Spiritual Enigmas: Puzzling Mysteries of the Human Heart - DJ Dickerson

As I mentioned on this in this morning's

lesson

that we are going to be talking about

spiritual enigmas. Spiritual enigmas

and

that is puzzling mysteries of the human

heart.

And

several years ago, uh you may have been

to one of these, I don't know, but a

museum installed what they called a

truth mirror.

uh true mirror or nonreversing

mirror th those are featured in venues

like the museum of illusions uh that

shows a nonreversed 3D image of yourself

revealing your um face

as others see it rather than the mirror

image you are used too.

It often highlights

uh a symmetry, skin textures, wrinkles,

providing an often shocking true

reflection.

Now at first glance it it looks like an

ordinary mirror but again it has been

engineered in such a manner in such a

way that it reveals every detail of the

face with unusual clarity.

It does not soften imperfections or hide

blemishes.

Instead, it exposes every wrinkle, every

scar, every flaw. Who wants one of those

mirrors in their house? Yeah, I know,

right? Uh reportedly people people who

looked into it had very different

reactions. Uh some laughed nervously. Uh

some quickly turned away. Some refused

to look into it at all. The question is

why? Why?

Because as human beings,

we naturally prefer a flattering

reflection over an honest one. Isn't

that true?

Well, we know it's true. Now,

spiritually speaking, many people want

mirrors that show them looking better

than they really are. Uh they prefer

reflections that assure reassure rather

than comfort. And the word of God is not

that kind of mirror.

Uh the word of God is a truth mirror.

That's a truth mirror. The scriptures

are what James in James 1:es 21-2

describes as the perfect mirror of the

soul. Look at James 1 and verse 21 down

through verse 25. I want you to read

that with me. Therefore, lay aside all

filthiness and overflow of wickedness,

and receive with meekness the implanted

word, which is able to save your souls.

But be doers of the word, and not

hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For

if anyone is a hearer of the word, and

not a doer, he is like a man, observing

his natural face in a mirror. For he

observes himself, goes away, and

immedately forgets

what kind of man he was. But he who

looks into the perfect law of liberty

and continues in it and is not a

forgetful hearer, but a doer of the

work, this one will bless in what he

does. What we're seeing there is God's

word does not flatter us. It reveals us.

And this evening, we are going to allow

the scriptures to do exactly that for a

moment. We're going to hold up that

mirror. Okay? Uh we are going to

consider several spiritual enigmas. And

again what that means when you if you

ever heard that word before enigmas is

puzzling contradictions that exist in

human behavior.

These are questions that actually expose

the condition of the heart. These are

puzzling mysteries of the human heart.

And so we're going to look at several

questions. I had a lot more that I was

going to work off of but because of time

limit uh this will at least get our mind

stimulated and thinking in this

direction. Uh but I will submit to you

that the questions that we are going to

be considering briefly together this

evening these are not mysteries of

logic. Uh they are mysteries really of

priority, devotion and again the human

heart. So this evening, let's look at

the first spiritual enigma in the light

of God's word. And that is the enigma of

seeing others faults but not our own.

That's a big one, right? Why is it

easier

to see others mistakes but difficult to

see our own? Have you ever really

thought about that question? And really

I would submit to you that the reason I

put this one as number one is because

this is uh really the one of the most

common and destructive tendencies of

human nature for that matter. Jesus

addressed this obviously uh Matthew

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7 is one of the places you'll

find this in Matthew 7. And you'll

notice there in verses 3-5 Jesus of

course right in verse one he said judge

not lest you also be judged. Right? Uh

and he goes on from there but look at

verse three. Why do you look at the

speck in your brother's eye, but do not

consider the plank in your own eye? Or

how can you say to your brother, "Let me

remove the speck from your eye, and

look, a plank is in your own eye."

Hypocrite, first remove the plank from

your own eye, and then you will see

clearly to remove the speck from your

brother's eye.

This is that imagery that Jesus uses

that's really quite striking. uh when

you see the words a speck, a plank, and

again we we notice that there's

significant differences in those uh

you're talking about one that is tiny

versus one that is what? Ginormous might

use that word. Okay, massive. Yet the

person Jesus describes is focused

entirely on what? On the tiny speck in

someone else's eye while ignoring the

enormous beam in their own eye.

Now again we have to make a a note here

that Jesus is not condemning righteous

judgment right we can make judgment but

it's got to be according to his

standards got to be righteous judgment

because what he does later on in this

same passage excuse me Jesus is teaching

about discernment

what he's doing is he is condemning

hypocrisy

That's the tendency that we have

to scrutinize others while excusing

ourselves.

Look what Paul said in Romans 2.

Romans chapter 2.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

Therefore, you are inexcusable, oh man,

whoever you are who judge. For in

whatever you judge another, you condemn

yourself. for you who judge practice the

same

things.

Paul is pointing out something profound.

When we con when we condemn certain sins

and others,

we ought to reveal the very standards by

which we ourselves should be judged.

Jesus talked about the measure which you

use, right?

I'm going to illustrate this for a

moment. Imagine a a man cons uh

criticizing another person's house for

being messy while standing in his own

living room surrounded by clutter.

Yeah. He points out, you know, dust on

someone else's furniture

while ignoring the dirt beneath his own

feet. See, that sounds silly, doesn't

it? Sounds absolutely absurd. Like, who

would do that? Well, spiritually that's

exactly what happens when we become

experts at identifying other sins but

remain blind to our own weaknesses.

Because really, isn't it far easier to

point outward than to look inward? We

know that's true.

Yet, the Bible repeatedly calls us to

something called self-examination.

Paul said this in 2 Corinthians 13:5.

2 Corinthians 13:5

Look at this. 2 Corinthians 13:5.

2 Corinthians 13:5

Examine yourselves. He says, as to

whether you are in the faith, test

yourselves.

Do you not know yourselves that Jesus

Christ is in you unless indeed you are

disqualified?

That is not always comfortable.

But what the scriptures is saying, it's

not about whether it's comfortable or

not. It's about it being necessary.

Because before we correct others, before

we criticize others, before we judge,

we must f first ask ourselves, is there

a plank in my own eye?

We got to ask that question. Again,

that's a that's a spiritual enigma right

here, right out of the right out of the

box

of pointing out

others, seeing others faults but not our

own.

Let's get to the second one. Kind of

goes hand in hand with the first one

because if we see other people's faults,

you know what we're going to be able to

do? I can solve their problems.

I can solve theirs. That's the next

enigma. the enigma of solving others

problems but not our own. Well,

let's ask the question, why is it so

easy to solve other people's problems

but difficult to solve our own?

Have we not found

that it is remarkably

easy to give advice?

Oh yeah, I can give advice.

We can quickly diagnose the issues of in

someone else's life. I mean, we can do

that. We can identify what they need to

change.

We're pretty quick. We can outline the

steps that they need to take.

But when the mirror starts coming back

on us

and we encounter similar struggles

ourselves,

things suddenly become

complicated.

That's the word that sometimes is used.

Well, you don't understand. I'm I'm a

lot more complicated than

Well, hold on.

But why is that? Because we are

emotionally invested in our own

circumstances. You know that when it's

your circumstances versus my

circumstances, it has to do with

emotional investment.

And when I say that,

let's talk about pride for a moment.

Let's talk about fear. Let's talk about

personal bias. You know what that does?

That often clouds our judgment.

Y'all see how that how that happens?

But the scriptures call us to begin with

something called personal

accountability. Galatians chapter 6 and

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

verses 3 and 4. I direct your attention

to Galatians 6:es 3 and 4. Paul makes

this statement here. For if anyone

thinks himself to be something when he

is nothing, he deceives himself. But let

each one examine his own work, and then

he will have rejoicing in himself alone

and not in another. Did you notice the

emphasis that's there? Not examine

someone else's work. He's he's first

saying what we need to do. We need to

examine our own. Examine our own. Even

Philippians chapter 2 and verse 12 talks

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

about this inward focus obviously as

well. Therefore, my beloved, as you have

always obeyed, not as my presence only,

but now much more in my absence, work

out your own salvation with fear and

trembling.

Again, we we're putting this mirror back

here upon ourselves first and foremost

because every soul must face God

individually. No one will stand before

the judgment seat and answer for someone

else's life in the sense that we, you

know, we're we're trying to fix all

their problems. You know, we're not

we're completely ignoring our own.

Paul reminds Timothy in 1 Timothy 4 and

16 this very thought. Take heed to

yourself and to the doctrine. Who is

who's first in this?

Ourselves. Take heed to yourself and

into the doctrine. Continue in them for

in doing this you will both you will say

both yourself and those who hear you.

You know I always think about this

with someone

uh you know spectators at a football

game for that matter is always a pretty

good one. Uh from the stands every

everything appears simple.

right? Uh or maybe from the recliner in

in our living room. Everything really

looks simple, doesn't it? It might be

snacking on some snacks and eating some

pizza, whatever. Um and then there might

be some instructions we're going to give

to the players. Throw the ball, run

faster, right? Make the tackle. We're

spitting food all over the place while

we're doing it.

But as spectators, we're not on the

field. I mean, we're not. And what I

what I'm what I'm gathering here, what I

want us to kind of think about in this,

we're not feeling the fatigue

that the players may be feeling.

We may not be facing the pressure that

they're facing in that particular

moment.

We're not making the split-second

decisions.

So, yeah, it's much easier to coach from

the stance than to perform on the field.

Wouldn't you agree?

Absolutely.

Spiritually speaking, many people become

spectators in the lives of others while

neglecting their own spiritual

development. Friends, I want to make an

important clarification just just so

we're clear. The Bible does not teach

that we should ignore the struggles of

others or refuse to help our brethren.

That that's I want to make sure we're

clear on that because yes, even before

verses 3 and four of Galatians chapter

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

6, what did Paul say? Verse one and two.

Brethren, if a man is overtaken and he

trespass, you who are spiritual, restore

such a one in a spirit of gentleness,

considering yourself, lest you also be

tempted, bear one another's burdens, and

so fulfill the law of Christ. You see,

the scriptures

are calling Christians to restore, to

encourage, and strengthen one another.

The church is a family, and families

help one another grow.

But there is a danger that can quietly

creep into our hearts. Sometimes people

become what might be called fruit

inspectors.

They spend all their time examining the

fruit on someone on everyone else's tree

but not their own. That's dangerous.

They analyze everyone else's conduct.

They evaluate everyone else's

spirituality. They critique everyone

else's progress.

Yet all the while they neglect the

condition of their own soul.

You notice the order from the scriptures

we have considered in just the first

point two points of the lesson. What

what what did we just see?

Self-examination first, helping others

next. That's it.

Because you imagine a vineyard owner who

who walks through rows of vines every

single day criticizing the fruit on

every plant around him.

He points out the blemishes here. He

complains about the size of the grapes.

He analyzes the quality of the harvest.

But meanwhile, the the vines in his own

section of the vineyard are drying up

because he's neglected to water them.

Eventually, the vineyard suffers not

because he was inspecting others, but

because he failed to tend to his own

vines.

That same principle applies spiritually.

Christians should absolutely encourage

and they should absolutely restore one

another. Absolutely. The Bible makes

that clear. But we must never allow

ourselves to become so focused on

inspecting the fruit of others that we

neglect cultivating our own spiritual

life.

Because the Christian life requires both

self-examination

and brotherly encouragement.

But as we've noted in these two points

already, the order matters. The order in

which we do matters greatly.

We must tend our own vineyard

so that we when we help others, we do so

with the right attitude, with humility

and gentleness and sincerity. And that

leads me to another mystery that I must

go on to that again goes back to

priorities exposes priorities here and

that is the enigma of time for

everything except God.

Let's ask that question. Why is it so

easy to find recreation time for

recreation, entertainment, and social

activities, but difficult

for things related to God, worship,

study?

Most people try to explain it this way.

I just don't have time.

I mean, I I've heard that I just don't

have time.

But may I submit to you that time is

rarely the real problem.

The real issue comes down to priority.

Jesus addressed this directly in Matthew

6 and verse 33 when he said, "But seek

first the kingdom of God and his

righteousness, and all these things

shall be added to you."

Y'all notice the word first.

God does not ask for leftovers. He asks

for priority. And our schedules

often reveal what truly matters to us.

Jesus also said in Matthew 6 and verse

21, for where your treasure is, there

your heart will be also. In other words,

our heart always follows what we value.

Isn't that what Jesus is making clear in

verse 21 of Matthew chapter 6?

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Speaking of sporting events, I'll use

that one as another example here. I

mean, u when I think about major

sporting events, fans will plan their

entire week around the game. You ever

you ever known folks that just they'll

drive hundreds of miles and I mean spend

large amounts of money. It don't even

matter what the weather's like, right?

They don't care if it's piled up with

snow on top of their head. You know

what? They're going to be sitting there.

It's the craziest thing sometimes, but

they will do it. But rarely do they say,

"I I I I simply don't have time."

See that that's the farthest thing from

from the mindset.

What's the why why is that such an

enigma here? It is puzzling to a sense,

isn't it? Because they want to be there.

See, that's that's that's the word.

That's the operative word. They want to

be there. But here's the truth. Time

follows desire.

If worship, Bible study, service, and

you can fill in the blank, whatever. If

such feels inconvenient, the issue may

not be the clock, it may be the heart.

What do you think about that?

And the same principle reveals itself in

another spiritual enigma that I'll go on

to which goes right into the same point

that we're talking about is the enigma

of reading everything except the Bible.

Why can we spend hours reading news

articles, magazines, social media posts?

That's called scroll, scroll, scroll,

scroll some more, but struggle to read

the Bible.

Paul exhorted Timothy in 1 Timothy 4 and

verse 13. He says, "Till I come, give

attention to reading, to exhortation, to

doctrine."

You'll notice a phrase. I want to put

this in the box. I've been kind of using

the box lately. I kind of like that how

it does that. Give attention.

Give attention. Do you know what that

suggests? That suggests intentional

focus. That's what he's telling Timothy.

Intentional focus. Because I I'll tell

you,

scripture reading requires

deliberate effort. It requires it.

We used a verse this morning as well in

2 Timothy 2:15. I quoted

2 Timothy 2:15

uh again King James version. You'll see

study to show yourself approved. Here in

the New King James Version says, "Be

diligent to present yourself a proof to

God,

a worker who does not need to be

ashamed, rightly dividing the word of

truth."

Diligence means what? Effort.

It means discipline. It means

intentional study.

And and why should we do that? Why is

that so important? Because again, if you

go to chapter 3 16 and 17, what does

these scriptures do for us? It says,

"All scripture is given by inspiration

of God and is probably for doctrine, for

reprove, for correction, for

instruction, and righteousness, that the

man of God may be complete, thoroughly

equipped for every good work."

What it's saying is here is our

instructions, here's our guidance,

here's all the pieces. We talked about

the puzzle just last Sunday, right? And

it said, "Here's your equipment. Your

equip what equips you for life. It

teaches us truth. It exposes error. It

corrects our course. What do we say at

the very beginning? It's the mirror.

It's the mirror.

Again, it goes back. I just don't have

time.

But I have time to read everything else

in the world.

And all those things don't do nothing.

what this does, the Bible,

it's it's like if you if you imagine

receiving a letter from someone you

deeply love who lives far away,

uh would you ignore it?

Of course not.

You would read every word and you might

read it repeatedly. You would uh

treasure it because of who sent it. Yet

every day we have access to the words of

the creator of the universe, the creator

of ourselves, who we are fearfully and

wonderfully made as the psalmist says.

And and sometimes those words remain

unopened

and beautiful words that again shows us

the value of our souls, the value of who

we are, who's we are. And if we truly

value God's voice, we will desire to

hear it daily.

Well, speaking of reading, the other

enigma that goes again right on in this

is the enigma of talking about

everything except Christ.

I mean, consider the question, why can

we talk freely about politics, sports,

current events, and you again fill in

the blank of whatever is going on in the

world, but we struggle to speak about

Christ.

Again, it goes back to the reasons that

we may have. Well, it could be fear, and

that could go into a bunch of different

categories like fear of rejection, fear

of being criticized, fear of being

labeled extreme. Uh yet, Christians have

been given a divine purpose. And we know

this from the scriptures. I don't think

I'm telling anything new. 1 Peter 2 and

verse 9, we're we're told that

Christians, we are you are a chosen

generation, a royal priesthood, a holy

nation, his own special people, that you

may do what?

Proclaim the praises of him who called

you out of darkness into his marvelous

light. That's us

and that's us.

He say our lives are meant to declare

God's greatness.

In our men's Bible class, we were

talking about the power of God's word,

the zeal and and thinking about Jeremiah

Jeremiah 20 · chapter mention

chapter 20 and verse 9. Then I said, "I

will not make mention of him, nor speak

anymore in his name." But his word was

in my heart like a burning fire shut up

in my bones. I was weary of holding it

back and I could not.

So you think about this. If Christ has

truly think about transforming our

lives, that's the greatest news we could

ever share.

Now, I like restaurant recommendations

and all the all the other things. I

mean, we'll talk about all kinds of

things

and you know that good news naturally

spreads.

This is what this is supposed to do. to

spread naturally

because it's part of us.

It means something to us.

But I would say perhaps the most

revealing enigma concerns our

relationship with God and prayer. That's

another enigma. The enigma of talking

for hours but praying for minutes.

Why is it that we can talk to friends

for hours but struggle to pray for even

a few minutes?

Sometimes

our prayers may sound like this. We

start to get ready for bed

and we're saying our personal prayers to

God while our our heads on our pillow

sometimes and it goes like this. Dear

heavenly father

and it ends. You know why it ended?

Because we fell asleep. That's what

happens, doesn't it? That happens more

times we'd like to say.

Prayer obviously is not simply we think

about nighttime prayers and such, but

prayer reveals the depth of our

relationship with God. You ever think

about that? Jesus said in Matthew 10:37

Matthew 10:37

that our love for him must surpass every

earthly relationship. That's pretty

powerful.

Every earthly relationship, our our our

love for him must surpass that. The wise

man we find in in Proverbs 15 and verse

8 says, "The sacrifice of the wicked is

an abomination of the Lord, but the

prayer of the upright is what? His

delight." He loves to hear from his

children.

God delights in hearing the prayers of

his people.

Go to Psalm 63. This one just just

really captivated me. Psalm 63.

I want you to look at verses 1-8. And I

know it's a little small on the screen

that I have up there, but Psalm 63. Look

at verses 1-8. Listen to these words.

Oh God, you are my God.

Early will I seek you. My soul thirsts

for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry

and thirsty land where there is no

water. So I have looked for you in the

sanctuary to see your power and your

glory because your loving kindness is

better than life. My lips shall praise

you. Thus I will bless you while I live.

I will lift up my hands in your name. My

soul shall be satisfied as with marorrow

and fadness. And my m mouth shall praise

you with joyful lips. When I remember

you on my bed, I meditate on you and the

night watches.

Because you have been my help.

Therefore, in the shadow of your wings,

I will rejoice. My soul follows close

behind you. Your right hand upholds me.

Y'all see that? That's powerful right

there. Oh God, you are my God. Early

will I seek you. David is demonstrating

this type of love that Jesus was talking

about

that you notice David's longing. He his

soul thirsted for God. A prayer that was

not a ritual.

It was a relationship.

We talked about Daniel on our Wednesday

evening uh singing night, our clothes.

We talked about Daniel. Remember that

was not a ritual that Daniel, I'm just

going to go pray, you know, I'm going

to, you know, do this and do that. You

know, it was it was a relationship he

had with God.

I mean, think about how how when two

people truly love one another,

conversation never feels like an

obligation. It shouldn't. Okay. I got to

talk to Kenji today.

Now, I talk a lot, so she might be like,

"Man, he has a lot to say."

She's laughing. I know she

But the POINT IS THEY WANT TO talk to

each other.

You know, sometimes now of course after

we had kids, it's like I need some I

need some adult conversation.

You know, people have kids. You know

what that means? It's like I've been

talking to kids all day long. I need

some adult convers. But the thing is

they enjoy the fellowship. The

conversation flows naturally. That's

that's what that is. Now, so what I'm

saying here,

if prayer feels difficult,

it may reveal something about the

closeness of our relationship with God.

It may reveal that.

And that's something I'm again giving

some of these points out here tonight

just briefly

for us to consider.

Well, this evening we have examined

several spiritual enigmas, mysteries

that expose the condition of the human

heart. Um, seeing others faults but not

our own, solving others problems but not

our own. Finding time for everything

except God, reading everything except

scripture, speaking about everything

except Christ, and talking to everyone

except God.

As I close, I want us to understand that

what I have what we've talked about

puzzling mysteries, these enigmas, these

are not really unsolvable things.

The answer to every one of them is the

same. And what is the answer to every

one of them? It's the condition of the

heart in which the mirror is showing,

diagnosing, if you will. When God again

when we when he sits on the throne of

our lives, you know what happens?

Self-examination becomes natural.

Scripture becomes precious. Worship

becomes joyful. Evangelism becomes

courageous and prayer becomes essential.

That's exactly what happens. And you see

that in the life of those who live

before us who were faith just

their faithfulness.

So the le the the question this evening

is simple. Which direction is our heart

facing?

Now I I will submit to you there are

numerous other spiritual enigmas that

could be certainly added to our list

that we considered tonight. But I will

close with perhaps the greatest enigma.

This is the greatest one I think to

close with.

How can someone know

that God loved the world enough to give

his only begotten son and still delay

obedience?

I think that's the greatest denigma

because the cross of Christ is the

clearest evidence of God's love. Jesus

died for our sins. He was buried. He

rose again. And through the gospel, we

can receive forgiveness, remission of

those sins.

And when a person believes in Christ,

repents of sin, confesses his name, and

is baptized for the remission of their

sins, baptized into Christ to rise and

walk in this of life.

And if someone has drifted away from the

Lord, the invitation remains open to

return.

Those

opportunities are powerful.

They mean something. We should always

see it as that. Because at the beginning

of our lesson this evening, we talked

about a mirror. A mirror that revealed

every detail. A mirror that did not hide

imperfections. A mirror that showed the

truth whether someone wanted to see it

or not. And we noted that many people

are uncomfortable with mirrors that

reveal too much. Again,

uh when I asked at the very beginning,

how many of us want that truth mirror

that's in the Museum of Illusions in our

houses? You know, we we might not want

that one, right?

Mirrors tell us something about

ourselves

that we might prefer not to see.

And as we have noted, the mirror

has not been made of glass.

It's the word of God.

And as we have looked into that mirror

tonight briefly, we have seen several

spiritual enigmas.

Again, these are not mysteries of

intelligence.

They are simply reflections of the

heart. And when the mirror of God's word

is held before us, we are faced with a

decision. What do we say in James 1? But

be doers of the word and not hearers

only, deceiving yourselves. For if

anyone is a hearer of the word and not a

doer, he is like a man observing his

natural face in a mirror. For he

observes himself goes away and

immediately forgets what kind of man he

was. But he who looks in the perfect law

of liberty and continues in it and is

not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the

work, this one will be blessed in what

he does.

There are two ways a person can respond

to a mirror. One can glance quickly,

walk away, and forget what they saw. Or

one can look carefully, recognize what

needs to be changed, and make the

correction. That's the only two right

there. And that's the question before us

this evening.

When we look in the mirror of God's

word, we're asking, what do we see? What

did we see in our study so far? Do we

see priorities that need to be adjusted?

Do we see areas that need to that need

growth? Do we see a heart that needs to

draw closer to God? And again, the

purpose of the mirror is for correction.

And the beauty of the gospel is that God

does not merely show us the problem. He

provides the solution.

Through Jesus Christ, forgiveness is

available. Through obedience to the

gospel, sins can be washed away. Through

repentance and renewed devotion, a

wandering Christian can return.

The mirror has been

held up before us. And friends, the

question is not what we saw in it. For I

believe that's quite clear.

The question is,

what will we do with what we have seen?