I want to say some things about
the heart. The title of my message this
evening is, The Saints' Hardest Battle. The Saints' Hardest Battle. You know, Paul told Timothy,
endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. A soldier has to endure much
hardness, especially when a war is going on. And if the trumpet gives an uncertain
sound, who shall prepare himself for the battle? And we're in a war, and there's
Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, there's no discharge in this
war. So I want to talk about the saint's hardest battle. Look
there in verse 26. He that trusts in his own heart
is a fool, is a fool. Back in Proverbs 23, 7, look
what it says. We'll talk about some things
tonight that's unusual. He said, for as he thinketh in
his heart, so is he, as he thinks in his heart. You know, the Proverbs
also says this. You don't have to look at it.
Proverbs 4.24.3 says this, Keep thy heart with all diligence,
for out of it are the issues of life. The scripture says so
much about the heart. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. And our Lord said in Matthew
chapter 5 and verse 8, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God. And He also said, where your
treasure is, whatever is the most precious thing to you, where
your treasure is. That treasure. We all have things
that we treasure, things we wouldn't part with. It just may be a memento,
it may be a photograph, it may be a letter, it may be something
from a mother, a son, a husband, that you just wouldn't part with.
It's a treasure. And our Lord says that where your treasure
is, that's where your heart will be. If your treasure's in glory,
your heart will be in glory. If your treasure's in Christ,
your heart will be in Christ. And then our Lord Jesus said,
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Out of the
abundance of the heart. A good man, out of the good things
and good treasure of his heart, he brings forth good things.
And an evil man, out of the evil treasure, he brings forth evil
things. And there's one thing, one time
that our Lord Jesus was angry, grieved. You know what made Him
angry? What made Him grieved? The hardness of their hearts.
He was angry at them, grieved for the hardness of their hearts.
Look with me in Luke 16, verse 15. Luke 16, 15. Talking about
our hearts. You know, God said, I, the Lord,
search the heart. I try the heart. And it's with
the heart. When we're talking about the
heart, the heart, man believes. When we talk about the heart,
we're talking about the person. The heart. Do all you do with
your heart. We love with all our heart. That
means we love with all, with who we are, our being. Whatever
our heart is, that's our being. That's our personality, that's
our affections, that's our understanding, that's our emotions, and all
the things, that's where our desires are, that's where our purposes are, our loves are,
and not even our hate. The things that we hate is because
of the heart that we have. Our heart can only love things
and treasure things. but the things that your heart
despises. But look what he said here in
Luke 16, 15. And he said unto them, Ye are
they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your
hearts. God knows your hearts. Go on,
justify yourselves before men. Go on, clear yourself. Go on,
acquit yourself. Go on making people believe you're
all right. Just go ahead and do that. God
really knows your heart. For that that's highly esteemed
among men, God says it's abomination to me. An abomination to me. Now let me say something about
this. I know that I believe a Christian. He wants to be committed. He wants to be full of faith. He wants to be full of the grace
of God. He wants to be, have the fruit
of the Spirit of God. He wants joy, love, peace, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness. He wants generosity of forgiven
spirits. And we long for these things.
We long for these things. Be full of faith. full of the
grace of God, desiring the grace of God. I desire the grace of
God today. I desire tomorrow. Desire the
grace of God right now to enable me to stand here and speak, to
say what's on my heart. And they long, we long for these
things and sincerely seek them. We sincerely seek them. But if
you're like me, and I hope you're not, if you take One step forward,
it seems like you take two back. About the time you feel like
you've made a little progress, you look at yourself and say,
boy, man, where have I been? Where have I been? We ask ourselves
the question, I do, Lord, why am I the way I am? When I desire
so much to act like a Christian, to believe and live in this world, Why do I act the way I do? Why
do I react to the things that come my way the way I do? John
Newton asked this question, said to himself, "'Tis the point I
long to know. Do I loathe the Lord or not?
Am I His or am I not?' But I tell you, beloved, the saints," and
this is a man who preached a long time when he wrote that hymn.
And I know that the believer's hardest battle, the saint's hardest
battle, we have some battles to fight. It's not with the world. It's not with the devil. But
you know what it is with? It's with his own heart. With
his own heart. Huh? Oh, for a tender heart. The greatest war that's fought
in this world is fought in the heart of a believer. the heart
of a believer. John Bunyan said one time, he
said, I find to this day, find to this day, after he had preached
for years and years. He was riding to preach one time,
riding his horse, and he got caught in the long rain, cold
rain, got real, real cold, got where he was preaching, started
running a fever, preached a while. Took to his sick bed and died
just in a little while. But he said, I find to this day,
sin, abominations in my heart." The old-timers dealt with the
heart. That's why Solomon, the wise man, our Lord, through him,
says, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are
the issues of life. Let me give you these things,
and this, I'm speaking to myself. These seven abominations where
we have this battle, this struggle in our hearts all the time. We
have this inclining to unbelief. We have an inclining to unbelief.
To doubt God. You see, this is the mother sin.
It produces so much sin. In order to doubt God. That inclining
is to unbelief. You know, Jacob, when he was
laying one night and the Lord laid hold on him before the Lord
laid on him, he laid down and he said, Lord, if you'll bless
me, and keep me, you know what I'll do? I'll give you ten percent
of what I got." Now that's just, Lord, I won't even go bless you. You know, if you bless me and
keep me, then I'll give you something back for it. That's so full of
unbelief. God had already called him. God
had already told him he was of the covenant of grace. Peter
walked on the water. And you know what scared him
when he quit walking on the water? Got afraid. He got full of unbelief,
and down he went. And one of the hardest things
that a person has to do in this world is to wait on God. And
the longer we have to wait, and we wait and wait and wait to
see what He's going to do and what He might do for us, we begin
to wonder, Lord, are You going to come? And that one man, he
said, Lord, come and save my child. He said, only if thou
would believe. He said, Lord, I do believe.
So please, please, please help my unbelief. Help my unbelief. And oh, beloved, look and mark
with me chapter 9, verse 23. Lord, help my unbelief. Some people think unbelief is
not very serious. It's a very serious matter, to
not believe the Lord. We don't find it hard to believe
in election. Mark chapter 9, verse 23. We don't find it hard to believe
in God's sovereignty. But, boy, when troubles come
and heartaches come and things come, Then we have this inclining
to unbelief, to wonder and doubt if the Lord's going to do something.
But look what he said here in verse 23. Jesus said unto him,
If thou canst believe all things, all things are possible to him
that believeth. And straightway the father of
the child cried out and said, Lord, with tears, and cried and
said with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. I do believe, I felt my unbelief. And I'll tell you something else,
another, that's one of the things that we have fightin' in our
hearts with. The second thing is this, that
old John Bunyan said, he said, suddenly, to come suddenly and
to forget the love and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. To
suddenly forget the love and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ
and what He meant. Shepherd said last night, last
Sunday night, he said, you know, our sins are against light, against
love, against grace, against knowledge. Our sins are so great
because of what they against. And oh, to forget the love and
mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, especially, and this
is where we do it, where I do it. especially in my attitude
and actions toward others. Our Lord Jesus says, you know,
love you one another. And by this shall all men know
that you are my disciples, because you have loved one to another.
And forgiving one another, loving one another, even as God, for
Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. And I find sometimes that
I don't manifest that love and grace and mercy of Christ and
to forget it and just fly off the handle and not manifest it. And how quickly we forget the
love and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ and how we act towards
somebody, how we react toward them instead of being kind and
loving our enemies. And He's been good on the evil.
And we turn around and we find ourselves rendering evil for
evil. At least I do. At least I do. And I know this, he said, in
Isaiah 49, he says, can a mother forget her sucking child? Oh, yes, she can. But he said,
I'll never forget you. I'll never forsake you. I've
craven you on my hands. And sometimes, forget that. And I tell you, we often think,
and I've thought this way, just being honest as I can, Things
wouldn't be the way they are if he loved me. Things wouldn't
be the way they are if he loved me. But yet the old-timers used
to say, and the Scriptures tells us this, the Lord must love you
greatly for if he allows you to suffer greatly. He only don't
put a canoe out in the middle of the ocean. He only takes his
people through deep waters. And I'll tell you another abomination. It's in our hearts. These are
things that we're talking about that we have inclinations to.
A leaning to the works of the Lord. You say, oh, preacher,
you preach so much against that. Well, wait a minute. How many
times have you said, I ain't gonna pray till I'm in a better
condition to pray? I'm not fit to pray right now.
I'm too upset to pray right now. I won't pray till I get in a
better condition. I gotta get right before I can
pray. I shouldn't even go to the service
today. I'm such a hypocrite. I'm such a hypocrite. If I win,
all I do is just tend to the service. When I get in a better spirit
and get in a better attitude, then I go. And then maybe, maybe
I can contribute something to the service. That's just, that's
just law. It's just legalism. And I've
done it. And I'll tell you a thing, when
we know we're leaning to the works of the law, is when we
judge people, salvation, by an act that we see them do. We'll
see somebody commit an act and we'll pass judgment on them,
whether they're saved or not, or by a word that they say. And that's a leaning to the law.
We should never judge a person by an act they commit. Just by
one act we see them do when we've known them so long. And all of
us, oh boy, we may not say it, but it's going through our mind
a lot of times, ain't it? And I'll tell you another thing
about leaning to the worst of the law. By giving, expecting
something in return. By giving, expecting something
in return. Well, I gave, now the Lord will
really, really bless me. I give so the folks will really,
really say something nice about me now. They'll brag on me because
they've done this, haven't they? And oh, God have mercy on us
for these kind of hearts, for thinking like this, feeling like
this, acting this way. People say, you know, we often
say, God will be with me and bless me if I can just give Him
this. Here's another abomination. Wanderings and coldness in prayer. When you pray, you're talking
with God now. You're talking with God. You're
calling on God. Or somebody's up here praying.
And there you are praying, and next thing you know, your mind's
way out here. just walks off and leaves. You're talking to
God and your mind just goes over here. Huh? Oh, my. Look what Job said in
Job twenty-nine. Job twenty-nine. And all our minds will wonder
And we'll even say, Lord, how did my mind get from you to there? And then to commune with God
with such cold, lifeless hearts. Oh, my. Another thing that Bunyan
said, it's better to be without words than it is to be without
heart. It's better not to have any words at all as to have no
heart in it. Look what he said in Job 29,
in verse 2. Oh, that I were as in months
past, as in the days when God preserved me. Oh, as it was in
days past. Oh, whenever I was talking to
God, when His candles shined upon my head, and when by His
light I walked through darkness. He says, Oh, now my heart wanders,
I'm cold. And one reason, coldness in prayer.
That's an abominable thing. I have that battle in my heart.
Do you have that battle in your heart? Do you have that battle
in your heart? And I'll tell you another one,
another battle we have in our hearts, is to forget to watch
what we pray for. We pray for particular people,
pray for particular things, And even if it's for a blessing upon
the service, God bless the service. We won't wait and watch. So we
won't watch and see if the Lord's answered prayer, so we fail to
turn around and give thanks to Him. And, you know, if we pray for
a service and the Lord comes and He greatly blesses the service,
something to our hearts, And we don't turn right around and
say, Lord, thank you. You answered the prayers today.
You met with us today. We ask you to, and I want to
bless you that you did it. I know you didn't have to. I
know you didn't have to bring that person to the service. I
know you didn't have to raise up their bodies. I know you didn't
have to give them strength. I know you didn't have to move
on that person's heart. I know you didn't have to humble
them. But Lord, I'm certainly thankful
that you did. Oh, to give thanks for that.
Another battle we have in our hearts is this, an apt to murmur
because we don't have any more, and yet ready to abuse what we
have. Murmur because we don't have
more. Lord, I sure would love to have
this. I sure would love to have that. Boy, I could use this. I could use that. And then the
things that we have, we're already abusing and don't take care of. You let me ask you this. What
blessing, what blessing have we not perverted? What blessing
has God given us that we haven't perverted? He gives us grace.
We oftentimes misuse it. He gives us homes. He gives us health. He gives
us strength. He gives us things to do things
with. And then the blessings of a worship
service, the blessings of a Bible, the blessings of prayer, the
blessings of one another, the blessings of rest, And yet we'll
take these very things and we'll misuse them, we'll pervert them,
we'll use them to justify ourselves and things that we do. Has any of us ever misused any
of these blessings? Perverted them? Misused them? And here's the last battle we
have in our heart, is this. I can do nothing, none of those
things, which God commands me to do. Paul says, that that I
would, I don't. That that I love, I don't do. And that that I hate, that's
what I do. He said, To will, I've got to
will, but how to perform, I don't know how. And he says this, he says, my
flesh lusts against my spirit, my spirit against the flesh,
and I cannot, I cannot, I cannot do the things that I would. What
would it be like if God took our minds and took our hearts
and took our understandings and took our affections in a service
like this? and so centered them and focused
them upon Him that we could do in this service just exactly
what we would do if we could. What would we be like in a service,
in any given service, if God got us all and focused us and
took our minds and didn't let them wander and didn't let the
flesh hinder? Didn't let nothing we thought,
nothing we felt ever hinder us during the whole service. What
would it be like? But Paul says that I cannot do
the things that I would. Just can't. Just can't. And why,
oh why, oh why are we so afflicted and oppressed and burdened with
things like this? When we want so much in our hearts
and in our souls to honor and glorify our Master while we're
in this world, why are we so burdened with these things? We
know that God's wisdom orders these things for our good. We
know He's too wise to do wrong, too good to be unkind. Let me
give you some reasons why. God allows these things and causes
these things to work in us and has these struggles within ourselves.
First and foremost, they make me to abhor myself. They make
me to, they make us to abhor ourselves. Job said, I heard
about you with the hearing of the ear, but my eye sees you
and I abhor myself and repent in dust and anxious. Oh, Isaiah
cried out, woe is me, I'm undone. I'm undone. And Simon Peter said,
Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. These things
make me abhor myself. And I'll tell you another thing
they do, these things that we have, these battles in the heart.
They keep me from trusting my own heart. I'm scared to death
of trusting myself. Scared to death of trusting my
own heart. And I'll tell you something else that they do.
They convince me, convince me, that I have no righteousness
in myself in any way, shape, form, or fashion. That if Christ
is not my righteousness, I don't have it. I don't have a righteousness. That's why Paul says this. He
said, I want to know Christ. I want to win Christ. I want
to be found in Christ. I want to count my righteousness,
but dumb. I counted garbage, and I counted
nothing. And oh, look what Job said in
Job twenty-seven. Look what old Job said over here
in Job twenty-seven. Ignorance and Christian were
walking along, and they began to talk about the things of God.
And you know what Ignorance said? He said, I have a good heart. Christian said, I don't. I've got a new one, but I don't
have a good one. I never had a good heart. Never
had a good heart. People say, boy, he's a good-hearted
fellow. He's really not. If he had a
good heart, had a good heart, if he does, God gave it to him.
I know that for sure. I know that. But people say that,
boy, they had a good heart. They didn't know God, but they
had a good heart. They didn't ever bring the gospel, but they
had a good heart. They never ever attended a worship service,
I know of, but they had a good heart. People look back, and we've all
looked back and said, I was a good child. I've always been honest. You know what that is? That's
trusting in some righteousness you think you've got. You're
looking back and say, boy, I was good back there. I was good back there. I was
a good kid. I've always been honest. Just looking back and saying,
boy, I've got something back there I ought to look to. Trust
Him. Look what he said. Look what
Job said here in Job 27, verse 5. God forbid that I should justify
you. Till I die, I will not remove
my integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast
and will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me
so long as I live." That's what Job said. That's what Job said. Boy, I ain't gonna let it go.
But he did. And I'll tell you another thing,
that these things fly in my heart. They convince me of this. They
show me the necessity of flying to Jesus. I need to flee to the
Lord Jesus Christ. When I have these things going
in my heart, these battles going in my heart, they show me the
utter and absolute necessity that I flee to Christ. I must
come to Christ. I have no place to go. To the fountain I fly. Save me,
Savior, else I die. And I know anything and everything
is good if it causes me to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. Anything
and everything is good if it causes me to flee to the Lord
Jesus Christ. To flee from the Master. So weak,
so weak. Can't handle life without Him.
Don't want to handle life without Him. Don't want to face life
without Him. Lord, we need you. And this is what goes on when
we have these battles in our hearts. Lord, we need you. God
to have you. And I'll tell you another thing
they do when these battles go on in our hearts. They really,
really cause us to start crying out to God. We'll cry out to
God in earnestness, in sincerity, and in honesty, and all night
with some power, with some urgency when these things go on. Oh,
God help us. And they show us the need that
I have to watch and be sober, to walk circumspectly in this
world, to avoid evil, to shun the appearance of evil. And I'll
tell you something else they do, and I'll wind this up. They
provoke me, these battles I have in my heart, these battles. I
say, and I believe you'll agree with me, The hardest battle fought
in this world is fought inside of a believer's heart. You never
have a heart battle until God gives you a new heart. You never
have a problem with sin until God saves you from sin. You never
have a problem with self-righteousness until God gives you the righteousness
of Christ. But it provokes me to look to
God through the Lord Jesus Christ, to help me and carry me. Carry
me. You hear what I said? Carry me
through this world. He said He would carry us even from our
youth to our old age. Lord, never set me down. Never
leave me alone. Never, ever let me have my will
or my way. Lord, cover my dispenseless head. Who's weaker than me, Lord? Who's
more subject to fall than I am, Lord? Surely, Lord, there's no
one who knows or shows less love and appreciation for You than
me. Nobody could love Christ less
than I do. And only a heart of flesh, and
let me tell you this, only a heart of flesh feels these things. Only a heart of flesh does, and
only a heart that truly loves its Master. When our Lord asked
Simon Peter, Simon, do you love me? After he denied him, John
was leaning on the Lord's breast, and our Lord Jesus looked at
Simon and said, Simon, do you love me? Yes, Lord, I do. He just denied him. He said,
well, feed my lambs. Simon Peter, do you love me?
Yes, Lord, I love you. Simon, do you really love me? Oh, Lord, Thou knowest. You know. You know. Our blessed, blessed Savior, I bless you for the mercies today,
the upholding grace today that you've carried us through another
day. Lord, we've went through the day not by any strength of
our own, not by any power of our own, but because of your
blessed grace. We're here tonight because you've
moved in our hearts to bring us. We're here because we want
to be. We're here because we need to
be. We're here because of you, Lord Jesus. And Lord,
I know that these battles that are going on in our hearts will
one day be through. One day they'll be over. One
day we'll leave this battlefield, leave this place of struggles
fights within, fears within, fights without. We'll leave this place, and oh,
Father, give us grace to carry on and carry us through. Lord, you carry all your people.
Pick us up. Never set us down. Never leave
us to ourselves. Lord, the one who cannot take
a step without You would not dare. All I can do by myself
is sin. That's all I can do. I can do
that. But, Lord, You save me. Save me. For Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. 318. Creative.