"The
heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can
know it? 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 17:9,10
Now I want to ask yourself if this scripture describes your
heart? Is your heart
deceitful and desperately wicked? By
scriptural definition, if your answer is yes, then you are not a
Christian. Shocked?
Outraged? Good!
I want you to clearly see that if you conduct yourself according
to this Old Testament scripture then you are thinking with an old
covenant mind.
This scripture, when ignorantly spoken, will produce death in
you. You won't receive of
your inheritance with that type of thinking.
Even if you have heard Christians quote this scripture in
application to your state of being and thought it was true, it is not
applicable to the believer. The
problem with this unrightfully dividing of the Word is that believing it
gives you license to conduct yourself as a non-Christian. If you have an evil heart then you are not accountable for
your actions.
The truth is that you don't have an evil heart, if you have been
born from above, born of the Spirit of God.
You may, very much like many Christians, have an old covenant
mind and alienated from the full life of God through this ignorance that
is in you. You may be
alienated from the full-liberated life of that Christ bought for you on
the cross. Because when He
said it was finished, it was finished.
These scriptures show us clearly what we were and how
God dealt with man under the old covenant.
It tells us why and what we are and how God
deals with us under the new covenant, because of the blood of Jesus
Christ, His death for our sins, and what has happened to us.
When the Scriptures say to us, "behold, if any man be in
Christ, he is a new creation. Old
things are passed away. Behold all thing are become new." That's a
new heart and a new spirit. This
is where we see the ignorance in Christendom propagated all these years.
"Oh, the poor Christian!" "I am a sinner." "I'm
a poor rotten sinner and I've got an evil heart."
If you believe that, then your faith is in a lie.
If you are "in Christ" then you don't have an evil
heart and these scriptures can show that to you.
Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set
you free." Born again
Christendom has been handing us a lie.
But only because they are ignorant to some of the basic truths of
scripture. They have been misquoting scripture and using it wrongfully to
bring us under the old covenant. These
scriptures will take care of the ignorance and will clearly delineate
what your inheritance is in Christ.
Andrew Murry's, "Two Covenants".
We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
Transformed means to be changed from what we were, our old man, to what
we are in Christ by the renewing of our thinking.
The mind is not just what you know but it's a combination of your
will being fit to your mind and becoming real to you.
When you know this, it will give you the foundation to have the
truth.
In the end of Romans 6 Paul says, "I would do that which I
would not". "Who
will deliver me from the life of this death?" "Thank God,
through Jesus Christ." What
kind of an answer is that? He
didn't tell me how. But he
did tell us how. Thank God,
through Jesus Christ. It
all has to do with the new covenant and new heart.
As you come to know this information and His truth you will
understand the battle so that when you have the battle of flesh and
spirit like Paul you will understand and know when you are struggling
"Wait a minute." Thank God through Jesus Christ.
This was all done for me. I've
got a new heart. I've got a
new spirit. I'm not under
the old covenant any more. I
don't have to strive with myself any more against sin.
Thank God, I'm a new creation.
But you can't know that until you know what has been given to
you. What’s been bought for you, what your inheritance is in
Christ?
"The heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 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 17:9,10
If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
In addition, He said, That which cometh out of the man that
defiles the man. For from within, out
of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,
fornication, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit,
lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all
these evil things come from within, and defile the man. Mark 7:16,20-23
Whom was Jesus talking to when he said these things?
He was talking to the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
He was talking to men who were as of yet unregenerate. These men were under the law.
He was telling them what the condition of their heart was.
They were unregenerate.
Moreover, 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. Genesis 6:5
...For the imagination of mans heart
is evil from his youth: Genesis 8:21
Unregenerate man's heart is evil. Under the old covenant, the
reason man could not do the law or doeth will of God was not because he
was without strength, it was because he had an evil heart.
The basic structure of his heart was evil.
That kept him from doing the will of God.
Nevertheless, we are all as an unclean
thing and all our righteousness are as filthy
rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities,
like the wind, have taken us
away. Isaiah 64:6
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for
all have sinned, and
come short of the glory of God; Romans 3:22‑23
Why did they not continue in it?
It was because their heart was evil.
Their heart was evil from their birth.
There was no righteousness in them.
They had an evil heart. God had to show them that they had an
evil heart. Man would try
to do the law and in sincerity would say, "Oh, God. I can't".
" I'm a sinner." "Save me." Save me?
Yes, what was the rest of the law?
The ordinances of sacrifices, priesthood, offering, and the blood
of the lamb. That was the
whole purpose of the law. The
"entering into" of the temple, another type of Christ,
"entering into" the holy temple of the heavens.
Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.
Therefore, they went through the ordinances to be cleansed.
Brother? Sister? Did you hear what this says? Do you have an old
sinful heart? You do not
have two natures. Do you
understand? You have a new
heart, "Be hold if any man be in Christ he is a new creation.
Old things are passed away.
What? The condition
of your heart that is desperately wicked, every imagination of your
heart is evil continually from their youth it is evil.
There is no righteousness in you.
Man's ways are evil, continually.
There's none righteous, No, not one.
You see you do not have an evil heart.
You think you have to fight this war of the two parts of you.
This good nature against this evil nature.
What is this problem I have with sin?
We will address this later in the book.
What has to be cleared up is the truth about you.
The condition of your heart, when you become a Christian is new.
When it comes to the commandments of God, you can keep them
because you have a new heart.
However, the problem with our flesh is why we sin.
You do not have and evil heart.
You have a new heart. Therefore,
you can do the commandments if you want to.
Scripture says, "I will give them a new spirit within you,
and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and I will give them
a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes... (They could not
before because they had an evil heart.
Jesus took care of that. We
are a new creation now. We
have a new heart, you have a new spirit, and He's within our spirit.
It's called the new man. Your heart isn't desperately wicked
above all things, Who could know it?
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
You haven't got an evil heart.
If anything wrong comes out of you that's out of the old man.
It's called the flesh. That's
just the mind, emotions and will, what you learned before Christ, BC, in
your education, in your computer, the habits of the body and the mind.
That's the old man. That's
still the unregenerate mind. The unconformed mind that needs to be
renewed, in the spirit of your mind, and it needs to be transformed by
the renewing of your mind. You see? In the
mind, emotions and will. But
you see, in you, if you were to die, in your new man there's no sin. There's no problem. You
see? But, the issue is
getting this body and this mind, because, you understand what I mean,
God just can't come and go, pffht, like a tape recorder, you know like a
blank eraser, and blank you out. You're
a grown person. Everybody that became a Christian would immediately; you
understand what I mean, be a baby.
With no mind. No
intellect. But we don't read them that way because we wouldn't be able
to make a choice that way. So He has to come into the land, and conquer
it. And the beasts and the
animals, and the cities that have to be conquered, you know in our mind,
it's called the Canaan Land. It's the taking of the land.
Every foot that we take, and be transformed, it's talking about
conduct, how? By the
renewing of your mind. And
we can now walk in His statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them.
Do you see that under the New Covenant you can do them? The only problem with you and with sin is that you got a
bunch of crummy tape recordings up here that have to be written over and
this is going to take care of some of them.
You don't have two natures.
You've only got one nature.
You know there's only one person in there.
Now there's a thing up here called the natural mind, is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
That's the unrenewed mind. And
you've got to realize that, you're not that sinful mind.
"Know if I would do that which I would not, it's no longer I
that would do it." Do
you understand it now? If I
would do that which I would not, Paul is saying, then it's no longer I
that do it. Why is it
no longer I. Because he
doesn't have an evil heart. He's
got a new spirit, and he's joined with Christ.
Then it's no longer I that sin, but sin that dwells in my
members. And what's one of
your members? Your brain.
That thing up there that needs to be renewed. But, as you come to know the truth and your mind is renewed,
and you see that you're not your sin, you see? This isn't self hypnosis.
You understand what I mean? This
is the truth. You're not
your sin. Paul said,
"That is I do that
which
I would not, then it's no longer I that do it, but sin that
dwelleth
in my members."
