Podcast: Gospel: The Hard Heart

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Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!
-Ephesians 4:17-20

I grew up in church, and was pretty active for a long time. I performed with the band. I was one of the most active members of the drama team. I was even an editor of the church literary journal. Well, that idea sort of fizzled, but we actually worked very hard on it for some time.

I was the guy who stops by the church office at least once a week. In a church of maybe a thousand, the entire staff knew me by name. I was that guy.

In my every day life, I would study. I carried the Bible with me to class. I would constantly be reading theology and other Christian books. I witnessed to people. I was very aware of the commandments of God, and I would follow them, well, religiously.

And I was heading straight for Hell.

No one has asked me about this yet, but I’ve been titling each episode in this series with a description of the heart. And none of the descriptions are very good. You may be confused, because the word “Gospel” means “good news,” but I’ve spent most of the time talking about what is inside of us, and it’s not pretty. I’m doing this for a reason. I’m doing this because until you realize what is inside, you’re never going to figure out the good news. Until you understand that you need a savior, you’re not going to be happy that one is available.

On the outside, I used to be pretty clean. I didn’t curse, I didn’t sleep around, I didn’t lie, I didn’t cheat, I didn’t do any of that. Outside, everyone said, I was a great guy! And I was still going to Hell.

If you talk about Heaven and Hell with most people, they’re going to tell you that they will go to Heaven because they are good people. Fantastic. Everyone thinks he’s a good person. Great. But you know what? Even if that were true (and it’s not), but even if it were true, your actions only tell half the story.

God knows our thoughts – every bit of darkness that sweeps over our hearts. And He judges it. Judgment Day isn’t only going to be about you giving money to some charity for the tax write-off, or spending an hour with your kids at night. It’s also going to be about what you thought when that good-looking woman walked by. It’s going to be about what you thought when that guy cut you off in traffic. It’s going to be about what you thought when that person at work was promoted instead of you. It’s going to be about what you thought when your wife asked you to pick up the kids. It’s going to be about your heart as well as your actions.

And it’s pretty ugly in there.

God takes this so seriously, that Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 that to even look upon a woman with lust in your heart is to commit adultery, and to even be unduly angry at someone is to commit murder. Ever done those things?

Is your heart committed to God, or is it chasing after other things? Are you ruled by your desires, or is it the other way around? Do you secretly entertain your greed, lust, ambition, selfishness, or pride? If so, it’s because your heart has become hardened against God. It has become callous, and so it seeks out worldly pleasures just to feel something. This is not the life God intends for you. You have exchanged His glory and majesty for something far less satisfying.

We don’t deserve that life. We don’t deserve to be united with God forever. We don’t deserve Heaven. Imagine, if you will, that you went to Heaven, dragging all of those impure thoughts and feelings in with you. Imagine if everyone did that. Imagine being in a place with no death, disease, or pain with the constant temptation for evil. How fast would we turn Heaven into Hell?

The Bible tells us we deserve death for what we have thought and done. We’re not “good people” who just make mistakes every once in a while. We’re evil people who can usually keep our dark thoughts inside and hidden. We’re sinners.

Right now, many of you are shaking your head, ready to dismiss all of this. You’re telling yourself that you’re doing just fine with God. And you have to ask yourself: Did God tell you that you’re okay, or was it your own hard heart?

God’s Word tells us something very different. God tells us that “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

If your heart is telling you something else, that it is only because the truth is having trouble breaking through the calluses and hardness.

If you are beginning to understand, then the good news will seem good indeed. We cannot earn Heaven, but we don’t have to. When Jesus died on the Cross, He took our sins with Him. See, He was sinless, and so He did not deserve death. But in death He took our place there so we can live.

By His Blood, we can be carried into Heaven and live forever. God will forgive all our sins and count us as righteous. We will be changed by His Spirit so we will not be beholden to sin. If we repent and believe, we will find eternal life. But not everyone will receive this gift. The hardness of their hearts will keep them from it. They will not repent and believe.

When I was younger, I used to work so hard to follow every rule, to try to earn my way to Heaven. I know now that I can’t. In every day I have to lean on the Grace of Jesus, but that Grace does not end and does not fail. I still mess up. A lot. But my righteousness comes from Him, not myself.