FBC Adult Bible Study

Faith Baptist Church

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Dan, could you grab those handouts? If anybody needs a Sunday School handout,

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Dan will have that. Just slip your hand up, and we'll get one to you. So hopefully, we are at the last juncture of this series on the heart.

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I don't want to belabor this. It's been long enough that we've been in this series. And what

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I did last week, started last week, and I want to finish it this morning, is really just kind of do a challenge about keeping the heart.

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So we've studied what the heart is, and there's been some good application along the way. And at the top of that handout, we've got a definition of what the heart is.

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The heart is your governing center. It's that which governs all of your life. It's the center of your life.

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And the Bible talks about the heart in two different ways. It talks about it simply, which means the unity of your inner being.

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So sometimes, the Bible speaks of your heart and is just talking about that governing center, and the fact that the inner being of yourself, there is a unity there.

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But then, many times, the Bible speaks of it in its complexity. And so there's these three facets, or chambers of the heart, we've called them.

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Your mind, your desires, and your will. Your intellect, your emotions, and your will, it's often talked about.

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Or even more technical, your intellect, emotion, and volition.

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What you choose, what you desire, what you think. And so we've been building on that through these last several weeks, discussing each of those chambers and the interrelationship between those chambers.

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But what we want to end this series with is the challenge of Proverbs 4 .23, which is to keep our hearts with all diligence.

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Why? Because it is that governing center. It's the spring from which all of our life flows.

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Everything in life flows. So we need to keep our heart. And so I'm referring to a summary of a book by John Flavel, one of the old

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Puritans, who wrote this whole book on this very subject.

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So you could take another 13 weeks of Sunday school lessons and just go through that book.

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But what I wanted to do is just summarize it. And maybe this summary will be a tease to look to that book further yourself.

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And I would certainly commend you in doing so. So last week we looked at the five actions that are involved in keeping the heart carefully that Flavel gives to us.

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I'm not gonna take the time to review any of those. It's there on your handout. You can look at those. And then we looked at three of the six reasons for making heart keeping a priority.

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And I'm using some of the language of Flavel, just carrying it over. So if it doesn't sound natural to me, it's because it isn't natural to me.

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This isn't the 17th century or 18th century anymore. So anyway, six reasons to make heart keeping a priority.

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We talked about the first three, the glory of God's concerned with it, the sincerity of our profession depends upon it, and the beauty of our way of life arises from it.

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All right, so turn with me to James chapter four. James chapter four.

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And the fourth reason to make heart keeping a priority is that the comfort of our souls depends upon it.

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The comfort of our souls depends upon it. Now, I think what he's getting at here, what

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Flavel is getting at is that there is, there is by nature within us a conflict that is ongoing.

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And Galatians 5, 16, and 17 talks about that, that the spirit, the flesh lusts against or desires against the spirit, and the spirit desires against the flesh so that we can't do the thing that we would.

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And it seems like with that statement of Paul in Galatians 5, it's like, if I can put it this way, you're in a, quote, no -win situation, because if you give in to the desires of the flesh, you've got the spirit fighting against that, if you're a believer.

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If you yield to the spirit, you walk in the spirit, you've still got the flesh fighting against the spirit.

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So there's this ongoing tension within the believer. And we'll say more about that tension from what

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Paul says in Romans seven. But look here at James chapter four, and look at the conflict that James is talking about.

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He says, where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

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You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. And I think you should understand the word murder there in a figurative sense.

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Otherwise, these people would be executed, all right? You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask.

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You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it upon your pleasures.

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Adulterers and adulteresses, he says, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

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You see the conflict here, the conflict. There is no comfort to the soul of the believer that is living in verses one to four.

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But then look at verse five. Or do you think that the scripture says in vain the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously?

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The spirit who dwells within us yearns jealousy, jealously.

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And what the spirit of God is doing in the believer who is living in verses one to four is he is striving with that believer.

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There is no comfort in the heart of the one who has his wars and fightings going on constantly within him because he's desiring pleasures and he's lusting, he's desiring but he can't have and he's coveting and can't get and so forth.

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So this is the life of a professing believer who's not guarding his heart, who's not seeing that.

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I've got desires that are wrong and they need to be dealt with. I'm coveting and that's wrong and it needs to be dealt with.

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So instead of dealing with it, he's allowing those things to fester and to have sway to fight and war within him.

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There's no comfort in that. So the comfort of our souls depends upon our keeping the heart.

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Number five, a fifth reason for keeping the heart is that the improvement of our graces depends upon it.

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The improvement of our graces depends upon it. So here, turn with me to Psalm 139, 139th

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Psalm. We'll look at this in just a moment. I wanna read this quote from Flavel. It's a good imagery here.

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He says, the heart is, as it were, the pasture in which multitudes of thoughts are fed every day.

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A gracious heart, diligently kept, feeds many precious thoughts of God in a day.

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So the improvement of our graces depends upon it. If we're going to experience the blessing of improved graces of life, then the gracious heart is going to diligently feed many precious thoughts of God in a particular day.

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All right, now, with that in mind, look at Psalm 139. As the psalmist does this, what does this look like?

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All right, Psalm 139, verse 17. He says, how precious also are your thoughts to me,

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O God. Now, get what he's doing. Get what the psalmist is doing here.

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He's thinking about this. He's feeding on this. This is the gracious heart that feeds on these precious thoughts of God.

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He says this, how precious are your thoughts to me, O God. How great is the sum of them.

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If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awake,

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I'm still with you. And then, in Psalm 63, Psalm 63.

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Same thing going on here in Psalm 63, verses five and six. Here the psalmist says, my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise you with joyful lips.

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Why? Well, when I meditate, when I remember you on my bed,

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I meditate on you in the night watches. So you see what the psalmist is doing here.

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He is improving the graces of his life by keeping his heart. What's he doing?

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What's going on in his heart? He's feeding on precious thoughts of God in a day.

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And in this case, in Psalm 63, in the nighttime. Wakes up in the night, he tosses and turns, and what does he do?

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He meditates on things of the Lord. Well, Flavel goes on after, he talks about the heart, the gracious heart diligently kept, feeds many precious thoughts of God in a day.

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He then goes on to say, but in a disregarded heart, one that is not kept, swarms of vain and foolish thoughts are perpetually working and jostle out those spiritual ideas and thoughts of God by which the soul should be refreshed.

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So think about a common experience of God's people on the Lord's day. Come to church, come to Sunday school.

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You study God's word together, and you're struck, perhaps, by some thoughts of God through the course of that study.

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And then you enter into, segue into the morning service, and your heart is blessed and refreshed by singing hymns and praises to the

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Lord and reading the scripture together and praying together. And then, again, the word is opened and it's preached and taught.

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And in the course of that time, some great and precious thoughts can come to you, can come into your mind, and maybe go down into the heart.

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And you think on those things there or here. But then you leave, and you leave church, and you go off and you do whatever.

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How many times have you experienced this where it's not long before some other desires, some other thoughts, as Flavel puts it, swarms of vain and foolish thoughts are perpetually working and jostle out those spiritual ideas?

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And before you know it, you've completely lost those thoughts that were in your heart just a few hours earlier.

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Well, improvement of our graces depends upon it. Let's keep our heart is the challenge. And then number six.

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Our stability, our stability in times of temptation will be according to our care in this work.

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Our stability in times of temptation will be according to our care in this work. And here, he's getting at Jesus' exhortation to the disciples in Matthew 26 in the

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Garden of Gethsemane. Been after a long day. It's been after the Passover meal. It's been after the time at the

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Lord's Supper. We call it, you know, when he's shared the bread and the cup anticipating what's happening in 24 hours, less than 24 hours.

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And then he takes the disciples out to the Mount of Olives, to the Garden of Gethsemane.

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And as he goes into the garden to pray, he leaves his disciples behind.

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He takes three of them in further. And before he leaves them behind, he says to them, watch and pray that you enter not into temptation.

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Be on guard and pray that you enter not into temptation. Why? Because the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

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Look with me at Luke chapter 21. In Luke 21, Jesus emphasizes the same idea in verses 34 through 36.

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And here he's using this idea, expressing this idea in the context of his return, of the second coming.

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Earlier in the chapter, he talks about the end of the age, the destruction of Jerusalem, then the coming of the

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Son of Man. Now in verse 34, he says this, but take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and cares of this life.

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And that day come on you unexpectedly, for it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.

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Watch therefore and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the

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Son of Man. Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with all these different things.

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So the stability in times of temptation will be according to our care in this work.

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So temptation comes. If I'm not taking heed to my heart, if I'm not guarding my heart, keeping my heart, then that temptation can come.

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I may not even be aware of it. I may not even be tuned into the idea that I'm being tempted to do something wrong.

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The temptation comes, I yield to it and go off in this thought or this attitude or this blasting with my mouth or this action or whatever.

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And before I know it, it's done. And then the spirit comes and convicts me and I say, well, would

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I had been watching? Had I just been watching and sensitive, then

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I could have been much more stable. I could have stood in the time of temptation as Ephesians six says.

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Now for the rest of our time this morning, I want us to consider several seasons in life that require special diligence, special seasons in life that require special diligence.

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Turn to Deuteronomy chapter six, Deuteronomy chapter six.

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In the context of this chapter is that it's near the end of the wilderness wanderings of Israel, you know, came out of Egypt, wandered for 40 years.

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Now they're on the east side of the Jordan River in the land of Moab. The entry entering into the promised land is,

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I mean, it's just before them. It's just before them. The only thing left to happen is for Moses to pass off the scene, then

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Joshua to take up the mantle and lead the people into the land of Canaan. But the

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Lord in preparation for this entry into Canaan, he issues this warning in verses 10 through 12.

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He says, so it shall be when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build.

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Houses full of all good things which you did not fill. Hewn out wells which you did not dig.

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Vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant. When you have eaten and are full, then beware lest you forget the

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Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. What is the season that the

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Lord is getting at here through Moses for God's people to be aware of when there are special, we need to take special diligence to keep our heart in times of prosperity, in times of prosperity.

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Here are the people come into the land and it's all there before them and compared to what they've been dealing with for the last generation of wandering and deprivation and every day only getting enough food for a day, a guy gathering the manna, and all that was involved in that.

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And here they enter into a land and they have houses, all they have to do is just occupy them. And when they get in there, the cupboards are full and so on and so forth.

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And it would be so easy at times like that, as the Lord says, to forget the

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Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Now, by the way, don't you think this is one of our culture's contemporary problems in the

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United States? We are one of the most prosperous nations on the planet, have been for decades and decades and how easily we as a people have taken that all for granted and we don't give a moment's thought to the source of that prosperity.

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I'm speaking of us as a culture, as a society. We have an annual day of Thanksgiving and what happens on that day of, how many people really even stop to thank

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God for the prosperity that they've enjoyed in the past year?

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Ah, I think you know the answer to that. That's a rhetorical question. And I think that's probably why we're experiencing some of the upheaval in our culture and our society that we are experiencing.

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All right, so in times of prosperity, we need to be especially diligent to keep our heart.

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But we can look at it the other direction, too. Not only in times of prosperity does that require special diligence, but so do times of adversity, times of adversity.

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So, for example, turn a few books in your Bible forward, go through Joshua, Judges, and then to the first chapter of the book of Ruth.

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And if you know the story of Ruth, chapter one is just one experience of adversity after another.

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Naomi has left Bethlehem with her family, her husband and her sons, gone to Moab because of famine.

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There's bread in Moab, there's not in Bethlehem. So off they go. There's adversity number one, the adversity of famine.

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They get there and the sons marry a couple of Moabite women,

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Ruth and Orpah. And then another adversity comes.

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Elimelech dies, Naomi's husband dies. And then more adversity.

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The husbands of Ruth and Naomi, or Ruth and Orpah, die. And so the house is left with three widows.

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And that's a lot more severe adversity in that time and place than it would be in our time and place.

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Bad enough now. Multiply that 10 times in that culture.

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Tremendous adversity. How vital to keep the heart. But does

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Naomi do that? Well, look what she says in verse 13, the end of the verse.

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She says, no, my daughters, it grieves me very much for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.

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She recognizes the sovereignty of God in her situation, but what does that do in her heart?

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What's going on in her heart? You get down to verse 20 and 21 and you see. She does go back to Bethlehem and Ruth goes with her.

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And when she arrives, the residents of Bethlehem, her townspeople say, hey,

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Naomi's back. Is this Naomi? Look, look, could this be Naomi? After all these years, is

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Naomi back? In verse 20, she said to them, don't call me Naomi. Don't call me

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Naomi. Call me Mara. Call me bitter. Why?

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For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full and the Lord has brought me home again empty.

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Why do you call me Naomi? Since the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has afflicted me.

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You see what's happened. And it's totally understandable from a human perspective.

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And how many times have we experienced this? Personally, a time of adversity comes and how do we respond?

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We grow sullen, downcast, bitter, angry.

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That's when we need to be guarding the heart, you see. We need to keep our heart in those times of adversity.

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Here are some helpful perspectives to help us keep our hearts in times of adversity.

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Let me just kind of throw these out to you. In Ephesians 1, verse 11.

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Ephesians 1, 11, you can write the verse down and maybe look at it later. In verse 11, it says, in whom, in Christ, we also have obtained an inheritance, believers, being predestined according to the purpose of Him.

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Here's our perspective in adversity to keep our hearts. According to the purpose of Him, who works all things according to the counsel of His will.

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All things, this, well, what does it say? It says

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He works all things according to the counsel of His will. And how about Hebrews chapter 12, talks about the chastening of the

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Lord. In verse 10, it says, for as just as a father will chasten his children, our heavenly

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Father chastens us for our good. So this adversity may be a form of chastening for our own good.

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Now look with me, if you would, at Psalm 119. It's Psalm 119.

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There is value in adversity if we will see it. And that's a big if,

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I get that. It's a big caveat, isn't it? So in verse 67,

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Psalm 119, the psalmist says, before I was afflicted,

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I went astray. All right, so you see what's going on. I had gone astray, then

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I was afflicted. So the adversity came because of the going astray.

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That going astray does not necessarily mean he went off into some gross sin that was a horrible thing.

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It simply means that, you know, here is the

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Lord's way, walk in it. And I went astray off of that.

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It could be a way of thinking, it could be a way of desiring, it could be a way of walking, but I went astray until, again, verse 67, now

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I keep your word, why? Because I was afflicted. So the affliction has the value of motivating me to obey, of motivating me to learn what

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God likes. You see this again in verse 71. He says, it is good for me that I have been afflicted so that I may learn your statutes.

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The idea he's expressing here is, if I had not been afflicted, if I had not faced this adversity,

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I wouldn't have learned some things about you that I really needed to learn. So in times of adversity, we need special diligence to keep our heart, to watch our heart.

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And then thirdly, another season requiring special diligence is in the time of religious oppression, the time of religious oppression.

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So 1 Thessalonians chapter three. 1

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Thessalonians three, listen to what Paul says in the first four verses. He says, therefore, when we no longer could bear or endure it we thought it good to be left in Athens alone and sent

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Timothy, our brother and minister of God and our fellow labor in the gospel of Christ to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith.

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All right, so Paul is concerned about the welfare of the believers in Thessalonica. There is religious oppression.

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How are they doing? How are they dealing with it? Are they remaining faithful? Are they standing strong?

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So he says, I sent Timothy to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith, verse three, that no one of you should be shaken by these afflictions.

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For you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. That is, all who are godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

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He's communicated that. Now verse four, for in fact, we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation just as it happened and you know.

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All right, so this truth, this reality that religious oppression is a part of the

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Christian life. It's a part of the experience of the Christian on this planet as we journey through life.

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That knowledge should serve to guard our hearts, but we need to be aware of it.

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We need to be tuned into that reality, don't we? I mean, look at what's going on in our culture today, in our society in America.

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And have you not seen in the last quarter of a century, 25 years even, just an acceleration of attitudes of hostility toward biblical

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Christianity? Your head hasn't been in the sand. Of course you've seen that.

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And yet how have we responded as believers as a whole?

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How have we responded? Have we, and I'll say more about this in a minute, have we acknowledged that this is really what we should expect?

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The fact that we haven't experienced it is really a blessing.

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And number four, another special season requiring special diligence is in times of material need, in times of material need.

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Hebrews 4, 16 is a wonderful verse of promise encouraging us to go to the

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Lord, our God, in prayer because of our intercessor, Jesus. And it says this, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

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All right, so I can go to the Lord in prayer. That's why, because of Hebrews 4, 16, that's why

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Flavel said this, he says, at such times, times of material need, we should, now listen, get carefully what he says, we should complain to God and not of God.

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You get what he's saying there? What does he mean, complain to God? Well, to take advantage of the promise of Hebrews 4, 16.

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Let us come boldly before the throne of grace and do what? Sit, you know, no, come boldly to the throne of grace and complain to the

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Lord, if you will, to cry out to the Lord, Lord, I'm in need. Would you please meet this need, you see?

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Complain to God, but not of God. And what he's getting at there is our propensity, if we're not guarding our heart in times of material need to complain about our lack, to complain what we don't have.

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You know, why hasn't God done this? Why hasn't God done that? Why do I have to go through this? Why hasn't God, you know, and so on.

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No, in times of material need, go to the Lord. Guard your heart by going to the

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Lord. Number five, in the season of duty is another season in which we need to keep the heart.

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In the season of duty, and there can be a lot to this and I don't have the time to develop it much, but let me just say this, in the time of duty, it can be just the things that you feel, you sense a responsibility to do.

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For example, you may be here, sitting here in this room right now, out of a sense of duty, you know, feeling like I need to be there.

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Well, there's nothing wrong with that sense of, there's nothing wrong with sensing the duty to gather together with God's people on the

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Lord's day. But what do you do with that sense of duty? Does that sense of duty, does that rob your heart of the joy of the obedience of that duty, of following through on that duty?

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In other words, if we come to the point, if our heart gets to the point where we're just doing what we're doing out of a duty, you know,

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I got to do this, kind of an attitude, then my heart is robbed, my life is robbed of the joy of obedience.

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But we can also apply this season of duty in just the routines of life, the humdrum of life.

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You know, most of us have a pretty routine life in terms of what we do every day.

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You know, we have a, basically a set time we get up every day, we do some, most of us do the same kinds of things every day.

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We have the same general schedule every day. And this routine of life, the humdrum of life, can lull us into a sense of, you know, kind of lethargy or apathy or a lack of enthusiasm, a lack of joy,

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I need to guard my heart in those seasons of duty. Number six,

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I need to keep my heart when I've been injured or abused by someone.

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Injured or abused by someone. Again, I realize this is a broad category of, this term covers a broad category of stuff, doesn't it?

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Injured or abused by someone. So let me just throw out a couple of questions here regarding this that can help us discern which aspect of abuse we're talking about.

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Is the injury or the abuse, is this something that love should cover? In other words, is the abuse just a matter of, you know, somebody flying off the handle and saying something mean to me?

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Out of character for them to do so, but they just, you know. Is that something that love should cover?

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All right, let love cover it. But what about this? Is this injury or abuse something that the authorities should handle?

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Has the abuser or the one who's done the injury, have they so violated me that they have violated the law?

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If so, contact the authorities. Your heart will find greater peace and rest in following through that path of justice being meted.

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And then another question, should this injury or abuse, should it be met with confrontation?

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In other words, should I confront the person who has injured or abused me with the goal of reconciliation?

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Many times, yes. That's a whole idea of Matthew 18, right? If a person has done you wrong, to go to that person and deal with them.

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If they won't listen to you, take someone with you and get a witness to the thing.

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And if they still won't deal with it, then take it to the church and let the church deal with that individual.

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Whatever the case, whatever the case, one of the truths that must work in our hearts is the truth that vengeance is mine, says the

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Lord. Vengeance is mine. Here's a quote by Flavel. He says, by revenge, you can but satisfy a lust, a desire.

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But by forgiveness, you shall conquer a lust. All right?

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So, when injured or abused by someone. And then number seven.

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The seventh time to require special diligence. In the critical hour of temptation.

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In the critical hour of temptation. I wanna give you the last two here, just fill in the blanks, but then come back to this.

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Number eight, in times of spiritual darkness and doubt. And number nine, in the time of sickness and the approaching of death.

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I need to keep my heart. Let's go back to this thing, this critical hour of temptation. In the hour of temptation, we need to learn to recognize the lies of Satan, the arguments of Satan that he often uses in temptation.

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Let me give you four of them. One of them is this. He says, this is so pleasurable.

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This is so pleasurable. I keep my heart, in such a case, by responding and saying, is it pleasant to feel the sting of the conscience?

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And to realize that there's more pleasure in saying no and in resisting temptation than there is in yielding to it, regardless of what

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Satan says. Another argument he uses is, hey, no one will ever know. No one will ever know.

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Answer, maybe not, maybe not. Even if no one else ever knows,

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God knows. And even if no one else ever knows but God, God and I know, and I can't escape my own guilty conscience.

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Another argument of Satan. It's just a little thing. It's really no big deal.

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How many times has he used that one on you? It's just a little thing. It's just a little, it's just a little white lie.

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You know, what's the big deal? This is Satan's thing. Here's the reply. So okay, all right.

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So here's the thing. You want me to wound my conscience. You want to destroy the peace of my heart.

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You want to rob me of joy. You want me to grieve the Holy Spirit. And you want me to do all of that for something that's nothing?

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Really? Really? And then a fourth argument.

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Come on, God will forgive you. God will forgive you. Here's your reply to that.

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Where does God promise mercy? Where does God promise mercy to the presumptuous sinner?

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One who sets out intending to sin. Can you, can you guarantee that God is going to be merciful for that presumption?

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So Flavel, on this regard, he quotes, this is a quote from him, and with this we'll have a word of prayer and close.

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Answer this way. If God is such a God of so much mercy, how can I abuse so good a

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God? Shall I take so glorious an attribute as the mercy of God and abuse it unto sin?

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Shall I wrong him because he is good? Or should not the goodness of God lead me to repentance?

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Yeah, need to keep our hearts in this season of temptation.

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Well, let's close in prayer and end this series on the heart. And next week we'll begin something new.

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Let's pray. So our Father and our God, we do recognize this morning, just, it is so critical that we keep our heart with all diligence.

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Everyone in this room knows that from our heart spring forth all the issues of life.

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And we have all experienced some of those issues being unpleasant because we haven't kept the heart.

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Lord, I pray that this series has opened our eyes to the different chambers of the heart and therefore different strategies for dealing with different parts of our heart, aspects of our heart.

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And I pray, Father, we would be much more diligent in keeping our heart. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

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All right, very good. So Lord, I bless these thoughts to your heart and your heart.