FBC Adult Bible Study

Keeping the Heart with All Diligence

It takes three steps forwards and sometimes it's two steps backwards, sometimes it's one, sometimes it's three. But she's making progress, so we're thankful for that. Many of you got the prayer request for Kyle Young last night, haven't gotten an update yet as to what the condition is, so want to continue to pray for him.

Were there any other requests? I should have asked that before. It would be next Sunday, this whole Sunday School series on the heart, and titled With All Your Heart, and we've talked about the definition of the heart.

I have that on your handout for you. This is the, we've been just presenting this, keeping this in front of us every week just to, just so it gets firmly implanted in our minds. That when the Bible talks about the heart, sometimes it talks about, it talks about the heart in its simplicity.

That is, it is a unit, the whole heart, and speaks of the unity of our inner being. But sometimes the word is used in its more complex form. When we talk about the heart, we may be talking about one of the three chambers of the heart.

When the Bible does. So we may be talking about the mind, what we know, or the desires, what we love, or our will, what we choose. And so sometimes the word heart, or the concept of the heart in the scriptures can be referring to any one of those three chambers of the heart.

So that's good to keep in mind and remember. When you come across the word heart in your Bible reading, most of the time, just by looking at the context, the verse, you can discern whether the verse is talking about your mind, or your desires, or your will.

So just knowing that can be very helpful, even in understanding the Bible. Well, the verse I want to focus on today and next Sunday morning, to wrap this all up, is the verse in Proverbs 4 .23, which says, Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.

We've looked at this verse a few times in this series. But the reason I'm focusing, zeroing in on this verse, is a different book that was written a few hundred years ago. So this whole series was based on a book recently written by Craig Troxell, as he really does the analysis, the analyzing of the heart, the breaking it down in its components and all that kind of thing.

But an old Puritan by the name of John Flavell wrote a book entitled Keeping the Heart. He actually preached a series of messages entitled Keeping the Heart, which became a book. So I have a copy of it here, it's a thin volume.

And nicely, the type setting in this book, sometimes these Puritan books that you read, the type is really small and tight, and they pack a ton in a page. This one is very well nicely laid out. The type is large and there are nice margins on it, so it's easy to read, it's a fairly quick read.

But anyway, this book is very helpful because he takes, Flavell takes the whole volume and just focuses on this one verse, keeping your heart, keep your heart with all diligence. And so what I wanted to do today and next Sunday is just really summarize what Flavell has in that book, because this is really where the rubber meets the road.

It's one thing to understand what our heart is and the chambers of the heart and so forth, but it's another thing to keep the heart. This is where it gets practical, this is where it gets vital. And so I thought it'd be very helpful to us to kind of look at this in a little more detail, this application phase of our study.

So, and I'm not going to keep saying this, Flavell says, Flavell says, everything that we're covering today is from Flavell's analysis and his messages that he preached on this very subject. So first of all, notice five acts, five acts to keep the heart carefully.

Five things to do to keep the heart carefully. And number one, and I am just going to, I'm just taking these out of his writing so the language may be a little archaic from our standpoint, just some of the terminology and so forth.

But number one, what do we do to keep the heart? Number one, frequent observation of the frame of your heart. Frequent observation of the frame of your heart. And what he's getting at here is actually taking the time to think about the state of my heart.

You know, what is the frame of my, and remember the three chambers of the heart. What is the frame of my heart? What is, what's going on in my thinking? What am I thinking about? What are my desires? What direction am I choosing in my will?

You see, actually thinking about these things, observing what's going on in my mind, my desires, my will. What's going on there? So for example, a couple of scriptural examples of this taking place, Psalm 4 .4 says, be angry and do not sin.

All right?

There's the exhortation. Be angry and do not sin. Then it says, meditate within your own heart on your bed and be still.

All right?

Now, isn't it interesting that juxtaposition of those two statements? Be angry and don't sin. Meditate within your heart on your own bed and be still.

All right?

So what that verse seems to be saying is, you are inclined to act in anger, and before you do that, you better stop and think about, you better stop and think about your heart, the frame of your heart.

What is it that's causing you to be angry? What are you wanting to do about that anger? What are the desires that are behind that anger? Where is your will taking you in the expression of that anger? Be angry.

You may have a legitimate reason to be angry, but in your anger, don't sin. How can I not sin in my anger? Meditate upon your heart, you know? Observe what's going on in your heart. And then another verse that appears, same idea, three different times in Psalms 42 and 43, Psalm 42, 5, and 11, and then the end of Psalm 43, where the psalmist stops and asks his heart a question.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? You see what he's doing? He's talking to himself, but he's thinking about the frame of his heart. Why are you cast down? Why are you feeling the way you are feeling?

Why are you thinking the things you're thinking? Why are you desiring what you're desiring? Why are you wanting to go that way? The way that, and you've been here before, right? You've been discouraged, you've been downcast, and that frame of your heart is taking you in a particular direction.

It's leading you to make certain choices. It's very, very almost expected. So stop and think, observe the frame of your heart. Number two, what to do to keep the heart. Number two, deep humiliation for the heart's evils and disorders.

Deep humiliation for the heart's evils and disorders. Let's turn to 2 Chronicles 32. Yeah, 2 Chronicles 32, and I'm going to show you this in action, where there is humiliation for the evils of the heart for the disorders of the heart.

King Hezekiah, you remember the reign of King Hezekiah? King Hezekiah was a good king, one of the few good kings in Israel-Judah, and Hezekiah got a little proud, got a little arrogant, had these emissaries from Babylon come, and Hezekiah showed them all this stuff and everything.

And verse 23 says, many brought gifts to the Lord at Jerusalem in presence to Hezekiah, king of Judah, so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations. Well, the Lord wanted to deal with that pride, and so it says in verse 24, in those days Hezekiah was sick and near death, and he prayed to the Lord and he spoke to him and gave him a sign, but Hezekiah did not repay according to the favors shown him, for his heart was lifted up.

Therefore, wrath was looming over him and over Judah and Jerusalem. Alright, so his heart got proud, and he needed to do something about that heart. What did he do? Verse 26, then Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah.

So when Hezekiah is confronted about the evil and the disorder of his heart, he didn't defy that confrontation, which is the response of the rebel, the response of the stubborn, the stiff-necked and stubborn-hearted person.

Instead, what he did was he humbled himself for the pride of his heart, so deep humiliation for the heart's evils and disorders. Then number three, what do we do to keep the heart carefully? Number three, earnest supplication and instant prayer for purifying and rectifying grace when sin has defiled and disordered it.

Now that says a lot, that's a mouthful, isn't it? Let's break that down a little bit. Earnest supplication, supplication of course is another word for prayer, but it implies asking for something in particular.

Earnest supplication and instant prayer, that means right away prayer, as soon as you're aware of it, prayer. Earnest supplication and instant prayer for what? For purifying grace when sin has defiled and disordered your heart, and for rectifying grace when sin has defiled and disordered your heart.

Let me show you an example of this, in Psalm 19, verse 12, Psalm 19 you may remember is the Psalm about, it's the Psalm about God's revelation. The first half of the Psalm talks about his general revelation, God revealing himself in creation, then the next section in the Psalm, verses 7 through 11, talk about God's special revelation, his revealed word, the law of the Lord is perfect and so forth.

But then look at verse 12, in verse 12, it says, who can understand his errors and here's the prayer, cleanse me from secret faults, cleanse me from secret faults, the sins that I know about in my own heart and nobody else does, and nobody else necessarily should in those cases, they're secret.

The circle of confession is the circle of knowledge, right? The Lord knows what's in my heart, he knows the secrets of my heart, he beseeches the Lord to cleanse him, alright? So cleansing, this is cleansing grace, and another example of this is Psalm 51, right?

David's penitential Psalm after his sin with Bathsheba and the arranged execution of Uriah her husband, horrible sins, and Psalm 51 is really a Psalm that David is acknowledging his sin, but then he's praying for the Lord to cleanse him from that wickedness, from that sin, and there are several different places in that Psalm, the early part of it, where he talks about cleansing, you know, purge me with hyssop, for example, cleanse my transgressions and so forth.

So that's the purifying grace that we seek in prayer, how do I keep my heart when I'm aware of the defilement and the disorder of my heart, I go to the Lord in prayer about it, I don't delay, I don't put it off, I go to the Lord in prayer about it, I go right away to the Lord in prayer about it, praying for cleansing from that sin of my heart.

But then Psalm 8611 is the prayer for rectifying grace, to rectify, to correct, to bring back to a state of wholeness. Psalm 8611 says, teach me your way, O Lord, I will walk in your truth, and then here, notice this last part of the verse, and this really, this verse really brings together our study on the chambers of the heart, right, we have those three chambers, our mind, our desires, our will.

And the last part of verse 11 says, unite my heart to fear your name, bring together those three chambers so that they're united in the fearing of your name. This is a prayer for rectifying grace, where I'm asking the Lord, alright, my heart has been defiled and disordered, because my thinking was messed up, my desires were corrupted, my will, I chose the wrong thing.

And most of the time there is an interplay between those three things. I choose the wrong thing because I wanted the wrong thing, I wanted the wrong thing because I was thinking the wrong thing, alright.

And so what the psalmist is praying here is that, not only do I just make the right choices, you can do that, right, you can, you can do the right thing, but not want to, right. And you can do the right thing and want the right thing, but for the wrong reasons, your thinking can be messed up.

So the psalmist prays for rectifying grace where the mind, the desires, and the will are all brought together, they're all united in the fear of the Lord. So pray for purifying and rectifying grace. Number four, impose, imposing personal restrictions and maintaining careful avoidance of occasions that induce your heart to sin.

Look at that again, imposing personal restrictions. What does that mean? Fencing yourself in. Maintaining careful avoidance, staying away from occasions that induce your heart to sin. Alright, so for example, in Matthew 5 verse 30, the Lord, the Lord tells you, the Lord says in his sermon on the mount, if your right hand offends you, what are you to do?

Cut it off. If your right eye offends you, what are you to do? Pluck it out. Right? So what is he talking about there? That's the, that's a very graphic way of expressing this idea of imposing personal restrictions.

Alright, it, my, my right hand keeps offending me. What do I need to do about that? I need to impose a personal restriction. How can I restrict my right hand from offending me? Lop it off. You see, now again, that shouldn't be taken literally obviously, but it's illustrating that we need to take radical action to restrict ourselves when we know that our heart keeps going in this, in this, uh, in this wrong direction.

We want to keep our heart by imposing certain restrictions sometimes and, and, and they can be very personal. Notice he says imposing personal restrictions, the restrictions that you place on yourself because of what's going on in your heart, mind, desires, will may be different from what the restrictions that I would place on myself.

Okay. And then a third or another, uh, idea here, imposing personal restrictions and maintaining careful avoidance of occasions that induce your heart to sin. So for example, in, um, the new Testament, first Corinthians six verse 18, Paul says, flee from fornication, flee from it, run away from it.

And obviously he's not simply talking there about the actual act of fornication, right? Flee from anything that's going to take you down that path of, of, of any, any form of sexual immorality, flee from it, run from it.

That's careful avoidance. In, uh, first Corinthians 10, 14, he says, flee from idolatry, flee from idolatry. And again, uh, in the 21st century, you know, we're, we're outside of the context of literal, um, um, metallic or wooden gods that have been crafted that we put up on our shelves.

But that doesn't mean idolatry is dead by any stretch of the magic. And you know that, you know that our culture, our world is filled with potential idols. In fact, a television show is named that very thing, right?

American what? American idol. And why is it named that? Because it recognizes the propensity of our culture to elevate people to some status of, of near Godhood. And so, so highly elevated that they think, and a lot of people believe that whatever they have to say about a subject, that it must be what we need to accept.

So you get celebrity idols that spout off something related, something political and, or some, something more, some, some opinion on morality. And it is expected that that be accepted. Why? Because the idol says so.

So we have idols in our day. They're people, they're things, they're ideas, um, they're jobs and so forth, careers or whatever. But we're to flee from those things. If those, those things or people take on a, a, a, a dominance in our lives that will lead our heart astray, our heart in its, in any of its chambers, what we think, what we desire, what we choose, then we are to flee from those idols.

In 2 Timothy 2, 22, Paul tells his young, his young protege Timothy, Pastor Timothy, he says to him, flee youthful lusts, youthful desires, not limited to desires sexual, but desires of any kind that would be typical of, of youth.

Maybe the desire for prominence, maybe the desire for certain kinds of experience. It, it may be the, the desire to, to have one's way and so forth. There are all kinds of youthful desires. Those things will lead your heart astray, flee those things.

So impose personal restrictions and maintain careful avoidance of occasions that induce your heart to sin. And then number five, five acts we're talking about. Number five, realize God's continual presence with us.

Realize God's continual presence with us. So, 2 Chronicles 16, 9 says the eyes of the Lord run to and fro, to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in behalf of those whose heart is whole or perfect before him.

There again, we have a wonderful expression that, that brings together our study on the chambers of the heart. The heart that is, the Lord is looking for the person whose heart is perfect toward him. That doesn't mean, that doesn't mean sin without any sin.

I mean that, that, that is an impossibility. What is he talking about? The heart that is whole, that is complete, that is united before him. So the, the integration of thinking, and desiring, and choosing.

The Lord is looking for the person whose mind informs his desires that inform his will. And they're all, they're all in a symphonic balance, if you will. They're all working in harmony together. The Lord is, the Lord is looking.

The Lord is looking for our hearts to be like that. Always. Constantly. Right now. Tomorrow. At work. Wherever you are. Always. So realize that the Lord is continually with us. Psalm 139, verses 8 and 9, familiar verses, you know, where can I go, verse 7, where can I go from your spirit, where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in the lowest parts of the earth, in, in, in hell, the King James translates it, behold, you are there. It's not literally talking about the burning lake of fire.

The word hell is, is talking about the lowest parts of the earth. If I go to the highest parts of the heavens or the lowest parts of the earth, wherever I go is the point. You are there. You are there.

Some of you have been watching that series, The Chosen series. Some, anybody, anybody here watching that? Okay. So if you watched the latest episode, which is, it aired last Sunday night, Chris and I watched it last evening.

And in that series, we talked about, in that episode, Jesus casts out a demon of a guy. But, but the, the episode is bookended with this, with this passage where Mary Magdalene is learning, memorizing this passage.

And Matthew is memorizing this, these couple of verses from the Psalms. And so that's how it starts off. And then she's, Mary is teaching, Mary Magdalene is teaching, what's her name? The Thomas's, the girl that Thomas wants, you know, to marry someday.

I, I, I keep thinking Raina, like Gordon and Raina Taylor. It's not her name, but anyway, something like that. And, and Mary Magdalene is teaching this Raina the Hebrew and teaching her this verse. And at the end of the episode, Mary Magdalene, I don't know what she's doing.

She's gone into Jericho and she's gone off by herself after this episode. Of course, Mary Magdalene, you remember is, I mean, Jesus casts seven demons out of her. And this whole episode with the demoniac, where Jesus casts a demon, it's, it's tripped something in her, triggered something.

And so she's gone into Jericho and this is how the episode ends. Jesus sends Peter and Matthew to go find Mary. And Jesus says to, Jesus says to Matthew, what's the, what's the verse you were working on memorizing?

What were you working on memorizing? Passage. And Matthew says, if I send to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in the lowest places of the earth, behold, you are there. And Jesus says, as they leave, keep that passage in mind as you go.

Keep it in mind as you go. We ought to all keep this in mind as we go, that the Lord is ever with us. The Lord is always present. So those five acts can be helpful in keeping the heart. Why should we do so?

Why should we make this such a priority? Well, here are six reasons. Here are six reasons. Number one, the glory of God is concerned with it. The glory of God is concerned with it. So let me show you, turn to Numbers chapter 20, Numbers 20, verses 10 through 12.

And I want to show you a, a Psalms comment on this. Psalm 106. So in Numbers 20, the children of Israel are wandering in the wilderness. This is the second time they've run out of water and they're complaining to Moses about it.

The second occasion where water would come from a rock. The first occasion, the Lord God told Moses, strike the rock and water will gush forth. Moses did so. The second occasion, the people come and complain to Moses because they don't have anything to drink.

And Moses is ticked because they're complaining, uh, complaining to him again. He goes, Lord, what am I supposed to do with these people? So in, um, verse 10, the Lord says, take the rod that's in your hand.

And then he says, verse eight, speak to the rock before their eyes and it will yield its waters. All right. So the Lord's will, what the Lord has revealed is very clear. This is what you are to do. This is what you are to think.

This is how you are to think. You're to think my thoughts. You are to think what I've told you to do. This is what you are to desire. You are to desire to honor me and to hallow me before the people. And here's how you will do so.

You will speak to the rock. This is the instruction I'm giving you. So when it's time for you to act, the choice you make needs to be to speak to the rock so that water will gush forth. All right. Now, verse 10 says Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock.

And he said to them, here are now you rebels. Must we bring water before you? Must we bring water for you out of this rock? You see how his thinking has become distorted and rather than glorifying God, but hallowing God before the people, what is he doing?

He's hallowing himself. Must we bring forth a water for you out of this rock? And we, as in Aaron and I, then Moses lifted up his hand and in his anger, he struck the rock twice with his rod. God in his grace still had the water come out.

But what was he supposed to do? He was supposed to speak. What was he supposed to want? God to be glorified. What was his thinking to be? God said, speak to the rock. So I must speak to the rock. Now in Psalm 106 verses 32 and 33, we get to some commentary on this episode where it says that they, the children of Israel in the wilderness, they angered the Lord also at the waters of strife so that it went ill with Moses on account of them because they rebelled against his spirit so that he spoke rashly with his lips.

Now, well, the point is this. God's glory is concerned with my keeping my heart. Had Moses kept his heart in that moment of provocation, when his heart is provoked to anger, if he had kept his heart, he would have exalted the Lord and thought God's thoughts, wanted what God wanted, and acted the way God wanted him to act.

And had he done so, he would have just spoken to the rock, water would have gushed, and who would have been glorified? God would have been glorified. Now here's another example of this very problem. 1 Kings 11, Solomon has become the king over Israel in his father's place and he's accumulated great wealth, he's done these great building projects and so forth.

Verse 1 of chapter 11, 1 Kings 11 says Solomon loved many foreign women as well as the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites. Okay, so you've got a huge heart problem there, right?

Because what is he thinking? What is he thinking about all these women that, with the daughter of Pharaoh, taking the daughter of Pharaoh, what's he thinking about taking the daughter of Pharaoh? Is he thinking, you know, God wants this for me because, what?

No, what he's thinking is, here's how I can strengthen my kingdom. I can marry this daughter of Pharaoh so that Pharaoh will not be the least bit inclined to attack me. We'll be allies and he'll help me.

Certainly a marriage of political expedience. But what about these daughters, these women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites? Probably some of the same, but also, undoubtedly, because oh, she looks good, I want her.

Oh, she looks good, I want her. And it wasn't always just because of political expedience. He loved these many foreign women. And here's the net result, verse 4. It was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods.

And his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. So, because Solomon's heart, now, is not wholly true to the Lord, what's the net result? What's happened here? The error of his heart has diminished God in the eyes of his people.

Solomon's people, God's people. Follow that? Solomon's heart, his heart error here in taking many wives from these different countries and then taking their gods and bringing them into Israel and himself honoring those gods.

What has he done to the one true God, the only God? What has he done? He has devalued him, diminished God in the eyes of God's people. God wants to be glorified among his people. Solomon has done just the opposite.

Six reasons. Why keep the heart? Why make that a priority? Number two, because the sincerity of our profession depends upon it. The sincerity of our profession depends on it. Here's the point. I profess that I am a follower of Christ.

I profess that I honor the Lord God of the scriptures. But is that profession sincere? See, let me give you an example of this. If you're still in Kings, if you turn there, 2 Kings, look at 2 Kings 10.

You've got this character Jehu. Look at verses 15 -17. Jehu is going to profess to be honoring of God, a follower of God, doing God's work. So in verse 15, it says, Now when he, Jehu, had departed from there, he met Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, to meet him.

And Jehu greeted Jehonadab and said to him, Is your heart right as my heart is toward your heart? In other words, are we loyal to one another? Jehonadab answered, It is. Jehu said, If it is, give me your hand.

So he gave him his hand and he took him up to the chariot. Then he said, Here's the profession. Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord. Here's my profession. I'm zealous for the Lord. So they had him ride in his chariot.

When he came to Samaria, he killed all who remained to Ahab in Samaria till he had destroyed them according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke to Elijah. But now look down at verse 28. It says, Thus Jehu destroyed Baal from Israel.

It sounds like his profession is accurate. He's zealous for the Lord. But, verse 29, However, Jehu did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who had made Israel to sin, that is, from the golden calves that were at Bethel and Dan.

And the Lord said to Jehu, Because you have done well in doing what is right in my sight and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in my heart, your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.

But, here you go, Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart, for he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, who had made Israel to sin. So he's made great profession of being zealous for the Lord, but because he did not keep his heart, his heart was not holy with the Lord.

He didn't obey the Lord. He didn't depart from the sins of Jeroboam. In other words, the point is the sincerity of our profession depends on it. I profess to be wholehearted follower of Christ, wholly following the Lord, but if I'm not keeping my heart, my heart is going to lead me astray, the sins of that heart, the corruption of the heart.

And it will cause my profession to be disputed. And then thirdly, and this will be where we end today, a third reason to make heart keeping a priority is that the beauty, the beauty of our way of life arises from it.

The beauty of our way of life arises from it. In Psalm 37 verses 30 and 31, Psalm 37 verse 30 says the mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom and his tongue talks of justice. The law of God is in his heart.

None of his steps shall slide. Here's the example of a picture of a person whose heart and life are united. His heart and life are united. His mouth speaks wisdom. His tongue talks of justice. God's law is in his heart and none of his steps shall slide.

There is a beautiful believer in Christ, a beautiful follower of the Lord. First Peter two, a new Testament passage along this line, first Peter two verses 11 and 12 exhort us in this way. It says, abstain, Peter says, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles.

That word honorable communicates the idea of beauty, having your conduct beautiful, beautiful among the Gentiles. How, how can my way of life, how can my way of life appear beautiful before others? Well, it appears beautiful before others when I keep my heart.

I don't, my, my profession and my behavior mesh. You see, they mesh. That is beautiful. All right, so we'll look at the last three reasons and then next Lord's day, we'll look at some special seasons in life that require special diligence, special diligence and keeping of our heart.

So Father in heaven, I pray that you would, you would give us the, the wisdom and the desire to keep our hearts and to take very active steps in doing so. And we pray this in Jesus name. All right. Well, you got about 13 minutes.