Let us turn to God's Word. I'm
directing you tonight to Proverbs 4.23. The text is found in Proverbs
4.23. And the words, Keep thy heart
with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Keep thy heart with all diligence
or out of it are the issues of life to say something then with
regards to what we have in this exhortation this commandment
of Holy Scripture the keeping of the hearts and of course in
order to be kept the heart must be known and who is it that knows the
hearts? I would say that we hardly, any of us, know our own hearts,
but we know that God knows. The Lord knows all things. Man
looketh on the outward appearance. Says the scripture, the Lord
looketh upon the heart. And what is it that God sees
with that all-seeing eye? Remember, the description that
we have of the glorified Christ there in the opening chapter
of the revelation that God man now exalted to the highest heavens
the one to whom all authority belongs John says his eyes were
as a flame of fire and those eyes they run to and throw throughout
the whole earth and what is it that the Lord God beholds with
those penetrating eyes where we're told how God saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth and every imagination
of the thought of his heart was evil continually that is the
heart that we know so little of and why is it that we know
so little of ourselves or the state of our hearts because the
heart is said to be so deceitful. Deceitful above all things. Desperately
wicked. Who can know it? And God answers
that question, I the Lord's. know the heart. I try the reins
to give to every man according to the fruit of his doing." These
are those things then that we're taught in Scripture concerning
the state of men's hearts and the one who knows everything
about every one of us, each of us and all that is in your heart,
all that is in my heart tonight. And it's as we come to the Word
of God that we should not be surprised if God finds us out. Aren't these things revealed
to us here on the page of Holy Scripture? We're told how the
Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword,
piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, the joints
and marrow, the discerner of the thoughts, and intense of
the heart. That's the Word of God. That's the Holy Scriptures. Although
there in the context in Hebrews 4 it does seem more particular
that the Apostle is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Word incarnate. But the Scripture is the Word
of Christ. And so not surprising if this
Word of God is that that does come and find us out ultimately
and expose to us something of what we are. Well, let us come
to consider these words. I'm sure it's a text that's not
unfamiliar to each of you. Keep thy heart with all diligence
for out of it are the issues of life. And it is a very personal
word. The pronoun is a singular pronoun. It's addressed to each of us
individually, each of us personally. Keep thy heart. You can't keep
the heart of others, but you should certainly give attention
to the needs of your own heart. Well, here we have an exhortation,
and then the exhortation is followed by an explanation. There's a reason given why we
should be keeping our hearts. Keep thy hearts with all diligence,
it says, for out of it are the issues of life. And I want, in
the first place, to look at the latter part of the verse and
the explanation. Why are we to be so concerned
about the state of our hearts? because the heart is said here
to be the very source of life. Out of it are the issues of life. What are the issues of life?
Well, here it's those things that come out, those things that
go forth, that proceed out of the heart. And where won't, I
suppose, in the West, speak of the hearts in terms of affection. We speak of an affair of the
hearts. But that's not the way in which
these eastern people, and of course the children of Israel,
the Hebrews, are a Middle Eastern people. There, the heart is more
associated, as we have it here, with the very center of man's
being, a man's soul as it were. the source of everything, it's
not just a question of affection, it's more than that. But here,
first of all I want us to observe that when we think of the heart
we can in a sense think of our anatomy, the way in which God
has created us, he has made us as physical beings, he's formed
our bodies out of the dust of the earth, is breathed into our
nostrils, the breath of life. We are living souls, but man
is body and soul. And we can think of course of
our physical heart and the importance of that. How vital the heart
is to our natural life. It's one of the vital organs.
In many ways the chief of all organs, it's that heart that
pumps blood that courses through all our arteries and all our
veins and goes to every part of our bodies. How important
the heart is. And necessary at times you see that
where there is any heart disease that's attended to. It's life
threatening. We're told in Scripture of the
importance of the heart, in Leviticus 17.11, the life of the flesh,
it says is in the blood. The life of the flesh is in the
blood. Again, Leviticus 17.14, it is the life of all flesh,
the blood of it is for the life of it. Now, there in that 17th
chapter of Leviticus, It is speaking in terms of sacrifice really,
when it speaks of the blood. There in Leviticus 17 verse 11,
the life of the flesh, it says, is in the blood. And I have given
it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls.
for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul and
we think of the heart in terms of that it's that that is pumping
the blood everywhere and how important it is when a person is suffering suffering
any heart disease and the blood is not reaching the other vital
organs and the person is then so seriously ill and sick But
we think of the blood and we think of sacrifice and we think
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without the shedding of blood
is no sacrifice. When we think of the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ, how was it that he died? He must bleed.
He is lacerated back where they had cruelly scourged him. The crown of thorns forced about
his temples. his hands, his feet pierced with
nails, the spear thrust into his side, all without the shedding
of blood. No remission of sins. And what
a bloody death the Lord Jesus Christ must die there upon the
cross. And we have such graphic descriptions
of it in all of the Gospels. The four evangelists all speak
so clearly of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. For example,
there in John 19, at verse 34, one of the soldiers with a spear
pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water.
And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true. And he
knoweth that he saith truth, that ye might believe. for these
things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled a bone of
him shall not be broken and again another scripture says they should
look on him whom they have pierced or how they pierced him how his
body was bathed in blood See, from his head, his hands, his
feet, sorrow and love flow, mingle down. Did e'er such love and
sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown? All that death
that the Lord dies in, it's that blood that was coursing through
his human body, and now that blood flowing all over his sacred
humanity as he gives himself that great sin-atoning sacrifice. we can think then of physical
life and we think of the importance of the heart out of it are the
issues of life but it's not so much physical life that we're
reminded of here in the words of the text it's that spiritual
life keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the
issues of life The Puritan John Flavel says
here, concerning the heart, it is the seat of principles and
the fountain of actions. It is the seat of principles
and the fountain of actions. What's in our heart will be expressed
in all that we say and all that we do. Isn't that what the Lord
is saying in that passage that we read in the Gospel? there
in Matthew 15. And when we look at the context
here, sometimes I think we come to the book of Proverbs and we
just think they're all sort of disjointed texts. And you can
take one here and another there, but there is a context. And see
how it follows here at the end of this fourth chapter. Keep
thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues
of life. Put away from thee a froward mouth. and perverse lips put
far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on.
Let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path
of thy feet. Let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor
to the left. Remove thy foot from evil." Now
what is put first? The heart is first. And the heart
really governs all else, governs all these things that follow.
He goes on to speak of the mouth, of the lips, of the eyes, of
the feet. What we speak of. What we want
to look upon. The path in which we desire to
be walking. All of these are governed by
our hearts. The heart is very much the principal
thing. The Lord says therefore, out
of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. And I want
us for a while to think about, in scripture, this word is used,
the heart, and it has a variety of applications really. It's
used in the book of Psalms, we have it in the 119th Psalm, at
verse 11, where David says, Thy word have I hid in mine heart,
that I might not sin against them. What does it mean to hide
God's Word in the heart? Well, surely here, the heart
has reference to our memory. If you're hiding a thing in your
heart, if you're hiding the Word of God in your heart, what are
you seeking to do? you're trying to to remember it and if you
remember it you surely remember it for a purpose that you might
think upon it and meditate in it that's how we are to keep
our hearts then if we take God's word and hide that word in our
hearts and think about it and as we meditate upon it we try
to feed upon it its nourishment to our souls, the heart then
in that sense might be said to be associated with the faculty
of memory. There was a time of course when
godly people would try to memorize great portions of holy scripture,
whole books of scripture. Of course it's when we're young
is the time to engage in those exercises of memory. It's good
to teach the children to remember. And the great advantage of the
Authorized Version, I know I'm speaking to those who are well
aware of these things, the very language, the poetic language
of our Authorized Version lends itself to memory. How the words
flow together, and how these words can stick in our in our
minds and in our hearts thy word have I heard in mine heart or
is that what we want to do we want to be kept from sinning
and we know how precious the word of God is or what is it? is it not that
sword of the spirit? is it not that by which we can
deal with Satan and all his temptations, all his allurements, all his
accusations. Or when he comes to tempt the
Lord, he will misquote Scripture to the Lord, but that is the
Lord reply to him. The Lord says it is written.
It is written. It is written again. Let us seek
then to hide God's Word in our hearts, to remember it. Our memory,
you see. what a precious faculty it is
that God has given it a faculty of the soul that we can remember
and remember the words of God the words of our Lord Jesus Christ
but then also in a sense it's more than memory the heart it
also has to do with the understanding in Romans chapter 1 we read of
the sad consequence of sin and the effect that it has had upon
us. It says here, a man's foolish heart is darkened. Oh, it's speaking of those, you
see, who are in gross darkness because of sin. Look at the language. Verse 21 of Romans, chapter 1. When they knew not God, They
glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain
in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."
Or they have no proper understanding. It's speaking of the heathen
in all their dark ignorance. It's the Gentiles. We read of
them again in Ephesians 4.18, having the understanding darkened.
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is
in them because of the blindness of their hearts, or the hardness
of their hearts. See, understanding, our understanding
has been darkened by sin. Our reasoning powers are all affected
by sin. We're in darkness. We need to
know that precious light of the everlasting Gospel. And here,
of course, we're in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament.
And what does Solomon go on to say later? Chapter 8, verse 5,
oh, he simply says, understand wisdom. And he falls, we have
an understanding heart. An understanding heart. It's
a wise heart. that our minds have been so darkened
because of that sin. We need the Lord God himself
to come and to grant to us that gracious enshining, the enshining
of the gospel. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts, says Paul, to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
or in the person of Jesus Christ. Great verse is it not, 2nd Corinthians
4.6. To know that precious in shining,
it's a word surely we can pray over. All we want, not just a
good memory, we want God to give us an understanding, to illuminate
our poor, sin-benighted minds and hearts. This is how we are
to keep the heart in. We are to be aware of the importance
of these things, the memory. the understanding but then also
interestingly in scripture the word heart is used to describe
the conscience that's how John uses it when he writes in his
first epistle there in first John chapter 3 verse 20 he says
if our heart condemn us God is greater than our hearts, and
knoweth all things. Beloved, if God condemneth us
not, then have we confidence toward God. He's using the word
heart, but what is he speaking of? He's speaking of the functions
of the conscience. The conscience. Isn't that something
that distinguishes man from brute creatures? Animals act by instinct. But God has made man in his own
image. And as Paul says there in Romans,
he has written upon man's heart the law. As he's speaking there
in that opening chapter of the heathen nations, they have the
law, he says, written upon their heart. So they never heard the
law of God which was promulgated on man's hind eye. It's that
that's written in the heart, and now the conscience has that
to appeal to. or the conscience. Now we should
seek that we might have a conscience void of offense. Void of offense
toward God and toward man. Keep thy heart with all diligence
out of it. Out of it are the issues of life.
You think then of the memory, we think of the understanding,
we think of the conscience, but really and I suppose I've already
intimated this It's the soul that we're thinking of here.
It's the soul of man. God goes on to say later, My
son, give me thine heart. What is our heart? Is that not
to be equated with the soul? Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God. with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is, like unto
it thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The words of the
Lord Jesus. When he sums up that first table
of the Lord of God, the first four commandments that speak
very much of our responsibilities, our duties towards God. The first
table of the law. We are to love the Lord our God
with all our hearts, whole-hearted. Again, look at the language,
Deuteronomy 4, 9, "...only take heed to thyself and keep thy
heart diligently," says God through Moses. We are to keep the heart
diligently. That is the way we take heed
to ourselves. Are we concerned about our souls? Are we concerned chiefly primarily
about our soul above everything else? What is a man profited
if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul? For what
shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Oh, we're reminded
then here of the importance of this word of exhortation that
we find in the first part of the verse. keep thy heart with
all diligence." Why? Why? For out of it are the issues
of life. It's so vitally important. But let us come to the first
parts and the actual exhortation. And what God is saying in this
word, it's an imperative, it's a commandment. Keep thy heart. How are you to keep your heart?
He says, with all diligence. That's how you're to keep it.
But what does the margin say? Well, it gives us a rendering
of the Hebrew, a literal rendering of the Hebrew. We're to keep
it above all keeping. That's the alternative reading.
Keep thy heart above all keeping. It's so important, you see. You
can't keep it enough. You can't address its need as
much as you want. Again, the Puritan says of this
text, this is the great work of the Christian. If tonight
you profess to be a Christian, this text is telling you what
your great work, your great endeavor must be. Keep thy heart above
all keeping. It's a very solemn responsibility
that is laid before us here in God's Word. If it's the great
work of the Christian, if it's the chief concern of the child
of God, how are we to keep it? Well, it's to be kept properly,
there's to be sincerity, David says in the Psalm concerning
God, Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts. Truth in the inward parts, that's
in the heart. Or without the heart in our religion,
what is our religion? If our heart is not altogether
holy in what we're about tonight, here under the Word of God, what
is our religion? It's just a formal religion.
if it's not a heart religion. If we perform our duties without
our heart, wholeheartedly, we're no more acceptable to God
than the person who comes and serves God with a double heart.
The double-hearted man is one unstable in all his ways. What
is the double-hearted man? That's the hypocrite. That's
a hypocrite. He's living a life of pretense.
He seems to be altogether concerned for God and the ways of God and
the word of God, but really his heart is somewhere else. But
the hypocrite is really no worse than the formalist. And now God
speaks out time and again against that wicked sin of formalism. And we see him doing that in
in the book of the Prophet Isaiah. In that passage that we read
in Matthew 15, doesn't the Lord Jesus refer to the language of Isaiah? He refers to Isaiah 29, verse
8 of Matthew 15, This people draweth nigh unto
me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their
heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." He's quoting from Isaiah
and that rebuke that the prophets as God's servant is given to
the children of Israel in Isaiah 29. And it's a theme that's very
evident time and again in the book of Isaiah in the opening
chapter we see it. How God rejects the formalism
of the children of Israel. Isaiah 1.11, To what purpose
is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord? I am
full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts,
and I delight not in the blood of bullocks. or of lambs or of
he-goats, when ye come to appear before me, doeth require this
at your hand to tread my courts. Bring no more vain oblations,
incenses and abomination unto me, the new moons and sabbaths,
the calling of assemblies, I can not away with. It is iniquity,
even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed
feasts my soul hateth. They are a trouble unto me, I
am weary to bear them. And when ye spread your hands,
I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when ye make many prayers,
I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood."
All these services, these are the very things that God himself
had prescribed. These were those things that
God had commanded in the Levitical Law. the new boons, the calling
of assemblies, the solemn meeting, the various sacrifices, what
God himself has commanded and yet he says away with it. Why? Because it's just form. It's
not coming from the heart. Keep thy heart above all keeping. But it's not only there At the
beginning of Isaiah, when we come right to the end of the
book, it's the same message that the Prophet has to proclaim. Chapter 66, verse 3. He that killeth an ox
is as if he slew a man. He that sacrifices a lamb is
as if he cut off a dog's neck. he that offereth an oblation
as if he offered swine's blood, he that burneth incense as if
he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own
ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations. I will
also choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon
them, because when I called none did answer, when I spoke they
did not hear, but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that
in which I delighted not. the killing of the ox, the sacrificing
of a lamb, the offering an oblation. These again are what God required
of them. And yet they're likened, you
see, to offering abominable things to God, to offering swine's flesh. What is it that God is rejecting?
He rejects formality, having a form of godliness, and denying
the power thereof. Well, that was the religion of
the Pharisees. They were hypocrites, yes, but
they were also formalists. They observed the stated hours
of prayer. They did it all. They did it
all right and properly. But they didn't understand the
importance of the heart. Out of the heart, Christ said,
proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts,
false witness, blasphemies. These are the things that defile
a man. But to eat with unwashing hands
defileth not a man. All the greatest dangers, where
do they come from? They come from within. It's what
our hearts are. and that heart is deceitful deceitful
above all things says Jeremiah and desperately wicked who can
know it? who can know it? or that wicked
heart who can know it? again we go back in the book
or go forward in the book to chapter 20 Verse 9, you can say, I have
made my heart clean. I am pure from my sin. It's only God. It's only God
who knows our hearts. It's only God who can deal with
our hearts. Again, the Puritan says of heart
work, it's hard work. Heart work is hard work. And we cannot do it. How God,
you see, when God gives His word of exhortation, His word of command,
it finds us out. We can't do it. We can't do it. The heart is
so deceitful. I, the Lord, search the hearts.
I know the heart. Here then, we have to come to
this important recognition, that we cannot keep our own hearts. We cannot do what God is commanding
of us here in the text. We have to recognize our complete
and our utter inability. Without God we can do nothing. And so what does Peter say? Listen
to the language of Peter there, 1 Peter 4, 19. Let them that
suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of
their souls to Him In well-doing, as unto a faithful creator, we
have to commit it all into the hands of God. Unite my heart to fear thy name
is the prayer of the psalmist, the man of God. He wants God
to unite his heart. Our hearts, why they're so deceitful.
Often they're so divided. We can't really set our affections
on things above, because our affections fly after all the
things that are forbidden to us, the things of this world.
Unite my heart to fear thy name. And God, you see, is so gracious,
what does he say to us? My son, give me thine heart.
Oh, that's where we need to commit our heart for safekeeping, into
the hand of God. And what does God say concerning
the heart? Why He sees the wretchedness
of our heart by nature and the promise of course of the new
covenant is that He gives a new heart. A new heart also will
I give you. A new spirit I will put within
you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh. I will
give you a heart of flesh. All we want Christ to come and
dwell in our heart. and he has to come and dwell
there by faith and where we have that sort of heart Christ in
dwelling us that's the faithful heart that's the faithful heart Christ dwelling in our hearts
O keep my soul and deliver me Let me not be ashamed, for I
put my trust in Thee. Says the Psalmist. Psalm 25 and
verse 20. He wants God to keep his soul.
And only God can keep the soul. They're kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last
time. This is why we have to come to
this recognition that We are constantly those who are poor
dependents upon the grace of God. All that we are, everything
about us is by the grace of God. And we want that heart, that
new heart, that heart that comes and presents an acceptable sacrifice,
that broken heart, that broken, that contrite spirit, which God
himself delights in. Oh the Lord grant then that by
his grace we might be brought to heed his word and see the
importance of these things, to have such a heart, such a soul,
such a conscience, such an understanding, such a memory that these things
might be constantly meat and drink to our never dying souls. My son, he says, attend to my
words. incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine
eyes, keep them in the midst of thine heart, for they are
life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues
of life. May the Lord bless his word. Amen.