I'd like to give you all a warm
welcome to our worship here this morning. Let us ask the Lord's
blessing in prayer. Let us pray. Our Lord God of
heaven and of earth, be pleased to grant us thy blessing, the
power of God accompanying the word in a true spirit of worship. We might gather in thy almighty
presence, that we might sing thy worthy praise and worship
thee in the beauty of holiness. We ask this through our Lord
and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen. Hymn 1036. Tune, Luther's 370. Let us read together from the
Holy Word of God, the Book of Psalms, Psalm 119. If you have one of our free Bibles,
that is page 603. The Psalms are in the middle
of our Bibles. Psalm 119 from verse 1, reading
through to verse 32. Blessed are the undefiled in
the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they
that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole
heart. They also do no iniquity, they
walk in his ways. Thou hast commanded us to keep
Thy precepts diligently. O that my ways were directed
to keep Thy statutes. Then shall I not be ashamed when
I have respect unto all Thy commandments. I will praise Thee with uprightness
of heart when I shall have learned Thy righteous judgments. I will
keep Thy statutes O forsake me, not utterly. Wherewithal shall
a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according
to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought
thee, though let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word
have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me thy statutes. With my lips
have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth. I have rejoiced
in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate in thy precepts
and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy
statutes I will not forget thy word. Deal bountifully with thy
servant that I may live and keep thy word. Open thou mine eyes
that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. I am a stranger
in the earth. Hide not thy commandments from
me. My soul breaketh for the longing. that it hath unto thy judgments
at all times. Thou hast rebuked the proud that
are cursed, which do err from thy commandments. Remove from
me reproach and contempt, for I have kept thy testimonies. Princes also did sit and speak
against me, but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes. Thy testimonies also are my delight
and my counsellors. My soul cleaveth unto the dust,
quicken thou me according to thy word. I have declared my
ways and thou heardest me. Teach me thy statutes. Make me
to understand the way of thy precepts. So shall I talk of
thy wondrous works. My soul melteth for heaviness. Strengthen thou me according
unto thy word. Remove from me the way of lying
and grant me thy law graciously. I have chosen the way of truth. Thy judgments have I laid before
me. I have stuck unto thy testimonies,
O Lord. Put me not to shame. I will run
the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart. Thus far the reading of God's
holy word, may he bless it to us and help us in prayer. Let us pray. O Thou merciful and gracious
Lord God, we do plead the precious name of Jesus, that Thou who
art our advocate with the Father, that we might have that access
through Thee, and enter into the holiest of all. Lord, we
come confessing our sin, our unworthiness of anything from
Thy hand, our unfitness in ourselves to stand before Thee, our need
of a mediator, our need of an intercessor. And we thank Thee
that we have this in our Lord Jesus Christ. We would confess
our many sins seeking, Lord, that precious promise if we confess
our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins. and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We thank thee for he that has
come to this world, has made flesh and dwelt among us. Lord,
we do thank thee for thy perfect righteousness, and that which
is to be imputed or put to a sinner's account, and our sins put upon
thy account. And O Lord, that we might know
that this is so, who bring us to love Thee, to believe in Thee,
to obey Thee, to follow Thee, to know Thee, and may it be with
all our heart we walk in Thy ways. O Lord, we thank Thee for
Thy sacrificial death at Calvary, Thy blood that was shed, the
blood of the New Testament. Lord, we do thank Thee for that
covenant that is sealed with Thy precious blood. And we thank
Thee for the promises, when I see the blood, I will pass over You. Lord, Thou has said, without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission. But now Thou
has shed Thy blood, we thank Thee that there is remission
of sins, forgiveness of sins through our Lord Jesus Christ. And do grant, Lord, that we might
know that and know that we can stand and will stand Faultless
before thy throne, not in our own righteousness but in thine,
and with the debt that we owed put away and settled by thee. O Lord, we thank thee for the
gospel. We do seek, Lord, we might be
truly partakers of it, and know day by day that we are reconciled,
we are brought nigh. We do walk with thee by faith. We do love thee and thy people
and thy word. that we are not of the world,
and we do not seek those things to make our rest here below.
And our hope is in heaven where thou art, and that thou hast
given us that hope beyond the grave. O Lord, do be pleased
to bless us with daily evidence that we are new creatures in
Christ, and all things are passed away, all things are become new. We do seek then thy blessing
upon this cause of truth. Bless us as a church and congregation. Be with those that join with
us online. We do seek, Lord, that thy blessing
might be upon us each as we gather in thy name. We thank thee for
the great mercy of being able to gather. And Lord, we do pray
for those who cannot, through illness or through weakness,
and especially those that are in hospital at this time, we
pray for Anne Garrett, that thou be pleased to grant healing for
her and that thou be with her family in Wales and that thou
be with Sandra to continue to be with her in her home and grant
healing, health and strength in that measure that can be expected,
lengthen her days. And Lord, do be with David Parrish. We commit him unto thee in his
affliction terminal as well, and that thou has bless him in
his soul. Be with the friends that sways
thee, and do bless them. Oh Lord, do remember many that
are unwell, and that thou has grant that affliction might be
turned for good, and that thou has grant that from these things
there might come good. You might be able to say with
the psalmist, it was good for me. that I was afflicted, and
those of us that are not, and we look on and we see the path
of others. Lord, we do pray it might work
for our good. We pray for many of our loved
ones, many of our friends, Lord, those whose lives have been spared
from serious injury or death, and Lord, yet they do not know
thee. And oh Lord, do be pleased to
work in their hearts. Bless that which has been spoken
to them, Lord, remember those whose loved ones have passed
away tragically and do comfort them, especially those at South
Chard. Lord, we do seek to be prepared
for that time that heart and flesh must fail. We do thank
thee for the mercies of this last week, many answers to prayer,
and we do thank thee for it. Lord, thou knowest each one of
us In what way we have sought Thee, and answers have been given,
and we have been given, Lord, that heart to praise Thy name,
to speak one to another of what Thou hast done for us, and we
do thank Thee for such tokens for good. O Lord, do be pleased
to help us to enter upon this new week in the same way we might
commit it unto Thee, the journeys, the ministry, the things that
are before us. hospital visits, whatever it
is, O Lord, be pleased to be thou the orderer, the keeper
of our souls. We thank thee for every measure
of health and strength that we have. And we look that we might
be not only strength in your body, but also in our souls. Didst thou not charge Peter,
when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren? O Lord, do grant
that the brethren might be strengthened through thy word. Lord, this
morning and indeed throughout this day. Remember each of thy
dear servants, Lord, to remember them, especially those that have
weaknesses and maybe wonder whether they shall get through today
with strength of voice, Lord, to strengthen them and to help
them. We do say, Lord, that thou remember
the people of Cranbrook, O Lord, who bring many into a concern
for their souls. Lord, we know we live in the
midst of a people who see no need to hear the word of God,
who feel no danger near, who do not realize that beyond death
is the judgment and wrath of God to come, and that there was
a reason for the Lord Jesus Christ to come. Lord, do we please to
awaken many around to come and fill this place. Do bless, Lord,
thy word that goes out from here. And those that have taken copies
of thy word, do bless it to them and to their families. We commit
that word unto thee, whether locally or throughout the UK. And Lord, those that have been
given over the years, over the last 24 years to the schools,
Lord, may there be copies that are found. as people maybe leave
home or turn out their drawers and find thy word and read it
and that it bring forth fruit even many, many years after it
has been given. O Lord, we do pray for this blessing
and we pray for prayer that we might constantly come before
thy throne and see thy word to be with power. Pour out Thy Spirit
in our day. Help us to remain faithful, consistent,
and to be able to persevere unto the end in the lot where Thou
hast cast us. I know, Lord, do help each one
so to do. We might be what Thou hast have
us to be. Act in the way Thou hast have
us to act. Speak in the way Thou hast have
us to speak. Think in the way Thou hast have
us to think. And Lord, where we have imbibed
habits or wrong thought patterns, where we have besetting sins,
where we have weakness and the devil takes advantage of it again
and again, deliver us and set our feet free from those snares
and do cause that our ways might be right in thy sight. We might be sanctified and made
meat for the master's use. Lord, we do pray for those in
authority over us We pray that Thou would keep us in this nation
from going further and further away from Thee, deliver us from
ungodly laws. Lord, we do pray that Thou has
preserved to us a Protestant heritage and Lord, that there
might be Thy blessing on many little churches, chapels up and
down this land where Thy truth is still set forth. Lord, do
help us this morning. We seek, Lord, light upon thy
word, thy blessing to be upon it. And may the Lord Jesus Christ
precious to us. And Lord, may we truly profit
through thy word this morning. We ask through thy name, Lord
Jesus. Amen. Enhancements, God willing, I
am expected to preach here this evening at 6.30pm and on Thursday
at seven o'clock and next Lord's Day at 11am and 6.30pm. We're thankful for a good number
that joined with us on our Thanksgiving services on Thursday We will
announce, God willing, the collections next Lord's Day when those have
had opportunity to give online, which that is, of course, still
open. And we will know then more what
the collection has been. Hymn 95, Tune, St Bernard 219 Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 119 and reading for
our text, verse 10. With my whole heart have I sought
thee, though let me not wander from thy commandments. Psalm 119 and verse 10. The penman of this psalm is not
known. There are many that think it
was either David, Daniel, Ezra, Jeremiah, one of those, but we
are not told. But of course, whoever the penman
is, in the word of God, the author of it is God himself. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. This is a psalm that is divided,
as you can see, into sections of eight verses. There's 22 sections
answering to the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. It is an
acrostic. Each section begins with a letter. And so the method of remembrance
of the scriptures is aided, especially in the originals. And we have
the same method that is taken in other books as well, especially
Lamentations of Jeremiah. And we have it in other psalms
as well, Psalm 22 and other psalms, that 69 in that sort of arrangement. We would remember that Christ
is through all the scriptures. When we turn to Old Testament
scriptures and preach from them, we are not to think, well, we're
in the gospel day now, we're in the New Testament, how can
we see Christ in the old, or how can these Old Testament saints
be speaking in ways that we can take, but we must remember this,
that there is only one God, there are only one people of sinners,
there is only one way of salvation, only one Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, there is only one faith from Abel right to the last soul,
all if brought to be saved and brought to heaven, have been
blessed with faith in Christ. Our Lord said that Abraham saw
my day and rejoiced at it. And we believe with righteous
able in offering that blood sacrifice, he also saw that through the
promise of the seed of the woman, how his sins were to be put away. And so we are to remember that. We are to remember also that
when our Lord preached to the two on the way to Emmaus, in
all the scriptures concerning himself, it was the Old Testament
scriptures. The same with Philip, given the
text to preach from to the eunuch in what in our Bibles is Isaiah
53. And of course, Paul, he preached
from the Old Testament too, so the Breans, they could search
the scriptures daily whether these things were so. And of
course, the scriptures that they were searching were the Old Testament
scriptures. May we always remember this.
I have been challenged sometimes in preaching from the Old Testament
that as if you can't do so, and as if it is not part of the message
for the New Testament. But of course, It is, and God
has given to us, and in the preaching, the great volume, the whole volume
of the Word of God. Preach the Word, not preach the
New Testament, preach the Word. And the promise is upon that
preaching. If the fall of Adam alienated
from God, which it did, a man was banished from the garden,
and a separation between man and God. The work of our Lord
Jesus Christ is to reverse that, God and sinners reconciled, but
not on a universal way, not as some would teach, where Christ
has come, he is now reconciled, and there is now no condemnation
to anybody, no. It is only to those that are
brought to personal saving faith and trust in Christ that are
saved. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
save and die to save every man, woman and child. Those for whom
he shed his precious blood will, in time, be brought to faith
and, in the context before us here, will be brought to seek
the Lord. The Lord himself said, I am come
to seek and save that which is lost. But as far as the sinner
realizes, the Lord says again, no man can come unto me except
the Father which sent me draw him, and I'll raise him up at
the last day. So for the sinner, he first knows
when he is brought to seek the Lord. when he seeks after the
Lord, which is what the psalmist here testifies that he was doing. We're told in the earlier part
of the psalm, verse 2, blessed are they that keep his testimonies
and that seek him with the whole heart. Then in our text is the
testimony of the psalmist, with my whole heart have I sought
thee. And then the petition, oh let
me not wander from thy commandments. So, I want to speak this morning
with these two headings, two main headings, we'll subdivide
them, or at least especially the first one, is the psalmist's
testimony, with my whole heart have I sought thee. And then secondly, his petition,
though let me not wander from thy commandments. A testimony
and a petition. And what a blessed thing it would
be if myself and you that hear, you also have a testimony and
also have petitions. We are people of prayer. but
people that can make a very clear statement of what we are and
what we are doing. And this, our first point, can
we really say with our whole heart, not the heart that beats
the blood round our body, but our whole being, what is the
mover, what we really are, not what we contrive to think or
imitate, but what really deep down is what we are. The Lord says that out of the
abundance of the heart man speaketh and the Lord's work begins in
the heart. It's not something just superficial,
it's not just something that is learnt and just acted because
we think we should act in a certain way. It is what we are. You know if we were to hear a
dog bark, we would say, well, not that that is a dog because
it barks, but it barks because it is a dog. And what comes from
it is an indication of what it actually is. And if it could
be possible that the dog could become something else, a cat,
then again you would know by what it uttered as to what it
actually changed into. But the way of the Lord with
his people, he says that he will give them a new heart and a new
spirit and make them new creatures in Christ. And when we think
of the Apostle Paul, what he uttered when he was unconverted,
when he was an enemy of God, was only to the persecution of
God's people and blasphemy, but when he was called, what a different
man, what a different character he was, and what different things
came out of his mouth, and what different things characterized
his life, a new changed character. And so it is vital that we have
a heart work and that we can testify. Paul says in Romans
10 that with the heart man believes, but with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. And with our text, the psalmist
is making confession and he's actually joining with it about
his heart, with my whole heart have I sought thee. Well under this heading I want
to look at three points. Firstly there is the seeker himself,
this is the psalmist. Then we have the one that is
sought for which is thee or as in the context here Jehovah the
Lord. And then we have the manner of
seeking. With my whole heart have I sought
thee. And we have in the context something
of the manner that the psalmist is using to seek the Lord. But firstly, the person that
is seeking is one thing with God's people. that they are brought
to be mindful of who they are, what they are. The Apostle James,
he says that we are to look into the Word of God as if the Word
of God was a mirror. Now, of course, we are used to
looking in mirrors. We're used to seeing ourselves.
We can also have a photograph of ourselves and we can look
at that. There have been those who have made experiments in
the jungle and they put great mirrors up and then put some
cameras to record the reaction of wild animals that come and
see themselves in a mirror. And it's quite amazing to see
lion or tiger or bear come face to face with itself in this mirror
and their alarm and they're trying to attack it as if it was another
animal not recognizing that is themselves and looking behind
the mirror to see if something is there and not realizing this
this is actually them and we can be like this as well in the
word of god we can read the word of god And we think, well, there's
some strange things here that are important, some things that
are terrible things about people, and not realize it is us. You know, the Lord used this
way when David had sinned with murder and adultery, and he sent
Nathan with a parable to tell him about someone else. So David can view this as if
he was viewing someone else, not realizing that the picture
that was before him and what he was going to pass judgment
on was actually himself. And so when he told him the parable
of the rich man that had great many flocks and herds and a poor
man that had one little lamb brought up special with him,
One is the household, one that he really loved and doted on.
When the rich man had visitors come and travellers come to him,
he didn't want to take of his own flock, but took of the poor
man's lamb and slew it. And David's anger was raised
up against that man. He said that man should restore
fourfold because he had no pity and because he killed the poor
man's lamb. And Nathan said, thou art the
man. There was David with all his
wives, and yet he took Uriah's wife and then slew Uriah with
the sword of the children of Ammon. And David fell under it. He fell under it as a sinner.
I have sinned. And the Lord said through Nathan,
the Lord hath also put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. The
consequences were that the sword should not depart from his house
or his days. And so the word of God is as
a mirror. And in James we read, be ye doers
of the word, not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. If any be a hearer of the word
and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face
in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and
goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man
he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect
law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful
hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in
his deed. The picture in the Word of God
sets forth the holy, righteous law of God, the law by which
we shall be judged and before the God that we must stand. He shall open the books and it
shall be according to that Word, not according to what we think
or according to our measures, measuring before other people,
You know, if you and I have an insurance contract, then we are
bound by that contract. If it is insurance on the car,
then they say, if you have an accident, we will pay for the
damages of your car. But then you continue reading
the small print, and it says that they'll only pay out if
the car is insured, if the driver is got a license, if the keys
had not been left in the car and it was then stolen with the
keys in the car, they wouldn't pay out. And you would have to
keep within the law, and the car was roadworthy. Otherwise,
if none of those things applied, they would not pay out. And however
much you could argue it, However much you deceived your own self
and thought, well, I'm just going to drive anyway, and I'm covered,
I'm insured, but not realizing that when it actually came to
it, that you're not. And there's many like that, that
think, I'm all right for heaven. I'm a good person. I do charity
works. I'm not as bad as the next person. And they never look into the
word of God. try themselves by that pure,
perfect plumb line of the Word of God. It's like someone saying
that I built this wall, and yes, it's straight, it's straight
up, it's right, it's good. And someone says, well, have
you put a plumb line next to it? Have you put a spirit level
next to it? No. Well, you put that next to
it, and by that measure you find out, well, Actually, it's not
straight afterwards, or the floor is not flat. You put something
on it and it rolls off. And all the time, we have those
things in life where something is put to the test. Is it really
right? Does someone really come up to
this standard? Do they really have this knowledge
or not? How many think that they would
have the knowledge of God and the things of God and what it
takes to be saved and yet never come to the Word of God. You
know, as a sinner, we have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. The Word of God, the law of God,
is to bring in everyone guilty before God. By the law is the
knowledge of sin. And the psalmist here, though
we don't know his name, we are absolutely sure of this, that
he was a sinner, that he lied with all of mankind. are fallen,
are lost, are alienated from God by nature, that need the
Redeemer, need the Saviour, need the way of escape. And we might
say it even gives a hint of this in his petition, the second part. Oh, let me not wander from thy
commandments. Why? You would say, why, psalmist,
would you think you would wander from his commandments? Because
I have a deceitful evil heart. because I have a fallen nature,
because I am so prone to. That's why. All have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. The condemnation is passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. Not just some men, but all men. Who so offendeth in one point
is guilty of all, not thinking, well, I offend just in a few
small points, I'm not such a bad sinner. No, in one point is guilty
of all. And so the seeker here is a sinner. The gospel is for sinners. And for those are to be saved,
it is those that first are lost. Those that are brought to be
free from condemnation are those that first feel under condemnation. It's good for us to think here
whenever we come to someone who has a testimony or to the characters
in the Word of God, what kind of person was this? What kind
of character are they? And we might say many things
out superficially in their lives, but when it comes to the heart
and when it comes to the fallen nature, they all have sinned.
They're all the same. But it's good for us to think,
what manner of persons are we? And the mirror is not the mirror
in your bathroom, it is the word of God. And so when we think
in this first point, is the seeker Those that the Lord has come
to seek and save will be those that seek. Those that seek after
the Lord are doing so by the grace of God, the mercy of God
that has made them seek after the Lord. It is a blessed thing
that there should be any of the sons of God that ever think after
God and want to know Him and want to find Him I want to seek
him. You know, just the very idea
of a seeker, one that is seeking after God. You know, if we've
lost something, if we cannot see something, then we're not
going just straight to it, are we? We're seeking it. We're looking
this place, looking that place. There might be some that hear
the word this morning who say, That's me, I've gone and looked
at this place, I've gone to this place of worship, that place
of worship, this book, that book, this person, that person, seeking. I've been looking, feeling the
need, feeling an emptiness, a vanity of everything here below, feeling
what a solemn thing it is to die and eternity before me. And so you're seeking. It's a blessed thing to be a
seeker, but to be a seeker seeking in the way that is set before
us here and with the object that is set before us here. So this
word then is for those that feel themselves sinners, those that
are seeking and yet perhaps don't know what they're seeking or
how they should seek. This is a word for those that
feel their emptiness, their condemnation, feel they don't know which way
to seek, which way to go. Here is one that gives testimony
and says, with my whole heart have, I sought thee. Now then, secondly, under this
first head, the one sought. Thee. Now in the context here,
the Thee is the Lord, spelt with the capitals, and it is then
Jehovah. Verse 12, blessed art thou, O
Lord, teach me thy statutes. It is the law of the Lord that
the psalm opens with. Blessed are the undefiled in
the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. When we said about
the fallen state of man, it alienates between God and man, and in the
gospel, in the way of being saved, it is that men will be brought
to seek unto God. Now we must be very clear in
this, we're not We're not seeking wealth or material things. There's some blasphemous so-called
pastors that just say if you're sick and if you want to be healed,
then you pay a lot of money into the church and the Lord in response
will heal you. It's just utter blasphemy. We think of Elisha when Nahum
and the Syrian had been healed by a miracle through Elisha's
hand. Ne'eman wanted to give him money
and garments, wealth, and he refused to take it. But Gehazi
Elisha's servant, he said, I will take somewhat of him. And he
ran after Ne'eman and told him a whole pack of lies that there
was those people that had come and could he please give them
something. And then he went and hid the
silver and the garments that he'd got. Went and stood before
Elisha as if Elisha wouldn't know what he'd done. But Elisha
knew the Lord had shown him exactly what he'd done. And he said to
Gethesei, is it a time to receive money, garments, lands, and vineyards? All of those earthly things.
It's not a time to seek that. There are many today, they think,
well, religion and the things of God, It used to be said years
ago, it's good for business to go to church once on a Sunday. That was when it was fashionable
to do so, get a nice lot of people in the shop. But today, well,
people have got wealth, they've got health, they've got families,
they've got good jobs, they've got plenty to do. What do they
need of religion? It's only when it's realised
that It is not for this life, it's for that which is to come.
And it centres in this, the reconciliation between God and man. And it begins
in the seeking in this way, a poor sinner is seeking after God himself. I have sought thee. I've not
sought wealth, I've not sought something for me, So much with
us, all the time it is. What's in it for me? If someone
comes to hear someone speak or anything that's advertised, come
to this function, the thought always is, what's in it for me?
Why should I go? What am I going to get from this?
But here is a seeking unto God, and the aim is to have communion,
fellowship, oneness with the God, with God here below, here
in the day of grace. And many that deceive themselves
and think that they're going to be in heaven, they're going
to be with God, they're going to be with his people in heaven,
But they don't want to be with his people here. They don't want
to hear God's word. They don't want to be in the
house of God. They don't want anything to do
with the things of God here below. But if you told them you are
going to hell, you are going to outer darkness and banishment
from God, they'd be so offended. Oh, my good person, I do some
charity work and I'm not as bad as the rest. Making that judgment
without having any regard to the word of God at all and not
seeking after the Lord. Heaven would not be a nice place
to someone who didn't want the Lord here, who didn't want his
presence, didn't want the Lord's people's presence here. No, heaven
would not be heaven for them. There is only two places, heaven
and hell, and all mankind will go to one or the other. And those
who have had nothing to do with the Lord here, God will have
nothing to do with them in the world to come. The Lord says
that whosoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall
my heavenly Father be ashamed before the angels in heaven. Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. It is vital that we be a seeker
that has this object after the Lord. You think from our Lord's
Prayer in John 17. His desire all the time is for
his people to be with him. Father, I will that they whom
thou has given me be with me where I am, that they may behold
my glory. All the time it is to be drawn
No man can come unto me except the Father which sent me draw
him. I will raise him up at the last day. Those when he was on
earth that sought like Zacchaeus to see him, to come unto him,
the Lord's invitations, come unto me. All ye that labour and
are heavy laden, I will give you rest. It's a blessed thing
to have this object of our first desire and so pushing aside every
other consideration, every other thought, it is that I might know
Him and the power of His resurrection be made conformable unto His
death. When we think of Jehovah here,
we think also of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God manifest in
the flesh, Emmanuel, God with us. And we seek God through His
beloved Son. We seek unto him who came to
this earth, who suffered, who bled, who died, who raised again
from the dead. The Lord Jesus Christ made that
way of reconciliation by paying the debt his people owed and
by working out a righteousness, a life that they could not give,
live, and giving that to them and taking their sin upon him.
He has made a way that God and those sinners can be reconciled. And it is through his spirit
and through the preaching of the word that the two are brought
together. I, if I be lifted up above the
earth, will draw all men unto me. It hath pleased God through
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And
all the time, It is the fruit of Christ's death, his blood,
and that which comes from God leads to God. And so the seeking
soul, the soul that seeks for the Lord, seeks for life, seeks
for salvation, they're seeking after Christ, after God through
Christ. There is all the salvation. There
is how they are saved. in the Lord Jesus Christ. The
truth is in Jesus. The Lord said, if you believe
not that I am he, you shall perish in your sins. John says at the
end of his epistle, these are written that you might believe
that Jesus is the Christ and that in believing he might have
life through his name. And it is the Lord Jesus Christ
that has declared that he is the only name given among men
whereby we must be saved. So it is the one sought for. Then we have how. How that one
is to be sought for, the manner of seeking. The psalmist says
here, with my whole heart have I sought thee. The things of God and the exercise
of a living soul is not something that is just a small thing in
their life. It's not just like taking up
a hobby and you say, well, my life, I've got my wife, my
family, and I've got my job, and I'm going to have this little
hobby, and it's just going to be for a few hours a week. is
not just something for Christmas and Easter going to the church,
is not just going even every Lord's Day to the house of God,
is not that outward worship in Christ's day, the Jews, the scribes,
the Pharisees, they made for a pair of tents, long prayers,
wore long garments, they were said to deceive. They appeared
unto men outwardly as righteous, godly, but inwardly they were
full of wickedness, full of iniquity. Their heart was not right with
God. And so this seeking is with the
whole heart, and it will affect our work, our families, everything
that we do will be consistent with a faith in Christ and the
worldview will be according to the Word of God, not according
to men who believe God, not man. And so that seeking will be with
wholeheartedness and will be in the way, and I'll draw your
attention where this text is. The verse before says, Wherewithal
shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according
to thy word. Then we have the word of our
text. So we say one that is seeking with the whole heart, he's seeking
to cleanse his way. He is seeking to do it by taking
heed to the Word of God. Then we have after our text,
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against
thee. Before and after the text that
speaks of his testimony of seeking, it's all to do with the heart,
and with cleansing, and with sin. When we think of the name
of our Lord, His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save
His people from their sins. Not save them straight to heaven,
but save them here below. When we have sin working in us,
bubbling up, casting up uncleanness, that would be a plague to the
child of God. A plague that it keeps alienating
us and doing those things that are contrary to the revealed
will of God, and how we can be cleansed from it. The only right
way is through the Lord Jesus Christ. If the Son shall make
you free, you shall be free indeed. It's faith in what the Lord has
done, redeemed us, set us free by the payment of a price. Redeem
Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. And it is the Lord
alone that can release from the bondage of sin. You shall know
the truth. The truth shall make you free. Many people do not want to know
the truth at all. You try to tell them, they say,
stop. I'd rather be in ignorance. I'd rather not know anything.
And you start to tell him, but this is not all bad news. It's
not all condemnation. It's a way of escape through
the Lord. They still don't want to know. Why not? Because our
Lord says, light is come into the world. But men love darkness
rather than light because their deeds were evil. Men know subconsciously
Whatever might be set before them of a hope in the word of
God and the things of God is going to deal with their lifestyle. It's going to change. It's going
to condemn some of the things that they're doing. Their lives
will need to change, and they don't want to change. Our Lord
says, because their deeds were evil, and the witness of the
conscience in man, he knows it. He really does know it. but he'd
rather be ignorant and rather not hear the worst of it until
he drops into the grave and then it is too late. And the other
end, the judgment, then there is condemnation. But the manner
of seeking here is a seeking wholeheartedly and it's a seeking
to walk in those ways that in the word of God are set as pleasing
to the Lord. and those ways that will require
us more and more to have a union to Christ and be close to Him. Those when the Lord was on earth
and He worked miracles, He worked miracles of healing the deaf,
the blind, the lame, those that were dead, He raised them. Each
one that had a trial, what was their first thing they did? They
sought the Lord, they sought unto Jesus, they went to Jesus. They brought their sick, they
brought those that were too hard cases to Him. How did they know
they were too hard cases? Well, they were literal sicknesses,
they were literal blindnesses. But when we have the sickness
of sin and the evil and the desperate wickedness and evilness of our
heart, when that is known and felt, and we identify that as
clearly as a broken leg, as being a malady that is a fatal one,
as one that is a terminal illness, than it is to be seeking unto
the Lord with the whole heart. And so it is vital that we notice
where the text is, set right in the middle of this one that
is seeking, does not want to sin, he wants his way cleansed,
This is a wholehearted Christian. This is one that doesn't just
want just an empty name and his life not touched. He wants his
life changed. He wants that he walk in a way
that he may walk with the Lord. How can two walk together except
they be agreed? If we are to be with the Lord,
then we need to be sanctified, we need to be cleansed, we need
to walk in ways where we can be in agreement, we can walk
together. And this is how one that is seeking
will seek to walk in. Thy word have I hid in my heart
that I might not sin against thee. So may our seeking be a
seeking unto the Lord, a seeking that desires to walk in a upright
way a way that is cleansed, a way that the Lord, we need the Lord
to deliver us from the sinfulness of our heart, the evilness of
our heart. If we are mindful of what goes
on in our heart, you know, the Lord says he cannot serve God
a mammon. By nature, we try and try to
do it. We try to live as close to the
world as we can. We try to have two things. We try to satisfy our old nature,
and want heaven as well. The Lord says, no, you cannot
do it. It needs to be all the heart or nothing, not just part,
all of it. And so the testimony here, and
really it's a blessed testimony, with my whole heart have I sought
thee. And may that truly be true of
us, may we desire that testimony to be true that we be able to
say we may have you know read this many many times but have
we ever thought can we really take this language on our lips
with my whole heart have i sought there and have the lord to bear
witness yes this soul has been seeking in that way you know
when Philip spoke to Nathanael and said, we have found him whom
the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth. Can any good thing
come out of Nazareth? Philip says, come and see. When
he was coming, the Lord said, behold, an Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile. In other words, the Lord saw
that what you saw was what you got. This was a genuine man that
did not seek to deceive. He was honest, sincere, seeker
after God and a worshiper of God. And you know, Nathaniel
said, whence knowest thou me? The Lord said, before that Philip
called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. And
when we were children, we had a fig tree. If you walked right
past it, someone was under it, you'd never know they were there.
The leaves were so big. That one thing was enough to
convince Nathaniel. He said, thou art the King of
Israel. Thou art the Christ. We didn't need anything more.
And it's a blessed thing that the Lord should look upon us
and see that we really are genuine. There's no attempt to deceive. We're not making out with something
that we're not. So we have the one that is seeking,
their sinner, is one mindful of their need of the Lord. We have the one that he is seeking,
which is the Lord. And then we have how he is seeking
in a holy and an upright way, a way consistent with the Word
of God and with the whole heart. I want to look then at the second
part, which is a petition. And this is a petition that is
consistent with seeking with the whole heart. It's put together. Petitions and seeking. I wonder
how it is with us. What is our profession? What is our testimony? And what
do our prayers look like? What do our petitions look like?
Are they together? Do they go together? He says,
Oh, let me not wander from thy commandments. You know, this
is like the man that had the sun that cast into the fire and
into the water Disciples couldn't help. He came to the Lord, if
thou canst do anything, have mercy upon us. And the Lord said
that all things are possible to him that believeth. And he
says, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. This
is a similar way. I believe with mine whole heart. Help me when my heart wanders. When it goes away from thy commandments,
oh, let me not wander from thy commandments. The testimony here
is not, I will never go from thy commandment. It's not like
Peter, though all men forsake thee, yet will not I. And then
he did forsake him, and then he denied him three times. This is testimony to felt weakness
and turning into prayer, asking for the Lord's keeping, that
we do not wander from thy commandments. Hear, my friends, if you do whatsoever
I command you. The words of our Lord. The way
of the Lord. May that be our prayer, that
we do not wander from the commandments of the Lord. We are not saved
by keeping of the law. We are not saved by our works. That is not our title for heaven.
But one that loves the Lord doesn't want to offend, doesn't want
to grieve. There are some that would charge
us as being antinomian because we believe that we are saved
by grace, saved by the sovereign grace of God, and that our rule
of conduct is the gospel and not the law. As if we are anti-law. No, we are not. The whole Word of God sets forth
God's will His commandments, His way, and everyone that fears
the Lord will want to do that which is pleasing in His sight. Right through this psalm, the
psalmist professes his love to the Lord's word, His precepts,
His commandments, His testimonies, all those things he desires to
love and to walk in. And yet the reality in the prayer
here is the feeling so prone to wander. And you and I, if
we're honest, we're like this. How easy we do. The hymn writer
says, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. You think, how is it possible?
But we're still in the flesh. And we're still in all nature.
And there will be this conflict, but blessed be God if we not
only have a testimony, but we also have prayers, prayers that
set forth the reality of our own felt weakness and our need
of being keeping. Reading Peter, kept by the power
of God through faith. unto salvation, and faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, and may it be through
the word this morning. The Lord is pleased to use it
to keep us, keep us in the way of his commandments, keep us
in the way of his footsteps, to encourage us, encourage those
who feel faint-hearted, weak, so prone to wander, those who
feel they can make this testimony and profession but almost like
the man feeling his unbelief must qualify it as well. May the Lord then bless this
word and give us this profession and to seek and to find and to
have these petitions. With my whole heart have I sought
thee, O let me not wander from thy commandments. Amen. Hymn, 421 . Tune, Cambridge 16. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all now and evermore. Amen.