Questions About God

Mark Dever

A thought from Mark Dever:

Questions of who God is and of what He is like can never be considered irrelevant to the practical matters of church life. Different understandings of God will lead you to worship Him in different ways, and if some of those understandings are wrong, some of those ways in which you approach Him could be wrong as well.

God’s Window Into The Heart

Thomas Watson

What one may call the “secret sins of the heart” are really no secret at all. God is always aware and easily sees into the heart of a man. Thomas Watson (1620 – 1686) explains below:

“But all Things are naked and open unto the Eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Hebrews 4:13)

‘What manner of persons ought we to be,’ 2 Peter 3.11. Hath God a window that opens into our hearts? Doth he make a critical descant upon our actions? Oh what holiness, what sincerity, what exemplary piety becomes us, being in such a presence! Were we to come before some great monarch, what solemn preparations would we make? Shall the eye of a king do so much, and not the eye of God? The king can only see the outside; there may be a treason within for ought he knows: but God hath a key for the heart, Jer. 17.10. ‘I the Lord search the heart;’ and will not this command reverence? In these days of solemn humiliation, God’s eye is principally upon the heart. God looks there most, where we look least; some have no heart at all; sin hath stolen away their heart; others have an heart too much, ‘An heart and an heart,’ Psalm 12.2. Others have hearts good for nothing, earthly hearts, like ‘Saul that was hid among the stuff,’ 1 Sam. 10.22. Some have angels’ tongues, but, as Nebuchadnezzar he had the heart of a beast given to him. Brethren, did our hearts stand where our faces do, this would be a day of blushing, we should be ashamed to look one upon another; remember, God hath a key for the heart.

When we come to these solemn duties, God asks that question, as Jehu did Jehonadab, 2 Kings 10.15. He saluted him, and said to him, ‘Is thy heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?’ and he said, ‘It is. If it be, give me thy hand: and he took him up into the chariot.’

This is God’s question. You come this day to humble yourselves and make atonement, ‘Is your heart right with me?’ If we can answer as he did, Lord, thou knowest it is; though I have much weakness, yet my heart is right, I have no false bias upon it; though I am not perfect, I hope I am sincere; then will God say, Give me your prayers, give me your tears, now ‘come up with me into the chariot.’ A tear from a bleeding heart is a precious perfume in heaven. Oh did we consider this all-seeing eye, we durst not bring so much strange fire into the Divine presence. We read of Ezekiel’s wheels, they had a wheel within a wheel. Thus God hath a thought within a thought: he comes between us and our thoughts.

The goddess Minerva, as the Poets feign, was drawn in such lively colors, that which way so ever one turned, still Minerva’s eye was upon him. Thus, turn which way you will, fall in love with any sin, still God looks upon you: he hath an eye in your heart. What manner of persons ought we to be?