I. The Existence of the New Heart:

A. The Need for a New Heart (Jn. 4:21-24)

B. The Gift of a New Heart (Ezek. 36:25-28)

C. The Disposition of the New Heart (Eph. 4:24b; Rom. 5:5)

II. The Maintaining of the New Heart

A. The Call to Maintain One’s Heart (Prov. 4:23)

1. The Framework of the Commendation

2. The Commendation Itself (4:23a)

! diligence to guard or watch

3. The Reason for the Commendation (4:23b)

! The Heart is the Control Center of Man

" The Nature of the Immaterial You

" The Function of the Immaterial You

! The Heart is the Source of One’s Lifestyle

" springs coming from, going to; exit, escape, starting point

4. The Prelude and Consequence of the Commendation (4:20-22; 24-27)

! The Prelude (The Aquifer) (4:20-22)

" Priority (4:20)

• give attention listen and accept

• incline stretch out or extend towards

" Preservation (4:21)

" Promise (4:22)

! The Consequence (The Spring) (4:24-27)

" Address (4:24)

" Attention (4:25)

" Actions (4:26-27)

John Flavel:

It is not the cleaning of the hand that makes the Christian, for many a hypocrite can show as fair a hand as he; but the purifying, watching, and right ordering of the heart (Keeping the Heart, Pg.16).

John Flavel:

The greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to God; and the greatest difficulty after conversion, is to keep the heart with God. Here lies the very force and stress of religion; here is that which makes the way to life a narrow way, and the gate to heaven a strait gate. Direction and, help in this great work are the scope of the text; wherein we have:

1. An Exhortation, “Keep thy heart with all diligence.”

2. The reason or motive enforcing it, “For out of it are the issues of life.” (Pg. 13).

The Encyclopedia Britannica:

mind, in the Western tradition, the complex of faculties involved in perceiving, remembering, considering, evaluating, and deciding. Mind is in some sense reflected in such occurrences as sensations, perceptions, emotions, memory, desires, various types of reasoning, motives, choices, traits of personality, and the unconscious.

A Sample of the Heart’s Functioning:

1. The heart thinks (1 Kgs. 3:9; Ps. 139:23; Prov. 6:18; Mk. 2:8; Lk. 2:19)

2. The heart emotes (Es 1:10; Ps. 72:21; 101:5; 105:3, 25; Isa. 60:5; Jer. 11:20; Jn. 14:1;16:6; Rom. 19:2; Col. 3:12; 1 Tim. 1:5)

3. The heart wills or acts (2 Chron. 12:14; Ezra 7:10; Ps. 44:18; Prov. 3:1; Mt. 11:29; 12:34; 2 Cor. 9:7)

4. The heart praises God (Ps. 86:12)

5. The heart learns wisdom (Ps. 90:12)

6. The heart believes or expresses faith (Prov. 3:5; Mk. 11:23; Lk. 8:15; Jn. 14:1; Rom.10:9-10; Heb. 3:12)

7. The heart is where God’s word is sown (Ps. 119:11; Mt. 13:19; Lk. 8:15)

8. The heart is where honoring the Lord takes place (Mt. 15:8; Eph. 6:6)

9. The heart is tempted (Jn. 13:2; Ac. 15:3)

10. The heart is where plans are devised (Ac. 15:4)

11. The heart is where worship takes place (Eph. 5:19)

12. The heart is where God’s will is ultimately done (Eph. 6:6; Heb. 3:10; 10:22)

Dr. John Frame:

. . . center of the personality, the person himself in his most basic character. Scripture represents it as the source of thought, of volition, of attitude, of speech. It is also the seat of moral knowledge.

Dr. Morton H. Smith:

. . . the centre of the inner life of man and the source or seat of all forces and functions of soul and spirit.

John Flavel: But in the text we are to take it more generally, for the whole soul, or inner man. What the heart is to the body, that the soul is to the man; and what health is to the heart, that holiness is to the

soul. The state of the whole body depends upon the soundness and vigour of the heart, and the everlasting state of the whole man upon the good or ill condition of the soul (pg. 14).

Dr. Charles Hodge:

The biblical authors “recognize that there is an element of feeling in our cognitions and an element of intelligence in our feelings.”