A HEART BEING ESTABLISH BLAMESS IN HOLINESS

                                A HEART ESTABLISHED BLAMELESS IN HOLINESS

Scripture Reading: 1 Thes. 3:13 ; 4:3-8 ; Heb. 12:14 ; Rom. 12:1-2 ; Eph. 3:17-19 ; Mark 12:30 ; Phil. 2:5

Now we are ready to see what it means for our heart to be established blameless in holiness. Not only should our heart turn to God and be pure, but it also needs the element of holiness added to it. To be holy is to be separated unto God and fully occupied by Him and saturated with Him. For our heart to be holy means that it is separated unto Him, occupied by Him, possessed by Him, and saturated with Him.

Once again we may use the illustration of making tea. Suppose you have a cup of plain water. This water does not contain any tea. But when the element of tea is added to the water, the water is tea-ified. The water is separated unto the tea, it is possessed and occupied by the tea, and it is even saturated with the tea. As a result, it becomes tea-ified water. After the water has been fully tea-ified, it is in a state of tea-ification, a state of having been tea-ified. This illustrates what it means for our heart to be established blameless in holiness.

One version of 3:13 says “in the state of being holy.” The word holiness indicates a state; it does not indicate a process. A process would be indicated by the word sanctification. When we were away from the Lord, our heart also was turned away from Him. Instead of being occupied by the Lord, our heart was occupied by many other things. Furthermore, our heart certainly was not saturated with the Lord. Thus, our heart was away from the Lord, it was not occupied by the Lord, and it was not saturated with the Lord. However, we can praise the Lord that, through His mercy and grace, we are now on the way to being separated fully unto the Lord, to being occupied wholly by Him, and to being saturated thoroughly with Him. When this process has been completed, our heart will be in the state of being holy, in the state of holiness.

For our heart to be established blameless in holiness includes much more than simply for our heart to turn to the Lord and to be pure toward the Lord. This is to have our turned and pure heart separated unto the Lord, occupied by the Lord, and saturated with the Lord. Such a heart not only has turned to the Lord but it also has a pure motive. It is separated unto Him, fully occupied by Him, and thoroughly saturated with Him. It is here in such a state that our heart will be established. Once our heart has been established, it will be set, and it will be no longer movable or changeable.

Furthermore, when our heart is in such a condition, it will become blameless.

To be blameless is not the same as to be perfect. When something is perfect, it is without blemish or defect. This goes beyond blamelessness. In other words, to be without blame is not as good as to be without blemish. In 3:13 Paul does not require perfection. Rather, he requires only that our heart be blameless. The way for our heart to be blameless is for it to be established by the Lord. If our heart is established by Him, we shall be those whose heart has been separated unto the Lord, occupied by Him, and saturated with Him. Then our heart will be set, established, built up, in holiness.

                                                            OUR ACTING AGENT

In the foregoing message we pointed out that our heart is our acting representative. Now I would like to make this matter a little more clear. Perhaps the term “acting agent” is better than representative. Every one of us is a being, a human being. The word “being” is a modern expression. The biblical term for a human being is “soul.” This means that each one of us is a soul. The soul, as a being, has two organs: the inward organ, the spirit, and the outward organ, the body. We contact the physical world through the five senses of our body. Likewise, through the spirit, an organ which has senses of its own, we contact God.

Whether or not we are able to contact a certain thing depends upon the organ we use. For example, if you close your eyes, you will not be able to see anything. However, you cannot use your eyes to substantiate sound. For this, you must use your ears. Because atheists do not exercise their spirit, they say there is no God. We cannot substantiate God unless we use our spirit. John 4:24 tells us that God is Spirit and that those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit. If we exercise our spirit, we shall immediately sense that there truly is a God. Deep within, an atheist may say to himself, “Suppose there is a God after all—what will you do?” With the mouth an atheist may say that there is no God, but in the depths of his being, in his spirit, he may sense that there is a God.

                                                   ACTIVE IN HEART

Our soul must act. When our soul, our being, acts, that is the heart. But when we keep ourselves at a standstill, this means that our heart does not act.

We all have two hearts: a physical heart and a psychological heart. We know where our physical heart is located, but we do not know the location of our psychological heart. The actions or activities of our physical body depend on the beating of our physical heart. According to medical doctors, the death of the physical body takes place when the heart stops beating. A person who does not have any pulse is dead, for his heart has stopped beating. The point of this illustration is that the death of the body takes place when the heart stops beating. This is also true of the psychological heart.

Both our physical heart and our psychological heart have arteries. The main arteries of the psychological heart are the mind, emotion, and will. Heart attacks are often due to the blockage of the arteries. Recently I read that doctors who examined the bodies of young men who died in the Vietnam War discovered that in many cases their arteries were blocked even though they were quite young. Realizing the danger of blocked arteries, many watch their diet and are careful to exercise in order to cleanse their blood vessels. The problem of the physical heart is an illustration of the problem of the psychological heart. Today there are millions of Christians. But how many of these Christians are truly living? Most of them are not living. The reason they are not living is that the arteries of their psychological heart have been blocked. This blockage has caused them to die spiritually.

We all need to ask ourselves if we are spiritually healthy. To be healthy physically we need a strong heart. We also need a strong heart if we are to be spiritually healthy. All spiritual diseases are of the psychological heart. Our psychological heart may be wrong in different ways. We may be wrong in our thinking, in our loving or hating, or in the way we use our will.

If our psychological heart is healthy, it will be very active in thinking, loving, hating, and deciding. Our heart is our acting agent. This means that if we are active, our heart will be active in mind, emotion, and will. However, if a person is not active in his heart, we may wonder if he is spiritually alive. If he is alive, why is there no activity in his heart? Why does his heart not function in a normal way, since it is his acting agent?

I can testify that, even though I am elderly, I am very active in my heart. I am full of thought, feeling, and intention. My entire being—spirit, soul, and body—is active. However, the agent of this activity is not the spirit, the soul, or the body; the acting agent is the heart with the three main arteries of mind, emotion, and will.