HF116 - The Watchman of the Heart
To: Hebraic-Foundations@yahoogroups.com
From: "Pastor Buddy Martin" <Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org>
Date: Thu Apr 29, 2004
Subject: Bible Study HF116 - The Watchman of the Heart
Hebraics,
The apostle Paul said, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." (Eph4:30) In this study we want to take a closer look at the work of the Holy Spirit in the new covenant. (The study calls for a broad range of discussion.)
This is Bible Study HF116 - The Watchman of the Heart.
In dealing with 'grieving' the Holy Spirit in the new covenant there is another Scripture we need to consider. James adds, "Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose; 'He jealousy desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us?'" (James 4:5)
What James says here is difficult in translation. Perhaps the ISV says it well enough; "Or do you think the Scripture means nothing when it says that the Spirit of God caused to live in us jealously yearns for us?" Another translation says, "The Spirit jealously desires us for His own."
Also consider these translations:
[Literal] "Do you think the Scripture speaks in vain [or, for no purpose]? Does the Spirit which [has] dwelt in us yearn to [the point of] envy?"
[BBE] "Or does it seem to you that it is nothing that the Writings say, 'The Spirit which God put in our hearts has a strong desire for us?'"
[GW] "Do you think this passage means nothing? It says, 'The Spirit that lives in us wants us to be his own.'"
[HNV] "Or do you think the Scripture says in vain, 'The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealousy'?"
[WNT] "Or do you suppose that it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, 'The Spirit which He has caused to dwell in our hearts yearns jealousy over us.'"
The major emphasis on what Paul and James are both saying is that when the Holy Spirit enters the heart of a believing one, the Spirit takes up possession as permanent indweller. From that moment on the Holy Spirit sets up house keeping, that is to say, the Spirit becomes the Watchman of the heart. This is the keynote of the new covenant.
There is a double action that takes place when a person truly believes 'into' Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit seals us in Christ, and, in turn, indwells us permanently. The seal speaks of possession. Each person born again becomes a personal possession of God. The indwelling is God's way of giving the believer the sense of belong to God, thus a consciousness of God Himself.
One of the greatest keys to a victorious walk in the Christian's life is to understand how the Holy Spirit works in the deepest part of our being. Paul said, "Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of A NEW COVENANT, not of the letter but of the Spirit; FOR THE LETTER KILLS, BUT THE SPIRIT GIVES." [1Co3:5,6 - Caps for emphasis only.]
The apostle later says that the Spirit is constantly at work doing transformations in our lives. It is the Father's will that we learn the very life of Christ in our inward man. The issue is that a believer will be confronted with many problems in life in which there is no 'letter' to provide an answer. And so the Spirit helps us process these problem issues by placing in our hearts the course of action.
Paul explains it this way: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." (Gal 2:20)
There is much in the New Testament about how God redeemed us through Christ. Lets review some of the spiritual dynamics of our salvation. Keep in mind that salvation has a completed action, an ongoing action, and a future action.
On the experiential side of our salvation the apostle said that God's Spirit (also called the Spirit of Christ) testifies (bears witness) with (to) our spirit that we are children of God. The proof-positive side of personal salvation is an inward testimony of the Spirit. No one can tell a person who is born again that they aren't born again. The inward testimony is too personal. It is life affirming. (In this case you can tell the religious person to take their religion and shove it. Did I say that? Hmmmm.)
The expressive sign that we belong to Jesus Christ is the overflow of our hearts. When a person actually takes to themselves Jesus as Lord and Savior, no one has to coax a testimony from them. The testimony is innate. It will come forth. The Spirit-filled life itself is no less than the overflow of Jesus on our lips. (The fleshly believer is self-absorbed.)
Paul explains it this way; "For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." (Rom 10:10) The point is that the moment a person truly believes in Jesus Christ, the believing one is given a heart of righteousness. The newly believing one is filled with a deep love for Jesus.
Both Peter and the Psalmist express this love factor very well. Peter says, "And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory." (1Pe1:8)
The Psalmist says, "My heart overflows with a good theme; I address my verses to the King ... You are fairer than the sons of men; grace is poured upon Your lips; therefore God has blessed You forever." (Psalm 45:1,2. This is one of the most beautiful of the Messianic Psalms.)
It should be obvious the difference between someone who is truly born of God's Spirit, and someone who is simply churchy. A true love for Jesus impels the believer to be obedient to the Lord. This is what Paul meant when he said, "For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us." (2Co5:13,14)
Coming back to the Holy Spirit, keep in mind that James said, "The Spirit jealously desires us for His own." (Alternate translation.) This tells us that the indwelling Holy Spirit is in our heart not simply to testify to our belonging to God, but the Spirit is in our life to keep us for God. The Bible speaks of this as a warfare of the Spirit against the flesh. And this is also why it is hard for a believer to simply live a fleshly life. The internal struggle is felt too deeply. Grieving the Holy Spirit causes a sinking in our own spirit.
There is a verse in the Song of Solomon that expresses this keeping power of the Holy Spirit. It says, "Put me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death, jealousy as severe as Sheol; its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench love, nor will rivers overflow it; if a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, it would be utterly despised." (Song8:6,7)
I rarely use the Song of Solomon to make a point of this nature, but as with all the Scriptures, there is something to be said of Christ here. When the Holy Spirit enters our heart, the Spirit indwells us with the love of God. This means it is God's love 'for' us that saved us. It is God's love for us that keeps us. It is God's love for us that 'yearns' with jealousy over us.
John said our salvation is not a result of our love for God, but of God's love for us. This is hard for us to grasp. Why would God love us so much that He would bring about the work of the cross to save us? We cannot answer such a question. Yet Paul said that nothing could separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Jesus Himself said that no one could snatch His sheep from His hand.
The prophet Isaiah gives us a sense of God's love for those who are His; "Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands..." (Isa49:16 This prophecy has a dual focus. I'm using it in how God's describes His own love for those who have been redeemed.)
And so we hear of the power of eternal love in the Song of Solomon. We hear it also in Isaiah. The Song says that His love cannot be quenched; that it is as strong as death; that it is the very flame of the Lord; and that it isn't something that can be bought. Why God set His love upon us is a story yet to be told. But we continue to write and sing our songs; 'I don't know why Jesus loved me. I don't know why He cared. I don't know why He gave His life for me. O, but I'm glad. So glad He did.'
So the seal of the Spirit is a love seal. It is a seal of the heart. The only One who could possibly break the seal would be God Himself, and He said that He would not do that. It is called the 'seal of redemption.' But what is it that keeps us saved? We have already seen that it is the love of God.
Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life." (John 5:24)
Again He says, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out ... This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day." (John 6:37-39)
Now for the crisis issue. Some believers live in a fear of crossing a 'sin' line in which they will lose their salvation. The problem is the two fold. The root of this fear is a failure to understand salvation itself. At the cross, Jesus gave us a life exchange. God took the total of our life and placed it all upon Jesus. Jesus did not simply die for our past sins. He died for the whole of our life. In turn God took our lives and hid them in Christ Jesus.
The believer has been 'sealed' in Christ. To break the seal you would have to break open Jesus. (Not even a pleasant thought.) But John explains it thus: "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ... By this [means], love is perfected in us, so that we may have confidence [no fear] in the day of judgment; because as He [Jesus] is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in [God's] love [for us], because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears [punishment or judgment] is not perfected in love [God's love hasn't finished its work]. We love because He first loved us." [Cf. 1Jn4:15-19]
If then Jesus died for all our sins, past sins and future sins, which sin is going to separate us from God? [Keep in mind that we are dealing with an issue that is two-fold. I'll explain the second part in a moment.] The new covenant has a love factor that includes a forgiveness factor that includes an eternal salvation factor.
God spoke through the prophet saying, "I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts ... For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." (Take time to review Heb8:7-13)
Now for the second 'fold' of the two-fold action in this aspect of our salvation. The believing one has two additional factors to be considered when it comes to personal sins. Yes, we have all sinned. Yes, we have all had sins that were really, really bad. What of these sins?
First let's consider the nature of the heart of a child of God. When a child of God sins, whether big or small, the grieving of the Holy Spirit goes to work instantly. This is why a child of God is unable to practice sin as a way of life. The grieving only intensifies. But the moment the sin is confessed, repented of, the Holy Spirit cleanses the conscience of the sinning believer. When the cleansing is complete, the child of God loses consciousness of the cleansed sin. It is as if the sin never happened. (Of course the memory will be there. But the memory serves as a deterrent to future sins of the same nature.)
Then there is the second course for the sinning believer. If a believer continues to resist the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the Lord will bring a punitive (corrective) judgment in the believer's life. And anyone who says that God will not use sickness, or disease, or even an early death as a form of discipline is sadly mistaken. The apostle plainly tells us that the Lord will being a judgment upon us in this life so that we will not have to be judged afterwards.
And so we come back to the Watchman of our heart. Every believer has God's Watchman as possessor and influencer of the heart. The Holy Spirit works in us in ways that we often don't understand. Have you ever thought of the Holy Spirit in this way? Have you ever asked the Holy Spirit to place a watch over your heart? Have you ever prayed as did David, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way." (Psalm 139:23,24)
As a young evangelist I use to sing a song based on the watchman verses of Isaiah 21. It went, "Watchman, watchman, tell me what you see. Will there be safety for each family. We're counting on you Watchman. Please don't let us down. Awake us from our slumber when danger comes around."
The question should not be, how far can I sin and still belong to the Lord. What child of God would even want to live a life of sin? We should be saying, "Watchman, do your work in my heart. Help me to live according to your leadings and promptings."
To keep the study from becoming cumbersome, let me leave off at this point. Feel free to offer your thoughts or ask questions.
The Lord bless you,
Buddy
Lawrence E. (Buddy) Martin, HF Host
email: Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org
Web: http://www.christianchallenge.org/
"See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled." (Heb12:15)