to the TRUE HEART in Christ. The TRUE HEART does not doubt the word of God. The TRUE HEART has been changed and is the host of the Holy Spirit of God. In Galatians Chapter 4, God the Father sends the Spirit of Christ INTO the heart of every believer so that they can cry with a TRUE HEART Abba, Father. So, the Spirit of Christ gives every child of God a relationship with God the Father and this same Spirit of Christ gives a relationship with God the Spirit in Romans 8:9. We see that the Spirit of God is one with the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of God is one with the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God the Father. We see in this more of the FULLNESS of the Godhead and the unique inseparable character of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. The unbelieving Church wants to take away the Spirit of Christ that has made the child of God FREE from the Law of Sin and Death. Romans 8:2 is a pivotal verse of LIFE and one cannot have LIFE except the Spirit of Christ sets one FREE from the Law of Sin and Death. This is the same Spirit in Romans 8:9, then why is there so much confusion over the LIBERTY of Romans Chapter 8? It is the carnal mind outside of Christ that has come into Christianity and wants to have the sin of the world AND the grace of God at the same time. This is impossible for bondage cannot be free.
In Hebrews Chapter 10, verse 18, the Holy Spirit begins a warning. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. In this 10th Chapter of the book of Hebrews we not only see the good things to come, but we embrace the wonders, the marvels of God’s love in Christ. The wording is of one that comes short of Christ meaning that they still live in unbelief. They have heard the word of God, and mentally in their minds, they KNOW that the word of God is TRUE, but they will not allow their unbelieving heart to believe in the Son of God. They will even make a false profession of faith, which mocks God, and puts that soul into the verses of Chapter 10:26 – 30.
For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, (Hebrews 10:26) But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. (Hebrews 10:27) He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: (Hebrews 10:28) Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:29) For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. (Hebrews 10:30)
In the book of Hebrews, this was NOT the first warning. Chapter 1 gives us all the wonders of Christ, and Chapter 2 in verse 3, we read the words, How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation. And in Chapter 3, as an example, we have the wanderings of the children of Israel through the wilderness of sin because of the hardness of their hearts and their unbelief. In Chapter 3, verse 12, the Spirit of God brings us to the present day, and many do not get the point. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
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The True Heart
The Evil Heart and The Pure Heart
In Hebrews 10, it is a TRUE HEART, in Hebrews Chapter 3, verse 12, it is an EVIL HEART. It is here that the Spirit of God wrestles with the Jacob (the Supplanter) that is in every man to convince man of the truth that every person MUST be born again or perish in the wilderness of sin. Only when a person is born again can they have a TRUE HEART. In the Old Testament we have a PURE HEART in Psalm 24, verses 3 -6.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? (Psalm 24:3) He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. (Psalm 24:4) He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. (Psalm 24:5) This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah. (Psalm 24:6)
Before we examine the PURE HEART, we need to deal with the old Jacob in verse 6. Why is Jacob’s name there, and not God’s name? What did Jacob say in Genesis 32:30?
And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. (Genesis 32:24) And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. (Genesis 32:25) And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. (Genesis 32:26) And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. (Genesis 32:27) And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. (Genesis 32:28) And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. (Genesis 32:29) And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. (Genesis 32:30)
Jacob had seen the face of God at Peniel and it was there that Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, a prince with God, And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. (Genesis 32:28) When Jacob asked the question, What is thy name? he did not receive an answer for that name did come until Nathanael in John Chapter 1:47 – 51.
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! (John 1:47) Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. (John 1:48) Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel. (John 1:49) Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. (John 1:50) And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. (John 1:51)
Here is Jacob’s answer to, what is thy name? And the answer came from a man with no guile taking us back to Psalm 24:3-6.
Nathanael revealed THE name as the Son of God, the King of Israel, Jesus Christ. It is the Lord Jesus who ascended into the hill of the Lord and will ascend again in His second advent to fulfill Psalm 2, verses 6 and 7. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. (Psalm 2:6) I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. (Psalm 2:7)
Now, this ties us into the generation of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 1:1. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Notice that the word is NOT plural, but ONE generation throughout time, as we, through the new birth are part of that generation and part of the eternal Seed, which is Christ. There is a GENERATION of eternity made up of ALL the children of God.
Abel was the first of this GENERATION. (Hebrews 11:4) And Abel speaks today through the word of God. In Isaiah 53, verse 8, He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Again, the word is NOT plural, but it is singular, ONE generation of time. In Psalm 22, verses 30 and 31, we see this same generation of time in that eternal seed that will serve Him. A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this. This ENTIRE generation is fulfilled in Hebrews 11, verses 39 and 40. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. All are made complete in ONE generation: past, present and future in the death of God’s Son on the cross of Calvary. We are joined to this generation of the faithful by the blood of Christ and the sacrifice of His Body. We are of the eternal Seed which is Christ.
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. (Galatians 3:16)
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:12) Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:13)
Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. (Psalm 12:7)
There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous. (14:5)
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: (1st Peter 2:9)
As we follow the Seed and the generation of eternity, we see the fulfillment and the completion in 1st Peter 2:9. This is the last mention of the word generation and it tells us that Christ Himself has fulfilled this generation, and that we are united in this generation through the Spirit of Christ . . . that is all of those who call on the Lord out of a PURE HEART. The PURE HEART is only mentioned 4 times in scripture.
He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. (Psalm 24:4)
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Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: (1st Timothy 1:5)
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Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2nd Timothy 2:22)
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Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: (1st Peter 1:22)
In Psalm 24, verse 4 the PURE HEART is part of a far-reaching prophecy, as well as a present reality. Psalm 24 begins with not just the current earth, but the history of the whole earth for the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. And Psalm 24 travels through history and ends with the great gates and doors of the city of Jerusalem being opened for HIM, the Lord of glory, who has ascended into the hill of the Lord, the hill of Zion, as King of kings and Lord of lords. THIS Psalm reveals twice in its closing the words Who is this? Thus, showing the ignorance of not only the word of God, but the ignorance of the very Person and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are several questions that the Holy Spirit of God asks man through the scriptures. I would say that it is a two-way conversation between the Spirit of God and the evil hearts of mankind. In the book of Psalms, we begin our question with, Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? (Psalm 2:1) Then in Psalm 24, the Holy Spirit presents another question, Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Then in Isaiah 53, we have another question for the unbelieving heart, Who shall believe our report? And once again, in Isaiah 63, we see the ignorance and the unbelief of the world in the question, Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This carries us back to Psalm 24 for the finality of the great King, and the city of the great King with open arms and a full heart, they WILL sing praises to their King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. (Psalm 24:7) Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. (Psalm 24:8) Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. (Psalm 24:9) Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah. (Psalm 24:10)
Pay attention to verse 8 and verse 10. The same question is asked. asked, The first answer from the Holy Spirit is the power of the right hand for He is the Lord strong and mighty, for He has defeated sin and death and the prince of this world. The devil has been subdued and conquered by Christ. In this we see the battle for our souls, and the further battle over the nations for His people, Israel. And the very city where He has placed His name, He is the KING mighty in battle.
In verse 10, we see the question once again, and then we see the double witness of the Holy Spirit of God as He reveals the total of God’s sovereignty and the fullness of the Godhead. The answer to this second question is that the King IS the LORD OF HOSTS, and we know that the armies that are in heaven follow Him. The first part of Isaiah 63 is coupled with Psalm 24 for in Isaiah 63 He has subdued all His enemies, and they are His footstool.
I will mention the loving kindnesses of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses. (Isaiah 63:7) For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour. (Isaiah 63:8) In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. (Isaiah 63:9)
After the great victory in Isaiah 63, verses 7 – 9, the Holy Spirit reminds us of the Lord’s loving kindness through the past to the present and into the future when the nation of Israel will look upon Him who they have pierced and will weep and mourn for Him as an only child. They will feel in their hearts a small amount of what God the Father felt at the crucifixion of His beloved Son. The greatest heart ache of all time was experienced in the bosom of the Father when they crucified grace and truth in Christ Jesus our Lord. In the answer of the Holy Spirit in Psalm 24, the gates open and the doors bow down to the Lord of hosts and the KING will come in. He will be proclaimed as the KING of righteousness, and the KING of peace, and all of Israel will be brought into a divine year of jubile (jubilee) that will last for one thousand years. All the questions that have been asked by the Holy Spirit throughout the Bible will be answered in the presence of the Lord. He will put His laws into their minds and write them upon their hearts. He who has clean hands, and a PURE HEART will take His place on the hill of Zion upon His throne as both Priest and King.
And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD: (Zechariah 6:12) Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both. (Zechariah 6:13)
Now in our present day, faith and the Law of faith becomes our armor and the shield of our salvation. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. (Romans 3:27) Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. (Romans 3:28) The Law of Faith has been given by its Author. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12: 1) Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)
This Law of Faith must be obeyed. If it is not obeyed, then we end up in an unfavorable condition without God. This is expressed in Hebrews 11:6, For without faith it is impossible to please God. This verse in Hebrews Chapter 11 is given right after the man in verse 5 (Enoch) who pleased God and God translated him into God’s kingdom for his obedience and his walk with God. Then God continues the entire eleventh Chapter of Hebrews with the identification of faith in Hebrews 11:1, and the path of faith with ALL the examples of faithful men and women who walked with God.
If you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is a gift from above and without that gift of faith in the Gift of God, Jesus Christ, you will NOT escape the warnings of unbelief in this book of Hebrews. Not only did the Lord Jesus endure the contradiction of sinners, but He endures them today as well. It is the walk of faith that meets God’s approval. Those who diligently walk with and seek the Almighty, they are the ones who please Him. The word of God through the Spirit of God tells each and every Christian to LOVE NOT THE WORLD NOR THE THINGS THAT ARE IN THE WORLD. It is a given guarantee, by the Son of God, that the world will not love the children of God. The Lord Jesus proclaimed to His disciples, And ye shall be hated of all [men] for my name’s sake. (Luke 21:17) The apostle John also knew of how the world HATES God and His children, Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. (1st John 3:13)
We, the children of God, have severed the umbilical cord of the world, and as Abel, and all the rest within Hebrews 11, we walk with God as we call on Him from a PURE HEART. Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2nd Timothy 2:22) And this PURE HEART is because of unfeigned faith in Jesus Christ. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: (1st Timothy 1: 5 )
I will remind you that the PURE HEART, the heart that is tried seven times in the fires of God, is mentioned four (4) times once in the Old Testament, and three times in the New Testament. In Psalm 24 it is the Holy Spirit looking forward in the Old Testament to the fulfillment in the New Testament. He who has ascended into the hill of the Lord has come with clean hands and a PURE HEART to free the souls of bondage and through faith give them PURE HEARTS as He finished His work on the cross of Calvary. So NOW He presents His children to God the Father with those clean hands and that PURE HEART so that we can stand before God with TRUE HEARTS redeemed by the Son of His love and His PURE HEART for all the redeemed of the Lord that have been washed clean in the blood of Christ.
But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; (Hebrews 9:11) Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. (Hebrews 9:12) For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: (Hebrews 9:13) How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14)
The old heart, the heart of Adam has passed away at the new birth. We, as the children of God, have been given a NEW HEART, and within this heart is the Spirit of Christ. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (Galatians 4:6) Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (Galatians 4:7)
We have a new Spirit within that has freed us from the Law of Sin and Death. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Roman 8:2) And this Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. (Romans 8:9) It is the good shepherd who has restored our soul. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. (Psalm 23:3) We have the light of life of Christ IN our restored soul. It was Christ who offered His soul as an offering for sin, and through this offering the Lord Jesus restored our soul.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. (Isaiah 53:10) He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:11) Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:12)
The Lord Jesus has renewed our mind for in Hebrews Chapter 10 we are informed that He has put His law in our minds and written His laws on our hearts. There are three (3) laws that are most important to the child of God. Law #one: the Law of Faith, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. (Romans 3:28); the second is the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2): and then the third law is the Perfect Law of Liberty. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. (James 1:25) So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. (James 2:12)
We have been judged in the cross of Christ, we have been crucified to the world, and the world has been crucified to us. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. (Galatians 6:14) I want you to understand that the just and the unjust were both judged at the cross of Christ. One thief found paradise, and the other thief rejected paradise, and paradise stood in the midst of both of them in Jesus Christ our Lord. It is the Law of Faith that leads us to the Law of the Spirit of Life IN Christ Jesus. It is the Law of the Spirit of Life IN Christ Jesus that leads us to the Law of Liberty whereby we can serve God with acceptance and godly fear with a TRUE HEART we have the Law of Liberty on God’s part so that we would not fear what man can do to us. For God has approved us IN His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and has given us the liberty to serve our God. The world cannot restrain us from the work of the Lord. They might hinder us but cannot stop the Spirit of Christ within us. If we falter, it is in the weakness of our own flesh which we must overcome with the Law of Liberty. The Law of Liberty is the proof of the Law of Faith that is within us, and the Law of Faith is the proof of the Law of Liberty in the work that we do for the Lord of glory.
This is where the TRUE HEART comes in, to seek the mind of Christ for our direction. Every Christian, every servant in the family of God has been given a gift in the very gospel sent down from heaven by the Holy Ghost. Now to find the path of this gift can be a rough and bumpy road. Man will reject you and your message from on high sent down by the Holy Ghost. This is where the prayer of the faithful reveals the faith that is within them. You might be standing on a spiritual island all alone with no one, and the Lord might give you a work that all of mankind will reject, but nevertheless, the Lord will stand with you. Words of wisdom and words of faith from Paul the apostle . . . the Lord stood with me. When the vanity of man, and the pride of man is absent from your work, the world will see NOTHING in you to be desired; nevertheless, the Lord will stand with you. The flesh of the unsaved likes the excitement of both vanity and pride. Both the world, and sadly also the Church, is swallowed up with both vanity and pride. It is Laodicea who the Lord will not stand with . . . He spews them out of His mouth because of their vanity and pride of their riches and their wealth and because they have need of nothing. They follow another spirit which is NOT the Spirit of Christ. They are blind and do not see their own bondage to this world and its systems of government, economics (corporate) and religion. These three systems of this world have robbed the souls of mankind and have kept them in bondage to the Law of Sin and Death. I never write for or to the masses, but to that one precious soul who God draws into His word, for therein, are the treasures of God revealed. It is His most holy word interpreted by the Holy Spirit of God which will not allow the word of God to be defiled for He has settled it in heaven forever so that the TRUE HEART, the PURE HEART can take complete rest in the pure river of God’s word sent down from heaven by the Holy Ghost. Amen and Selah.
Copyright 2023, Michael Haigh
September 11, 2023 @ 3:41 pm (EST)
Article may be used, but not for gain. Freely ye have received, freely give.
All Scripture references are from the King James Bible. (KJB)