Proverbs 4, and the verse is number 23. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Tonight, with God's blessing, we'll proceed in our study of Richard Baxter, On Your Faults. Richard Baxter was an English pastor who lived from 1619 to 1691. Like everyone else, he had his weaknesses. But when it comes to pastoral counseling, or telling Christians how to live every day for the Lord, Richard Baxter was the best. His study is divided into two parts. The first is negative, how to get rid of bad thoughts. The second is positive, how to keep the good thoughts you have and improve upon them. He begins by defining bad thoughts. They are thoughts against God, such as unbelief and discontent, thoughts against yourself, especially pride, and thoughts against other people, like malice, or envy, or contempt. These are all bad thoughts, but knowing what a bad thought is, is a lot different than getting rid of one. How do you do that? How do you expel these bad thoughts? Assuming you recognize them as bad, assuming you know that a grudge is wicked, or that fantasies are sinful, what do you do with them? How do you get rid of them? Well thus far, Baxter has said four things. Number one, you've got to remember how bad they are. Faults matter to God. All humans can do is judge words and deeds. God can judge faults, and they matter very much to Him. Number two, stay away from the things that stir them up. If looking at things stir up bad faults, don't look at things. If talking to certain people stir up bad thoughts, don't talk to those people as far as practical. So stay away from the things that stir them up. Keep a close eye on your senses, and remember where bad thoughts will take you if you're not careful. James 1.15 says, Lust, when it is conceived, brings forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death. He coveted, he took, and he died. That's the review. Let's move on now to the other points under this negative part of Baxter's study. If you want to get rid of bad thoughts, control your emotions. If you want to get rid of bad thoughts, control your emotions. Not everyone is emotional, but some people are. Those of us who are emotional have to keep a careful check on our emotions. We've got to keep our foot on the brake pedal or we're going to be in very big trouble. Now in theory your mind controls your feelings. You think something is good and you feel happy about it. You think something is dangerous and you feel scared. That's the theory but the facts are not always that way. Very often your feelings drive your thoughts. You become mad at someone, for example, and you begin thinking all kinds of evil things against them, often without any proof, or maybe no evidence at all. Your angry feelings are making you think wicked thoughts. Rather than controlling your emotions, your mind is being controlled by them, and that's bad. Not that emotions are bad. Arms are good, but not for walking. Eyes are good, but not for smelling. Emotions are good, but not for thinking. How do you control your emotions? Well, that's another subject, of course, but here's a good place to start. First, respect the power and danger of uncontrolled emotions. Second, pray for God's grace to control them. And third, don't cop out by saying, well, that's just the way I am. Maybe it is the way you are, but grace changes you from what you are to what you ought to be. Here's the quote from Richard Baxter. Keep out or quickly cast out all inordinate passions, for passions violently press the false and forcibly carry them away. If anger or grief or fear or pleasure be allowed in, they will command your thoughts. And when you rebuke your thoughts and call them in, they will not hear you until you get them away from the crowd and noise of passion. Emotions are like screaming kids. Until you quiet them down, you can't be heard. If you want to get rid of your bad thoughts, control your emotions. Don't let your feelings do your thinking for you. That's number one. Number two. If you want to get rid of bad thoughts, resist them as soon as they occur to you. If you want to get rid of bad thoughts, resist them as soon as they occur to you. Bad thoughts are like tigers. If you're going to tame them, you better start early. When they're cubs, you can do something with them, but let them grow up wild and that tiger will tear you to pieces. When applied to thinking, this means don't let your flash of anger grow into bitterness or resentment. Don't let your passing lust grow into a fantasy. Kill the thoughts early. The longer you wait to mortify them, the harder it becomes. Here's the quote from Baxter. Cast out vain and sinful thoughts in the beginning before they settle themselves and make a dwelling in the heart. They are most easily and safely resisted at the doorway. Bad thoughts are like Jehovah's Witnesses. Once you let them in the house, it's hard to get them out. Better to keep them out than to try to throw them out once they're in. Proverbs 1.10 makes the point, My son, if sinners entice you, consent not. In other words, if sinful thoughts entice you, don't think about them a little bit longer, don't weigh the pluses and minuses of them, don't sleep on them and say, or anything like that. Just say no to them. If an evil thought entices you, stand up to that thought right then. The Bible makes a wonderful promise to us. It says, if you resist the devil, he will flee. When you were in school, did you know bullies? Most bullies are all talk and no action. Most of them are that way. And as long as they've got you cowering, they're going to take advantage of you. They're going to take your lunch money every day. But if you stand up to them, maybe you don't even have to fight. If you stand up to the bullies, often they'll back down. And Satan is this way. Satan loves to bully us. He loves to win fights without throwing a punch. But when we resist the devil, God gives us special grace that enables us to not only resist him, but to resist him successfully. That doesn't mean he gives up instantly and never comes back. I wish it did mean that. But it does mean that temptation itself fails. You can give thanks to God and see that Satan is the defeated foe. And so if you want to get rid of bad thoughts, resist them as soon as they occur to you. That's number two. Number three is this. If you want to get rid of bad thoughts, keep a tender conscience. Now, what's a tender conscience? Well, a tender conscience is one that's sensitive to sin. even itsy bitsy little teeny tiny sins. Some people feel guilty but only after they've committed some big whopping scandalous sin. The Bible says these people have seared their consciences with a hot iron. They've deadened the feeling, sort of a novocaine shot of sin, which deadens you to everything you should be feeling. But this is not the way to holiness, to harden your conscience. No, the way of holiness goes in the opposite direction. You see, if little sins hurt you, you'll repent of them before they grow into big sins. And that's what the function of a tender conscience is. It aims to feel the little sins and repent of them before they become big sins. And here, there's quite an example in the Old Testament scriptures. David was, of course, the king of Israel, but he wasn't always king. He wasn't born king. In fact, when David was a young man, the king of Israel was a man named Saul. And although David was Saul's most faithful and successful servant, Saul hated him with a bitter envy, and spent a good many years hunting down David, trying to kill him. Now you see, Saul had been appointed by God to be the king of Israel for the purpose of fighting Israel's battles against the Philistines. But Saul had no time for the real enemies of the Lord. He spent all of his time fighting God's friend, David. And so for many years, David had to flee the presence of Saul and really live on the land. For a number of years David was a fugitive from justice. And Saul intended to kill David. He wasn't trying to arrest him and give him a fair trial. His goal was to put a spear through his heart. That's what he was up to. Well, one night David and some of his men were hiding in a cave. Way in the back of a cave. And Saul came to the cave and he left his men outside and he went inside the cave to relieve himself. David and his men are right there. Saul is completely vulnerable. He's got no weapons. He's got no men. He's taking care of private business. And David's men are going, now's your chance. Now's your chance. Get him. You've got him now. The Lord has delivered him into your hand. And David drew his sword and cut off the hem of Saul's garment. Cut a little piece of fabric out of his shirt. Later Saul finished up his business and he and his men went on and David went off to another place and then from a long ways away he yelled out to Saul. David did. And he said, my master, look at this. Isn't this part of your garment? Can't you see that the Lord handed you over to me, but I didn't kill you? And that means I had no intent to kill you. Alright, well why did he do that? I mean, the man is right there. Why didn't he kill him? And why did he confess this to Saul? Well, the answer is, David's conscience smote him. He felt guilty. He said, who am I to stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointing? This was a man trying to kill him. You could have argued that it was nothing but self-defense. And certainly it was not killing a good man, it was killing a killer. And yet David's conscience was so sensitive at the time, that even something like cutting off a part of that man's shirt tail, smote his conscience. Now if you keep your conscience tender about bad thoughts, The faults won't be very bad. They won't stay very long. And they won't get much worse. You'll slip at times, of course, everyone does. But you won't wallow in wicked thoughts. You won't just turn faults of revenge over and over and over in your mind. Some people have sort of a rosary of revenge. Going over and over, like the little beads, you know, over and over. Every bad thing someone has done to me. He said this, and she did that, and he did the other, and they excluded me, and that sort of thing. That can't be pleasing to the Lord. And if you keep your conscience tender, you won't do such a thing. Here's the quote from the old Puritan. Keep your conscience tender that you be not insensitive to the smallest sin. A tender conscience fears and departs from evil. That's number three. If you want to get rid of bad thoughts, keep your conscience tender. You do that, of course, by reading the Bible regularly, finding out what sin is, confessing your sins regularly to the Lord, and practicing self-examination. Number four. If you want to get rid of bad thoughts, just think of how embarrassed you would be if others knew about them. Now this is a very clever point. I think Baxter is really trying to tattoo something in our brains on this one. If you want to get rid of bad thoughts, just think of how embarrassed you would be if others knew about them. I don't need to say very much here. What if you had a brain disorder that made you say everything you thought? Well, you'd be the most hated person in the world. Somebody would say something to you, and you'd say, Man, you're stupid! Or you'd walk up to a guy and say, hey, your wine looks hot tonight. Wrong. No, no, no, no, no, no. You'd be the most hated and embarrassed person in the world. You know why, of course? Because some things shouldn't be said. And if they shouldn't be said, well, they shouldn't be thought either. If it's wrong to say these things, it's also wrong to think these things. And it's especially wrong to dwell on these things. Think about this and maybe it will expel some of your bad thoughts. Baxter says, think seriously of how much you would control your thoughts if they were written on your forehead. What if your thoughts were subtitled? What if someone could push a button and give a closed caption of what you were thinking? You'd be a whole lot more careful about what you were thinking than you are now. Keep that in mind. That's number four. And here's the last one. If you want to get rid of bad thoughts, just remember, every one of them is open to God and will be uncovered on the day of judgment. What if your thoughts were broadcast? What if they were subtitled? Well, they are subtitled. They are broadcast. Now, people don't get that frequency, but God does. He hears or sees or knows your thoughts. Nothing will sober you up faster than knowing that God knows what you're thinking, and the day of judgment is coming, and that on that day, everything you've done, said, or thought will be brought to light. Baxter says so. Remember what an opening of thoughts there will be on the day of judgment. Then you will be ashamed to see what filth and vanity you entertained. And the Bible says the same thing in the last two verses of Ecclesiastes. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring everything into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. And that includes your thoughts. And so, remember that your thoughts are an open book to God. And He reads them very carefully, every word of them, and He never forgets them. The last one is this. If you want to get rid of bad thoughts, don't despair when you fail. If Satan can't make you insensitive to your sins, he'll make you too sensitive. In other words, he'll make you feel guilty and polluted all the time. He'll make you think there's no hope for Christ in you and that you're beyond repentance. No one can live this way. If you try, you'll soon give up all hope and every effort for holiness. can live in guilt. Bad thoughts are bad. They're much worse than we think they are. But remember, the sinfulness of thoughts is not greater than the grace of God. The Bible says that where sin abounded, grace superabounded. Your thoughts may be full of every kind of filthiness and vanity and unbelief in the world, but the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. He's eager to forgive the worst sinner. He's eager to forgive the person who honestly confesses his sins to the Lord and tries to forsake them. Proverbs 28.13 has never been repealed. He who covers his sins shall not prosper. But whoever confesses and forsakes it will have mercy. And neither is 1 John 1 verse 9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That means when you messed up once a day, you can confess. But it's also true when you messed up a hundred times a day, you can confess. When you've entertained a bad thought once, confess it to the Lord and get mercy. And when you've entertained that same thought for the one thousandth time, confess it and receive mercy from the Lord. Repent of your sinful thinking, of course, but don't wallow in your guilt. For if you've confessed it honestly to the Lord and sought forgiveness through Jesus Christ, whose death is sufficient to wash away all of your guilt and sin, You've been forgiven and you've been cleansed. Not because I said so. Not because psychology says so. Because God Himself says so. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Here's what Baxter says about it. When you find that some thoughts of sin and vanity are following you still, implying that you've tried to overcome it. But when you find that some thought of vanity and sin is following you still, for all that you can do, you must not plunge your souls into discouragement, but wait on God. Wait on God to forgive, to cleanse. And remember, I've talked to people over the years who have battled certain kinds of faults, perverted faults in some cases. general unbelieving faults in other cases. They've battled these faults for years and years and years. They may never completely overcome these faults in this life, but this life is not the end. There's a new world coming in which Christians will reign and rule and serve with Jesus Christ. And in that world, every bad fault will be sponged out of your mind and replaced with the most wonderful fault of love and peace and joy. Cornelius Van Til died a few years ago. He was, for decades, sixty years or more, a professor of apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. As an old man, Van Til was sharp. This man was a razor. But as an old man, he had a big shock of white hair, tall, thin man, very distinguished looking. A student asked him, Dr. Van Til, what are the special temptations of old age? And Van Til smiled and said, young man, the sins of my old age are the sins of my youth. The same thoughts that plagued him when he was a little boy in Holland, plagued him when he was an old man in Philadelphia. Again, we grow in grace, but we don't reach perfection in this world. But not to worry, this world is not the only world. Believers are going to heaven. We're really going to be with God. And how exactly God is going to sponge all of those bad thoughts out of our minds without somehow changing our personalities, I don't know. But I suspect this is the answer. I suspect one look at his face will be just so wonderful and so filling that all of these bad thoughts will be seen for what they really are, unworthy of thinking about. So if you want to get rid of bad thoughts, don't despair when you fail. Keep on trusting and looking to the Lord for mercy. Here's the last verse. It comes from the last verse of Psalm 130. Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with the Lord there is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquity. Are your thoughts bothering you? Wicked thoughts? Pressing, throwing out good ones? dwelling on something wicked. Do these things in faith. This is not a formula. This is not a magic pill. This is not a five or six step program. Do these things in faith, looking to God to bless them. And these things will help you expel the bad thoughts that are there by nature and choice. and reign in the good thoughts that are there by grace. May God make you and me both doers of his word for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's pray, please. Heavenly Father, dear Lord, it's an embarrassing thing to talk to you when you know our hearts and every evil thought that has passed through them. We can't pose for you, Lord. We can't fake it before you. And so, Lord, we don't try to fake it. We confess to you that our minds are just a knot of bad thoughts. And yet, Lord, we also recognize that you are very merciful and gracious. That you remember our weaknesses and you forgive our sins. We also thank you, Lord, for planting the seed of grace in our minds. And that our minds are not as corrupt as they used to be. And our thoughts are still shameful and embarrassing, but, well, they're getting better by your grace. And they will get better. Because you're with us, and your spirit will not leave us. And heaven awaits us. So Lord, we ask you, for Christ's sake, to forgive all of our bad thoughts. To fill our minds with things that are worthy of being thought about. Thank you again, Lord, for each one who's come. I pray the Word of God will be both a nutritious and delectable meal for them tonight. In the name of Jesus Christ, I ask these favors. Amen.