How to Retain Wisdom

The Transition from Attaining to Retaining Wisdom

0:03 We return tonight to our studies in the book of Proverbs, beginning a verse-by-verse study of chapter 3. We have worked through the first two chapters of this book that is unique in many ways amongst all of the sections of the Word of God, but perhaps most unique for the literary form in which the Holy Spirit has chosen to speak to us His mind. For these Proverbs come in that pithy way, truth attacking the mind with unusual power and then attaching itself to the mind with unusual tenacity,

0:48 thus assisting us to do the very thing we sung about from the 119th Psalm, to hide the Word of God in our hearts.

0:57 You'll remember that the basic theme of the second chapter, our studies in which we concluded, two weeks or three weeks ago, three Lord's Day nights ago, was the path into true wisdom. Solomon speaking to his son or to his pupil as a tutor, indicating the path into true wisdom is the path of exposure to the words of God, the inclination of the ear to that word, application of the heart and mind with diligence, prayer, seeking it as for hid treasure, and then the great, the benefits of the wisdom that comes to the one who seeks it in that pathway, those benefits are laid out in great detail,

1:41 summarized under the three basic headings. They will keep the young man from the way of evil men, they will keep him from the way of evil women, and they will guide him into the path of good men. Now in chapter 3, Solomon having exhorted his son or his pupil to the attainment of true wisdom, now begins in this section with an exhortation and an entreaty to the retention of that wisdom. It is one thing to gain wisdom, it is another thing to retain that wisdom.

2:18 It is one thing to discover the mind of God and its application to our lives, it is another thing to retain that aspect of his mind in its governing power within the life. And so if you breathe easy, thinking your job is done because you've received the words of God, laid up his commandments with you, I'm quoting from chapter 2, verse 1, if you think your job is done because you've inclined your ear and applied your heart to understanding, you've cried after discernment, you've lifted up your voice for understanding, and you've discovered the knowledge of God, no, your job is not done. For having discovered his mind and his will, there is the great responsibility to retain the same,

3:02 not as a man might retain his multiplication tables, you learn them in whatever grade you learn them, and they're with you for life, but to retain them in the sense that they are the governing factors of your life, as we shall see in the study of the text tonight. And so at the beginning then of this third chapter, which is filled with various and sundry exhortations, enforced by some very powerful motives and incentives, we have before us, these first two verses in which we find an earnest entreaty and a gracious promise with reference to this matter of retaining the law, the teaching, the doctrine, the commandments of God.

The Divine Authority of the Entreaty

3:47 My son, forget not my law, but let thy heart keep my commandments. Before we analyze the text and seek to expound it, let me remind you that though Solomon is here speaking, a greater than Solomon is also here. For this section of the word of God comes under that general description of 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work.

4:29 And so in a very real sense, we must, we must see beyond Solomon and we must hear the voice of our God himself. We must hear the Lord Jesus, who spoke through the prophets, who spoke through the biblical writers of the Old and the New Testament, standing in our midst tonight as the prophet of his people, declaring unto us the mind and the will of God. I emphasize this not simply again for introductory filler, for I have more than enough material to occupy the hour, allotted to the exposition of the word, but to bring you back again and again, as I must bring myself back to it in preaching, that when we deal with the word of God, we are not dealing with an impersonal thing.

5:14 We are dealing with Christ as our prophet, standing in the midst of his people, declaring his mind by means of his written word. I, as I preach, must remind myself of this constantly. I am not fulfilling a noble and religious function according to the scripture, in detachment from the Lord Jesus and my relationship to him, and my subjection to him and my accountability to him. And therefore, as it is incumbent upon me to preach as beneath his authority and under his eye, it is incumbent upon you to listen as under his authority and beneath his eye.

The Structure of the Entreaty and Promise

5:55 So the Lord Jesus, then, would speak to us through Solomon instructing his son, or his pupil. And as he does, he gives to us, first of all, an earnest entreaty, coming in a positive and negative way. My son, negative first, forget not my law. Positive, but let thy heart keep my commandments.

6:18 And then he enforces the entreaty with this gracious promise, for length of days and years of life and peace will they add to thee. He lays before his son not only his duty to retain the law of God. It is not only his duty to do so, but it is in his own interest to do so. And we shall see as we work our way through many other sections in the book of Proverbs that again and again Solomon uses this as a lever by which to encourage his son into the path of obedience.

6:55 It is not only his duty, but it is in the path of his own interest. And it is not only his duty, but it is in the path of his own interest. So to what? Well then, let's look at this earnest entreaty.

The Setting: Fatherly Love and Authority

7:06 My son, forget not my law. But let thy heart keep my commandments. Consider in the first place the setting in which the entreaty comes, and then the substance of the entreaty. The setting of this entreaty is once more this setting of the father with his son, or the tutor with his son.

7:30 Or the tutor with his son. Or the tutor with his son. Or the tutor with his son. Or the tutor with his son.

7:31 Or the tutor with his son. with his pupil. It comes within this my son framework that we have encountered already, at least on two occasions. We found it over there in chapter 1 in verse 10, my son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. The second chapter opened with the same words, my son, if thou wilt

7:51 receive my words. And now again we encounter it, my son, forget not my law. In other words, Solomon is reminding his son or his pupil that whatever he says to him, he says as a demand of love. He says it in the context of filial affection and of filial authority. Whenever a father says

8:17 these words to his own son, my son, those words should be speak buckets of genuine selfless affection and buckets of genuine God-given authority. And one without the other is an incomplete notion of the father-son relationship. When a father speaks to his son, if he's worth his name, father, it should be in that context of tender compassion and pity. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pities those that fear him. The psalmist

8:52 assuming that any father worth his name has a heart full of pity for his son. What father is there who will not change his father's name? What father is there who will not change his father's name? Why? Because it's assumed that he loves him. Just as much as that context of the father's son

9:10 should be permeated and suffused with genuine love and compassion and pity, it should be filled with a self-conscious realization of the authority that is invested or is vested in a father. So that when he speaks to his son, he doesn't speak to him in some kind of an accommodating way that when he entreats him, he hopes his son will give him an ear. No, no, he speaks with authority. God has placed me over you, my son. Hear my words. I am God's mouthpiece to you. I am God's vice-regent.

9:44 I am God's representative authority over you. And I remind you then as we come to this passage, it comes to us in that particular setting. God is our father. Our Solomon is speaking to us as his adopted sons and his adopted daughters, lest I be accused of chauvinism. I shall include

10:08 the ladies in the feminine terminology. And he speaks to us in that context of his own infinite love. The only reason we're his sons is because he loved us. Behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called sons of God. It is in his infinite love that he

10:28 adopted us unto sonship through God. God is our father. Our Solomon is speaking to us in that Jesus Christ to himself. And therefore, whatever these words say to us, they are the directives of love. And no matter how much they may impinge upon our fleshly inclinations, they are the

10:42 impingements of divine love. They also come with all the authority of his throne. God's not giving you suggestions tonight, Christians. You're not sitting here window shopping in divine truth, looking in to say, well, I wonder if I'd like to buy the product. God speaks to you with all the

11:00 authority of his person. God speaks to you with all the authority of his person. God speaks to you with all the authority of his person. And he speaks to you as your God, as your heavenly father. So

The Substance: 'Forget Not My Law'

11:07 much then for the setting in which the passage comes to us, the entreaty. Now look at the substance of this entreaty. And as I already indicated, it begins with the negative, and then it moves on to the positive. My son, negative, forget not my law, or as the marginal reading has it, my teaching, or as you may have another translation, which is my law, which is my teaching, which says my doctrine. And these words, like the word used in the New Testament for doctrine or

11:37 teaching, it's a broad word. Forget not my law, that is the substance of what I have conveyed to you. It is teaching, it is doctrine, but since it comes with authority, it is law. It is all of those things. And so his exhortation, or his entreaty, cast in the negative form is, do not forget my

11:59 teaching. The teaching I've already given you, I've already given you, I've already given you, I've already given you about the blessings of wisdom, the awful danger of despising the voice of wisdom as we considered it in chapter one. My teaching concerning the pathway into wisdom, the benefits of wisdom. My son, do not forget my doctrine. Now the Bible has a lot to say about this matter

12:21 of forgetfulness, an awful lot to say. In fact, often when God comes to his people to speak to them at strategic points, he warns them of the danger of forgetfulness. And he says, the terrible danger of forgetfulness. Now there are two or three kinds of forgetfulness that all of us are aware of. I say two, possibly three, because I'm not too sure of the third one. Let

12:43 me start with the one I'm not too sure about. I believe there may be a forgetfulness common to us as creatures. In other words, when Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden, maybe your mind never works this way, but I've asked myself this question. Would he have ever had to go to Eve and say, Eve, where in the world did I put my spade that I was out there working the garden with yesterday?

13:06 I can't remember where I put it. You called me in for supper and I forgot it. Now I don't mean to be funny. I wonder, since man as a creature is not omniscient, he is not possessed of perfect knowledge, there might possibly be a forgetfulness which is simply common to our creatureliness.

13:26 I don't know about that. It's a possibility. But these next two kinds of forgetfulness, I answer, there is that forgetfulness which is common to us as sinful creatures. And that breaks down into two categories. There is that forgetfulness which is connected with the deterioration of the

13:47 mind due to the physical effects of sin and death in our bodies. As death carries out its work in our bodies, one of the indications of this is the forgetfulness due to the breakdown in the function of the mind. And that is the forgetfulness which is connected with the deterioration of the mind. And it's so frustrating for people who are beginning to grow old when this begins to happen.

14:11 I've been with this people long enough to see it happen to a few in our midst. We do not have an old congregation, but there have been some whom I've seen pass through that stage and they get so angry with themselves when they just can't recall those things that used to be at their fingertips, but now they're out there in never, never land. They're in the land of forgetfulness. They can't bring them back. So there is that.

14:34 There is that forgetting which is common to us as sinful creatures rooted in the physical deterioration of the body. But there is another kind of forgetfulness common to us as sinful creatures. It is not so much the deterioration of the mind due to the physical effects of sin and death in our bodies, but it is that disinclination of the mind due to the spiritual effects of sin in our natures. Galatians 5.17.

15:04 The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these two are contrary the one to the other. And one of the ways in which this warring of the flesh, remaining corruption even in a believer, manifests itself is in this tendency to forget that which would carry on the sanctifying work of the spirit in our hearts. And the flesh lusting against the spirit is manifested in this forgetfulness of the spirit. And the flesh lusteth against the spirit, shown by a disinclination to remember those facets of truth which would spell death to our carnal lust and which would be a blockage to the manifestation of fleshly corruption.

15:50 So there is then that second kind of forgetfulness, that forgetfulness common to us as sinful creatures rooted in the deterioration of the mental faculties from a physical standpoint, that which is rooted. In the disinclination of the soul or the spirit to holy things. And then there is a third kind of forgetfulness, and it is that peculiar rebellion of a willful transgressor. He forgets willfully and deliberately by putting the commandments and the doctrine of God out of sight and behind his back. We saw that kind of forgetfulness with reference to the wicked woman in verse 17 of

16:32 chapter 2. She is described as a wicked woman, and she is described as a wicked woman. She is described in these ways. She forsakes the friend of her youth and forgetteth the covenant of her God. That's not forgetfulness common to us as creatures, if there be such a thing. Nor is it

16:49 forgetfulness common to us as sinful creatures. This is a willful rebellious forgetting, a putting behind one's back by a conscious act of the will, so that out of sight, out of mind, I may be free to pursue the course of my own sinful desires. It's in that sense that the word is used in Psalm 917. It speaks of the nations that should be turned, the wicked should be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. That is, who deliberately and willfully turn their backs

17:27 upon light. Romans 1. That which is known of God is manifested unto us, but what do they do? They hold down the will of God. They hold down the will of God. They hold down the will of God. They

17:34 hold down the truth in unrighteousness. It's like a little boy who's going out to go fishing, and his mother says, now, Johnny, I want you to remember, I want you home by five o'clock. You understand? Yes, ma'am. You got your watch on? So he looks at his little Mickey Mouse watch. He says,

17:50 yes, ma'am. It's all wound up. It's running good. So off he goes with his fishing pole and his can of worms. Oh, you're more sophisticated than do that these days. No, you go off with your spinning

18:00 reel and all your box allures and the rest. You just don't take an old pole with a string and a can of worms. You just don't take an old pole with a string and a can of worms. You just don't take an old pole with a string and a can of worms and a bent nail. But off he goes, whether with his can

18:08 of worms and his bamboo pole or his sophisticated fishing gear. And he's out with his buddies. He's fishing down at the lake. And he glances at his watch, three o'clock, catching fish. They're

18:20 having a great time, 3.30, four o'clock. And about four o'clock, he's got sense enough to know, if I look at that thing much more, I know I'm going to have to pack up my things and get home pretty soon. So he just very conveniently, quote, forgets to look at his watch. He sees the sun going down. Now, he hasn't looked at his watch to know that it's already

18:39 five o'clock. But he sees the sun going down a little bit lower than it usually is at five o'clock. And he knows enough because he's been to school enough to know that generally speaking, unless the Lord's doing something like he did in that battle with Joshua, things don't stand still, that this is a normal process. But he forgets about going home at five o'clock. And so when he's done fishing and his other buddies feel well,

19:05 they better get going home. He runs home. And the first thing his mother says when he comes in the house at six o'clock, she says, Johnny, why aren't you home at five o'clock? And he says, but mama, I forgot to look at my watch. Of course, none of you ever did that, did you? I forgot to look at

19:24 my watch. What kind of forgetfulness was this? It was a forgetfulness rooted in a deliberate, calculated rebellion against known authority. We've said to our children when they've been guilty of that kind of forgetfulness, that God has, in a very wonderful way, put some mysterious connections between the nerve endings of your backside and the brain. And this will help you to remember the next time. And it's amazing.

19:56 I don't understand the relationship between here and there, but it works wonderfully. Works wonderfully. Somehow just turns all the systems on and they function properly. So the next time Johnny looks at his watch again at four and four fifteen and four thirty, he says, I must be home by five o'clock. Now, what kind of forgetfulness is Solomon talking about

20:19 to his son? Well, I wish I could say with authority which one, but in all likelihood, it's this latter kind to which he's exhorting him or concerning which he's exhorting him. My son, do not forget my law. Do not come to that place where having heard this instruction about the benefits and blessings of true wisdom, that wisdom rooted in the knowledge and the fear of God. My son, do not come to that place where viewing all of this,

20:49 you turn your back upon it and forget it. My son, forget not my law. If he's regarding his son as not yet having entered in personal experience into covenant relationship to his God, this would be the thrust of his exhortation. And if that is the dominant note, then certainly the other note is warranted as well. Do not forget my law. That is,

21:13 take every step necessary and possible to see to it that even though you are not guilty as the pattern of your life of willful and deliberate transgression in casting my directions behind you, that you do not allow the things common to your creatureliness and to your remaining sinfulness to cancel out the powerful and present effect of my law upon your heart. Now, why is he so concerned that his son forget not his law? Because for the simple reason that whatever holds a man's mind is that which

21:50 governs a man's life. What holds the mind molds the life. That which holds the mind is that which molds the life. And though ideas are non-physical, you cannot see them, you cannot touch them, it is ideas that control.

22:18 And this is not negated in the whole work of redemption. It's not negated in the whole work of the devil in deceiving and damning men. How did he set out in this business in the first place in the Garden of Eden? By bombarding Eve with what? Not with physical force, but with ideas.

22:40 He came with ideas to attack her mind. Yea, as God said, that's an idea. He didn't come there with physical force. He came with ideas to attack her mind. Yea, as God said, that's an idea. He didn't come there with physical force.

22:50 He came there with ideas. He came into the arena of truth, of propositions, and he came with a frontal attack upon her mind. He knew if he could get her to think wrong thoughts about God and the world of reality, he'd get her. And he controlled her and he did. That's

23:12 why Solomon could say in chapter 4, Keep thy heart, verse 23, keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. And those thoughts that enter the heart, the citadel of our being, those are the things that control us. And so as Satan gained his conquest by means of ideas, so God gains his conquest in grace. I say it reverently, by means of ideas.

23:38 That's why the scripture says we are begotten again by the what? The word of truth. That's ideas. Ideas that swear with reality.

23:48 They are truth, but they are ideas. They are concepts of God, of sin, of ourselves, of our relationship to him. And Solomon understood this. And so he says, oh my son, don't forget my law.

The Substance: 'Let Thy Heart Keep My Commandments'

24:02 For what holds your mind is what is going to mold your life. Hence the writer to the Hebrews having laid out these sweeping concepts of the glory of Christ, greater than the angels, higher than the angels. In chapter 1, what does he say? The first words of chapter.

24:20 Let's give the more earnest heed, lest at any time we should drift from the things that we have heard. When God formalizes his covenant with his people, and we have the reiteration of that in Deuteronomy, particularly those early chapters, again and again in Deuteronomy 4 through 8, you have this admonition, forget not, forget not, forget not, forget not. This is the great concern of Solomon. May I say?

24:50 By way of application, this is the great concern of our Lord for us as his people. I would say to you young people who are not yet in a state of grace, any visitors who are with us, it is incumbent upon you not to trifle with the truth you've heard. Though you're not saved by mere exposure to the truth of God, by retaining in your mind those concepts which now may cause terror to your spirit, woe be unto you, woe be unto you. If you willfully and with open eyes cast that truth behind your back and turn away from it.

25:28 I say particularly to you who are the children of God, who in repentance and faith have embraced the Savior and are savingly joined to him, how vital it is that you forget not the doctrine, the teaching of God. For it is only that truth which has come in the way of chapter 2 and has then retained, that is the molding, the governing influence. The molding, the governing influence. Hence the negative exhortation, my son, forget not my law.

25:59 Now move with me to the positive part of the entreaty. But, and here's the only infallible way to keep the negative, how shall we not forget the law of God, the doctrine of God, the teaching of God? Well, here's the answer. The negative is followed with the positive, but let thy heart keep my commandments.

26:22 As we try to open up this part of the entreaty, it's necessary to define three of the key words. First of all, let thy heart keep my commandments. Then, let thy heart keep my commandments. Then, let thy heart keep my commandments.

26:41 What does he mean by the heart? When he says to his son, my son, let thy heart keep my commandments, what's he talking about? Well, let's remember he is not talking in a psychological, psychologically sophisticated way. I've been amazed how some people have gone to the Bible and tried to find in it support for all of their various theories relative to the human being and et cetera, and seeking to find technical terminology.

27:09 May I say, don't waste your time doing that. The term heart in the Bible speaks essentially of the center of a man's being. Proverbs 4.23, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.

27:27 The heart is the seat, the center of all the streams of your life experience. What Hanoi is to the policies of North Vietnam and what Washington is to the policies of the U.S., the heart is to your life.

27:43 What the throne room is in a true monarchy, so the heart is to all the activities in a man's life. Hence the word of God. He teaches that it's the heart that is the source of all sin in the unconverted. Jesus said in Matthew, Mark chapter 7 and verse 19, for from within, out of the heart of men proceed.

28:10 Then he lists all of these sins and he says they come out of the heart. If you trace murder back to its ultimate source, you'll find there that seething cauldron of iniquity, the human heart. Blasphemy, pride, foolishness, adultery, uncleanness, all of the sins Jesus lists. He said when you trace them back down through all the winding streams by which they touch lives and are influenced and affected by this motive and that circumstance and this, trace them all back and he says you'll end up in one source, the polluted, defiled human heart.

28:50 That's the source of all sin, the human heart. It's also the source of all true virtue in the saint. That's why Jesus said in Matthew 12, 34 and 35, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Therefore he says, how can ye being evil speak good things?

29:09 Make the tree good and then its fruit will be good. Or the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt. So then true virtue in the life of a child of God comes from the heart. He's not merely changed some external activities.

29:23 There has been something that has touched the spirit, the spring of his being. Hence the battlefield of all ages is this matter of the human.

29:35 And so when Solomon says to his son, let thy heart keep my commandments, he's driving for nothing less than a relationship to the precepts of God that touches a man at the center of his being. Nothing less than that. What does he mean then by the word keep? Generally we read this and we use it, synonymously with observe.

30:00 Let thy heart observe my commandments. But you see that would not be a good synonym because some commandments go beyond the mere attitude of the heart. They touch the hands, the feet, the eyes, the ears. And so this word keep is much richer than the mere connotation of observe.

30:19 To keep the commandments of God is to involve, first of all, a cordial affection for those commandments. A love for them. A cherishing of them. As a lover, as the beloved, keeps the memory of the object of his or her love in his heart.

30:39 It is more than just a mere retention. There is a cordial retention. So there must be a cordial affection for the commandments of God. There must be a hearty attention to them.

30:51 And a cheerful obedience to them as well. To keep them is to cherish them. Now, notice how the thing is intensified. Do not forget my law, but in the citadel of your being, let there be a cordial reaction to, and response and reception of, and an enfolding in love and in obedience of my commandments.

31:17 That is, all of the directives which I give to you concerning life in all of its facets. And remember how practical Solomon is in this setting. He's talking about, what we would say, some of the real gutsy issues of life. He's not just talking about ideas that are very necessary, of the attributes of God, the nature and character of man.

31:42 Assuming the biblical view of God and man, and the biblical view of what it is for man to be rightly related to God in his fear, for that's the chief part of knowledge, he then traces out the implications of that relationship into the finest capillaries of human experience. And he says, with reference to all of that detailed instruction, with all of those commandments in the citadel of your being, cordially receive them, enfold them in love and in affection, and then work them out in obedience and in conformity to my mind. Hence, the positive directive is the only sure antidote against forgetfulness.

Practical Means: Radical Heart Transformation

32:25 Now, whether it's a creaturely forgetfulness, or that forgetfulness common to us as sinners, or even that rebellious forgetfulness, there is but one way to correct it. The word of God kept in the heart. To state it another way, this entreaty is to keep the mind constantly exposed to the substance of God's commandments, to keep the will constantly governed by the authority of those, commandments to keep the affections constantly warmed

33:06 by the worth and the beauty of those commandments. Now, how is that to be done? I trust I have rightly handled the words to show what the entreaty is, hence what your duty is, and what my duty is. Now, how can it be done?

33:23 May I give several practical suggestions tonight, and I think this is probably as far as we've gotten. First of all, you must have a heart, that has been radically transformed by sovereign grace, so you can't do this. You can't do it. How can the citadel of your being embrace with cordial affection and with obedient response the commandments of God, when the Bible says the human heart, by nature, untouched by sovereign mercy, is in the exact opposite state?

33:58 Romans 8 says, The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. Listen to me. You who are yet strangers to a deep inward transforming work of God's grace, it is your duty to cordially embrace every commandment of God.

34:21 That's your duty. But every inclination of your nature is to reject that commandment. But your inclination does not cancel your duty. It is your duty to cordially embrace all the precepts of God.

34:38 But Paul says, In this carnal state, this fleshy state, we are in enmity against God. The only thing that will ever bring us to the place where we can let our hearts keep His commandments is to have done in us what the prophet Ezekiel talked about. And I read now from Ezekiel 36, 26 and 27. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit, will I put within you.

35:10 I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh. I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. And now listen to the last phrase.

35:25 And ye shall keep mine ordinances and, what? Do them. You see, keeping is not doing. Don't use them as synonyms.

35:37 He says you will keep them. You will receive them with that cordial affection. You will cherish them in the citadel of your being. And if that's true, then you cannot help but do them.

35:48 As the psalmist said, I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is where? Within my heart. There in the governing seat of my being, your word has come and is being kept.

36:04 This is what Jesus meant when He said, He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them. He it is that loveth me. But this cannot be done until God has performed this mighty work of taking out the heart of stone, giving a heart of flesh, putting His spirit within us, and in that work, that mysterious work of regeneration, thus causing us to walk in His statutes and to keep His ordinances and to do them. What will bring you to the place where you have a cordial affection for the commandments of God, a hearty attention to them, and a cheerful obedience to them?

36:45 I answer from Scripture, nothing but the new birth. That's the great problem with some of you here tonight. When it comes to external conformity to some of the external framework of divine law and government, all is well. And so you're hemmed in by fears of judgment, and that's good.

37:06 You're far better off that way than just casting it all off and going out and living like the devil and having two-fold more of the hell you'll face. If you're going to go to hell, it's better to go under the restraints of the external demands of the law than a profligate. But my friend, you'll go to hell still. You're all right when it comes to the externals, going to church, not forsaking the assemblings of yourself together, giving of your tithe, giving of your offerings, saying prayers.

37:35 But what we're talking about tonight, you know nothing of this. Keeping the commandments from heart. You don't know what it is cordially to embrace the precepts of God. You know no spiritual relish and delight.

37:48 You're like a man who's lost his appetite because of some problem of physical malady and he simply eats out of duty and that's all it is. Day in and day out and week in and week out and he never knows a moment's delight. Now the child of God has periods when he feeds upon the Word simply out of a sense of duty. Attends the public and private means of grace simply out of duty and there's no delight.

38:13 I'm fully aware of that. I have to live with my own heart. I know that from the Bible and my own experience. But my friend, if you know nothing of spiritual delight and spirit yet in your sins, your heart has never kept one commandment of God.

38:30 Never. Never. They that are in the flesh cannot please God for God does not want obedience that is constrained by external pressures alone. He wants that obedience that flows from the heart.

38:47 The heart that He Himself has transformed by His grace. Have you been born of the Spirit of God? That's the great issue. I would never weary of asking that even if some of you who frequent this place and have perhaps been coming here for years.

39:02 Have you been born of God? Has God done a work as deep as the center of your being? Has He touched your heart? That's the question.

39:12 Has He touched your heart? Has He touched your heart? Has He given you a heart of flesh causing you to walk in His statutes and to keep His judgments? How can we do what Solomon exhorts us to do here?

Practical Means: Frequent Exposure to God's Word

39:27 How can we forget not His law but let our hearts keep His commandments? The first part of the answer is we must have a heart radically transformed by sovereign grace. But then secondly, this I hope will be practical and helpful to the people of God. Assuming that you have a heart transformed by sovereign grace, you must be constantly engaged in those means of grace designed to assist you in this work.

39:58 How are we to have the word of God kept in the heart? Well, we must be consistently engaged in those means designed by God to assist us in that work. And what are they? Number one, the frequent exposure to the word of God written.

40:21 Forget not my law but let thy heart keep my commandments. The heart cannot keep what the mind has ceased to retain. And the mind does not retain what does not pass before it. Hence there is no substitute for the faithful, disciplined reading of the word of God.

40:42 You say, here we are, back to that old stuff. Yeah, we're right back there. And just as much as every single road of scripture will lead you to see your own depravity, to see the glory of Christ as the savior of sinners, it'll lead you back again and again to these basic disciplines of the Christian life. It will.

41:02 And the only way you can fulfill this admonition, this exhortation, this entreaty is by the frequent exposure of your mind to the word of God written for I repeat, the heart cannot keep what the mind no longer retains. Some of us feel we've got a forgettery instead of a memory. And we feel we've got a sieve where we ought to have a container and all the more reason to frequently read the word of God. You see, you who are husbands, you can very conveniently forget that high standard of conduct laid out for you in Ephesians 5.

41:41 That your love to your wife is to be a model, a reflector, a visible demonstration, not quantity but in quality of the very love wherewith Christ loves his church. You can conveniently forget that just by not reading Ephesians 5 over a period of 4, 5, 6 months. And your conduct can become downright churlish and un-Christ-like. But if the pastor hasn't happened to preach on that passage and you've not read it, there is this working of sinful corruption, the flesh lusting against the spirit, making it very convenient to forget that that's the standard of your conduct.

42:19 How are you to keep in your heart that high and holy standard? By going back to it and reading it and consuming large segments of the word of God in just general reading so that the mind is constantly bombarded with the statements of Holy Scripture. Frequent exposure to the word, the word read privately, the word read publicly and preached and expounded, hence the necessity of faithful attendance upon the stated ministries of the word of God within the framework of the visible church. I'm amazed at how professional men have captured this principle

43:03 and put us to shame. The lawyer whose worth is weighed in salt and who makes progress in whatever field of law he labors in, whether it's criminal law, whether it's some kind of industrial, relationships, that's the lawyer who is constantly doing what? He's reading his law books, going over all the possible cases, key situations in the past. He doesn't just read them when under pressure in the midst of a particular crisis of a personal dealing with client A in the month of February.

43:34 He's reading all the time. Why? To keep his mind furnished with that general acquaintance of the whole subject of that field of law in which he labors. A good doctor does the same thing.

43:46 He reads his medical journals. He just doesn't run to the shelf when there's a particular problem he can't fathom. He knows that his ability to know the right thing to do, the ability to see the symptoms that speak of a certain malady in great measure is dependent upon constantly furnishing his mind, going back over things he learned in med school but could easily forget unless he brought them up before his mind again and again and again. In a real sense, though I know it wasn't spoken in that context, it's true that the children of this generation are wiser than the sons of light.

Practical Means: Memorization and Fervent Prayer

44:21 How can we hope to retain the words of God in our hearts unless there is frequent exposure to that word? And then secondly, there must not only be frequent exposure to the word, but there must be the fastening of the word to the mind by memorization. And you say, Pastor, you mean you'll actually descend to exhorting us about Scripture memory on Sunday night? We came to something a little more profound than that.

44:50 Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you because I remember the words of the psalmist who asked the question we sang tonight. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word, thy word have I what? Laid up in my heart.

45:08 The word hid means I've stored it up like a miser hoards his treasure. He said, I've laid it up. Where? In my heart.

45:16 Now, you cannot lay up the word and the heart in the seat of your being unless you lay it up in the mind. You can't separate these things. That's why I said to use technical, psychological terminology in these areas is to do injustice to the biblical materials. The Bible doesn't make this great disjunction between mind and heart.

45:31 The mind is bound up in the heart, but it goes further. The heart goes further than just the mind, but you can't separate them. So, we must fasten the word in the heart in the seat of your being, unless you lay it up in the mind. You can't separate these things.

45:44 That's why I said to use technical, psychological terminology in the heart in the seat of your being, unless you lay it up in the mind. Now, you must fasten the word to the mind by memorization. How can we ever hope to do what Solomon says? Let thy heart keep my commandments, not only receive them with cordial affection, cherish them and regard them, but obey them in the particular areas of their demands.

46:06 How are we going to know what they demand when we're in that situation, unless we've laid it up in the memory? I think perhaps the best thing that could ever happen to us is for some of these grounds and warrantable facts to be made that in six months' time, every Christian in Essex County was going to lose his Bible, not have one for a whole year. Some of us would start memorizing Scripture pretty quick, and all our excuses would go blowing right out the window, and we'd start retaining the words of God, wouldn't we? Oh, may God help us to see the necessity

46:50 of fastening the word to the mind by memorization. But then we must go beyond that if we're to do what Solomon says. There must be a fusing of the word to the affections in fervent prayer. It's one thing to fasten the word to the mind by memorization.

47:07 We must go beyond that and fuse the word to the affections in fervent prayer, for Solomon's admonition is, remember, let thy heart keep my commandments. We must not stop short of the word fastening itself and fusing itself to the affections, for what is the heart without the affection? You may have the affections without the heart, but you can't have the heart without the affections. That's part of you and if it has the citadel of your being it will have it.

47:38 And here the 119th Psalm is one continuous commentary on how that's done. You want to know what it is to fuse the word of God to your affections by prayer? Read through the 119th Psalm on your knees before God. There's the picture of a man attempting to do this.

47:53 Crying out for grace to run in the way of the commandments of God. Crying out for grace to delight in the commandments of God. Confessing his love for the word. Praying for insight to the word.

48:05 He's seeking to have the word fused to his affections by prayer. And then in the fourth place we must seek to fix the word in the will by practical obedience. David again is a classic example of this in the 119th Psalm. He says in verses 59-60 I thought upon my ways and I turned my feet to thy statutes I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments.

Practical Means: Practical Obedience

48:34 It's amazing what happens to a verse of scripture when you have deliberately and volitionally chosen the path that it marks out. There's a sense in which that verse never leaves you. When you have fixed a passage a principle of the word into your being by obedience you've said alright Lord there are your demands. You are my heavenly Father.

49:00 In infinite love you've redeemed me by your grace. You are my Father and yet you're God and in infinite authority you speak. Mine is to obey. Oh what happens to that saint who seeks to implement in practical ways the word read the word preached the word discussed.

49:21 That person knows something of what it is to have the heart keep the commandments of God. It's been interesting in my own pastoral experience for the past ten years to notice this principle again and again that there are folk in our own assembly some of whom much more limited in their intellectual capacities God just didn't dish out as much gray matter and they acknowledge this may be very limited in their educational background and yet I have seen them far outstrip others of much greater ability mentally academically etc. because their knowledge of the word in a spiritual sense is most uncanny.

50:06 Though they may not be able to quote the verse quite accurately they know what verse fits in that situation. They have as it were given to them almost an intuitive ability to know the mind of God in that area. Not that they get it by direct revelation no. It's all rooted in the word of God written but they have that knowledge that comes to be obedient.

50:29 They have more knowledge than my instructors. Why? Because I have kept my precepts. Yes.

50:35 He said I know more than the ancients not because I'm smarter but because I've run the way of the commandments of God with greater alacrity and every step of obedience as it were opens up a whole new area of a heart embrace of the word of God. And so I commend to you as God's people if you would obey the entreaty of Solomon yea if you would obey the entreaty of your God to forget not his law but let your heart keep his commandments then there must be more frequent exposure to the word. We all have our excuses. I have my pet little line of excuses with which I try to convince myself that I have good

Overcoming Excuses and Dependence on Grace

51:20 and justifiable reasons for neglecting personal Bible study. My list is probably twice as long as yours. And I just need to keep tearing that list up because it is just a list of excuses conceived by my own remaining corruption and the subtlety of the devil. And that's what your list is made up of too.

51:46 You think you're the only one who's got a list. Every one of us has got our own list. If we had 15 minutes we could all write ours out and then we ought to have a bonfire and burn. And then have another one next Sunday night because we'd all have another list by then.

52:02 No, no brothers and sisters there's not one single one who's got a list of excuses for neglect and for being so selfish and selfish or selfish or selfish and selfish and selfish and selfish and selfish and selfish and selfish and utter dependence upon the Lord, in the sense that without Him we can do nothing, not done in creature

52:40 strength, but in the context of abiding in Christ. But my friend, no amount of drawing upon His grace and strength negates the responsibility and just the dogged, knock-down, drag-out conflict of implementing these principles. Nobody will do them for you, and in them is the path of blessing. God willing, next week we'll pick up then the gracious promise by which He encourages His Son to walk in this way, and isn't it interesting, the promise completely terminates upon the Son's well-being. Will this glorify God if we forget not His law and have our hearts keep His commandments?

The Promise and Concluding Exhortation

53:25 Certainly. Will it bring blessing to others? Certainly. But God descends through Solomon to say to His Son, here are reasons which terminate simply upon your own well-being. How can God confirm more clearly

53:41 that it is in our interest and for our good that He tells us, forget not my law, but let thy heart keep my commandments. What's got your heart tonight? That pew's got your body. And this preacher has your eyes and your attention, and I hope you're mine, but what's got your heart?

54:07 What's got your heart tonight? What's got your heart? The commandments of God, the precepts of God, because the Son of God has come in grace and mercy and saved you. If not, God grant that you stand before Him and cry out for mercy and ask Him to do for you what you cannot do for yourself.

54:34 Take out that heart of stone that rebels at every new understanding of the will of God, and say, O God, give me a heart that will run in the way of thy commandments. O Lord Jesus, great mediator of the new covenant, not only do I plead for the sprinkling of your blood to blot out my sin, but for the grace of your spirit to subdue my rebel heart and cause me to run in the way of your commandments. The Lord Jesus, as the mediator of the new covenant, delights to show mercy to sinners, mercy that blots out sin, and then brings the second great blessing of the new covenant,

55:14 not subsequent to, but attendant upon the first, namely, taking out the heart of stone, writing his law upon the heart, putting his spirit within us, causing us to walk in his ways. Do you have a new heart? I ask that question to every person in this place. If not.

55:33 Seek him who alone can grant it, and if you do, then run in the way of these principles by which alone you and I will be enabled to keep the word of God in our hearts. Let us pray.