Cleanse the Heart

"Cleanse the Heart" – Proverbs 4:23 "Our heart" needs special vigilance because life flows from it. Since the heart is the center and source of our conduct; we have to see to it that holy activities come out of it, according to the norms (rules of conduct) of God and in docility (obedience, meekness, calmness) to the guidance (leading, guiding, directing) of the Spirit, because in this way the corruptions (deterioration of values) of our fallen nature will "not" come out.

I. Guard the heart.

A. To host, to keep good thoughts and to be wise; and silence the bad guys.

1. Put affection on those who deserve it and within the proper limits.

2. (Proverbs 27:19) When you bend down to look into a crystal-clear lake, you see "your face reflected in the water."

3. So too, when you study other people, you see many of the things you find in yourself, the same emotions, thoughts, strengths, and weaknesses.

4. (Jeremiah 17:9-10) Matthew Henry: "There is in our hearts that wickedness that goes unnoticed and that we do not even suspect is there; It is not a common mistake among the children of men to consider themselves, "at least in their hearts," to be much better than they really are." "The heart, the conscience of man, in its fallen and corrupt state is 'deceitful' above all things. It is subtle and false; capable of supplanting (that is the correct meaning of the word); hence the name Jacob, a supplanter (usurped, impostor, faker). It calls evil good and good, it calls evil, it paints things in false colors, and it proclaims peace to those who do not have peace. When men say in their hearts (that is, allow their hearts to whisper to them) that there is no God, or that He does not see him, or that He will not call him to account, some will have peace, even if they go their way; In these suggestions and thousands more, the heart is deceitful. It lays traps for men for his own ruin; and these will be the aggravations (serious or heavy) of it, which are selfdeceived (self-lies), self-destructive. Inside the heart is "desperately bad"; It's fatal, it's desperate. Undoubtedly, the case is bad and deplorable (regrettable) and unrelievable (there is no relief) if the conscience that must ratify the errors of most faculties is a mother of falsehood and ringleader in hallucination (versions). What will become of man if what should be Jehovah's lamp in him "gives a false light, if he supplants (substitutes) God in the soul, which is to support his interests, betrays him?" Such is the deception of the heart that we can truly say, who will know him? Who can describe how bad the heart is?"

5. (Psalm 51:10) Create! What? Has sin so destroyed us that the Creator must be called upon again?

6. What ruin evil has wrought among mankind!

7. Come, then, and may Your power be seen in a new creation within me, fallen me.

8. A clean heart.

9. He wants the old man buried "as a dead thing" and for a new creation to take his place.

10. Only God can create, "be it a new heart" or a new earth.

11. (Matthew 5:8) "The pure in heart "receive the assurance that they will see God."

12. The clean heart is one "whose motives are not mixed, who "have holy thoughts" and a "clean conscience."

13. The expression "they will see God" can be understood in several ways.

14. First, "the pure in heart" now see God through "fellowship in the Word and the Spirit."

15. Second, sometimes they have a supernatural appearance or vision of the Lord.

16. Third, they will see God in the person of Jesus when He returns.

17. Fourth, they will see God in eternity.

18. (Matthew 6:21) This radical financial policy is based on the underlying scoop (hidden or underneath) that "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

19. If your money is in a safe (capital), then your heart and desire is also there.

20. If your treasures are in heaven, your interests will be focused there.

21. This teaching forces us to decide whether Jesus really meant this. If so, then we are faced with this question: What are we going to do with our earthly treasures?

22. If He really didn't mean this, then we would face this question: What are we going to do with our Bible?

23. If your heart remains right, you must do as your search with God has led you. Amen