Howard C. Wilkinson - "Is Thy Heart Right?" (September 17, 1961)

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First Preacher	The new Testament lesson	0:11
	is written in the gospel,	0:12
	according to St. Matthew	0:13
	in the 15th chapter,	0:16
	the first and second	0:18
	to the 10th through the 19th verses.	0:19
	Then Pharisees and scribes	0:25
	came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,	0:27
	why do your disciples transgress	0:30
	the tradition of the elders?	0:33
	For they do not wash their hands when they eat.	0:35
	And he called the people to him and said to them,	0:39
	hear and understand	0:43
	not what goes into the mouth defiles a man,	0:46
	but what comes out of the mouth,	0:50
	this defiles a man.	0:52
	Then the disciples came and said to him,	0:54
	do you know that the Pharisees were offended	0:57
	when they heard this saying?	0:59
	He answered	1:01
	every plant which my heavenly father has not planted	1:03
	will be rooted up.	1:06
	Let them alone.	1:07
	They are blind guides.	1:09
	And if a blind man leads a blind man,	1:11
	both will fall into a pit.	1:15
	But Peter said to him,	1:17
	explain the parable to us.	1:19
	And he said,	1:21
	are you also still without understanding,	1:23
	do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth,	1:26
	passes into the stomach and so passes on,	1:30
	but what comes out of the mouth	1:33
	proceeds from the heart	1:35
	and this defiles a man.	1:37
	For out of the heart,	1:40
	come evil thoughts,	1:41
	murder,	1:43
	adultery,	1:43
	fornication	1:45
	theft,	1:46
	false witness, slander.	1:47
	Here ends the reading of the lesson.	1:50
	We come now to the part of orientation week	2:04
	that is referred to as the Freshmen Sunday sermon.	2:09
	By whatever name called	2:14
	it is another speech	2:18
	that you freshmen will be listening to	2:20
	with your body in the sitting position.	2:22
	Except for a few of you	2:27
	who either fortunately or unfortunately	2:28
	do not have a seat.	2:32
	I can assure you	2:36
	that I sympathize with you	2:38
	and your feeling of resistance	2:40
	at the thought of another speech.	2:43
	I imagine you are able to say amen to the sign,	2:47
	which was placed just inside the door	2:51
	of the ballroom of the Jack Tar hotel	2:54
	in Durham recently,	2:57
	when a convention was in progress there.	2:58
	There was a sign	3:02
	which gave instructions to the press photographers	3:03
	who would be covering this convention.	3:06
	The sign said this	3:10
	"do not take pictures of the speakers	3:14
	while they are addressing the audience,	3:17
	shoot them before they get to the platform".	3:20
	(crowd laughs)	3:23
	Well, this is	3:27
	a little different kind of speech	3:29
	than what you have been hearing.	3:31
	This happens to be the only sermon	3:33
	you have to listen to during orientation week.	3:35
	It has a text,	3:39
	the last verse of the Old Testament lesson of this morning,	3:41
	Proverbs 4:23,	3:47
	Keep thy heart	3:50
	with all diligence	3:52
	for out of it	3:55
	come the issues of life.	3:56
	Keep thy heart	4:00
	with all diligence	4:01
	for out of it	4:03
	come the issues of life.	4:05
	I imagined that as you approached	4:09
	the campus of Duke,	4:13
	and now during orientation week,	4:15
	as you approach the onslaught of classes,	4:17
	in a few days,	4:21
	you have had some pretty anxious questions	4:22
	running around in your mind.	4:24
	Did I bring the right clothes?	4:28
	Did I bring enough clothes?	4:30
	Did I bring enough money?	4:33
	And if not,	4:35
	will I be able to COD	4:36
	in the right amounts	4:39
	at the right time?	4:40
	Well, I be able to get into the fraternity	4:44
	that I feel I must get into or perish.	4:46
	But I be able to make a sorority	4:51
	that my life depends upon.	4:53
	Or if you are one of those who feel	4:56
	that fraternities	4:58
	and sororities are a waste of time and money,	4:59
	the question you're probably asking	5:02
	and feel is upper most in importance is,	5:04
	will I be able to stay out of a fraternity	5:06
	or sorority and get away with it?	5:08
	And then there is another all-important question.	5:13
	What will happen	5:17
	when the date to whom I pledged eternal	5:19
	faithfulness last Wednesday night think,	5:22
	when he or she hears	5:26
	about my plans for next week?	5:27
	(crowd laughs)	5:30
	Will I be able to weather the Academic Carla,	5:32
	which is about to descend	5:35
	in spite of my good record in high school?	5:37
	These are important questions.	5:42
	Others like them	5:45
	are worthy of your consideration,	5:46
	but it is my earnest desire	5:50
	to say to you here and now	5:52
	that all of these questions,	5:54
	however important they are,	5:56
	are secondary to another question.	5:58
	I do not for a moment wish to imply by this,	6:02
	that any of these other questions are unimportant.	6:06
	But simply to say	6:09
	that the question I am going to mention	6:10
	in a moment is of Supreme importance	6:12
	and that it has a relevance to every other question	6:16
	of your life.	6:20
	It is a question which was asked	6:22
	by John Wesley	6:25
	of every person who sought admission	6:27
	to the membership of his societies in England.	6:30
	The fact that Wesley was a Methodist	6:35
	and that I am a Methodist	6:37
	is purely incidental in this connection.	6:38
	It is a Christian question	6:41
	and one which a member of any other religious group	6:43
	might properly ask	6:47
	and feel called upon to provide an answer.	6:49
	Let me remind you	6:54
	before stating the question	6:55
	that John Wesley	6:57
	was an undergraduate of Oxford university.	6:59
	That he was a noted theologian	7:03
	and that the most brilliant theological minds of today	7:05
	find his writings worthwhile.	7:09
	And find him stimulating	7:13
	theologically and doctrinally.	7:15
	Nonetheless, here was his question.	7:19
	Is thy heart right?	7:23
	When a person would come to his societies	7:28
	and wish to join,	7:31
	and they would say to him,	7:33
	what are the requirements of membership?	7:34
	This was his answer.	7:36
	And it was his only answer.	7:37
	He did not ask them to recite	7:40
	any one of the very fine creeds of the Christian Church.	7:42
	He did not ask them	7:47
	to give answers to questions of a catechism,	7:48
	relevant as all of that would be.	7:52
	He did not ask them to state their theological position	7:54
	on any one of a number of important issues.	7:57
	He did not insist	8:01
	that those who joined the society believed	8:02
	as he did about free will	8:05
	and predestination,	8:06
	believe as he did about the communion service	8:08
	or about baptism,	8:10
	he felt there was one question of Supreme importance.	8:13
	And one's answer to this question	8:18
	would open the door	8:21
	to the right answer to every other question.	8:23
	Is thy heart right?	8:26
	If it is, he said,	8:31
	then give me thy hand,	8:32
	the hand of fellowship.	8:35
	If your heart is right,	8:39
	you can join hands and hearts with other people of goodwill	8:40
	and match toward the right answer to every question.	8:46
	I think it ought to be obvious.	8:50
	Maybe we should state it for clarification.	8:52
	Since this is an academic atmosphere,	8:54
	the Wesley of course,	8:57
	was not referring to	8:58
	that hollow cardiac force pump of the body,	8:59
	which makes the blood circulate	9:03
	through the arteries and the veins.	9:05
	This is not because Wesley was above giving medical advice,	9:08
	concerning all kinds of illness	9:13
	and parts of the body.	9:15
	Some of the most ludicrous medical advice	9:17
	you can read	9:19
	will be found in the writings of John Wesley.	9:20
	But it happens on this particular occasion,	9:23
	he was referring to the same thing,	9:25
	which Jesus referred to	9:27
	in the new Testament lesson of today.	9:29
	When he said out of the heart	9:32
	proceed all kinds of murders,	9:34
	adulteries,	9:38
	fornication,	9:39
	evil thoughts,	9:40
	lying,	9:41
	slander, et cetera.	9:42
	It is the part of the personality	9:45
	that we sang about a while ago,	9:47
	over a heart to praise my God.	9:50
	A heart from sin,	9:53
	set free.	9:55
	In other words,	9:57
	the heart all down through the centuries	9:58
	has been thought of	10:01
	as being that part of the personality,	10:04
	where we find the emotions,	10:06
	the motives,	10:09
	our driving purpose,	10:11
	our will,	10:14
	our great drive in life,	10:15
	our affections,	10:18
	our prejudices,	10:20
	our biases.	10:21
	The heart	10:23
	as distinguished from the head,	10:24
	the head refers to the thinking machine.	10:27
	The heart refers to the feeling machine, motivation.	10:30
	Wesley did not ask	10:36
	is thy head right?	10:38
	Important as that is,	10:41
	and as important as he made it.	10:42
	But he assumed that the head is somewhat	10:45
	under the control of the heart.	10:48
	And we cannot get the head right	10:51
	unless first the heart is right.	10:53
	Now,	10:58
	some people might ask,	10:58
	"what does this have to do	11:00
	necessarily with a college education?"	11:02
	I did not come to college basically to get religion,	11:06
	I came to college basically to get an education,	11:08
	to train my mind,	11:11
	to dispel ignorance,	11:13
	to acquire knowledge learning facts.	11:15
	Well, certainly,	11:20
	no one could quarrel with that goal.	11:21
	Ignorance does need to be dispelled.	11:25
	It is very widespread	11:28
	all over the country	11:31
	and many institutions of higher learning	11:33
	are trying to make a dent in it.	11:35
	Senator Keating	11:39
	reported last week	11:41
	that he was interested in	11:43
	the reform of the electoral system	11:45
	in the United States.	11:48
	And in order to	11:49
	inform himself about what might be needed,	11:52
	he had some experts make a survey	11:55
	of what the United States	11:58
	population understands	11:59
	about our system of electing presidents.	12:01
	They took a poll	12:06
	of a representative cross-section	12:09
	of American opinion and information.	12:12
	A question on this survey was	12:18
	"what is the Electoral College?"	12:20
	And then some various possible answers were given.	12:25
	And you were to check the one	12:29
	that you thought answered correctly	12:31
	the question of what is the Electoral College.	12:33
	Now brethren,	12:37
	34% of our fellow citizens	12:38
	who filled out this questionnaire,	12:41
	checked this as the correct answer.	12:44
	The Electoral College	12:48
	is a school for the children of congressmen.	12:49
	Ignorance does need to be dispelled.	12:54
	Only a few years ago.	12:59
	A similar examination	13:00
	was circulated	13:02
	among a representative cross-section	13:04
	of the American public about Russia.	13:06
	Factual information	13:10
	that we should know	13:11
	really should know	13:12
	about the great nation of Russia.	13:14
	The average grade	13:17
	on that exam was 16.	13:18
	So certainly	13:22
	there is no suggestion here	13:24
	that the goal of dispelling ignorance	13:26
	is not a proper goal.	13:29
	It is precisely	13:32
	because of the relevance of the heart	13:33
	in this field	13:35
	that we are, first of all,	13:37
	suggesting that we should have	13:39
	a right heart.	13:41
	It was Carlisle	13:47
	who said that a loving heart	13:48
	is the beginning of all knowledge.	13:50
	We would have thought	13:53
	this was a kind of a pious truth,	13:54
	if he had said	13:56
	a loving heart	13:57
	is the beginning of wisdom.	13:58
	But what he said was	14:00
	a loving heart	14:03
	is the beginning of knowledge.	14:03
	The acquiring of information	14:07
	of facts,	14:10
	of data.	14:11
	Right here on this campus	14:15
	a few years ago,	14:16
	a professor came to me	14:19
	and asked me about a certain student	14:20
	that he understood I knew.	14:22
	He said,	14:25
	do you know why he's not doing any better	14:26
	in school than he is?	14:28
	This particular student	14:30
	had an extremely high IQ.	14:32
	He wasn't the top 1% of	14:35
	his high school graduating class.	14:37
	He made very high scores	14:40
	on all of the tests	14:41
	that his admission to Duke was based upon.	14:43
	And yet he collected	14:49
	a whole pocket full of Cs	14:50
	when he got to Duke,	14:51
	they could not understand why.	14:55
	Well,	14:59
	very shortly after this question	14:59
	was directed to me	15:02
	and I did not know the answer	15:03
	because I didn't know	15:04
	the student that well,	15:05
	he applied for a particular kind of work.	15:07
	And the application for this kind of work	15:11
	carries with it an automatic examination	15:13
	by a psychologist and a psychiatrist.	15:15
	They examined him independently,	15:19
	separately,	15:21
	and both came to the same conclusion	15:22
	that his heart was at	15:24
	sixes and sevens.	15:25
	He was a civil war in his heart,	15:28
	nothing wrong with his thinking process.	15:32
	His mind worked almost like	15:36
	an IBM machine,	15:38
	but his heart	15:39
	had his mind in tow	15:40
	and he could not learn.	15:42
	He was like an automobile the driver of	15:45
	which had one foot on the accelerator	15:48
	and the other foot on the brake pedal.	15:50
	That is why	15:56
	it was by intent	15:56
	rather than by accident	15:58
	that the founders of Duke University	16:00
	located the chapel in the center of the campus	16:02
	and listed it as building number one,	16:05
	as it appears	16:08
	on all of our Universities scheduled.	16:09
	The University chapel	16:13
	while it has to do with other things as well,	16:14
	deals basically,	16:17
	and primarily with	16:18
	the great need of trying to keep	16:21
	our hearts right.	16:23
	And if our hearts are right,	16:26
	we shall be able	16:29
	to learn better,	16:31
	but there is an even more important reasons than that.	16:33
	It is a related reason.	16:37
	And that is	16:39
	our great need for thinking clearly	16:40
	and forming right conclusions	16:43
	upon the basis of the knowledge,	16:46
	the factual information that we learn.	16:48
	It is one thing to learn data.	16:51
	It is another thing	16:53
	to learn wisdom.	16:55
	To build wisdom	16:57
	on top of knowledge.	16:58
	And when we come to this area,	17:00
	the heart is all important	17:02
	because as we now know from scientific research,	17:05
	as well as from common sense,	17:10
	the conclusions which we form	17:12
	that, which we considered to be wisdom	17:15
	is heavily influenced	17:17
	by our predispositions,	17:20
	our prejudgments,	17:21
	our prejudices,	17:23
	our personal biases.	17:24
	From which	17:27
	no one is entirely free.	17:27
	The whole idea	17:30
	that there was such a thing	17:31
	as a purely objective scientist	17:32
	or philosopher	17:35
	or professor	17:35
	or student	17:36
	or anyone,	17:37
	who could stand	17:38
	and be totally uninfluenced by anything,	17:40
	except the truth	17:43
	is completely outmoded now.	17:45
	Only the foolish believe	17:49
	in the existence	17:50
	of such a person.	17:51
	we can,	17:54
	and we should strive	17:55
	for perfection in this area.	17:56
	But the person who is most hoodwinked of all	17:58
	is the one who thinks	18:01
	he is completely perfect	18:02
	in this regard.	18:04
	We should achieve	18:05
	as near perfection as possible.	18:07
	And we do this best by first	18:09
	seeking to make our hearts free	18:11
	from bias,	18:14
	pride,	18:16
	prejudice,	18:17
	selfishness,	18:17
	lust,	18:18
	greed.	18:19
	To get our hearts right,	18:22
	let them be hearts of love	18:24
	toward God and man.	18:25
	A few years ago,	18:28
	when Admiral Perry was returning from the Artic,	18:29
	it was discovered after he had	18:33
	docked his Ship in New York,	18:35
	that he had had to make the journey entirely	18:38
	by reference to the stars,	18:40
	rather than by the use of the compass	18:42
	on the ship.	18:43
	The reason being	18:45
	that he had found a meteorite	18:46
	at the Arctic	18:47
	and had put it in the hold of the ship	18:48
	and brought it back to New York.	18:50
	But because the meteorite was	18:52
	down in the heart of the ship,	18:54
	the compass was so influenced by it,	18:56
	that it was completely undependable.	18:58
	This is a parable of the kind of thing that happens	19:01
	when a person has a meteorite	19:04
	of bias and prejudice	19:07
	lodged within his heart,	19:08
	which keeps his thinking process,	19:10
	his rational process,	19:12
	his judgment	19:15
	from being true and accurate.	19:16
	So that that,	19:18
	which should guide him	19:19
	guide the right conclusions	19:21
	would part him instead toward wrong.	19:23
	So that our reasoning process	19:27
	becomes instead rationalization.	19:29
	There are many people in the world today	19:33
	who think that the conclusions,	19:34
	which they have	19:36
	are honest and true,	19:37
	but which conclusions have been dictated	19:40
	by a meteorite of prejudice in their hearts,	19:43
	rather than by clear	19:46
	and objective thinking.	19:48
	I never had this	19:53
	demonstrated to me	19:54
	so forcibly	19:55
	as two years ago,	19:57
	when I attended a workshop	19:58
	in the state of Wisconsin,	19:59
	there were people there	20:02
	from all over America,	20:03
	every one of them had a graduate degree	20:06
	from a reputable institution.	20:08
	We were seated in a room	20:12
	and a psychologist demonstrated	20:13
	the machine to us.	20:16
	This machine	20:18
	brought several objects together	20:20
	in juxtaposition	20:22
	and did certain things with these objects.	20:24
	And every person in the room thought	20:28
	he saw a particular thing.	20:31
	Every one of us	20:36
	signed a statement	20:37
	that we had seen this.	20:38
	And then the psychologist	20:41
	explained to us	20:43
	that we had not seen this at all.	20:43
	And the reason why we did not see	20:47
	what actually happened was	20:49
	that it would have required	20:52
	a fundamental readjustment	20:53
	of our basic assumptions	20:55
	about those objects in the machine.	20:57
	We had learned all of us,	21:00
	many years ago,	21:01
	certain things	21:02
	we would have had to re-examine	21:04
	those things we had learned	21:07
	in order to have seen what actually happened.	21:08
	And then he ran	21:12
	the experiment again.	21:14
	And we all saw	21:15
	what really happened that time,	21:16
	because we had been told.	21:18
	The point which he made was this,	21:20
	we knew that in order to see	21:25
	what really was taking place,	21:27
	we would have to unlearn some things	21:29
	and learn some new things.	21:32
	We had a resistance to this.	21:34
	So we did not want to learn those things.	21:37
	Therefore,	21:39
	we did not want to see	21:40
	what was happening.	21:42
	And because we did not want to see	21:43
	what was happening,	21:45
	we did not see what was happening.	21:46
	And as he went on to point out,	21:49
	this happens over and over again,	21:50
	and social relationships	21:52
	in an interpersonal relationships	21:53
	and in our progress	21:55
	toward knowledge and truth and wisdom.	21:57
	When the heart says, no,	22:01
	it is almost impossible	22:04
	for the mind to find the yes.	22:05
	There's an old adage	22:09
	that goes like this,	22:12
	that I think needs amending.	22:13
	It says	22:15
	a woman convinced against her will	22:16
	is of the same opinion still.	22:17
	The place where this needs amending is	22:19
	that simply to	22:22
	make this true	22:24
	of women is not enough.	22:25
	It's true of everyone.	22:27
	A person convinced against his will	22:29
	is all the same opinion still.	22:31
	This what we want to believe.	22:33
	We believe in general	22:35
	and what we do not want to believe,	22:36
	we do not believe.	22:38
	Therefore	22:40
	the whole process	22:41
	of arriving at wisdom	22:42
	must begin with the heart.	22:43
	Who can believe what his heart upholds.	22:48
	Recent personality studies	22:53
	that have been made by psychologists	22:55
	demonstrate this very clearly.	22:57
	That our biases	23:01
	our prejudgments,	23:03
	our past experience,	23:04
	condition what we are able to learn.	23:06
	And the person who	23:10
	by the regenerating activity of the holy spirit	23:11
	has his heart cleansed	23:14
	and freed from the things which tie it down	23:16
	is a person most nearly able	23:19
	to view truth objectively.	23:22
	There is a third reason	23:27
	why we need to ask the question,	23:28
	"is thy heart right?"	23:30
	Everyone	23:33
	should want to leave this world	23:35
	a better place	23:37
	than he finds it.	23:38
	Everyone	23:40
	should be able to come to the end	23:41
	of his life here knowing	23:43
	that some human problem	23:45
	has been greatly improved	23:46
	because of what he has done.	23:48
	The Psalmist was considering	23:53
	the social problems of his day	23:55
	and the fact that there were so many sinners,	23:57
	the fact there were so many law violators,	24:00
	transgressors of every sort,	24:02
	people of ill will,	24:04
	and he wanted to know	24:06
	what he could do about it.	24:07
	Very wisely	24:09
	he prayed the prayer,	24:10
	create in me	24:11
	a clean heart,	24:14
	oh God,	24:16
	and renew	24:18
	a right spirit	24:19
	within me.	24:20
	Then	24:22
	shall I teach	24:23
	transgressors thy way?	24:24
	And sinners shall be converted	24:27
	under thee.	24:29
	The person who wants to make this a better world	24:31
	must begin with himself.	24:33
	And in beginning with himself,	24:35
	must begin with his own heart.	24:37
	Keep thy heart with all diligence	24:40
	or out of it comes	24:43
	the issues of life.	24:44
	It is not what enters	24:46
	into the mouth of a man that defiles him	24:47
	but what proceeds out of the heart,	24:49
	these make the man unclean.	24:51
	Having a right heart	24:57
	equips a person	24:58
	to make a contribution	25:00
	to the solution of the world's problems.	25:01
	We meet here in a university chapel today	25:05
	at a time and in a world	25:09
	where the race problem	25:11
	is a very serious problem.	25:12
	There are all kinds of solutions advanced.	25:15
	There are all kinds of laws being passed	25:18
	and all kinds of laws being broken.	25:20
	I would like to say,	25:25
	as earnestly, as I know how to say it,	25:26
	that this problem will be solved	25:28
	when,	25:31
	as,	25:33
	and if	25:34
	man of goodwill,	25:36
	not of prejudice	25:38
	or of violence,	25:40
	but man of goodwill,	25:42
	earnestly sit down together to solve it.	25:44
	It will be solved in the heart.	25:49
	If our hearts are right	25:52
	in our attitudes toward our fellow men,	25:54
	it will be very simple for our heads to provide	25:56
	the technicalities of the solution.	26:00
	The race problem never has been	26:04
	basically a legal problem	26:06
	or financial problem	26:07
	or a mental problem.	26:09
	It has been basically,	26:11
	and is now	26:12
	basically a problem of the heart.	26:13
	Why was it,	26:18
	do you suppose,	26:19
	is Mr. James B. Duke	26:20
	directed his fortune	26:23
	to the relief of the suffering,	26:25
	the solution of the problems of mankind?	26:28
	Was it because Mr. Duke	26:31
	had information	26:34
	about the needs of mankind in hospitals	26:35
	and orphanages	26:38
	and universities,	26:39
	which other men of wealth did not have?	26:40
	I imagined that	26:44
	man of wealth of Mr Duke's day	26:46
	had essentially the same information he had.	26:48
	Mr. Duke himself	26:53
	gave us the answer to the question of	26:54
	why he directed that ultimately	26:57
	the great resources of his wealth should go	27:01
	for the uplift and the betterment of mankind,	27:04
	for education.	27:07
	He said that the circuit riding preachers	27:10
	of the early days	27:12
	touched the heart of his father	27:14
	and of his own heart.	27:16
	And gave him	27:18
	an interest	27:21
	in solving the problems of mankind.	27:22
	To do what he could to help man.	27:26
	No matter what area of human need it is.	27:30
	And there are many.	27:32
	We cannot make a start even	27:34
	toward the solution of these	27:36
	until our hearts are right.	27:38
	The most important reason of all,	27:41
	why our hearts must be right, though,	27:43
	is that there is no possibility	27:47
	of our entering the kingdom of God,	27:49
	unless, and until	27:52
	our hearts are right with God	27:53
	and with God's children.	27:56
	The one	27:58
	basic essential in every	28:00
	form of the Christian religion	28:03
	is the right heart.	28:06
	This is the meaning of conversion.	28:08
	Conversion is	28:11
	an attempt,	28:13
	an act,	28:14
	a desire	28:15
	to love God	28:18
	and to do the will of God.	28:19
	The experience of conversion does not imply	28:22
	that the converted person	28:25
	knows everything about the will of God	28:27
	or all of the implications of Christian ethics.	28:29
	He certainly does not know	28:32
	all the theology he should know.	28:34
	He may not know any of the creeds.	28:36
	He may not understand even	28:39
	what church he would like to unite with,	28:40
	but there is one thing	28:44
	that is essential in the conversion.	28:45
	And that is	28:47
	the turning of the heart toward God.	28:48
	And a willingness	28:51
	to be of help to God's children.	28:52
	Is thy heart right?	28:55
	Said Wesley,	28:56
	all right, if it is	28:57
	then come on in	28:59
	and begin the process of learning	29:00
	and of growing in grace.	29:01
	The Biblical basis of our faith	29:06
	known as the holy scriptures	29:09
	have about 50 references to hell.	29:12
	How many references	29:16
	do you suppose the Bible	29:17
	has to the heart?	29:18
	Not 50,	29:22
	not 500.	29:23
	It has nearly a 700 references	29:25
	to the heart	29:28
	as against 50 for hell.	29:28
	And a similar number	29:31
	for other points,	29:33
	which are discussed a great deal	29:34
	in Christian teaching.	29:36
	But the heart in the Bible	29:38
	is given a great place of importance.	29:40
	It is impossible for a person to be a good Christian	29:44
	unless his heart is right.	29:49
	There was a passage	29:52
	in the Bible about atheism.	29:53
	That concerned me for a long time,	29:55
	until I read it in a new translation.	29:57
	The statement is,	30:01
	"the fool has said in his heart,	30:03
	there is no God."	30:05
	And I assumed this meant	30:07
	that anyone who says	30:08
	there is no God is a fool.	30:10
	And I was sorry about this	30:13
	because so many of my friends in college	30:14
	went through a period of time	30:17
	when they felt	30:18
	that they were very unsure of the existence of God	30:20
	or they were quite sure there is no God,	30:22
	which may simply have been	30:26
	a very healthy throwing out	30:28
	of an inadequate conception of God.	30:30
	It is perfectly possible for	30:35
	an honest intellect	30:38
	to say, there is no God,	30:41
	but when I read it	30:44
	in the different translations that said	30:46
	"in his heart, the fool had said,	30:48
	there is no God."	30:52
	I then saw that the emphasis	30:54
	makes it clear that	30:57
	it is the person	30:59
	who does not want God to exist.	31:00
	The person who is sorry,	31:04
	if Jesus is the Christ,	31:07
	the person who says,	31:09
	I want a Godless world,	31:10
	I want an un-Christian world.	31:12
	I want to be able to live like the devil	31:16
	and get away with it	31:18
	and enjoy it	31:19
	and not pay the consequences.	31:20
	I don't want to be in a moral world.	31:22
	This person is the fool.	31:25
	This is the person who will not come	31:28
	to faith in God	31:31
	or loyalty to Christ.	31:33
	As long as he has this in his heart,	31:35
	it will be impossible for his mind	31:38
	to come to our scent,	31:41
	to the things of God.	31:42
	The fool has said in his heart,	31:45
	there is no God.	31:47
	Well, is thy heart right?	31:49
	As you come into your college education,	31:52
	there is no more important question	31:54
	that you can answer.	31:57
	No question to which	32:00
	the answer must assuredly be,yes.	32:01
	If you are to be properly starting	32:05
	your college education.	32:06
	It will help you to learn facts.	32:08
	It will help your mind to go unfailingly	32:11
	to dependable wisdom.	32:15
	It will help prepare you	32:17
	to solve the problems of the world.	32:21
	And it will prepare you	32:24
	for entrance into the kingdom of God.	32:26
	Jesus said,	32:30
	blessed are the pure in heart	32:32
	for they shall see God.	32:35
Second Preacher	Eternal God,	32:56
	we invoked now the blessing	32:59
	of the indwelling of thy spirit to the end	33:00
	that we shall have that singleness of eye	33:04
	and purity of heart,	33:07
	whereby we may be saved	33:09
	from that fear,	33:13
	which would shrink	33:14
	from new truth	33:16
	and that laziness,	33:18
	which would be satisfied	33:19
	with half-truth	33:21
	and that arrogance,	33:23
	which thanks it has all true.	33:25
	Oh God of truth.	33:27
	May the Lord bless you	33:30
	and keep you	33:32
	may the Lord make his face to shine upon you	33:34
	and be gracious unto you	33:37
	may the Lord lift up his countenance upon you	33:40
	and give you peace	33:44
	now and always through Christ our Lord.	33:45

Item Info

Title:

Howard C. Wilkinson - "Is Thy Heart Right?" (September 17, 1961)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4s75bm54

Date:

September 17, 1961

Speaker:

Wilkinson, Howard C.

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Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0155
ref5516_gy5
uachapelsermaud
duke:628357
dcrau002171
ark:/87924/r4s75bm54
e1175fa6-fcae-4001-8cb8-570895c6775c

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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English

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Howard C. Wilkinson - "Is Thy Heart Right?" (September 17, 1961)

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