THE FIXED HEART

 THE FIXED HEART

Psalms 57:7 (KJV)

My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

 

Psalms 108:1 (KJV)

A Song or Psalm of David. O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.

 

Psalms 112:7 (KJV)

He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.

 

Among the most common uses of the work fixe or fixed is the idea of repairing or restoring a thing.

 

Friday my son came to the house and fixed my fence and a couple of leaking faucets.[1] I would like to have said he helped me fix my fence but I am not positive that would give an accurate picture of what happened. He fixed the fence. I supported him doing it.

 

The fence had gone into disrepair over twenty years of use. It’s been: 

·   Chewed on by horses and goats, 

·   Climbed on by grandchildren, 

·   Run into by me while pulling my trailer and finally 

·   Leaned on by cattle 

until one morning I heard a loud popping sound and saw my calves running through my yard.

 

If I am to ever have any more livestock, I had to get the fence fixed.

 

I found it to be interesting that, as I began to study for this message, I almost came to believe that it was not proper English to use the word fixed in this manner.

 

Neither Merriam Webster’s 1828 dictionary nor the online version of Merriam Webster’s dictionary give to repair or restore a thing.

 

I think it was Cambridge Online Dictionary that redeemed my English.[2]

 

The Psalmist said, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed.”

 

It seems to me a case could be made for having a fixed heart in the sense of a restored or repaired heart.

 

We enter this world under the curse of the sin nature and the presence of sin wounds our heart.[3]

 

We get, 

·   Cheated on

·   Lied to

·   Laughed at

·   Stolen from

·   Jilted

Disappointments, discouragements, and difficulties pile up so that we become bitter, angry and our hearts become grieved, broken and full of anger.

 

We can have:

·   Hard hearts

·   Black hearts

·   Wicked hearts

·   Broken hearts

But Jesus offers us a new heart.

 

So I can see a good case for asking God to fix our hearts.

 

But that isn’t what the word “fix” originally meant, and it is certainly not its primary meaning.

 

Webster’s 1828 dictionary gives it the definition, “Settled; established; firm; fast; stable.”

 

About the closest thing to really fixing my fence that Caleb did Friday is to nail down some boards.

 

To nail something down, that’s a legitimate part of the definition of the word.

 

The history of the word actually has more to do with planting something.

 

From this definition, and from the three verses in Psalms where the Bible speaks of the fixed heart, I want to preach to you three truths.

 

I. IT HAS ROOTS, SO IT SURVIVES DIFFICULTY

Psalms 57:6-7 (KJV)

They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.

My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

 

The Psalmist, who is certainly King David describes a very difficult time.

They were times of calamities 

verse 1

They were times of reproach

Verse 3

He was among lions, spears, arrows and swords

Verse 4

 

He said they had prepared a net for his steps and digged a pit before him so that his soul was bowed down.

 

This was hard.

 

Ever had some hard times?

I think some of us are going through the most difficult times of our lives.

 

I have never heard so many pastors reference so often, how difficult things are right now.

I prayed for a list of preachers the other day and sent them a short text to tell them so.

 

I do not like getting groups texts.

Ones where they broadcast it to who knows how many people, but it looks like it is personal, so, whenever I send a message, I always send personal ones.

 

I did that a few days ago.

One pastor wrote back to say, “Amen. Got zero sleep last night and this morning I did my devotions and prayed for you”

Another one wrote to say, “Thank you for these words brother. I am in a situation today where I truly am seeking the truth. Not from a biblical standpoint but dealing with circumstances”

Another wrote back to say, “Thank you, my friend! I cannot remember a more trying time in my ministry. The prayers are much appreciated.”

 

I told you I think last week that Jack Trieber was almost in tears as he reported that he was not going to be able to open the college this semester.

 

He said that he had been in communication with one of his state representatives who said, “Pastor Trieber, I’ve never heard you discouraged before.” He told the Representative, “I’m not discouraged, I’m heart broken.”

 

I do hear positive reports from time to time, but even in them, it’s not the same.

One pastor wrote, “We never obeyed our governor and we are running 2/3rds our normal attendance.”

 

I know pastors are not the only people who feel like they are surrounded by, “…the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.”[4]

 

King David said, Psalms 57:7 (KJV)

My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

 

Notice he says “my heart is fixed” twice.

 

He’d planted his heart deep, so those roots could find lots of fresh water.

 

He was going to survive this trouble.

But it wasn’t going to come from any shallow religious experience.

 

He needed to tap down into the very source of God.

 

I just want to say a short devotion and a simple prayer won’t get you through serious trouble.

 

I do not want to discourage you, nor do I want to criticize what you have been doing in your walk with the Lord.

 

But I do want to encourage you to dig deeper.

 

Separate from things that are worldly and spend more time doing things that bring your soul into communion with God.

·   Bible reading and meditation

·   Prayer

·   Writing, journaling your communion with the Lord

 

Psalms 1:1-6 (KJV)

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

 

Concerning the fixed heart, 

II. IT STANDS TALL, SO IT IS STRONG AND CONFIDENT

Psalms 108:1 (KJV)

A Song or Psalm of David. O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.

 

Psalm 108 ends with the following, 

Psalms 108:11-13 (KJV)

Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts?

Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.

Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.

 

Though he has enemies, trouble and difficulties, he is not afraid.

 

·   God would help him in trouble

·   God would help him to valiantly

·   God would tread down his enemies.

 

Notice first of all

A. He had been chastened of God

Vs 11

Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts?

 

This life is supposed to be a period of refinement, correction and molding into the image of the Lord.

 

Do not expect that to be easy.

 

Just as he did in the life of Job, expect that God will use adversity, enemies and even the devil, to bring about that refining.

 

When it is over, you will come forth as gold.[5]

 

B. He had rejected the help of men

Vs 12

Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.

 

In my estimation this is one of the most necessary things I see in modern Christianity.

 

We have had so many resources for help we haven’t ever needed to rely upon the Lord and many of us do not know how.

 

We have no experience doing it

We think god helps us by putting us in the path of the help of man.

 

I had a conversation with a missionary last week. He was complaining about how broken the current system of missions support is.

 

I tried to remind him that.

1. It is always easy to pick on the things we think are hard

2. People work their whole lives to get to travel around the country and visit new places (something missionaries complain about)

3. Missionaries have the most reliable form of support today than in any time in history

4. Anabaptist missionaries often thought support was being given the skills and tools they needed earn a living on the field. 

 

It was either Hudson Taylor or David Livingston who worked for a doctor in England while they studied in theology school. The doctor they worked for was forgetful and often would not pay him his salary. 

He decided to ask God, to remind the doctor and never to remind him personally.

 

He reasoned that if he could not trust God to tell the doctor, who saw him every day, to remember to pay him, how could he ever trust God to tell the churches back home, whom he would not see in person perhaps ever again to send him his support.

 

I’m just saying we haven’t had to exercise much faith probably in the last 150 years. So not many of us know how to do it.

 

C. It was God who would tread down the enemy

Vs 13

Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.

 

This is an interesting verse.

Through God we shall do valiantly.

So the people of God are going to do something. And it is going to be valiant.

·   It’s going to be effective

·   It’s going to work

 

…for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.

The people of God will not tread down their enemies. God will do that.

 

It’s not us who accomplishes anything. It’s always God.

 

When Jesus returns in Revelation 19, the armies of heaven follow Him. But He conquers his enemies all by himself.

 

Brother Tad sent me a message thanking me for allowing him to preach last Wednesday. He said, “I’m thankful you’re doing a great work in the PNW!”

I responded to him, “Well, I am working in the PNW. If anything great is happening that’s God.”

 

I was thinking the other day, my whole ministry has been a series of failures on my part, followed by rescue on God’s part.

 

I am not going to list them right now but over and over again I have stepped out by faith, found out I was absolutely incapable of doing what I set out to do, so God did it for me.

 

And then I realized that is what I had set out to do all along. Before I ever went to Bible College, I heard Jerry Falwell say that we ought to climb out on a limb so far that, if God doesn’t hold us up, we will fall for sure.

 

All of these years, I’ve kept climbing out on limbs and God has kept saving me on them.

 

And I am happy to live the rest of my life keeping at it.

 

The most pleasant memories in my life are not about the things I have done, but about the ways God has saved me from the things I have done.

 

Finally concerning the fixed heart

III. IT IS OBVIOUS, SO IT GIVES GLORY TO GOD

Psalms 112:7-10 (KJV)

He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.

His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies.

He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honour.

The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.

 

From verse 11 I see that the man with the fixed heart

Is generous

He hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor

 

Is righteous

his righteousness endureth for ever

He is Christlike, he is godly

 

Is reputable

his horn shall be exalted with honour

 

The horn has to do with his authority and power.

 

People know him to be a man of dignity.

 

And notice this, 

The wicked shall see it, and be grieved…

 

His reputation is not only among his friends, but also those who are wicked.

 

He brings glory to God in all the venues of his life.

 

And it all goes back to his fixed heart.

 

Not just that he says, “I will not move from my faith.”

 

But that he has purposely planted his roots deeply in the things of God.

 

Conclusion

So I want to ask you today, How is your relationship with God?

 

Is it fixed, rooted, real?

 

Is it genuine?

 

Can you speak with the Lord?

Can you trust the Lord without leaning on a person to hold you up?[6]

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[1] A hose bib and a yard hydrant.

[2] Though even that was the only dictionary I could find with this definition and I was unable to find it there the second time I looked.

[3] Psalms 109:22 (KJV)

For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.

[4] Psalms 57:4

[5] Job 23:10 (KJV)

But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

[6] God will put people in your life to help you, that’s for sure, but can you trust the Lord without trusting them?

Why We Use Only the King James Bible

Why We Use Only the King James Bible

Could He? Would He? Did He?

For a powerpoint presentation to accompany this click here.

Psalms 12:6-7 (KJV)

The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.

My goal for tonight’s message is a daunting one.

I need to endeavor to tell you why we use only the King James Bible.

And more so, why it is the only one that anyone Christian should use.

·   We believe that it has no mistakes

·   We believe it needs no corrections

·   We believe it cannot be improved upon

That’s a pretty bold position and, honestly, not very popular.

·   Not everyone who uses the King James Version believes that it is without error.

·   But everyone who uses a different version believes that their Bible does have errors.[1]

People with much more formal education than I have argue and debate these things all the time.

When the debate comes up among Independent Baptists someone will usually say this, “You aren’t going to convince me and I am not going to convince you. Let’s just agree to disagree and move on.”

·   Linguists

·   Bible Scholars and

·   Preachers

have been debating this issue for just about 200 years.

I have no illusions of being able to convince you in 35-40 minutes.

But I don’t think the debate can be won the way most go about it anyway.

·   I don’t think the facts about the different Bibles will really convince anyone.

·   I don’t think the differences between the manuscripts used to translate the Bible will impress anyone

·   I don’t think criticizing Westcott and Hort, the original attackers of the King James Bible will change anyone’s mind

Let me just say:

1. From 1611 to about 1876, the King James Bible is the undisputed, authorized Bible of the English speaking world.

2. In late 1800’s two scholars, Westcott and Hort, produced a Greek version of the Bible based on a family of ancient texts the King James Translators rejected[2] and immediately attacked the King James Bible as having errors because it did not have the benefit of their own Greek text to work from.

3. Every version of the Bible besides the King James, is based upon the work of Westcott and Hort. [3]

4. The Textus Receptus, upon which the King James is based, comes from 1000’s of ancient manuscripts. The Westcott and Hort/Nestle text is based on primarily just three ancient texts, their argument being that they are better because they are older.

5. Every other version of the Bible rests on the philosophy that the Bible has been corrupted by time and people and that we depend on modern scholarship to make it as close to what God meant to say as possible.

What I want to do tonight is to appeal to the character of God as the only necessary argument for the preservation of the infallible Word of God.

·   I know the Bible is true. further. 

·   I know that the Bible I am preaching from today is completely true and has no error. 

I want to address a doctrine called the preservation of Scripture.

I want to approach the subject with three questions:

·   Could God preserve His Words without error if He chose to do so?

·   Would God have a reason to preserve His words to man without error? And finally

·   Did God preserve His Word for us?

I. COULD GOD?

Job 42:1-2 KJV

Then Job answered the LORD, and said,

I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.

Many years ago, while I was the Executive Vice President of Heartland Baptist Bible College, I prepared a message out of this passage. One of my best friends was Jamie Jett.

·   He served as our Dean of Men at the time but 

·   He had also been a pastor for many years.

As I was preparing that message, Brother Jett came into my office and I began to talk to him about the text. I commented that one of my first observations when beginning to study the passage was that it says God can do everything, not God can to anything. And we began talking about the difference Brother Jett illustrated the difference by saying, “There is a huge difference between saying 

·   “Honey, I am going to the store. Do you want anything? versus, 

·   “Honey, I am going to the store. Do you want everything?”

Job knew that God could do everything.

·   He could speak and create the heavens and the earth

·   He could will it and Flood the whole planet

·   He could command it and the Red Sea would part

·   He could choose it and the earth would open up

·   He could promise and an enemy would be destroyed

·   He could make the moon stand still

·   He could make the sun turn backward

·   He could raise a boy back to life

·   He could stop the heart of a wicked enemy of David

In the New Testament

·   He could become man through the virgin, Mary

·   He could turn water into wine

·   He could heal servants, little girls and sick widows

·   He could cast demons out of those living among the tombs

·   He could raise Jairus’ daughter, the boy at Nain and Lazarus fro the dead

·   He could walk on water

·   He could calm the storms of the sea

·   He could feed thousands with just a few pieces of bread and fish

In fact, it would be much easier to answer

·   What can’t God do? than it would be to answer

·   What can God do?

“I know” Job said to God, “Thou canst do everything…”

So I may ask the question:

Could God preserve the Bible word for word accurate and without error today?

A. If you were to read the positions of the prominent Bible publishers, you would think not. 

Each new version of the Bible claims to be an improvement upon the version previous to it and since you can't improve on perfection the obvious conclusion is they do not believe the Bible versions before theirs were perfect. (Nor do they claim perfection for their own.) 

B. If you were to hear the sermons of the famous television and radio evangelists of our day, you would think not

Every one of them reads from a different version of the Bible.  Very often they make statements to the effect of, “A better translation would be…” Every time they do that they imply that they are better linguists than those who originally translated the Bible into our language.

The fact is, almost no preacher in America today is a linguist at all – they are all merely aping the words of someone they read – who probably was no linguist himself.

C. If you are not careful, the very notes and hints that you find in your Bible would lead you to believe God could not preserve His Word

Phrases such as, “Older and more reliable manuscripts omit this verse.” Abound in the footnotes of many of the Bibles we can purchase these days.

But we still face the question; “Could God preserve His Bible perfect and without mistakes today?”  

I am no linguist, but I am 

·   A child of God 

·   A preacher of righteousness and 

·   A follower of Jesus Christ

And I insist to you, if God is God at all He can.

·   If He can call into existence the heavens and the earth, He can preserve His word without mistakes

·   If He can part the Red Sea, He can preserve His Word without mistakes

·   If He can dwell among us as Jesus did, He can preserve His Word without mistakes

Could God preserve His Word without mistakes? 

The answer is a resounding, of course He could.

II. WOULD GOD?

Would it be the will of God to preserve His Bible perfect and without mistakes today?

God can do anything He wills to do. The question then is, Did God want to preserve His Word perfectly?

The Bible makes it very clear that God had no intention to allow man to mess up His Bible. He gave it to us as His communication to man how to be forgiven of our sin and given a home in heaven. 

The message is just too important to let it be corrupted by the errors of man.

A. Let’s look at some Bible:

Psalms 12:6-7 KJV

The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.

To be fair, I should point out that those who do not believe God has preserved His Word perfectly do not believe this verse is a promise to preserve His Word the Bible. They see it as meaning that God will keep His promise to protect His people from their enemies. In other words, God promises to protect his people and God here promises his promise is pure.

I don’t have a problem with that interpretation. I only have a problem with limiting it to one generation and one people.

The Bible as a whole is a promise to protect His people from their enemies:

·   The world

·   The flesh and

·   The Devil

The Bible as a whole is a promise to:

·   Bring lost souls to an awareness of their sin

·   Point those same souls to Jesus, the One who will take away their sin and

·   Rescue those who come to Christ from their sin and its punishment in eternal hell

Psalms 12:6-7 is God’s promise that His promise is pure and will remain pure forever.

By the way, notice the passage promises to preserve His “words” and not just His Word. The modernist argues that while all versions of the Bible today have some mistakes, the gist of the Word is still trustworthy and accurate.

·   They would say that we can trust God’s Word

·   Even if we can’t trust His words

I am telling you that you can trust every Word of the Bible, even if you don’t yet understand why God has preserved a particular Word in the Bible.

B. This isn’t the only passage that expresses God’s willingness to preserve His Words

Matthew 5:17-18 KJV

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Notice a few things here.

1. God’s willingness to preserve His Word

The law and the prophets is a term describing the Bible.

Jesus said He did not come to destroy it but to fulfill it. The will of Jesus is to fulfill the Word of God, not to see it destroyed or compromised in any way.

2. His will is that every jot and tittle be fulfilled and not merely the gist of the Bible

The jot and tittle would be small pieces of grammar like our dotting the “I” and crossing the “T”. It is another indication that God words are preserved and not merely the Word. I may not yet understand why everything in the Bible is there just as it is. If I understood all of God’s Word, it wouldn’t be much of a divine book. But I believe that God is capable of and willing to preserve every piece of His Bible right down to the smallest word …forever.

Would God preserve His Word without mistakes? The answer again is a resounding, of course He would.

III. DID GOD?

Since God can and God would preserve His Bible perfect and without mistakes, it is only right to ask the question, "Did he do it?"

This question, in my opinion, is the pivot point between 

·   Those who believe, as I do, that we have a preserved Bible and 

·   Those who believe, as the majority of modern “scholars”, that there are mistakes in the Bible we have today.

No believer to my knowledge argues that God’s Word was imperfect in its original form.

Nor do they argue that God could have kept it perfect had He chosen to do so.

I would like for you to see that the earliest Christians believed that God had preserved His Words without error.

A. Paul believed that God had preserved His Words perfectly

2 Timothy 3:15-17 KJV

And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

Notice that he says “all scripture”

·   Not just parts of it

·   Not just the gist of it

·   Not major message of it

He said that all scripture is given by inspiration and that it is all profitable. If it is all profitable, it must all be infallible and without mistakes.

B. Peter believed that God had preserved His Words perfectly

1 Peter 1:23-25 KJV

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

Two phrases give us Peter’s understanding of the preservation of the Bible:

1. He says it is incorruptible

I am not sure how to interpret that unless that means, without error mistakes or the possibility of containing error and mistakes

The word corruption is used in Peter’s Pentecostal message to contrast the dead bodies of David and Jesus

·   David’s body stayed dead and corrupted

·   Jesus’ body resurrected and did not corrupt

That is how we ought to view the Bible.

·   It is alive

·   It is vital and

·   It has never been corrupted

That is not to say it has never been attacked. There are any number of versions of the Bible that are corrupted. But God has seen to it that there has also always been a Bible that is without corruption.

2. He says, “the Word of the Lord endureth forever.”

Once again, I do not know how to understand this phrase unless it means that God’s Word survives withering and falling away.

Conclusion

One of the silliest things I think Satan ever introduced into the world is the idea that:

·   God spoke to people His living Word

·   God led them to record that living Word in written form but then

·   God allowed mistakes to be introduced into His Word 

so that we cannot be sure what we have today is the perfect Word of God. 

If I have no assurance that God preserved His Words perfectly then I have no real way to know what His Word for me may be and what might be the result of human or Satanic corruption. And, don’t you see, that removes all authority from the Bible. It gives me the right to pick and choose which parts I like and want to obey and which parts I do not

I am convinced that:

·   God could preserve His Word without mistakes

·   God would want to preserve His Word without mistakes and

·   God did preserve His Word without mistakes 

in the King James Version of the Bible.

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[1] I understand that they may not have ever really thought about it. But I promise that those who made the version did think about it. They engaged in translating the Bible because they do not believe it is possible for the Bible to ever be 100% accurate and true.

[2] Or at least chose not to lean on.

[3] Every other version of the Bible is fundamentally different than the King James Bible because they are built from fundamentally different materials.