Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake. O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.    —Daniel 9:17–19



On June 26, 2013, our Supreme Court voted in favor of homosexual marriage. I believe all of us have heard about this court case and have been praying since. The Supreme Court of the land overturned the wishes of voters in California and voted in favor of homosexual marriage. Not just the voters in California, but the law of God was despised by our Supreme Court. They ruled against God’s commands and God’s desire for people on earth. They went against His law and His Word. This ruling is significant because it is an indication of deeper issues that we face. This was a death blow, and we felt it when this case was heard. It is indeed an indication of deeper issues, deeper spiritual problems that we face as a nation. America is morally bankrupt—and not just America. Western nations such as Canada and in Europe are morally bankrupt.

While Western society is morally bankrupt, the modern church in our society today is spiritually bankrupt. On June 30, 2013, the Crystal Cathedral in California held its last service. Some of you may know about this church through The Hour of Power radio and TV program with Robert Schuler who preached many years in that church. It was a very large church building in California, and it has become an icon of the modern evangelical church in North America. This large church was famous for its teaching of “positive thinking.” Many politicians and world leaders visited and worshipped there, enjoying the music from the very large organ as well. But in the last few years they have had problematic transitions of leadership and economic crises; three years ago, the church declared bankruptcy. The building was sold.

This is a symbol of the bankruptcy of the modern church in North America. The power of positive thinking hasn’t really gotten us anywhere, has it? Society becomes morally penniless when religion becomes only a message of positive thinking that encourages us to get through the week, when the church is only a social club or entertainment, when the church no longer influences society with a prophetic voice speaking against the sins of society, when a nation of so-called Christians violates God’s law and despises His Word. Then society and religion are both spiritually insolvent. There are corrupt judges, politicians who blaspheme God, shallow religion, moral brokenness, idolatry of athletes and music stars, sexual pollution, devalued life, degradation, and selfish greed on every hand—bankruptcy.

Revelation is a book that, by Christ and His Spirit’s grace, should be read, opened, and understood by all believers. Revelation 5:5 says, “And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.” This book is a revelation from God to Jesus Christ for us. Our Lord Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, is our Savior who shed His blood for us. As head of the church, Christ sent the Book of Revelation via an angel to His servant, the apostle John, so that he could write it down for believers in all ages. Let us look at the opening words of salutation in Revelation 1:4–8. Though sometimes, when we begin a book, we are able to skip over the introduction quite easily, with Revelation, if we are to understand things properly, we must begin at the beginning where God explains to us what this book is all about and what its purpose is: 

John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne: and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. —Proverbs 4:23

Our society is working hard at getting rid of heart disease, and for good reason. Heart disease accounts for about twenty-five percent of all deaths in America, and each year 600,000 Americans will die from heart disease. There may be some here who are concerned about their heart health because heart disease is in their family. 

This text tells us that every Christian is commanded to maintain a true healthy heart program. We see this in three ways:

1) It is required by God;
2) It is needed by people;
3) It is to be applied in life.


As we turn to Proverbs 4, it is important to recognize where our text is in the book of Proverbs. The first three chapters of Proverbs have exalted Wisdom as a divine gift and human goal, giving guidance for life and relationships. Chapter 4 contains the wise instruction of a father, followed by the cautions of chapters 5–7 against adultery and dangerous promises and laziness. It is important to sense the urgency of chapter 4—“hear, my children” (v. 1); “receive my sayings” (v. 10); “give attention to my words” (v. 20). In many ways this is the covenant Father speaking to His covenant children—“get wisdom” (v. 5). In order to guard against sin, the Father is saying, “Follow My Word. Find Jesus, true wisdom; He has come that you may have life, and that you may have it more abundantly.”

That is why God says in our text—“keep your heart!” But what is your heart? There is often confusion about what the biblical heart is. Simply speaking, your heart is your mind, emotions, and desires. Surgery cannot see or touch this heart. It is immaterial, but it is real. All of your thoughts, discernments, decisions, plans, purposes, affections, attitudes, actions—all are fuelled by and driven by your heart. So when we read in Genesis 17 that Abraham “said in his heart…,” this was something he was thinking.

The spiritual heart makes man different from the animals. Because you have a heart, you are responsible. We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, meaning, all of our mind, emotions, and desires. And yet, because of sin, we know that the natural man’s heart is enmity against God. It hates God. So when God looked at the world in Genesis, He saw that every thought in the heart of man was evil continually. That is why there are many warnings about the heart in the Bible: we are to avoid a double heart (Ps. 12:2), a hard heart (Prov. 28:14), a proud heart (Prov. 21:4), an unbelieving heart (Heb. 3:12), a cold heart (Matt. 24:12), and an unclean heart (Ps. 51:10). 

But the Bible also reveals that the heart can be changed. To people who are truly repentant, God has promised to take the stony heart of sin away and give us a tender, working heart of flesh. Then our hearts will be 
willing and ready. Then through the Holy Spirit, we will have minds, wills, and desires that love and desire communion with God.

When you meet someone for the first time, what are some things that person might say about themselves? Most often they say their name, where they’re from, or what they do for a calling. Did you ever wonder why people choose that information? Similarly, did you ever notice that if you criticize some people’s work, they get very sensitive about that and very defensive? Or perhaps if you say something about their family or church, maybe then they would get sensitive or defensive or even offended? Why is that? 

When you get right down to it, people say what they say about themselves and are sensitive about some things and not others because these are issues involving identity—and one’s identity is a very important matter. Identity is a critical topic to consider as it tends to have a much greater effect on us—on our attitude and how we process life—than we might realize.

Our identity will be the focus of our consideration. Let us pray to the Lord not only for understanding about this, but also for a right application of this tremendously important matter in our life. The texts we will focus on are Romans 7:17, 20 where Paul writes, “It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”

We’ve often heard that we should live our lives according to Scripture; we are to live to the honor and glory of God. How do we really do that? How do we go from reading our Bibles—the histories, the Psalms, the Gospels, the letters, the wisdom books—to actually weaving it into decisions we make, attitudes we have, and words we speak? Or to put it more simply still, how do we go from the world of Scripture to the everyday lives we actually live? How does the history of Samson relate to my situation today? What about the letters to the seven churches in Revelation? And how do I connect the Proverbs I’m reading with decisions I need to make in my family, in my business, or in my studies? Most Christians have a difficult time doing this, except perhaps for the most obvious commands and prohibitions.

As important as such questions are, there is one matter we need to consider first. We don’t undertake a task before discovering what we have at our disposal that would enable or assist us in doing that task. So before we consider how to go about translating Scripture into holy living, it would be good to start by seeing what God has given us to work with and how He has equipped us to actually do this important work called holiness. He has given us His Word to guide us, but He has given us so much more. It is important to know what this provision includes in order to be motivated and encouraged to pursue godliness with our whole heart. We will undertake this chiefly by taking a good hard look at our identity.