KEEP YOUR HEART!
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on March 26, 2023 under 2023 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Sermon Message; March 26, 2023 from Proverbs 4:23
Theme: In challenging times, we—as a church—should remember where we came from, what we are to do, and Who our Helper is.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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Security is big business today. That’s because, nowadays, there are so many more reasons for security measures to be taken than there used to be.
It seems that life all around us is filled with reasons to be on our guard, and to protect ourselves from loss or damage or theft. And so; as a result, you can find lots of ads for motion-sensitive security lights to protect your home; or for security services that protect your identity from theft; or for backup systems that protect your computer data from being held for ransom. Just think of how much of people’s treasure is spent today in an effort to protect their treasure!
In a world such as ours today, we have a greater sense of the need to be on alert with respect to earthly matters than ever before. But what about spiritual matters? The things that concern our inner being are far more important and eternally valuable than the material goods we might be able to protect. In fact, we face a far more dangerous enemy in the spiritual realm than could ever threaten us in earthly matters. The Bible tells us that this spiritual enemy is a thief and a murderer. And yet, just think of how little time, effort and attention people put into protecting their most precious treasure of all!
Far above all other areas of life, the Bible presents our effort to protect our heart as the most important effort we can expend. After all, if you effectively protect your car from theft, your home from burglary, your property from damage, your financial interests from loss, and your body from personal illness and injury—and yet fail in protecting your heart—that singular failure will affect all other areas of life … and render every other security measure ultimately worthless. After all, as Jesus Himself has said, what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world—and lose his soul?
So then; let’s hear what the Bible tells us in one very important verse from the Book of Proverbs. Proverbs 4:23 says,
Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23).
It’s a very simple verse. It’s easy to memorize. It’s found in the Book of Proverbs—God’s book of wisdom for daily living; and it gives us extremely important advice. Let’s take a closer look at what it is that God’s word commands us to give the utmost care to “keep”; and why we’re to protect it so carefully.
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Now; even though the Old Testament book of Proverbs contains God’s wisdom for people of all age groups, it is uniquely a book for young people. I believe God’s Spirit led King Solomon to write and record these wise bits of instruction to help people, who are just beginning in life, in order to help them avoid the sort of mistakes and moral failures that will rob them of joy and well-being as adults.
Often in the book of Proverbs, Solomon writes as if he’s talking one-on-one with a young person—his son. He warns him about the dangers of hanging around with the wrong crowd, or of dabbling in sexual sins, or of being undisciplined in behavior. He encourages his son to revere God and to pay careful attention to good, godly counsel. He encourages him to cling tightly to the sort of “wisdom for living” that comes only from God.
Notice how King Solomon speaks in Proverbs 4:20-27 – the section in which this verse is found. You can almost feel the sense of urgency and seriousness with which Solomon gives his wise counsel.
My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh (vv. 20-22).
Plainly, Solomon is longing for this young person that he loves to take hold of what he’s about to say. It’s as if he is trying to tell him something that will make all the difference in life. And can you also notice how far-reaching his message to this young man is? All of those who hear and keep his words, he says, will find life and health—not just for their soul, but also for their body! What he is about to tell this young man is of crucial importance to everyone. All of life will be affected by it.
He then goes on to say;
Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil (vv. 23-27).
When I read this, the word that comes most to my mind is the word “discernment”—the ability to determine and choose the good from the bad, the right from the wrong. To be discerning—to discriminate between good behavior and bad behavior; between the path of life and the path of destruction—is a vital and necessary characteristic of spiritual maturity.
Infants lack discernment. Toddlers have only one drive in life in relation to everything they see—and that is to put it in the mouth! A small child on the kitchen floor will find a Cheerio under the chair—and into the mouth it goes. He finds a broken piece of potato chip—and into the mouth it goes. But he doesn’t care if the thing is edible or not. If he finds a broken piece of purple crayon—into the mouth it goes. If he finds a dead bug—into the mouth it goes. Children lack the important quality of discernment. That’s why we have to watch them all the time.
But many adults lack that same characteristic of discernment when it comes to their own hearts. They can be like that little child in that they don’t discriminate between what’s spiritually good for them, and what’s spiritually bad for them. They will spend great amounts of time and effort to protect and guard their property and their finances; but they will allow almost anything to be indiscriminately taken into their inner being. They spend more time watching their diet than their spirit. They spend more time scrutinizing their financial assets than their thought-life.
They fail to watch their heart … and they end up suffering great loss as a result.
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So then, let’s take the time to consider carefully this thing that we’re commanded to protect. First, notice that …
1. WE MUST EACH KEEP OUR HEARTS.
“Keep your heart with all diligence,” Solomon said, “for out of it springs the issues of life.” So let’s think about this thing we’re to protect—our heart.
A Jewish young man, upon hearing these words, would not have thought as we do when he heard the word “heart”. We tend to think of the heart as the seat of emotions. We like to say that we love someone “with all our heart”; or that we’re “heartbroken” when that someone doesn’t return our love. Whenever we hear the phrase “guard your heart”, we almost automatically think of the idea of not allowing ourselves to get wounded ‘romantically’. It’s the subject of thousands of love songs.
For the Jewish young man, however, it wasn’t the heart that was seen as the seat of emotions, but rather the “belly”2; which, by the way, makes more sense. After all, when you’re emotionally moved, doesn’t your stomach respond? If a young Jewish man wanted to tell his girlfriend that he had a lot of deep feelings for her, he’d say that, whenever he looked into her eyes, he felt something in his intestines. And she’d be complimented! If he had sent her a Valentine’s card, it would feature pretty images of his stomach, spleen, and liver.
He would have understood his “heart” to be the seat of the will and thought-life. It was in the “heart”—the inner self—that the personhood of a man or woman was centered. It was sometimes used as the symbol for the whole, inner, spiritual aspect of a person.3 It was somewhat parallel to what we think of when we talk about the “mind”; but it included much more than just thoughts and intellect.
For example, when God sent the plagues against Egypt, we’re told that it was Pharaoh’s heart that was hardened (Exodus 9:7)—which meant his “will” was hardened against God. When King David’s son, Absalom wanted to draw the people from David to himself, the Bible says that he “stole the hearts of the men of Israel” (2 Samuel 15:6); meaning their allegiance to David. The Bible tells us that God sent the flood on mankind because He “saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5); meaning that their entire moral mindset was evil. When David numbered his soldiers in disobedience to God, the Bible tells us that his “heart condemned him” (2 Samuel 24:10); meaning his conscience. King Rehoboam was said to be an evil king, “because he did not prepare his heart to seek the LORD” (2 Chronicles 12:14); meaning that he didn’t direct his inner priorities and commitments toward God.
According to the standard biblical Hebrew dictionary, the Hebrew word for “heart” can have the symbolic meaning of such things as the spiritual aspect of man, the mind, the will, the conscience, the moral character of a man, the seat of his desires and passions, the source of his sense of courage, and can even stand symbolically for the whole man himself.4
So; it’s the whole “inner-life” that we’re to be concerned about—the “heart” in the sense of that part of us in which our thought-life, our values, our drives, our choices, and our sense of right and wrong are centered.
And notice what we’re to do with the “heart”. We’re to “keep” it or “protect” it. The object of our concern is to be the “heart”; and our action toward it is to be that of “watching” (NASB), or “guarding” (NIV), or “keeping” (NKJV) it. What God is telling us in this verse is that we need to be deeply concerned about, and show the utmost watchfulness for, the protection of our “inner” self—our spiritual side—our “heart”. We must guard it with more diligence than we guard anything else in life. It is our responsibility. As the 17th-century preacher, Matthew Henry wrote;
We must keep a watchful eye and a strict hand upon all the motions of our inward man. … God, who gave us these souls, gave us a strict charge with them. We must set a strict guard, accordingly, upon all the avenues of the soul; keep our hearts from doing hurt and getting hurt, from being defiled by sin and disturbed by trouble; keep out bad thoughts; keep up good thoughts; keep the affections upon right objects and in due bounds.5
Anytime that any thought seeks to take up residence in our mind—anytime our spirits respond to some new situation—anytime we are tempted or tested by anything or anyone—God has graciously given us a moment to evaluate our reaction. We have the ability to stop any new thought or attitude or response before it makes entry into us and say, “Halt! Who goes there?” We can evaluate it in terms of whether or not it matches up with God’s will for us according to His holy word. We can either allow it entry, or we can keep it out.
And we must do so! It is our responsibility. We must ‘keep’ and ‘protect’ our heart!
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And please notice also the sort of “attitude” with which this “action” of the protection of the heart is to be taken: and that is, “with all diligence”. In the Hebrew text, Solomon uses a word related to that which describes a prison guard keeping watch over a prisoner in a cell. It can be translated, “With all guarding, watch your heart.” It speaks of the exercise of serious, vigilant, careful diligence in “keeping an eye on” and protecting the heart.
If we would “keep” our hearts “with all diligence”, we wouldn’t be careless, for example, about what gets into our hearts through the “eye-gate”. We’d “exercise great care over what we see on the internet, or on television, or through movies, or through the things we read or listen to—always diligently setting ‘sentry’ over our own heart. We’d even be willing to get rid of such things if they impact our hearts negatively or incline us toward sin.
But we’d also guard our heart against how it might react to a wrong done to it or to injustices we might have suffered. I always feel deeply sorry for people who turn away from the Christian faith because of some wrong-doing that might have occurred, or because of some insensitive treatment they may have suffered from a professing Christian or a church. But in the end, the blame can’t be laid entirely on someone on the outside. The problem ultimately is that they failed to guard their own heart with respect to how they responded to wrongdoing.
And we’d not only guard ourselves against what might come in from the outside; but we’d also guard ourselves against what might come out from the inside. We would keep our own attitudes in check, so that the words that come out of our mouths aren’t reflective of evil that may have taken root within. We’d be like David when he prayed;
Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips (Psalm 141:3).
If we’re keeping our heart as we should, we’d make careful scrutiny of our values and priorities. We’d use and enjoy riches if God gives them to us; but we’d also be prepared to let them drop from our hand if God calls us to do so. We’d beware of setting our affections on material “things” instead of on those things that God values. We’d beware of the sin of discontentment; and would not “lay up” for ourselves “treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19). We’d remember Paul’s warning that
those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (1 Timothy 6:9-10).
We’d guard our hearts against impure motives with people. We’d guard our hearts against bitterness, resentment, jealousy, envy, or hatred toward others. We’d guard our hearts against pride. We’d guard our hearts against little “secret sins.” We’d watch over our precious heart and protect it from all these “toxins” with the same sort of diligence a soldier guards the gate to the fort.
This, then, is the thing we must do with our heart. We must “keep” it diligently. We must guard it with all guarding!
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So then; that’s what the first half of this one single verse from the Book of Proverbs tells us. We must ‘keep’ or ‘guard’ or ‘protect’ our heart—our inner life—with all diligence.
And in the second half of this verse, we’re shown the reason for this. We absolutely must keep our hearts, because …
2. EVERYTHING ELSE IN LIFE FLOWS FROM OUR HEART.
Verse 23 tells us, “for from it”—that is, from the heart—“flow the springs of life”.
If you’ll look at the verses that follow after this one, you’ll see how our lives are affected by diligently “keeping our heart”. First, we need to ‘keep our heart’ because of the words that flow from it. Verse 24 says,
Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you (v. 24).
When the heart harbors attitudes of deceit and deviousness, it comes out through our lips. Did you know that Jesus says you can assess a man’s heart by his words? He taught, in Luke 6:45; “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”
Second, we need to ‘keep our heart’ because of the distracting desires that abide in it. It was in this context that Solomon wrote, in verse 25;
Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you (v. 25).
One of the most tragic stories in all the Old Testament is the story of the sinful attitude of the people of Israel after God had brought them out of their slavery in the land of Egypt. It didn’t take long at all for them to rebel against Moses—and the God who delivered them. They made the decision to return to Egypt. And the Bible puts the blame on the condition of their hearts. Acts 7:39 says that “in their hearts they turned back to Egypt.” We need to diligently keep our hearts because of the potential of ungodly desires to pull us off track and keep us from walking a straight walk on the path God has called us to.
Finally, notice that we need to “keep our heart” because of the courses of life that flow from it. Solomon said in verses 26-27;
Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil (vv. 26-27).
The Pharisees once complained to Jesus that His disciples didn’t perform the sort of approved, ceremonial “hand-washings” that they performed when they ate. Jesus later told His disciples that the Pharisees had the wrong focus. They were unduly concerned with what goes into the body. Jesus told them;
“… Those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man” (Matthew 15:18-20).
Our daily lifestyle needs to be characterized by obedience to God’s commands and the avoidance of sin. And such a lifestyle—such a walk—requires that we carefully watch and protect our heart; because it’s from the heart that our lifestyle practices find their source.
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Now; these are very wise and important words from King Solomon. But our consideration of them wouldn’t be complete unless we also remembered the story of King Solomon himself. It’s truly a cautionary tale.
God had blessed Solomon with riches and honor more than any king before him. But in his later years, we’re told that he fell in love with and married the foreign women of the pagan nations around him—from the very nations that God had commanded the people of Israel to keep themselves separate from. Solomon, we’re told, “clung to these in love” (1 Kings 11:2);
For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David (vv. 4-6).
There’s no other way to put it: Solomon—this wisest and most blessed of men—failed to ‘keep’ his heart. And as a result, he suffered terrible loss—even after he himself had issued this important warning to his own son. The story of Solomon’s later years became an illustration of his warning: “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life”.
So then; let’s take this word of warning seriously—which he himself failed to observe. Let’s not think that any of us are exempt from the danger. Let’s carefully, diligently, earnestly, and continually watch over our hearts; because from it flow all the issues of life.
1 This is an adaptation of a sermon first preached at Bethany Bible Church on September 15, 2002.
2 R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980), vol. 1, p. 518.
3 Ibid., p. 466.
4 Francis Brown, S.R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, The New Hebrew and English Lexicon (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1979), pp. 524-5.
5 Church, Leslie F., ed., Commentary on The Whole Bible by Matthew Henry (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1961), p. 741.
AE
