Download A DIVIDED HEART…A DIVIDED NATION – LESSON 6

A DIVIDED HEART…A DIVIDED NATION – LESSON 6
“Life and Destiny are a Matter of the Heart”
Kay Arthur, Teacher
Did you see what I saw this week? I saw that life and destiny are all a matter of the heart, and that is
what we want to look at today, after you have finished your discussion, and after you have spent these hours
sitting at the feet of God, learning of Him. I am so proud of you, and I am just praying that God would use
you and the life that you live to create such a hunger in others for the word of God. Let’s go to 2 Chronicles
6. You say, “Wait a minute; you are going backwards!” That’s right, but I have a point. Remember, it is all
a matter of the heart, and that is what we want to talk about.
But before we do, I want to have a brief word of prayer with you. I have prayed with these dear ones
that are here, but I want to pray for you. Father, I pray now that You would search our hearts, that You
would see if there is any way of pain within them. If there is anything in them that is going to cause us pain,
if there is anything that is going to cause You pain, Father, that You would so grip us and touch us that we
would see that all of life is really a matter of the heart. That is why, Father, that You do not look on the
outward appearance, but You look beyond that to the heart, to see what is the real issue within a man or a
woman. So I ask You now, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, to show us our hearts, to show us the matter
of our hearts, to show us whether our hearts are fully Yours or whether they are divided, whether there is
something that is going to cause us, or You, pain. And Father, when You show that to us, may we act
accordingly. May we listen; may we be like David, who was a man after Your own heart. I thank You now.
Fill me with Your spirit; use me for Your glory, and may your word go forth in power and in the Holy Spirit,
and with full conviction. Father, help me, so that it goes forth also by example. In Jesus’ name I pray.
Amen.
Remember, everything is in the temple; they are dedicating the temple. In 2 Chronicles 6, as he
stands before the altar, as he kneels on this bronze platform, as he raises his hand to heaven, (14) “And he
said, ‘O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no god like You in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and
showing lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart;” [To God, everything is
an issue of the heart. And to you, everything ought to be an issue of the heart, because man can only look at
the external. Man can reinterpret what we say, or they can miss what we say or how we behave, but God
looks beyond that behavior to the heart. He wants us to understand that His lovingkindness is there for all
those who walk before Him with all their heart. God wants all your heart. He doesn’t want a divided heart.]
Now go to 6:29. He is continuing; He has gone through all this—“if Your people sin, then hear from
heaven.” (29) “Whatever prayer or supplication is made by any man” [Now watch; he is going to call out an
individual.] “or by all Your people Israel,” [In other words, if an individual comes to You, or if Your people
come to You collectively as a nation, and they make prayer or supplication to You,] “each knowing his own
affliction” [Each knowing his own problems; each knowing his own weakness.] “and his own pain,”
[knowing the brokenness of his heart, and what he is enduring] “and spreading his hands toward this house,
(30) then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to each according to all his ways,
whose heart You know for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men,” [In other words, He is the only
one who really knows what is in our heart. He is saying, “I am asking You to do this, if it is an individual or
if it is a group, because You really know what is in their heart.” So what do you and I know? We know that
when we pray, when we do our religious things, or our Christian things, or when we act or behave a certain
way, we may be doing it for show out there; we may be doing it because we want others to think we are
spiritual. But God always looks beyond that exterior shield, right to the very heart. Life and our destiny,
you are going to see, are all a matter of our heart.]
(31) “that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You have
given to our fathers. (32) Also concerning the foreigner who is not from Your people Israel,” [In other
words, any other human being, when he comes and he honors this house,] “when he comes from a far
country for Your great name’s sake” [And you read about the queen of Sheba who came from a far country
to see the glory of Solomon, and to see what God had done. She recognized that God had done it, so she
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came from a foreign country because of God’s great name.] “and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched
arm, when they come and pray toward this house, (33) then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place,
and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, in order that all the peoples of the earth may
know Your name, and fear You, as do your people Israel.” [In other words, God’s heart is always, always
Israel. It is the apple of His eye, but God’s heart extends beyond Israel to all the nations.] “that they may
know that this house which I have built is called by Your name. (34) When Your people go out to battle
against their enemies, by whatever way You shall send them, and they pray to You toward this city which
You have chosen, and the house which I have built for Your name, (35) then hear from heaven their prayer
and their supplication, and maintain their cause.”
Solomon is saying, “God, when an enemy comes against this people, and they pray, then I am asking
You to hear.” What do you see in 1 Kings 11? Remember when David’s heart turns away from God? And
then what does God do? God raises up his enemies against him. But do you see Solomon stopping and
crying out to God? No. Why? Because it is a matter of his heart, because sometime between here and there,
something happens to his heart. And your heart determines your life, and it determines your destiny. Not
just your life today, and the next day, but the future of your life, the destiny of your life. Here Solomon
acknowledges that if an enemy comes, this is what they are to do.
Watch what he says in v. 36. “When they sin against You (for there is no man who does not sin)” [Is
Solomon going to sin against God? Yes.] “and You are angry with them” [Does God have a right to be
angry when we sin? Yes. Why? Because sin is against God, but sin is also against you. Sin is not only
against God, it not only wounds God, and wounds the heart of God, but sin wounds you. And because God
is a God of love, and because His lovingkindness is everlasting, and He sees you sin, He doesn’t want you to
do that. He doesn’t want you to, because he knows that it will destroy you, that it will eat you up, that sin
lives, many times, below the surface before it ever takes root, and sprouts up, and brings forth its awful fruit.
But sin lives below the surface, and when it lives below the surface He knows what is coming if you don’t
get rid of that. Sin makes God angry, because it is a definite transgression against Him. You step over the
line; you say “No!” You are God, but I will not listen to you. Oh, You gave me life, but I am not going to
honor You as God. I am going to be my own god; I am going to do my own thing.” The fruit of sin is in
Isaiah 53:6. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned each one to his own way.” The root of all
sin is me and you walking our own way.]
(36) “and You are angry with them and deliver them to an enemy, so that they take them away
captive to a land far off or near,” [Listen, when you sin, you are delivered, in a sense, into captivity. You
may not be taken in chains to another land, but you start sinning with your eyes, and you are taken captive by
pornography. You start sinning with just taking a drink, or taking a pill, or doing something to relieve your
pressure, and it may be simply attacking others, and pretty soon you are doing it all the time. Sin doesn’t
stand still; sin leads you into captivity. Whosoever sins becomes the slave of sin, so if we sin, we become
the slave of sin. It takes you captive.]
(37) “if they take thought in the land when they are taken captive,” [If all of a sudden it occurs to
them, “Hey, wait a minute. This is not according to God’s word. This is not according to God’s plan. This
is not what God intended for me to me, a captive in a foreign land.” So, all of a sudden, “if they take
thought”…watch what he says.] “if they take thought …and repent,”[What is repentance? Repentance
means to have a change of mind. A change of mind results in a change of behavior. It results in a change of
direction. It results in a change of thought. It brings change. Why? Because you have, all of a sudden, said,
“Hey, that is wrong. I am going to change my mind.”] “and repent, and make supplication to You in the land
of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, and have acted wickedly;’ (38) if
they return to You with all their heart” [Have you got that? All their heart! I would write this down some
place—the heart is the control center of your life. If you can understand that, the heart is the control center
of your life; it is central command. The heart is central command.]
Have you ever watched a war movie? Or maybe a space movie, or something like that? And you see
these guys, and you see all these computers up, and everything, or you see all these generals with these maps
up, and everything, and from there, they are saying, “I want you to attack here; I want you to withdraw from
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there. I want to amass my forces here.” It is the control center. You heart is the control center, and this is
why it is so important, as Proverbs 4:23 says, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the
springs of life.” [In other words, life is a matter of the heart. Your destiny is a matter of the heart. So you
have got to guard it; you have got to keep it, and you have got to do it diligently. You can’t be casual about
your heart, and we are going to see why in just a few minutes.]
(38) “if they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul” [Let me show you something—
the heart is the command center, so to speak. The soul, then, is the life that is lived out. If the heart is the
command center, then the soul (using the illustration I had of all the generals) is out there on the battlefield.
The soul is what you do as a result of it. It is the way that you behave, so keep your heart with all diligence.
The heart, the command center, says, “Do this.” The soul carries it out. Have you got that? The soul carries
it out. Sometimes you love Him with your heart, but your soul doesn’t always follow through.] “in the land
of their captivity, where they have been taken captive, and pray toward their land which You have given to
their fathers, and the city which You have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for Your name,
(30) then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, their prayer and supplications, and maintain their
cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against Thee.” [Why? Because we all sin.]
But see, He knows that we sin; He knows, out here in the soulish realm, we are going to sin, but He
looks beyond this to this. All man can see is what we are doing out here, but He looks here, and sometimes
He sees that what is here is not what is going on out there, because there has been a breakdown—like in that
command center. There has been a breakdown in the communications, or the heart, the command center, the
control center, has said, “I want you to move this way,” and the general out there says, “No!” But God looks
back at the command center, and that is what I want you to see and understand. He knows we sin, but if He
looks at us in our sin, and He sees that my heart is not to sin (Do you understand?) my heart is not to sin. I
blew it; I got angry. I could tell you story after story. You would love them. You would see how frail I am.
But anyway, God knows my heart.
I remember the time that I got mad at Jack. I mean, I walked out of that house. I swore (um-m-m).
“You are a Bible teacher.” I was a long time ago, but I did it. And then I got in the car, and I turned on that
engine, and I put that accelerator to the floor, and I took off down that hill. All the way, God is speaking to
me. All the way, the Holy Spirit, is going, “Oh, no, no, no. Don’t!” I am saying, “I am going to,”—but I get
down to the bottom of the hill, and my heart is saying, “You don’t want to do that. Your flesh wants to do
that, but you don’t want to do that. That is not right; you know it is not right.” I know it is not right, so I go
up the hill, and I park the car, and I go in and do what I don’t want to do. That is, ask forgiveness, because I
was hurt. I was angry; I was frustrated, but my heart really wasn’t that way. But what did I do when I came
back? I guarded my heart; I brought it under control.
Go to 2 Chronicles 7. In the light of all that, what happens in Chapter 7, up to v. 11? He prays.
When he finishes praying, the glory of the Lord fills the house, and then he makes the sacrifice. He
consecrates everything, and they celebrate the Feast of Booths (that is v. 10). (11) “Thus Solomon finished
the house of the Lord and the king’s palace, and successfully completed all that he had planned on doing in
the house of the Lord and in his palace. (12) Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night…” [What do we
not realize, if we are not careful? That there is a 13 year interlude between v. 11 and v. 12. Thirteen years
have passed. How do we know that? The only way we know that is if we open a good commentary, or if we
do our homework. If we let Scripture interpret Scripture—if we work with the common texts that go around
this time, we would know that when it said, “Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night, and said to him, ‘I
have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.’” Let’s go back to 1
Kings 9 to get the time frame.
Remember that the chronicler has a different purpose than Kings has. Kings is giving the account of
these kings and what happens; the chronicler is going to go after their hearts and their motivations, because
they have come back from exile. Coming back from exile, he wants them to remember God, and remember
that God is looking at their heart. They need to continue, and they need to keep the temple before them.
And they need to remember that a descendant of David is going to sit on the throne. They need to remember
the things that I have been telling you about Chronicles.
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1 Kings 9:1 is a parallel passage. “Now it came about when Solomon had finished building the house
of the Lord,” [How long did that take? Seven and a half years.] “and the king’s house, “ [How long did that
take? Thirteen years.] “and all that Solomon desired to do,” [What do you see? Solomon had accomplished
his goals. He has taken the throne. In the fourth year of his reign, he began to build the temple. We know
that he has been reigning for at least 24 years. So we know where he is—he has finished his projects. He
has achieved his goals.] (2) “that the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had appeared to him at
Gibeon.” [At Gibeon, He said, “Ask of me what you want.” What did Solomon ask, just by way of review?
He asked for a hearing heart. Why? It is the central command of our life; it is the central headquarters of
our life. He wanted a discerning heart.]
(3) “And the Lord said to him, ‘I have heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made
before Me;” [The only way that God answered him after all those prayers when he was on that bronze
platform, was that God had sent His shekinah glory. And God had sent down fire from heaven and
consumed the sacrifice. So he knew that God had heard him. But now God is appearing to him, and God is
speaking to him.] “‘I have heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made before Me; I have
consecrated this house which you have built by putting My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart
will be there perpetually. (4) And as for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in
integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My
statutes and My ordinances, (5) then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever,”
(6) “But if you (and here is the warning) or your sons indeed turn away from following Me,” [What
would cause them to turn away from following God? Their heart.] “and you do not keep My commandments
and statues which I have set before you, and you go and serve other gods and worship them, (7) then I will
cut off Israel from the land which I have given them…” (8) “And this house will become a heap of ruins…”
(9) “And they will say, ‘Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land
of Egypt…therefore the Lord has brought all this adversity on them.’”
When He appears to him a second time, what is He doing? He is warning him. He is making him a
promise. You see the warning here—“you have got to stay with integrity of heart.” So, apparently, all the
way through these (at least) twenty-four years, Solomon is not doing too bad, as a matter of his heart. But
you know what? There is a problem under the surface of his life, and it is taking root. It is going to bring
forth fruit, and it isn’t going to be good—because he is not guarding his heart.
Go back to 2 Chronicles 7, because, as I have thought about this, and I have prayed about this, I
thought, “Lord, somebody needs to address this.” (13) “If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if
I command the locust to devour the land (Israel), or if I send pestilence among My people; (14) and My
people who hare called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their
wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” [To whom is He
speaking? To Israel. Yet, what have we done? We have gone back, in our zeal for God, and in a heart that
is really set upon God, and we have taken this verse (2 Chronicles 7:14), and we have held it up, almost as a
mantra. We have held it up, and we have said, “God, this is what You say in Your word, so we are going to
trust that we in the United States, if we pray, if we seek Your face, if we turn from our wicked ways, if we do
these things, then You will heal America.” That is not for us—it is for Israel. You say, “But we can claim
it.” I don’t believe you can.
Second, I want to ask you, “Why do you want to claim that?” Don’t you have even better promises?
But you say, “I want God to heal our land.” So if we pray, if My people…[In other words, if Christians in
the United States of America pray, and cry out to God, and do these things, and show that it is not just a
matter of externals, “I am going to seek His face, I am going to turn from my sins, and I am going to make
supplication to God. Then He is going to heal our land.” This is taking a Scripture out of context, and taking
it before the throne of God. God is saying to you, “What have I commanded you? What have I told you? I
have told you that if you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you can ask what you will, and it shall be
done. I have laid out principles of prayer in the New Testament.” But He does not promise to heal the
nations this way. As you go through the whole counsel of God, you see that it is true. You say, “But back
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there in Chapter 6, it says, ‘If the foreigner prays to You…’” Yes, and you take it in the context where the
foreigner if praying to Him, but you do not take it 2 Chronicles 7:14 out of its context, and use is that way.
You have heard great Christian leaders…I have dear people that I love that have used this verse, and I
have been a coward, because I haven’t gone to them. I haven’t gone to them out of respect for who they
were, but I am just saying that when we study the word of God, it is so important that we don’t take the word
of God, and give false hope or false promises to people, and say, “If we gather together, then God is going to
heal our land.” We can fast, and we can pray, and we can do what we are supposed to do—and God can
move in the United States of America—but this is a promise for Israel. And this is what we need to see, and
we need to understand. Beloved, this is why it is so important that you don’t just take Precept, that you don’t
just keep your same comfortable group year after year, where you are all a sweet brotherhood/sisterhood, and
just enjoy one another. You are getting this truth so that you in turn can take it and use this truth to reach
others. That is what you have got to do. And you have to draw others to come and to take the Bible study
and learn these principles, and learn these precepts.
Look at what He goes on to say. (15) “Now My eyes will be open, and My ears attentive to the
prayer offered in this place. (16) For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be
there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. [Then He goes on and talks to Solomon.
Do you see what I am saying? Did you discuss this in your class? Did you discuss it, so that you have
worked through it, and you understand the process? You need to, so that we can see, “This was thirteen
years later.”]
(19) “But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before
you and shall go and serve other gods and worship them, (20) then I will uproot you from My land which I
have given you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight,” [What
has He done? He has said this at least thirteen years earlier, and now He is repeating it, because He does not
want him to forget that his heart and the way that he lives are going to determine his destiny and the destiny
of his people.] “and I will make it (this house) a proverb and a byword among all peoples.”
Go to Ezekiel 36, where He is talking about scattering His people Israel among the nations,
dispersing them throughout the lands. (19b) “according to their ways and their deeds I judged them. (20)
When they came to the nations where they went, they profaned My holy name,” [How did they profane His
holy name when they got to those nations?] “because it was said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord;
yet they have come out of His land.” [That is how they profaned His name. They profaned God’s name,
because they said, “Here they are, the people of God, and look at where they are.” We do the same thing
when we end up where we shouldn’t be. When we are doing the things that are just like the world, the world
looks, and they say, “See, it doesn’t make any difference to be a Christian.” What is a Christian? What does
that title “Christian” mean? “Christian” means “little Christ.” So if you take the name Christian, and you
walk in a society, and you say, “I am a Christian,” you are saying to them, in essence (and they may not
understand it), “I am a little Christ. I am a follower of Jesus Christ. As He was in this world, so I am
supposed to be in this world.” If they don’t see any difference, they you have profaned the name of God.]
(21) “But I have concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the
nations where they went.” [And because of that, Ezekiel says that He is going to bring them back to the land,
not because they deserve it, but He is bringing them back to the land because of His holy name.]
Go back to 1 Chronicles 7:21b. “And they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to
this house?’ (22) And they will say, ‘Because they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought
them from the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them, therefore
He has brought all this adversity on them.’” [Whoa! Here is God’s word, and here is Solomon. Solomon
knows that he has disobeyed God. He has put (right from the beginning, before God appeared to him the
first time) Pharaoh’s daughter as his wife in the city of David. Then he knows he is wrong, because what did
he do? He moved her out of the city of David, to her own house, because he knows that it is wrong.]
What is his end? 1 Kings 11:1 says, “Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the
daughter of Pharaoh:” [He started with Pharaoh’s daughter, but then it was the--] “, Ammonite, Edomite,
Sidonian, and Hittite women, (2) from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel,
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‘You shall not associate with them, neither shall they associate with you,” [Why?] “for they will surely turn
your heart away after their gods.’ Solomon held fast to these in love.” [He did it—he held fast to these in
love.]
(3) “And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines.” [My goodness!!]
“for they will surely turn your heart away after other gods. Solomon held fast to these in love.” [What is the
heart? Have you got it marked there? The heart is the command center. It is a matter of the heart. Your life
and your destiny are a matter of the heart. So all this while, from before God’s first appearance to Solomon,
all this while, what has been happening? It has been Mrs. Pharaoh-Solomon first, then Moabites and
Edomites and Hittites, and all these “ites.” He is disobeying God. When he added these, we don’t know; but
we know that at least twenty-four years after this, he has built a house for Mrs. Pharaoh, because he knows
that she doesn’t belong there, and yet underneath are all these women, that he, in his control center, that he is
holding fast to in love. What are they going to do? They are going to divide his heart, and they are going to
divide his kingdom. A divided heart leads to a divided kingdom.]
You find a man who doesn’t guard his affections, he starts talking to the gal at work, and says, “Well,
let’s just go have lunch and discuss this over lunch, because we have so much to do today.” But they linger
over lunch, and everything, and what is happening? There is sin beginning, underneath the surface. The
heart has to be guarded. When I use the illustration of a pastor who is counseling, and all of a sudden finds
himself attracted to this woman that he is counseling. He knows he is wrong, and he is guarding himself, so
to speak, but he is enjoying every moment of counseling. Finally, when he finds himself thinking about her
more than his wife, he knows that he is in trouble, and he goes to his wife, and says, “I am in trouble.” What
happened? His heart was right; it was about to be divided, but there was a heart that was panting after God.
What you find with Solomon is that they have turned his heart away. (3) “He had seven hundred
wives...” (4) “For it came about when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods;”
[You have seen what God has said to him; you have seen the second time He appeared to him, what He said
to him, “and be careful of other gods.” But you can know the word, and not listen to it. And that is the
danger. What grieves me is when I hear about somebody that is a Precept student, or a Precept leader, who
has walked away from God. Is that the fault of Precept? No. It is an issue of the heart. You have to be
careful, and I have to be careful. We have to watch and guard our heart, because out of it are the issues of
life.]
(4) “When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not
wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been,” [You say, “But David went
after another woman.” Yes, that is right, and when his sin was exposed, he was smitten in his heart, and he
wept before the Lord. He prayed, and he confessed it, and when God pronounced the judgment on him,
“This is what is going to happen to you. Four things are going to happen to you,” he never said, “I don’t
deserve it.” He never said a word; he simply took the punishment that was given to him, knowing that God’s
ways were just. Solomon is different, because something happened to the control center of his life. His
heart was turned away after other gods. You see, David never went after other gods, but Solomon did.]
(5) “For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable
idol of the Ammonites. (6) And Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the
Lord fully,” [Oh, he followed Him, but only to a degree.] “as his father David had done.” [He builds these
things; he makes the sacrifices to their gods (v. 8).] “(9) “Now the Lord was angry with Solomon because his
heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, (10) and
commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what
the Lord had commanded.” [Oh, beloved, listen to me. And Kay, listen to you. Beware, beware, beware!
Be vigilant, be diligent; beware, beware, beware, precious one. Beware lest you learn all these things that
God has commanded, lest you gain all this knowledge, and gain this wisdom, and you don’t walk in it.
Beware! For you will end up like Solomon, because God is no respecter of persons.] (11) “So the Lord said
to Solomon, ‘Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and my statutes which I have
commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant.”
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I want us to stop and look at some things on the heart in these last few minutes we have together. I
want you to write it down under: The Heart is the Control Center (or Command Center. I am sure there is a
better word, but I just don’t know it.) Proverbs 4:23 was written—let’s go look at the setting of it quickly,
because the setting of it is incredible. In Proverbs, Chapter 4, he is saying, (1) “Hear, O sons, the instruction
of a father,” (2) “I will give you sound teaching…” (3) “When I was a son to my father…” [In other words,
Solomon is writing this, and when he says, “When I was a son to my father (to David)…”] “let your heart
hold fast my words; keep my commandment and live; (5) acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding!”
Now go to v. 23, for it is in the same context. “Watch over your heart with all diligence,” [Guard
your heart.] “for from it flow the springs of life.” [Who wrote this? Solomon. He wrote it; he knew it. He
had been taught it by his father. He told his son to live this way. He told Rehoboam and his other sons, all
the sons that he had, to live this way, and he did not live that way. He did not guard his heart. It is so easy to
spout the word; it is so easy to pontificate. It is another thing to live what you are saying.]
Let’s go back and let’s look at 1 Chronicles 28:9, because I want us to see the things that he knew,
(This is so important!) and the things that he said. David said, (9) “As you, my son Solomon, know the God
of your father, and serve Him with whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and
understand every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him,
He will reject you forever.” [All the way through Chronicles you are going to see, “Seek Him—seek Him—
seek Him. Don’t forsake Him.”]
This is what David is saying in 1 Chronicles 29:17, “Since I know, O my God, that You try the
heart…” [Why does He try the heart? Why doesn’t He just try the ways? Because the heart is the command
center.] “I know that You try the heart, and delight in uprightness, I, in the integrity of my heart, have
willingly offered all these things;” (19) “and give to my son Solomon a perfect heart to keep Your
commandments…” [But the problem was that Solomon did not guard his heart. He disobeyed the word of
God, and in disobeying the word of God, it caused his heart to be turned away from God.]
Go to 2 Chronicles 6:14. “…showing lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You with all
their heart;” [Have you got it? No divided heart.]
Go Matthew 12:33, and see what the New Testament teaches us about the heart. “Either make the
tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. (34)
You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which
fills the heart.” [Listen to somebody; listen to them carefully. Listen to them, not just in a religious setting;
listen to them day in and day out, and you will know what is in their heart. “For what comes out of the
mouth, is that which fills the heart.”] (35) “The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good;
and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil.”
Look at Matthew 15:18. “The things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those
defile the man.” [Why do they defile the man? Because they have come from the heart.] (19) “For out of the
heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.” [You have got to
guard your heart, and Solomon didn’t do it.]
Go to 1 John 2:15-17. It does not mention the heart, but, precious one, these are such critical verses,
because they show you how things get wrong in your life. (15) “Do not love the world…” [I’d say that is
problem in Christendom today—we love the world.] “nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world,
the love of the Father is not in him. (16) For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh…” [It is not the
actions of the flesh—it is the desires of the flesh.] “and the lust of the eyes…” [It is the desire of the eyes.]
“and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” [The lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, the love of the world, and the boastful pride of life—these are the things that are going to destroy
you. They shut down the command center. It is like putting a virus in it, so to speak. So you have got to be
careful.]
Christ dwells in our hearts. Go to Galatians 4:6. “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit
of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” [Have you ever that old tract, My Heart, Christ’s Home?
They talk about the different rooms of your heart, and the different chambers of your heart, and what is going
on in this room, and what is going on this room. He says, “Christ dwells in your heart;” the question is,
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“Where have you put Him? Is He sitting at the control panel in the command center, or have you pushed
Him off to the side? Solomon pushed Him off to the side, because Solomon wasn’t careful about the
insidiousness of sin, and how when you tolerate sin down here, and you let it in, eventually it takes root, and
then it produces fruit. He didn’t guard his heart, and that is why his heart was turned away from God.]
Go to Matthew 22:37-40. This is such an important verse. In v. 36, this lawyer has asked Jesus,
“What is the greatest commandment in the Law.” (37) “And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your
God will all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’” [He is God; it has to be all.] (38)
“‘This is the great and foremost commandment. (39) The second is like it. “You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.” (40) On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.’” [In other words, you
can take up every message of all the Prophets, you can take all the Law, and you can say, “Hey, do you want
to keep it? Do you want to keep the Law? Do you want to keep the Prophets? Do you want to listen to their
message? Do you want to be what you ought to be? Then this is what you do—you love God with all your
heart. You love Him with all your soul. You love Him with all your mind. And if you will do that, then you
will love your neighbor as yourself, because you love God, and God loves your neighbor. If you do that,
then you have got it made, because the control center of your life is all right with God. You are right with
God.” It is a matter of the heart. That is what determines your life. That is what determines your destiny,
precious one.
How is your heart? Oh, Precept student, guard, guard, guard your heart. Oh, Kay Arthur, guard,
guard your heart. Guard your heart. Be like David, and not like Solomon. When you sin, when you fall
(and we all sin), get back up, and go forward. Guard your heart, because out of it are the issues of life, and
you will never make it in this society, you will never make it in this culture. If you don’t guard your heart, if
you don’t keep this command center under the control and authority of God, and a love for God, you will
fall—and you will mess up. And you will not only have a divided heart, but you will divide your family.
You will divide your relationships, and your old age will just be nothing, as it was in Solomon’s old age.
Now the peace is gone, and that is what happened to Solomon. The peace went away, because he didn’t
guard his heart.
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