THE HEART OF MAN
By Evangelist R. E. Rhoades (Dusty)
Part I – THE HEART
OF MAN
Jesus Christ once rebuked the religious
leaders of His day in the following manner: (“That
which cometh out of man, that defileth the man. For from
within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,
fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit,
lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil
things come from within and defile the man” - Mark 7:20-23). How we need
to harken to this message
of our Lord in this present time. Many would have you believe that all the aforementioned things are a result of improper environment,
education, racial segregation, not enough unity among churches, or even lack of
government controls. Not thinking our Lord knew what He was saying, many would have you believe the remedy for man’s heart condition is to be found in better housing, better schools, better
medical facilities, intermarriage, and a world amalgamation of churches having
no creed except man’s concept of god or gods.
MAN IS TOTALLY
CORRUPT
The reprobate mind of man is never
admitted by the reformer. It is always the “condition”
outwardly and never the inward man that receives attention. Slums are torn down
and great new apartments are erected; guidance centers go up and psychologist
go to work; marches are made and ultimatums delivered. The “great Society” is
put into full gear and multitudes proclaim the good news, “The golden age of
man has arrived.” But- under all of the veneer and sham a disconcerting note is
heard-the crime rate is increasing, women are attacked in broad daylight while
onlookers stand helplessly by, an old man is hit by a drunken driver and no one
reports it because they are afraid of having to go to court. A mother spoon
feeds her baby raw whiskey until it dies. A son shoots his parents because they
won’t let him have the car on Saturday night. College students walk around the
campus with signs displaying filthy four-letter words, campaigning for “freedom
of thought and speech.” We are told we are to do anything and everything we
want-be totally uninhibited for it might affect our “inner man” if we do not.
And on and on we go toward “the golden age of man.”
Paul, writing in Romans,
chapter one, said (inspired by the Holy Spirit) the
following: “God gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their
own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: who changed the truth
of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator,
who is blessed forever”. Paul certainly knew
the source of the trouble, because he identified the heart as the seat of
rebellion against God. When God gave man up to the reprobate mind, the natural
result is found in Romans 1: 26-32.
Romans
27 And
likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their
lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and
receiving in themselves
that recompence of their error which was meet.
28
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them
over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil
things, disobedient to parents,
31
Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection,
implacable, unmerciful:
32
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy
of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them
And all of this because
(verse 21 says “…their foolish heart was darkened”!
Is it any wonder then, why men cannot
understand the underlying fault in the basic makeup of man? Because of the
condition of the heart of man, it becomes necessary for the child of God to
know something of the nature of God’s work in the heart. Does the child of God
ever lose his corrupt heart? Is the heart of the one in whom there has been a
work of grace ever cleansed? Does not Jeremiah say: “The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it”?
GOD’S WORK IN THE
HEART IN SALVATION
When a person becomes a child of God in
the new birth experience, God does a work in his heart. Read 2Corinthians
Note the order: ye heard, ye believed, ye
were sealed. The preached Word of
God, heard with the ear of faith, is believed in salvation, becomes a reality
when the Spirit of God seals the heart. The seal of God in the heart of the
believer is fourfold: 1) it becomes the
evidence of genuineness; 2) it is the owners seal; 3) it is the container of
security; and 4) it is the evidence of a finished transaction. When a child of
God receives the sealing of the Spirit, it causes him to believe that one day
there will be an additional work done when Christ comes for His own, confirmed
by the beloved Apostle to the gentiles in Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and
travaileth in pain together until now. 23
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the
Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to
wit, the redemption of our body.
The seal of God has a two-sided
characteristic to it. We read in II Timothy
When God seals the child in his heart
there is a side exposed to God - the identification of His own; for the sealed
child of God is required, because of this seal, to depart from iniquity. Just
suppose the child of God does not depart from iniquity, what happens when sin
enters into a heart that has been sealed by the Spirit of God? There is much
said about it in the Word, and not a few difficulties have been encountered by
Christians in this regard. Theologians generally are split concerning the true
teaching of the Word here and we delve into some of the aspects below hoping to
settle a few age-old arguments.
The blessed truth of redemption in the
grace covenant is the circumcision of the heart. The heart is possessed by
both male and female, Jew and Greek, bond and free and in this act of the Holy
Spirit all demands of the law disappear and division is broken down. We who
were once strangers and aliens now have the middle wall of partition broken and
spiritual heart circumcision is the evidence given by God that a finished work is done. To believe that grace is extended only as long as we do not sin is failure to believe in a finished work of
Christ. The Spirit of God is given in the heart of the believer to remind us of
that finished work.
THE HEART OF
KNOWLEDGE
In Proverbs
There are 165 references to the heart in
the New Testament. The Greek word for heart is kardia – and when we find hardness of heart it is from the Greek sklero-kardia. Hardness of heart is a
condition that comes from misuse and huge calluses appear instead of the tender
spots that were once there. When man becomes stubborn and refuses to bow down
to the will of God, that man has hardness of heart. Lest we forget, remember
this also—we may fool others readily, even those closest to us, but God can
never be deceived! Samuel went to the house of Jesse to anoint the future king
of Israel and upon being confronted with those fine looking young men would
have immediately poured the oil upon the head of the tallest, fairest, grandest
of them all, but listen to the word of the Lord as it came to Samuel (“…look not on his countenance, or on the height of
his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man
looketh on the outward appearance, but
the Lord looketh on the heart” I Samuel 16:7).
What a lesson to be learned here! We can’t even trust our eyes at looking at
ourselves in the mirror, for the heart is seldom reflected in the glass! We, as
the Corinthians, have the tendency to “glory in appearance and not in heart.”
To be critical of one’s own heart is difficult, but not when we are honestly looking for the source of the
power failure we have all had at one time or another in our spiritual lives.
WHAT MUST BE FIRST
Many would have you believe that we must
all work for God from sunup to setting sun, always busy doing something. To
work and have the work accepted is indeed wonderful, but I wonder if we consider
the biases for getting acceptance of the work of our hands. It isn’t what we do that is important; rather it
is what we are that counts. God is not primarily interested in what
we do, but He is vitally interested in what we are; if what we are isn’t right,
whatever we do will never be right. On the other hand if what we are is right,
whatever we do will always be right. Many are going about trying to establish
their own righteousness in doing,
meanwhile forgetting that the doing must be done in the strength of-being. Every man must know that his
deeds, his thoughts, his words, and his very life find inception in the heart.
The law of comparison in the believer’s
life should never be what others do,
or how big the project is, or even the standards we
set for ourselves, but it must be the Word
of God. When something is crooked and only slightly bent, it is sometimes
difficult to know just how bad it really is; therefore we need a straight edge
by which to compare it. This is the function of the Word of God in our lives; to find some other comparison is sheer
folly. When we are impatient and rebellious, when despair and backsliding take
over, the first place to look for trouble is in the heart through the Word! “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,” said our Lord, and the Bible is the mouth of God.
FOUR THINGS THAT
CAUSE OUR HEARTS TO STRAY
Rare is the Christian who can honestly deal
with the heart, for the heart is incurably wicked and deceitful. Yet there are
some things we can guard against and to do so is wisdom indeed. Four of these
things are set forth here:
1.
PRAISE—when we are praised there begins a work of pride in the heart. Pride is natural to the carnal man and we must guard against
praise. Turn it off and turn it to the Lord Jesus Christ, for if there be
anything good in us it has to find its source in Him Who inhabits our heart.
2.
RICHES—to have the goods of this world is wonderful, if we know how to handle them, but rare is the
child of God who knows how to do so. Guard against piling up that which would
capture your heart, for where a man’s substance is that is where his heart is.
There isn’t a person among us who could not be better stewards of what God has
given us and too many times
we get to
trusting in what we have rather than what we are!
3.
EASE—the third thing we are to be on guard against is
ease, for here is the father of slothfulness. An idle mind and heart becomes
the workshop of Satan—here is where the father of lies finds lodgment and when
the foothold is gained it is difficult to rout him out. He loves to involve one
of God’s own in the affairs of this life so that first things become last.
4.
CRITICISM—this last item is on an equal with praise, for
just as praise arouses pride, criticism arouses bitterness and strife and
wrath. It is a rare person who can
take both praise and criticism equally. The heart wanders easily and to find a
fixed position is virtually impossible when bitterness creeps in. Have you
noticed how easily you get offended when someone dares to mention your pet sin?
Multitudes have gone to hear an evangelist preach and will amen him to death as long as he stays off their pet sin, but once
he treads on their front porch there is an immediate desire to find something
else to do for the rest of the meeting.
*****
A crisis in a person’s life will often
reveal the heart, “for
out of the heart are the issues of life”.
The home life of the individual is controlled largely by the condition of the
heart with God. This holds true in our business and our churches as well as in
the very world we dwell. Many a failure in the home started in backsliding,
although you could never get any of the involved people to admit it. Explosions
in the church come about because hearts are not right with God. People get offended and
start talking, and like the proverbial snowball, the further it goes the bigger
it gets. The heart that is not right with God explodes little things into big
things and many a mole hill becomes a mountain right in the heart. Even the way
we treat the truth reveals our heart’s condition. To refuse truth when we claim
to know it is a revelation that the
heart is not right with God. When this becomes known, the heart is judged by
the very truth it refused.
PART II - SEVEN
KINDS OF HEART AGAINST GOD
Many folk can never discern between that
which is right and that which is wrong, simply because they are running their
lives by a set of moral rules and regulations that find no source other than
what people think [Humanism]. We are often more guided by others’ opinions
that matter not, rather than by the Word of God which never changes. Our ideas
and sense of moral values are changing constantly but the Word of God goes on
as ever. Once men were shocked as women began to expose their ankles—now they
are bored with topless bathing suits. Has the Word changed, or just opinions?
First we must find out what kind of heart we have in order to define the
trouble we are having, so we take up the first kind of heart that is against
God:
1. THE NATURAL HEART
I Corinthians
Let us not be deceived—the
natural man has no place in God’s economy and must forever be an enemy of God unless
the heart is inhabited by the Spirit of God. Paul also tells us in Corinthians “if our
Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost”. This is the reason we have so many versions of the
Bible coming out today—the natural man, with the heart that has never been
changed, is trying to get a Bible he can understand, but try as he may there
will be no understanding. Without faith it is impossible to please, or to know,
God.
2. THE DOUBLE HEART
In Hosea
Can
a man love sin and God at the same time? Can the heart be divided between two
loyalties? Can it be possible we have the love of the world and do not love the
father? If we are to believe the Bible, we must believe John, writing at the close of the Apostolic
age, who said, “Love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. If any man love
the world, the love of the Father is not in him”. Many professing Christians today are doing more harm to the cause of
Christ than all the infidels who ever lived, simply because they are double
minded and cannot seem to make up their minds just who, or what, they are
going to serve.
3. THE UNSTABLE
HEART
Instability is not a very desirable characteristic
and surly no informed executive would hire a man who had a record of being
unstable. Nor, on the other hand, should a pastor be expected to use a person
in his church who has proven time and again the
instability of his testimony. When a person is blown about by every whim and
fancy, and never seems to know just where he is going to stand, he is pointing
a finger to a mixed up life and saying, ‘Look at me—I am an unstable
Christian’. “Blessed is the man that
endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life,
which the Lord hath promised to them that
love him”. The person who really
cares about Christ will be stable; Paul admonishes us to “... be ye steadfast,
unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord”.
In
travel that carries this writer around the nation, there are things that are so
evident in our time it becomes necessary to call them to your attention:
a.
Most of the
folks who now are serving the Lord in some capacity will not be doing so in a
short time. The average tenure of service is somewhere in the vicinity of 5-7
years. Think about it! How many folk do you know who were faithful just a short
time ago but are not now serving Christ in any capacity whatever?
b.
Many folk who
have been right down the line as far as sound doctrine is concerned are now off
chasing some strange “ism” and have
departed from the local church, the doctrine they once held, and are avid
pursuers of strange fire.
c.
There are very
few today who will go right down the line with the denomination their church
has become a part of. Baptists do not know why
they are Baptist. Presbyterians know little of the
4. THE PROUD HEART
(“Pride goeth before destruction, and a
haughty spirit before a fall” Proverbs
1.
THE HARD HEART
Like stone that defies the chisel, the
heart of man is unaffected by either the love
of God or the terror of the Lord. As
an evangelist, this writer has preached all over this nation on the terror of
the Lord from II Corinthians 5. Also a particular sermon on Hell serves to move even the speaker
while he is preaching it! Added to these two topics, the Lord from time to
time, will lay a message on the author’s heart for a congregation and one can
scarcely help marveling at the hardness of heart displayed by the audience. To
the other extreme, the topic of the crucifixion,
laden with the love of God for sinful man, has been preached with the same
effect. The preacher’s heart is broken but the audience is unmoved, unshaken.
When God’s wrath is poured out on the
human race in the tribulation period, and it is terrible just to read about it,
let alone experience it, we are told in Revelation 16 that “they
repented not” to give God the glory.
In our own land we have earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, fires, wrecks,
destruction, and war scares in ever increasing numbers over the past ten years,
yet church attendance is going down; apostasy is becoming more evident each day
as folk depart from the faith. There seems to be no fear of Almighty God in our
time, and if it continues as it is now going, there will virtually no signs of
revival in the next few years. Our hearts cry out for revival in our time, and
we know of others who would pay the price of Holy Ghost revival, yet the bulk
of our professing church today is not remotely interested in anything that will
bring about a change of heart. Yes, the hard heart is against God!
2.
THE DECEIVED HEART
When a man thinks himself to have arrived
at some spiritual peak that exists only in the imagination of his mind, he is
deceived. Recently a person told this writer that she had not sinned since the
day that, as she put it, “God saved and sanctified and filled me with the Holy
Ghost.” God surely has little opportunity
to work in the heart of a
person who thinks that there is no need for repentance from day to day—and
never needs to cry out for deliverance from a mind and heart that departs from
the straight and narrow path at a drop of the hat. One moment we have peace,
the next moment terror. There is one area in which we have little experience
and we must enter it every morning –that is the realm of a day and time we have
never entered before. Each day is not alike, nor are
the temptations today anything like those of tomorrow. To think we have stored grace is foolishness; God does not store
up grace: He imparts it daily, as
needed. When no need is felt, grace is neglected, and the heart is deceived.
David Brainerd needed daily assurance, as did the great Moody. Saints down
through the ages have acknowledged the need of daily grace because the heart is
“incurably wicked and who can know it?”
3.
THE SATISFIED HEART
When a mountain top is reached and we view
the valley we have left below, there is a tendency to want to build a
tabernacle and just stay there. But look yonder over the next vale! There is
the next range and beyond that an Everest that no man has ever climbed. It
remains, after nearly 2,000 years, for someone to scale the utmost heights of
Christ’s love and grace. There are areas of delight awaiting all who will never
be satisfied. Contentment in Christ is much to be desired, but never confuse
contentment with satisfaction of less than the best. Moody, when challenged
with the statement. “It remains for a man to be totally committed to Christ’”
said, “By His grace, I’ll be that man!” Yet, by his own
admission there were heights beyond, which were never reached.
In the lives of the saints, who answer the
roll call of the ages in Christ, there is always that desire to go onward and
upward, toward a goal that has been left for the few who are willing to
sacrifice everything for the cause of Christ. To be satisfied in a world of
lost men and blinded slaves of sin is not God’s way. To be satisfied when we
have lost the battle to the enemy time and again is to lower the colors of
Christ and lay aside the shield of faith. When Christianity stops conquering,
and we are at a virtual standstill, we go down to depths of shame. The
satisfied heart is exemplified in Peter, who, as a spokesman for the trio
accompanying Christ to the mount of transfiguration, said, “let us stay here!”
while in the valley below was a struggle for a life of a boy. The disciples
couldn’t cast out the demon and our Lord told them, upon arrival. “This kind
isn’t coming out except by prayer and fasting.” Peter would have stayed on the
mount—the boy would have gone to hell! Who cares about the valley when we are enjoying
the air of the heights? Sincerely, there is no room for the satisfied heart in
a world that knows not Christ and His redeeming love.
PART III – SEVEN
TYPES OF HEART THAT PLEASE GOD
In studying the Bible, we find a number of
people who stand out like bright lights in a sea of darkness. All have received
the benediction of God upon them and are in the great cloud
of witnesses who have gone on before, having died in faith that there is
a city whose builder and founder is God. For a man to please God in a world of
sinners is impossible, and would remain an unsolved enigma to this day if it
were not for the fact that God has given us a Way to please him.
Man is ever trying to come up with
something to offer God in lieu of what God has ordained we should bring. Some
would offer a sinless life, or at least one lived as “best we can”--others
would go into the life of the cloistered wall—while others would deny certain
things in life that others seem to enjoy—all with the view in mind of pleasing
God. But has not God given us the only condition whereby we may come to Him in
salvation? Did not He send His Son to die for us on the cross of
Surely all will admit readily that Christ
alone is God’s offer of payment, and to refuse Him is to refuse salvation. To
refuse his ruling in our hearts by faith is against God. Someone must sit on
the throne of our heart. It will either be the Lord Jesus Christ or King Self
who will sit there.
To please God there are seven different
kinds of heart outlined in the Word of God and they are set forth below. Read
them prayerfully, with self-examination, and see how you rate on the checklist
at the end of the book.
1. THE TREMBLING
HEART
Billy Sunday is reported to have made the
remark, “If God’s people were as afraid of sin as they are of holiness, what an
impact they would have on the world.” The penitent heart that is trembling and afraid
of sin is so rare as to be almost extinct today. We have conferences and
discuss the general trend of ungodliness, yet virtually nothing is ever done about it because God’s people are not afraid of
sin any longer. In a recent article in Reader’s Digest, May 1965, page
13, we read that the FBI released a report containing the following crime
facts: there were 2.5 million major crimes committed in 1964, a 13%
increase over 1963; more than 40% of all arrest are of youth under the age of 18; The crime rate
increased five times as fast as the population since 1958. This is staggering;
for as bad as things are, the author had no idea the darkness was so thick.
When figures like this are announced, there are very few of the children of God
moved to get up and do anything about it. The lethargy and apathy so noticeable
among us is slowly strangling us to death.
Where are the trembling hearts of just a
few years ago? Yet, unless there is more of this kind of heart among God’s own,
in very short order we will have just about run our course. The secret to
Paul’s tremendous success as an evangelist is found in his attitude toward
sin—surely this man had a trembling heart! Listen to the cry of this man in Romans 7:24, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from
the body of this death?” Listen to the
trembling heart speaking to us in I Corinthians
Paul wasn’t afraid of loosing his
salvation, but he was trembling for fear that his own ministry might be allowed
to go on the shelf and he should become adokimos (Gr.) or not approved. With a sign of relief he
comes to the end of the journey and writes Timothy, “I have
fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have
kept the faith.” This is the man who
wrote, “Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling” Philippians
2. THE TENDER HEART
We are warned to, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are
sealed unto the day of redemption.” In
this same context, Ephesians 4:30-32, we note the elements of “grieving” among which are “bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour and evil speaking, be
put away from among you, with all malice.”
Then, to give the positive side of these negative things, Paul tells the Ephesians to “…. be ye
kind one to another, Tenderhearted, as God for Christ sake hath forgiven
you.”
There are not very many today who can forgive
as easily as they find fault. There is a place for church discipline, which
should be practiced according to the Word. But there is also a place for mercy
and tenderness. In Galatians 6:1, Paul tells us, “Brethren, if a man be
overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an
one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”
The tenderhearted Christian is not afraid nor ashamed
of tears, and quite readily admits his heart is touched by the Spirit more
easily each day.
3.
THE PERFECT HEART
There are many who say a perfect is
impossible, yet there is a case on record where a man actually thought to
remind God of his perfect heart and God remembered and stayed the hand of death
upon him. This interesting account is found in II Kings 20:3. (Hezekiah (after being informed of his imminent
death) reminded God, “… remember now how
I walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight?” We are told that God gave him another 15 years in
which Hezekiah did the greatest work of his entire life. It was during this
time that a good portion of the Bible was preserved and Hezekiah’s scribes were
the ones God allowed to get the job done. The man who was used of God was the
man who could say, “I have had a perfect
heart before god.”
4. THE BROKEN HEART
When the sin of David with Bathsheba came
out into the open, as all sin must, Nathan, the prophet of God, confronted
David with what he had done. It was at this time that the psalmist David wrote
the 51st Psalm. In the first few verses we find David using the three principle words for sin in the Old
Testament—transgression, iniquity and sin. There are 133 different words for sin in the Old Testament and
122 in the New, making a total of 256 words in the entire Bible having a
meaning of sin, once sin becomes “exceedingly
sinful” it becomes necessary for the
sinner to approach a holy God in an acceptable
manner. David knew this for he
cried out, “hide thy face” - “purge me” - “wash me” - “blot me”- cleanse
me” - “create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a right spirit within me.” Then, after the heart cry had gone up, we find
David making the statement that has been the guide for centuries, “…a
broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.”
Much more has been accomplished for God by
those with broken hearts than by any other type of people. When the heart of
Peter was broken we find him accomplishing much—when Paul was broken on the
road to
Sin has abounded—iniquity is rampant—our
day is a day of debauchery and shame, yet few are broken-hearted over it.
Revival in our time may well be impossibility, unless there is a broken
heartedness by God’s people in the Body of Christ.
5. THE PURE HEART
It was said of Hugh Latimer, “There goes a
man of pure heart!” The queen of
In Acts 15:9 Peter makes this statement, “And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.” Note the words
purifying continuing action of the verb) and faith. The action of the Holy Spirit is one of continuous influence
in the heart of the believer, but before the pure heart ever comes to fruition
there are many hours and days of frustration; the desire to do good is there, but the other law warring in our members does
much to replace the purity we desire. The other word called to your attention
is faith—this too is continuing. Just
to say we have saving faith is not enough. Faith is a purifying element in the
life of the believer, and to exercise faith is our greatest privilege and joy.
Faith unlocks all the doors of mystery—faith brings blessings without
measure—faith counts promises of God as already accomplished—faith causes God
to perform miracles in order to vindicate His Word. The pure in heart get that
way by faith and become purer in heart in the same manner. What saves? FAITH!
What keeps? FAITH! What purifies? FAITH!
Blessed are the pure in heart, whose heart
is being purified by faith.
6. THE OPENED HEART
There are few names in the Bible that
have more endearment than the name of
To be open-hearted is to be closed to
appeals of satanic forces which would destroy and kill. The open-hearted
Christian can be a real testimony of God’s grace and there is no place for the
wickedness of an evil heart. Our Lord’s words to the disciples on the road to Emmaus
caused their hearts to burn within them and we are told in Luke 24:31: “And their eyes were opened and they knew Him…” In verse 32
they said, “And did not our heart burn
within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the
Scriptures”. Then later on, in verse 45, to the other disciples we find, “Then opened He their
understanding, that they might understand the scriptures”. When we see the opened heart, and the inserting of
the Word, we once again are reminded of the Psalmist declaration. “Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin
against thee”. Surely in salvation the
heart is opened, for in Romans
7. THE STEADFAST HEART
“O
God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory;” So said David in the 108th Psalm, verse 1. Paul tells us to be “steadfast, unmovable, and always abounding in the
work of the Lord”. Faithful Christians
are so scarce today one would be tempted to make a museum specimen out of the
first one that comes along. Here today, gone tomorrow, might well be said of
many today. The quality that made the pioneer spirit in our country was that of
being steadfast. This is the essence of the early church, for it could be said
of them that they “earnestly contended
for the faith”, even unto death when
needs be.
Paul knew men of this caliber—one thing
for sure, Demas was not one of them. Ah, but how about Luke? Here is a man,
who, as far as we know, didn’t manifest unusual gifts, had no coterie of his
own, like Peter, Apollos and Paul, yet he was the steadfast one! When all had
gone back to the place they found it necessary to flee to, Luke remained. After
all the hundreds of names that pass across the stage in the early church, Luke
alone remains to the end. What wouldn’t the average pastor in the world today
give for a dozen Luke’s—or for that matter, just one? This quality of sticking
when it isn’t popular to stick is missing among God’s own this day, and if the
current trend continues, what will it be like in another five years? “For their heart was not right with him, neither were
they steadfast in his covenant”. (Psalm 78:37).
*****
Now for the checklist, Paul told the
Ephesians not to try to work with eye service, but rather with fear and
trembling, in singleness of their heart, as unto Christ…doing the will of God
from the heart. We read Hebrews
4:12-13 where it says, “The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper
than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and
spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart. Neither is
there any creature that is not manifest in His sight but all things are naked
and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”
Knowing that only God knows our hearts and
we can hide nothing from Him, does it not seem necessary to you to try to
understand your own heart? This being so, let us examine
ourselves:
In my opinion I have the following heart
condition—
□ NATURAL —
unsaved, never having received Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour.
This being so, I hereby this day believe in my heart and am willing to confess
with my mouth that God raised Him from the dead for my sin and complete
justification. I promise to tell someone every day that I am a child of God
because of Christ’s redemption made possible for me at the cross.
□ DOUBLE HEART — I am saved, but I have divided my loyalty between Christ and the
World and I promise my Saviour that from this day
forward I shall endeavor to put Him first in everything I do.
□ UNSTABLE HEART — I have been tossed about by whims and fancy far too long, and I am
resolving this day only that which will elevate my Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ. I will be sound in everything I believe and will immediately cast
out anything and everything that does not give Him the glory.
□ THE PROUD HEART — I must admit that I have a great deal of pride and it doesn’t
become me as a Christian. By faith in the indwelling of Christ, I promise to
always take the lower place and will quit trying to make myself something when
I really am nothing.
□ THE HARD HEART — I haven’t shed a tear in a long time, especially over the souls of
the lost. The terror of the Lord has not moved me, yet I know that multitudes
of folk are heading for everlasting destruction and I pledge myself to
compassion and tenderness to the best of my ability.
□ THE DECEIVED HEART — I know that my elevated position was only
fantasy and in reality I have not grown very much at all. To be deceived about
one’s spiritual condition is dangerous, and I hereby ask my Saviour
to enable me to trust Him more implicitly day by day. I want only His will for
my life.
□ THE SATISFIED HEART — Lord help me never to be satisfied with anything
less than Thy righteousness. Knowing there are yet heights I have never gained,
I must begin my starting where Thou dost put me. Help me to be “more than
conqueror” through Jesus Christ who love me and gave Himself for me.
******
Or could it be that there are some who
prefer to check off the condition of their heart in the list below? There are
some who can do so by now. Is your heart:
□ TREMBLING □ PERFECT □ PURE
□ TENDER □ BROKEN □ OPEN
□ STEADFAST
In the light of the Word of God, be honest
with yourself; if you are not who will be this side of judgment?
*****************
“Search me, o God, and know
my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be
any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm
139:23-24