Knowing the Heart

In our church college ministry, we have been studying through the book, Knowing the Heart, by Jonathan Edwards. Tonight I taught the ladies from a chapter entitled, “The Gadarenes Loved Their Swine More than Jesus Christ”. Following are the notes I prepared for this lesson. I cannot take credit for a lot of it, as my pastor, Michael Harsch, gave me a great deal of insight for it. And I must add, I cannot say that I have mastered the art of knowing my own deceitful heart. But I am so thankful God has provided teachers and writers and a church where I can learn more about my heart and how to know it better. May He always receive all the glory and honor!

Texts: Mark 5 & Luke 8

Let’s first review the main purpose of these sermons that have been compiled in this book. Edwards had a very specific intention of provoking his hearers to examine their personal hearts in an effort to gain assurance of their salvation. When speaking of the “heart”, what is meant is this: “The heart in Scripture is variously used; sometimes for the mind and understanding, sometimes for the will, sometimes for the affections, sometimes for the conscience, sometimes for the whole soul. Generally, it denotes the whole soul of man and all the faculties of it, not absolutely, but as they are all one principle of moral operations, as they all concur in our doing good or evil. The mind as it inquireth, discerneth, and judgeth what is to be done, what refused; the will, as it chooseth or refuseth and avoids; the affections, as they like or dislike, cleave to or have an aversion from, that which is proposed to them; the conscience, as it warns and determines – are all together called the heart.” Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” John Flavel, in reflecting on this verse, said, “The greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to God, and the greatest difficulty after conversion is to keep the heart with God.”

If the heart is so fickle and so easily deceived, then we must approach this study knowing that even when Edwards seems to be speaking to the unregenerate man, it is needful for us to take heed and listen. Now I am not trying to cause unnecessary or harmful doubt about your salvation. However, we must all take care that we are not fooling ourselves about our spiritual condition. Whenever we read a passage of Scripture, we never want to isogete it, meaning we don’t want to attach our own meaning or interpretation to it. In this chapter from Edwards’ book, if you read it, you might find yourself wondering why he took one small passage of Scripture and made such broad applications. It might seem at first as though he read it and then placed his own meaning to it. When we read the passage, is it perfectly clear that the sole reason for the Gadarene’s fear and refusal to receive Jesus into their company was specifically because they lost the herd of swine? Well, obviously, the text does not explicitly say this. So how then, does Edwards make the application he does? And what is the application for us?

Edwards makes this application based primarily on the cultural context of the time. Clearly, a herd of a couple thousand swine would be a hugely valuable commodity in this day. A town’s livestock was their primary means of survival and prosperity. To lose such a herd all in one moment would be quite devastating for the people. What is even more important in this text however, is not to discern exactly how critical just the swine were to these people, but to observe that regardless of what caused it, they were fearful and they were adamant that Christ depart from them. So whether it be merely the loss of the swine, or a combination of other issues, the point is – they were filled with fear and boldly rejected the Son of God from being in their presence. The primary motivation for the Gadarenes to want to be ridded of Christ was self-interest and self-preservation. This is where the application for us comes in.

Again, the primary motivation for the Gadarenes to reject Christ was self-interest and self-preservation. And is not that the very thing that causes us to reject Christ? And make no mistake, I am not referring only to those who reject His saving power, but even to those believers who daily reject the intimate fellowship that Christ is calling them to. So, the swine represent self – whatever that might be to you. For you all, that will not be livestock (I assume). It will be whatever threatens to take your gaze off of Christ. Steve Camp calls this inward focus “the rot of religion – the idolatry of self-love”. It is a plague and cancer eating away at the church and causing a great stumbling block to true Christianity. No wonder the world calls us hypocrites. He goes on to say, “The two great commandments of ‘Love the Lord thy God’ and ‘love thy neighbor’ have now been eclipsed with this third hell-inspired commandment: ‘love thyself’.” Let’s ask ourselves this question posed by Jonathan Edwards: “Has it not been your manner, in particular cases wherein the command of Christ has stood on one hand, and some carnal interest and enjoyment on the other, to refuse the former and choose the latter?” Now you may claim that you have not done so, you may say, “Well, I have not chosen some carnal form of sexual immorality or stealing or murder, so that does not describe me.” But we must think more specifically. Have we chosen to spend our money on a new outfit or that latest gadget we have been lusting after – instead of giving above our normal tithe, or using our money to generously bless another? Have we chosen to abuse our Christian liberty by flaunting ourselves in a manner which is unbecoming of a godly woman or engaging in some form of entertainment that may cause a younger believer to stumble or be confused? When it comes to our finances and resources, we often think, “I need it for myself. I need it for my own. I cannot spare it.” Another way that we often become self-absorbed is with our time. We say we want to serve and help, yet we fail to do what we said – we don’t follow through, we are late and leave others to handle the task we committed to. I bring up some of these particular examples because I see them as being the most common tendencies for this age group. By refusing to carefully examine those areas of our lives, and the motives behind them, we are displaying a heart that is absorbed with and ruled by self. Be careful when you catch yourself making statements that others have no right to judge you or that your personal convictions are your own business. When you publicly embrace Christ, you are to be characterized by a desire and willingness for accountability. John Flavel said, “There are many real saints in whom the Spirit of truth is, who yet, through the impetuous workings of their corruptions, and neglecting of the watch over their hearts, often fall into such scandalous practices that they look like hypocrites though they are not so.”

In this chapter, Edwards gives the primary use of the text as a means of self-examination. In examining oneself, one must begin by observing and pondering his own profession of faith. If I want to scrutinize my profession, I am necessarily going to have to consider what it is that gives me assurance. What does the man who thinks he is converted cling to in order to give himself assurance? Well, Edwards says there are two things: a verbal profession of Christ and an emotional response.

A verbal response is something that cannot be relied upon as a means of assurance. Judas Iscariot publicly professed a love and devotion to Christ, yet eagerly betrayed him when something more valuable was offered to him. He chose his own form of swine over Christ. Edwards says, “The one who prefers anything to Christ is not a Christian regardless of what they say.” Even now, in my own prideful thoughts about myself, I may say that does not apply to me, I never prefer something to Christ. But what does my life say about this? Edwards goes on to say, “If you are frequently talking of things of religion and speak of Christ, and what He has done and suffered, and often in your discourse expressing how needful a thing it was that Christ should have regard to such unworthy worms of the dust as we are, what cause we have to love Christ, and to be careful to praise and glorify Him, and how that the praise of our salvation does not belong to us at all, but only to Jesus Christ, that he only should have all the glory, and drop many expressions time after time to the like purpose, ‘tis no certain sign that you don’t love your swine better than Jesus Christ.” WOW! So I can speak of the Lord and His goodness and faithfulness, yet still remain far from Him in my heart.

Secondly, the emotional response. At a church like the one I attend, it may be tempting to think this is not a problem for us. We are not an emotionally-driven congregation. However, think of the response you have when you see a romantic movie, or even listen to some moving and powerful praise and worship music. Is your heart stirred to such degrees when you merely read the precious words of God in the quiet of your room? Edwards tells us that the test for our emotions is this: Compare your affections unto Christ with your affections to other matters. Are you highly charged in your emotions to rise up and defend yourself when you are rebuked by someone, yet not near as passionate about the heart examination you do in the solitary confines of your room? What are you more moved to emotion over – what others have said or done to you, or what you have said and done to others? Richard Baxter said this: “Whether you love an immortal, holy life with God, or this earthly, fleshly life better, is the great question on which it will be resolved whether you are Christians or infidels at the heart, and whether you are heirs of heaven or hell…And if God say plainly, ‘if any man come to Christ, and hate not his own life (that is, love it not so much less than Christ, that for His sake he can use it as a hated thing is used), he cannot be my disciple’ (Luke 14:26).” What meticulous care do you give ladies, to the apparel you put on, to the way your hair is styled, to the impression you give off particularly in front of men – or even the concern you have over your academic studies or the reputation you hold in your place of employment? Do you expend a greater measure of careful attention to your heart and to the study of it?

Jonathan Edwards takes this story of the Gadarenes and their swine as a careful opportunity for us to apply diligence in knowing our heart. But do we want to know our hearts? John Flavel said, “We are all naturally prone to flee from ourselves, and we desire to converse with our own hearts as seldom as possible.” Let’s read a corresponding passage in John 3:19-21. Why did the Gadarenes want Christ to depart from their presence? FEAR! What were they afraid of? Being exposed. Christ’s reputation most assuredly preceded Him. The Gadarenes knew of His agenda. They also knew of their own agenda. Man relies on his position, his goods. How about us? Are we relying on our position – our good looks? Our popular reputation? Our vain pursuits? Even our righteous deeds? The Gadarenes were afraid because they quickly and dramatically saw that what Christ was doing in their midst cost them something, and they were probably wondering what more it would cost them if He remained! Christ would have been welcome among them if it had cost them nothing. They wanted the benefits without the cost. They were tired of dealing with this possessed man. They had already chained him up and tried to suppress him. Yet, they weren’t willing to give up those swine. See how we are the same! We try and chain up our sin, pushing it down within, hiding it, talking around it – yet we are unwilling to give up what it would cost to have Christ remove it entirely. The verses we read in John 3 – how is a lover of the light described? As one who has his deeds exposed for all to see – why? Because he wants protection! There is much safeguarding of your soul when you allow yourself to be exposed to the light of truth. A practical example of this might even be in how we relate to one another in small groups. I have been in ministry long enough to see that we often repeat the same general prayer concerns every week. We confess that we have not been diligent in our quiet time, we are struggling with discipline and consistency. We are not managing our time wisely. We want to be more devoted to the Lord. Here is a particular means of testing our hearts. Are we pursuing secrecy or scrutiny (as one of my pastors so clearly asserted)? Scrutiny is not a bad thing, and when we think it is, we will often find that it is because we are trying to protect ourselves. We want to keep our prayer requests and struggles very general and abstract, usually so that we don’t really have to answer for them when we continue in them. We love our sin. We are most content there. And if we made it more specifically known by confessing it to one another, then we would be more accountable for it. So just as the Gadarenes had sought to suppress the demon-possessed man, we are suppressing our sin. We secure a place for sin in our hearts. And we do it most willingly! Edwards says, “Christ had been a stranger in the land of the Gadarenes, but He sailed over the sea in a ship and came to them. It might well have been a joyful time among the people of that country when He was coming. That ship was bringing the Lord of Life and glory to them! And Christ actually came ashore upon their land and gloriously showed His power and mercy among them. When He had but, as it were, touched on the coast, they quickly sent him back again because of their swine that they had lost.”

Receive this story as a warning to not do as the Gadarenes did. Edwards said, “How just would it be if Christ should finally leave you, never to come to you or strive with you anymore?” Ladies, He has been so longsuffering toward us. Are there areas of your life where God has given you opportunity to repent, where maybe either in your own personal reflection or from the loving rebuke of another, you have shunned and rejected Him? I am not speaking only of repentance toward salvation, but even repentance in your sanctification? Are there hidden or suppressed sins that you have been confronted with – immorality, sensuality, rebellion against authorities, bitterness and wrath held in your heart, unforgiveness, refusal to serve and care for others – that when confronted, you did a quick self-check and came to the conclusion that it must not be true of you, and then move on? He may not continue to be so longsuffering. If you are an unbeliever, He may choose to remove opportunities for repentance and veil your eyes for all eternity. Believer, He may not always be so faithful to give you careful guidance and wisdom when you abuse it and suppress it. Don’t choose to remain an immature Christian. Consider the Lord’s patience with you even in such lessons as He pleads with you and implores you to know and understand your heart – yet some of you remain ambivalent. You don’t come regularly, there is always something pressing that prevents you from coming. Even your small group ministry is a mercy of God intended to bring about salvation and sanctification in your hearts. Let us not pay lip service in our responses, but may our hearts be genuine and sincere in gratitude for the Lord giving us such an opportunity to be conformed to the image of His Son. As Edwards states, “Consider what danger there is that Christ will forsake you as He did the Gadarenes…Christ took ship and bid adieu to the Gadarene shore, and crossed the sea again and returned unto His own country. And we have no account that in all his travels, He ever went to the country of the Gadarenes anymore; but it seems as though Christ, according to their own desire, totally left them.”

Let me close by reading a portion of a letter written by William Lord Russell, as he sent words of counsel to his son (from pg.ix in Flavel’s book):“Fail not, what employment soever you have, every night, as in the presence of God and His holy angels, to pass an inquisition on your soul, what ill it hath done, what good it hath left undone; what slips, what fall, it has had that day; what temptations have prevailed upon it, and by what means or after what manner. Ransack every corner of thy dark heart; and let not the least peccadillo, or kindness to a sin, lurk there; but bring it forth, bewail it, protest against it, detest it, and scourge it by a severe sorrow. Thus, each day’s breach between God and your soul being made up, with more quiet and sweet hope thou mayest dispose thyself to rest. Certainly at last this inquisition, if steadily pursued, will vanquish all customary sins, whatever they may be. I speak it upon this reason, because I presume thou wilt not have the face to appear before God every night confessing the same offense; and thou wilt forbear it, lest thou mayest seem to mock God, or despise Him, which is but dreadful to imagine.”