IS THY HEART RIGHT?

IS THY HEART RIGHT?

2 Kings 10: 15-17; Hosea 2: 14-17; Revelation 3: 14-22

The question put by Jehu is a question which the Lord would wish to raise at the present time among the saints — “Is thy heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?”

As for the Lord, we can be assured that His heart is right. He says, “My heart is with thy heart”. But is our heart right? Can we give Him our hand as a sign that we are right? Jehu says to Jonadab, “If it be, give me thy hand”.

Here, it is a question of idolatry. Jehu was going to destroy Baal; he was not going to save Ahab and his sons and Jezebel; now he was going to destroy all the priests of Baal, so that God should be supreme.

“Is thy heart right?” Do you have an idol in your heart, or are you with Me? Dear brethren, since we are to be taken by the Lord, idols must be removed from our hearts. In Christendom, idolatry reigns;

idols abound there — not just idols of wood and stone. “Children”, says the apostle John, “keep yourselves from idols”. What is the goal of our life? Are we living for ourselves? Is there something outside of Jesus which directs our life? The second epistle to Timothy speaks of many idols — “In the last days... men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money”, self becoming an idol, “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”. These things are idols.

So the Lord asks, “Is thy heart right?” Are we with Him in judging that which is not according to Himself, judging idols, so that He might be supreme. At the beginning of the assembly’s history, there were no idols among Christians; all things were common to them. The Lord had such a place in hearts that nothing came between them and Him; now this is what He would wish to produce in the assembly today. When a bride’s wedding day comes, her heart is right; no-one occupies her husband’s place. This is what the Lord awaits from His own.

Is our heart right? Can we give Him our hand? Jehu says, “Give me thy hand”. What do we have in our hands? Are they clean? Are they holy?

The Lord is looking at them. When we come to the prayer meeting, are we ready to “lift up pious hands, without wrath or reasoning” (1 Timothy 2: 8)? God sees the state of our hands.

I think that the passage which we have read in Hosea 2 will be able to help us. The Lord said, “Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart”. He would wish to present Himself to us in such a way that we would be ready to go into the desert, drawn by His affection — there He will speak to our heart. It is what He does at the supper. The supper takes place in the wilderness; it is there that He speaks to our heart. He says, “My heart is right”. Every time we break bread He says, “This is my body, which is given for you” and “this cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you”. The heart of the Lord is right. What about our heart? I think that, every first day of the week, the supper tests us; are we able to respond to the Lord’s invitation? Dear brethren, can we say to Him, “My husband”.

“And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah, that thou shalt call me, My husband, and shalt call me no more, Baali (my master)”. To call him “My husband” is to say that He is supreme in our heart. He would wish to remove the word Baal from our mouth — “I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth”. There are many Baals in this world, “lords many” (1 Corinthians 8: 5); but for us there is a single Lord who desires that we should be able to say to Him, “My husband”. So, week after week, He comes to us and He says, “My heart is right; the love found there is perfect; nothing is lacking there”. But He wishes to know if our heart is right in relation to His. Dear brethren, can we say to Him, “My husband?” Would He have a rival? Would other things occupy our heart? Or can we say truly, “My husband”. It is in this way that we break bread, in refusal of the Baals; the Lord is our only Lord, our husband.

We find the same thought in Revelation 3. The Lord is knocking at the door. This door is the heart of the assembly. Laodicea’s public position is false — the Lord is outside. Laodicea says, “I am rich, and am grown rich, and have need of nothing”; but the Lord is outside. This is how things are in the professing church and it is precisely what we have to overcome, dear brethren. There can be claim to having everything, when, in fact, nothing is possessed — the Lord is outside. He says, “Behold, I stand at the door and am knocking”; He desires to enter our heart, but in order for Him to enter, our heart must be right.

He continues — “if any one ...open the door, I will come in unto him...” The assembly will never be recovered publicly, because it has left its first love. This is the Lord’s reproach to Ephesus, where hearts had become distanced from Him — “...thou hast left thy first love”; hearts were not right in relation to His heart. But the Lord says to Laodicea, “If any one... open”; He addresses individuals. The Lord is working to recover each heart to the truth of the assembly.

“If any one... open the door, I will come in”. He can only enter the heart that is right. This is what happens each Lord’s Day — the Lord knocks at the door of our heart to see if He can enter; if there are idols, He will not be able to enter. He stands outside for as long as other things occupy His place.

But He desires that we should open the door. As this happens, He says, “I will come in unto him and sup with him...”. Could anything be more precious? He will sup with us; He will come where we are, here in the wilderness; if the door is open, He will enter. Do we know a little of this? When we gather, do we prove the reality of His presence? His desire is that we should have the consciousness of His presence on Lord’s Day morning. Oh! how we should desire it! How worthy it is of our joy! Let us not rest without it. May we not be satisfied with any external form of things! We need nothing but His presence and we can enjoy it if we are free from idols, if our heart is right, if we open the door to Him.

We thus allow nothing to occupy the place which belongs to the Lord. He comes in and sups with us, here where we are; we have His blessed presence and we delight in it.

But this is not all; if things are thus, He then says that such will sup with Him. Words cannot express what that means; it is too great to be described by words.

“I will... sup with him” is the Lord coming to where I am, in the wilderness, while the night of His betrayal continues, in the place where we have to judge what is unholy, where all the priests of Baal are put to death.

“And he with me”. I think, dear brethren, that this is something which should be known. I do not know if the saints here enjoy this, if they know what it is to leave our sphere here in the wilderness, in order to enter in spirit where He is. Lazarus in resurrection was “with him” here, “one of those at table with him”. Peter, James and John were “with him” on the holy mountain.

So then, if the door is opened, the saints receive Him where they are. But after the supper, if we are ready for it, He leads us in spirit to where He is. After the supper, they sang a hymn and went to the mount of Olives; it is the place where there is contact with heaven, where everything is spiritual. He leads us to the Father. We read in John 14, “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be”.

Dear brethren, this may be known now in some measure. How we would desire that each heart might be more attached to Him, to remove all idols so that the hand can be given to Him with uprightness of heart. So then we shall hear Him speak to our heart and we shall be able to say to Him in all truth, “My husband”. If it is thus, as He knocks, the door opens, He comes in and He gives us to have the joy of His presence just where we are. Then, in our spirits, He transports us to where He is. This is the most precious thing in our life; nothing like it can be known by the heart of the saints. To enter briefly where He is, in the consciousness and joy of our position in the Beloved, the love of the Father resting on us, Christ dwelling in our heart, what an infinitely precious part to which nothing can be compared.

In the book of Hosea, the Lord speaks of another door and this door is of the greatest importance. It refers to the valley of Achor which is “a door of hope”, a door giving access to wonderful blessings. This is the valley in which Achan was stoned to death; there we have to judge everything which is Babylonish. Achan had taken a Babylonish garment; this is judged in the valley of Achor in such a way that the valley becomes a door of hope.

We are called to face up to this matter of idolatry. It will cause agony, trouble without which there will be no hope. What are our motives? What is hidden from the eyes of all is exposed to the eyes of the Lord, which makes it necessary to examine our friendships, what we read and what we do. All these things entail trouble (Achor means trouble) and the flesh recoils from this thought but the valley of trouble is the door of hope through which we pass so that Christ may be called “my husband”. It is the place of the assembly prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. It is a relationship which each of us can know individually. What we are collectively depends on what we are individually.

Let us suppose that there is a small group of believers in Paris whose heart is undivided, who belong entirely to the Lord. They come together; how quickly the door opens! How easy it is, then, to say, “my husband”. We have to face up to this individually. We are often grieved by the weakness of the meetings but if there is weakness in the meetings, it is because there is weakness individually. “Is thy heart right?” Let us ask ourselves individually, “Is my heart right?” May each take it to heart for himself, in order to give Christ the place of the husband in our secret life and that fresh days may be known in meetings. He will knock at the door at the occasion of the supper; the door will open, we shall know the blessing of His presence and He will raise us to the level of heaven in our spirits, for, from that point, we can enter there by the Spirit.

I think that the proposal made to Laodicea is of the greatest importance at the present time. Shall we be satisfied by having only the form of things without His presence? He hates that. “I would thou wert cold or hot”. He wishes to be able to enter and we desire that He should enter. The secret is the judgement of idolatry. Jehu says to Jonadab, “Come with me”. He showed him how he would destroy the idols, the entire system of Baal. Jonadab accompanied him with purpose of heart in the refusal of idolatry. This is what we must do, dear brethren, so that none should occupy Christ’s place. We can say to Him, “my husband”. He will come in unto us and sup with us and we with Him. To be conscious of His presence, to enter in spirit where He is, to realise that where He is, we are also with Him is more than words can express.

May the Lord give us, in this locality, to enjoy a little of this. He awaits that thus it should be, so that the Spirit and the bride should say, “Come”. When the bride says, “Come”, her heart is right. The Lord desires to hear this as the language of our hearts, in this city, and wherever His own are found.