Written on your Heart

Introduction

You know, writing is very important. What is written becomes very important. We think about certain documents throughout history, that the writing of those documents becomes so significant. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution we study in history, how tediously those documents were written and how important they are. We demand that contracts are in writing for them to be binding upon the parties. Writing is so important that that’s one of the very first things you learn in school is how to write. Do you remember the little charts on the wall of writing your alphabet and how to form those letters and then later how to write them in cursive? I can remember the first time I got in trouble. It was in the first grade. One of the first days of the first grade, Mrs.

Tipton was teaching us how to write. One of the most important things, and she illustrated on her paper how we were to write. And I can remember that she was emphasizing the direction that we would write. She wanted to teach us that we write on our papers from left to right, from left to right. But she didn’t say from left to right. She just showed us on her paper the direction we were to write, and she really emphasized that. She failed to take into mind how literal my mind works. Because her paper from where I was sitting was the opposite. And so I thought she was really emphasizing that we needed to write from right to left. That’s the way it looked to me. So I was the only one in Miss Tipton’s first grade class that failed the first writing assignment.

Because I wrote everything backwards. I thought maybe she was Hebrew. I don’t know what she was thinking. But writing is so important that we start with that and we emphasize how important. In fact, parents may urge their children or wives urge their husbands, did you write it down? Because we know how important writing is and how important it is to have something written. And so this morning I want to talk to you about something that is written. But one distinguishing part of the old covenant prophesied by Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 31, is that not that just that we would have a new covenant or a new law, but that new law would be written on our hearts.

By the way, as you know, that’s the covenant that we exist under. And so he says, beginning in Jeremiah 31, verse 31, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this, verse 33 says, But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, says the Lord.

And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Norm shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, No the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. God says Jeremiah, that old covenant failed. Not because of the one who gave the covenant, but because of those who were to keep the covenant, and they broke that covenant, and it failed. Those fleshly writings, that writing on paper, or as he would say, the writing on the stone tablets, failed the people because of their failure to keep it. And so I’m going to give them a new covenant, and here’s some distinguishing facts of that new covenant.

The one we love the best is the last one. Their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more. But let’s talk about that earlier distinguishing characteristic of this new covenant. He says, I will write this law on their heart. What does that mean?

It in some way it’s distinguishing from that old covenant, but lest we go astray right here at the beginning, we need to recognize that the old covenant did involve the heart. We won’t turn back there, but Deuteronomy 6, verse 6, at the giving of that law, God would say through Moses that these words shall be on thy heart. And so the heart was to be a part of the old covenant. But God seems to be saying through Jeremiah that in the new covenant, where only those who know me will be a part of this covenant, that there will be a greater emphasis on the heart. Look at just a couple more passages there in the book of Jeremiah. Turn back to Jeremiah 24 and in verse 7.

All of these are prophecies of that new time, that new covenant. Jeremiah 24 and verse 7 says, Then I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. Then fast forward beyond where we started. Now look at Jeremiah 32. Jeremiah 32, verses 38 and 39 prophesy, they shall be my people, and I will be their God. This is Jeremiah 32, 38. Now verse 39 says, Then I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them and for their children after them. There will be a new covenant, and there will be a renewed emphasis upon the heart.

1. Knowing the Law

And so this new covenant meant a new heart, a new condition, a new importance, a new emphasis upon the heart that was to be devoted to God. But he doesn’t just say a new heart, and he doesn’t just say a new emphasis on the heart. He says, I will write my laws on their heart. So let’s examine how is the law written on the heart. How is that going to happen in this new covenant? First of all, to understand this concept, we must truly understand what law is.

God did not just randomly come up with a list of instructions off out of thin air. Every commandment, every instruction, every rule is an expression of who God is. Because, did you notice in that language, and it’s so often repeated, when it comes to the idea of the emphasis of the heart being one by the law of God, it begins, or either is followed by the saying, I will be their God and they will be my people. For in keeping that law and understanding and having it written on our hearts, we become like God, because the law is the expression of the eternal nature of God. And so having the law written in our hearts must at least begin with the idea of knowing the law.

That in the New Testament, it was actually true in the Old Testament, but we’re emphasizing that new covenant this morning. That in the New Testament, when God wanted someone to know his will, he sent a messenger, a human messenger. Think about the story of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10. In Acts chapter 10, you may remember that Cornelius, an angel, appears toward Cornelius and speaks to him. And about the same time, Peter receives a heavenly message, a heavenly vision, and someone from heaven speaks to Peter, who would later be identified as the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit makes another appearance and falls upon those Gentiles. But what did Cornelius? Cornelius knew. Look there in Acts chapter 10. With all of this heavenly spiritual involvement of angels and visions and the Holy Spirit, notice what Cornelius said in Acts chapter 10, verses 32 and 33. Cornelius was told this.

He’s lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner by the sea. When he comes, he will speak to you. So I sent to you immediately, and you’ve done well to come. Now therefore, we are present before God to hear all the things commanded you by God. All of that supernatural spiritual activity in Acts chapter 10. But Cornelius says, Peter, God sent you to deliver the message to me. And so that is the messenger. Today, this is our messenger. The words of Peter and Paul and others who were inspired by that Holy Spirit to bring us that message, that law, so that we could know it. And so it begins with the idea of knowing that law.

2. Hear, Receive, Implant, Then Do

James chapter 1.

And let’s start our reading in verse 19. James 1, verse 19 says, So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. We pause here to repeat this point. That is not a general proverb that James is stating. Be swift to hear, slow to speak. He’s not saying that in your everyday life, talk less and listen more. He’s not saying you’ve heard the illustration, God gave you two ears and one mouth, do twice as much listening as you do. Now that’s all good advice. But James is not saying, listen to everybody else and talk less. In the context, he’s saying, listen to God. Back up to verse 18 of speaking of God, the giver of every perfect gift, of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear. Hear what? Hear what your neighbors have to say, hear what the television or the radio has to say. No, to hear the word of truth. And so he’s saying, be quiet and listen to what God says. So here is the first step. For the wrath of man, verse 20, does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive. I want you to notice the progression. What’s the first thing we do for the word of God? We hear it. We be quiet and we listen to what God says. We don’t become angry, we listen. And then he said there in verse 21, we receive the word. That’s the next step.

That’s a step beyond just hearing it. Hearing it, but receiving it. That means that we get it. We understand it. I illustrate it this way. I can see that sometimes as a preacher when the word is received by the audience. I get what I call the church of Christ. Amen. Somebody just nods their head. And they mean they mean I get that. I understand that. That’s receive. Hear, receive. Keep reading in verse 21. With meekness, the implanted word. The new NI the NIV says, receive the word which when implanted in your hearts. So we hear it, we receive it, we go, yeah, okay. And then we, it’s implanted. Then he goes on, verse 22, but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourself.

We want to emphasize doing, and rightly so. But James says there’s a whole lot needs to take place before we get to the doing. You’ve got to hear, receive, and implant. Then and only then are you equipped to do, to obey his word. And so having that law written on our hearts involves the idea of knowing it. In fact, we have an expression, don’t we? That talks about knowing something and attaching it to its heart. Let me illustrate. You may not know that I had a previous acting career. West Point Elementary School, the third grade, put on a Thanksgiving play. And I was in that Thanksgiving play in the third grade. I had three roles in that play. I played an Indian at one point. I played a pilgrim.

I was versatile actor. I played a pilgrim at one point. And then I was selected by Miss Rogers to be the narrator of that play. And I can remember Mrs. Rogers the night of the play, making sure everybody knew their part and their place. And she asked me, I had a script, and I can still smell that script. It was in blue mimeograph paper. You remember smelling that? And I can remember she asked me, Do you have your script for the narration? And I said, Miss Rogers, I know it by heart. We use that expression, don’t we? To know something by heart. That means that we’ve got it. We’ve learned it. We’ve learned it so much that we don’t have to read it off the page.

3. The Spirit Works Through the Word

It’s in here. Now I still needed the script. But I said, I know it by heart. Means that it had been implanted in me. I could recite that word. And so we need to see the connection between what the scriptures speak of us being led by the Spirit and being instructed and guided by the Spirit to what the Spirit has inspired. Now I’m not saying we limit the Holy Spirit and its activities, but it has to be more than coincidence. And don’t worry, we’re not going to look at all these passages of scripture. But it has to be more than coincidental that everything that is ascribed, every operation upon the heart of the believer that is ascribed to the Holy Spirit is equally ascribed to the Word.

And so the Spirit works at least through the Word of God. He witnesses, He instructs, He convicts, He begets, that is, He makes us born anew, He saves us and leads us and strengthens us and teaches us and dwells within us, but everything that can be said of that Spirit can also be said of the Word. So what’s the connection? Is it just that the Holy Spirit inspired the Word and told those people to write those words on a page somewhere and we have those writings passed down to us? Well, certainly it must start there. But it’s much more than that. That Holy Spirit working through that word now becomes written in my heart. So that it’s not just cold, lifeless words on a page, that it’s the Spirit living in me.

4. Christ Lives in Me

I’m directed by that. And so we begin to see that when we think about not just how the law is written in our heart, but the results of that inward change. What does it look like when that Holy Spirit dwells within us, when we are led by the Spirit? And with Paul, turn with me to Galatians 2. And let’s begin to get a sense of this. In Galatians 2 and in verse 20, that law being written in our heart does something. When it dwells and is implanted within us, it changes who we are, so though it’s no longer me doing my own will, and it’s really not even me doing the will of God. It’s God living and acting through me. That’s what Paul said, Galatians 2, verse 20, it is, I have been crucified with Christ.

It’s 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 for me. Paul says, it’s not me doing this. This is God doing this. This is Christ living in me. Why? Because Paul had the law written in his heart. And his actions therefore became the actions that God wanted him to do. So it’s not just some cold words on a page. It’s the Spirit. And it’s implanted in me, and as I obey it, that’s why Jesus could say, remember his words on the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5, when he says you’re the light of the world, you’re the salt of the earth.

He says you do that so people can see. Here’s the lie. People can see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Now wait a minute. They see my good deeds. Why aren’t they glorifying me? I did them. Because I didn’t do them. I was following the will of my Father. My own selfish will has been submitted to the will of God, so that it’s Christ living in me. It’s the law written in my heart. And so God gets the glory. Because it’s God living in me. Let’s see if we can illustrate this. We talked a couple weeks ago about family, and I showed you some family photos, and one of the people in that family photo album of mine was my mother.

My mother, and I told you then, I would fight you. My mother was the best cook that ever walked this earth. And one of the things that she would make was a red velvet cake. Now she made a red velvet cake before the world knew what red velvet cakes were. And bless my mom’s heart. She did, she never called it a red velvet cake. She always called it Kenneth’s red velvet cake. Because she knew I liked it. So every holiday, every special occasion, she would make Kenneth’s red velvet cake. I have the recipe for her red velvet cake. I think she got the recipe probably from a book or from a Finn, but then through the years and the millions of times she made it, she modified it, she added some things, and so there’s that recipe for the world’s best red velvet cake.

Let’s imagine that I take that recipe of my mom’s and I follow it to the letter. And I make, I add all the ingredients as she told me to measure them and add them at the right time and mix them the way she said to mix them and put them in the pan she said to put them in and cook them at the temperature and the time that she said, and to make that icing the way that she said to make it, and to put all those things together, and I made that cake, and I gave you a piece of that cake. Two things I guarantee you are going to happen. Number one, you’re gonna say that’s the best cake I ever had. And can I have the recipe?

Now, what am I going to say about that when you say, Ken, that’s a great cake? Am I going to say, Yeah, I’m a pretty good baker. That’s me. Or am I going to be honest and say, I can’t take the credit for that? That was my mom’s recipe. I just followed her instructions. She gets the glory, not me. There’s no great skill in measuring flour and putting it in a pot and mixing it up, putting it in an oven, taking it out. Anybody. The skill came in the recipe. And so that’s a bit of what we’re talking about here, the idea of where people can see my good works, your good works, and they’ll glorify the Father. Why? That wasn’t me who did it. That was God acting through me.

That was the Spirit guiding me. All I did was follow the instruction. But there’s also a sense in which that applies to our message this morning because when I’m looking at that recipe card, I’m not just looking at letters on a page, am I? That’s written in my heart. Because of the relationship I sustained with the author of that recipe. And the meaning that’s attached to that. And so that when I’m cooking that, I’m not just cooking a cake. I’m cooking Kenneth’s red velvet cake. And I can see and hear my mom in the kitchen and doing all of you see that recipe is written on my heart.

And so when we see the word of this new covenant, and how that God wants us to translate law into behavior and conduct.

5. Written Not With Ink, but by the Spirit

I’m to grow in my Christianity to where this law dwells in my heart, and it’s loved rather than feared. And it’s obeyed from a healthy impulse instead of just I have to do it. And this law becomes, instead of being a constraint to my own selfish will, the law becomes identical with my own will, transforming me and my mind, my heart, and my will into the image of the law itself. And remember what law is. It’s the expression of God’s eternal nature. Look in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. I think Paul can help us to understand how the law is to be written on our hearts and what that looks like. Paul is talking about another writing when he starts 2 Corinthians chapter 3. He’s talking about a letter, a letter of recommendation.

And he says this, 2 Corinthians 3 verse 1. Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, letters of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you. Do I need a letter of recommendation from the church at Corinth, Paul says? Do I need a letter of recommendation to go preach to the church at Corinth? And Paul’s going to answer that question. You, you are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men. Paul is saying, I don’t need a letter of recommendation to you or from you. You’re my letter. I know you. You know me. You came to the gospel through me and through my work. The fact that the church exists there testifies to the work that I did as an apostle, Paul says, You’re my letter of recommendation, written in our hearts, known and read by all men.

Clearly, you’re a letter of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is of the heart. You see, Paul says, you’re that letter of recommendation, written not with pen and ink, but with our hearts. Now let’s begin to compare that to the law written on our hearts. Was the law written with pen and ink? Absolutely. But it doesn’t stop there. It’s not just me reading some passage and saying, well, I guess I better do that, and I guess I better not do that one. It becomes written in our hearts. It becomes eternalized, internalized, and personalized so that it changes who we are. Keep reading though. 2 Corinthians 3, verse 4, and we have such trust through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit.

For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

And now transfers it to the ministry, the gospel that he’s preaching.

Because the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Is that just a contrast between the old law and the new law? No, it goes far beyond that. It goes beyond, it goes to the point of saying, if you want to be saved by the law of God, if you’re going to be saved by the letter of the law, that letter’s going to kill you because you’re not going to be able to keep it any better than those old covenant people were able to keep that old covenant. If you just read that as rules on a page to be obeyed and to be followed, it’s going to kill you. But the Spirit gives life. If that word is written on our hearts. And changes, not just trying to change our conduct, but trying to change who we are at our very core.

Conclusion

Then we can find life. Because it’ll truly change who we are. And then our conduct will be changed as we hear, receive, implant the word, and then as we are become doers of the word and not hearers only. Is that law written in your heart? Are you submitting and transforming your will or more properly allowing God to transform your will into his will? So that you can say that law is what moves and motivates me because it’s who I am. It’s written in my heart. Would you come to Christ this morning in obedience to the gospel and let that law save you? Save you not by the perfect keeping of that law, but save you when it has its full intent, when it transforms you from your own selfish will unto the will of the Father.

Would you come to Him and obey that gospel this morning? Can we help you in any way? Let it be known as we stand and as we sing.