THE BELIEVER’S AFFECTIONS
Acts 16:25; Luke 15:24-32; Daniel 1:8-16
At our reading on Lord’s day afternoon, it impressed me that Christianity is a heart matter. Our appreciation of it relies on our affections being engaged with God, and I would like to develop this thought, because it is so important that our hearts are engaged with divine Persons and things. Indeed, if our hearts are not engaged with them, we will be somewhat hollow, but if our hearts are engaged, a whole spiritual world opens up for the believer.
In Acts 16, we see a wonderful set of circumstances. Paul and Silas had been beaten and were fresh from their beatings, with their stripes and wounds perhaps still raw, and yet there they were, praising God with singing. That could only have come from their hearts. How could they, in such circumstances, sing and praise God unless there was affection for God in their hearts that could rise above such circumstances and be able to overcome what was outwardly cruel and no doubt still hurting. They were able not only to sing, but to praise God with singing. How wonderful it was that, in such adverse circumstances, the substantiality of their link with the Lord Jesus was maintained in their hearts. Their affections for divine Persons helped them to rise above the adversity and provide something for God. The other prisoners would have never heard anything like this before and they would probably never hear anything like it again. My impression is quite simple. Paul and Silas had something substantial in their hearts, and believers are given something substantial in their hearts. In the glad tidings, God appeals to your affections, He appeals to your heart because He wants your heart:
‘If He claims our hearts’ affections
Unreservèd as His own’ (Hymn 111)
He wants your heart and He has done everything to deal with all that would hinder by the provision of His well-beloved Son, the One in whom He found His delight, that One who died and whose blood was shed, who lay in the grave three days and three nights, who rose from the dead and who ascended. The Lord Jesus has provided the answer to your needs and my needs, but God wants your affections for Himself.
We have a wonderful gift given to us to enable us to have our hearts set in the right way and that is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Naturally speaking, you can try to do what is right in your own power, but we all know how far short we come – I say that of myself rather than anybody else. I am sure we have all experienced it to varying degrees. Even when we try really hard, it does not work out, and that points to the weakness of man, to the weakness of the flesh. But the gift of the Holy Spirit that we have been given is to help us in our desires, help us in our affections. Divine Persons support us in doing what is right, not in our own strength or effort, but because we can know that inner strength of a divine Person being in us to support and sustain and encourage the believer. We know there are many and varied services of the Holy Spirit, but the support of the believer in daily life is a wonderful service. It is something that we can all not only experience, but draw on not just in times of difficulty but in times of normality as well. It is not only when things are hard that we need the Spirit, although His power is so valuable when things are hard, but in day to day life we need His power to sustain our affections for divine Persons.
In Daniel, we see a young man who had purpose of heart. That is more than making your mind up to do what is right. Purpose of heart in the believer is related to how God feels about things and is related to our links with divine Persons. Here was a young man, and what an opportunity he had! Favour had been bestowed upon him; he was in the king’s palace. All the king’s wonderful food was placed before him, what opportunities lay before him, but Daniel purposed in His heart not to eat it. Where did he get that from? He obtained that from his links with his God. Naturally speaking, he could have said, ‘I am going to enjoy myself and all that is here and I will do the best I can’. You could understand that, but Daniel was given strength beyond his own strength to do what was right. He was faithful and God blessed him, and not only that, there was evidence of his blessing. There was evidence that what he had been feeding on was better than the king’s delicate food, was more substantial. Here was a young man who was seeking to live in a way that was pleasing to his God.
We do not read this part of Luke 15 very much; we normally speak about the younger son and all that he did, and how he came to himself and was blessed with forgiveness. But I wanted to speak about his brother, because you can see quite clearly from this scripture that here was someone who was outwardly committed to serving his father, but whose heart was not in it. I think that is what you can take from this scripture. The elder son says in effect, ‘I have never transgressed your commandments, I have lived my life by the letter of the law’, but his heart was not in it, for he did not know his father’s heart. He resented all that was now taking place in his father’s house and as a consequence of that he missed the blessing, despite being so near. The younger son had been so far away, but he came back and was brought into nearness again to enjoy a relationship that he had forfeited, the relationship of sonship and to enjoy it in a way he had never enjoyed it before. But his brother was a man who had never done any of that. It struck me that sometimes we can spend our lives on the fringe of things, we can be ostensibly going along normally but our hearts are not in it. Our affections have to be engaged with divine Persons and there is a need with every one of us for our hearts to be in it. Indeed I would go further, and say that there is always room to deepen in our affections for God. You never reach a stage where you can say, ‘Now I have achieved that’; there is always room for our hearts to be more and more engaged with our Lord and Saviour, with our heavenly Father, with the Holy Spirit.
The elder son was there in the environs of the house, but outside the blessing. You can be so near and yet so far away and that is something to think about. The dangers of the far country are very obvious, we all know them; they are probably greater now than they were then, but there are other dangers. You can be nominally engaged with the things of God and to an extent that is what this man represents. He would probably be seen as an upright person, in contrast to his brother who had gone so far away, but the younger son, because he had come to repentance, was forgiven and entered fully into the joy of his father’s house. The elder son was not experiencing the joy of the father’s house; it says that he “would not go in” despite his father going out and beseeching him. It does not say the father came back again, but there is still the appeal, there is still the seeking by the father in this portion of scripture. I think it is a warning not to be lukewarm, not to be there just on the fringe of things. The blessings of Christianity are available when our hearts are in it.
We have been reading in Samuel on Lord’s days and I remember when we read the passage about when David was quite desirous to settle down in a country town (1 Sam.27:5); at that point he had lost heart to some extent. Our dear brother here often reminds us that David was always recoverable, and how true that is; he was recovered. There were several times when he waned in his affections and sometimes very seriously, with sad and disastrous consequences. I do not wish to dwell on that, but David was recoverable, and he was recovered. I think that is an encouragement, when you find that you are not really in things, and the Father would seek to bring you in. He wants your heart, He wants your affections, He wants you to enjoy everything that He has in mind for you, and you cannot do that unless your heart is in it. It is as simple as that. This requires your affections to be towards God and for your heart to be engaged with Him.
I felt encouraged to say something about this because you can see the benefits throughout Scripture to those whose hearts were engaged with God’s things, whose hearts were stirred towards divine Persons and lived accordingly, in contrast to the sadness of the elder son who was so near but yet not enjoying the blessing. May we be encouraged for His name’s sake.
Word in a meeting for ministry, Edinburgh
4 June 2019
David H Marshall