Six Ways to Keep Your Heart before God

“Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this…” (1 Tim. 4:16a); And… “Is it I, Lord?” (Mark 14:19).

1. Converse with your heart. Listen to what it is saying, both evil and good. Where is it disputing with God? Where is it joyful? What is making it joyful? Where is it angry, vengeful, bitter, lusting? What is it resisting, fearing, loving too much?

   “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” – Proverbs 4:23
   “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” – Psalm 139:23-24

2. Let the evils of your hearts grieve and humble you. God allows us to see the evil that still remains in our hearts to humble us, and to make us more dependent upon Him. Where can self-righteousness and pride spread out in your heart, when you see the evil that still remains, and your desperate need of God’s grace in Christ?!

   “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” – 1 Peter 5:6-7
   “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?!” – Romans 7:24
   “He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” – John 21:17

3. Pray for grace. This is what we need, isn’t it—more grace??! There’s a place for guilt when we see the evils of our sin, so that we will not be tempted to think that we are without sin, or have no real conflict on our hands, and we can confess our sins, knowing He is faithful and just to forgive us and restore us.

   “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret…” – 2 Corinthians 7:10
   “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” – 1 John 1:8-9

4. Resolve to walk more carefully God. We are here on this earth ultimately for God’s glory and the enjoyment of Him. When we see the deeper needs we have for Him, let us seek to repent of our indifference, apathy, and ingratitude, and seek to live soberly, and to watch and pray.

   “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you…” – Job 42:5
   “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” – Mark 14:38
   “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.” – Luke 21:34

5. Be jealous (zealous!) for holiness and afraid of sin. Pursue holiness, stretching forth yourself agonizingly, reaching to the goal of taking hold of Christ Jesus more completely in your life, because He has taken hold of you! Remember that each sin has enough danger in each drop of sin to ignite all of hell on fire, to provoke God to manifest His just and eternal wrath, and to destroy lives and people.

   “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” – Hebrews 12:14
   “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:12-14

6. Be aware of God’s omniscience. Be the same person publicly that you are privately, because the same God sees all things. Let Him be pleased by your life in Christ. You are a His child in Christ, and He wants to say: “This is my Beloved Son,” not only with regard to your justification, but also in the fruits of your sanctification.

   “The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man…” – Psalm 33:13

   “For his eyes are on the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps.” – Job 34:21

In Christ’s love,
Pastor Biggs

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything” (1 Cor. 6:12).

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Here is something I learned from our Puritan forefathers recently. We desire to sincerely please our Lord and Savior who has redeemed us (2 Cor. 5:9; Heb. 11:6). Here may be something that will help us. These are six things to ask when you’re about to spend time and/or money (all from 1 Corinthians).

Six things to ask yourself when you’re about to spend extremely valuable time and/or money:

1. Does this thing I’m about to do and/or spend money on glorify God (1 Cor. 10:31)?

2. Is this thing I’m about to do and/or spend money consistent with the Lordship of Christ (1 Cor. 7:23)? Pray about each thing, and ask: “Will God be pleased?”

3. Is this I’m about to do and/or spend money consistent with biblical examples? (1 Cor. 10:1-11)

4. Is this I’m about to do and/or spend money on lawful and beneficial for me, mentally, spiritually, physically (1 Cor. 6:9-12)?

5. Does this I’m about to do and/or spend money on going to help others positively and not hurt others unnecessarily (1 Cor. 10:33; 8:13)?

6. Does this I’m about to do and/or spend money on going to bring me under any enslaving power (1 Cor. 6:12)?

May we redeem our time (and resources) wisely! Amen.

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” – ESV Ephesians 5:15-17

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In Christ’s love,
Pastor Biggs

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens , Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” – Hebrews 4:15-16

The Heart of Christ in Heaven towards Sinners on Earth (1651) is a wonderful sermon series by Thomas Goodwin (1600-79) to stir up our affections to know the love of Christ that He has for us in His exalted state in Heaven. The subtitle of the sermon is “A Treatise Demonstrating the Glorious Disposition and Tender Affection of Christ, in His Human Nature Now in Glory, unto His Members, under All Sorts of Infirmities, Either of Sin or Misery.”

The immediate purpose of the sermon was to reject the popular idea that Christians in the post-apostolic age were at a disadvantage to Christians who knew Christ on earth because Christ was now glorified and less affected by humanity. Goodwin asserted from the Holy Scriptures that Christ feels strong affections, deep compassion, and emotional sympathy toward His suffering people even while seated at God’s right hand.

Goodwin said that the Bible “does, as it were, take our hands and lay them upon Christ’s breast, and let us feel how his heart beats…toward us, even now [when] he is in glory.”

It is important to understand how Goodwin defined faith, and how it could be powerfully used to build up and edify the Christian as it focused on Christ. Gordon Crompton says that Goodwin defined faith as the spiritual sight and knowledge of Christ. In Goodwin, “we see Christ’s spiritual excellencies and His glory, and our heart is taken with them.” Michael Horton asserts that Goodwin’s favorite definition of faith was this:

“Now this Spirit, when he comes down thus into the heart, works eyes, and feet, and hands, and all to look upon Christ, and to come to Christ, and to lay hold upon Christ…. And faith is eyes, and hands, and feet, yea, and mouth, and stomach, and all; for we eat his flesh and drink his blood by faith.”

What problem does Christ’s exaltation of passing into heaven pose for our faith? What is the solution?

The Problem: Goodwin recognized that sinful men might be put off by the words “a great high priest that is passed into the heavens” (Heb. 4:15). Believers might think that the greatness of the exalted Christ might cause Him to forget us, and think something like:

…But now He has gone into a far country, where He has put on glory and immortality,” Goodwin points out. He sits as king at God’s right hand in heaven. His human nature is aflame with glory. How can we boldly approach such a king? How can we expect Him, in exalted power and holiness, to bear patiently with us when we are so weak, foolish, and sinful?”

Solution/Encouragement: Goodwin taught that Christ’s mercy is so certain that Scripture uses a double negative to forcefully declare the positive truth: “We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.”

Our infirmities stir Christ’s compassion; Goodwin argues from Hebrews that “infirmities” include both our troubles and our sins. It is as if Jesus says to His own in His exalted state:

“Your very sins move him to pity more than to anger…even as the heart of a father is to a child that hath some loathsome disease, or as one is to a member of his body that hath the leprosy, he hates not the member, for it is his flesh, but the disease, and that provokes him to pity the part affected the more.”

Goodwin gives a helpful example of this idea; he wrote: “If your child becomes very sick, you do not kick the child out; you weep with him and tend to his needs. Christ responds to our sins with compassion despite His abhorrence of them.”

How can Christ be tender-hearted toward believers now that He is glorified and freed from all earthly pain and cares? Christ’s compassion flows out of His personal human experience. Hebrews 4:15 says that He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Earlier, Hebrews 2:18 says, “For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor [tenderly help] them that are tempted.”

Today in heaven, Jesus in His human nature knows everything that happens to believers on earth. Jesus says to His church in Revelation 2:2, “I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience.” This is possible because Christ’s human nature is filled with the Holy Spirit beyond measure, and the Spirit is like Christ’s eyes in all the earth (Rev. 5:6).

Knowing our distress here in this world of sin and misery, Our kind Lord Jesus remembers how He felt when facing similar miseries. Christ even knows the experience of sin’s guilt and the horror of facing God’s wrath against sin. Although personally sinless, Christ bore all the sins of His people. His knowledge of our pain along with the memory of His pain moves His heart to overflow with compassion.

We must remember that Christ is God and man. This is a very practical doctrine for us to understand as believers. As God, Christ is infinite, eternal, and unchanging. But, as a man, He has been lifted up to a new level of glory. Goodwin said,

“For it is certain that as his knowledge was enlarged upon his entering into glory, so his human affections of love and pity are enlarged in solidity, strength, and reality…Eph. 3:19, ‘The love of Christ,’ the God-man, ‘surpasses knowledge.’”

So Christ is not hurt by our sufferings, but His human soul responds to our sufferings with glorious, beautiful tenderness.

In Goodwin’s study of the Gospel of John, chapters 13 through 20, he showed Christ’s determination and passion toward His Beloved people. In his focus on John 13 to 17, he reminds us of Jesus’ sweet words in John 13:1: “Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.” Even when Jesus’ mind was set on His imminent exaltation to supreme glory, Goodwin said, “his heart ran out in love towards, and was set upon, ‘his own:’…his own, a word denoting the greatest nearness, dearness, and intimacy founded upon propriety [or ownership].”

At that precise time, Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, demonstrating that Christ’s glorification would not diminish but rather increase His love and grace service to His people. Jesus said in John 14 to 16 that He would ascend to heaven to secure our happiness as believers. He would prepare a place for us, He said. And He would return like a bridegroom to bring us to our eternal home. Goodwin wrote,

“It is as if [Jesus] had said, ‘The truth is, I cannot live without you, I shall never be quiet till I have you where I am, that so we may never part again; that is the reason of it. Heaven shall not hold me, nor my Father’s company, if I have not you with me, my heart is set upon you; and if I have any glory, you shall have part of it.’”

In Goodwin’s words, Jesus said the Holy Spirit would comfort us with “nothing but stories of my love,” for He would not speak of Himself but as one sent from Christ.

Meanwhile, Christ promised to pray for us in heaven, and to send answers like love letters from a bridegroom to his beloved. He demonstrated His commitment to pray for us by interceding even then, as seen in John 17.34. Goodwin stresses that when Jesus ascended to heaven, His last earthly act was to pronounce a blessing on His disciples (Luke 24:50–51). His first official act as the enthroned king was to pour out the Holy Spirit upon His church (Acts 2:33)—all the works of the Holy Spirit testify of Christ’s present love for His church.

Goodwin asks: Does a minister preach the gospel by the Holy Spirit? It is because of Christ’s heart for sinners. Does the Spirit move you to pray? It is because Christ is praying for you. Does the New Testament express Christ’s love for sinners? It was all written “since Christ’s being in heaven, by his Spirit.”

Goodwin proved Christ’s compassion for His people from each Person of the Triune God. Goodwin explained that Christ is compassionate because of the influence of the Trinity on the ministry of Christ. The doctrine of the Trinity profoundly shaped Goodwin’s theology. Goodwin believed the ancient doctrine that “the external works of the Trinity are undivided”—that is, everything God does in creation, providence, and redemption is the work of all three persons in cooperation with each other, each acting in His own distinct manner. Christ’s ministry of compassion flows from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

God the Father gave Christ the office of high priesthood to exhibit mercy and compassion. Goodwin says that the priesthood “requires of him all mercifulness and graciousness towards sinners that do come unto him…. As his kingly office is an office of power and dominion, and his prophetical office an office of knowledge and wisdom, so his priestly office is an office of grace and mercy.”

Everything the Father sent Christ to do, He has done for us. As Goodwin expounded, Christ died for us; He rose for us; He ascended into heaven for us; He sits at the right hand of God for us; He intercedes for us. From beginning to end, our high priest acts as the Father’s appointed surety and representative of His elect people.

The Son’s beautiful heart is a manifestation of the Father’s beautiful heart. So Goodwin invites us,

“Come first to Christ, and he will take thee by the hand, and go along with thee, and lead thee to his Father.”

In seeing the Father’s loving heart, we are assured that His obedient Son will love us forever. Goodwin also cites Matthew 11:28–29, which reveals Jesus as God’s exalted Son. But Jesus also says in these verses, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

Therefore, Goodwin said, we are to take the sweetest thoughts we ever had of a dear friend and raise them up infinitely higher in our thoughts of the sweetness of Jesus. What a friend we have in Jesus! His divine nature as the Son of God proves that He will have compassion on every sinner who comes to Him.

How did the Second Person of the Trinity become human like us? Luke 1:35 says that the Holy Spirit worked a miracle in the womb of a virgin. Goodwin writes,

“It was the Spirit who overshadowed his mother, and, in the meanwhile, knit that indissoluble knot between our nature and the second person, and that also knit his heart unto us.”

But Goodwin says that the Spirit did more. All the “excellencies” or graces that filled Christ’s human nature were a result of the Spirit’s work in Him. Goodwin’s comforting and cogent argument here is that “if the same Spirit that was upon him, and in him, when he was on earth, doth but still rest upon him now he is in heaven, then those dispositions must needs still rest entirely upon him.”

The Holy Spirit empowered Christ’s human nature to be a channel of God’s mercy to us. Christ’s human heart has a greater capacity for kindness than the hearts of all men and angels. God is infinitely merciful. Christ’s humanity does not make Him more merciful, but makes Him merciful in a way suited to our needs. The incarnation does not increase God’s mercy, but brings His mercy near to us.

What are the four applications to believers that Goodwin gives in The Heart of Christ? How do they apply to your life?

• Christ’s heart of compassion affords us the strongest encouragements against sin. We know that Christ is not at rest in His heart until our sins are removed. Those sins move Him more to pity than to anger even though He hates them.
• Whatever trial, temptation, or misery we may suffer, we know that Christ also endured it and that His heart moves to relieve us in our distress.
• The thought of how much we grieve Christ’s heart by sin and disobedience is the strongest incentive we have against sinning.
• In all our miseries and distresses, though every human comforter fails, we know that we have a Friend who will help, pity, and succor us: Christ in heaven.

Dear believers, how full of compassion Christ is for us as He sits upon His throne of glory. Surely, reflecting on this truth should help us rejoice in Christ and set our hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Goodwin writes,

“What is it to have Christ thus dwell in the heart by faith?… It is to have Jesus Christ continually in one’s eye, an habitual sight of him.”

In Christ’s love,
Pastor Biggs

God’s revelation of Himself as Triune is very profitable for the spiritual experience of believers. God is a personal God who has revealed Himself so that His children might walk with Him in obedience, love, fear, and happiness. What a wonderful privilege to commune with this Glorious and Personal God! Communion, or fellowship with God is the mutual exchange of spiritual benefits between God and His people based on the bond between them in Christ. There can be no communion with God except we be in union with Christ by His Spirit.

The enjoyment of sweet communion is God’s communication or giving of Himself to us, and our communion of ourselves back to Him in love, obedience and delight in our union with Christ. In our communion, we may delight in each Person of the Godhead. The Bible teaches about this communion in John 14:23; Jesus says: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love Him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” In the benediction at the end of 2 Corinthians, we are taught about the grace of Jesus, the love of the Father, and the fellowship we have God by the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). Jesus teaches His people in Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” What a glorious fellowship and communion we should enjoy as believers with our God!

How specifically can you have communion with God the Father as a believer, both in receiving from Him and returning to Him? Remember to acknowledge the Father as initiating your salvation, who wills to save His own. The Father is revealed in Holy Scripture as the Authority, Fountain, Initiator, and Sender of Christ for salvation. Focus yourself particularly on His love—His free, undeserved, and eternal love for you (1 Jo. 4:8-9; 2 Cor. 13:14; John 16:26-27); the Father’s love is the fountain of eternal, free, and unchangeable love. We respond to His love by faith. We look to our Mediator whom the Father has sent and provided for us to see the Father’s love fully revealed for us. We as believers rest in this love, and trust Him and learn to delight, fear and obey Him. Perfect love from God the Father, revealed in Christ and received by us will cast away all of our fears and perfect us in His love (1 Jo. 4:18-19).

How specifically can you have communion with God the Son as a believer? You as a believer commune with the Son “in grace” (“Of His fullness…” -John 1:16). Focus on Christ’s “Personal Grace” to you: Personal grace is enjoying conjugal relations with Jesus spiritually like a husband and wife. Christ gives Himself to His Bride, and the saints receive, embrace, and submit in love to Him. Jesus “stirs” the affections of mutual delight in and desire to make us joyful in Him! The Lord enjoys or delights in His people. This is love like between two lovers. Christ woos and wins His bride in an ever-deepening relationship. Focus on Christ’s “Purchased Grace” for you: This is Christ’s work of redemption for you as it is revealed in the Gospel. This is all that righteousness and grace which Christ has purchased for sinners. We have acceptance with God in our justification; we have sanctification from God, in becoming like Him; and we have privileges with and before God as sons in our adoption and the many wonderful benefits he grants to we His heirs. We respond to His love by grieving over our sins, repenting, looking to His righteousness alone, receiving and believing His promises, and being obedient to Him as a joyful, grateful, and submissive spouse/Bride.

How do we relate our communion with God the Spirit to the communion with the Father and the Son? The Holy Spirit teaches believers about the love and grace of God toward us. He pours out the love of the Father and the Son in our hearts (Rom. 5:5). The Spirit gives a foretaste now of the enjoyment of God (Eph. 1:14), refreshing, comforting, blessing believers with love, joy and courage (John 15:11). The Spirit brings us into fellowship with the Father and the Son (1 John 1:3). He acquaints us, communicates unto us the love of the Father, and the grace of the Son in order to console believers. We respond to the Spirit by seeking to never grieve the Spirit, but pursuing universal holiness to please God, seeking to be careful and watchful to improve all of the Spirit’s gracious operations towards us, and always subjecting ourselves obediently to God’s Word and the Gospel ministry as He teaches us. Let us seek the Spirit; ask for Him to fill us with Jesus daily; let us be filled with the Spirit! Let us enjoy our communion with God. One day we shall see Him face to face! (1 Jo. 3:1-3).

Richard Greenham (1542-1594) was a Puritan pioneer in spiritual counseling according to God’s Word, and for establishing a seminar devoted to theology and its practical application. Greenham was much respected in the later Puritan movement, and often quoted in their writings. Greenham was a master of practical divinity, or the gift of applying the Scripture to the lives of God’s people.

How do we profit from reading the Word of God? We are to use these eight ways together.

1. Diligence: Dig in the Word of God with more zeal than a man digging for treasure in a field. Come to the Word with zeal. Open the Bible expecting treasures to jump out of you! Diligence will make the “rough places plain.” Seek the “Pearl of Great Price” (Matt. 13:46).

2. Wisdom: Be wise in the choice of matter, order, and time.

a. Matter: Don’t spend the bulk of your time on difficult portions of Scripture. Accommodate the reading to your own capacities (e.g. Gospel of John probably will be easier for you than Ezekiel).

b. Order: Be firmly grounded in all the principle points of doctrine by reading all of Scripture, seeking to know the “whole teaching” of the Bible, or the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). As you go on reading the Bible, seek to try to read all the way through (“A whole Bible makes a whole Christian”). Read along with sermon series that the congregation is going through in weekly worship.

c. Time: Read a little bit in morning, noon, and in the evening (Read with every meal, or connected to every meal time if possible). As you nourish your physical person, take time to nourish your spiritual person. Doing this can accomplish at least three chapters a day. Read some scripture each day. On the Lord’s Day, when you are able to read more scripture, seek to read as much Scripture as possible

3. Preparation: Approach Scripture with a reverential fear of God in His majesty. Determined to listen and lay up God’s Word in our hearts. Approach Scripture with faith in Christ who will open the book of God by His Spirit to help us. Let us believe He will teach us (Hab. 2:1-4). Approach with a sincere desire to learn with a good and honest heart. We don’t profit from Bible reading because we come “without a heart” (Psa. 63:1-5).

4. Meditation: A “half-way house” between Word and prayer. To read so that we can pray. You meditate and reflect, then you allow that to move you to prayer. Pray the Word. Meditation helps you digest the food of Scripture. Fill your mind with a portion of scripture, a verse, and/or an image, then ponder it, and think about how God in Christ is revealed, how much you need Him, how wonderful He is, and how this can be applied to your life. Then pray these truths about God and yourself, then read more, and meditate, and find new and fresh prayers!

5. Conference: Proverbs 2:7- Iron sharpening iron is the idea. These were called ‘conventicles’ where one would read the Scripture, talk about their experiences related to the scripture, and the Holy Spirit often blesses these meetings for spiritual gain. After you read it, talk about it, and this helps you to the remember all that you have learned, and it will bless others. Remember how often we are called to “stir up” or “edify” one another! (Heb. 10:24-25; Eph. 4:32; 5:19, 21; Col. 3:16).

6. Faith: Faith is the key to the profitable reception of the Word. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:1, 6).

7. Practice: Go out and obey, and do it. Practice will bring forth increase of faith and repentance. Practicing the Word is the best way to learn the Word: “Doers as well as hearers” (James 1:22).

8. Prayer: Prayer is indispensable from beginning to the end: precede our reading, accompany it, follow it. In private reading, we can pray and read and meditate, and meditate, and pray, and read. Pray as we read and think about what is being considered. For example, if a scripture teaches about idolatry, reflect on one’s own idolatry, and how God can help us, then pray that He will and that we will repent and live more faithfully.