“whatever prayer, whatever
supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one
knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this
temple: then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give
to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know
the hearts of all the sons of men)”
It does not say “because” each one knows the plague of his
own heart, it says “when” each one knows.
There is such a difference. It is
not the lack of a plague in each person’s heart, it is a lack of recognition,
of acknowledgement.
How many people have you shared the Gospel with that are
convinced they are a good person and therefore have no need for a savior? Indeed these people may be relatively more
kind than those who claim to know Jesus.
But their heart deceives them. Jesus
told us that “God did not send His Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be
saved. He who believes in Him is not
condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:17-18) Everyone is already condemned, and without
Jesus, there is no hope of salvation. In
speaking of the work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of
righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of
righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment,
because the ruler of this world is judged.” (John 16:8-11) For these folks, the plague of their heart is
that they have rejected Christ, they have rejected conviction by the Holy
Spirit. Bible.org notes “The
unpardonable sin is the sin of rejection. The unpardonable sin is defined as
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, because when Christ was on earth, the
religious leaders were attributing his miracles to demonic powers when in fact
they were the product of the Holy Spirit working in the life of Christ (Matt.
12:12-32). This demonstrated a heart that had become so hard that it precluded
repentance because Christ’s words and works were a clear evidence of the
ministry of the Holy Spirit in Him as the Anointed One, the Messiah of the Old
Testament. To reject Christ and claim His works were from Satan was a clear
evidence of both unbelief and an unrepentant heart. That’s why it was
considered unpardonable.” Rejection of
Jesus Christ is a plague of the heart.
Yet there are times when born-again Christians can be
awakened to a plague of their heart, of sins other than the rejection of Christ. Look at how the priests in 1 Kings 8:10-12
could not continue their ministry and had to leave the house of the LORD when
His presence entered. David Guzik stated
“We know that God is good and that God is love; why should an intense presence
of goodness and love make the priests feel they could not continue? Because God
is not only goodness and love, He is also holy - and the holiness of God made
the priests feel that they could no longer stand in His presence. The intense sense of the presence of our holy
God is not a "warm and fuzzy" feeling. Men like Peter, Isaiah, and
John felt stricken in the presence of God. This was not because God forced an
uncomfortable feeling upon them, but because they simply could not be
comfortable sensing the difference between their sinfulness and the holiness of
God.”
Isaiah, a prophet that spoke the words of God, upon seeing
the Lord sitting upon a throne, said “Woe
is me, for I am undone! Because I am a
man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for
my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:5)
Peter, upon meeting Jesus for the first time when Jesus
miraculously filled their boats with fish, said “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5:8)
The Apostle John, as Jesus revealed Himself with hair and
head white as wool, eyes like a flame of fire, feet like fine brass, voice as
the sound of many waters, a sharp two-edged sword out of His mouth and His
countenance was like the sun shining in its strength, when John saw Him, “fell at His feet as dead.” (Revelation
1:17)
Brothers and sisters, even those of us who have surrendered
to Christ, seek to serve Him, and love Him for His endless grace, we still have
yet to truly comprehend His holiness. It
is humbling.
If you have shared the complete Gospel with your friends and
they continue to reject Christ, then pray for them. Pray that Christ will reveal Himself to them. Pray that they will see His holiness which in
turn will reveal their sinfulness. Pray
that such a time will be “when” they know the plague of their own heart. God is so good. When they know and ask, God will hear in
heaven, and forgive them, and act.
Because He knows their heart, and then they will as well.
May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.
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