Well, let us turn again to God's
Word and turning now to the Old Testament and the book of Proverbs.
And I want, with the Lord's help tonight, to direct you to words
that we find at the beginning of chapter 21. Proverbs 21, verse
1. The King's heart is in the hand
of the Lord. As the rivers of water, He turneth
it withersoever He will. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever
he will. Here are the wise sayings of
a king, King Solomon, the wisest of all the kings. But it's not
just the words of King Solomon, that wise man. What we have here,
of course, is the wisdom of God, because though Solomon is a human
author, he wrote as he was moved by the Spirit of God. Peter speaks
of how holy men of God spoke as they were moved, as they were
carried along, borne along by the Spirit of God. All Scripture
is given by inspiration of God. And isn't the Lord Jesus Christ
that one that we find here in the book of Proverbs? A far greater
king than Solomon. Solomon, David's son, but Christ,
David's greater son. And remember how the Lord speaks
as the wisdom of God there in the 8th chapter of this book.
And he utters words such as these, by me kings reign, and princes
decree justice, by me princes rule, and nobles, even all the
judges of the earth. It is God who is that one then
over all things. It is Christ who is that one
who is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. I'm thinking
of events in the nation with the passing of the Queen and
now strangely we have a King as the Head of State. It's been over 70 years. When one thinks of our history
there have been very few Queens really. We can think probably
of some names but I doubt If we could remember all the queens,
we'd have many more than the fingers on one hand. We've had
many, many kings, some good kings and some bad kings. Once again,
we are in that situation. We're in God's sovereignty. The
queen has passed away and so the crown now falls onto the
head of her son. We have a new king. And how apt
is his scripture, the King's heart is in the hand of the Lord
as the rivers of water. He turneth it with us however
he will. And I'm sure we can think of
various scriptures. We read those portions earlier
in 1 Timothy 2 and also there in 1 Peter 2. And we concluded our reading
there in Peter with those words, fear God. honour the King. Fear God, honour the King. That
is, of course, the right order. We render unto Caesar the things
that are Caesar's, but first of all we render to God the things
that are God's. But we recognize that the powers
that be are all ordained of God. And what is our responsibility?
We read those words also at the beginning of that second chapter
in 1 Timothy. Paul says, I exhort first of
all that prayer, or rather he says supplications and prayers
and intercessions be made for all men, for kings and for all
in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in
all godliness and honesty. We're praying for the king and
yet we're praying for ourselves that we may lead our lives in
quietness, that we might yet enjoy our liberty. So we're reminded,
are we not, of our responsibility. We're to pray. And we're to pray
for this man who now sits upon the throne of this nation. We're to pray for the King. And
as we come to consider the words that I've just read as a text
here at the beginning of this 21st chapter in Proverbs, I simply
want to speak tonight a little of the King's heart and the Lord's
hand. The King's heart and the Lord's
hand. The King's heart is in the hand
of the Lord. As the rivers of water he turneth
it whithersoever he will. First of all then to say something
of the King's heart. What are we to understand by
this reference to the heart of a king, the heart of a man. We were only recently remarking
on a Thursday evening how the word heart is used in scripture,
and I think I said on that occasion that when we turn to the New
Testament, when we turn to what John has to say there in his
first general epistle in the third chapter, he speaks. of
the heart. If our hearts condemn us, he
says, God is greater than our hearts and God knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemneth
us not, then have we confidence toward God. Clearly there, the
word heart is being used in reference to a man's conscience, that monitor
that tells us what is right and what is wrong. Sometimes the
conscience accuses us. it's good to have a conscience
that's void of offense before God and before men so we can
think of the conscience when we say the word heart really
in scripture it's not so much referring then to what we often
think of in the West we talk in terms of the emotions and
we speak of an affair of the heart we associate the heart
with love in that sense but really the scripture has a far deeper
and richer understanding of the significance of the words. Again,
it's here in this book that we have that word, keep thy heart.
Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues
of life. Now we have to remember that
God is the one who is over the heart. of all men even over the
hearts of kings a little later on here we have those words in
chapter 25 and verse 2 it is the glory of God to conceal a
thing but the honor of kings is to search out a matter God
conceals things we try to search out those things kings try to
search out historically I suppose people would speak of king Kings needed to be wise men,
but God is wiser than all men. And God conceals things, God
can see into the very hearts of men. It's man who looks on
the outward appearance, it's the Lord who looks upon the heart. And how we need then to pray,
and to pray in terms of what God tells us here in Scripture. We have those exhortations there
at the beginning of that second chapter in Paul's first epistle
to Timothy, and we have this word, our text this evening,
the King's heart is in the hand of the Lord. How we need to pray,
to pray for the King, and surely we will pray, But in order to
pray for Him, we'll need to know something of ourselves. We need
to know our own hearts. And His heart, in that sense,
is no different to our hearts. Remember, our Scripture tells
us that God sees the hearts of all men. And we're told, aren't
we, early in Scripture, Genesis chapter 6, how God saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth. And every imagination
of the thought of his heart, evil continually. It's a tremendous
Hebraism that we have in that verse. Every imagination of the
thought of his heart, evil continually. That's a description of my heart,
of your heart, that's a description of the heart of the King. all men's hearts by nature, so
wicked, so solemn when we read those opening chapters of Holy
Scripture we have the wonderful account of God's power and greatness
in creation by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, all
the host of them by the breath of His mouth He spoke, it was
done, He commanded, it stood fast we have the account there
in Genesis 1 And then again in the second chapter further detail
with regard to the creation of man needs to stand there at the
head of all this creation. Because he's made in God's image
and created after God's likeness. But then we come to chapter 3
and we have the awful account of the sin of our first parents.
How Adam and Eve fell. They transgressed. They disobeyed.
And as I said we only have to move on a few chapters. Chapter
6 of Genesis. And God sees the wickedness of
men. All men, the imagination of the thought of his heart,
evil, continually. And God sends a destroying flood,
but he saves Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives.
And then, in a sense, there's a new creation, we might say.
Oh, thank the Lord he had not finished with man. There was
yet a gracious purpose to be fulfilled. but to know anything
of that gracious purpose how we have to know something about
ourselves and what we are by nature the heart deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked who can know it? I the Lord search
the heart I try the reins to give to every man according to
the fruit of his doing the hearts of men and what does the Lord
Jesus himself say? out of the heart precede evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
blasphemies. These are the things that defile
a man. Out of the abundance of the heart
the mouth speaketh. Oh, if we know our hearts and
anything of the evil that lurks within the depths of our souls
We'll be fit then to heed God's commandment and to pray. We'll
pray for those in authority. We'll pray for the King. We'll
fear God. We'll honour the King. The King's
heart is in the hand of the Lord, thank God. It's in the Lord's
hand. As the rivers of water, he turneth
it with us, however he will. Well, as we turn for a little
while to these words, I want us just to observe the comparison
that's being made. The king's heart is like water. That's what it says. It's in God's hands and as the
rivers of water, God turns it with us however he will. And
what do we think of water? Well, water is fluid. Water is
fluctuating. Remember back in Genesis 49,
we are told of how Jacob blesses his 12 sons. And first of all,
he addresses Reuben, his firstborn. And what does he say concerning
his firstborn? Think in this way, the new king
is the firstborn of the late monarch. And what do we read
concerning Jacob's firstborn, Reuben? Unstable as water. Unstable as water. Oh, the wisdom of God and the
wisdom of the Word of God. The psalmist says, Put not your
trust in princes, nor in the Son of Man, in whom there is
no help. We now live in the reign of Charles
III. There have been two previous
kings bearing that name of Charles. As I said, there have been good
kings and there have been bad kings. And I venture to say that
the two kings who bore that name, each of them were bad kings. It was Charles I, of course,
who was the cause of the Civil War. We must never lose sight
of that. He wanted to rule as an absolute monarch, he wanted
to rule without Parliament and in order to establish his kingdom
and Parliament would not tolerate what he was trying to do so he
attempts to raise an army in Ireland. An army is raised or he tries
to raise an army in Ireland in order to force his will upon
Parliament in England and of course there in Ireland the vast
majority of the people were Roman Catholics and so ultimately we
have the Civil War and the parliamentary forces are successful I'm sure
many of us have read something of the letters and speeches of
Oliver Cromwell, the gracious godly man, how different to the
king. And ultimately, in the goodness of God, the king is
defeated, but what do they do with this man? It's almost impossible
to deal with him, so they charge him with treason. And that was
a capital offence, so he's executed. He was a foolish man in so many
ways, Charles I. But then after the interregnum,
after the period of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate under Oliver
Cromwell, the English people really desired to have a king. It was suggested that Cromwell
might be made the king, but he would not have that. He was prepared
to go under the name of the Lord Protector. But eventually, after
the death of Cromwell, the monarchy is restored and Charles II becomes
the king. Now I don't want to give a history
lesson but I can't but mention this. We were away of course
last week down in South Chard. I was preaching there. We had
a few days there and amongst other things we went into the
church there in Axminster. I knew a little bit about the
situation in Axminster because some years ago there was a book
published called the Axminster Ecclesiastica. The Axminster Ecclesiastica,
it's the history of the independent church that was formed there
in 1660. Quite a remarkable book but the
man who was the first minister of that independent church was
a man called Bartholomew Ashwood and previously he had been the
vicar at the Minster church there in Axminster and as I was saying
we went into the church there in Axminster and I was quite
surprised because Ashwood was very much a Puritan. He had a
triple pulpit. There was a great emphasis of
course amongst the Puritans on the Word of God and the reading
and the preaching. He had a triple pulpit and they
still had there in the church the base of his triple pulpit,
the reading desk. So that was quite exciting to
discover that relic as it were from the days of the Puritans.
But when Charles II came to the throne.
How he persecuted the Puritans. And this book on the Act Mister
Ecclesiastica is full of information. It was edited by the late Kenneth
Howard. And I do recommend it to you. I think Cliff probably
has a copy. I did look it up and I think
it was available at just three pounds. Remarkable bargain. But this is what Mr. Howard reminds us of how previous
to his restoration in 1660 Charles II signed the Declaration of
Breda and he promised liberty to tender consciences but he
was no sooner back in England and the Cavalier Parliament was
set up and He broke his promise immediately.
And then there was the introduction of a whole raft of laws called
the Clarendon Code, the Corporation Act, the Act of Uniformity, the
Conventicle Act, the Five Mile Act. And all of these acts were
there really to persecute the Puritans. pure if anyone wanted
to reach out to have a license but even that wasn't sufficient
and of course it was at that time that John Bunyan was cast
into the jail there at Bedford where he wrote the Pilgrim's
Progress. It was persecution that came at the hands of King
Charles the second who professed to be a Protestant but was really
a Roman Catholic at heart and of course when he died it was
his brother James the second who became the king and James
the second made no pretence he was a pronounced Roman Catholic
and that caused so much trouble that eventually he was deposed
and in 1688 we had the glorious revolution when Mary and William
of Orange were invited to come and take the throne and James
fled and then he again tries to raise an army in Ireland and
there's the Battle of the Boy celebrated to this day of course
by the Orange men in Ulster where the forces of William of Orange
defeated James II and so James then goes into exile in France
but then you come into the next century and what happens There are those uprisings, 1715,
1745. I'm sure we've all heard of 1745 and Bunny Prince Charlie.
Bunny Prince Charlie was I think the grandson of James II and
there's an uprising. it was the Stuart Kings and they
came from Scotland and there were those who were prepared
to follow them and an army is raised and that army comes as
far south as Derby and it seems that England is going to be overrun
by these people and they're really principally papish Roman Catholics
and of course it was in 1745 the first time that the National
Anthem was sung and it was a patriotic song really in support of the
Hanoverians. They'd come to the throne under
George I. George II was on that throne
in 1745 but when the National Anthem came into being it was
a song in support of George II and the Hanoverians and against
the uprising in the north of the country. But you see how These men, Charles I, Charles
II, and then so-called Bonnie Prince Charlie, they were all
really enemies to the Protestant constitution of our country. How we need to pray, how we need
to pray. Now we have another Charles on
the throne, Charles III. We are to, fear God, we are to
honor the King. And I trust we do honor the King,
we recognize. is right to the throne as the
lawful heir of the late Queen but now we need to pray and we
thank God that the King's heart is in the hand of the Lord and
as the rivers of water he turneth it with us however he will there's
one who is far greater than the King or the wise man says doesn't
he elsewhere in this book there are many devices in a man's heart
Nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord thou shalt stand." It's
here, chapter 19 and verse 21. Many devices in a man's heart. But what are the devices of men?
God's counsel stands. Our God is in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever He pleased. Kings, historically, were men
of great power. And even when we think of the
rivers of water, thinking of the comparison that's being made,
rivers of water are forceful. The Psalmist, doesn't the Psalmist
speak of the waters? Look at what we read, for example,
in the 93rd Psalm, the floods. have lifted up, O Lord. The floods
have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves.
The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters,
yay than the mighty waves of the sea." And when we come to
the last book, the Revelation, we're told of the waters. Remember
that book is full of signs and symbols. And we're told in Revelation
the waters are people. and multitudes, and nations,
and tongues. But God is over all these things.
He is over all the affairs of all men, and all nations, and
all kings. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it. That is,
the Lord turneth it whithersoever He will. Oh, this is our comfort
then. We think of the king's heart,
we look at our own hearts, we know and we stand in need of
our prayers. We pray, I'm sure, that God's
kingdom come and we want God's kingdom to come into the hearts
even of the mighty, into the hearts of the king. Could he
please the Lord that we might be granted a gracious king. But
let us turn from the heart of the king and say something with
regards to the hand of God, the hand of the Lord. What a comfort
is this. And we have that promise. Behold,
the Lord's hand is not shortened, that He cannot save, neither
His ear heavy that He cannot hear. God hears our prayers.
God hears us when we pray to Him, when we pray for the King.
He doesn't exhort us to pray for the King and then ignore
our cry. We have that word then, there
in the opening words of that second chapter in 1 Timothy,
to pray. and as God hears our prayers,
so God's hand is not shortened. God is that One who is sovereign
over all kings. We have a remarkable example
of that, don't we, in the 4th of Daniel, where we read of one
of the great emperors of this world, Nebuchadnezzar, and how
that man was humbled, and how that man was brought to acknowledge
that the heavens rhyme, that the God of Israel is the true
God. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing.
And He doeth according to His will among the armies of heaven
and the inhabitants of the earth. And none can say unto Him, What
doest thou? None can challenge God. God is
sovereign. And God, in His goodness, in
His mercy, does raise up kings to care for his children. He
makes uses of ungodly men, ungodly kings. Again we have that word in Isaiah
49.23, kings shall be thy nursing fathers and their queens thy
nursing mothers. How true it is. The psalmist says, He suffered
no man to do them wrong, yea, He reproved kings for their sakes. This is how God cares for His
people. Christ Jesus is the head over
all things, over all things to His body, the Church. And we have remarkable examples
in the Word of God, in Biblical history. We can think of the
empires of Babylon, of the Medes and of the Persians. Think of
the days of Daniel, and how Daniel was remarkably so exalted by
that king. There were the children of Israel,
they'd been utterly overthrown. Babylonian hordes had come, they
destroyed Jerusalem, they'd razed the temple to the ground, they'd
taken all the best of the people away into exile. And there we
see Daniel and his captive brethren. But how the Lord favours Daniel.
In Daniel 2.48 we're told, Then the king made Daniel a great
man. and gave him many great gifts and made him ruler over
the whole province of Babylon and chief of the governors because
he could interpret the dreams of the king. O how
Daniel is so exalted not only by Nebuchadnezzar but also by
Darius the Mede Later on there, in the sixth chapter of Daniel, "...it pleased Arius to set over
the kingdom an hundred and twenty princes, which should be over
the whole kingdom, and over these three presidents, of whom Daniel
was the first, that the princes might give account unto them,
and the king should have no damage. Then this Daniel was preferred
above the presidents and princes because an excellent spirit was
in him and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. And then we come to the end of
that chapter. So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius
and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. And it wasn't just true
of Daniel, it was also true of those who were his friends. How
the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the province
of Babylon. Not just the Babylonians, also
the Medes and Persians as we saw there at the end of that
sixth chapter in Daniel. And how the Persians showed great
kindness to Ezra and Nehemiah. because it was Cyrus, the great
Persian emperor, who passed a decree that the temple of the Lord was
to be rebuilt there in Jerusalem. In the historic book of Ezra,
we read right at the beginning that all that follows is due
to the decree that was passed by the king. The opening words of Ezra, now
in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the
Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord
stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made
a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in
writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord God
of heaven, hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and
he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem which is
in Judah who is there among you of all his people is God be with
him and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and build the
house of the Lord God of Israel he is the God which is in Jerusalem. Oh remarkable! Surely the heart
of Cyrus was in the hand of the Lord even over a hundred years
before ever he was born he's spoken of in prophecy we read
of him in the book of the prophet Isaiah and he's actually named
his name is recorded in holy scripture before ever he had
any being at the end of of chapter 44, we read of God, the Lord
God that said of Cyrus, He is my shepherd and shall perform
all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built.
and to the temple thy foundation shall be laid. Thus saith the
Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden,
to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of
kings, to open before him the two-leaf gates, and the gates
shall not be shut. For Jacob my servant's sake,
and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name.
I have surnamed them, though thou hast not known mine." Oh,
the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. He does not doubt
it. Thank God he is that one who
is sovereign. And sovereign in all these matters. And Ezra. Ezra certainly was
a man who recognized that grace. solemn and most comforting truth. There in the book of Ezra, chapter 9 and verse 9, Ezra says,
We were bondmen, yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage,
but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings
of Persia, to give us a reviving to set up the house of our God
and to repair the desolations thereof and to give us a wall
in Judah and in Jerusalem. Then he goes on and now, O our
God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken thy
commandments. He makes confession, you see.
Or can we not learn of Ezra that God might yet, under this new
king, give us a reviving? the Lord God is able to do all
these things we're not to doubt God in His sovereignty and God
in His great mercy we're to pray then for the King
as we seek grace to pray for this nation that seems really
in such an awful state it's beyond our prayers but we rejoice that
there is one who is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And so finally, this evening I just want to observe
that there is surely some spiritual significance also in the words
that we have here. Doesn't this text speak of the
Lord Jesus Christ? Isn't Christ in all the Scriptures?
Did He not say to the Jews in His own day, search the Scriptures?
In them ye think that ye have eternal life, These are they
that testify of me." Or do we seek to find the Lord Jesus?
We see Him there surely in the 8th chapter, that remarkable
chapter, that speaks of wisdom. But isn't the Lord here also? There is one who is the King
of Kings. We see Him there in the book of the Revelation, on
His vesture, and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings,
and Lord of Lords, O He is that One who is the Eternal Son of
God, but God hath set His King upon Zion. The words that we
have there in the second Psalm at verse 5, Yet have I set my
King upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the
Lord hath said unto me, This day have I begotten thee. Oh,
He is the Eternal Son of God. But He is set as King in Zion.
And He has come to establish a kingdom and it's a spiritual
kingdom. It's not a kingdom of this world, it's a spiritual
kingdom. And in order to establish that kingdom, oh, the Lord humbled
Himself. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, but He takes upon Him the form of a servant.
is made in the likeness of men. The great mystery of godliness,
God, was manifest in the flesh. And though Christ's human will
throughout all His life was always subject to the divine will. He is the King. The King's heart
is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth
it with us however He will. Here is that King, you see, who
will do all God's good will and pleasure. He says, doesn't he, in the Gospel,
He comes not to do His own will, but the will of Him who had sent
Him, and to finish His work. Oh, that human will ever submissive,
even there in all the agonies of Gethsemane. how he prays,
how he cries, how he calls upon God, if it be possible let this
cup pass from me. But we know, you see, in the
eternal covenant that he must be obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross, and yet he's a real man and there's a
struggle here, you see. There's a sense in which he must
shrink from that. What an awful, what an awful
suffering, what an awful death. if he be possible let this come
past from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done he
was always subject to the sovereign will of his father the one who
had sent him and he pleases the father by his obedience and his
obedience unto death even the death of the cross The King's
heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water. He turneth
it with us, however He will. But think of these rivers, all
these rivers of water that we read of, associated with
the King, with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the streams
of Christ's bounty, His goodness, His mercy, His grace. all that
flows down to poor needy sinners there's a word that we find in
Isaiah Isaiah 32 and verse 2 and it says or it speaks of a man
as rivers of water in a dry land a man as rivers of water in a
dry land all what a promise he's had to poor barren sinners when
we feel the barrenness of our hearts when we feel ourselves
to be so unfruitful in all the ways of God and yet a river has waters in a dry place even
in our hearts there's that tremendous passage that we have towards
the end of the prophecy of Ezekiel remember those words in chapter
47 And I'll close as we turn to
this portion. Ezekiel 47. The prophet says,
afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house, the
temple. And behold, waters issued out
from under the threshold of the house eastward. For the forefront
of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down
from under, from the right side of the house, at the south side
of the altar. Then brought he me out of the
way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without
unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward. And behold,
there ran out waters on the right side. And when the man that had
the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand
cubits, and he brought me through the waters, and the waters were
to the ankles. again he measured a thousand
and brought me through the waters the waters were to the knees
again he measured a thousand and brought me through the through
the waters were to the loins afterward he measured a thousand
and it was a river that I could not pass over for the waters
were risen waters to swimming a river that could not be passed
over Well, what is all this about? He speaks of the house, it's
the house of the Lord, it's a temple. And the temple, of course, in
the Old Testament, a remarkable type of the Lord Jesus. He is the great antitype of the
temple. It's a description, really, of the Gospel day. And the waters
that issue out, that flow from the Lord Jesus Christ, the river
that I could not pass over, the waters were riven, waters to
swim in a river that could not be passed over or to be those
who would immerse ourselves in all that the Lord Jesus Christ
is in all that the Lord Jesus Christ has done that one by and
through whom we have access to God that one by whom we can come
to God with our prayers that one that we're to look to as
all our salvation, all our desire that one who is head over all
things to the church and we are to come then and to pray and
to pray to this God that Christ is God I can avouch and for his
people cares since I to him have made my prayer and he has heard
my prayers or he hears prayers he answers prayers Let us see,
then, His words here in Holy Scripture, those words that we
have at the beginning of that second chapter in the first epistle
to Timothy. We pray for all men, kings, and
all that are in authority, that we might lead a quiet and peaceable
life. in all godliness and honesty. May the Lord be pleased to bless
His word to us tonight. We're going to conclude our worship
by the singing of the hymn 808, the tune Kilmarnock, 856. Lord, look on all assembled here
who in thy presence stand to offer up united prayer for this,
our sinful land. Great God of hosts, deliverance
bring, guide those that hold the helm, support the state,
preserve the king, and spare the guilty realm. We'll sing
808 to tune 856.