Amen.
If we can, let us continue with a word of prayer.
Lord, how we thank You that in that song we can say, Lord, with one voice, that You alone are my heart’s desire. Lord, we do pray that You would use this time now, Lord, to teach us by Your Holy Spirit. Lord, use these words to show us more of Yourself. I pray, Lord, that You would be glorified in this, in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Amen.
I want to begin with a number of scriptures related to our heart, if you had not picked that up from the song: “You alone are my heart’s desire.” I want to be speaking on a true heart this morning—our need for a true heart.
Let us begin with Hebrews 10. These verses have been mentioned in our worship this morning. It was real precious for me to hear them. Hebrews 10, starting in verse 19:
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
By a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh;
And having an high priest over the house of God;
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for He is faithful that promised.
Let us draw near with a true heart.
I want to consider a few other scriptures and other aspects of our heart. We use the phrase all of our heart quite a bit. Let us turn to Psalm 86, beginning in verse 10.
For Thou art great, and doest wondrous things:
Thou art God alone.
Teach me Thy way, O Lord; I will walk in Thy truth:
Unite my heart to fear Thy name.
I will praise Thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart:
And I will glorify Thy name for evermore.
“Unite my heart.” “I will praise You with all my heart.”
Then go to 1 Samuel 12. Let us read verse 24:
Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart:
For consider how great things He hath done for you.
Did we not just say those words in our worship this morning? The greatness of the things that He has done for us. But notice that we serve Him in truth with all our heart. That is what we are told to do.
Then let us go back to Psalms. Who but David, a man after God’s own heart, could write so much about the heart in the Psalms? In Psalm 119, I would like to read verse 2:
Blessed are they that keep His testimonies,
And that seek Him with the whole heart.
So, our seeking is with a whole heart. Our worship is with a true heart. We draw nigh with a true heart. Verse 10 of that same psalm says:
With my whole heart have I sought Thee:
O let me not wander from Thy commandments.
So, there is the notion of seeking the Lord wholeheartedly. We all know what doing something halfheartedly means, and that is not a good thing.
Then another notion of the heart is found in 2 Timothy 2, starting with verse 19:
Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor.
If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.
Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
So again, the burden that I have, saints, is to discuss this notion of a true heart. Let us go back to Hebrews and visit that scripture again in chapter 10, and see what we are instructed to do.
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
By a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh;
And having an high priest over the house of God;
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having a heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
These scriptures—whole heart, pure heart, true heart—these manners of the heart, just by repetition, show us that they are so vital to the Lord. They are so vital to us, that we keep our hearts for the Lord.
We need to serve the Lord with a whole heart. We need to serve the Lord fully. If our heart is not whole, how can we walk with Him every day of our lives? If our heart is not toward the Lord, how can we honor Him?
Matters of the heart are so important for sanctification. We have heard about that. They are important for consecration. We heard about that when we heard the basic series. I have spoken before about the need to worship Him with all of our heart.
As we sang this morning, “As the deer pants,” how precious it is that we do so with all of our hearts. Saints, we should not take those words lightly as we consider, “I will do this with all of my heart to the Lord.”
We sing to Him. We sing those words so often. We say those words so often. My burden today is that we consider what we are saying when we say, “All of my heart.” When we are to come to Him, we come with that true heart.
Several months ago, before we began the Friday night Bible study on Hebrews, I was actually doing a study on the book of Hebrews. The phrase “a true heart” there in chapter 10 really caught my attention.
Look at where “true heart” is mentioned. Enter into the holiest with a true heart. Do so by the blood of Jesus with a true heart. So I did a search on “true heart,” thinking that this just might be important.
You know what, saints? In the King James Version, according to the Strong’s search engine that I have, it is only mentioned one time in the Bible: “a true heart.” That is here in this part of Hebrews. Other search engines may differ, but that really spoke to me.
What is it, Lord? What is so important about our heart that, as we enter into the holiest by what the Lord has done for us, we do so with a true heart?
As we consider how we draw near to God in the holiest, in His dwelling place, we do so with a true heart. Today I want to share more about what a true heart is. I want to share a little about what is meant by all my heart, a whole heart, and a true heart.
I want to look at examples in Scripture with you that illustrate each one of those uses of this adjective as it pertains to our heart. Then finally, I would like to describe some ways that we can guard our hearts, because we are instructed to do that.
Guarding our hearts and keeping our hearts pure is something that we are instructed to do. To not do so, saints, is disobedience. We are told to guard our hearts.
So, what is the heart? According to Vine’s Dictionary, the heart has many meanings. It is the chief organ of physical life. The word heart has come to stand for man’s entire mental and moral activity, both rational and emotional elements.
It is used figuratively to show the hidden springs of the personal life. Think about that. The Bible regards the heart as being the sphere of God’s influence, and praise God for that.
How many times have we said, “The Lord spoke to my heart and said so-and-so”? Thank God He does that by the Holy Spirit. That is where the Lord communicates with us.
The Bible also describes the location of human depravity as being in the heart, because sin as a principle has its seat in the center of man’s inward life, and then that defiles him.
So we see both aspects. What a wonderful thing it is that the Lord speaks to us in our heart, but yet out of our heart is where sin occurs as well.
In Genesis, I believe that is the first mention—Genesis 6—it is describing the state of man before the flood. Scripture says in Genesis 6:5:
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
Was only evil continually.
So again, the contrast. The importance of the heart to the Lord is something that we know. As I said, we know that He speaks to our hearts.
In speaking of the restoration of Israel—again, people precious to the Lord—listen to what He says in Jeremiah 24:6-7:
For I will set Mine eyes upon them for good,
And I will bring them again to this land:
And I will build them, and not pull them down;
And I will plant them, and not pluck them up.
And I will give them an heart to know Me, that I am the Lord:
And they shall be My people, and I will be their God:
For they shall return unto Me with their whole heart.
So, return to the Lord is what God promised. And how? With their whole heart.
Jeremiah 29:13 says:
And ye shall seek Me, and find Me,
When ye shall search for Me with all your heart.
That is a precious promise that we really need to lay hold of. “Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.”
In the Old Testament, we see that the use of the word heart includes the emotions, the reason of man, and the will that man has.
In the New Testament, we see that the heart denotes the seat of physical life, the seat of moral nature, and spiritual life. It is also, in our heart, the seat of grief, of joy, the desires of man, the affections, the thoughts, and the understanding.
Think about that—how we understand with our hearts. It includes the reasoning powers, the imaginations, the conscience, the intentions, the purpose, the will, and also the seat of faith.
We know that out of the abundance of the heart, what happens? The mouth speaks. Jesus said:
Blessed are the pure in heart:
For they shall see God.
Thinking about that, we said this morning in worship, as Lane mentioned, when the Lord remembered us, and then we sang a song about having our sins pardoned. How many can remember the day when you came to the Lord?
How His presence lifted your heart so high. It is amazing what the Lord has done to transform us.
I remember a dear friend of ours. We will have to go back a few years, back when cars had metal dashboards. Thinking about how the Lord has come into our lives and He changes our hearts, and thinking about how out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks—well, with all apologies to you Navy guys, this friend of ours cursed like a sailor, probably even worse. He could blister wallpaper with his speech.
But praise God, he heard the gospel message, and the Lord came into his heart. He was a changed man.
Back in the day of metal dashboards, cars had an annoying habit of rattling. This guy had just bought a new 1957 Chevrolet, a beautiful car, but there was a seam in the metal around where the radio speaker fit into the dash.
It annoyed him to no end when that seam around the dashboard and the radio speaker would rattle when he went down the highway. He would whack the dashboard, and he would say a few things to get the rattling to stop.
So get the picture. He would be driving along, the car would rattle, he would hit the dashboard like that and say some things, and the rattle would stop.
Well, he learned that if he put a toothpick in that seam, the rattle would stop. Problem fixed. “I do not have to take it back to the dealer.” So by and by, he had a toothpick in each of the four corners of that radio speaker.
He was driving down the road the night after he accepted the Lord. The car started rattling. He whacked the dashboard and impaled his hand on one of those toothpicks.
Do you know what he said? “Praise the Lord.”
Before, he would have cursed horribly. But do you know what that did for him? He held up his hand, and there was a toothpick and blood coming out of his hand. All he could say was, “Praise the Lord.”
Then he said, “God is in my heart. How else could I have said that?” Do you know what that did for his faith, saints? That was such a blessing to him. That became part of his testimony about the Lord’s love for him.
In Matthew, Jesus speaks of the importance of the heart. We think about how the Lord touched our own hearts. Listen to what the Lord says in Matthew 22:36:
Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
And with all thy soul,
And with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
Notice that. The heart was mentioned first: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.”
I believe it is also significant if we look at the number of times, saints, the word heart is used in Scripture. Again, according to that search—I love that little search thing; it is really fun to use—guess how many times heart is used in Scripture?
Seven hundred and sixty-five.
Guess how many times love is used? In the King James, love and charity are also often translated together. Three hundred and five.
Think about that. Just the frequency of the number of times the Lord mentions the heart. It is important to Him. It is important for us to know about. It is important that we do diligence to keep our hearts before the Lord.
We also know in the Old Testament what happened to Pharaoh. His heart was hardened. We know that our hearts can be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Yet the Lord gives us this promise in Ephesians:
Wherefore I also, having heard of the faith of the Lord Jesus which is in you, and the love which ye have toward all the saints,
Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him:
The eyes of your heart being enlightened;
That ye may know what is the hope of His calling,
What the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
And what the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power,
Which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead,
And set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places,
Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion,
And every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.
With the heart, we can imagine that which is so hard to describe. We often use the phrase, “I cannot get my head wrapped around something,” when we do not understand it. But cannot we, in some measure with our hearts, understand that passage about the greatness of the Lord and all that He has done for us?
Consider all of those superlatives: the hope of His calling, the riches of His glory and His inheritance in the saints, and the surpassing greatness of His power toward us.
I was so thankful for what Moore shared at the opening at the table this morning about how we will have all of eternity to get to know the Lord better. But those superlatives that we have laid out for us there in Ephesians—we have some measure of understanding because we see those with the eyes of our heart.
So our heart has to be vital. It has to be something that we have to be aware of. We know that with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Again, think of the times we use the phrase all my heart. My burden is that we not use that phrase so lightly. We know we should worship the Lord. We should serve the Lord with all of our hearts. But really, dear hearts, are we able to do that?
We are but frail human beings. Let us be honest about that. So what gets in the way of serving the Lord with all of our hearts? Again, think about ourselves. What gets in the way of worshiping the Lord with all of our hearts, of worshiping the Lord with a true heart?
Well, let us consider several things. First of all, there is sin. Sin is a problem, but thank the Lord, provision has been made for that.
Psalm 103 gives us a precious promise:
As far as the east is from the west,
So far hath He removed our transgressions from us.
That is one of the phrases we cannot get our heads wrapped around. How far is the east from the west? We do not know. But does that not cause us to rejoice in our hearts, in our spirits, that that is where our sins are? Thank the Lord, provision has been made by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Sin can keep us from wholehearted worship, but also our human nature gets in the way. Let us think about that for a minute. Our flesh likes to be comfortable, right?
We resist putting the flesh to death. We know that we need to apply the cross, but how often we would rather not because we just do not like the pain. We do not like to apply the cross to our daily lives.
Also, we can have habits that keep us from being wholehearted toward the Lord. Habits can make our flesh comfortable. They can make things easy to do.
We can engage in certain behaviors that are even good for us—for example, regular exercise or flossing our teeth. Those things are good for us. Those are habits that we have.
But another comfortable habit, saints—what about sleeping in? What is the danger of sleeping in? It prevents us from having that early time, that quiet time, with the Lord.
So the idea of having habits is that they do not have to be bad habits. They do not have to be sinful habits, though they can be. But they can keep us from the Lord because they occupy our time.
As human beings, it is our nature to minimize our own shortcomings. Let us think about that for a second.
I am a psychologist by training. I have taught psychology for almost 20 years, and I have read a lot about self-esteem and self-concept. We know what those are, right?
Self-esteem is that global view that we have of ourselves. Self-concept is specific domains that we have that we are engaged in. For example, a child can say, “I am a pretty good football player, but I am a lousy reader.”
But then the child is more apt to say, “But I do not care about reading.” So that domain is not important to him, and what he is doing by saying that is protecting that self-esteem.
As human beings, we like to minimize the things that we are not good at. We like to protect our self-esteem. We do not like to admit our own shortcomings.
The danger of that is that we can even deceive ourselves. That is one thing that we have to guard against.
We know that David was a man after God’s own heart, and I believe he must have known that. Turn to Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24:
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.
David spoke so many times of “all my heart,” “my whole heart,” and so on. Such an attitude enabled him to be called a man after God’s own heart. But he knew his weaknesses.
He had to ask God to search his heart and reveal those things to him that were keeping him from serving the Lord with a whole heart. I believe we must follow in David’s footsteps.
We need to realize that we do not know our own hearts. We cannot search our hearts, but saints, we can ask the Lord to search our hearts and reveal our hearts to us.
If we do not know our own hearts, we know the Lord does. But I would venture to say that others around us know our hearts as well.
Let us take an example. I know Marcia’s heart. We have been together about 50 years. We have been married for 46 years.
I would say she does a wonderful job. Men, listen up. Do we not hate to be nagged about things? She does such a wonderful job of reminding me and not nagging, because she knows that I hate to be nagged. Think about that. She knows me.
Praise the Lord for that. Now, not that I am absent-minded, okay? But I will confess: yes, I need to be reminded. I can have two things in my hand and be standing in our kitchen, and the phone will ring, and I will lose one of them. It is embarrassing.
But thank the Lord, Marcia is a good reminder.
I would also say that those of us who have children and grandchildren know that they know our hearts as well, to some degree. Around the age of four or five, developmentally speaking, children have the capacity to know which parent to ask for certain things.
Around the age of four or five, they know that Dad and Mom think differently. Mom is apt to say no, so I will go to Dad, and I can get what I want.
Several years ago, we were at the mall up here at Chesterfield Town Center. Remember KB Toys? I do not know how long it has been closed, but it was there for a long time.
Marcia and I were up there with our kids, and we ran into another family that had many kids. It was Dad with all those children. I asked one of the kids, “Y’all are out shopping with Dad. How nice. Are you giving Mom a break?”
She said, “We really like to come shopping with Dad. He’s a pushover.”
So the kids know our hearts.
I would even go on to say that our pets know our hearts. Let me give you an example. We have a little dog who is basically my shadow.
I will sit on the sofa, and she will come barreling up and sit in my lap, barreling right through the newspaper. She loves that. She is the only lap dog I have ever had, and I have had dogs all my life.
But this semester, I have an eight o’clock class. I have not had an eight o’clock class in 40 years. I have not had to be anywhere at 7:30 in many years since I retired.
Lily is the dog’s name. In the mornings, she would be underfoot. She was my little shadow. She would follow me everywhere.
But thinking as I do at seven in the morning, I would go out the door and say, “Darn, I forgot my ID badge.” Going down to VCU, I need my ID badge, so I come back in the house.
Then I get out to the car, check my cell phone thingy, and realize I left my cell phone upstairs on the charger. I come back in the house.
Then I put down my car keys somewhere. “Where in the world are my car keys?” Well, I hate to say this, but it is true. It took the dog about a month. Instead of being under my feet, do you know what she does now?
She sits at the top of the step and watches me, as if to say, “I am not following you up and down these steps five times.”
So, we do not know our nature sometimes. We do not know our hearts even. But the Lord does.
Seriously, like David, we need to ask the Lord to search us. He will do this. Believe in faith that the Lord will search us, and when He shows us something that we need to repent of, we know what our duty is.
We need to confess, repent, and then give Him the glory. That is just part of abiding in the Lord. We have heard many teachings about abiding in the Lord. We need to believe that truth:
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:
Old things are passed away;
Behold, all things are become new.
Also, there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, and we have been set free from the law of sin and death.
We also need to believe with our hearts that God’s promises are true. In Ezekiel 36:
A new heart also will I give you,
And a new spirit will I put within you:
And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh,
And I will give you an heart of flesh.
This heart that the Lord gives us, this new heart when He comes into our lives, we need to realize is our responsibility to guard and to keep pure before the Lord as much as we are able to.
Hebrews 2 warns us:
Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard,
Lest haply we drift away from them.
Many of us have just studied that in our Friday night meetings. Other translations say that we need to give more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
The Lord knows how forgetful we are. The warning in that context is because we are apt to have an evil heart of unbelief.
In Proverbs 4:20-23:
Keep thy heart with all diligence;
For out of it are the issues of life.
The King James Version says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence.” Prayerfully, we need to consider this with all diligence—not sometimes, but with all diligence.
Again, keep thy heart more than anything that is guarded. Not doing so is being disobedient to what the Lord has instructed us to do.
Let us go back and consider what a whole heart is and what a true heart is. We have talked about the importance of the heart.
But a whole heart before the Lord is a heart that holds nothing back. Think about that: a heart that holds nothing back.
What is a true heart? A true heart is a heart that conceals nothing.
Think about that. In one aspect, we are to serve the Lord and hold nothing back. We are to worship the Lord and hold nothing back. We are to enter into the holiest with the heart that conceals nothing.
Let us do an illustration. Let us talk about pies.
How many of us would like to have a whole pie? I would love to have one of Carolyn’s whole pecan pies. What a precious gift that would be.
How about part of a pie? We all know that is not as good. So when we serve the Lord with part of our heart, we see that something is missing. Something is not there.
Halfheartedly—as I mentioned—who wants to have somebody care for them in a halfhearted way? It is not a good thing.
What about a pie, rather—let us say, a “true pie”? A true heart means a heart that conceals nothing. But what if that pumpkin pie that you had for Thanksgiving concealed the fact, when you looked at it and took that first bite, that the baker had used salt instead of sugar?
You would not be able to tell by looking at it, but what would it taste like? It would be spoiled. So, a heart that conceals nothing is so important to the Lord.
Again, let us think about examples in Scripture. Who was wholehearted and zealous for the Lord in all that he did? We think of Paul.
Paul was an amazing apostle, so zealous for the Lord. Listen to the way he described his walk:
Thrice I was beaten with rods,
Once I was stoned,
Thrice I suffered shipwreck,
A night and a day I have been in the deep.
He also told us the importance of pressing on to know the Lord more. He talked about running the race and how vital that is to our lives. We know the zeal that Paul used. We see the letters that Paul wrote. Praise God that they have been included for our benefit concerning our walk with the Lord.
What about a heart that was not whole? We see the warning to the church at Laodicea. They were neither hot nor cold; they were lukewarm. They were content with their earthly pursuits. They had need of nothing.
That is a bad situation—to have a heart that was not whole.
Turn with me to Matthew 19. I want to give another illustration. I want to read about the rich young ruler, starting in verse 16:
And, behold, one came and said unto Him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
And He said unto him, Why callest thou Me good? There is none good but One, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
He saith unto Him, Which?
Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
Honor thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
The young man saith unto Him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow Me.
But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
Where was his heart? His heart was not even present other than for his possessions. When he saw what he had to give up, when he saw what he had to forsake, in the balance he went for his possessions. What a loss he suffered.
Another aspect of this: I would like to read on and think about Peter. Let us go back to verse 24:
And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
When His disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?
But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
Then answered Peter and said unto Him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed Thee; what shall we have therefore?
We know Peter was a fisherman. He left his boat. He left his nets. But he asked the Lord, “Yes, we have forsaken those things, but what shall we have therefore?”
Brother Stephen wrote about this in Discipled to Christ, and I would just like to read. Bear with me.
Following this, the Lord next said that it was most difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. This word surprised the eleven other disciples. Their thinking was that the more you have, the easier you enter into the kingdom of God, and that the less you have, the harder it is to enter the kingdom.
But Jesus had said that it is hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. Thus, the other disciples asked, “Who then can enter? If the rich cannot, if those who have cannot, then we who are poor and have not, we have no chance.”
To which the Lord responded with these words: “With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Such was the reaction of the eleven.
So now let us listen to Peter. Said he, “Lord, we have left all and followed You. What then shall we get?”
Just here, let us pause and consider for a moment the fact that Peter had forsaken all things and followed the Lord. His heart, as we have seen, was free from all things. Yet notice how impure his heart was. How mixed was his motive.
Truly, he had left all behind, but he expected some kind of recompense. There is a hint of the mercenary in him. In other words, he had a spirit of bargaining.
He was not at all like the rich young man. The latter had counted the cost and considered that his million dollars was more than what Jesus could offer. He would therefore rather keep his million and not follow the Lord.
But Peter was more clever. He counted and mused within himself, and said, “What do I have? A boat, some nets. Oh, in my entire lifetime of fishing, I cannot accumulate a million dollars. But the Lord—He is the Lord of all.”
“If He ever wants fish, fish come. If He wants bread, bread appears. Surely that is good, quite good. I will leave all, Lord, and follow You. But now, what will I get?”
So what was concealed in Peter’s heart at that point? Was his heart true? We see that it was not.
Another aspect, when we see the importance of having that true heart: consider David. We have spoken many times about David. He was made king over Israel after he had conquered all of those armies.
He desired to build the Lord’s house. He was so filled with joy that he danced before the Lord. Remember that?
God had blessed David, to say the least. But yet something was hidden in David’s heart. When he saw Bathsheba, what happened?
Sin entered into his heart. He took Bathsheba, Uriah the Hittite’s wife. He committed adultery. He arranged for the murder of her husband. Yes, God’s judgment was sure. God judged that sin.
But we see that at that point, with all that David had done, how easy it was to let down guarding your heart and how sin entered—even David. I think that is a lesson for us.
The good news about Peter is that, thank God, the Lord restored Peter. It took a while, but we have learned so much from Peter and his example for us. Praise God. Our faith is increased when we see how the Lord worked in Peter’s life.
We know that after Peter rejected the Lord those three times, the Lord appeared to him and restored him. Again, a measure of the Lord’s love for Peter. He will do the same for us.
When we consider things that could be keeping us from having a true heart, think of things that could be hidden. Could there be unbelief that keeps us from believing all His promises to us?
Could there be false humility that keeps us from really wholeheartedly serving the Lord? “Oh, Lord, You could never use me to share the gospel. I am such a worm.” Well, true, in our own strength we are, but yes, the Lord can use us if we will let Him.
Could something be hidden in our heart so that we have duplicity, as Peter did? “Oh, Lord, if You just give me a million dollars, I would tithe it and give You all those dollars.”
Well, guess what, saints? The Lord does not need our million dollars. Duplicity of the heart.
So, ways we can guard our hearts. The last point: things that we need to do.
We are instructed every time we take communion. Let us turn to 1 Corinthians 11. Our sister read some of these Scriptures this morning. I will start with verse 25:
After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me.
For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come.
Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
Let a man examine himself. We have talked before about having short lists before the Lord and how important it is to make that confession as we come to the Lord’s table, so that we can have that fellowship with the Lord as free from sin as we can possibly be by confessing those sins.
The Lord is faithful to forgive us.
Another thing that we can do—and this was from our brother Matthew Henry—Matthew Henry talked about the notion that, as we lie down at night daily, we use that time to ask the Lord to search our hearts.
I think that is so precious. We know the benefit of rising early and seeking the Lord, but he said that as we say our evening prayers, we can use that time to ask the Lord to reveal to us those things that have caused our hearts not to be true to Him.
He spoke of closing the day with God. In that time, ask the Lord to reveal to us our sins and shortcomings, repent, and give glory to God at that time.
Here is what he said in Experiencing God’s Presence, a wonderful little book:
We must make a fresh application of the blood of Christ to our souls for the remission of our sins and for the gracious acceptance of our repentance.
We must not think that we have need of Christ only at our first conversion to God. No, we have daily need of Him as our Advocate with the Father.
Therefore, as such, He always appears in the presence of God for us. He attends continually to this very thing.
Even our sins of daily infirmity would be our ruin, if He had not made satisfaction for them, and did not still make intercession for us.
He is our great high priest.
He who is washed still needs to wash his feet from the filthy contacts in every step.
And blessed be God, there is a fountain open for us to wash in, and it is always open.
We must make requests at the throne of grace for peace and for pardon.
Praise God for that. As the Lord reveals those things to us, as we confess those sins before the Lord, we need to use that as an opportunity to praise the Lord.
I believe we should pray that He allows us to see His hand in keeping us from sinning again. We should give the Lord the glory. We should thank Him for loving us so much.
We know that if we have areas of weakness—areas of sin—we know that we will be tested. But part of this drawing nigh with a true heart is this: did you see the last of that? How do we draw nigh with a true heart?
In full assurance of faith. Think about that and what that means.
What does assurance mean? A pledge or a guarantee; being certain in the mind; having confidence in the mind; freedom from self-doubt; something that inspires confidence.
So we draw nigh with a true heart in full assurance of faith. We know where our faith comes from:
Faith cometh by hearing,
And hearing by the word of God.
So faith comes by the Word. Think about our times in the Word. Think about that quiet time we have with the Lord. Think about meditating on His Word.
When Marcia and I first came to the Lord, we were advised in our quiet time to read a little and pray a lot. You all may have heard that, so that the Lord could speak to our hearts.
We need to take time to meditate on the Word. We need to treasure the Word in our hearts. We need to remember: to him that hath shall be given. So we need to make use of the faith that we have. We need to exercise it. We need to declare it.
We need to let our believing trust in God become that which really occupies our life. Get accustomed to saying with each prayer, “Lord, I believe that I shall obtain this in Christ. I believe You will fulfill this in me.”
When we speak, we exercise our faith. The Lord hears us, and He will bless that. We need to exercise trust in God’s guidance and His blessing.
There has to be that full assurance of faith. We draw nigh with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Think about that. Where we are entering is that holy place. That is God’s dwelling place.
Part of that full assurance of faith is believing that the power of His blood has conquered sin so perfectly that nothing can prevent our fellowship with God. The way which Jesus has sanctified through His flesh is a living way.
We come to Him as our living Savior. He carries those who tread on it with eternal living power. He is a great high priest. He can save to the uttermost. He makes prayers for us.
He, by His Spirit, works in everything that is needful for life and the holiest. Praise the Lord for that.
Again, when the Lord stops us from a sin, it is not glory in the flesh. Let us take that occasion to give glory to the Lord and say, “Thank You, Lord. You took away that behavior.”
“Lord, You even took away that desire from me, that I would not even enter into those circumstances which enable me to so freely sin.” God will do that, saints. He will do that for us.
He changes us from glory to glory into His likeness. Praise God. This is our walk. This is our life’s occupation. He does not expect us to do it right this second. It is a daily part of our lives.
I believe Jeffrey shared recently that when we see, when we are faced with sin, we can do that sin or we can not do that sin because of the new life we have in Christ. Thank God.
Ask the Lord to take away that desire. Give Him the glory when we realize, as we have that quiet time with the Lord in the evening, that we see an occasion where we could have sinned, where we would have sinned, but we did not.
Give God the glory, and that will increase our faith. We can take comfort in that example of Peter’s life and how his heart was not true, how his heart was not whole in those times. But the Lord met Peter and restored him.
We see what the Lord did with his life. Peter became a martyr for the Lord.
Finally, in closing, I would like to read a section from Andrew Murray:
Let us not be afraid to say to God that we draw near with a true heart. Let us be assured that God will not judge us according to the perfection of what we do, but according to the honesty with which we yield ourselves to lay aside every known sin, and with which we accept conviction by the Holy Spirit.
The honesty with which we approach the Lord—a heart that does this honestly—is in God’s sight a true heart. With a true heart, the holiest is approached through the blood. Praise be to God.
Through His Holy Spirit, we have a true heart.
To the end He may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father,
At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.
That is a promise in 1 Thessalonians. Again, it is a process. We yield to Him in our daily walk. We lay it before the Lord, and He will do that work in us.
It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace. May the Lord help us to draw near to Him with hearts that are true. Amen.
Lord, we thank You that by Your mercy, by Your love for us, Lord, by the very blood that was shed, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, You have enabled us to come to You with a true heart.
Thank You, Lord, for showing us such love. We do worship You. Lord, we do say we love You with all of our hearts. In Jesus’ name, amen.