The Oberlin Evangelist

LECTURE XXII.

November 18, 1840

WEAKNESS OF HEART

by the Rev. Charles G. Finney

Modernized by Cliff Collins

“How degenerate is your heart!” (Ezek 16:30)

In the context of this passage, the Prophet Ezekiel is speaking about the history of the Church. He says nothing about the real piety of the different generations of the Church; but in view of all her backslidings and inconsistencies, he exclaims, “How degenerate is your heart!”

In discussing this subject, I will show:

I. What does the word ‘heart’ mean in this passage?

II. What does a degenerate heart imply?

III. What are some examples of a degenerate heart?

IV. What are some things that cause a degenerate heart?

V. What is the remedy for a degenerate heart?

VI. What is implied in strengthening the heart?

I. What is the heart?

1. The wording of this passage must be figurative, since we have no words to directly describe the state of mind of the person that this passage is addressing. However, we do have analogies to seize on that can give us an accurate picture of their mental and moral condition.

2. The Bible uses the word ‘heart’ in many ways. Sometimes heart clearly means our conscience. Sometimes it means our whole mind, or soul. But whenever the word ‘heart’ is used as a state of mind that has moral character, and as the foundation or fountain of moral behavior, it must represent a voluntary state of our mind. When the Bible uses it this way, it can’t mean any faculty of the mind, but the particular attitude of the will concerning moral subjects. There must be some analogy between the fleshly organ of the body, which is our physical the heart, and the heart of our soul, or mind. Our physical heart pumps our blood, which maintains the vital action of our physical bodies. In this sense, it is the center of organic life. Out of our physical heart flows, by the force of its own contractions, that vital flow of life-giving blood. This sustains both organic and animal life.

3. The heart of our soul relates to our mind and is a voluntary desire or preference. It is a disposition as opposed to a single exercise. It consists in a permanent, though voluntary attitude of our will, concerning God and spiritual objects. It is a ruling desire or preference in such a sense that it is the fountain out of which flows those individual conscious decisions and exercises of our mind that make up our moral history. Therefore, as our physical heart sustains organic and animal life, and we may regard our heart as the fountain, from which our physical life flows, so the heart of our soul, or mind, this ruling desire or preference that I have mentioned, is the fountain from which obedience to God, or spiritual life flows.

II. What is implied in a degenerate (NKJV) or a weak (KJV) heart?

1. A weak heart is not an opposite ruling preference or an opposite attitude of our will. This can’t be; because our heart consists in a supreme desire or ruling preference. Now it is impossible that we can exercise two supreme and opposite desires, or preferences at the same time.

2. A weak heart is not a divided heart. This is also impossible. Please remember, that a spiritual or moral heart is determined by a supreme disposition, or ruling preference of our will. Now it is impossible to divide this. Therefore, a degenerate heart cannot mean a divided heart.

3. A weak heart is not a wicked heart. A weak heart cannot be the cause of our evil thoughts, our wicked conscious decisions, our wrong emotions, or our impure actions. This can’t be. A regenerate heart is the result of a holy disposition, a holy, ruling preference of the will. Therefore, it is impossible that a regenerate heart should be a wicked heart, in such a sense that it is the cause of any sinful emotion or affection.

4. A degenerate or a weak heart means that this ruling preference or disposition of the will does not have the ability to successfully resist temptation to specific sins, at least for the time being and under the present circumstances. The regenerate heart is not the cause of the sin; but the sin occurs in spite of the regenerate heart. In other words, temptation prevails, and it provides an opportunity for the will to make certain decisions, not according to the regenerate heart; but in opposition to it. Temptation may force a wife, who loves her husband supremely, to do something or act inconsistent with the general state and supreme attitude of her will. Parents, who love their children with the most intense and absorbing affection, may, through the force of temptation, feel exceedingly provoked with them, and for the time being, exercise feelings that are completely different from the state of their hearts toward their children. Every parent, and perhaps every husband and wife can testify, that such facts may exist, no matter how they explain their behavior.

III. What are some examples of a degenerate heart?

1. Our heart is degenerate or weak when temptation easily influences or affects it. When our heart, or our ruling disposition, is vigorous and healthy, it is difficult to focus our attention on those things that are inconsistent with it. Take, for example, the case of a young convert, who was a heavy drinker. While his heart is set on his first love, he hates thoughts about his former companions, and he will not allow the thought of hard liquor to remain in his mind for one moment. However, if he leaves his first love, the tendencies of his constitution will soon resume their control over him. He might then be unable to resist the temptation to drink with his friends, if he should again come into contact with his old drinking buddies, or even within the smell of a tavern. The same is true with a convert who had been sexually active. In the healthy exercise of his first love, he would hate his former ways so much, that he will not allow sexually explicit thoughts to occupy his mind for one moment. A prostitute might walk past him, and his soul might recoil in disgust and loathing at the very sight of her. Nevertheless, if he should leave his first love, his abused constitution would become so susceptible to the influence of temptation, that it will very probably cause him to fall. Please understand, then, that when temptation easily affects and influences our mind, when temptation easily gets our attention, when temptation easily awakens artificial or constitutional appetites and passions, and temptation easily throws our mind into a state of turmoil, it is a sign of a degenerate heart. The ruling disposition of our mind is not in a healthy and efficient state.

2. Another evidence of a degenerate or a weak heart is the lack of a firm will whenever a temptation comes our way. When our heart is strong, or our ruling preference is in a healthy state, temptation cannot prevail, because our will is firm and strong. Thus, someone places a temptation to have an affair before a young bride, when her deep affection for her husband is healthy and energetic, she might prefer to be shot, than to consent to the embraces of someone other than her husband. However, in the weakness of her heart, when she has little or no affection for her husband, there might be such a complete lack of firmness in her will, that it greatly exposes her to seduction. The same may be true in the case of a young convert. In the healthy exercise of his first love, he might prefer to suffer martyrdom than consent to sin. But, should his heart become weak, the firmness and stability of his preference is no longer there to help him overcome and put down temptation. Instead, whenever some temptation excites him, he finds that the resolution in his will is not strong and firm enough to resist that temptation.

3. When you are tempted, and you find it difficult to not give in, it is because your heart is degenerate. Suppose a person, who was once a drunk, or a pervert, or a glutton, finds it difficult to resist indulging in his former sins when temptation attacks him. He may know that if his heart is regenerate at all, it is extremely weak. If, in fact, he finds it difficult to quickly make a strong resolution against indulging in sin, and he finds it difficult to carry out his resolution in corresponding action, it is because of the weakness of his heart.

4. When you find it difficult to pray, honestly and sincerely, against a particular temptation, it is because your heart is weak; that is, assuming your heart has been regenerated. Your problem is either because your heart is weak, or because your heart is wicked. If your heart has not been regenerated, your heart is wicked. Of course, this would prevent an honest and earnest appeal at the throne of grace against temptation. However, if your heart has been regenerated, and it becomes weak, temptation may get such a hold of you that it makes it difficult for you to pray honestly and sincerely against it.

5. When you find it difficult to draw your attention away from a temptation, it is because your heart is weak. If your heart, or your ruling disposition, is healthy and efficient, you will naturally and promptly be able to draw your attention away from a seductive temptation. But when you find it difficult to draw your attention away from a temptation, and you find that some object has grabbed a hold of your thoughts, and your excited feelings are clamoring for indulgence, your heart is very weak and you are in imminent danger. Escape for your life, or you will fall.

6. When former resolutions are useless in the presence of temptation, it is because your heart is degenerate. No resolution can prevail to put down temptation, unless your heart is healthy and efficient when you are tempted. If you made your resolution when your heart was strong and vigorous, it won’t do you any good, unless your foundation remained firm. Thus, a resolution never to touch a drop of hard liquor, might be made in the passion of a young convert’s first love. However, if he should leave his first love, his resolution will be as yielding as air in the presence of temptation. Therefore, when you find that your resolutions to resist sin, to obey God, and to lead a holy life, are worthless in the presence of temptation, it is certain, that either your heart has never been regenerated, or it has no efficiency because it has degenerated.

7. When temptation easily excites anger, ambition, envy, pride, vanity, lust, or any other immoral emotion or affection; it is certain, that either your heart has never been regenerated, or that it is extremely weak.

8. When, in the presence of temptation, and under the force of excited feeling, your soul loses its understanding of the guilt and ill-desert of the sin that tempts it, your heart has either never been regenerated, or it is extremely weak. If, when your appetite for food in the presence of some tempting dish becomes so strong that, your mind finds it difficult to realize the great guilt of gluttony, your heart must be either completely unregenerate, or extremely weak.

IV. What causes a degenerate heart?

1. Ignorance causes a degenerate heart. Of course, the stability and efficiency of any preference must largely depend on the reasons that we have, to do what we choose to do. We can’t have true love for God without a true knowledge of Him. And our love for Him can never exceed our knowledge of Him. Our estimate of spiritual and divine things must depend on our knowledge of those things. Therefore, wherever there is a lot of ignorance about God and divine things, there will be a proportional instability and a lack of efficiency in our ruling preference or in our heart.

2. Unbelief is another fruitful source of a degenerate heart. God and the things of God are only real to us in proportion to our faith. It is unreasonable to expect any efficiency in our ruling preference or our heart, unless our faith is active, and eternal things appear real to us.

3. Our physical condition may be and often is a cause of great weakness of heart. General ill health can make our mind week and feeble. Diseases of our brain or spinal chord, or diseases located in, or affecting any of our organs that involve the brain, may disturb or destroy the healthy action of our mind, and can make our heart, or our ruling preference, extremely weak.

4. All improper indulgences weaken our heart, just as they weaken our conscience. Everyone knows that to persist in anything that our conscience opposes, gradually weakens our heart. It also weakens, sears, and may even suspend the action of our conscience concerning particular indulgences. Likewise, any improper indulgence of our appetite, passion, or the indulgence of anything that we know is wrong, weakens our heart and damages the ruling disposition or preference of our mind.

V. What is the remedy for a degenerate heart?

Wait on the Lord! Ps. 27:14: “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!” Isaiah 40:31: “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint”. In these passages, God clearly points out the remedy for a weak heart. But here, we should ask, “What does waiting on the Lord mean”? Let me answer.

1. Waiting on the Lord does not mean that we simply sit still in apathy, and expect God to strengthen our heart in His own time and in His own way, with no regard for anything that we do. Many people think that they are waiting on the Lord, when they allow themselves to float down the stream of life without caring whether they are holy or sinful, while they claim that they are waiting for God’s time.

2. Waiting on the Lord does not imply a self-righteous commitment to prayer, and the use of those means that will enable us to recommend ourselves to God.

3. However, waiting on the Lord does imply committing ourselves to prayer. This kind of waiting is waiting in the constant attitude of prayer and supplication before God.

4. Waiting on the Lord implies perseverance in prayer, and in the use of all the means of knowledge and grace, that are essential to strengthening our hearts.

5. It implies repentance and putting away our sins.

6. Waiting on the Lord implies confession and restitution in every situation where we were wrong.

7. It implies making our requests known to God fervently and frequently.

8. It implies faith in the promises of God.

9. It implies submitting to the wisdom and will of God, concerning the time and way He will confer His blessing on us.

10. Waiting on the Lord implies willing to allow God to make use of any means that He sees is necessary to strengthen our hearts. It implies that we are willing to have Him take away our idols, property, friends, health, life, or anything that is necessary to strengthen our hearts and make us holy.

VI. How do we strengthen our heart?

1. An increase of knowledge will strengthen our heart. In order to strengthen our hearts, we need to know and thoroughly consider those things that are designed to wean us from sin, and to strengthen our preference and purpose in the divine life.

2. An increase of faith will strengthen our heart. A stronger heart depends on an increase of faith. Faith is always the condition of true love for God and stability in His service. It is certainly impossible to bring our mind under the influence of God’s direction, any further than we believe and trust in His direction.

3. An increase of love strengthens our heart. Supreme love and supreme preference are the same. Therefore, an increase of love for God and divine things strengthens our heart.

4. Absorbing our mind in God breaks the power of temptation and strengthens our heart. What power could temptation have over us, if we stood at the solemn Judgment, or saw ourselves standing out in the broad sunlight of God’s countenance? In such circumstances, temptation would pass by us like a gentle breeze.

5. Focusing our attention and affections on God really helps prevent our soul from being tempted. By this I don’t mean, that our mind can’t be tempted in such circumstances; but that it is much more difficult for temptation to get our attention, or disturb us. Of course, temptation implies that our mind is brought to the attention of the temptation. Therefore, when our attention is so fixed and riveted, when our heart is so enlarged and strengthened, that our soul is swallowed up in God, our soul may say, as Christ did, “The ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me”. (John 14:30) No unsubdued lust, passion, or appetite remains, on which to fasten a temptation.

REMARKS.

1. Many people have a very weak heart, but they aren’t aware of it because they make very little or no effort to resist sin. Because they make no effort to resist sin, they don’t know how weak they would find themselves if they tried to resist. They are literally, “led captive by Satan at his will”, and, of course, they have no idea how weak their hearts really are.

2. Many are aware of their weakness, but only make legal efforts to escape. They try to resist sin by their resolutions and promises, and they struggle in their own strength. They don’t seem to know that unless their heart is strengthened, all their resolutions based on legal considerations, will be as yielding as air. Sin convicts, distresses, shames, and agonizes them. Sometimes they are at the point of despair when they encourage themselves, and resolve, and renew their resolutions. They bind themselves by the most solemn oaths and promises; but it is all in vain, because a supreme love for God does not support them. Therefore, their flesh will be too strong for any resolutions that are not based in a deep affection for God.

3. Others err by going to the opposite extreme. They don’t depend on any legal efforts. In fact, they don’t make any efforts at all. Instead, they settle down in some kind of apathy that they call peace, and thus they tempt Christ. They throw the responsibility of actively exercising their free will on Christ and call it faith.

4. God’s providence plans to expose the weakness of the hearts of His people, and to make them see how much they depend on His grace to strengthen them. It often happens, that individuals think their sins are dead, and that they have truly overcome certain temptations forever; and, in this state, they tend to forget that only the continuous agency and grace of God suspends the ruling efficiency of their former habits. Now if you forget that your sins are only kept under control by the continuous agency of God, His providence will soon expose your weakness, and teach you, to your sorrow and dismay, that your enemies are not dead, but only kept from having dominion over you by the constant presence and agency of the Holy Spirit.

5. From this subject we can see why Paul took pleasure in his infirmities. It was so the power of Christ might rest on him. 2 Cor. 12:7-10: “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Here Paul found that his infirmities, that is, his weaknesses, emptied him of self-dependence, and this led him to put Christ in place of his resolutions.

Instead of depending on his legal efforts and resolutions, Paul depended on Christ.

6. You can see what entire and permanent sanctification is. It consists in a heart strong enough to resist all temptation to sin.

7. Those who have a wicked heart are not born again. A weak heart is not a wicked heart, as I have already said, in such a sense as to be the cause of wicked thoughts, emotions, and actions.

8. A strong heart, and a clean heart, are the same.

9. Whenever the heart is weak, we must deal with the cause of this weakness, whatever it is, if possible. Sometimes the cause is physical. The cause lies in the indulgence of some appetite or passion. Sometimes our physical conditions are such that it makes the healthy operations of our mind impossible. Therefore, in waiting on the Lord to renew our strength, we must strive to do all that lies within us, to deal with the cause of the weakness of our heart.

10. Whenever we have done this, and are waiting on the Lord according to His directions, we are bound to exercise the most unwavering confidence, that He will strengthen our hearts. “Wait then, I say, on the Lord.”