Search Me O God and Know My Thoughts

By Pastor Nick Bibile

Jer 4:14 O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?

You think of God when you come to church, your thoughts are focused on heavenly thinks. How about when you are outside of the church?

The Hebrew word, vain is aven aw-ven'. This word has different meanings like, trouble, sorrow, idolatry, wickedness, iniquity and emptiness. The primary meaning has two facets: stress when you are troubled which moves to sin, then the other is emptiness which moves on to idolatry. This word is used eighty five times.

Here we God’s word to Judah, God is armed to punish Judah of her sins, God voice thunders through the prophet Jeremiah for Judah to repent of her sins. Judah was appeasing God of her external show of obedience but not from the heart. The Lord did not ask Judah to wash their hands or to cleanse their outward behavior but the washing of the hearts from sinfulness. Repentance is an inward feeling and not an outward show. Because man’s heart is deceitful above everything.

Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Joel 2:13 And rend your heart, and not your garments,

Hypocrites thinks that their outward performance to God will pacify God and God will forgive their sins, but the Prophet cries out, “How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?”

Jeremiah prophesied the coming judgment of God but Judah was in peace, false prophets were in abundance saying God will not judge, just like today we hear from the pulpits, false ministers crying out and saying God is love, peace but will not expose the sin of man, will not talk of the wrath of God, all what you hear is a sugar coated gospel. In the same way Jeremiah proclaiming the coming judgment of God but years go by no judgment of God and people too continuing to sin as they do not see the judgment of God. Jeremiah asking “How long?”

Sometimes God’s judgment will take a long time, during this time God sends his servants to the world, calling people to repent. What was the sin of Judah? Vain thoughts lodged in them. What are thoughts? Inward motions and acting of the soul. Thoughts that your mind desires. Thoughts are internal acts of the mind of man. All those reasononings, consultations, purposes, resolutions, intents, desires and cares of the mind. Sometimes the thoughts can be very sinful and wicked but external actions could be good to those observe and actions could be very deceiving. The hypocrites have very good performances outside but inside their thoughts are sinful. But God knows the works and the thoughts, both.

Isa 66:18 For I know their works and their thoughts.

Sometimes these thoughts will grow and the fruits of the thoughts are actions. These thoughts will manifest and breakout in action and this is called works.

Gen 6:5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Heart is the seat or the center of all affection and the fountain of all action. The heart sets the mind to work, heart will invent, plan and design the thoughts, we call them the thoughts of the heart. Mind is the intellect

What are vain thoughts? Vain thoughts are sinful thoughts. Let’s go more deeper and expose some of these vain sinful thoughts.

If you think you are a good person by nature that’s a vain thought. If you trust in your church for salvation, that’s a vain thought, if you trust in your opinions trust in yourself that’s a vain thought. If you trust in ritualism that’s a vain thought. If you think you can go to heaven by your good works that’s a vain thought. If you are prideful will not cry for mercy for your sins, will not fall at the feet of Jesus of our sins, those are vain thoughts, If the word of God convicts you of sin and you compromise, that’s a vain thought.

The heart is like a home with many rooms. There are guests who will come to this home and lodge in different rooms, guests of different kinds and they will entertain in these rooms. When you are getting fed from this world and your hearts kept open for the world, have an open direct access to your heart and if you cheerfully welcome these fun loving, pleasurable, lovable daintiest pleasures and they lodge and harbors in your heart. They will defile those rooms in your hearts.

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with

all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy

strength:” hence outward actions are not enough. This is too hard a

demand; and as for repentance and faith, the ungodly cannot enter upon

such spiritual duties for they have no mind to them. The carnal mind hates

the mention of spiritual things.

This, I take it, while it makes the Christian religion so solemn, throws us

back upon one of its great first principles-that salvation must be of grace;

because if it be necessary that my heart must be changed, can I change it? I

am bidden to do so. I am told in such a text as this to wash my heart from

wickedness. But how can I do it? Shall a fountain purge itself? It has sent

forth bitter waters, bitter as Marah; can it of itself do the reverse? “Can the

Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” That would be a very

simple business, for skin and spots are outside things; but how shall a man

change his heart-his very nature? Do you expect the crab tree to change

itself into a sweet apple-bearing tree? Will you go and talk-to come back to

the former metaphor-to the waters of Marah and expect them to change

themselves into the sweet wells of Elim? No; this is the finger of God. If

ever this is done God must interfere. It is a rule that nature can only rise as

high as nature. Put water where you please, it will rise up to where it

started from; but, except under pressure, it will rise no higher; and you

shall not find man rising above his fallen and depraved nature. “The carnal

mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither

indeed can be.” Out of the grave there comes not life. Out of an unclean

thing there comes not a clean thing. We must be born from above if ever

we are born aright. We must be new created by the Creator himself, and

become new creatures in Christ Jesus, or else up to the mark which God’s

law requires we can never come. “Wash thine heart.” Oh, God, how can I

wash my heart? Though I take to myself snow water, and make myself

seem outwardly never so clean, yet what have I done with my heart? Thou

biddest me drive out my thoughts; but, O my God, my thoughts often come

against my will, and sometimes with my will, and I am tossed about by

them as a poor sea shell by the restless waves of the sea. They compass me

about like bees; yea, they compass me about, these vain thoughts of mine,

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like bees which sting my good desires to death.