Constant Guarding of Our Hearts

Introduction: The Perseverance of the Saints and God's Means

0:01 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, August 8th, 1982, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:11 Let us once again pause to seek the face of God in prayer. Our Father, you have told us in your word that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. Again, you have told us that a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. And again, you have told us that it is your delight to magnify your grace by taking the weak things to confound the mighty, and the things which are not to bring to naught the things that are that no flesh should glory in your presence.

0:54 Conscious, O God, of our own darkness and dullness, conscious that it is not in man rightly to preach, or, or in man rightly to hear your word. Together we cry to you out of our felt sense of weakness and need, and ask, O God, that for the glory of your Son you will come to us and show yourself to be the God who delights to have mercy and compassion upon the needy. Hear our prayer and meet with us, we plead, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

1:38 In our meditation in the scriptures this morning, we will again be concerned with discovering and examining one of the means which God has ordained to keep his people in the way of faith, holiness, and obedience. And we are doing this in conjunction with a series of studies for the past several years, and in the past several months we have been examining together in our Lord's Day morning hour of worship some dimensions of the broad and vital biblical doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, or stated in a different way, the truth of scripture, that it is both certain and necessary that all true believers, all who truly repent and believe the gospel will cling to the path of faith and holiness and obedience until the end of their days. Having established this doctrine on the basis of some 30 clear texts from the New Testament, we are now concerned to ask and answer the question, what means has God given to his people to enable them so to persevere?

3:03 And in answer to that question we have seen that the means can be grouped roughly into two categories. The first category are those means that I have called the public or corporate means of perseverance, those means connected primarily with the life and ministry of the visible church. And we saw them to be the ministry of the word by your appointed overseers, the ministry of mutual exhortation or encouragement, the ministry of corrective church discipline, and finally the ministry of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Now today we proceed to the second major category of the means of perseverance, those which I have called the private or the individual means, those not necessarily connected with the life and ministry of the church. They are some, or they will be as we unfold them, evident that they are some of the individual spiritual exercises and disciplines ordained of God for this specific end that we should be kept in the way of faith, of holiness and obedience.

The Supreme Individual Means: Guarding Our Hearts (Proverbs 4:23)

4:25 And supreme among all of these individual or private means of perseverance is that which I am calling the constant, careful guarding of our hearts. And I ask you to turn with me to the text that will be the basis and focal point of our meditation this morning, Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 23. Paramount among the means ordained of God for our perseverance among those individual or private means is the constant, careful guarding of our hearts. And I make this assertion on the basis of Proverbs 4 and verse 23, in which Solomon writes, Keep thy heart with all diligence, or as the marginal reading renders it, keep thy heart above all that you guard. For out of it are the issues or the streams of life. Some have rendered it above all that you guard. Some have rendered it above all that you guard.

5:39 Some have rendered it above all that you guard. Some have rendered it above all that you guard. All the things that you guard guard your heart. For out of it are the issues of life.

Exposition of Proverbs 4:23: Duty and Reason

5:48 Now, what I propose to do is first of all to open up the meaning of this text, to give a brief exposition of the text itself, and then to make several specific applications of its meaning to the matter of our perseverance. First of all, then, the opening up of the text. Now, even a quick and very cursory reading of the text indicates that there are two major divisions of thought. Do you see them?

6:21 We have, first of all, a primary duty prescribed. Keep thy heart with all diligence. And then we have, secondly, a reason for this duty asserted. Four, out of it, are the issues of life.

6:41 Let's then consider the text as it comes to us in that two-fold division. First of all, a primary duty prescribed. And the key words are obviously the words keep and the word heart. When Solomon wrote, keep thy heart, what did he mean by using the word keep?

7:04 Well, it's the word that is translated in Psalm 37, I'm sorry, Psalm 32, 7, as preserve. Thou shalt preserve me in trouble. In Psalm 140 and verse 1, the psalmist prays to be preserved from the violent man. And it's a root word in the Hebrew and the basic meaning.

7:34 Preserving in a number of contexts is the meaning of guarding or preserving. So when Solomon writes, he is writing with respect to a duty in the area of guarding, keeping, preserving with a view to the safekeeping of someone or something. Now, what is it that we are to guard or to preserve? Well, the text says we are to guard or to preserve.

8:04 We are to guard or to preserve our hearts. And in the scriptures, the word heart most generally refers to the entirety of the inner being of the man or the woman. The heart is the whole seat and source of the inner life. Now, there are times when the use of the word heart points more specifically to our intellectual faculties.

8:32 Paul can write, Those whose hearts were darkened. And he speaks of the dimension of the faculties or functions of the heart in conjunction with the understanding. Sometimes it is used with reference to conscience. Sometimes with reference to the will.

8:52 But most generally, the heart takes in all of the faculties of the inner man. One has accurately written with respect to the biblical usage. The word heart, the following words. The heart is the center or focus of man's inner personal life.

9:14 The heart is the source or the spring of motives, the seat of the passions, the center of the thought processes, and the spring of conscience. It includes the thoughts, the affections, and will as they relate to our personal lives. So when the Bible uses the term heart, it is not speaking, of course, of the physical organ that pumps the blood, nor is it using the word in some technical, psychological manner. It is a catch-all word to speak of the source and springs of the inner life. And it is the heart that is, that is most pivotal to what we are as men and women. And this is the uniform teaching of the word of God as we shall see momentarily. So then the duty is this.

10:18 Keep, guard, preserve your heart. That is the entirety of the springs of your inner life. That which is the source of your motives, the seat of your passions, the center of your thought processes, and the spring of conscience. Guard that above all other things that you guard.

10:41 Above everything else that you protect, you are to protect your heart. Every other thing that is guarded as a legitimate object of guarding, above all of those other things, be sure that you guard your heart. That's the primary duty described. Now notice in the second place, a reason for this duty asserted.

The Heart as the Fountain of Life: Biblical Evidence

11:06 For, why is Solomon so anxious that his son guard his heart above all other things that he guards? Well for this reason, out of it, that is out of the heart, are the issues or the springs of life. In other words, Solomon says that the heart is the ultimate fountain from which all of the springs of life flow as is the heart so will be the fountain and all of its springs and as i said a moment ago this is the universal teaching of the word of god in genesis chapter six we have the record of the wickedness that so characterized the pre-flood generation that god was determined to blot out that entire generation and he traces the wickedness of that generation to its ultimate source in genesis 6 5 and the lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that the imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and as one surveys the condition condition of the pre-flood generation, with violence and wickedness so great and pervasive

12:36 that God himself says, I'll blot out the entire generation, all of that wickedness can be traced to one ultimate fountainhead, the perverse, corrupt human heart. That's where it all came from. And surely this is the teaching of our Lord in such places as Mark chapter 7, verses 21 and 22. For from within, out of the heart of men proceed, and then he names every form of sin, from pride to sins of abandonment to sexual aberration and perversion to murder and envy, all of the sins of the heart of attitude of disobedience. Disposition, sins that break out into specific deeds, Jesus said, they have their ultimate root in the depraved human heart. And then our Lord says in Luke 6, 45, on the positive side, a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things. So if there are any good works in the sense that we have been studying them in the adult class, works that flow from adults to adults, works that flow from adults to adults, works that flow from adults to adults, works that flow from adults to adults, works that flow from adults to adults, works that flow from a justified man or woman, works that flow from one who's been regenerated by the Spirit,

14:00 Jesus said, they ultimately flow from a good heart. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good. And so the reason asserted for this duty is simply this. The guarding of the heart must be a matter of supreme concern to us because as the heart is, so is the life. Out of it are the springs of life. And Flavel in his masterful exposition of this text and then an extended pastoral exhortation based upon it, almost a hundred pages on this text, Flavel says in his second paragraph introducing his exposition, the greatest difficulty in conversion is to work. Win the heart to God. And the greatest difficulty after conversion is to keep the heart with God. You know why you're sitting here unconverted this morning, man or woman, boy or girl who

15:11 is not converted? You know why? The fundamental reason is your heart is wedded to your sin. That's why you're not converted. You've heard enough gospel to convert half a nation, some of you. You can give back every elementary tenet of the Christian faith. You know enough truth about sin and judgment and hell and grace and the cross and forgiveness to be converted a thousand times over and yet you're still unconverted. Why? Because of the state of your heart. You've got a heart that loves sin, loves self, loves

15:57 the way of the world. The great difficulty in conversion, as Flavel has accurately said, is winning the heart to God. That's why Jesus said, agonize to enter the narrow gate. That's why the scripture says that only a divine work of grace can make a man a Christian. While we're all agreed, I trust that the greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to God. Are you convinced with Flavel that the greatest difficulty after conversion is to keep the heart with God? Well, if you are, then you will see why your primary private individual duty, with respect to the matter of this means of perseverance, is constant careful guarding of your heart. The Lord, that which be on your heart forever, is swatch it, your heart is steady.

17:02 Because he loves you a thousand times more than even your left. It is one journey of life someone денегopu Shiathonug kolos is one journey of life. Reading and following you, you can't unstrung and out of tune, there can be no real progress made in this matter of perseverance. And so our text is very clear, easy to memorize.

Application 1: Guard Your Heart from Weakening Faith in Christ's Work

17:19 I hope we've all memorized it just in the brief exposition of it. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Now then, having opened up the text briefly, let me seek to apply it as time permits in three or four areas with specific reference to the matter of our perseverance in faith and holiness and obedience. So we're applying this duty in the matter of our perseverance.

17:55 First of all, let me exhort and entreat you this morning, guard your heart. From any weakening of faith in the work of Christ. Guard your heart from any weakening of faith in the work of Christ. Now the Bible makes it abundantly clear that the heart is the seat of both faith and unbelief.

18:28 In Romans 10, 9 we are told, If thou shalt believe, in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved, for with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. All true saving faith is an exercise of the heart. Now granted, it is not the exercise of an unrenewed heart. It is not the exercise of a heart that has only what it has been given, by nature.

19:04 I am fully aware that saving faith is the gift of God and is the reflex response of a heart regenerated sovereignly by Almighty God. But having said that, the text still says, Man believes with the heart. In other words, Saving faith is not merely an intellectual exercise, though it has intellectual content. It is not merely, merely an emotional response to the truth of the Gospel, though it does involve emotions.

19:41 Nor is it a bare volitional act, a mere making of a decision, though the will is involved. It is the heart, the seat of the whole inner man. It is with the heart man believes unto righteousness. And likewise unbelief is a matter of the heart.

20:00 This is why our Lord in Luke 24, 25 says, O foolish and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have said. Their slowness to believe was a heart problem. And again in Hebrews 3, 13, Brethren, beware lest there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief. Unbelief, like faith, is a matter of the heart.

20:31 And now then do you see how vital it is, in the matter of our perseverance? If we are to persevere in the path of faith and holiness and obedience to the end, how we must guard our hearts above all that we guard, guarding them particularly with reference to this concern, any weakening of faith in the work of Christ. For how did we get into the way? We got into the way, We got into the way, We got into the way, when standing naked and stripped before Almighty God, conscious that we had no righteousness of our own, we looked out of ourselves to the perfection of the work of Jesus Christ on behalf of sinners. And in simple trust we came to the confidence that what Jesus Christ did for this sinner, by His perfect life and death and resurrection, was adequate to answer all of the claims of God's justice against him. And in that faith, we then entered the road that leads unto everlasting life.

21:53 And one of the most difficult things is to maintain the strength of that simple trust, that marked our faith, that marked our faith, that marked our faith, that marked our faith, hearts on the threshold. And yet it's absolutely essential in the joy and confidence that Christ's work was sufficient. Many of us can remember in the early days of our Christian experience with what vigor we sang hymns that perhaps lacked the theological depth and precision of the hymns in the Trinity hymn book. But oh, how we sang those hymns! What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount

22:50 I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And when we sang it, we sang it with the vigor and confidence of ones who believed from the heart that all of heart was gone. Can you明白?

23:05 remember? Can you remember singing there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunge beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains? Can you remember? Well what's happened? Well along the way as you've studied your Bible and you've learned more of your own heart and as you've come to the realism that though a Christian is one in whom the dominion of sin is broken and the love of sin is transformed yet you still do sin you have fallen and stumbled and you find yourself in that terrible position where you say how can I come back again and again and again and again and ask God to forgive me for the same areas of sin the same areas of failure the same areas of stumbling you

24:09 and what's happened is this you're now trying to run the Christian race with the ball and chain of unresolved guilt upon your conscience and that's no way to run a race with a ball and chain upon your ankles to change the figure you once had no doubt as to the outcome you were enabled in those initial acts of faith to believe that Jesus Christ in the perfection of his work was adequate for anything you would need from here until there but along the way as you've begun to encounter some of the realism of the Christian life there's beginning to be a shaking of that confidence and it's so essential dear child of God if you and I are to run the race that is set before us that we guard our hearts from any weakening of faith in the perfection of the work of God.

25:11 The answer to this ball and chain stumbling doubting halting kind of Christian experience is nothing less than a vigorous unwavering faith in Christ work for sinners notice how the apostle brings it into a central focus in his own testimony of how he lived the Christian life Galatians 2 and verse 20 I have been crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me the life that he lived in the flesh with all of the tensions with all of the problems and they are expanded upon in other passages in that very epistle but he says I live it in faith in the flesh. the same language that best goes to for the for faith in the son of God is to believe in the Amazing Son who gave himself for me particularly you all along the way

26:29 on the Catholic leads to the ceastra celestial. community the language of our lord is recorded in john chapter six Kirthen who was not teu I am. hearers for they did not understand its spiritual significance jesus says in john 6 51 i am the living bread which came down out of heaven if a man eat of this bread he shall live forever and the bread which i give is my flesh for the life of the world the jews therefore strove with one another another saying how can this man give us his flesh to eat jesus therefore said unto them truly truly i say unto you except you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in yourselves now notice the tense he that eats present tense my flesh and drinks present tense my blood has eternal life and i will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and i will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed Me and I in Him, as the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father.

27:51 So He who eats Me, present tense, He also shall live because of Me. Do you see what he's saying? He's saying there's a relationship between the true air of eternal life and Jesus Christ crucified that is like the relationship between a living man who continually eats and drinks bread and other forms of the liquid. He eats of Me. He drinks of Me.

28:24 You see the analogy. One meal three years ago will not suffice for your physical sustenance for the next three years. You must eat daily if you are to live and function and accomplish your God-given responsibilities. And what is true physically is true spiritually.

28:44 There must be the initial eating of Christ and the drinking of Christ. The initial eating of His flesh and drinking of His blood is the initial act of faith when we look to Christ crucified as our only sustenance for spiritual life. But what is true on the threshold must become the habit of the soul. From the initial eating, there must be continuous eating and continuous drinking and continuous drinking and continuous drinking.

29:14 And He says such a person abides in Me and I in him. And there's so much confusion and mysticism in conjunction with what does it mean to abide in Christ. Well, whatever it means, certainly this is no little part of it because He tells us, He that eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me. Verse 56.

29:38 How did you get into Christ in the first place? Well, by faith. Well, how do you abide in Him? In the same way.

29:45 By faith. Now, let me press upon your consciences. Could it be, could it be that this is the reason why some of you are stumbling and halting and why there are times you've made so little progress in this whole matter of perseverance that you've wondered, am I indeed even in the way? Could the answer be just this fundamental and in one sense just this simple?

30:13 You have not been guarding your heart. You have not been guarding your heart from a weakening of faith in the work of Christ. You've allowed the discovery of your sin and the magnitude of your remaining corruption to somehow get into the place where you feel they are too big for the work of Christ. His work is not adequate for all of this.

30:38 What an insult. What an insult. And the Scripture says, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall say, Save His people from their sins, wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them. My friend, listen.

31:00 There is nothing that glorifies God more than by vigorous faith in the sufficiency of the work of Christ for sinners. Nothing glorifies God more than by believing that all that He says about His son, is true.

31:19 Now, is it true that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness? Is that true or isn't it?

31:30 Is it true? Well, if it's true, why in the world do you go with the ball and chain of unresolved guilt around your ankles with respect to sins that you've truly confessed? It's because you don't believe His word.

31:48 Fools and slow of heart to believe. Well, you say, it's got to be more complicated than that. My friend, don't complicate what God has made plain for His people. Guard your heart above all that you guard.

Application 2: Guard Your Heart from Waning Affection for Christ's Person

32:03 For out of it are the issues of life. Guard it in the first place from any weakening of faith in the work of Christ. But then in the second place, guard your heart from any waning of affection for the person of Christ. Guard your heart from any waning of affection for the person of Christ.

32:30 The most sensitive, tender, and yet most fruitful plant which grace places in the human heart is the plant of love to Christ.

32:44 Now, follow me. The most sensitive, tender, and yet most fruitful plant placed in the human heart by the grace of God is love to Christ. Now, love is the fruit of faith and not the other way around. You be careful, parents, in dealing with your children.

33:08 Don't make love to Christ the primary issue. Make faith in Christ the primary issue. Love to Christ is the fruit of faith. Faith is not the fruit of love.

33:22 Faith works by love. But faith is the root. Of all true love. Peter said this in 1 Peter 1 and verse 8 when he brings together in close conjunction believing in Christ and loving Christ.

33:38 And obviously, loving Him is the fruit, the inevitable fruit of faith. 1 Peter 1 verse 8 Whom having not seen you love, on whom though you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy unsung, speakable, and full of glory. And how did they come to love Him? They came to love Him by believing upon Him.

34:05 They came into the possession of that salvation offered to sinners upon condition of faith. And having embraced the Lord Jesus, their hearts ran out in love to Him. And where that love, that exotic plant is healthy and fruitful, it will be found to produce, in the believer, a singleness of purpose. It will enable him to say with Paul in Philippians 1.21, For to me to live is Christ. Life means Christ to me, and to die is gain. Or in the language of 2 Corinthians 5.9, Wherefore we are ambitious, whether at present or absent, that is in this life or the life to come, to be well-pleasing unto.

34:57 Him. It will produce a zeal to be like Him and to obey Him. Jesus said, If the man love me, he will do what? He will keep my words.

35:07 He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. John 14.21 John 15. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.

35:17 You see, love to Christ is not a merely emotional state. There are times when there may be very little felt emotion attached to it. There may be other times when the most heightened emotional sensibilities will be attached to it. But whether there is at any given point much or little of the emotional element, if there is love to Christ, there will be this singleness of purpose.

35:45 There will be this zeal to be like Him and to obey Him. But oh, how quickly does this exotic plant wither and droop. One chance. A chilling blast of worldly air can make its leaves wither.

36:06 Just go several days with no due of that peculiar refreshing presence of God that comes in the secret place and how this plant droops.

36:20 Refuse to feed it by the springs of the word of God, Psalm 1, and how quickly it withers. Oh, child of God who is dead, dwell in earnest about persevering. Guard your heart above all that you guard, for out of it are the issues of life. And guard it not only with reference to this matter of the vigor of your faith in the work of Christ, but guard your heart from any waning of affection for the person of Christ.

36:55 You remember our Lord's dealings with the church at Ephesus? He wrote to that church, which is recorded in Revelation chapter 2.

37:05 He commends them for their love of truth, for their love of righteousness, for their love of purity and church order, for their love of integrity of doctrine. He commends them for the areas in which their love is still vigorous and active. Revelation 2 and verse 2, I know your works and your toil and patience. You cannot bear.

37:32 You cannot bear evil men. You tried those that call themselves apostles and are not, and found them false. And you've had patience, and you've borne for my name's sake. You've not grown weary.

37:45 But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember, therefore, from whence you are fallen, and repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you and move your candlestick out of its place, except you repent. Child of God, listen to me.

38:09 Have you not found, as I have found, that when all the smoke of rationalization clears away, and when all efforts itself, justification, are cleared away, one of the most telling tests with respect to any activity we engage in or omit is this. What does it do? To the first. To the fervor of my love to Christ.

38:38 Isn't that the test to which we should put everything? What will this hour, watching that particular program on the television, do with respect to the fervor, to the reality, to the vigor of my love to Christ?

38:58 And if it weakens that, for you, that program is sin.

39:05 What happens if I omit secret prayer?

39:10 Now, one can produce chapters, or in verse, that says, I must have devotions every single day. All right. Granted, no one can. But let me ask you, what happens when you omit devotional exercises?

39:23 Does that strengthen or weaken your love to Christ? Now, be honest. Come on, get honest. I've never had anyone in 30 years of ministry come up to me and say, Pastor, you know the Lord is so precious.

39:37 I deliberately and willfully omitted devotions for three days, and do you know Christ has become so precious to me?

39:47 Never. Nor have I had anyone come to me and say, You know, Pastor, I just got so busy, just couldn't have time alone, and the Lord understood. And do you know, these have been the most wonderful days of my Christian experience. Christ has been so real, communion with Him so vigorous.

40:04 I've never heard language like that in 30 years.

40:08 But I've heard again and again, first of all, in my own closeted, I've heard my own prayers. And as people have come and been honest with me, how again and again, the waning of love to Christ, which then resulted in vulnerability to sins, which at one time the believer said, No, never! I would never do that! I would never go there!

40:32 I would never fall into that sin! When we began to trace back the origins of that sin, it all began months before the gross iniquity was committed. When there was neglect of the secret place.

40:49 When there was a dalliance with those things that may be innocent in themselves, but they paired off some of the substance of love to Christ.

41:02 Oh, my dear Christian friend, hear the word of God. Guard your heart above all that you guard, for out of it are the issues of life. And when the vigor of your love to Christ is shriveled, how tedious and tasteless the hours when Jesus no longer we see. Sweet prospects, sweet birds and sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness for me.

41:33 The midsummer sun shines in vain. The fields strive in vain to look gay. But when I am happy in Him, December is as pleasant, as May. Now, come on, cut away all the rationalization and ask yourself sitting here this morning, haven't you paid too dear a price for indulging that appetite, for pursuing that particular thing that your flesh wants, for cherishing that attitude to a brother or sister, neglecting that discipline that you know you need to.

42:15 Haven't you paid too dear a price already? Perhaps weeks and months of at least a great degree of estrangement from intimate, real fellowship with Jesus Christ. Can that television program be so precious that you'll forfeit communion with Christ for it? Can that beverage be so precious that you'll forfeit communion with Christ for it?

Application 3: Guard Your Heart from Insidious Hardness to Christ's Law

42:46 Can that extra half hour of sleep be so precious and needful that you'll forfeit communion with Christ for it? If so, you put a very cheap price upon the most precious possession God ever gave fallen sinners, the privilege of communion with His Son. Guard thy heart above all that you guard, for out of it are the issues of life. Child of God, guard your heart from any weakening of faith in the work of Christ, from any waning of affection to the person of Christ. But then thirdly, guard your heart from any insidious hardness to the law of Christ. Guard your heart from any insidious hardness to the law of Christ. Now why have I used the word insidious?

43:55 Because insidious means something that comes upon us unawares, that comes upon us, as it were, in the dark, that comes upon us in a wily and in an unsuspecting way. And so I'm pleading with you as I plead with myself to guard your heart from any insidious hardness to the law of Christ, that is, to the expressions of His will as recorded in the Word of God. We have seen that the heart is the spring of all true obedience, and that's why unconverted people remain unconverted. Romans 8, 7.

44:38 The carnal mind, that is, the heart, is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. My unconverted friend, that's why you remain unconverted, because you hate God, and your hatred of God is manifested in your refusal to submit to His law. The carnal mind is enmity against God.

45:05 I don't hate God. What do you think I'm doing in church? Well, I don't know why you're here. But one thing is true.

45:12 The reason you're not converted is you hate God. You hate God. And the evidence that you hate Him is not that you stand out in the parking lot when this service is over and say, I hate God! I hate God!

45:26 I hate God! But the evidence is your heart is not subject to His law. You will not love Him supremely. You love yourself.

45:37 You love your career. You love your sin. You love your family. You love your home.

45:41 You love your job. You love everything supremely but the God who made you. That's why you're an unconverted man. But when God is pleased to give us a new heart, what's the first thing He does according to Ezekiel 36?

46:01 He says, I'll take out the heart of stone and I'll give them a heart of flesh. And then what does He say I'll do with that heart of flesh? He said, I'll write My what? I'll write My laws upon their inward parts.

46:15 And I'll put My Spirit within them. And I will cause them to keep My statutes and My judgments so that everyone who has been born of the Spirit can say with some degree of honesty in the language of Psalm 40 and verse 8, I delight to do Thy will, O My God, yea, Thy law is where? Within My heart. At the very seat of My being where once I said, Who is the Lord that I should obey Him?

46:47 That was the language of Pharaoh. Or the language of the citizens in Luke 19, 10. We will not have this man to reign over us. Now I say, I delight to do Thy will, O My God, why?

47:02 Thy law is within My heart. And God gives us that principle of obedience. And we can say in the language of Romans 7, 22, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. And so a Christian is a man who is glad to be under Christ's law.

47:21 He counts Christ's yoke precious. And when Jesus said, My yoke is easy and My burden is light, He knows it to be so. He knows that amidst all of the struggles and the difficulties and the agonies of the Christian life, compared to the terrors of a condemning conscience, compared to the prospect of a dark eternity under the wrath of God in hell, compared to all of the other effects of sin upon Himself, He finds the yoke of Christ is easy and His burden is light. Not only does He welcome the burden of Christ's yoke, because He loves Christ, He longs to be scrupulous in His obedience to Christ. You see, careful obedience is never a burden if the one whom we obey is the object of supreme love. And I was reflecting on this in my preparation in the husband-wife relationship and the parent-child relationship, because they reflect perhaps the deepest ties of love that we humans know at the human level. And here is a woman who truly loves her husband, and because she loves him, she has spent her lifetime amidst other duties seeking to know everything that pleases him, everything that displeases him,

48:49 the things that bring him pleasure and delight. And you behold the life of that woman, and from morning till night, her whole life is a round of activity in which, amidst other duties, she's finding ways to show her love to her husband by scrupulous little details of response to her understanding of what pleases him. Now you find such a woman and say, look, I've been observing you from behind the curtains for the last three days, and you are so meticulous in trying to please your husband. Isn't that a burden?

49:26 What will she say to you? She'll say, a burden? A burden? What are you talking about?

49:34 A burden? I love him so. I can't find enough things to do to please him. Now if that's true between two human beings, what happens when the incarnate God captures a sinner's heart and the Lord Jesus woos us to himself?

49:57 Will we ever feel that our obedience can be too scrupulous? You see, these professing Christians that call scrupulous obedience legalism either show careless terminology or they show they've never known any love to Christ. Because the great burden of a Christian is not that he's too scrupulous in his obedience, but that he is not scrupulous enough. He feels that there are so many of his Lord's precepts that either he does not know or understand, or if he knows and understands them, he does not fulfill them as he ought.

50:40 And this is his great grief. When the heart is grieved at disobedience, sins of omission as well as commission, that's the evidence of a healthy heart. But, O Christian, guard your heart above all that you guard from an insidious hardness to the law of Christ. A hardness that creeps in almost unawares like a fog that steals in on the shore and the depths of dawn or pre-dawn hours.

51:14 Oh, how the fog of worldliness and the fog of the pressures of other things and the cares of this life can create an insidious hardness to the law of Christ. So that our Lord would say to us in the language of the prophet, I have written unto them the ten thousand things of my law, but they are accounted a strange thing. And we no longer take seriously the specifics of our Lord's teaching as given to us in the whole of Scripture, but in particular as His own words are recorded in the Gospels, as His own words are given to us in the epistles. What a tragic thing to have an insidious hardness of heart to the law of Christ. Some of you perhaps can remember when certain duties which you know to be given to you by Christ, if omitted, they caused you grief and pain, but now you can omit them days and weeks without number and feel hardly a twinge of conscience. Some of you can remember when once your heart was pricked at the slightest consciousness of deviation from God's law like David. He cuts off a little square from Saul's garment and the Scripture says,

52:41 His heart smote him. That's the same David that a few years later calculatingly plans adultery and murder by proxy and does it, as far as we can read the record, in cold blood. That's what happened to the man after God's own heart. He failed to guard his heart.

53:09 When he failed to guard his heart, tragic sin was the result. You have that picture in the 24th chapter of Proverbs of the field of the sluggard. The writer says, I went by and beheld that field and it was grown over with thorns and nettles and the walls were broken down. There was no fruit.

53:31 There were no vegetables. And he said, I beheld and I learned. A little slumber, a little sleep, a little folding of the hands to sleep and so shall thy want come as an armed man. Think of it.

53:46 He says your want, your lack will be as real as if someone came and violently took away from you all of your possessions. How many Christians have lost so much because they failed to guard their hearts from an insidious hardness to the law of Christ. Well, there are certainly other areas that could be touched upon. Let me just close by mentioning one and I leave it with you.

Application 4: Guard Your Heart from Weaning Dependence on Christ's Power

54:17 Guard your heart. Guard your heart from any weaning of dependence upon the power of Christ. It is Christ who put us into the way. It's Christ who alone can keep us on the way.

54:33 And the scriptures tell us in Hebrews 12, 2 in running the race of perseverance we are to look off unto Jesus the author and the perfecter of our faith. Paul could say in Philippians 4, 13 I can do all things through Christ or through him who strengthens me. Jesus said without me you can do nothing. And as surely as the first exercise upon the way was looking off to Christ for pardon and acceptance.

55:07 So we need continually to look to him even as we learn more and more of the complexities of the dynamics of the Christian life and we understand more and more of the many facets of our responsibility and wherein we must engage ourselves in conscious activity in the midst of all of that. There must be no weaning of our hearts away from simple dependence upon the power of Christ by whom alone we are enabled to run the race. Oh, Christian, do you guard your heart now I hope you guard your name that's a legitimate object of guarding the scripture says a good name is to be chosen rather than silver and gold I hope you guard your name you children if mom and dad gave you a name a good name so you've never had to be embarrassed to walk out in the street because you bore the name your mother and father gave you because they've shamed you through sin that's a wonderful legacy a good name is to be chosen rather than silver and gold guard your name guard many things the scripture commands but above everything else that you guard guard your heart for out of it are the issues of life

Conclusion: The Personal Responsibility of Heart-Guarding

56:31 now you don't have any choice in the matter that out of your heart are the issues of life your lifestyle is an extended commentary on the condition of your heart now guard your heart that out of it will come the fruits of a growing simplicity of trust in the work of Christ a deepening affection for the person of Christ an increasing concern to obey the law of Christ and a growing consciousness of absolute dependence upon the power of Christ in such a heart in such a person on the way to the celestial city there will be evident those graces of true adherence to Christ and his ways may God help us then constantly to engage in this first and most fundamental of all of the personal means of perseverance the constant careful guarding of our hearts and no one can do it for you your elders can't guard your hearts your wife can't guard your heart your husband can't guard it your friends can't only you can guard your heart above all that you guard

57:57 for out of it are the issues of life let us pray our Father we thank you for your holy word and we pray that the Holy Spirit who originally gave that word through Solomon may even now write it upon our hearts that we may give ourselves to the constant guarding of our hearts knowing that out of them are the issues of life we are not competent for this task in ourselves come then O Lord and give us strength and grace we pray that you deal with those whose hearts have never been won to you O Lord give them a sight of their own hearts that will sicken them give them to see something of what you see and may the sight of it drive them out of themselves to look to you for the mercy extended through your beloved Son that they may have new hearts and have their sins forgiven seal your word to all of our hearts for our eternal profit and to your own praise we ask in Jesus name Amen