The Heart of Man !

THE HEART OF MAN : "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation ."(Romans 10:10) "For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith." (Mark 11:23). Both of these preceding verses speak of believing with the heart. Notice the expressions, "For with the heart man believeth" and "shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe." For years I easily search for a satisfactory explanation of what it means to believe "with the heart." You must understand of course, that the word "heart" as used in the Scriptures does not refer to the physical organ which pumps blood through the body and keeps the body alive. The word "heart" here cannot refer to that human physical organ, for if it did, these verses would indicate that you could believe with your body. And you could know more believe God with your physical hard you could believe Him with your physical hand or finger. The word "heart" is used here to convey a thought. Consider how we use "heart" today. When we talk about the heart of a tree, what do we mean ? We mean the center, the very core. When we talk about the heart of a subject, what do we mean ? We mean the most important part of that subject, the center of it, the main part around which the rest revolves. And when God speaks of the human heart, He is speaking about the main part of mankind; the very center of man's being--- the spirit. You do understand that we are all spirit. MAN IS A SPIRIT : (1 Thessalonians 5:23) "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." The terms "spirit of man" and "heart of man" are used interchangeably throughout the Bible. We know that man is a spirit because he is made in the image and likeness of God, and Jesus said, "God is a Spirit" (John 4:24). It is not in our physical bodies that we are like God, for the Bible says that God is not a man. Paul said in his letter to the Romans, "for he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that OF THE HEART, IN THE SPIRIT, and not in the letter; here he is referring to the law whose praise is not of men, but of God; (Romans 2:28--29). According to this verse, the heart is the spirit. Speaking to Nicodemus, Jesus said, "you must be born again" (John 3:7). Nicodemus, being human with the nature of the first Adam, could only think only in the natural, and therefore he asked, "how can a man be born when he is old ? Can he enter the second time in two his mother's womb, and be born ?" (v. 4). Maybe some of you think that because you belong to some denomination you are born again or that you are saved ! Jesus replied, "that which is born of flesh of the first Adam is flesh; And That Which Is Born of the Spirit of the nature of God is spirit" (v. 6). The new birth is a rebirth of the human spirit. "