In this Sabbath lesson from Israel Church of the Firstborn in Indianapolis, Brother Obadiah teaches on Jeremiah 17:10, I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways. The lesson is a call to self examination. God does not only see what a man does in front of people, He searches the heart and the mind, and He tries His servants as individuals and Israel as a nation to see what truly dwells within. From Paul's charge to examine yourself, to the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees, to Jeremiah, the wilderness, and the evil thoughts that proceed out of the heart, every passage is read in the King James Version.
Watch the full Sabbath lesson on YouTube.
1.Examine Yourself, Whether Ye Be in the Faith
Brother Obadiah opens with Paul writing to the Corinthians, warning that a person can sit right in the church and still be full of unrepented sin. Paul feared what he would find when he came to them.
2 Corinthians 12:20-21 KJV20For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:
21And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.
"I know it is some of you that is living the truth, but I know it is a lot of people that is around that is not living the truth, but they act like they living the truth. These people was in the church, they was hanging around in the church, but he said they had already sinned, and most importantly, they have not repented of the sins that they have already committed."
Before God examines a man, Paul says, the man must first examine himself.
2 Corinthians 13:5 KJV5Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
"Before God examine you, this is what you got to do with yourself. You got to examine yourself. Am I walking right? Am I practicing what I'm preaching? Am I loving the way that I supposed to? You got to examine yourself, because God going to examine you next. That is what makes the foundation of a strong Christian, when you are able to go before the Lord and prove that you are living exactly the way that Christ lived when he was on the earth."
2.Clean the Outside of the Cup
He turns to Matthew the twenty third chapter, where Jesus calls the scribes and the Pharisees hypocrites. They looked righteous to men on the outside, but within they were unclean.
St. Matthew 23:25-28 KJV25Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
28Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
"One thing man can clean the outside of the cup and make himself look like he's holy in front of the people. Come in class and tell everybody happy Sabbath, happy Sabbath, but inside you dirty. You can get away and hide from man, but you can't hide from the Lord. You got a whole lot of Christians walking around like that today, shaking and faking in the word of God. But guess what? The Lord know all of that. So you can't get away from him."
3.Judge Me, O Lord: Try My Reins and My Heart
The lesson then shows the other side of it, the servant who knows he is walking right and asks the Lord to search him. In Psalms the twenty sixth chapter, David invites the examination.
Psalms 26:1-2 KJV1Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide.
2Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.
"You already know you got to examine yourself, but what if you already on track, what if you know that you living right? He said, examine me, O Lord, and prove me, try my reins and my heart. I want you to look into my mind and see am I thinking dirty. I want you to look inside of me and see is there any uncleanness that lies within my body, and if so, I got to repent and get it out."
In Psalms the seventh chapter, read as Jesus speaking through the mouth of David, the same request is made before the judgment.
Psalms 7:8-9 KJV8The LORD shall judge the people: judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.
9Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.
"He said, judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness. That means you asking the Lord to try you. You telling the Lord that you doing right, so once you stand before him in judgment, you know you going to pass the mission. For the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins. I'mma see where you are, I'mma see where your mind is."
4.The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
In Jeremiah the seventeenth chapter, the lesson draws the line between the man who trusts in man and the man who trusts in the Lord, one a dry shrub in the desert, the other a tree planted by the waters.
Jeremiah 17:5-8 KJV5Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
6For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
7Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
8For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
"You got a lot of people, they trust in man, they wait on man to deliver them, but you ain't waiting on God to deliver you. That's what got Israel in trouble. But blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord. Once you hope in the Lord, you going to be like a tree planted by the waters. Once it get a little hot outside, you going to still keep on blooming and bringing forth fruit, because you got your trust in God."
Then comes the verse the lesson is named for, where the Lord says plainly what He does with every man.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 KJV9The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
10I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
"The heart is deceitful above all things. Don't listen to your mind all the time, your mind can get you in trouble with the Lord. We all know the old saying, the Lord know my heart. He does. The problem is, do you know your heart? He said, I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, to give every man according to his ways. If you have sowed righteousness, then God going to give you righteousness back. But I'mma search you out."
5.He Tried the Nation and Found It Lacking
Jeremiah himself was walking right while the whole nation was sinning. In the twelfth chapter he pleads with God over why the wicked prosper, and God answers that they honor Him with their mouths while their hearts are far off.
Jeremiah 12:1-3 KJV1Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?
2Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins.
3But thou, O LORD, knowest me: thou hast seen me, and tried mine heart toward thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
"Jeremiah knew he was walking right, but the nation wasn't walking right. He said, wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? You go down the street, you see all these big old mega churches prospering, but when you listen to the doctrine, everybody in there is lying. He said, thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins. They Jesus you to death, I love Jesus, but at the same time, that's not in their heart. But thou, O Lord, knowest me, and hast tried mine heart toward thee."
For preaching that word, Jeremiah was beaten and put in the stocks by Pashur, yet he could not hold the word in. Even in prison he confessed that the Lord tries the righteous.
Jeremiah 20:11-13 KJV11But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
12But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause.
13Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.
"They finally got their hands on Jeremiah and put him in the prison, all because he was telling them what thus saith the Lord, and nobody wanted to hear it. He said his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones. You can think that you can stop talking about it, but you not. But the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one. O Lord of hosts, that trieth the righteous, and seeth the reins and the heart."
6.Proved in the Wilderness
The lesson goes back to Deuteronomy the eighth chapter, where God says outright why He led Israel forty years through the wilderness. It was to humble them and to know what was in their heart.
Deuteronomy 8:2-3 KJV2And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
3And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
"He led us these forty years in the wilderness. We was three days journey from getting into the land, but the Lord made us walk for forty years, because he had to humble us. He had to prove whether we would keep the commandments or not. And guess what? God gonna do that also with you. He gonna see what's in your heart, whether you will keep his commandments or no."
When Israel lost faith and murmured, God sent fiery serpents among them, then told Moses to lift a serpent on a pole so that whoever looked would live.
Numbers 21:8-9 KJV8And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
9And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
"By this time Israel didn't have no faith at all, so the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people. The serpent had represented Israel's sin, because when you go back to Genesis, the serpent was the devil. But when they looked on the pole at the fiery serpent, everyone that looked upon it, they lived. Every time they looked at that serpent on the pole, they had realized the sin that they had did."
Generations later that same pole became an idol, and the lesson shows righteous king Hezekiah destroying it because Israel had begun to worship it.
2 Kings 18:3-6 KJV3And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father did.
4He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.
5He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.
6For he clave to the LORD, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses.
"Hezekiah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. He removed the high places, and he brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made, because Israel started to worship that thing, they started burning incense to that pole. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, and he clave to the Lord, and departed not from following him. That's how you know you living right with the Lord."
7.Out of the Heart Proceed Evil Thoughts
David charged Solomon to serve God with a perfect heart, because the Lord searches not only the heart but the imaginations of the thoughts.
1 Chronicles 28:9 KJV9And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.
"David told Solomon, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts. Even when you silent, he be in there saying, I see you, I see you. If thou seek him, he will be found of thee, but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off forever."
Isaiah calls the wicked to forsake not just his way but his thoughts, because the mind is the first place the enemy attacks.
Isaiah 55:7-9 KJV7Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
"Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, and that time is now. It's going to come a time you going to try to seek the Lord and you ain't going to be able to find him. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. You got to get your mind right, that's the first place where Satan is trying to get you, in your mind, in your heart."
In Mark the seventh chapter, Jesus exposes the Pharisees again, and teaches that defilement does not come from what enters a man but from what proceeds out of his heart.
St. Mark 7:6 KJV6He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
St. Mark 7:20-23 KJV20And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
21For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
22Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
23All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
"This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. We know people like that, they call on the name of the Lord, but he ain't in their heart. He said, that which cometh out of the man, that defiles you. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts. When you have evil thoughts, that's what defiles a man, and God is watching to see does this dwell in your heart."
8.The Temple of the Living God
Because the servant is the temple of God, the lesson closes its teaching in Second Corinthians the sixth chapter with the command not to be unequally yoked, and to come out and be separate.
2 Corinthians 6:14-18 KJV14Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
15And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
16And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
18And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. What communion hath light with darkness? How you going to call yourself an Israelite, keep the laws of Moses, but you sitting off in church on Sunday with the unbelievers? For ye are the temple of the living God. So if your thoughts and your reins are not right, then your temple is not clean. He said, come out from among them, and be ye separate."
And in Proverbs the twenty first chapter, the reminder that a man will always justify himself, but the Lord weighs the heart behind it.
Proverbs 21:2 KJV2Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.
"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes. You always got to be right, and that's the way every man think, ain't none of us exempt from that. But the Lord pondereth the hearts. That's what pondering mean, I'm pondering your heart, what's on your mind."
Closing Word
There is nowhere to hide from the One who searches the heart. David knew it, and the word of God itself is the discerner that finds it out.
Psalms 139:1-3 KJV1O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
2Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
3Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
Hebrews 4:12-13 KJV12For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
13Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
"O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. What you do in the dark gonna come to the light. The word of God is quick and powerful, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do."
Revelation 2:23 KJV23And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
Brother Obadiah closed on the words of the risen Christ to the churches, that the Lord searches the reins and the hearts and repays every man according to his works. The charge of the lesson is to examine yourself, keep your mind stayed on Him, and clean the inside of the cup, because God is already searching it out.
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This lesson was taught at our Sabbath service at Israel Church of the Firstborn in Indianapolis, IN. Join us every Saturday at 12PM, or watch the Sabbath live online.