Word of Salvation – Vol. 13 No.29 – July 1967

 

Keeping Your Heart

 

Sermon by Rev. Prof. T. L. Wilkinson on Proverbs 4:23

 

Beloved Congregation,

There is a story of a man named Gyges who found a ring that he could use to make himself invisible.  This meant that no one could see him when he wanted to do something secretly, or do something wrong that he wanted to hide from others.

Supposing you had the ring of Gyges; supposing you had the power to do just what you wanted without anyone seeing you.  You could do things without your wife or husband knowing.  You could do whatever you wanted and the police could not see you.  You could get away with almost anything and the minister and elders wouldn’t have a clue as to what you were doing.  Supposing then that you had the ring of Gyges, what would you do?  Would it make any difference to your conduct?  Would you do a whole lot of things that are now forbidden?  Would you steal, commit adultery, cheat and a dozen other things?  Or would it make no difference to your moral and spiritual standards if you could do what you liked without anyone knowing?

The answer to these questions will tell you what is IN YOUR HEART, and not simply what you do because others are watching you, the police prevent you, or the elders frown upon you.  For what we think about, and what we desire and what we live for when we can not be observed or hindered – these show the real state of our heart, the real person as we truly are, not in the eyes of men, but as we really are before God.

For the heart is the centre of our personality.  It is here that our deepest thoughts, our strongest desires, and our actual purposes are cherished and fed.

The heart too, is the place where we are known by God, and in contact with Him.  This is strikingly brought out in the story of Samuel when he went to the home of Jesse to anoint one of his sons to be king over Israel.  The very first son to stand before him was Eliab.  Apparently he made a very fine impression on Samuel, and he said, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.”  That was Samuel’s verdict, and we can believe he had solid grounds for reaching it.  But it wasn’t God’s judgment, for the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart.”  Despite all the impressive qualities that humanly speaking would qualify him for sitting on the throne of Israel, this man’s heart was not acceptable to God.  God saw more than Samuel; God saw his heart and knew the man as he really was.  Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.

What is the state of your heart before God today?  Are you truly converted to Christ, or is your heart still far from Christ?  Do you know anything of what the hymn-writer said:
“What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought,
since Jesus came into my heart”?

What is in your heart today?  What secret desires do you cherish?  What things are there that you would not like to let others know about?  How is it between Jesus Christ and you, in your heart this morning?  Is He truly your Saviour or not?

The Bible makes it clear that our hearts are thoroughly sinful.  “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked”, said the prophet.  Our Lord himself said that “from within, out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.  All these come from within and they defile a man.  This is the state of the unconverted man, and it can easily assert itself in the life of a Christian who does not keep his heart with diligence.

What then have you in your heart today?  Do you have a grudge against someone whom you will not forgive?  Do you have something that is spoiling your friendship or your family life?  Is there something that is making your heart poisonous and bitter?  Are you cherishing forbidden lusts in your heart?  If so, the text exhorts us to keep our hearts vigilantly.  And the first step in this exercise is to be quite honest with God and humbly admit we are wrong in our hearts.

Our text gives us the very best of reasons why we should keep our heart with vigilance: “for from it flow the springs of life.”  That means that our whole life has its source and its beginnings from within our hearts.  What you do in daily life, what you say, think, speak and achieve, are ultimately and very certainly due to what you are in your heart.  This applies both to the good things and to the bad things.  Sometimes we read of a man who was perhaps well known and respected, but has been found guilty of stealing or absconding with his employer’s money.  Was it due to a sudden temptation due to difficult circumstances?  Whatever part circumstances played, we can be certain that it began in his heart.  He allowed the idea of gain to get possession of his heart, and he played with the idea of getting rich by the simple and clever act of stealing another’s possessions.

Or take the man who commits adultery.  You can argue that this is a crime that the French regard as one of the passions, and it is.  But there again, it begins in the heart.  Young people, you know how difficult it is to keep your mind and your heart clean, and how the world around sees nothing wrong with the sins of sex.  How then can you keep your life clean in a dirty world?  Only by keeping your heart vigilantly.  For if you allow your mind to dwell on suggestive shows, and read borderline books that stimulate your imagination and arouse your sexual desire, then don’t think that you will conquer – you are beaten before the fight begins.  You have failed to win the battle in your heart.  Jesus said it so clearly: He that looks on a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery with her IN HIS HEART.

But immediately we think of this subject we remember those who have succeeded in keeping their hearts vigilantly.  Think of Joseph who as a young red-blooded teenager was thrown into the situation of sexual temptation by a sensuous woman of Egypt.  Joseph pretty well had the ring of Gyges he was away from his family and they wouldn’t know.  His boss wouldn’t find out.  Then again everybody did it in this country, why shouldn’t he?  All the kind of arguments that we face at some time or other.  But one of the finest stories of the Bible tells us how this young man conquered.  He didn’t toy with the temptation; he didn’t trifle with her suggestion, but immediately his answer came, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”  The ring of Gyges could not hide his heart from God, and it was God he sought to obey and please.  What a thrilling thing it is to read about such a man!  What a splendid example for all young people!  It is men like this that challenge our lives and call us to conquer our temptations and live for our God in a world that tempts us to do what others are doing and not what God commands.  It is men like Joseph who remind us that God is able to fill our hearts with Christ and His word, and to give us the inner strength to face all temptations in the strength that comes from above, and to win.

Then take the case of another young man in a foreign land and serving unbelieving masters who had practically the power of life and death over him.  We are thinking now of Daniel, as a young man with great opportunities open to him – provided he fit in with society and do what everybody else was doing.  Then there came the test when he had to choose between pleasing his king and pleasing his God.  Plenty of people, even Christian people would have argued that food was only a small matter, and besides, you mustn’t allow your religion to interfere with your life!  But to his eternal credit, we read that “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the King’s food.”  Notice that “he purposed in his heart”.  He didn’t face the actual occasion in a state of indecision or doubt, for then he would have been carried away by the force of social pressure.  No, he made it his heart’s resolve that he would not displease his God.  Again what a thrilling story of a man who is prepared to face the loss of life’s best opportunities for the sake of a clear conscience; who is prepared to lose financially, and miss out on social advancement, simply to keep his heart right with God.

But not only temptations are dealt with by keeping our hearts, but also service we render to God, begins in our hearts.  Our life is a very brief thing, and we have only the one opportunity to serve our God here.  Think of all that we can do, if our hearts are set upon Jesus Christ and doing His work here below.  Who knows what any individual can do, if he gives himself over completely to Christ, and dares to set his heart to trust and obey his Lord with all his heart?  The history of the Christian Church glitters with the jewels of lives that have honoured the Lord Jesus Christ in this way.  How many ordinary men and women have by the grace of God been raised to extraordinary levels of service and blessing because they set their hearts to please the Lord!

Young people, remember that you are only young once, and you will never have the same opportunities again that you have now.  Now is the time to put all your trust in Jesus Christ, and to consecrate every desire and purpose of your heart to Him and His service.  Then you will come to your life’s end without bitterness and the regret that you have wasted your life, by pleasing yourself and not your Lord.  Then you will grow old with gladness and contentment that you have sought to love the One who loved you and died to redeem you for His service.

This in turn reminds us of the most serious reason why we should keep our hearts diligently.  It is this: that the judgment-day is coming when all our life will be known for what it is worth.  In that day we will not appear as we appeared to men, but as we really were in our hearts, as we were before God.  Let us labour to keep our hearts right with Him now, so that in that day we shall be unashamed.

Our text reminds us that we must keep our hearts VIGILANTLY.  We have to be like a soldier on watch, or on guard, who has to observe everything that is likely to mean an attack of the enemy, however innocent it might seem to be.  We have to be vigilant or watchful.

In particular we should watch out for the beginnings of sin in our minds and hearts.  It is too late when sin has grown and become strong and able to master our life.  We have to watch that it doesn’t take root at all in our hearts.  We have to watch the beginnings and not the end of sin.

There is a story of an English officer who was hunting in India and captured a small tiger that was gentle and attractive, just like a kitten.  He took it home and kept it as a pet.  It came frequently into his office and played like a big kitten.  It was only small really and so nice.  But the kitten grew and grew.  One day it entered his office and licked his hand.  In the process its tongue hurt his hand, and he went to withdraw it, but the tiger growled fiercely.  He suddenly realised it had drawn blood, and would be prepared to kill him if necessary now.  With his free hand he quickly rang a bell on his desk and called his servant to bring his revolver.  Then while the tiger was still licking his other hand, he shot it dead.  It had been only a small and harmless tiger but it grew and grew until it became a threat to his very life.  This is the same with sin in our hearts.  We are not to let it grow until it can kill our fellowship with God, or destroy our service for Him.  We must deal unsparingly with it while it is small.  We must deal with our very desires and thoughts first of all.

Let us then watch what we read and what we think about.  Watch what our mind dwells upon and enjoys.  Let us fill our hearts with the best things and allow them to control our thoughts and govern our motives.

It is particularly important to have a quiet time first thing in the morning, so that we can read our Bible, pray and set our heart and life right with God.  Here again we watch the beginning, but this time the beginning of the day.  We should strive to have say half an hour for reading and prayer, so that we can begin the day with God.  Otherwise we will always be failing and sinning and living on a pretty low level of spiritual attainment.  But when we have time with God – time to search our hearts, and to fill them with Christ and His Word, then we can go into the day with His strength and serve Him with a quiet and glad heart.

Then even if you are not given the opportunities to do great things, you will be pleasing to God.  You will have His smile of approval.  Perhaps some of us have wanted to do great things for God.  We have wanted to serve Him as missionaries, as elders, or as doctors or something else, and yet our life’s ambition has not been realised.  Perhaps our life is dull and unexciting.  Yet we can live a life that is of great value in God’s sight.  Think of David with his great and memorable ambition to build a temple for God who had blessed him.  His heart was full of the project, and yet God said no.  David himself says, “I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord”, but God decreed otherwise, and gave the task to Solomon.  And when Solomon dedicated the temple he mentioned this and told God’s answer to David, which was this: “Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well in that it was in your heart.”

God gave full credit to David for what was in his heart, even though he was not allowed to do it.  So take courage, and please God with a full heart of devotion and trust, and know that in the very least things you can as King David have the approval of God.

Above all commit your whole heart to Christ and pray that He will dwell in fullness there.  Jesus Christ has redeemed you with His blood, and your heart has been freed from the dominion of sin.  Give yourself to Him completely then, and rejoice in Him.

Amen.