THE PERFECT HEART.
For the eyes of the Lord ran to and fro throughout the whole earth,
to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect
toward Him--2 CHRON. xvi. 9.
This passage occurs in the history of Asa, one of the most godly and
devoted kings that ever sat upon the throne of Judah. We are told in
the fourteenth chapter that he commenced his reign by setting himself
to destroy the idolatry into which the whole nation had been betrayed
by its former ruler, and to restore the worship and service of the
God of Israel. He set himself to bring back the nation to its
allegiance and obedience to God; and his success is a great
encouragement to any who shall set themselves, single-handed and with
a perfect heart, towards God, to do this in any circle, under any
circumstances.
_He succeeded_. God blessed him in his efforts to purge his kingdom
inside, and God also delivered him from his enemies outside, and enabled
him by His power to defeat the king of Ethiopia, who came against him
with an exceeding great army, because King Asa was perfect in his heart
towards God.
When this king came up against him, Asa went and cried unto the
Lord, and cast himself upon his God, trusting Him to deliver him, and
God never disappointed any man, either before or since Asa's day, who
did that. God delivered his enemies into his hand and made him a
successful and happy king, over a prosperous and increasing people.
But by-and-bye, after many years, for Asa was perfect in his heart
towards the Lord for many years of his long reign; but whether it
were, as, alas! too often happens, that a life of ease and prosperity
brought forth in Asa the results of partial backsliding, we know not;
but as years went on, another war was declared, and this time it was
the king of Israel who came up against the king of Judah. What did
Asa do? Did he go, as formerly, and cry unto the Lord, and put his
battle into His hands? No, he did not. He had left His first love; he
had become, in a measure, untrue to the Lord God of Israel. He forgot
where his strength lay; his spiritual perceptions had become dim; he
had lost his realization of God's ability to help and deliver him out
of the hands of his enemies, and so he fell back upon worldly policy.
He went down to Assyria and courted Ben-hadad, the king of Assyria,
and said, "Come and help me, that my enemies may depart, for I am
sore pressed." Ah! what a picture of backsliders. On another
occasion, when Jehosophat made an ungodly alliance, a prophet met him
and said, "Should'st thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate
the Lord?" No man ever did this without being sorely whipped, as poor
Asa was. He succeeded, indeed, in the battle, and won the victory. It
was a lawful end, but he accomplished it by unlawful means. He won
the victory, and, I dare say, he was congratulating himself, and
stroking his beard in self-complacency, when, lo! the prophet comes
to deliver God's message to him, and he says:--
"Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on
the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped
out of thine hand.
"Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many
chariots and horsemen? yet because thou didst rely on the Lord He
delivered them into thine hand.
"For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth, to
show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect
towards Him. Herein thou hast done foolishly; therefore from
henceforth thou shalt have wars"--the very thing he went to Assyria
to seek to avoid. He wanted _peace_, not war, and he went down
to Assyria to enable him to spend the remainder of his days in peace,
when, lo! the Word of God goes forth, "Thou shalt have wars." He
was chastised in the very thing for which he sold himself and his
God. "Be sure thy sin will find thee out." It is God's way to
chastise His children by those very things in which they sell His
interests. "Thou shalt have wars."
But we want to deal specially with the lesson which the prophet
draws from this event; for he says, "Wherefore didst thou go to
Assyria? Wherefore hast thou sinned against God? Hast thou forgotten
who the God of Israel was? Didst thou not know that the eyes of the
Lord run throughout the whole earth?" He would have helped thee now,
Asa, as much as in the past. He will help any man who is whole-hearted
towards Him--that trusts in Him. Now, I say, this is the
lesson which the prophet draws, not only for Asa, but for all the
Asas since his day, and those who are yet to come, for every man and
woman who professes to be a servant of God, the prophet sounds down
to the ages that "the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the
whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart
is perfect towards Him."
Now, what is this perfect heart? "Ah!" you say, "that is the point."
Yes, that is the point, and we will try to show what kind of a heart
this is. It must be A DIFFERENT KIND OF HEART TO HEARTS IN GENERAL;
all hearts are not perfect towards God, or else His eyes would not
have to be running to and fro throughout the earth to find them. They
would be plentiful enough if they were the common sort of hearts, but
evidently they are a different kind of hearts to ordinary hearts; and
another thing is evident on the face of the text, that these kind of
hearts are very precious in the sight of God. He delights in them; He
makes greater store by one such than He does by thousands of the
other kinds of hearts, of which there are so many. I say, these two
lessons everybody with common sense will admit at once--that these
hearts are not the common hearts, and that they are very precious in
the sight of God.
Now, what is the meaning of this term "perfect heart," referring to
the hearts of God's children, all the way through the Bible? As you
know, I like to establish my points in the mouths of two or three
witnesses, I will give you two or three texts, that we may find out
God's meaning of this term, and then we will give you the very lowest
rendering, where all schools are agreed, for I don't want
controversy. We will just look at Psalm xxxvii. 37: "Mark the perfect
man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace." There
_are_ such people as God means in that verse. Psalm lxiv. 4:
"That they may shoot in secret at the perfect," who have always been
a favorite target of the devil. He does not shoot much at people
whose hearts are perfect towards the Lord. It is at those perfect
people he shoots. "Suddenly do they shoot at him," perhaps while he
is thinking they are his friends. "Suddenly they shoot, and fear not."
"Be ye perfect," says the Saviour, "even as your Father which is in
Heaven is perfect." That means something. We will try to find out
what it does mean (Matt. xix. 21)--
"Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou
hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven:
and come _and_ follow Me."
And, again, at 1 Cor. ii. 6--
"Howbeit, we speak wisdom among them that are perfect."
And (2 Timothy iii. 17)--
"That the man of God may he perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all
good works."
There are numbers of others, but these are samples, and I suppose
all Christians attach _some_ meaning to these terms. They must
be terms signifying a great difference between the persons who are
spoken of and ordinary men and women. Now, what do they mean? Well,
the very lowest rendering of all divines and all schools is this,
that it means _sincerity_ and _thoroughness_. Well, that is all I want.
Give me a man sincere and thorough in his love, and that is all I want;
that will stretch through all the ramifications of his existence; it
will go to the ends of his fingers and his toes, through his eyes, and
through his tongue, to his wife, and to his family, to his shop, and to
his business, and to his circle in the world. That is what I mean by
_holiness_! Then, taking the lowest translation, it means that a man is
whole-hearted in love, and thorough out-and-out in service! Amen. For
that man who is thus perfect towards God, God will indeed show Himself
strong in more ways than one!
This cannot mean a merely natural heart, it must mean a renewed
heart, because there are no perfect hearts by nature. There is no one
in this sense that doeth good and sinneth not, for every child of
Adam has gone astray like a lost sheep, has done the things he ought
not, and left undone the things he ought to have done, and the whole
world has become guilty before God. There are no naturally perfect
hearts. It must mean, then, a heart renewed by the Holy Ghost, put
right with God, and then kept right. A heart cannot be kept right
until it has been _put right_, and that is the secret of the
failure with some of you. You are trying to bring forth fruits before
the tree is planted. You are looking for the fruits of a perfect
heart before you have got one. You may well be disappointed. You must
get your heart renewed, and then kept right by the power of the Holy
Ghost.
Then, what does this perfect heart imply?
1. _A heart perfect in its loyalty to God_, thoroughly given over to
God's side, irrespective of consequences,--_loyal_. These are the hearts
that God wants. This was the difference between David and Saul. There
was not so much difference in the greater part of Saul's outward life,
when compared with the life of David. It was only the prophet Samuel,
perhaps, who knew the difference, and a few close observers; but the
difference was, that David was loyal to God, and God calls him, for this
reason, a man after His own heart.
From the first calling of David from the sheepfolds, right to the
end, with one or two exceptions, during the whole of his life, he was
loyal to God, and, if you will carefully search his history, you will
find that in all his wars, and all his dealings with the nations
round about, and with the leaders of affairs in his own kingdom--in
everything,
David was loyal to God. It was the interests of God's kingdom that
lay at David's heart--not his own honor, ease, or aggrandizement--not
his own fame or riches, or building himself a house--it was the house
of his God that was dear to his heart. He was loyal; whereas Saul was
loyal only as far as it served his own purposes and interests. Oh!
how many such Sauls there are in these days. When God's commandments
went counter with his notions, he openly set God at naught, and did
as he liked. He sacrificed God's interests to his own. He was unloyal
at heart, hence he was a traitor, and never could learn the way of
the Lord. He was never perfect towards the Lord his God, and, at
last, God cast him off, and Samuel did also, and you know what his
end was. Just the difference between the two--loyal and unloyal.
A heart perfect towards God! What does it mean? It means--
2. Perfect in its _obedience_. That man or woman who has this
kind of a heart, ceases to pick and choose amongst the commandments
of God, which he shall obey, and which he shall not--he ceases to
have his own will, though sometimes he may have a struggle with his
own will, and the way that God may call him to take may look to him
as if it were a dangerous or risky way, and he may wait a little bit,
to be thoroughly satisfied; but when once satisfied that it is God's
way, the true child will not hesitate. He confers not with flesh and
blood, but on he goes, irrespective of consequences. This was Paul's
kind of obedience. He conferred not with flesh and blood; he counted
all things dung and dross, and he went on doing so to the end--thorough
in his obedience.
People come to us and want to know what they are to do; they feel
that they are only half-hearted in God's service; they have neither
joy nor power, and say, "What must I do?" and we take, as God helps
us, the dissecting knife, and try to find out the difficulty. We get
them down under the blaze of the Holy Spirit's light, and try to
probe them and find where they are wrong. Perhaps the Lord leads us
to the sore spot, and we point out the difficulty, but, instead of
obeying, they shrink away. They look ahead, and they see that to obey
the light will involve loss of some kind--perhaps reputation, wealth,
family associations, ease, or loss of friends, loss of temporal
comforts, loss of good business. Loss is in the background, and they
see it. They know where we are leading them to, and they slip back;
they do not want to see, and yet they do not want to consider
themselves dishonest, so they turn their heads away, and will not
look in the direction of the light, smoothing it all over and
singing--
"Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an off'ring far too small," &c.
That is not a perfect heart, but a partial heart towards the Lord God.
The partial heart, so common, alas, now-a-days, wants to serve God a
little. It is willing to go a little way with God, but not all the
way; so that, taking the lowest interpretation, that is not a perfect
heart towards the Lord. Can it be expected that the Lord should shew
Himself strong in behalf of such people? Do you think you would if
you were God?
Suppose you were a king, and had a prince or statesman who was
serving you very valiantly and devotedly while it served himself;
but, suppose the tables were turned, and you were dethroned and cast
away into exile, your name being bandied about the nation where you
once reigned as king, in disgrace and dishonor; suppose this
statesman gave you up, and said, "Oh! I am going to be on the side of
the reigning monarch. I was very devoted to this man while he
reigned, but I cannot afford to be devoted to him now his interests
draggle in the dust; I must be on the winning side." What would you
think of such a man? And if you were restored to your kingdom and
power, would you show yourself strong on behalf of such a man? No;
you would remember, as David did, the man who cursed you. But if you
had a prince or statesman who followed you into exile, who ministered
to you in secret, who tried to hold up your interests, who contended
for your righteousness and justice, and held up your name and tried
to make the people see that you were a good and true man, who held on
to you, when all the nation was calling you traitor--if you came back
to your throne, would you not show yourself strong in behalf of that
man? Of course you would. The Lord says He will show Himself strong
in behalf of those of such a heart towards Him.
You masters here have a servant--a clever, smart man; you know how
well he can serve you, and how valuable he can be, and would be if he
were true; but you have reason to believe that he will only go with
you as far as it will be for his own interests; he will serve you as
far as he can serve himself, too, but, if he can get up by putting
you down, you may lie there. What would you say to such a man? You
would say, "I shall never show myself strong for him." So God is not
likely to show Himself strong for people who are not of a perfect
heart. A lady said to me, "I have been doing this and doing that for
years, but I have no power; why don't I have it?" I said, "Because
you are not true to God. He will give it to anybody who is true to
Him, and He can see into your heart, and knows you are not." Why will
He not show Himself strong in your behalf? _Because you do not show
yourself thorough in His behalf._ The moment you show yourself
thorough, that moment will He show Himself strong for you. If you had
been in Daniel's place you would not have done as he did. Daniel was
one of the perfect-hearted men; he served his God when he was in
prosperity. He set his window open every day. Then his enemies
persuaded the king to make a decree that no man should pray but to
this king for so many days. "Now," they said, "we shall have him."
But Daniel just did as he was wont, he went and prayed with his
window open. You say, "That was demonstrative religion, that was
courting opposition. What need was there for him to make this
display; could he not have shut the window and gone into an inner
room? That was just like you Salvation-Army people, you always make a
demonstration. Why could he not have gone into an inner chamber and
prayed?" Because he would be thorough for his God in adversity, in
the face of his enemies, as he was in prosperity. So he went and
prayed with open window to the God of Heaven, and because _He
is_ the God of Heaven, He is able to take care of His own. His
heart was perfect towards the Lord his God.
3. _This perfect heart is perfect in its trust_:--and, perhaps,
that ought to have come first, for it is the very root of all.
Oh, how beautiful Abraham was in the eyes of God; how God gloried
over him. How do I know that Abraham had a perfect heart towards God?
Because he trusted Him. No other proof--no less proof--would have
been of any use. I dare say he was compassed with infirmities, had
many erroneous views, manward and earthward, but his heart was
perfect towards God. Do you think God would have failed in His
promise to Abraham? Abraham trusted Him almost to the blood of Isaac,
and God showed Himself strong in his behalf, and delivered him, and
made him the father of the faithful; crowned him with everlasting
honor, so that his name, from generation to generation, has been a
pillar of strength to the Lord's people, and a crown of glory to his
God.