Proverbs 4: Guard Your Heart

Proverbs 4 and the Meaning of Guarding Your Heart

Okay, so we're continuing our series in the book of Proverbs, and the title of this lesson is Guard Your Heart. All right, just a couple of quick review points. Proverbs is wisdom literature, remember, so it is interpreted somewhat differently than regular didactic material.

The purpose of the book is to make one wise, and we've got a working definition of what wisdom is, and wisdom is the ability to handle life with skill. Proverbs addresses all areas of life, but in a very practical manner.

It's not just theory. It is meant to be put into practice, and this morning we're going to examine guarding your.

Heart.

All right, and our beginning text, in fact, we only have one text to begin with from Proverbs, and then we're going to be jumping around, is Proverbs 4 .23, watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.

Now, before we continue, I just want to say this, a lot of times, especially when we come to the book of Proverbs, and we read a verse such as this one, and we say, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, we just have it, yeah, I know that, all right?

The point is, these verses are included in the book of Proverbs for some very specific reasons, and if we don't stop and pause and reflect on it, and say, what does it say, that's not enough. It's, all right, how do I apply that to my life?

If you're not applying it to your life, then you might as well go read the Reader's Digest, okay, which I like to read, by the way, so, but anyway, if nothing else but for the jokes, yes, no, no, that's, we're going to get into that, that's one of the first things.

So the introduction, everybody remembers the old tin man, remember what he said, if I only had a heart, all right, yeah, I couldn't get the music for it, otherwise I would have played the song, all right?

The heart is a familiar theme in literature, television, the movies, and that's why I put the picture of the tin man, just to show how much, you know, his goal was he needed a heart, and when they made him, they never gave him a heart.

In fact, you'll often hear expressions concerning the heart such as this, oh, he's got a lot of heart, all right, or the problem you're having is you're thinking with your head, you've got to feel with your heart.

You've heard expressions like that, and you could probably come up with a bunch more. And too often, Christians fall into the trap of applying psychological concepts of the heart instead of biblical concepts, and that's what we always have to do.

So John was right on target by, you know, we're told to watch over our hearts or guard.

Our hearts.

The Heart as the Center of the Inner Man

What is the heart? That's one of the most important questions. Applying psychological concepts will always lead to problems, and what we see, especially in our society, what the Bible categorizes as sin is often reclassified as sickness or disease, you know.

I've got the sickness of greed.

No.

You're a sinner, and greed is sinful, okay? And this is especially true when it comes to issues of the heart. So what is the heart? So I am going to answer your question. First, the misconception. This is the biggest misconception.

The heart feels, the head thinks. That's not what the Bible teaches. In other words, what people mean by that is the head, the mind, is the seat of the intellect, and the heart is the seat of the emotions.

And you'll even hear people say, yeah, there's a disconnect between his head and his heart. We've all heard things like that. So this is absolutely an erroneous view of the makeup of the human being. And by the way, this is a relatively modern concept, and it is absolutely foreign to the.

Bible.

If the Bible makes a distinction between thinking and feeling, this is how it does it. It says the heart, a man thinks in his heart, he feels with the bowels. And you'll see that. I got a couple of verses that show that exactly.

In Hebrew literature, and even in Greek literature, when they wanted to talk about emotion, they talk about the bowels. I feel it like in my gut. It's a visceral type of thing. Proverbs 23 .7 shows this, for as he thinketh in his heart, notice there you have one verse right up front, talking about the heart thinking.

And then I took this from the King James Version, for God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. There's that idea of the guttural type of thing. I can feel it. You even heard people say things like that, a young man saying, I love this girl so much, it hurts in my gut, I love her so much.

By the way, that's a biblical expression, so it's okay to say that. So what is the heart? I'm going to go through a few things here. First is the center of vitality. What do we mean by that? Abraham speaking in Genesis 18 .5, and you're going to notice that I'm going back and forth between King James Version and the New American Standard to show the difference, how the earlier translators translated some of the verses.

Same concept, but just using different words. I will fetch a morsel of bread and comfort ye your hearts. Notice refreshing with bread is going to affect the heart. Comfort ye your hearts. Now, here's the New American Standard.

I will bring a piece of bread that you may refresh yourselves, that after that you may go on since you have visited your servant, and they said, so do as you have said. But there you're starting to get the idea that the heart is more than just the seat of emotion, but it's actually a seat of vitality.

It's also considered the center of thinking in Scripture. Proverbs 3, 23, 7, for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Again, there you have the concept of the heart thinking. Moses speaking in Deuteronomy 7, 17, if you should say in your heart, look at that, so there he's actually having a conversation in his heart, and clearly it's not talking about the emotions.

It's the center of reflection or meditation. Deuteronomy 8, 5, thus you are to know in your heart, alright, so there you see some sort of knowledge that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son, alright.

It's the center of belief. Romans 10, 9, and 10, we all know these verses, but look very carefully. If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, again, that's not an emotional thing.

It's an intellectual thing, alright. For with the heart man believes, alright. See, what happens is too often, we know these are familiar verses. We recite them, but we're not stopping and reflecting and saying, what does it really.

Mean?

So it's talking about a heart issue, alright. It's the seat of courage. Psalm 27, 14, wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord. It's the seat of the conscience.

First Samuel 24, 5, and it came to pass that David's heart smote him. Notice that. David's heart smote him, alright. It's the conscience, and in fact, if you look at the New American Standard, and it came about after that David's conscience bothered him.

That's the more modern translation, but you see, it comes, the two concepts mean exactly the same thing. It's the seat of volition, in other words, the will, alright. Deuteronomy 6, 5 to 6, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

So notice, you shall love with all your heart. What does that mean? You say, well, that's strictly emotion. No, it's not. Remember, biblical love is not merely an emotion, it's a commitment. How many guys in here, well, all the older guys here are married, or have been married, or are going to get married.

You guys are going to get married one day. I promise you.

Alright.

You ever have a point where you look at your wife, the woman that you love, and you really don't like her at the moment? I'm not looking for a show of hands.

You're not going to get it.

Don't set me up like that. That could have gone bad 16 different ways. But my point is, you can get into an argument or a discussion with your wife, and you're really not liking her right then, but you don't stop loving her.

You know, because love is more than just the emotion. So there's still that commitment. Love is primarily, according to the scripture, is a commitment, and it's always followed by some sort of action.

Alright.

So it's the seed of God's law, Romans 2 .15, in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts.

Okay.

Their conscience bearing witness, their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them. That's God's law, and it's in the heart. Deuteronomy 6 .6, and these words which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.

It is the seed of emotion. Now, this is where we, most people think of it, and so I don't want to leave it.

Out.

I don't want you to get the idea that it has nothing to do with emotions, because it does. We are emotional creatures.

Alright.

Psalm 47, thou hast put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and new wine abound. New wine puts gladness in your heart, too, by the way. And that's not a bad thing. Drunkenness is a bad thing.

Psalm 13, too, how long shall I take counsel in my soul having sorrow in my heart all the day? So it is the seed of emotions.

Alright.

But notice it's much, much more than that. Leviticus 19 .7, you shall not hate your fellow countrymen in your heart.

Alright.

Wide range of emotions that all are coming from the heart. So then, what is the heart? In biblical terminology, the heart is the whole inner man. We, in our theology, are you guys familiar with the terms, the difference between a view of the man as a dichotomy or a trichotomy?

Does that ring a bell to any?

Alright.

Alright.

We believe that the scripture teaches that there's only two parts to a human being.

Alright.

The inner man and the outer man.

Alright.

Some evangelical scholars will teach that there's actually a three part, a trichotomy. Soul, spirit, and body.

Alright.

We believe that the Bible teaches that the soul and the spirit are just two different aspects, like we've talked about all these things as part of the inner man.

Alright.

The Bible speaks of two parts, the inner man and the outer man. That's what we see. The inner man is made up of your soul, your spirit, your mind, your will, your emotions. It's multifaceted. It's not just broken into two parts.

It's multifaceted, but you can't separate them. You can't say, okay, you know, my mind tells me to do this, but my heart tells me to do that.

No.

It's exactly right. It's the same thing.

Alright.

So, what the Bible means is we have the outer man.

Alright.

Let's look at it here. Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, that's this body. Okay. Yet, our inner man is being renewed day by day. So, even though we get older in this world and the outer man starts to decay, starts to break down because of sin, the inner man is being renewed and strengthened more and more and is the product of progressive sanctification.

Okay.

There's no distinction between the soul and the spirit. Just two different concepts within the same body. Okay. The heart in Scripture, then, is who you are. It's who you are. It's what makes you uniquely you.

Why the Heart Must Be Guarded

So, then, how do we evaluate the heart? Because we're told, Proverbs 23, 7, that we're told right from the beginning that we are to guard our hearts. So, how do we do this? Proverbs 4, 23. Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.

Now, here's the King James Version. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. And I've chosen to use the term, guard your heart, because the words that are used there, watch over your heart and keep your heart, have a military aspect to them of guarding, walking the walls.

All right.

Now, the text is clear that we are to guard our hearts, but it's also clear about the reason. Why is it so important and why would we find so many different verses in Proverbs about guarding the heart?

The reason, for from it flow the springs of life. You following? What are the springs of life? Everything to do with your life here on earth.

All right.

From it flow the springs of life. It's from the heart. So, let's examine that a little bit more, for out of it are the issues of life, two different ways. Proverbs 23, 7, for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.

You have to look at this. This verse is often misquoted or misused, misapplied.

All right.

It's not a positive thinking that whatever you think you are, you can be. You know. It's not like the army, you know, be all you can be.

All right.

That's not what it's saying. What it's saying is the thinking, what you believe in your heart is who you are and that's going to play out in life. So, it's not encouraging. It's just, again, Proverbs very often does this, just gives a statement, a fact.

It's not really teaching. It's not meant to teach anything in particular, but it's just telling you that you need to guard your heart.

Why?

Because what's in your heart is going to determine what you do, and I'm going to follow up on that a little bit. Beliefs and attitudes have consequences. What you believe is going to affect how you live your life.

What you believe on the inside determines how you will live in the world.

All right.

In fact, somebody sticks up a bank and they steal money. Does that make them a thief? In one sense, yes, but they're actually, why did they stick up the bank? Because they're a thief. Now, it doesn't become a reality until you actually do it, but yes.

Yep. Yep.

Okay. So, sooner or later, what you believe will be manifested in this life. Ideas have consequences. If you don't think right, you won't live right, which leads us to doctrine affects life. This is why we emphasize doctrine so strongly in this church, is because your belief in who you believe God is, who you believe Jesus Christ is, what you believe the Bible is, those thoughts have consequences.

And if you're starting, if your epistemology is wrong, all right, it's going to manifest in how you actually live your life. Jesus taught this principle in his analogy of the fruit tree in Matthew 12.

I'm only just quoting one verse, but the good man, all right, out of his good treasure, what's his good treasure? The heart, all right, brings forth what is good. The evil man, out of his evil treasure, brings forth what is evil.

It's just a fact of life. And he continues, also in Matthew 15, but the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. Remember, this was when people were talking about what they eat, and Jesus says, you're so concerned about not breaking the dietary laws.

He says, but it's not what goes into your mouth. In fact, he gets very graphic. He says, what goes into your mouth goes down, and it's eliminated. He says, that's not what defiles you. What defiles you is what comes out of your mouth.

Why? Because it comes from the heart.

Yeah, yeah.

Has everybody here seen that illustration?

All right.

We're going to have to pretend because I don't have the cup of water with me. Let's pretend this is a cup of water, okay? And if I were to punch, and it's full, and if I were to punch the cup, the water would come up and splash on the floor.

Now, those of you who have never seen it are free to answer. Those of you who have seen it, don't answer. The question is, why is there water on the floor? Yeah, no, no. That's not the answer. That's not why there's water.

The punch is incidental. Why is there water on the floor? Yeah, see, you know it before. No, you get a demerit. If the cup is full of tea, and I punch, is water going to be on the floor?

No.

Tea will be on the floor. So, somebody aggravates you, and cursing comes out of your mouth. Why did you curse? Because somebody harmed you? No, that's incidental. If there's no cursing in the heart, there's no cursing coming out of the mouth.

That's what Jesus is teaching. Okay, so it depends. Everybody says, oh, it's the punch. No, you can be punched without, in fact, if the cup was empty, then you punch it. What's going to come out? Nothing.

Okay. All right, how does one evaluate his heart in light of the Scripture? Because of this. The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it?

The heart.

All right.

So then, if you're dependent upon your heart to evaluate itself, what can you pretty much guarantee? Sure, because the heart is more deceitful. What does the Apostle Paul say? That we are not to think more highly than we ought to think.

All right.

And that's what we all have a tendency to do. Who can understand the heart? So any evaluation of the heart must be done by the mirror of Scripture.

Yes.

Sure. Sure.

Yeah, and that's why it's so important that we interpret the Scripture right. It says you were dead, you were dead in your trespasses and sin. And we have to take it at that. Now, I know something about death.

All right.

For eight years, I investigated homicides. And in all of those eight years, never once in all of that time did one of those corpses tell me who killed him. And I pleaded with him. I go down to the morgue and I'd say, hey, buddy, come on.

Just tell me who did this and we can wrap this whole thing up. I can go home to my wife. Not once. Now, why? Why do you think that is?

Yeah.

Because they were dead. They were dead. Yeah, that's true.

All right.

So any evaluation must be done by Scripture because the heart is more deceitful. Motivational speakers, depending on who they are, if you listen to them, a lot of what they do is actually biblical principles.

If they can convince you to reach your potential, your maximum, there's nothing wrong with a motivational speaker. The problem with them is they're leaning mostly on yourself. They're big into self-esteem.

And we're not dependent upon our own self-esteem to be all that we can be.

All right.

What we would advocate would be you need to progress in your sanctification. And as you do that, you're going to become a better person. You're going to be able to do more than you think you can do. Look, we can all do more than we think we can do.

What does the Bible say about how we're made? We are fearfully and wonderfully made. I look at I mentioned this in a sermon not that long ago that I used to be I ran track in high school. And the one year, my junior year, I moved from half a mile to a mile.

I hated it. I hated it.

And I was never that good, but I ran a mile down close to five minutes.

All right.

Again, it's not that great, but it was the best that I could do. And now I'm looking at these marathon runners, and they're averaging five-minute miles for 26 miles. I can't imagine that. I collapsed after one mile of running it in five minutes.

The human body is amazing how God has constructed it. So, I mean, we are capable. And if a motivational speaker just taps in to show you that, he's not necessarily wrong. But most of them go way wrong because they're talking about it's just you.

It's yourself.

You don't need you know. You got to be careful.

Yes.

Excellent. Yeah, that was an excellent point.

All right.

Guarding the Heart by Grace, Scripture, and Sanctification

So, any evaluation at heart must be done by Scripture because man will always think more highly of himself than he ought to think. So, how do you guard your heart then? First and foremost, you need to understand it takes the grace of God.

If you are going to guard your heart, as we're told to in Scripture, you have to understand that I can't do this by myself, contrary to what the motivational speakers say.

All right.

But I need the grace of God. Ezekiel 11, starting verse 19. Notice what he's talking about radical transplant, radical heart transplant here. By the way, these verses, especially this one, is the essence of the covenant.

If you talk about the covenant we have with God in very simple terms, this is the end. We are his people and he is our God. That's the goal. That only happens when you're given a new heart because the heart of stone will never turn to God.

It's not even able to do so. But as for those whose hearts go after detestable things and abominations, I shall bring their conduct down on their heads, declares the Lord. Jeremiah 31, 33. But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.

I will put my law within them and on their heart. I will write it and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

OK.

Psalm 51, 10, famous Psalm of David, after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and repents. He says, created me a clean heart. Oh, God. And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Notice, you have to, any renewal, any turning, any repentance must start with the grace of God.

In other words, you must be born again. It's that simple. John 3, 3. Jesus answered and said to him, this is Nicodemus he's talking to. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Being born again is just that what we read in Ezekiel, taking the heart of stone, getting the heart of flesh. Second way you guard your heart is by studying the word. Again, because the word is the mirror.

You can't, you know what we all do? And this, I mean everybody. We have a tendency of evaluating ourselves based upon what we see in other people.

OK.

And I can, and I can be either positive or negative. You know, I know people who come into the church and they look around and say, oh man, I can't come to this church because everybody's so godly here.

And after I choke, and I say, you don't know the half of it. And, you know, sometimes I wish I could point out, you know him? Let me tell you about him. The confidentiality prohibits me from doing that, you know, but people have.

Well, it would start with me. Well, I've told you this story of the woman who came to me one day and she said, Pastor, you know, you're the only man in my whole life that has never let me down. I told her, stick around, I will.

Because the only thing that we can use as a standard is the word of God. Second Timothy 2, remind him of these things, solemnly charge them in the presence of God, not to wrangle about words.

All right.

Which is useless, but be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth. That's why we're spending so much time. Wednesday, we're going through inerrancy.

You have to be able to know the Bible, know what, how to translate it, etc. And then we're going to follow that up with hermeneutics translation. How do we interpret the scriptures accurately and not according to our own particular bent?

Third, by developing an active prayer life. And we went through this quite extensively in our spiritual depression lectures. Fourth, by developing an attitude of praise and thanksgiving. Again, we've talked about this often and how we must always be in an attitude of prayer and thanksgiving.

Not that we're always praying, but that we have that attitude. Fifth, by thinking the right thoughts. How do we do that? The word of God. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute.

And then he has the catch-all, says they love to call it in legal circles. If there is any excellence, anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things. Now, these concepts, each one of those, I actually preached a sermon on each one of those ideas.

So, to try to go through them this morning would be, it's just not possible. But you get the idea. Do a little study for yourself. Whatever is true, whatever is not. What do those concepts mean? Sixth, by practicing godliness.

And notice, we just have to go one more verse. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace shall be with you. Interestingly enough, notice now, the things that he's telling you in concept, put into practice.

And that's so important. Because, again, Proverbs is a very practical book. If you're not putting the things in practice that you're reading, then, again, go read the Reader's Digest, because you're not going to do any good.

Okay?

And, oh, and also, by the way, remember, we looked at these verses in light of spiritual depression and the cure for anxiety. If you go up to, two verses up, I believe it is, it begins with the peace of God which passes all understanding.

All right?

That's how it begins. We'll guard your hearts and minds, right? Notice when you come down to the ending of it, and the God of peace will be with you. This whole concept is within the peace of God. Well, yeah.

I mean, we hold that the scripture, and the scripture alone is absolute truth. And what are you talking about?

Oh, yes.

Yes. It's mine, by the way. No, I'm not.

Yes.

Yeah, because God is truth. That's one of the things.

Sure.

Sure.

And that's why we keep coming back to the Word of God. The answer to all of these questions is the Word of God. Yeah. Am I progressing in my sanctification? Which is a question that all of us need to ask from time to time.

How do I know that? Well, I've got to go to the Word. I can't look at my neighbor and say, well, I'm two steps ahead of him. I'm not as good as him. Because that's all subjective. So, yeah, truth is not relative.

It is found in Christ. And, in fact, what did Christ say in John 17? Sanctify them in thy truth. Thy word is truth. Seventh, fellowship of the saints. And this is a crucial one. Hebrews 1024, let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

All right.

Not forsaking our own assembling together. This is why we stood so strong during the pandemic of whatever we could in some way encouraging fellowship, encouraging one another. Eighth, don't discount the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

Without the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, all of your efforts are going to be for naught. So, guarding your heart then means a complete transformation. Romans 12, 1 and 2. I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is spiritual service of worship.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And this word here, transformed, is metamorphosis. In other words, like what happens to a caterpillar coming out of the cocoon as a butterfly.

By the renewing of your mind. How is your mind renewed? Reading the scriptures, sitting under, making diligent use of the means of grace.

Questions? Okay. Yes.

Yeah, for sure.

A worldview is foundational for everything that we do. Because your worldview is going to be determined by your epistemology, what you believe, what is your source of truth. And of course, with us, ultimately, it's Sola Scriptura.

Now that's not to say, and as you'll see as we go through Wednesday evenings, that's not to say that we don't have any other norms other than scripture. Confessions and creeds are normative to an extent, as long as they're in subjection to the supreme norm.

And you'll see that's why they use the term, the Bible is the supreme norm. I'm getting way ahead of myself. But on Wednesday, you see, why did they choose that the Bible is the supreme norm? Because there are other norms.

For us, it's the 1689. How is it a norm? If you don't hold to it, you can't join this church. So it's normative. We're not saying it's infallible. Does that make sense? Go ahead, John. Jeremiah 17. I just had it up there.

That's why we have the scripture.

Right.

Yeah. Well, think of it this way. That's why I went through being born again. How many times has the average person heard the gospel and just dismissed it? Until what? Until the Lord opens the heart. That's why we need the grace of God.

We are so far depraved, even in our thinking. And when I say depraved, I don't mean that they're all ax murderers or anything like that. But, I mean, we just don't want to hear that until God opens the heart.

And it's that radical change in the heart that allows us. It's like the scales fall off your eyes. You can see.

Wow.

I'm a sinner. I didn't realize that. Any other thoughts or questions? In Homicide, we had a different version of Rudyard Kipling's poem. We had it said that, you know, if you can keep your head when all others around you are losing theirs, you simply don't understand the situation.

Okay.