1) A right heart is a NEW heart (Ezek. 36:26). It is not the heart with which a person is born—but another heart put in them by the Holy Spirit. It is a heart which has new tastes, new joys, new sorrows, new desires, new hopes, new fears, new likes, new dislikes. It has new views about the soul, sin, God, Christ, salvation, the Bible, prayer, heaven, hell, the world, and holiness. It is like a farm with a new and good tenant. “Old things are passed away. Behold all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).
2) A right heart is a BROKEN and CONTRITE heart (Psalm 51:17). It is broken off from pride, self-conceit, and self-righteousness. Its former high thoughts of self are cracked, shattered, and shivered to atoms. It thinks itself guilty, unworthy, and corrupt. Its former stubbornness, heaviness, and insensibility have thawed, disappeared, and passed away. It no longer thinks lightly of offending God. It is tender, sensitive, and jealously fearful of running into sin (2 Kings 22:19). It is humble, lowly, and self-abased, and sees in itself no good thing.
3) A right heart is a heart which BELIEVES on Christ alone for salvation, and in which Christ dwells by faith (Rom. 10:10; Eph. 3:17). It rests all its hopes of pardon and eternal life on Christ’s atonement, Christ’s mediation, and Christ’s intercession. It is sprinkled in Christ’s blood from an evil conscience (Heb. 10:22). It turns to Christ as the compass-needle turns to the north. It looks to Christ for daily peace, mercy, and grace—as the sun-flower looks to the sun. It feeds on Christ for its daily sustenance, as Israel fed on the manna in the wilderness. It sees in Christ a special fitness to supply all its needs and requirements. It leans on Him, hangs on Him, builds on Him, cleaves to Him, as its physician, guardian, husband, and friend.
4) A right heart is a PURIFIED heart (Acts 15:9; Matt. 5:8). It loves holiness, and hates sin. It strives daily to cleanse itself from all filthiness of flesh and spirit (2 Cor. 7:1). It abhors that which is evil, and cleaves to that which is good. It delights in the law of God, and has that law engraved on it, that it may not forget it (Psalm 119:11). It longs to keep the law more perfectly, and takes pleasure in those who love the law. It loves God and people. Its affections are set on things above. It never feels so light and happy as when it is most holy; and it looks forward to heaven with joy, as the place where perfect holiness will at length be attained.
5) A right heart is a PRAYING heart. It has within it “the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba Father” (Rom. 8:15). Its daily feeling is, “Your face, Lord, will I seek” (Psalm 27:8). It is drawn by an habitual inclination to speak to God about spiritual things—weakly, feebly, and imperfectly perhaps—but speak it must. It finds it necessary to pour out itself before God, as before a friend, and to spread before Him all its needs and desires. It tells Him all its secrets. It keeps back nothing from Him. You might as well try to persuade a person to live without breathing, as to persuade the possessor of a right heart to live without praying.
6) A right heart is a heart that feels CONFLICT within it (Gal. 5:17). It finds within itself two opposing principles contending for the mastery—the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. It knows by experience what Paul means when he says, “I see a law in my members warring against the law of my mind” (Rom. 7:23). The wrong heart knows nothing of this strife. The strong man armed keeps the wrong heart as their palace, and their goods are at peace (Luke 11:21). But when the rightful King takes possession of the heart, a struggle begins which never ends until death. The right heart may be known by its warfare, quite as much as by its peace.
7) A right heart is HONEST, UNDIVIDED, and TRUE (Luke 8:15;1 Chron. 12:33; Heb. 10:22). There is nothing about it of falsehood, hypocrisy, or image-acting. It is not double or divided. It really is what it professes to be, feels what it professes to feel, and believes what it professes to believe. Its faith may be feeble. Its obedience may be very imperfect. But one thing will always distinguish the right heart. Its religion will be real, genuine, thorough, and sincere.
► Summary:
A heart such as that which I have now described, has always been the possession of all true Christians of every name, nation, people and tongue. They have differed from one another on many subjects—but they have all been of a right heart. Some of them have fallen, for a season, like David and Peter—but their hearts have never entirely departed from the Lord. They have often proved themselves to be men and women laden with infirmities—but their hearts have been right in the sight of God. They have understood one another on earth. They have found that their experience was everywhere one and the same. They will understand each other even better in the world to come. All that have had right hearts upon earth, will find that they have one heart when they enter heaven.
~ J.C. Ryle
Old Paths, “The Heart”, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1999], 348-351.
What a great lesson by Ryle. This is a home run to deep center in the parking lot.
[...] Ryle has 7 aspects of a right heart before God in this post – well worth the read and consider if YOUR heart is right. No [...]
Thanks for posting Erik. # 6 is very encouraging and gives me hope! : )
Blessings.
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Thank you for sharing today’s lesson as well as the other daily posts. The lessons of JC Ryle are strikingly valuable. Even a longer one like today is concise and to very a very valuable point. Point number is particularly encouraging for those who are battling their sin. Thank you for introducing many people to the work of John Charles Ryle.
You’re welcome Christian. My pleasure.
I live and work in Nairobi, Kenya. I have long admired Ryle and am currently translating all his works into Swahili. If anyone needs Expository Thoughts or Holiness or Walking with God in Swahili, we have them. It takes years to do it, but its a privilege and of great benefit to my own soul.
My name is Jonathan Murphy. I am the missions coordinator at West Salem Baptist Church in Salem,Virginia. We train a network of indigenous pastors/missionaries in Uganda through semi-annual pastor’s conferences. Our website outlines our work, messages, and convictions. We work with a group of Swahili-speaking, Congolese pastors who are refugees in Uganda. All of the resources that we have brought to the english speaking pastors in Uganda have not been able to benefit those that speak only Swahili. At our last conference (November 2010) they begged us to find sound materials that were written in Swahili. Noticing your comment is an answer to prayer as I have tried with no success to find solid materials on my own. I would greatly appreciate the digital copy of your work and we can print them here. We would gladly purchase the file from you if needed. I am going to Uganda for two months (leaving on May 4th) during which I will work intimately with the network of Congolese churches in the Ugandan refugee settlement. I would love to be able to give to them these great works. Feel free to contact me via email if you can help us.
In Christ,
Jonathan
my email address is jonathan@wsbaptist.org
Hi Jonathan,
I sent you an e-mail re Swahili materials, did you get it?
Sukesh
[...] This post originally appeared on JC Ryle Quotes It is an excerpt from JC Ryle’s book, Old Paths TAGS: doctrine, Quotes, sin This [...]
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Okay, I have to ask…
How can a right heart be PURIFIED, HONEST, UNDIVIDED, TRUE, “be what it professes to be, feel what it professes to feel, and believe what it professes to believe” and yet still experience CONFLICT?
That just doesn’t make any sense.
Tim,
The conflict which Ryle is addressing is the conflict of our two natures, our flesh vs the Spirit of God.
A heart that is wrong or dead towards God does not have this conflict, whereas the heart that is alive or right towards God is in constant conflict with the flesh, until we take our last breath and depart to be with Christ.
[...] This post originally appeared on JC Ryle QuotesIt is an excerpt from JC Ryle's book, Old [...]
[...] This post originally appeared on JC Ryle Quotes It is an excerpt from JC Ryle’s book, Old [...]
[...] This post originally appeared on JC Ryle Quotes It is an excerpt from JC Ryle’s book, Old [...]
[...] will find that they have one heart when they enter heaven. Note: This post originally appeared on JC Ryle Quotes It is an excerpt from JC Ryle’s book, Old [...]
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[...] 3. 7 Marks of a Right Heart Before God [...]
[...] 3. 7 Marks of a Right Heart Before God [...]
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