Okay, is everybody ready? Let's open the Bible. Let's get started. Well, actually, I preached on Thursday and Friday and I warned the people then. I said, you haven't preached for a week and so you're really in trouble. What did Elihu say? I'm full of matter. All right, let's get to the 20th verse, 3rd chapter of 1 John. If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart. Well, we knew that already, didn't we? Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. So, I've got a little lecture here on our heart. Romans chapter 2 speaks of the heart. and the counsels of the heart, you know, the works of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness in the thoughts, the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men's hearts by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. So, that's a lot to be said there. God working in the heart, you know, speaking through the heart and to the heart. Now, I have a little lecture that's an old message. It's an oldie but goodie, right? It's called Biblical Cardiology. How many of you have a cardiologist? Do any of you have cardiologists? Do you have heart problems? So this is Biblical Cardiology. I don't know if I should be quoting Augustine because I'm kind of mad at him right now for quite a few good reasons. He had some good things to say and he had some crazy things to say, so really it's a mixed bag with him. Take him cafeteria style. But it was years ago that I read the, I guess his seminal work, which is the Holy City, and of course the Confessions. And his In his confessions, in particular, he made this very famous quote, you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Now that's a profound statement and it's true enough. And experientially he knew that because he had lived his life as a profligate and lustful young man and was pretty much given over to Greek philosophy. He was Gnostic in that sense and certainly followed Aristotle's teachings. And that's why so much of his fatalism and the concepts of predestination and predetermination really stemmed forth from him and it ended up infesting the doctrine of the Church. Doctrine is so important, you know, by the way, so doctrine. Sunday school teacher was asking the little students, you know, do you all know what false doctrine is? And the little boy put his hand up and said, yeah, that's when the doctor gives you bad medicine. Yeah, false doctrine, not quite, but in a sense false doctrine. Well, at any rate, he had this to say, and this is a profound statement, I would think. Many centuries later, Blaise Pascal, who was a French Christian philosopher, said, what else does this craving, this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in a man true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? Well, of course, when God created Adam, all was well. But now there's just the empty print and the trace, right? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there, the help he cannot find in those that are. Though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object, in other words, by God Himself. So Blaise Pascal, his seminal work was pensis, which is, we have the English transliteration of the French word pensive as pensive. Pensive. When you're pensive, you're thoughtful, aren't you? You're thinking. Thinking matters through. So Blaise Pascal Certainly had a profound and deep thought here as well, somewhat what Augustine said, the idea of the emptiness in the soul and the emptiness in the heart and the need for something more. And all of this is what leads us to Christ. Everybody in the world has that emptiness. It doesn't matter where they are born. It doesn't matter what tutelage, what kind of parentage. that they've been given, there's still an emptiness there until Christ comes to live. So that's why the whole world needs Jesus. Well, I'm sure you're all familiar, April 6th, 2015 was the day that I had a stroke and that was, my life pretty much changed at that point. I couldn't communicate, I couldn't think. Stroke was in the right side and as a result the left side of my body was affected. When they did the testing, they found out that what caused the stroke was a hole in my heart. So back to this message that I had developed back then in 2015, the biblical cardiology, I kind of did a little study about all these things and found out what a hole in your heart is all about. Well, it's actually called an ASD or an atrial septal defect. In other words, I had a defective heart. And there was a hole in the part of the septum and the atria. And as a result, the blood clot normally gets pumped down into the lungs. And the blood clots get filtered by the lungs. And then it's pumped up through the right ventricle, which then is oxygenated and cleansed and goes to the brain. And that's how we think and so on. So that blood clot had somehow found that little hole. Every time my heart would beat, it would open. And it went through and went straight up to my brain. And that's pretty dangerous stuff. But the Lord is very merciful, that's all I can say. He saved me from my defective heart. In fact, I had to have a procedure. It was done by Dr. Conrad Anson Smith. He went up inside my heart with his probe and he found the hole and he opened up this little parachute. Isn't that neat? and he pulled it through and then Elmer's glue was attached and that was it. So I have that in my heart right now, it's called an amplature occluder and it's in there right now and that's a lot better than open heart surgery where they used to go and actually sew your heart together but they don't do that anymore. Well, at any rate, I had a defective heart and it was thankfully repaired by a good surgeon. In the spiritual sense, we all have defective hearts, don't we? And the world all the while is trying to say, well, no, no, you trust your heart. Your heart will always lead you in the right way. What a lie that is. It's just a big lie from hell. But people, you have to first acknowledge you have a defective heart. It's got to get repaired. You've got to get to the surgeon. The surgeon's got to do something. And the surgeon doesn't just close up the hole in your heart. He actually puts a new heart in its place. It's a transplant. So back then in 2015, I put together kind of a little musical conglomeration of the songs that were being sung at that time, and even before that, and how this theme kept rolling through all these different songs of trust your heart, trust your heart. When I say be a soldier, I mean being true to the game, being true to yourself and believing in yourself. It's all within your eyes. Do you wanna let fate decide to guide these lives we see? What a second guess. What feels so right? Just trust your heart and you'll see the light. Come this far with the truth of the heart. This whole damn world can fall apart. You'll be OK. Follow your heart. Let your heart lead your mind. So, you know, the devil sings the same song. He has nothing to sell but a lie. And the lie is trusting your heart. Well, what the Bible tells you is the truth, right? He that trusteth his own heart is a fool. The Bible tells us in Jeremiah, and this begins kind of my lecture on Biblical cardiology, the heart is wicked. The heart is deceitful in all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? So trusting your heart is about as dumb a thing you could do because the heart will always justify whatever evil you want to perform. But I, the Lord, search the heart and I try the reins Then there is the sinful heart. This is found in Mark, Chapter 7. Within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within. Then there is the sinful heart. This is found in Mark, Chapter 7. and they defile the man. So it's the sinful heart, you know, that all proceeds from the... This is why we need a new one. The Bible also speaks of the cold heart. In fact, in our lessons in Matthew 24, verse 12, one of the signs at the end is that, because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold, cold hearts. being grieved for the hardness of their hearts." Then we have the unconverted heart found here in Isaiah chapter 6. Make the heart of this people fat, make their ears heavy, shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, they hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and be healed. The unconverted heart. Well, here we have the closed heart. The closed heart. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Then we have the idolatrous heart. Ezekiel speaks of this, and they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations, whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a-whoring after their idols, they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have commanded in all their abominations. You can make an idol out of anything, but boy, we've got a whole lot of candidates these days. And so people just looking up to movie stars, singers, Taylor Swift, you know, and the girls want to be like Taylor Swift. I mean, what a disgusting model she is, right? Showing her naked body to everybody. I mean, it's just disgusting stuff. We have sport heroes and making multiple millions of dollars. people looking up to them as though they're supermen of some kind. I mean, really, this is where we are. It's an idolatrous nation. And our hearts become attached to these idols. Here in 2 Corinthians, the blinded heart, if our gospel be hid, Paul says, if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them who are lost and whom the God of this world, that would be the devil, hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the glorious light of the gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into them. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Oh, yeah, our hearts were all blinded at some point. You know, we followed the devil, idolatrous hearts following after wicked things and so on. Then the light shined, right? God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts. And that gives us a new heart then. Ezekiel speaks of this prophetically. Nicodemus should have known from what Jesus was indicating about the new birth. And he was chastised by Jesus because he should have known. Are you a teacher, he says, in all of Israel? You're a teacher and you don't know these things. Now what things? Well, the new heart that Ezekiel spoke of. A new heart, he said, will I give to you and a new spirit will I put within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a new heart of flesh. Then there's the convicted heart, the conscience bearing witness. We saw that earlier here, this passage in Romans 2, the conscience either accusing or excusing. I mean, we've got both sides of the issue. You know, thankfully, the devil can't just take complete and full control of people. That's territory that has to be ceded, frankly. We have to cede rights to the devil. because God has created us with a certain degree of light. He lights every man that comes into the world. And as a result, the conscience is still at play. We still have conviction. These people pretend like, oh, they have no guilt about the things that they do, but they truly do have guilt about what they're doing. And as long as they're drawing breath, I think there is at least a fragment of conscience left in every one of them. the conscience. Alright, so, the drunken heart. Look in 1 Samuel, you'll find Abigail came to Nabal. I mean, this is interesting. You talk about an aptonym. An aptonym is, you have the word apt, appropriate, aptonym, so that, a name that's appropriate, aptonym. So it's an interesting word, aptonym. So an aptonym is when you have a name that actually describes who you are or what you are. For instance, there's a doctor that does surgery. His name is Dr. Pain. That's an aptonym, right? It causes pain for you. A dentist whose name was Dr. Yank, if you think about it. And there's a doctor that was a urologist whose name was Dr. Leaky. Those are all aptonyms, right? Aptonym. Nabil, the word in the Hebrew, Nabil is fool. And so his, whatever it was, why would his parents call him, you know, Nabil? But there must have been something that happened at birth that they thought was a reason to call him Nabil. But he ended up living like a fool because anybody that drinks alcohol is a fool, anybody. Wine is a mocker. Strong drink is raging. It makes a fool out of people. And certainly that was the case here. He held the feast, you know, in his house like the feast of a king. Nabal's heart was merry with him, for he was very drunken. But what happened to him at the end of all this? But it came to pass in the morning when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as stone. So one can only wonder, you know, this is the result of this kind of libidinous life. Then there's the overcharged heart. Take heed to yourselves, Jesus said. This was also an element of the Olivet Discourse. Take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting. Now of course I love the King James Version and there's no finer English translation. The problem usually is that people don't know words so they look at that and don't even know what could he mean by surfeiting and so forth. Gluttony, overeating is what he's talking about. Hearts that are overcharged with eating too much, and drunkenness, and the cares of this world. So, I mean, there's a combination of these things. Overeating, over-drinking, and too much worry, too much anxiety. And so that they come upon them unawares. So the Bible's a warning here about what? Stuffing our face, you know, eating too much. And yes, gluttony is a sin, and I know nobody wants to hear that, but it's the truth, and I have to tell you the truth, and I hope you still love me at the end of it all. But we really have to cut down how much we're taking in, and people have all kinds of problems, diabetes and everything else that's actually solved by just eating less. And I know it's hard, and look, the older we get, the harder it is, right? The metabolism slows down. I understand all of those things, but let's do our very best to try to keep these bodies in whatever shape we can until the Lord comes for us." Right? Didn't hear a single amen, but that's okay. I can't hear out of my left ear, so. All right, so we have the convicted heart here in Acts, Chapter 2. Now, when they heard this, they were pierced in their heart. I mean, that's really a striking expression, right? It's pierced in the heart. You can almost see a dagger going into the heart there. They're pierced. And they said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? I mean, when you have conviction, you want to know what can I do to relieve this? this terrible anguish of soul and the answer was Jesus Christ. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. So they got the remedy but they had to have a conviction first. Conviction isn't pleasant. When somebody brings a convicting word, you know, it attacks you and you feel at first like you have to defend yourself. It's far better instead to let the conviction do its work And then that, of course, will bring repentance. Godly sorrow will bring repentance unto salvation. All right, we have the broken heart. Psalm 51, this is the penitential psalm and David wrote it, I think, in tears. It is one of the shameful places in the Bible to observe what David, the apple of God's eye and how he betrayed everything that he believed in by committing adultery and then committing murder trying to hide this heinous act. It's a terrible and dark moment in the Scripture. But David does not stay defeated by the devil. He yielded but it was momentary and he repented and then he wrote this penitential psalm Psalm 51, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness. So back in the 17th verse he says, so the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, the broken heart, so necessary for salvation. Without it, there is no salvation. Unless you repent, Jesus said, you shall all likewise perish, Luke 13, 3. So we've got to have a broken heart. The only way we're going to be able to have it mended then. It has to be convicted, opened up, broken, and then God has to replace it with His divine transplantation. That's the believing heart then, isn't it? So there's the eunuch and he's coming, traveling the dusty desert. He is a proselyte. He intends to try to please God by attending temple worship. He, a Gentile, has acknowledged that there's only one true God. And so he comes to the God of the Jew. but there's more to know. And Philip comes to him, affixes himself to the chariot, finds him reading the scroll at the very place in Isaiah where he finds, Who hath believed our report? Whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? And as he's reading it he doesn't understand necessarily what it means and Philip says, let me show you and he teaches him and at the same scripture preaches unto him Jesus. At which point they come to this water and the Enoch says, What hinders me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. So, believing with the heart. So, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the mouth, just spewing things out of your mouth. That's not going to work. The confession is made in union with the heart. It's confessing what truly is happening in the heart, the regeneration process. And there's the passage that I was speaking of there in Acts 8.36, they went their way and they came to the certain water. What hinders me to be baptized if thou believest with all thine heart? and he said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. So that was enough to save him right there. I mean, it's primitive faith there. How much did he understand of it? That was enough right there. His heart was engaged and he recognized the need, the believing heart that repairs the defective heart that Jeremiah speaks of, that which is so deceitful and will lie to us and justify us and excuse us. When we finally let the conviction do its work, then the regeneration can happen. A new heart, he said, will I give to you. Cast away from all your transgressions, thereby you have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit. Now, of course, that does not mean that we'll never have troubled times. We can have sad hearts, in fact. Remember the cup bearer, Nehemiah, he's coming to the king and he has a sad heart, doesn't he? And his countenance is showing it. And he can't hide it any longer. And the king wants to know, why are you sad? What's the sad countenance? He said, well, my city is in destruction and my people are captive. And he wins a boon from Ahasuerus that day. It's an intriguing text. Ahasuerus, is this who it is? Or Artaxerxes? Is this the husband of Esther? Is that why? Or is there a relation of some kind? Esther had brought salvation to these Persian kings and as a result they showed benefit to God's people and said, go back and build your city again. Go worship your God. That sad heart was turned around, but it was sad for a while. Well, we all go through sad moments, and it's part of the human experience, the sad heart. So he said, why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? There is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Oh, well, that was back in 2015, so I'm not quite sure what happened. The Steelers must not have been doing well when I preach this message. They might not be doing well now. And there'll be a lot of sadness. But I'm not going to be too sad because actually when the Steelers do well, there's so much excitement that people miss church because they have Steeler parties and it's all on Sunday and it doesn't bode well. It doesn't help me in the evening service. I try to get people to come to church on Sunday night, but They're watching the games and so better get the terrible tissues out. I don't think it's going to be a good year. I'm predicting a 50-50, right? I think they might be at the bottom of the division. How's that sound? Oh, don't say that, Pastor. Well, I don't want to dash anybody's hopes here. Who am I to bring sorrow of heart? Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? There is nothing else but sorrow of heart. I like this one, the studious heart. My heart standeth in awe of thy word. Thy word, have I hidden mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. There's a heart, that's a heart that's pleasing to God, one that studies the word, knows the word, in the word all the time, and much of the word in their heart. And what a difference that will make if you put his word in your heart. And people say, well, as you get older, yeah, I know the memory starts to go and so forth. Wise is the person that early in their life began storing up all these gems, you know, so you'll have them when you need them. And I think it helps your mind, by the way. So let's do it, you know, keep doing your crossword puzzles and all the rest, but listen, try memorizing some scriptures. You know, as you're reading the Bible and you see something that just strikes you, just pause there, underline it and say, you know, I'm going to spend some time and try to memorize this, put it in my heart. What a difference it will make. It will bring joy to the heart. It wasn't Jeremiah who said, well, thy words were found and I did eat them and thy words were the joy and rejoicing of my heart. Maybe I have that up here. I don't know what the next one is. Okay, we have the slow heart, right? Jesus risen from the dead. He's on the road to Emmaus and there are the two disciples with him. One is Cleopas and the other is an unknown. We don't know. So he remains anonymous to us. Was it Luke? We're not sure who it might have been. At any rate, they're leaving the city. Jesus is coming into the city. And one might wonder, where has he been? He rose from the dead. He met the ladies at the tomb, right? And he said, tell my disciples I go to meet them in Galilee. So there must have been an arrangement, a tryst. They were to be there and meet him in Galilee after the third day. They would have three days after his crucifixion and that they were to meet him in Galilee apparently. Well, the meeting does finally take place, you will see in the last chapter of John, at the Sea of Galilee. But did Jesus go up there expecting that they were to be there, but they weren't, and He comes back? Whatever. We do find Him at least coming into the city as these two are exiting the city. And He sees their countenance is sad, right? And why? Why are you sad? He said, are you a stranger in Jerusalem? You know not these things. And they begin explaining to Jesus what had happened to Him. But it says that their eyes were holden. Was that divine? I'm not sure. Did God not let them see intentionally? Because, you know, faith is believing without seeing. So, they needed to hear His words before they would believe. Whatever the case was, they were slow to believe and Jesus admonished them. Oh, foolish, He says, fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. And then, of course, he gives them a Bible study, and it leads them to such a hunger of heart that they come to the place where the two roads meet. Now a decision has to be made. Come and abide with us, they begged Jesus. Come, abide with us. Jesus made as though he would go on further, but they constrained him. Sit down with us. Break bread with us. And then, of course, the great revelation. Then there's the burning heart. Jeremiah speaks of this You know, in the 20th chapter about his heart burning, right? His heart was burning within him. This is the kind of heartburn we all want, right? Did not our hearts burn within us, they said, after Jesus sat with them, broke bread with them, and then disappeared? Then they make their profession of faith. Did not our hearts burn within us when he talked with us, by the way? And while he opened to us the Scriptures." Hearts burning. We all need a fire in our hearts. You know, we're hearing God this morning from His Word. Unfortunately, it comes through lips of clay. So it comes through, you know, a defective messenger. So it's not the same, obviously, as what those two had that day to hear. from the divine lips the truth of God. And that truth burned within their souls. What a lesson that must have been. Well, we'll all get the opportunity when we hear the Master Teacher. We'll all be at His feet one day. What's next is the fixed heart. The fixed heart. In Psalm 108 it says, O God, my heart is fixed That's wonderful, fixed, so, you know, solid. We speak of the nail in the holy place, you know, that you're fixed. If you take a 16-penny nail and you drive it down into the wood, you know, it's fixed in that wood. It can't move anywhere. We're fixed to God. Our feet are on a solid rock now. We're no longer given to the winds of false doctrine, right, where we're tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. No, no, no. We're fixed. We have a solid belief. We have a confidence that cannot be shaken. We have a certitude that the devil can't even bring a shred of doubt to. Our hearts are fixed. When God has said it, we add our amen to it. then there's a loving heart. And if you don't mind, I'll mention at this point, my wife and I, we just celebrated 53 years of marriage, so we're in love. This is a strange street by the way. It's in Baldwin Borough. It's the intersection of Cynthia and Gary. It's quite a famous street. We decided to take a picture there years ago. But I hope you're all in love if you're married, that you're still in love. Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm, for love is strong as death. So, you know the devil comes and divides marriages. That's what he's all about. He loves the divorce rate that's happening and the kids and the family split up. This is terrible stuff that's happening. It's no wonder that Kids are having a problem with their sexual identity and everything else, you know, because of all the divorce rate. The people that don't even make commitments, they don't even get married now. They just live together, have children, and then they go their own ways and so on. Some little children don't know their father. They've never even met their father. They've seen five or six different boyfriends. They don't know what, sad, sad stuff. True love, you know, you're committed. Oh, I'll have a little fun with them and we'll joke and so forth, but when it comes to the vows, I get gravely serious. These vows are serious. You better know what you're promising each other, that you're promising till death do us part, right? And I don't know how many people believe in that these days. I don't know how many people believe in that. And we're talking about in the church. We've got a lot of it in the church now. And preachers supposedly get divorced and remarried and then they're still in the pulpits. I don't understand it but this is where it is. It's wrong as far as I'm concerned. But then again I'm old fashioned so I'm not quite keeping up with the times and have no intention to as a matter of fact. The devil is controlling the times. So set me as a seal upon thine heart. Of course, this love is the love of God. And if a relationship doesn't have that, if it isn't based on that, then no doubt it will disintegrate. Because what is love after all? In the worldly sense, it's all about me. It's all about me. People fall in love. They don't even know if their boyfriend's saved or not. They're in love. They have a feeling. What a terrible mistake. If you love the Lord, boy, you've got to find somebody that loves him like you love him. You can't have somebody that's half committed or whatever. And they'll say whatever they have to to get married and then find out later they're not really Christian people. So, loving heart. Then there's the merry heart. Why, it says, A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. Well, it's a good medicine even in Proverbs. It speaks of the medicine of the heart, right? So, a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dryeth the bones. So make sure you want some good medicine. A merry heart. There's no reason for Christians to be doer. to walk around with a sad countenance, saturnine, bitter, angry. What a way to waste your life is to be that way. And what a bad advert you are for the Savior who redeemed you. You walk around as though you have no hope. Now come now, the merry heart And the happier you are as a Christian, the longer you'll live. How's that sound, right? It's good, like a medicine, right? All right, let's talk about the good heart. Well, we have a good heart. But they that are on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. The good heart, the good ground. Jesus spoke of the different types of ground seeds sown, but only the good ground that actually takes in and that seed is buried deep within its soil. And then the nutrients of the soils begin to have its effect and massage that seed. And then the rains come that water the ground. Isaiah 55 says, you know, that the rain cometh down in the snow from heaven and watereth the ground that it might bring forth seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So God, you know, fertilizes the ground and brings us all the nutrients and then the sun comes and does its great work as well and then little by little the fruit comes forth. The other three cases, it was momentary. The seed was there, but nothing really came from it. It wasn't properly nurtured. Well, we have the giving heart. I don't preach much about giving, because I think what modernists have done is turned this into a law. You know, they're all about grace until it comes to the tithe. That's different. That is part of the law that they like, but other than that, you know, they don't want any part of the law of God. So this is the New Testament text on giving, by the way. Every man gives according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give. Not grudgingly, not of necessity, you see, for God loveth a cheerful giver. So we all understand how when we give, we give to His work, we give it lovingly, we give it cheerfully. not because, well, we have to, I have to do this and it's, you know, God's law to do it and so on. The tithe was the Old Testament law, no question about it, but it's not repeated in the New Testament. There's something far greater in the New Testament. What we do for God we do with a generous spirit and a loving heart and a cheerful attitude. That's the spirit. If it's done because of necessity, then forget it. It's worthless. So you won't hear much teaching on that from the pulpits today because everybody's important, has to keep their television ministries going and so forth, thousands of dollars, millions of dollars and so on, so have to keep pouring in. So they actually use extortion. They tell you you can't be blessed unless you give. All this is such a lie. Don't you all agree? It's a lie. Aren't you glad we don't browbeat you about giving? You should be glad. Go to any other church. It's all about, you know, they've got to have this, got to have that, you know, the thermometer's on the wall and all the rest and so on. Not going to happen here. So the prayerful heart. Oh, this is wonderful. We have that 19th Psalm. David writes about the heavens declaring the glory of God, the firmament showing the hand he works. So it kind of splits, you know. It talks about the creation. Then it talks about the Word of God. And it has all these descriptive concepts of what the Word does and how it affects the life and so forth. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The testimonies of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple. And it gives all this description of what the Word does. And then it ends with, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, my Lord and my Redeemer. kind of punctuates all the truth of Psalm 19 at the end there. That's the notion of the meditations of my heart. And so we want a prayerful, meditative heart. So, the contemplative believer is a believer that takes his word and ruminates, looks at it, weighs it, contemplates it, says, I see this, I understand this. I must make my heart apply to its truth. And we do all this in the spirit of prayer. We're talking to the Lord. Lord, make us what we've just seen, all these different attributes of the believing heart. Make it all mine, Lord. Well, that's my little lecture on biblical cardiology. Let's get back to 1 John 3, though, the 22nd verse. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. Now He'll tell you in the next verse, His commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and being, right? And to love the brethren. So, and that's the fulfillment of all the commandments of God, He says. So, our confidence is that we belong to Him. And what does a father do? He gives good gifts to his children, Luke 11 says. I hope all you were fathers that delighted in giving good gifts to your children and that they were obedient children and they deserved the rewards. That's how it's supposed to be after all. What father rewards a profligate son, a son that goes off into the world, wastes his father's money with drunkenness and debauchery and prostitutes? Who's going to keep giving him money? You say, well, all I'd be doing is aiding and abetting his sinful life. No. We want an obedient child. Him we will help. We'll do whatever we have to do. We'll pay for his college. We'll do, you know, get him through everything. Get him started in business if we have to. Take of our savings and gladly spend on them. That's what a true father does, right? So whatsoever we ask, we receive of him. The father, of course, is looking upon his obedient child at this point, right? Because we keep his commandments and we do those things which are pleasing in his sight. And when God is pleased with us, oh, oh for the pleasure of God to be upon our lives, beloved. To have the pleasure of God upon your life, there's nothing in this world that can satisfy like that. To know that God has whispered in your ear, well done, good and faithful servant today. You have accomplished what I called you to do today. I can't think of anything that's more important than that, that God is pleased. From heaven, when Jesus was baptized, the voice from the Almighty came and scanned over the 30-some years of Jesus' life that preceded that moment. And the voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. He was well pleased because Jesus did his commandments. And so God answered his every prayer. There's a little primer on prayer here that I want to give you. I think things that you already know, by the way, but I think they're worth repeating. In Mark 11.24, therefore, I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Now we could just take that as a blank check, but we all know that God isn't writing a blank check here. He's not handing this over, do whatever you want, ask for anything. This is not an Aladdin's lamp. So we know that this verse has to be qualified. And how do we qualify it? Well, we compare Scripture with Scripture. We come to the place where we are here in 1 John and we realize He's giving us what we ask. if we are keeping His commandments, which means, in other words, that we are submitted to His will. So a lot of prayer that goes up is unanswered, James says. You ask and receive, not because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts. In other words, you are asking for selfish reasons. You are asking for a thing that isn't really good for you. Now what father is going to give you that? So what, you know, your five-year-old comes and says, Daddy, give me the keys to the car. I want to go drive. And you say, No, because I love you. This would not be good for you. So we understand that this is not a blank check. We have to look at other places to really qualify what Jesus means by it. In Luke 11, he says, and I say unto you, Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. So the idea is make your requests known unto God, is how Paul writes it. Make your requests known unto God. And so, making petition. Well, people will say, well, God already knows what I need. True enough, yeah. He's not surprised. So why ask for it? Because He said to. You say, well, if he already knows, don't go any past and further. That's as far as you can understand and I can understand it. He said to do it. So if you do what he says to do, you'll find out it was right to do. It was the thing to do, as a matter of fact. He said, ask and it shall be given. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Here's another one, Luke 18. Verse 1, He spake a parable unto them, to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint, or to give up, in other words. So now we're talking about importunity, continuing in your prayers. You pray and pray. You say, well, there's no answer here. Well, it could be that we're praying with the wrong motives, and God will certainly show us that. But it just could be that it takes time, and that for reasons unknown to us again, God has to be doing some operations that we're not understanding. So we continue to ask. Now you know what follows this. You see, he speaks a parable and it's the widow. And the widow goes to the unjust judge. Avenge me of my adversary. Well, the unjust judge, what is he? He's looking for a bribe. He's an unjust judge. A widow can offer him nothing. Send her away, you know, if you're bothering me. She came back the next day, and the next, and the day after that, and she kept bothering him. And the judge realized, I'm not going to be rid of her unless I give her what she wants. Go, here's your, you know, take a deputy and go avenge her. And get her out of this courtroom, right? Can't take it anymore. You say, is God the unjust judge? No, he's not an unjust judge. But he assumes the character of that so you understand that he intends for us to keep asking him, keep bothering him. about these matters and say, Lord, you haven't forgotten, have you? I have a sister that isn't saved, Lord. You haven't forgotten that, have you? No. Ask again tomorrow. And we keep asking. So the judge will ultimately hear. You know, I tell this story. I had a fellow, he was in trouble. He got arrested. It was sad. Family was crying. They came, they arrested him and brought him in handcuffs out of the house one night. It was an outstanding bench warrant, several years old, and they took him away in handcuffs. He had taken money from a cash register and $100 at a merchandise. He was a clerk there. At any rate, He had come to know the Lord after that. The business that he had stolen from, they went out of business. So there was no way really to pay back the $100 he had taken. So he had left it alone, but that bench work was still outstanding and they went one day and found him and caught him and took him down to the jail. It was very sad. I felt sorry for him and the family called and said, is there anything you can do down there? I said, well, I'll see what I can do. I went down and I asked the warden for a favor. He said, well, he said, he looked at the case and he said, go over and get the judge to give you a nominal bond. and see what he'll do. And he said, you better hurry up because it's almost lunchtime or whatever. So I ran across the street and there in the courthouse and all these people in the courtroom and so forth and I'm not an attorney and I'm just standing there and these attorneys are going up left and right and so forth and they're asking this and asking that. They got papers going left and right and so forth. I'm watching all this and I don't, what am I, I have no standing in the courtroom. I'm thinking what, I'm waiting for an opportunity maybe to quiet down. And you know what the judge did? He looked up from all this, and he had a bevy of attorneys around asking this, and he stopped. He looked up, he said, you. He said, you. What do you want? He's asking me. I said, you, me? He said, what do you want? Why are you here? And I said, I've come to beg mercy at your court. He said, nobody begs in this courtroom. And he said, come to the front. And he asked me what I needed. And I said, I need a nominal bond for a guy. And I explained the situation. I said, he's a member of the church. And his life has changed. And I explained the whole thing to the judge. And he said, write this. He said, here, take this. He says, as fast as you can, you're going to take it downstairs. And you're going to have to take it across the street to the probation office. And he said, they're going to close in about 30 minutes. And you've got to make all this happen. And he said, and he'll. If they do what this order says, they'll release him today." And I got there in time, got it all done and was able to get him out of jail that day. The judge was merciful. You make your request to the judge and you know sometimes the judge might even see that you're standing in the corner and you're a little hesitant. He might say to you, what is it that you want anyway? Well, make sure you say, Lord, I've come to beg mercy. at the judgment seat. All right. Do you want me to get back to the primron prayer next week? All right. Well, I couldn't hear the response, so I think I'll probably come back anyway. So, Lord, bless our study today in the Word. We're grateful for all of its truths. Help it to find a place in our hearts, in Jesus' name. Amen.