If you believe you can hide yourself, just remember the longer you continue in sin in your thoughts the greater the chances of them working themselves out into actions.
God judges the heart, he doesn't have to judge the actions, because before the action can occur, there has to be wickedness in the mind first.
Matthew 15:19 ""For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders."
Jeremiah 17:10 ""I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds."
Far too many people judge others as wonderful because they see people who are doing good deeds or restraining themselves from outward evil actions. Hiding what is in our heart doesn't make us a good person, it just makes us stealthful.
Notice in Jeremiah 17:10 God doesn't mention actions to be judged, He judges the heart and the "results" of the deeds. We are accountable for the things we cause in the lives of others.
Did you know that a person can go all their live without committing adultery, and still have adultery in their heart that will be judged by God?
Matthew 16:4 ""An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah." And He left them and went away."
God calls us adulterous when we merely lack faith and need Him to prove Himself in some physical or miraculous way.
Most people say "don't judge" when it comes to sin but we never hear them say "don't judge" when it comes to good deeds.
It seems to be acceptable to judge someone as good because of their deeds, but not acceptable to judge someone as bad because of their sin. I say that our deeds flow out of our heart but sometimes they are pretense for the purpose of earning kudos from those around us.
Many people will think they have lived a good life in their own righteousness who will be expecting to enter heaven only to be rejected by Christ. These people did good deeds, loved themselves and were proud, never having trusted Christ.
Those who are not changed by Christ but attempted to be good without Him, will be told in those fateful days, "I never knew you, depart from Me." Mathew 7:21-23. I can't think of anything more frightening and devastating than to believe you are going to heaven, only to be turned away at the gates of heaven and be thrown into hell.
It is always a good idea to ask the Lord to expose our own hearts to us that we might confess that which does not honor Christ. This is what cleansing is all about, confessing our sin to be cleansed, first in our heart and then our actions and attitudes will follow. Any attempt to cleanse ourselves is fleshly, will not last and doesn't honor Christ.
1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Often we are not cleansed because we don't ask or we ask to show off to others.
James 4:3 "You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures."
If we want to be cleansed, walking with a pure mind we must ask God to do it in us, knowing we have no ability within ourselves to change our own heart. In short, only one who has humbled himself admitting his own inability to save himself or cleanse himself, will God work in their lives.
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