Your Heart and the 7th Commandment

Your Heart and the 7th Commandment

Since I had a short time to prepare for this sermon I adapted a lesson I used when I taught 7th/8th grade boys Sunday school, which was adapted from a personal study I did on sexual purity. Several years ago I heard Pastor Doug mention that Christians should always pray that our hearts will not deceive us to make us think that we can be happy without Jesus. We made that our theme in our Sunday school class and we prayed that prayer “that are hearts will not deceive us to make us think that we can be happy without Jesus” each week. We all know we can't be happy without Jesus, but our hearts our wicked and will try to fool us. And because sexual temptation is a big issue for young men, we studied the 7th commandment (You shall not commit adultery) in relationship to study how our heart will deceive us into think we want sexual sin more than we want Jesus. The heart is the center not only of spiritual activity, but of all the operations of human life.

Our text is found in :

"The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, 2 while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, 3 on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory. 4 You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever." 5 Thus says the LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. 6 He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. 7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. 8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit." 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 10 "I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."

The people of Judah in Jeremiah’s day the people of Judah were permeated with idolatry. They were so entrenched in their ways that it was as if their sin were engraved or etched on their hearts with an iron tool or a diamond point. Both iron and diamond, being extremely hard, were used to chisel words into stone tablets. The sin of Judah, however, extended beyond their hearts and showed up on the horns of their idolatrous altars. The “horns” were stone projections at the top of each altar on the four corners.

Idolatry was so pervasive that even … children participated in worship at the altars and Asherah poles. Asherah was the Canaanite goddess of fertility.

Because of the people’s sin God would give the city of Jerusalem and the wealth of its inhabitants as plunder to the invaders. The people of Judah would lose the land (their inheritance) as God enslaved them to their enemies and deported them to a land they did not know.

Jeremiah included a short poem contrasting the way of the wicked (vv. 5–6) with the way of the righteous (vv. 7–8). Judah had been turning to false gods and foreign alliances for protection, but God indicated that a person who trusts in man for protection is cursed because his heart has turned away from God. Instead of prospering, he will wither away like a desert bush. God would make him as unfruitful as the barren salt land around the Dead Sea, unable to support life.

A righteous person is blessed because his confidence (trust) is in God. Unlike the person in verses 5–6, a righteous person will flourish like a tree planted by the water. When difficulties come, he will not fear. Instead he will continue to prosper like a tree that bears fruit and whose leaves remain green.

If the ways of blessing and cursing are so clear (vv. 5–8), why would anyone choose the path of sin? The reason is in the heart. It is so deceitful that Jeremiah wondered who could even understand it. God answered by informing Jeremiah that He (God) searches the heart and examines the mind. God knows those innermost thoughts and motives that an individual might hide from all others. Therefore God could justly render to each person what his deeds deserve. The point of the section being the problem with every fallen human being is that we have a heart that can deceive us.

According to WSC 71, "The seventh commandment (you shall not commit adultery requires the preservation of our own and our neighbor's chastity (sexual purity), in heart, speech, and behavior" . Which is a polite way of saying we keep ourselves sexually pure and keep our neighbor sexually neighbor sexually pure by leaving them alone.

How can our hearts deceive us in regard to sexual purity? In . A delegation of scribes and Pharisees arrived in Galilee from Jerusalem to interrogate Jesus over a matter of Jewish tradition. Their attack was directed against Jesus’ disciples, who were accused of failing to observe the elders’ tradition of the ceremonial washing of hands before eating. This tradition (Rabbinic, not Mosaic) was an elaborate washing ritual involving not only one’s hands but also cups, pitchers, and kettles. After this incident with the scribe and the Pharisees, Jesus called the people to him and explain what defiles man.

"But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. 19 "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. 20 "These are the things which defile the man; . . ."

We are fallen men and even though we are Christians, our hearts can still deceive us. This passage in Ephesians really tells us how not to live .

So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality[1] for the practice of every kind of impurity[2] with greediness[3].

callous → lose the capacity to feel shame or embarrassment

Paul is describing how the Gentiles live. Because of their hard hearts, they are not even ashamed or embarrassed anymore. Their lack of moral feeling and discernment causes them to have no restraints that allow them to plunge into in all kinds of degrading activities. Notice what kind of hearts they have--hard hearts. Paul mentions are the three word associated with Gentiles and their sin. There are sensuality, impurity and greediness (and this last word is also translated as covetousness). We won’t go into the details of these words other than to say the Gentiles had a life that encompassed riotous and excessive living. Paul goes on to explain how they should live.

But that is not the way you learned Christ!-- 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Learning Christ means welcoming him as a living person and being shaped by his teaching. This involves submitting to his rule of righteousness and responding to his summons to standards and values completely different from what they have known in the past. Their minds are no longer darkened; their lives are no longer alienated from God; their hearts are no longer hardened and impure. This teaching and learning is in accordance with the truth, because Jesus is the Truth (). The content of this learning is twofold: (1) A believer has put off the old self which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires. Self-centered lusts are deceitful because they promise joy but fail to provide it. (2) He has put on the new self which has been created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness, which is based on truth (v. 24). This truth contrasts with the deceitfulness of lustful living. Believers have been made new in the attitude of their minds; they are no longer futile in their thinking, darkened in their understanding, and ignorant. Believers are new people in Christ, and hence they can no longer live as Gentiles live.

Paul in this first section we read: , explained how the Gentiles live, the second section , explain we shouldn’t live like that and exhorts on how to put off the old self and put on the new self. This next section warns us what happens if we don’t heed his admonitions.

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

There are two severe warnings that are intended to motivate the Christians solemnly to heed them. These warnings spell out the dire consequences for those who are immoral or sexually covetous, the first (.v5) speaks with certainty of exclusion from the kingdom of Christ and of God, the second (v.6) of the experience of the wrath of God.”

Christians should not be deceived into thinking that this warning is merely empty words, for the disobedient, that is, the unregenerate are the objects of God’s wrath. God’s view of sin should be taken seriously. Believers should be imitators of God, not evildoers. Sometimes Christians think it is ok to sin. They think because they are under the blood, God will forgive their sin. It is one thing to have confidence in the atonement, but to believe you can keep adding sin to sin is a great transgression.

It is certain that persistent sinners like immoral, impure and greedy have no part or lot in God's heavenly kingdom. Believers have already been assured that they have a secure hope of inheriting the glorious life to come. But again they are warned here not to live like unbelievers, for they are not going to inherit the kingdom of Christ and of God. Those who give themselves over to immorality, impurity and greed, even if they call themselves Christians, show they are excluded from eternal life. The apostle is not asserting that the believer who ever falls into these sins is automatically excluded from God's kingdom. Rather, what is seen here is the person who has given himself or herself up without shame or repentance to this way of life.

Paul finds it necessary to warn his converts repeatedly about this. He remind the Corinthians that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God, then proceeds to describe this unrighteous behavior in the list of ten vices that follow (). Some of the Corinthians have lived like this in the past. But they have been washed, sanctified and justified (v.11). The fact, however, that they still need to be warned against such vices even after conversion shows how strong was the temptation, in a pagan environment, to go back to their old ways.”

So here's the deal, why do Christians fall into sexual immorality?

1. My heart starts to deceive me that I can be happy without Jesus and I can be happy with sexual sin

2. When my heart starts to deceive me, I don't put a stop to it

3. Because I don't put a stop to it my heart convinces me I will be happy if I indulge myself in a sexual sin.

So what do we do?

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. 24 Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. 25 Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. 26 Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. 27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

Solomon tells us to guard our hearts above all else, making sure we concentrate on those desires that keep us on the right path. Make sure your affections lead you in the right path. Put boundaries on your desires. Look straight ahead, keep your eyes fixed on Christ.

[1] avse,lgeia lack of self-constraint which involves one in conduct that violates all bounds of what is socially acceptable, self-abandonment

[2] avkaqarsi,a a state of moral corruption, immorality vileness

[3] pleonexi,a the state of desiring of to have more than one's due, greediness, insatiableness, avarice, covetousness