It's a pleasure to be here this morning.
I say that even though it's still quite stressful. Have you ever
heard the word substitution? Well, you're looking at one right
now. I am a substitute. Please turn with me to Genesis
chapter 6. I'm going to read a single verse,
and later I'm going to Matthew 19 and read several things there. Genesis 6, 5. My subject is natural
imagination. Every single one of us had it. We still have it. It formed the
basis for all religions without any exceptions on the face of
this earth. It's man's imagination. Genesis
6-5, here's a characterization of our natural imagination. And
God saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth
and that every imagination of the thoughts of the heart was
only evil continually. That's a very harsh statement
that is unacceptable to most men because of their idea of
what their imagination is. What is imagination? Craig said
this morning, a picture worth a thousand words. Imagination
is a picture that you have in your mind. But notice, every
imagination of the thoughts of the heart. So it's got something
to do with the heart. In this case, the thoughts of
the heart, and the heart does not have a brain. The heart is
defined as the center of our character and behavior. And the
mind is how the heart expresses that activity and behavior and
characteristics. They're absolutely inseparable.
And that's the reason it says every imagination of the thoughts
of the heart. The heart originates the behavior,
the mind interprets it, and that mind controls the ears, the eyes,
the feet, the hands, everything else. So the heart and the mind
are inseparable when you're talking about imagination. The official
definition is a mental picture or image of something external.
The brain functions of forming ideas, images, and concepts on
external objects not present to the senses. In other words,
you don't have to have any senses to be able to imagine something
in your mind. In other words, for example, take a picture of
that hummingbird. You can shut your eyes right
now and see that picture. And the picture's not even present.
So what it's saying is, it's what the mind does to take and
form ideas and concepts on something external to itself that's not
based on touch, feel, see, and hear. That's the dictionary definition. The thoughts of the heart. Let's
talk about the heart. Jeremiah 17, nine, the heart
of deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can
know it. Now my statement was all religions
are based on imagination. And I want to prove that in the
scripture. Genesis 8, 21, when you get this
imagination, Genesis 8.21, we are born with
natural imagination. We are born with that. It is
in our character. And it says, the imagination
of man's heart is evil from his youth. Born with it, from our
youth up. Or what happens when we take
this natural imagination the thoughts of the heart, and read
this book. Deuteronomy 29 makes this statement. Here's a person listening to
all the blessings and curses of God for the nation of Israel,
and he says to himself, I determined to bless myself in my heart,
saying, I shall have peace and contentment walking in the imagination
of my heart." So here is man's response. I will have comfort
and peace and security walking in my imagination. Now, remember imagination, thought
and heart. are only evil continually. Yet man says, I can walk in peace
and comfort and security in my own imagination. And men do walk
in that imagination. Man's natural imagination is
always in the scripture described as evil. What is evil? What is wickedness? We think
in terms of Stealing something or lying or killing or murdering,
robbing a bank or something like that, stealing a car, cheating
your neighbor. Nope. Wickedness and evil has
one very simple definition. It's called unbelief. It's called unbelief, not believing
the truth. Adam startled it. Lord, you lie. If I eat that apple or whatever
it was, I'll be just like you. That's just imagination. The
thoughts of his heart. And what was it? I can be God
himself. That's what natural imagination
leads to. And it's always evil. Evil and
wickedness. Anything contrary to the obedience
of the truth of God revealed in Christ. It doesn't have to
be things that we see as a side to say are bad things. No, real
wickedness is disobedience of the Word of God Almighty, disobedience
of the truth, unbelief. When man takes this natural imagination
and picks up these scriptures and reads them, what does he
see? The Old Testament is full of
statements usually concerning the nation of Israel, the people
of Israel. They go something like this. If you do or keep
my commandments and statutes and covenants and Sabbaths, then
I will bless you. And I mean it says it so many
times in the Old Testament. People look it up and say, ah,
salvation, eternal life, life is based on what I do. If I do
good, I'll be blessed. If I do bad, I'll be cursed.
It becomes a works and reward religion. And that is true of
all religions. I don't care whether you're Baptist
or whatever. We don't have a religion. We
have a person. That's Christ. But all religions,
without exception, Hindu, Muslim, every one of them teach that
if you do good, you will be blessed. I get right tickled with Hindus.
If you do something bad, you come back as a flea. in your
progression to become perfect. And if you do good, you come
back as something like a water buffalo, something people can
use and are useful. You look at Muslim religion,
you pray five times a day, you get step one in heaven. Every
religion is based on, if you will do these things, then I
will bless you. If you don't do those things,
then I will curse you. So it becomes, it works, reward
religion, doing good and avoiding evil. New Testament. Seek and
you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened
to you. Ask and I'll give it to you. Notice it puts man before
God. You've got to seek, then you
find. You've got to ask, then you get. But if you don't ask,
you don't get. If you seek, then you'll find
him. The same concept is carried in
the New Testament. In Deuteronomy 11, and I'm going
to take a lot of these verses out of sequence, here is Moses
talking, Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a
curse. And he's talking to the children
of Israel, the people of God. If you shall diligently keep
all the commandments which I command you to do them, to love the Lord
your God, to walk on His ways, including to Him, If you do that
diligently, He said, I set before you both a blessing and a curse.
And here is the blessing. A blessing if you obey the commandment
of the Lord your God. A curse if you will not obey
the Lord your God. So when a man with a natural
imagination comes to the scripture itself, what do they see? They see a blessing and a curse,
a work and reward, and it fits with everything else in nature.
If you work hard, you make more money. If you work hard, you
get more things accomplished. Everything that we do naturally
supports this concept of natural imagination. They fit perfectly. If you don't work, you don't
eat. We all live those things every day. And the point I'm
making, you take that natural imagination and come to this
book, and that's all you've got. What do you find? You find work
and reward. You find blessings and courage,
all based on what you do. If you do good then, and only
then, will God bless you. And if you don't do good, and
only then, God will curse you. And that has driven every religion
on the face of this earth. Every one of them. Some of them
worse than others. If you did it diligently, sincerely,
persistently keep the word of God, then I will bless you. If you are obedient, sincerely,
persistently, diligently, all men, all religions say amen to
that. Natural religion is the imagination
of the mind of men. concerning themselves and God. And what does the scripture say?
It is evil and exceedingly wicked. Let me give you a scriptural
picture of what the imagination of all men is from eternal life.
If you will turn with me to Matthew 19. It's a very simple parable, probably heard it a thousand
times, yet it is a picture of what men's evil imagination and
natural imagination leads them to. And it leads us and every
other man to this parable. When you read this parable concerning
this man, Just think, that's me, that's you. Matthew 12, 16. And behold, one
came and said unto him, let me change that and I'll just use
myself. And behold, I came and said unto him, good master, what
good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? Now listen
carefully. What shall I do? Not what God
hath done, what shall I do? And Jesus said unto him, why
callest thou me good? There is none good that is God,
but thou will enter into life, keep the commandments. And why
would God say that? He just said, if you keep my
commandment, you'll have life. That's what he believes. I'm
telling you, this is what this gentleman believes that came
up to see him. That's exactly what he wanted to hear. He said
to him, which, the men asked him, which ones? And Jesus said,
thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou
shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, honor thy
father and thy mother, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as I
said. And you could add any other ordinance or any other commandment,
a statute or covenant to that list. Anything that says do these
things. The young man said unto him,
all these things have I kept from my youth up, what lack I
yet? Here is the result of man's imagination
looking at the scripture and seeing It is a reward, a blessing,
and a curse, a reward, or not a reward, punishment. I keep every one of them things.
I read them carefully, sincerely, persistently. I do all those
things. I've never done any of those
things. I kept them from my youth up,
what like I yet." Meaning, I am lacking nothing with respect
to the righteousness of the law. Nothing. And I had been doing
this from youth up. Jesus said unto him, that will
be perfect. Go and sell what thou hast, and
give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and
come and follow me." Now here is a statement that says if you
want to be perfect, there's one thing you lack yet. And here
is a contrast between works and grace in the simplest terms you
can possibly think of in Christ's response. We were perfect. Go and sell all the house and
give to the poor. Thou shalt have treasure in heaven,
and come and follow me." What's Christ saying? Don't just give
90%. Don't just do 90% of the law.
Keep the whole law perfectly. Absolutely. One thing He's saying.
Another thing He's saying is, go and give all you have. And Doug, if you give up everything
you've got, What are you? You become nothing. You have
nothing left. And Christ said, unless you become
nothing, you have no idea what perfection
is. And what did the young man say?
And when a young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful.
We had great possessions. What was his possession? His
self-righteousness. But to me, there's one statement
that I hear. Go and become absolutely, utterly
nothing in order that Christ can come everything to your soul.
Then you will have treasures in heaven. And it's a contrast
between works and grace. And to me, it's the ultimate,
to me, picture in all scripture. And it's in Matthew, Mark, and
Luke, showing here is man in his natural state, the thoughts
of his heart, his imagination comes to the word of God. And
what does he say? If you will, then I will. Seek, ask, knock, do something. And they sincerely, diligently,
persistently try to do the very best they can and claim righteousness. The Lord says, you've got nothing. Give it all away. And young Lynn
says, I can't. Here is you and me in our imagination
of our hearts. If Christ himself were to preach
to us and not give us a revelation of himself, we won't even know
who he is. This person had no idea. Call him good master. This is
the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Lord preaches to him,
He heard every word he said and didn't understand a word of it.
God didn't open his understanding. God didn't give him ears. And
I'm talking about here is Christ, the one who preached as no other
man has ever spoken. He still could not hear, he could
not see, he could not understand. He did not, he would not believe
and do what Christ asked him to do. He imagined that he had done
something good all his life. He imagined he was having, he
was self-righteous. He had no understanding of the
law. And the scripture says, the law
is good if it's used lawfully. He had no idea that the law said,
I, the law, am a killer. That's all the law does. It kills. It takes Christ to make you alive. To reenact what Craig said this
morning, here is the law. And people come in and say they're
keeping the law and have no idea that the law's intent was to
shut everyone's mouth and to say, I am guilty. I am nothing
whatsoever. He has no idea that like a loaf
of bread, one grain of yeast corrupts the whole loaf of bread. Not a law, it's the law. It only has one part. You break
one part, one jot, one tittle, you've broken it up. This young
man had no clue because his imagination said, I've done this and this
and this and this and this. I've done it my youth up and
I'll continue to do it. Now, that's a picture. of every
religion on the face of this earth. It's about doing it. I've heard people say, oh, I
always thought I had a strong faith, and now I know I have
because it pulled me through this medical emergency. I got
through this by my faith. Oh, not knowing they're making
faith a work when faith is a grace. Let me tell you the song they
sing. All religions may not sing the same words, But I just selected
a song that mimics everything that this natural imagination
gives him. I gave, I gave my life for thee. What hast thou given for me?
Doug, have you ever sung that before? I have. I have. I left my father's house. I left
heaven. Hast thou left aught for me? What have you done? not what
Christ has done. I suffered and bore it all for
thee, what hast thou borne for me? I bring rich gifts to thee, what
hast thou brought to me? And it's a song that declares,
in order to get these things, you need to bring, you need to
do all those things. What do you bring to church?
I'd read that thing and say, Rupert, I think, boy, something's
wrong with me. I ain't brought nothing. Yet, that's what they sing. So
what do they do? They go about bringing just as
much as they can. Every time that church door's
open, they're in there. Every prayer meeting, they pray
all the time, particularly publicly, and on and on and on. Doing what? trying to show, here's what I
born for you, here's what I left to you, here's what I bring to
you, here is what I think of you.
Why is this so? Me and you and everyone suffers
the same problem. And his problem is, 1 Corinthians
14, another very familiar verse. In other words, we are smart
in our own imagination and think we know what these scriptures
say and have no clue. Just like the Ethiopians reading,
what made these things? How can I understand them if
someone who knows what he's talking about shows me what these things
mean? That Ethiopian was given a grace
that this other young man was not. In this context, What is the
anonym for our imagination, meaning the opposite? In scripture, my
perception is one simple word, revelation. Unless God shows
us what our heart and imagination is, and we find that it's only
evil continuously, we will be in the same boat as he is. The opposite of our imagination
is revelation. Now there is a spiritual imagination,
and I'll put it this way. It's 1 Chronicles 29 and 18.
David is in his last days and he's talking about building the
church and the things that he is committed to do. He knows
he's not going to be around when all these things happen. So he
makes this statement. Oh Lord God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Japheth, keep this forever in the imagination and thoughts
of the heart of thy people. So we have an imagination. But
it's based on revelation and it's kept there by the grace
of God in our heart. Keep these things in the heart
of the people. And he doesn't stop there. and prepare their hearts unto
thee. That's our imagination. It's
God prepared our hearts unto himself. What's it called? A
new heart. A new creation. It's called in
scripture, a heart of stone turned into heart of flesh. It's called
circumcision of the heart. It's called a new heart. It's
God preparing the imagination of our hearts unto himself. And what is that? He reveals
to our heart what our heart is, and it necessitates, puts us
in a position of not having anywhere else to go except to him. It's like a drowning man. Throw
the buoy. You tell him he's not going to
grab that buoy. He comes for our souls, those of the lifesaver,
Himself. And we cling to Him, and it goes
to our heart. God says, I'll make a new creature.
All things become new. All things become new. Now, when
you say that, does it mean we don't lose our old imagination? Nope. I'll guarantee you, And
I'll just speak myself. When you think you're doing something
good, you start to feel good and better about yourself. And if you do real good, you
really pump yourself up. Oh, that's the evilness of the
imagination of man's mind. We are nothing and can do nothing
and will be nothing except in Christ himself. As God prepares
our heart, what does he do? One of the first
things he does, 2 Corinthians 29, 18, casting down imagination
and everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,
and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. What a wonderful statement. That's the solution to our natural
imagination. God cast it down. It takes him and his grace to
cast it down because we will not, we cannot do it ourselves. Oh, he creates a broken and a
contrite heart. Psalms 5117. The sacrifice of
God or a broken spirit and broken and contrite heart that will
not despise. That's God preparing our heart
and our imaginations. Cast it down, breaks it, makes
it contrite. He said, now it's successful
because it's something that I've done. The Lord is nigh to them that
are broken heart and say that such as be a Contract spirit. Luke, what's the gospel? 418, the spirit of the Lord is
upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor, to heal the brokenhearted. That thoughts of the heart that
leads to our imagination is broken. It's no longer there. Brokenhearted,
deliverance to the captives, recovering sight to the blind,
as it is liberated to the bruised. David made this statement, and
I'm going to read some of David's statements in there. I am helped,
O God, therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with a song will
I praise thee. God gives a rejoicing heart. I trust in thy mercy, My heart
shall rejoice in thy salvation. That's the heart he gives. That's
the new heart. It's one that rejoices. It's
one that sings. Thou hast put gladness in my
heart. I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart and show
forth all thy marvelous works. And the first work that you show,
here is my heart. Psalm 5110, creating me a clean
heart and a new spirit in me. Now, I'm going to end this. I call it a benediction with
a song. One of Rupert's favorites. I'm
not going to read the whole thing. Come thou found in every blessing
because it has a statement in there about our heart. It is
probably one of the most comforting statements in any song could
be. Come thou fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace. That's the thought of the heart
and imagination of the child of God. Tune my heart to sing
thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing
calls for a sign of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet
sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount I'm fixed upon
it, mount of thy redeeming love. And in the last verse, O to grace
how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be. Wept thy goodness
like a fetter, bind my wanting heart to thee. Does that remind
you of anything that you are and I am? Lord, bind that heart. Make it rejoicing. Make it clean.
Make it sing praises. Tune my heart to sing your praises.
Let thy goodness, thy mercy, thy grace, like a feather bind,
tie, restrict my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord,
I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.
And here is the benediction. Here's my heart. Oh, take it
and seal it. Seal it in thy courts above. That is the solution to our imagination
and the thoughts of our heart. And that solution is a person
himself.