Justification (Part IV)

Man’s Heart – Between God and Satan

By Odon Bulamba

So what makes man sin?

Mk 7:21-23 For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.

The Bible says from the inside of man’s heart comes bad thoughts. Those bad thoughts push man to act immorally. In short it pushes man to live a wrong life; to be proud and insensitive and so on. Everything that’s bad comes from inside, this is what Jesus said. It’s not what we see around us that makes us impure but impurity comes from inside our hearts and we are responsible to control our heart. It’s up to us to decide weather we want to control our heart or not.

The devil doesn’t have the power to live in you if you don’t give him the opportunity and Jesus Christ doesn’t have the right to come and live in your life if you don’t want Him to. It’s up to you to allow whether or not you want Jesus Christ to come into your life.

We can see this bird the peacock; it’s a famous bird, because it’s beautiful and it’s very pretty. Everybody will agree it’s a pretty bird. This bird is slim and short, but when this bird understands that people are there and visit them, they want also to prove to man they can be fat and big. You’ll see that the male will open its tail to attract the female to show them, I am here. It’s a bird full of pride.

In a Christian’s life the very first thing that fights his life is pride. Pride started from the beginning. In the beginning everything was perfect. The devil came and fought with pride, Isaiah 40 or Ezekiel 28 you’ll see that, you’ll see pride was the very first sin that came. God put the devil aside because of this pride. Every Christian today is attacked by pride. Each Christian wants to be seen by everyone. When pride comes it never forgets its little brother arrogance, because they walk together.

As you know the peacock, some have golden colour and others are blue and green and so on. When they open their tail you can see how beautiful it is. People will look at the tail more than the animal itself. Why is that? Because all the attention is focused on the tail.

Many Christians today will attract people by the way they are dressed for instance. Maybe it’s from their culture, maybe it’s from their knowledge but the Christian actions and deeds are never seen. People might say Shari, she has a beautiful dress, but they’ll never say Shari has good deeds. Really, Paul has a nice voice to sing but they’ll never testify that Paul has this or that that represents Christian virtues. Because everything we show man is what he receives and they’ll judge us. How many people like your life? How many people are proud of your Christian life?

So remember 2 or 3 years ago we talked about those women in Isaiah 3. It’s written there how those women were dressed. They looked after their bodies; they would wear lots of makeup to the point they would forget Gods will.

Maybe we can read it again. Isaiah 3: 16-24. The Lord says, “The women of Zion are haughty walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, tripping along with mincing steps, with ornaments jingling on their ankles. Therefore the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion; the Lord will make their scalps bald. In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery, the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces, the earrings and bracelets and veils and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms, the signet rings and nose rings, the fine robes and the capes and cloaks, the purses and mirrors, and the linen garments and tiaras and shawls. Instead of fragrance there will be a stench: instead of a sash, a rope; instead of well-dressed hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding.

We’ll stop now and you’ll meditate on this verse and you’ll know what features has this bird. One more time, remember your heart doesn’t belong to you. Remember your life doesn’t belong to you. So look after your heart and your life because one day you’ll be accountable to God. The best thing that will help you is the Word of God. Don’t just read it but practice it. If you practice the Word of God you’ll practice justice. By practicing the word of God you’ll love your neighbour and you’ll be called a child of God. So justification will help us to know whether we are a child of God or not.

We’ll stop there and we’ll pray. Our prayer tonight will be for God to help us to have a pure heart. Also for God to help you to know that his eye is there and controls our life. Help me to remember every minute you are there so I will not fall into sin. Let’s Pray.