For the sake of order I bring the subject before you under four general heads of discourse. If our hearts be right, they will be right.
I. If the state of our hearts be right, then will they be right with God. A heart truly right with God implies,
1. That we venerate Him.
2. That we entirely submit ourselves to Him.
3. That by the cultivation of a devotional spirit, we maintain a sacred intercourse with Him.
We ask, then, Is thine heart right with God? Does it venerate Him? submit to Him? aspire after Him? You know the state of your own heart: Answer these inquiries as before God.
II. If our hearts be right, they are right with Christ. Till this be the case, the heart cannot ever be right with God.
1. When it accepts His sacrifice as the only ground on which to claim the remission of sins.
2. The heart is not right with Christ unless it loves Him.
3. When the heart is right with Christ, there is an habitual confidence in His intercession. Is thine heart thus right with Christ? Dost thou thus believe in Him? thus love Him? thus habitually confide in Him?
III. If our hearts be right, they are right with the Church of Christ. I mean, by this expression, the whole company of his militant and professing people here on earth; the spiritual Israel of God. Now, when the heart is in a right state,
1. The Church is avowed.
2. Its members are loved.
3. When our heart is right with the Church, we feel that we are identified with it. Here, too, let me ask, “Is thine heart right?” Dost thou avow thyself a member of Christ’s church? love its members? identify thyself with its interests? and labour to promote them?
IV. If the heart be light, it will be right with itself. There are strange oppositions and divisions in the heart; and this cannot be a right state of it There is opposition between conviction and choice. Many know the good, who choose it not, who make no effort for its attainment. There is opposition between Will and power. To Will is indeed present with them, but how to perform they find not. There is the struggle between the flesh and the spirit; the counteraction of graces by opposite evils There is the stunted growth. The seed is at least so far choked, that there is no fruit unto perfection. When it is thus with us, the heart is manifestly wrong. When it is right, it exerts an enlightened sway over the whole man: All its powers are in obedient order, all its graces fruitful and abundant. We therefore again ask, Is thine heart right With itself? Is it divided, and therefore faulty? or has God united it, that it may fear His name?
1. Perhaps our heart is wrong.
2. Perhaps it is in part right.
3. Know and use the means by which this may be accomplished.
Exercise faith in the Saviour, live in habitual watchfulness and self-denial, “keeping the heart with all diligence, for that out of it are the issues of life.” (R. Watson.)
Is thine heart right
Those were the proud words of one, who little knew what was in his own heart. But they contain an inquiry, of no small importance to every fallen child of Adam. “Is thine heart right”--
I. In its views of religious truth? Has it formed a right judgment concerning thy natural condition, as a sinner against God; and respecting the way of bettering that condition? I am aware that many regard this as the proper business of the understanding, rather than of the heart. Hence they excuse their erroneous views in religion, by pleading want of ability to discover the truth. Hence the poor think it enough to say, “I am no scholar!” And persons, far Wiser than they in worldly wisdom, have pretended, “that a man is not responsible for what he believes, and that it is not his fault if he be mistaken.” On the one hand we are informed, that “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.”
II. In its dependance? On what is it actually resting, as the ground of its hopes for eternity? “Other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
III. In its choice? In what does it delight? what does it esteem to be the chief good?
IV. In its intentions and purposes? Having discovered the truth--rested on Christ--chosen the Lord for your welcome portion--what is now your object in life?
V. In its actual influence on thy conduct? Many, alas, woefully deceive themselves, by forming excellent resolutions--never to be put in practice. In such a ease, let self-flattery pretend what it may, the heart must be wrong. Remember, in conclusion, that if the heart be not right, nothing else is right. Even the better parts of your conduct, for want of this, will still be offensive in the sight of that God, who “seeth not as man seeth.” If you be conscious that your heart is not right, then remember that “God is greater than your heart, and knoweth all things.” It may be safe from human scrutiny--but not from his eye. If you would have your heart set right, bring it to God in faith and prayer. He will give you a “new” one--a “clean” one--a “perfect” one. (J. Jowett,M. A.)
A right heart
The first theory of the Gospel is, that the heart of man is all wrong. God said to Noah, “The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen_8:21). David says, “They are all gone aside; they are altogether become filthy.” Jeremiah says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Christ gives some terrible pictures of the human heart; He likened it to a sepulchre full of corruption.
I. A heart that is right is a trustful heart. The Christian life begins With faith in Christ, and is all through sustained by faith in Christ. Faith in Christ leads the anxious, inquiring heart into rest. A triple foundation: the promises of God, the witness of the Spirit, and the testimony of experience.
II. A heart that is right is a consecrated heart. A heart that is not wholly Christ’s cannot be right Consecration is the way to purity. It is the full surrender of ourselves to God. The giving up of everything that would hinder the Divine life in the soul. Many Christians are not happy because there is something they keep back from God. There must be a giving up of self. The whole question is, self or Christ. There is a voice coming from Calvary’s Cross, which tells us we must not live unto ourselves, but unto Him who loved us, and gave Himself for us.
III. A heart that is right is a pure heart. The Saviour’s teaching was always toward the heart. Out of the heart are the issues of life. He said little about the intellect; but a great deal about the heart.
IV. A heart that is right is at rest. That which the soul needs is rest; it needs to feel that it is God’s, and that God is its possession. (C. E. Crosthwaite.)
The evil heart
Samuel Marsden, the New Zealand missionary, well known for his piety and humility, when told one day by a friend how he was slandered, exclaimed: “Sir, these men do not know the worst. Why, sir, if I were to walk through the streets with my heart laid bare, the very boys would pelt me!”
Heart right
“When Sir Walter Raleigh had laid his head upon the block,” says an eloquent divine, “he was asked by the executioner whether it lay aright. Whereupon, with the calmness of a hero and the faith of a Christian, he returned an answer, the power of which we all shall feel when our head is tossing and turning on death’s uneasy pillow,--‘It matters little, my friend, how the head lies providing the heart be right:’” (R. Steele.)
Purity of heart
It does not consist in the external exercise of religion; the heart does not always write itself upon the outward actions. These may shine and glister, while that in the meantime may be noisome and impure. In a pool you may see the uppermost water clear, but if you cast your eye to the bottom, you shall see that to be dirt and mud. To rate a man’s internals by his externals, and what works in his breast by what appears in his face, is a rule very fallible. For we often see specious practices spread over vile and base principles; as a rotten, unwholesome body may be clothed with the finest silks. There are often many leagues’ distance between a man’s behaviour and his heart. (R. South.)
Acquaintance with our own heart
I remember once holding on by the ground on the top of Vesuvius, and looking full into the crater all swirling with sulphurous flames. Have you ever looked into your hearts like that, and seen the wreathing smoke and the flashing fire that are there? (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Give me thine hand.--
Christian hand-shaking
Jehu had been making an exterminating assault upon the idolatry of his day, and Jehonadab conies out to offer him congratulation. They meet half-way: and one exclaims to the other, in all the ardour of friendly recognition, “Give me thy hand!” The mode of salutation is different in different countries. In some lands they kneel before the visitor. In some, fall on their faces; in others they stand upright and give a slight bend to the neck. But when two persons, believing in the same thing, and working for the same object, and trusting in the same God, and hoping for the same heaven, come face to face, look each other in the eye, and cross palms with a tight grip, and shake hands, that is human equality and Christian brotherhood. I fall down before no man in obeisance: I gaze down upon no man in arrogance; but, looking into the face of friend and foe, I am ready to exclaim in the words of Jehu to Jehonadab, “Give me thy hand!” Come, now, and let us get near to each other in a plain, loving, Christian talk. My brother! my sister! my child!
I. Let us join hands in Christian welcome.
II. Again: let us cross hands in congratulation.
III. Again: let us join hands of Christian sympathy.
IV. Again: let us join hands in a bargain. (T. DeWitt Talmage.)
The hand-grip of loyalty
On drove Jehu, determined to get the lines of government into his hands and make sure of his standing ground. On his way to Samaria, the true capital of Israel (for Jezreel was the seat of the summer palace only), he met Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, on the highway. Now Jehonadab was a respectable, conservative sort of a citizen, with a good name for quiet steady purpose, the kind of man who would be of the greatest help to Jehu if only he were thoroughly committed to him and could be counted upon for loyal support. Jehu did not purpose to be in any doubt as to where people stood. He must know whether they were for him or against him. One cannot help but admire that in Jehu. There was no neutral ground in him, and he would not endure it in others. So when he met Jehonadab he stopped his horses and saluted him, and said, “Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?” And Jehonadab looked straight back into his eyes and said, “It is.” Jehu said, “If it be, give me thine hand.” And as Jehonadab reached out his hand Jehu took it with a warm, strong grip that lifted him right up into his chariot beside him, and they drove on together in the young king’s chariot to Samaria. From this story of Jehu there are some pertinent and helpful lessons to be drawn.
1. God’s call is personal. When the young prophet came to Jehu, and standing before the group of captains said he had a message for one of them, and Jehu asked which one, the prophet answered, “To thee, O captain. It was a personal message, and when Jehu followed him away he knew nothing except that he was following the prophet of the Lord God to receive a message from God, and thus he was called to His kingdom. So God sends personal messages to every one of us. The call to salvation is personal to you. God has made us as individuals, Each has his own personal mind and heart, his own personal needs, his individual requirements. Each of us has ability and talent that are peculiar to ourselves.
2. There is no peace save in goodness. When King Joram came out to meet Jehu he was very anxious to have peace, but Jehu could still feel the oil of God upon his head and hear the words of the prophet in his ears commanding him to stamp out the wickedness that had devastated the land. So Jehu answered that there could be no peace while Jezebel with her witchcrafts and her wickedness lived.
3. Only by giving our whole selves to God and throwing our full force on the Lord’s side can we please Him. See Jehu as the wicked king turns to fly. A weak turning back now will mean failure and overthrow. He has been called upon for serious and solemn work, and he must not hesitate. Many of our attacks on evil are of no avail, and the arrows fall harmless against the enemies of God and man, because we pull with a faint heart and a weak hand.
4. We must choose sides for or against Jesus. We cannot be neutral. When Jehu stood under the window of the summer palace in Jezreel, with painted Jezebel leaning out in accusation, he cried aloud, so that all the officers of the palace could hear, “Who is on my side? Who?” There could be no neutrality after that. They had to choose between Jezebel and Jehu, and it did not take them long to make the choice. They east out that old painted viper who had brought such sorrow on the land. So our King Jesus, who has the right to be your King, is saying.to you, “Who is on My side? Who?” You must choose between your sins and Jesus
5. It is loyal hearts that Christ wants. Everything else is secondary. “Are you loyal to Me?” that is the question of Jesus. When Jehu met Jehona-dab he said to himself, “Ah, there is Jehonadab. A very nice kind of a man. He could be worth a great deal to me. But it all depends on whether he is loyal or not. If his heart is with me, he is worth more than a regiment of soldiers; but if he is not for me, loyally, he might do me a great deal of damage.” So when he is close enough to Jehonadab he stops and calls to him, saying, “Jehonadab, is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?” And Jehonadab looks back with honest eyes and says, “It is.” And Jehu answers, “If it be, give me thine hand.” And out comes the hand of the other man, and Jehu takes it in a great strong grip, and not only by the strength of his grasp, but by the look in his eyes, he makes Jehonadab know what he means. And he steps right up in the chariot, and rides on with the king in honour and peace. What a suggestive illustration is this of what Jesus Christ is saying to every one of you who have not yet given Him assurance of your earnest loyalty. He is knocking at the door of your heart. It is your heart He wants; your loyal and loving service. And He is saying to you, “If you will but make up your mind, if you will but open your heart to Me, if you will but give Me your loyal hand-grip, then we shall go on the way together.” Jehonadab was safe in the king’s chariot. You shall be safe when the King’s loving strong hand lifts you up in the chariot beside Himself and you ride onward in peace and honour towards heaven. (L. A. Banks,D.D)
