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PURPOSE OF HEART

R. F. White

I would like to say a word about this expression “purpose of heart” that occurs in Acts 11

where we read. It is the exhortation of a good man; that is what it says of Barnabas, that “he was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith”. So if we would listen to a good man we could listen to Barnabas, and this exhortation he made to these new believers; it says, he

“rejoiced, and exhorted all with purpose of heart to abide with the Lord”. So I was thinking of this matter of “purpose of heart”, how it would be formed in us and how it would help us. I suppose there is nothing worse than to be aimless and purposeless because then you become a prey for everything that the world might offer and every idea that might be going about, and there are strong ideas, and the power to spread them strongly, at the present time. It is a great thing as believers to have purpose of heart, something fixed. David said that in the psalms,

“My heart is fixed”, Psalm 57: 7 and Psalm 108: 1. It is a great thing to come to something definite in the way of purpose in our lives, and according to this scripture it stands in connection with the Lord Jesus Christ. How blessed it is to think of that. If we are believers in the Lord Jesus something definite is to come into our affections as to Him and as to His things, and that is to guide us and help us and preserve us in the whole of our lives here. That is what I had in mind in reading these other references, to show that what comes into our lives early is intended by God to affect us in this way. That is an easy thing to say, but a big thing to think of, from the youngest to the oldest of us here that something might come into our hearts from the Lord Jesus, an impression of Himself and His greatness and His things, that gives us purpose and direction for the whole of our time here. I think it is a

wonderful concept. I commend it to you.

Barnabas is said to be “a good man”. We sometimes use that expression perhaps loosely, ‘He is a good man’. The scripture says of him, “he was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith”. And he knew what to say at the time. It is an interesting passage of scripture, and in reading it I draw your attention to the repeated references to “the Lord”. The Lord was setting something on, something definite. What a good thing it is to come to the acknowledgment of Jesus as the Lord; the Lord has entered into our lives. It says, “certain of them ... entering into Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, announcing the glad tidings of the Lord Jesus”. That is a blessed expression, that there is such a thing that can be spoken of in this world as “the glad tidings of the Lord Jesus”. Jesus is Lord and is available to all men. In a world of confusion, a world of moral confusion, a world marked by difficulties of every kind, there is such a thing as “the glad tidings of the Lord Jesus”, so that we can have definiteness and fixedness as in attachment to this blessed Man. If you want an example of the preaching of the Lord Jesus, I commend to you Peter’s address in chapter 10. He starts off by saying, “he is Lord of all things” (Acts 10: 36). Preaching to that Gentile company for the first time he speaks to them about One who is “Lord of all”, and in God’s ordering He has been set to bring salvation and forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit to all who believe in Him. How blessed it is to think of “the glad tidings of the Lord Jesus”! How blessed to open our hearts to those glad tidings, to accept the Lord Jesus into our lives, and then to have some purpose and fixity in relation to Him and to His things.

Think of the Lord Jesus Himself when here as a Man. Was there ever a man marked by purpose of heart such as Jesus? He says, “Behold, I come ... To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight, and thy law is within my heart”, Psalm 40: 7, 8. Think of the pathway of Jesus

here below, never deviating from the mind and will of God for an instant. What purpose marked Him in every step of His way. We can take account of Him now as “the leader and completer of faith” (Hebrews 12: 2). One who has gone before us. He endured, He suffered, but never did He deviate in any way. He is set before our affections as “the leader and completer of faith” that we might endure and persevere. Endurance is a great feature. We perhaps tend to undervalue it, but if you look through Scripture you will see that it is a precious feature to God as worked out in His saints, that is, the ability to persevere and go on patiently. There is a whole chapter in Hebrews, chapter 11, written about the men and women of faith, and it is written, as I understand it, to promote the feature of endurance with us, that is, the ability to persevere with purpose of heart. I commend the feature to you.

In this section another man comes on the scene, Paul, who speaks of his purpose. He wrote to Timothy about it, his “teaching, conduct, purpose ...”, 2 Timothy 3: 10. I suppose after the Lord Jesus there was never a man such as Paul marked by definiteness of purpose. He had Christ before Him and Christ’s things. He had been taken up in the most definite way and purpose marked Paul in all his activities. At the end of his course he could say, “I have combated the good combat, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith”, 2 Timothy 4: 7.

Purpose preserved him right through to the end. I bring this forward in the hope of attracting your interest in it and perhaps promoting something in your heart after the Lord Jesus Christ.

Maybe the world is making some suggestions to you, and things may not look so good here.

If you look around the company of saints with whom we walk, you may see smallness and perhaps be discouraged. But there is another side, we might listen to the exhortation of Barnabas who “exhorted all with purpose of heart to abide with the Lord”. There is something wonderful in view. Eternity is in view. The coming of the Lord is in view and our place with Him. It

is a wonderful thing that we have light as to these things. The Lord Jesus would give us light in our souls that we might be helped to commit ourselves with purpose of heart in the present course of things.

I just refer to these scriptures in the Old Testament. You might say it is easy to pick scriptures to refer to, and in a sense it is. But these things are written for our encouragement that,

“through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope”, Romans 15: 4. If we read the Old Testament and learn of the experiences of men and women there, we are intended to link on with them as having the same spirit of faith as these persons.

The intention is that we might be encouraged, because often in the Old Testament these persons did not see the end of things as we see it. They went on in their lives and they may not have seen anything very wonderful resulting from their committal, but the Spirit of God has put these things on record for us that we might be encouraged to see that God is looking on, He has taken account. He has recorded it, just as we might say He has recorded every step in the pathway of every one of us. Every act of faithfulness and committal and devotion, the blessed God has taken account of it; it is recorded and will have a result in glory, it will clothe His saints in that day. And so we refer to these instances because we can see, I think, the feature of purpose of heart. Indeed it is mentioned in respect of Daniel. The thing I want to point out is that it becomes influential. Persons that have purpose of heart become influential for good. Where the Lord has set us in our localities, or wherever else He may have put us, we need to be influential for good. And we will only be so as there is something definite in the way of purpose of heart manifesting itself, or marking us, or characterising us.

Now Daniel apparently was a young man. He is spoken of as a youth, and he finds himself in these strange circumstances, and he comes to something in his

heart. You might say it is a negative thing, and I have wondered sometimes what was in Daniel’s mind and heart when he came to this. It says, “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not pollute himself with the king’s delicate food”. It is good if we can come to things for ourselves. We know when we are young that we tend to think that things are put upon us, and we are told we cannot do certain things, and that may grate, and because there is difficulty of spirit we may rebel against it. We have all done it, because we who are older have been young, and we know what it is. But here is Daniel, and nobody put this on him. He came to it, it would seem, himself, that he would not pollute himself with the king’s delicate food. What did he mean by it? l am not sure that I know exactly, but one thing strikes me, it was the king’s food, and I expect that you could give it the application that if he was eating the king’s food he would become somewhat like this king. We have been taught that we become somewhat like what we feed upon, especially morally; what we feed upon tends to affect us or influence us and we become somewhat like it. I think that Daniel took account of this king and he decided he did not want to be like that. This man had destroyed Jerusalem and its walls. As this book shows us, he was a man full of pride, he set up an idol and an image, and God had to humble him and bring him down, and He did. But I think Daniel saw these things and said to himself, I do not want to be like that. Now that is something to come to. If you think of the men in the world that people look up to and admire, whether it is in any sphere, politics or sport or the world of business, or whatever it might be, it might be a good thing to start and say, I do not want to be like that.

If you do not want to be like that, then you have to feed on something else. Daniel was given other food, and that formed him. I am not sure what the pulse would suggest, but at least it produced a result in Daniel, and Daniel became influential. You see his companions also were influenced by his decision, because it goes on to

say, “Daniel said to the steward … Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink”. You see how this young man who had come to something for himself in his own heart was influential with his companions. That is a hard thing, to be different so we become influential to those who are nearest to us. Well so it was with Daniel, he took this decision early in his life, he decided there was something he did not want to be like, and he became formed in a different way. For us it would be feeding on Jesus and the things of Jesus, to become more like that Man. May an impression of the blessedness of that Man enter our souls, that we might be formed after Him to be like Him. May that be our desire.

Think of what Daniel became as this book proceeds, a “man greatly beloved”, Daniel 10: 11, 19. God took account of him and his desires and his prayers and he became a “man greatly beloved”, and God gave him light that He gave to no other. He gave him light about the Messiah. The only reference in the Old Testament to the Messiah is in Daniel, it was given to Daniel, “Messiah, the Prince”, Daniel 9: 25. Daniel was one who loved His appearing. He was given light as to Christ and His appearing, “a stone was cut out without hands ... the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth”, Daniel 2: 34, 35. I commend it to the younger ones. There is great interest in the prophetic books. The interest is in finding Christ in them, and finding something of His glories in them, finding how He is spoken of and how His glories are expanded. And think of how, through a man like Daniel, who began in this small way, with purpose of heart not to eat the king’s delicate food. God gave light as to Christ, light as to His greatness, light as to His coming, light that even goes beyond our time. One of the interesting things about Scripture is to find in the New Testament the things that have been fulfilled already, and to think of that which will yet be fulfilled. Just as certainly as some have been fulfilled, that which remains will be fulfilled in

God’s faithfulness and according to His own word.

I just speak briefly of Nehemiah. Sometimes you take up these books of the Old Testament and you say, What interest could there be for us in the building of the walls of Jerusalem thousands of years ago? What instruction could there be for us in that? Yet, as you start to think about it and enquire about it, you find there is great interest and instruction in it, for the Spirit of God has put these things on record for us. And so we have this man, Nehemiah. I suggest he is an older man, with a job far from Jerusalem, cupbearer to the king, when he heard tidings about Jerusalem, and it says, “I asked them concerned the Jews that had escaped, who were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, Those who remain, that are left of the captivity there in the province, are in great affliction and reproach; and the wall of Jerusalem is in ruins, and its gates are burned with fire. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat and wept, and mourned for days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of the heavens”, Nehemiah 1: 2–4. I have been interested in looking at that because this was not exactly something new. The walls of Jerusalem had been burned and destroyed at least seventy years before, but at this moment in Nehemiah’s history the fact entered into his soul in this deep way and affected him, and governed his conduct for the rest of his life. He got an impression about something at this stage which governed him and all his actions, and governed the purpose of his heart from this day to the end of the recorded information about him in this book. And it was about Jerusalem. In our language I suppose it would be that he was affected by the state of things in the church, and not only that, I suggest he was affected by what had come in, as we would speak of it, into the recovery of the truth. What had come in in the way of ruin and in the way of sorrow entered into his soul in a real way at this point in his life. Have such things ever entered into your soul? It is not to make us depressed or to cast us down or even to

dwell unduly on things that have happened and what Satan has done. But we can be like Nehemiah, we can feel them deeply and speak to God about them. How important that is.

He was a man who was near to God. You see in chapter 1 how he gets a question from the king, and he turns to God in prayer before he answers. What a man Nehemiah was! And now he makes this journey to Jerusalem. What struck me in the few verses that we read, was that Nehemiah comes and he sees for himself what it is really like. He had heard about it, he made the journey, he comes to Jerusalem, and he goes out and see for himself what it is really like.

He says, “there was no beast with me, except the beast that I rode upon. And I went out by night by the valley-gate, even toward the jackal-fountain, and to the dung-gate; and I viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were in ruins, and its gates were consumed with fire”. You might have said, What a depressing sight. He might as well have given up and gone back to where he came from. Perhaps it was worse than he thought. Here he saw it for himself. But you see he had something in his heart to do, and he says, “I told no man what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem”. What was he going to do? What he had in mind was to build. He says, “let us build” (Nehemiah 2: 17). See how influential he is, “I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me; as also of the king’s words which he had said unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build”, Nehemiah 2: 18. These persons who were there were influenced now by Nehemiah, a man who came with something in his heart.

Dear brethren, let us look around and take account of things and the conditions that exist.

There is the ruin of the church which can never be repaired publicly, and there is what has come into the recovery of the truth which has caused confusion and sorrow to every one of us here.

The word is, “let us build”. Nehemiah came to build, he came to be constructive. What am I then in my

local assembly? Am I on this line of building? The pulling down, the destruction, is dramatic; the building is a slower process, a more difficult process. The building process is more painstaking, more intrinsically interesting, but requiring harder work and labour and perseverance. As you read this interesting book you see how persons were put to work on the wall that you might have thought had no building skills whatsoever—perfumers and goldsmiths and people like that. You see how all make themselves available as this one man, Nehemiah, sets things on, coming with purpose in his heart to build. Let us build. That is the word to us, I believe, at the present time. It is easy to knock down. It is easy to cause divisions, but the word through Nehemiah is, “Let us build”, let us be constructive. You see later on how he meets external threats and also internal threats. But he did not deviate from what was in his heart, he had come to build. He had an impression of what, we might say in our language, the assembly was for Christ, and he would build. We are not setting up a replica of the church, as Mr. Raven taught; we do not set up any little replica, but we can be recovered to the principles of the fellowship, and the truth of the assembly, which our Lord Jesus Christ has never given up and the Holy Spirit of God has never departed from, and we can be encouraged to build as having purpose of heart.

I just pass on briefly to Joshua. We have often spoken of Caleb, and the older ones here have often heard about him. Now Caleb, where he speaks in this passage, is an old man, eighty-five years of age. We have older brethren amongst us, and it is wonderful to take account of persons who have gone through their lives with purpose of heart and have continued, and the Lord has preserved them and helped them. How thankful we are for such. It would be a great thing for Satan to overthrow an old believer. Paul was conscious of Satan’s attacks on him right to the end. He speaks of himself as “Paul the aged”, Philemon 1: 9. I do not know what age he

was, but it is a sad thing if Satan gets an advantage against an older believer. He never gives up. But Caleb was preserved. An impression came into his heart when he was forty. There might be brothers and sisters here who are forty or thereabouts. That is a good age to get an impression. Caleb was forty when he went to search out the land, when he went to see the land that God had marked out for His people. The purpose of God came before him in a definite way. It was the land that God had assigned to His people. Twelve men went to search it out and Caleb got an impression then which never left him. For forty-five years he continued; he had seen a whole generation perish; he saw ten of those of his companions who went with him perish.

What experiences Caleb had had, but he never lost for an instant this impression that had come into his heart as to the land. How important it is for us to have an impression in our hearts of the purpose of God, what He has in mind for us as believers. This purpose is not to give us a piece of earth here as He gave to the nation of Israel. His purpose is to link us with His blessed Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in heaven. He would give us the light and joy of that in our hearts that we have a place, beyond this sphere, with Christ where He is. The book of Joshua, we have been taught, is not so much about what is actually in heaven, but a people living together in their local assemblies in the enjoyment of what is heavenly, set together in relation to one another and in the enjoyment of the portion that is ours. Caleb had the light of that, and Caleb was influential, I suggest, at least in his family. You find later he has a daughter who has right desires. I suggest Caleb was an influential man, and he said, “Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of Jehovah sent me from Kadesh-barnea to search out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in my heart”. It never left his heart. It marked him, it gave direction and purpose to his life and he was preserved. He says, “I wholly followed Jehovah my God”.

Well it is easy to speak about it, is it not? It is there in the scripture for us and it is quite easy for me to stand here and go over these things, but I bring them forward because the Spirit of God intends us to link on with these persons. We may have the same spirit of faith that they had and we should take encouragement from seeing that there are those that were here in flesh and blood conditions, men and women like ourselves, with all the things that attach to that condition, and yet something came into their lives from God that preserved them and kept them and helped them. I just desire to encourage us in these ways, that there may come something of purpose, of definiteness into our lives that would preserve us and keep us and help us. May it be so, for the Lord’s sake.

Address at East Finchley
3 November 2001

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