The Hiding Place

Psalms 119:11 (KJV) 

¹¹ Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

The Hiding Place is the true story of the Ten Boom family who, during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands, upon seeing what was happening to their Jewish neighbors and friends, asked themselves this age old question “If not us,…who; if not now,…when?” They answered it, ultimately at great cost.

The Ten Booms were devoutly Christian and lived a simple life. The patriarch of the family worked and lived in a watch shop that had been in his family for a century.  When the Nazis occupied their country, they saw the treatment given to their fellow Dutch citizens of the Jewish faith. Corrie, at the age of fifty, together with other members of her family, became active in the Dutch underground.

The Ten Boom family understood that Jews were being targeted for deportation and death.  They had a false wall constructed in the author’s bedroom, thereby creating a secret room. There, they would hide the terrified Jews who were staying with them, in the event of a Nazi raid upon their home.

Eventually someone reported them to the Nazis, and the Ten Booms were arrested and their home raided and torn apart by the Gestapo.  The police searched the shop for the Jews they believed to be hiding there. At the time of the raid, the Ten Boom home was filled to capacity with Jews in hiding. So well concealed was the hidden room that had been created by the erection of the false wall that these poor, terrified Jews managed to escape detection.  Why would they do this?  The intrinsic value of these persecuted people warranted hiding them, even at great personal risk.

The Heart

This morning, I want to talk about another hiding place, one that predated Nazi Germany and lives after it to this day.

David said, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart…”

Not on my library shelf.  Not in my strong box or safe.  Not in my study books.  Not in my childhood memories.  Not in my head.  My heart.  Not in my church building.  I need to create a hiding place in my heart.

The most amazing place ever created is the human heart.

The heart thinks, for the bible says the Word discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. 

The heart reasons, for Jesus asked “Why reason these things in your heart?”

The heart understands, because Jesus stated that the Jews should understand with their heart.

The heart believes, for Paul said to believe in your heart that God raised Jesus up from the dead.

The heart wills, purposes and determines, for believers bonded to Christ with purpose of heart.

The heart is the seat of conscience, because our hearts condemn us.

The heart is the seat of emotion, for God said “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart.”

The heart.  The heart.  The heart!  The heart is your hiding place.  But, you say, Not my heart!  My heart cannot receive it.  You don’t understand, preacher.  My heart cannot be trusted.

Yes!  Your heart!  The heart—for all of its treachery, its vacillation, its mystery—is the place to invest and hide the Word of God.

Matthew 13:44 (KJV)
⁴⁴ Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

Your heart is your field.

Dr. Frank Crane wrote:  “The human heart is a wide moor under a dull sky, with voices of invisible birds calling in the distance.

The human heart is a lonely lane in the evening, and two lovers are walking down it, whispering and lingering.

The human heart is an undiscovered country; men and women are forever perishing as they explore its wilds.

The human heart is an egg; and out of it are hatched this world and heaven and hell.

The human heart is a tangled forest wherein no man knows his way.

The human heart is a garden, wherein grow weeds of memory and blooms of hope, and the snow falls at last and covers all.

The human heart is a meadow full of fireflies, a summer western sky of shimmering distant lightnings, a shore set round with flashing lighthouses, far-away voices calling that we cannot understand.

The human heart is a band playing in a park at a distance; we see crowds listening, but we catch but fragments of the music now and again, and cannot make out the tune.

The human heart is a great city, teeming with myriad people, full of business and mighty doings, and we wander its crowded streets unutterably alone; we do not know what it is all about.

The human heart to youth is a fairy-land of adventure, to old age it is a sitting room where one knows his way in the dark.

The human heart is a cup of love, where some find life and zest, and some drunkenness and death.

The human heart is the throne of God, the council-chamber of the devil, the dwelling of angels, the vile heath of witches’ Sabbaths, the nursery of sweet children, the blood-spattered scene of nameless tragedies.

Listen! You will hear mothers’ lullibies, madmen’s shrieks, love-croonings, cries of agonized terror, hymns of Christ, the roaring of lynch mobs, the kisses of lovers, the curses of pirates.

Bend close! You will smell the lily fragrance of love, the stench of lust, now odors as exquisite as the very spirit of violets, and now such nauseous repulsions as words cannot tell.

…the dark spot in the lighted room of knowledge, the unknown quantity, the X in the universal problem.”

The Word of God.

The Hiding Place is the heart.  But the question now is what is to be hidden in your heart?  If your heart is your field, and your field is so mixed up, so desperate, so troubled, why should you hide something valuable in it?

You feel used up.  You feel depleted.  You feel that you have nothing to give to anyone, least of all, God. 

I have never seen a day in which people feel so battered, so beaten up, so wasted as they do today.  Drugs have made a mess of people.  Alcohol has destroyed so many lives.  Crazy, turbulent relationships have so damaged the heart, mind, body and soul of people that they cannot think straight. 

Someone here today is in a desolated condition.  You don’t even feel anger anymore.  You are hollow, numb, a shell of a person, a dead corpse walking around in the land of the living.

What value could you possibly have for God?  Why should you even make an effort?

Let me tell you something.  It’s not your heart that adds value to God—it’s what you have hidden in your heart!  It’s not the field—it’s the treasure in the field. 

Jeremiah 15:16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.

How could the heart of a diseased leper attract the mercy and grace of God?

Ask the unnamed leper of Mark 1:40-42  ^“And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. ⁴¹ And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. ⁴² And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.

What could the heart of a cheap prostitute have to draw the attention and love of God?

Ask Mary Magdalene!  Mark 16:9 Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.

“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”

Ask Zacchaeus.  Ask Matthew.  Ask blind Bartimaeus.  Ask Simon Peter.  Ask Saul of Tarsus.

Every one of them experienced a heart transplant, a transformation that happens when the Word of God is preached.

Here is a combination you need to try.  Your heart plus the Word of God.

Whatever condition your heart is in today, the entrance of the Word of God will make all the difference!

Jeremiah 20:9 But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

What is the Word of God?

It is this Bible I hold in my hands.  This Bible is the revelation of the Mind of Christ.  It is the lamp for my feet and the light for my path.

What is the Word of God.

It is the preaching that you are hearing right now.  Do you know that power is being dispersed right now with the preaching of the Word?

Acts 10:44 While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.

1 Corinthians 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

1 Corinthians 1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

It is critical for you to understand the power and potential of the Word of God in your life!

Hebrews 4:12  For 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.

Hebrews 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Isaiah 55:10-11 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: ¹¹ So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

The Word of God will change your life!  The Word of God will raise the dead to life; make wise the simple; and bring peace to the troubled. 

Psalms 19:7-10 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
⁸ The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
⁹ The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
¹⁰ More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

The Hiding

Now we come to the action of hiding.

How do you hide the Word of God in your heart?

First, understand that you have some enemies that don’t want this to happen.

Matthew 13:18-23 Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.
¹⁹ When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.
²⁰ But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;
²¹ Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
²² He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
²³ But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

Jeremiah.  You have some work to do.

Jeremiah 1:9-10 Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
¹⁰ See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

You need the courage to repent.  You need to go after the wrong things you have allowed to establish themselves in your heart.

You need to cut out a cancerous tumor.  You need to amputate a diseased limb.  You need to crucify a terminal attitude.

I taught Wednesday night about the fact that Jesus submitted to the authority of the Father.  He prayed at Gethsemane, “If it be thy will, let this cup pass from me.  Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.”

Whatever you have to remove to make room for the treasure of the Word of God will be worth it a million times over.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
¹⁷ For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
¹⁸ While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

My Heart is Broken

Pastor, I can’t hide anything in my heart.  Can God do anything for a broken heart?

You know your heart is broken.  You know the Word of God is what you need.  But how do you make it happen?

Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

This very scripture was repeated by Jesus to describe his ministry in the world.  He is here for the purpose of binding up broken hearts.  He will repair, heal and restore your wounded heart for the purpose of fully receiving the Word of God.

Luke 7:37-50 And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment,
³⁸ And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
³⁹ Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.
⁴⁰ And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on.
⁴¹ There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.
⁴² And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?
⁴³ Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.
⁴⁴ And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
⁴⁵ Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.
⁴⁶ My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.
⁴⁷ Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.
⁴⁸ And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.
⁴⁹ And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also?
⁵⁰ And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.