Madness of the Heart

by Dennis Pollock

 

Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live...     [Ecclesiastes 9:3]

 “You’re crazy!” — How many times have we heard that expression? While most of the time we say this in jest, there is a very real condition called insanity which is not so funny. Affecting thousands of individuals, mental illness robs people of their ability to live and function with dignity and independence. Often these individuals become wards of the state, their lives reduced to the confines of an institution, having no hope in life for anything more than to eat another meal and live another day.

 As sad as this is, the Bible speaks of another type of insanity, which we rarely consider. It is called madness of the heart. This heart insanity is actually far worse than mental illness, in that it has eternal consequences.

 FIVE ASPECTS OF INSANITY

 In order to understand heart insanity we shall have to carefully examine the behavior and attitudes of those whom society would consider mentally deranged. We shall therefore look at several aspects of insanity, keeping in mind that physical realities are always reflections of spiritual truths.

 1] SELF-DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR: One of the most frequent and prominent indications of insanity is self-destructive behavior. The padded cell has long been a standard feature of every insane asylum. Without the padding, many of the insane would hurl themselves headlong into the walls over and over again until they beat themselves unconscious. Mark’s Gospel describes a demon-possessed man who is a textbook case of this self-destructive nature. It says of him: “And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.”  What a wretched life! Living in the tombs and in the mountains he would inflict pain on himself, and then cry out in his misery. Modern psychiatrists would probably classify him a schizophrenic.

 When Jesus appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus, He said, “It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” He likened Paul’s attack on Christianity to a man who was kicking at sharpened ox goads and getting hurt worse and worse each time he kicked. This is the exact situation of every sinner. (My use of the term “sinner” here and elsewhere refers to all people who have never been born again — whether nice or contemptible, religious or irreligious).

 The sinner destroys his own soul by continually rebelling against what he inwardly knows to be the will of God. As his sins accumulate day by day, he inflicts more and more damage upon his soul. Because the bodies and minds of men were never created for sin, misery and frustration are the ultimate result. The epidemic proportions of suicide, alcoholism, depression, drug abuse, and nervous breakdowns are ample evidence that men are reaping the tragic consequences of the self-abusive lifestyle that they have chosen.

 2] DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR: Another trademark of madness is possessing an opinion of yourself that far exceeds reality.  Psychiatrists call this “delusions of grandeur.” It is a common thing for insane people to declare in all seriousness, “I am God,” or “I am Jesus Christ.”  Others portray themselves as a famous historical figure such as Napoleon or Abraham Lincoln. What has happened is that, deciding that they don’t really like themselves as they are, they borrow someone else’s identity, usually someone who has achieved a degree of greatness. While it may begin as a mental game, they end up fully believing their fantasy.

 Delusions of grandeur actually started with Satan, as we see in Isaiah’s description of his original rebellion against God:

 For you have said in your heart: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God...I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:13,14).

 Satan came to the insane conclusion that he could exalt himself to be like God. Who in his right mind, could ever think he could achieve an equal footing with God?  Yet isn’t this the very foundation of the secular religion called humanism?  Humanism makes man his own god. The Humanist Manifesto II declares, “No deity will save us, we must save ourselves.”  Gloria Steinem, an avowed humanist, stated, “We will, I hope, raise our children to believe in human potential, not God...” One can almost hear the voice of the serpent as he whispered to Eve: “Ye shall be as gods.” The sinner who thinks he can manage his life without God’s help has made a god of himself and surely suffers delusions of grandeur.

 3] ABSURD PRIORITIES: Insanity is always marked by misplaced priorities. While ignoring things of great importance, the deranged person may be quite taken up with something we would consider insignificant, such as a bright piece of cloth, or the number of holes in a ceiling tile. If a man played games in the dirt while his house burned down and his family perished, who would not consider him insane?  To have one’s priorities so perverted is a sure sign of madness.

 This is a perfect illustration of the unsaved. They chase after their parties and dances, they faithfully attend their lodge meetings and sports events, they spend thousands of dollars on their adult “toys,” yet all the while they and their families are slowly perishing without God and without hope. The children grow up ignorant of the love of God and the power of His Spirit, as their parents dance and play meaningless games on the precipice of hell.  Who would dare to label such a lifestyle sane?

 4] PARANOIA: Paranoia is a frequent condition among the insane. When a man begins to question the intentions of even his closest friends, and shuns those who care about him because he fears they are out to get him, it is a sure sign that he suffers from mental illness. Even the kindest act is viewed with suspicion by the paranoid. His own parents, who dearly love him, become objects of mistrust. In his wild imaginings and bizarre logic, he may perceive his best friends as vicious enemies.

 The sinner’s attitude toward God is exactly the same. He is positive that God desires to ruin his life and spoil his fun. He avoids the Bible, has nothing to do with any church that preaches the gospel in all its fullness, and generally does his best to maintain a “safe” distance from his Creator. How ironic it is that the unsaved run from the only one who has ever loved them with perfect love; they flee from the only hope they will ever have of escaping from the law of sin and death. The sinner runs from God and salvation as if running from a horrible plague, and yet he pursues damnation as if it were a treasure worthy of all his labor and energy.  By any standards, any man who pursues his own harm, and vigorously avoids those who would deliver him from that harm, must be insane.

 5] LACK OF PRODUCTIVITY: Lack of productivity is a universal aspect of insanity. The insane individual cannot hold down a job, he cannot provide for a family, he cannot be trusted with even the smallest of responsibilities. His lack of mental stability renders him unfit for any kind of participation in society. He is an asset to no one, and must be controlled and provided for all of his life.

 From the perspective of the kingdom of God, the unsaved are without the ability to positively contribute to the world. Without the Holy Spirit’s residence within a person, without the word of God in their heart, without the ability to pray in faith for the needs of others, of what value are they?  If ministers were to be perfectly honest, a great many eulogies would go something like this: “Today we are burying a worthless man. He never led a soul to Christ, he never prayed a prayer in faith, and he was never once led by the Spirit of God. This man’s life was of no value to this world.”

 The Scriptures put it this way: “They have all gone out of the way; they have together become unprofitable” (Rom. 3:12).

 THE GREAT MADHOUSE

Considering these facts, it becomes easy to see that hell is the great madhouse of the universe.  Nearly every society builds some form of insane asylum to separate deranged from normal individuals. Imagine a schoolroom which contained both sane and insane students. Nothing could be accomplished; the insane students would disrupt every activity of the normal ones. In the afterlife God, too, shall separate the sane from the insane.  Hell shall house all the madmen who lived their lives for their own pleasure rather than the will of God.  

Hell is actually an answer to prayer. The sinner’s whole life is spent studiously avoiding God. In a sense his very lifestyle is a cry to God which says, “O God, please leave me alone!”  The Bible says, “Ask, and you shall receive.”  God has prepared a place in which He will leave men alone forever. In Hell there will be none of His love, none of His joy, or beauty or peace. The sinner’s “prayer” will be answered and God will forever abandon him. Jesus referred to this as the “outer darkness.”

 AMAZING LOVE

 Imagine then, how God must see this world. Destroying their own souls by sin, making gods of themselves, majoring on the minors of life and minoring on the majors, mistrusting the One who loves them and serving the one who hates them, living their lives in a vain display of selfishness and uselessness, the unsaved must indeed appear quite a wretched lot. Yet amazingly God’s compassionate heart is drawn out to them. The apostle John wrote, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). 

Consider Jesus as He suffered and died on the cross. For whom did He endure those long hours of agony? For whom did He hang by His nail-pierced hands and feet during that torturous death?  He endured the suffering and shame of the cross for the insane of this world. The Bible says, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). When Jesus rose from the dead three days later, it was positive proof that God had accepted Him as the atoning sacrifice for mankind. 

The cross speaks to us about our sinfulness, but it also tells us of God’s love. It declares God’s awesome holiness, but it also shows us His great mercy. The cross is God’s message to a sinful and rebellious world that their pardon has already been paid for; they have only to come to Jesus and receive it. 

Who, in his right mind, could despise such mercy? Yet innumerable multitudes have had a glimpse of the cross of Jesus and said, “No thanks, I’ll work out my own type of salvation.” 

Many of you reading this pamphlet have no assurance that you have ever been born-again. You have never totally surrendered your life to God. Which will you choose? Will you go on living in the insanity of this world or will you bow your knees to the Lord Jesus Christ, and join the ranks of the sane? Repent, receive Christ, and be saved from this perverse generation.