Heart Must Change

The Heart of Man Must Change…

The Heart:

Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV)  –  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Below is a listing of scriptures on “man’s heart condition” – “Justification” – “Sanctification”   It is the hope of the writer that by reading these series of scriptures they will speak to your heart and mind about God’s plan for mankind.  Indeed God is all love and has sent His Holy Spirit to help us.

Justification and Sanctification:

The theological term for this salvation is justification by faith. Justification is the act of God whereby He declares the believing sinner righteous in Christ on the basis of the finished work of Christ on the cross. Each part of this definition is important, so we must consider it carefully.

Justification is an act, not a process and thus there are no degrees of justification; each believer has the same right standing before God.   Justification is something God does, not man. No sinner can justify himself before God. Most important, justification does not mean that God makes us righteous, but that He declares us righteous. Justification is a legal matter. God puts the righteousness of Christ on our record in the place of our own sinfulness. And nobody can change this record.

Do not confuse justification and sanctification. Sanctification is the process whereby God makes the believer more and more like Christ. Sanctification may change from day to day. Justification never changes. When the sinner trusts Christ, God declares him righteous, and that declaration will never be repealed. God looks on us and deals with us as though we had never sinned at all!

Here is a list of scriptures to help identify man’s heart condition:

Jeremiah 17:10 (ESV)  –  “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.”  

Proverbs 23:7 (ESV)  –  for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. “Eat and drink!” he says to you,  but his heart is not with you.

Proverbs 11:20 (ESV) – Those of crooked heart are an abomination to the LORD, but those of blameless ways are his delight.

Matthew 15:8 (ESV) –  ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;

Luke 6:45 (ESV) – The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Matthew 15:19 (ESV) – For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. –

Man’s Condition

Romans 3:23 (ESV) – for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 3:10 (ESV) – as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; –

Isaiah 53:5 (ESV) – But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

God speaks of man’s evil heart:

1 John 3:20 (ESV) – for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

Proverbs 16:9 (ESV) – The heart of man plans his way,  but the LORD establishes his steps.

Luke 24:25 (ESV) –  And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

God knows your heart:   Luke 16:15 (ESV)  –  And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

Actions are?:

Romans 10:9–11 (ESV)  –  because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Scriptures that show we need to be busy confessing &/or busy acknowledging God before men .

Mark 8:38 (ESV)  –  For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Luke 9:26 (ESV) – For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

Luke 12:8–9 (ESV) – 8“And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, 9 but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

Matthew 10:32–33 (ESV) – 32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

John 20:18 (ESV) – Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.

Acts 7:52 (ESV)  –  Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered,

Romans 1:28 (ESV) – And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

Hebrews 13:15 (ESV)  –  Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

Scriptures on “Justification” 

2 Timothy 2:12 (ESV) – …if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us;

Jeremiah 32:39 (ESV) – I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them.

Proverbs 4:1 5, &7 (ESV)  – 

1       Hear, O sons, a father’s instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight,

5       Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.

7       The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.

Proverbs 4:5 (ESV) – Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.

Proverbs 4:7 (ESV) – The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.

Proverbs 4:20–23 (ESV) – My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21  Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. 22  For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. 23   Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

1 Corinthians 15:33 (ESV) – Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

The Haggai Principle is that when something unclean brushes against something clean the clean becomes contaminated.  Thus, how easily something is made unclean.  To reverse it is a lengthy process.

Scriptures on Sanctification

1 Corinthians 6:11 (ESV) –  And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

John 17:17–19 (ESV) – Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Hebrews 8:10 (ESV) – For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Hebrews 10:16 (ESV) – “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord:                   I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,”

Jeremiah 2:19 (ESV) – Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God; the fear of me is not in you, declares the Lord GOD of hosts.

Hebrews 12:6 (ESV)  – For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

1 Peter 5:10 (ESV) –  And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

1 Peter 4:12–13 (ESV) – Suffering as a Christian – 12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

Romans 8:18 (ESV) – Future Glory – 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

John 14:25–26 (ESV)  –   “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

John 16:12–13 (ESV) – 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Romans 8:29 (ESV)  –  For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Ephesians 4:11–15 (ESV)  –  11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

1 Thessalonians 3:13 (ESV)  –   so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Job 14:18–19 (ESV)  –  “But the mountain falls and crumbles away, and the rock is removed from its place;             19 the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of man.

Hebrews 1:4 (ESV) – having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Genesis 1:27 (ESV)  –  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

1 John 3:2 (ESV) – Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

Romans 8:15–17 (ESV)  –  For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.