I received a letter via the internet this past week
from a long time and dear friend of mine. He asked me this question. Can you help me? I've been studying
and thinking about the heart of a believer. The heart of one
truly in union with our Lord. A heart that truly knows himself,
but one who sees himself in Christ. Does God anywhere in His Word
describe that heart as evil or wicked? And should that man's
heart be described as an evil or wicked heart? As evil as I know that old man
to be, yet all things are new, the Scripture says. And I'm troubled
about how the believer's heart is to be described. Can you help
me? Well, I will not use my own experience,
or yours, or anybody else's in our day, but those we know by
the Word of God to be saved men called of God to eternal sonship
in Christ. We'll look at them. We'll look
at them. We'll receive their testimony.
How does the believer see himself? How should he view himself? As sinner or saint? How should
he be preached to? As sinner or saint? Evil or righteous? Well, I believe
that the Scripture set before us three distinct views of the
sinner. Three distinct views of the sinner. Views recorded in the Word of
God. Views according to the testimony
of God. And that's the important thing
here. Let me say that again. Views according to the testimony
of God. No man, sinner or saint, can
know anything about God or His spiritual condition or man apart
from the testimony of God. You cannot look into your own
heart and know it. The Scripture said the heart
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? You can't discover what you are
by searching your own heart. Your heart is deceitful. You
can't go there for information. We compare ourselves with others. We subject God to the limits
of our own imaginations when we do these things. The Scripture said, who hath
directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor hath taught
him? With whom took he counsel? And who instructed him, and taught
him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and
showed to him the way of understanding? To whom then were you liking
God? Or what likeness will you compare
unto Him? Would you know something about
this God? Would you know something? Would
you receive the testimony of this God, this all-wise God,
concerning your own condition? Then you must submit your thoughts
to the testimony of God. Paul said, let God be true. enemies of his in Rome. He was writing to the Romans
there in Romans chapter 3. And I know what they were doing
because they do the same thing to me. Some of them were accusing
him of not being sin of God, not knowing God, not doing these
things. But they said, we are of God. He said, well, let's
do this thing. Let's let God be true and every man a liar.
Let's do that. Let's just set aside our own
opinions and let's take the Word of God. Let's take the testimony
of God. And God gives us three distinct
views of man. And through these views, He sets
before us a good hope through grace. Now here's the first view. First of all, God sees man as
he is. As he is. You can't see that,
but God sees that. He sees man as he is. Now, I'm
a man. I'm a member of this human race.
I'm a natural-born son of Adam, and I know how men think about
themselves because I once thought of myself the same way. I don't
have to read a paper or read an old writer to find out how
man thinks about himself. I just have to go back and remember
the way I used to think of myself. I thought of myself by comparing
myself to other men, comparing myself to those around me. I
thought about myself when I joined the church by comparing myself
to other people in the church. Men and women who think this
way, they believe they're not all bad. I ain't always, that's
what an old fellow told me one time, he said, I ain't always
done the right thing. But he said, one thing I can
tell you, liquors never pass through these lips. I used to believe that man had
some potential, some value, something to contribute in this world,
something to contribute to the work of God. They believe they're
wise and healthy and strong and able to do about anything they
set their mind to do. But God paints a different picture
of man. God sees man as he is. Not how
he professes to be, not how he thinks himself to be, not how
other men tell him that he is, but God sees man as he is. Man, listen to this. I'm going
to read some Scripture to you. Man that's born of a woman is
a few days and full of trouble. That's man. Full of trouble. Every man, Psalm 39, 5, every
man at his best state, altogether vanity. Isaiah said, we are all as an
unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. In Isaiah
1, God speaks to Israel, and He said, from the sole of your
foot, even unto the head, there's no soundness in it, but wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores. And God looked down from heaven
and saw the wickedness of man, that is, mankind, that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. They are corrupt, he said. They've
done abominable works. There's none that doeth good.
The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there was any that did understand and seek God. And he said, they're
all gone aside. They're together become filthy.
There's none that doeth good. No, not one. God sees man as
he is. As he is. Depraved, and wicked,
and vile, and unclean. His mind, I read it to you a
few moments ago, that carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God, and there he's not talking about the Ten Commandments, but
he's talking rather about the authority and rule of God, the
Word of God. If God says something, it's law,
isn't it? He's God. He's God. He don't have to put
law above it for it to be a law. If God commands a thing, it's
law. It's law. Man loves darkness rather than
light. He lives in darkness. He eats
in darkness. He sleeps in darkness. His one
source of light, his mind, is darkness. And if that light that
be in him be darkness, how great is that darkness? That's what
our Lord asks. God sees man as he is. No good thing in him. Together become unprofitable.
No fear of God before his eyes. And all mankind in the loins
of their daddy Adam sinned against God, put forth their hand and
took the forbidden fruit as if each one were the only one there
in the beginning. All mankind in their daddy Adam
sinned against God. And for that reason, death was
passed upon all men. And the evidence is that all
have sinned. God sees man as he is. How is he? Well, he says, out
of his heart. Let's get down to it. Out of
the heart of man, natural man, ever natural born son of Adam.
Out of his heart proceed evil thoughts, adultery, fornications,
thefts, murderers, false witnesses, blasphemies. And this is what
defiles the man. It's his heart. It's his heart. And untold thousands of men and
women will go on examining themselves with the lies of religious hucksters,
with the vain imaginations of themselves and superstitious
ideas and fleshly philosophies of this world. And they'll go
out and meet a holy God, never receiving the testimony of God
concerning their sin. Ignore it totally. Now, if you
ignore the testimony of God, what's left? What's left? There's nothing left but the
testimony of liars. The testimony of fallen men,
the testimony of the deceived, testimony of the rulers of the
darkness of this world. There's nothing left if you turn
down the testimony of God. That's all that's out there. God sees man as he is, and He
tells him what he is, and He commands all men everywhere to
repent. But that's not the only view
God has. of men. The second view set forth
in the Word of God is how God views His elect in Christ. How
does He view them? Now my friend, He didn't view
Jacob the same way He viewed Esau. He said, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. There is a difference in the
way God views this world and the way God views His elect in
Christ. God has a people. By an act of
pure, free, sovereign grace, God chose a people in His Son
and He blessed them. They are blessed people. Blessed
through the election of God. Blessed by the love of God. They
are blessed. blessed them with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And He blessed
them by making Christ their head. He chose them in Christ. He appointed
Christ as their federal head, as their representative. And
just as all mankind was represented in their father Adam, all God's
elect are represented in Christ. He states it five times in the
book of Romans, chapter 5. As it was in Adam, so it is in
Christ. As it was in Adam, so it is in
Christ. Christ did not appear on this
earth only to make an appeal to fallen men. That's what religion
says. He did preach to me. He did give
him strong evidence to believe him. He did warn him. But that's
not the reason behind his coming. Christ did not come only to set
a godly example of how to live by faith in this world. His life
is an example. His attitude and conduct is exemplary,
but that's not why He came. Jesus Christ came into this world
as a representative man, as a federal head of a people given to Him
by the Father. Listen to this Scripture. When
the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son,
made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were
under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. There is another Scripture, Hebrews
9, verse 26, Once hath He appeared in the end of the world to put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Christ being come a
high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle not made with hands, neither by the blood of bulls
and goats, but by His own blood, He entered into the Holy entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us." That's Hebrews 9, 11, and 12. By His accomplishing,
the eternal will of God and the salvation of His elect were sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrews 10, 9, and 10. In Christ, my sins have been
blotted out. They're gone. He uses natural
things to describe things that can't be described. Does that
make any sense? He said He took our sins and
buried them in the depth of the sea. He scattered our sins as
far as the east is from the west. Our sins have been blotted out.
In Christ, my sins have been blotted out. My sins are buried
beneath the blood of Christ. Past sins, present sins, future
sins, all paid for by the redeeming blood of Christ as a lamb without
spot or blemish. Listen to this song. We sing
this all the time. I wonder sometimes if we listen
to the Word. My sin. Listen to the songwriter. My sin. Oh, the bliss. This glorious thought. My sin,
not in part, but to whole. was nailed to the cross, and
I bear it no more. It is well, it is well with my
soul." Can you say that? God sees the sinner justified. The believing sinner, God sees
the sinner justified, cleared of all charges. Listen to these
scriptures. But now the righteousness of
God without the laws manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, 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. This is Romans chapter 3, verse
24. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in His blood to
declare His righteousness for the remissions of sins. God sees His people blessed in
Christ, redeemed and justified and righteous. And God has regenerated
us by His Holy Spirit, put within us a new heart, a heart to love
Him and a new mind to know Him and a new will to follow Him.
Sealed us with the Holy Spirit of promise. Saved us by the washing
of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Made us meet
to be partakers of the inheritance of enlightened saints. Given us the ability to repent
and believe. Given us eyes to see. Blessed
are your eyes for they see. Made willing, David said, in
the day of His power. And God looks on the work of
the Holy Spirit in us, and He's pleased with the work. He's pleased
with the work. And that new man loves Christ.
That new man believes God. That new man submits to the will
of God. And that new man loves all those
born of God. That new man worships God in
the Spirit. And God sees His people in Christ
as Christ has has presented them to Him, reconciled through the
body of His flesh through death, to present them to the Father,
holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in His sight." That's Colossians
1, 21 and 22. God sees us in Christ as loving,
obedient children, godly men and women, faithful servants.
Enter in, thy good and faithful servant. As He saw us in Adam in our rebellion
and wickedness, so He sees us in the second Adam, accepted
in the Beloved and seated at His own right hand. So God sees
all men and He sees them as they are, depraved and wicked, immoral,
ungodly sinners. And He sees His people, all those
that believe, All those chosen and redeemed in Christ is holy,
justified, righteous, faultless before the presence of His glory.
But now the Scripture sets before us one more view. One more view. How does the believer see himself? How do these men and women chosen
and blessed of God, called out of darkness and ignorance, how
do these vessels of mercy who are now new creatures in Christ
Jesus, how do they view themselves? As they continue to live in this
world, as they continue to do business with and live among
fallen sinners, as they attempt to serve God, worship God, walk
by faith in this world, how do they view themselves? You might disagree with me here,
but I believe they view themselves in both of the first two views. Huh? As both sinners and saints. Oh preacher, you got to be one
or the other. That's not my experience. They see themselves as both sinners
and saints. Guilty, yet justified. Filthy, but clean. John said,
if we say... Now listen to this. Who's he
talking about, we? If we say. Who's he talking about?
He's talking about believers. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves. And the truth's not in us. If
we say we have not sinned, then we make Him a liar and His Word's
not in us. But if we confess our sins, If we confess our sins, He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Confession of sin is nothing
more than a consciousness of sin and an admission of what
we are. Confession of sin is a life lived
by faith with an awareness of it. That's what Paul's talking
about. David prayed in Psalm 51, 3,
he said, I acknowledge my transgression and my sin, my sin, that's who
he is, that's what he is, is ever before me, ever before me. And then again in verse 6, he
said, Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the
hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. I tell you, when God does business
with you, He does it in the heart. He does it in the heart. And
there is a duality of natures in the believer, and he cannot
help but see them both. And they're both Him. They're
both Him. When He's mourning and seeing
Himself as the sinner, when that preacher is talking about that
evil heart That depravity of the sinner, he sees himself and
it's him, it's him, he confesses, this is who I am, this is what
I am. But then when the preacher begins
to talk about being justified in Christ, being cleansed through
the regeneration of the Spirit, renewed by the Holy Ghost, the
Gospel coming in power, grace reigning in the heart, when he
begins it, that's him too. That's him too. They're both
Him. He has a new heart. He's a new
creature in Christ Jesus, but that old nature hadn't went anywhere. And don't you ever get the idea
it's being reformed either. It's just as wicked as it ever
was. Paul said in Romans chapter 7,
when I would do good, evil is present with me. It's right there. It's right there. And beloved,
without a view of ourselves as sinners, we'd cease to repent,
wouldn't we? Sure we would. The minute that's
gone, man ceases to repent. And without a view of our holiness
and godliness in the Redeemer, we'd lose all hope. We'd have
nothing to turn to. Listen as this old converted
Pharisee speaks of himself. The Apostle Paul, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, that's
what the Scripture says here. So then, are you listening? With
the mind, that is the mind of Christ, the understanding of
my standing before God, Christ in you, the hope of glory, with
the mind, I serve the law of God. I serve it perfectly. Perfectly. I kept every precept
in motive, thought, and deed in my Savior. And with the mind
of Christ, I serve this law. I love this law. I'm justified
by this law. But with the flesh, the law of
sin. The law of sin. If the believer
only had one nature, he'd be all of one and none of the other,
wouldn't he? Huh? That's not how I live. That's not how I live. But he's
not, and therefore he's both sinner and saint. Now having
said that, let me close with this. That old nature don't reign. in him anymore. That nature is
still there. It's just as wicked as it ever
was. But grace has taken down the strong man. Christ has come
in and taken that strong man down and grace reigns in his
heart. It reigns in his heart. That
old nature, it don't reign over him. Listen to this, Romans 5.21,
the Scripture says that as sin hath reigned unto death, how
did it reign? It dominated your thoughts. It
dominated your philosophies. It dominated how you think. It
controlled your mind, controlled your heart, fed the appetites
of the flesh. As sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness." Whose righteousness?
The righteousness of Christ. Unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. Now, Paul said, as I read to
you a few moments ago, there is therefore. Based on that,
there is therefore. Now, no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus. who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. Our Father be pleased this morning
to give us an understanding of these things. To be able to see
ourselves as we are, to recognize this flesh in the
depth of its depravity, and yet at the same time to see ourselves
saved Saved by the sovereign free grace of Christ. Justified
in Him. Made righteous in Him. Given
a good hope through grace. Open our eyes to see these things
and cause our heart and our mouths to sing of Your glory. Preach
of Your glory in these things for Christ's sake. Amen.