“WHAT do you think of my heart?” said a lady, who was supposed to be suffering from heart-disease, to her medical man.
“I think that your heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,” was the prompt rejoinder, much to the patient’s amazement; for she had not expected to hear God’s verdict on the heart of man, and the doctor’s opinion of her body would have been more palatable.
Truly, indeed, is it added, “Who can know it?” (Jer. 17). The natural heart does not like to have to condemn itself and bow to God’s word; to give itself up as totally, irremediably, and hopelessly bad. Such sweeping condemnation as— “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint; from the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in it; but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores” (Isa. 1:66From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. (Isaiah 1:6)), offends; but, reader! have you not proved, that “he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool”? If so, you will be glad to let the Lord search your heart by the light of His word, knowing “that there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed,” and that the entrance of His word “giveth light.”
Man’s heart was not long in declaring itself. Eve’s heart left to itself—losing confidence in God’s—was soon deceived; and before the flood, all that God could say of man was, that “his wickedness was great,” and that “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:55And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)). Judgment followed, for God was not then dealing with man on the ground of grace; the cross had not yet caused “mercy and truth to meet together, righteousness and peace to kiss each other.”
All through God’s word we have sad pictures of man’s heart; it was “fully set to do evil” (Eccl. 8:1111Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. (Ecclesiastes 8:11)); it broke down under every trial, and on every occasion. But, oh! how terribly it declared itself when—
“The Father sent the Son
A ruined world to save;
Man meted to the sinless One—
The cross; the grave.”
Grace could not move that heart of stone.
Take your Bible, and read what the Holy Ghost has recorded, by the pen of man, of the Lord’s life on earth; of His death, “by wicked hands crucified and slain;” and see if you can rise up and argue, that there is any good in man! Wicked hearts plotted, and the Son of God was betrayed and murdered. And when Stephen brought it home to their consciences, “cut to the heart,” they stoned him to death (Acts 7).
But if the cross fully exposed man’s heart—your heart and mine, my reader—how it caused God’s heart to shine out in contrast! Did judgment follow, as before? No; for sin was atoned for by Christ’s death and blood-shedding, and God’s righteousness declared, so that the love and grace that were in His heart were free to act towards guilty man. He could now “justify freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:2424Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (Romans 3:24)).
How unweariedly he carried out His own purposes! He declared His love to the world by sending His only begotten Son into it (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)) —that “great love wherewith He loved us.” He “manifested” it towards us, by sending Him to be “the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:1919We love him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)); and now from the glory “God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)).
Man’s heart was indeed bent on its own destruction, but God—when man had done his worst—turned that “worst” into blessing.
Oh! reader, if you have ever had your heart broken under the burden of your sins—under the sense of what your sinful nature is in the presence of God—you have known the blessed relief of finding out what His heart is toward you— “longsuffering, not willing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:99The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)). “A broken and a contrite heart, he will not despise.” But if the “God of this world” —Satan—is blinding your eyes to your real condition, may the veil be torn away in time, and not, too late, in eternity!
I do not deny that there is amiable and unamiable human nature! This the Lord Himself recognized; looking on the rich young man He “loved him.” But it would not, nevertheless, ensure an entrance into the “kingdom of God.” (Mark 10). Amiability pleases man; it makes the possessor pass easily with his fellows, and through life, but it will not do for God. “They that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:88So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:8)). And the name of Christ raises the bitterest hatred often from the most agreeable people. For “the carnal mind is enmity against God.” These amiable people are like “a potsherd covered with silver dross.”
“Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross” (Prov. 26:2323Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross. (Proverbs 26:23)). The “potsherd” is continually showing itself, even to man. “But out of the heart,” the Lord said, “proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts; these are the things which defile a man” (Matt. 15) “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one” (Job 14:44Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. (Job 14:4)).
Ah, dear reader, you must learn like Nicodemus, that God will not deal with the old man; He has judged that at the cross. “Ye must be BORN AGAIN” (John 3) “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” There is the means of entrance for you! The word of God, of which “water” is a figure must reach the evil of your nature, and deal with your conscience, laying it open in God’s presence. You must be “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (1 Peter 1:2323Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. (1 Peter 1:23)). “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Received by faith in the power of the Spirit of God, it produces a new nature, capable of delighting in God, with new desires, and new affections, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.” The two cannot be mingled; they are distinct in their origin.
Oh! how thoroughly God knows us, in and out, as we do not know ourselves. May you, dear reader, take His estimate of your heart, and let Him lead you to delight in what His heart finds rest and satisfaction in, even in CHRIST. What a heart is there! Try it as we do, it cannot be weakened or grow cold; and our poor empty hearts cannot be satisfied elsewhere. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Solomon failed to find anything but “vanity” under the sun.
“Thou hast made us for Thyself,” said Augustine, “and the heart never resteth till it findeth rest in Thee.” Do we not find it so every day? Then “trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.”
Do not, I beseech you, be among those who “despise” the goodness and forbearance of God; and, with a “hard and impenitent heart treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath” (Rom. 2:44Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? (Romans 2:4)).
“My son, give Me thine heart.” He cares to have it, even as it is.
W. E.