well let us turn again to Psalm
26 that first Psalm that we read Psalm 26 and the text I want
us to consider is found in the second verse Psalm 26 to examine
me O Lord and prove me try my reins and my heart examine me
O Lord and prove me try my reins and my heart after the ministry tonight we
will of course as a church again come together around the Lord's
table and there is a place clearly for self-examination when it
comes to the matter of the observance of that ordinance When Paul writes
to the Corinthians, and it was in many ways a disorderly church,
he reminds them of their solemn duties in relation to the Lord's
table. There at the end of 1 Corinthians
chapter 11, we find these words at verse 28, But let a man examine
himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that
cup. For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation or judgment as it says
in the margin judgment to himself not discerning the Lord's body
and it's interesting to observe how in the order for the Lord's
Supper in the Book of Common Prayer after opening prayer the first
thing attended to is the Collect and the Collects are beautiful
they were chiefly the composition of Archbishop Cranmer and the
Collect for Holy Communion reads Almighty God unto whom all hearts
be open all desires known and from whom no secrets are hid
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy
Spirit that we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnify
thy holy name through Christ our Lord." There is then this
recognition that God is the one who is the searcher of hearts,
that no secrets can be kept from him. And after the Collect there
is to be the reading of the Ten Commandments. Strange that at
the Holy Ordinance of the Lord's Supper that should be the order
to collect and then the reading of those words in Exodus chapter
20. Of course a significant thing
with regards to the commandments is that it is there that we are
reminded of our sinnership. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. Now we need then to be such as
would examine ourselves and prove ourselves and know ourselves
as we anticipate as the Lord's professed people to come together
around that table of the Lord. And where there is that personal
self-examination there will be something else, there'll be what
we have here in the text, that desire for God to examine us. And that's the theme really that
I want to take up tonight, divine examination. Here is the prayer
of David at the beginning of the psalm. He says, Judge me,
O Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity, I have trusted
also in the Lord's. Therefore I shall not slight. Is he not professing that he
is a man of faith and the reality of his faith? Judge me, O Lord,
for I have walked in mine integrity, I have trusted also in the Lord.
Therefore I shall not slight. Examine me, O Lord, and prove
me. Try my reins and my heart. and so as we come to look in
particular at these words in verse 2 I want to begin by saying
something with regards to a desire and here we have that desire
for examination and you know such a desire if we know anything
of it we want God to examine us and to prove us if we have
that desire it is a mark and it's a very favourable mark it
is in fact a mark of election remember what Peter says there
in 2nd Peter chapter 1 and verse 10 give diligence he says to
make your calling and election sure Are we those who have a desire
to know whether or not we are of the election of Christ? Well, we know that election belongs
to the secret things of God. It is the Lord who knows them
that are His. We can never establish our election
by going back into eternity and the eternal purpose of God. when before ever there was any
creation, before ever there was any time, from eternity He had
set His love upon the people whom He had chosen in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We can never establish our election
by going back to the beginning. But what does Peter say? The word order is significance.
He says give diligence to make your calling and election sure
although election is eternal and calling is that that comes
in time when we experience that efficacious grace of God yet
he says that first of all we're to attend to calling have we
known the call of God that special grace God's word coming to us
the gospel in his preaching coming not in word only but in power
and in the Holy Ghost living to prove that God's Kingdom is
not in word only but in power. We are to examine ourselves then
in that way to establish whether or not we are the elect. Examine yourselves says Paul,
where ye be in the faith, prove your own selves, know ye not
your own selves, know that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be
reprobate. Oh, it is a mark of election
if we have a desire then to examine ourselves, to be examined by
the Lord God, to know that ours is a true faith, a real faith,
a saving faith, a justifying faith, And as this desire for
examination is a mark of election, so we can say there is a sense
in which that desire is also a mark that we are the justified. Because we read such words as
these from Jeremiah. Jeremiah 20 verse 12, O LORD
of hosts, Thou that triest the righteous. Who is it that God
tries? He tries the righteous. Who are
the righteous? Well, there is none righteous,
no, not one. Those who are the righteous are
the justified. They are in the Lord, who is
the Lord their righteousness. Again in Psalm 11 and verse 5
we have that word, the Lord tryeth the righteous. All the trying then, the examining,
the proving is a mark of the sinner who is justified and we
see it quite remarkably in the experience of Job. Remember how
we're introduced to the man there in the opening chapter of the
book of Job there was a man in the land of Oz whose name was
Job and that man was perfect and upright one that feared God
and eschewed evil And then again, when the Lord God challenges
Satan himself, verse 8, Hast thou considered my servant Job,
that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright
man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil. So twice there
in the compass of just a few verses we are told of this man
that he was perfect and upright. How was he perfect and upright,
if there is none righteous, no not one, he was that one who
was justified. He was righteous in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And now we see Job as a man who
was sorely tried and tested in the mysterious dealings of God. And now Job was happy in a sense
with that. Look at the language that we
find there in chapter 31 and verse 6. Let me be weighed, he
says, in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity. Let me be weighed in an even
balance, he says. And again, those remarkable words
that we find later in chapter 23 and verse 10. He knoweth the
way that I take. when he has tried me, I shall
come forth as God." All this desire for examination, for proving,
for testing, is it not the mark of the justified sinner? Because
God tries those who are the righteous, He proves the reality of their
faith. Now the blessed ones, again we
have the language of David here in Psalm 32. Blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the
man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit
there is no guile. All the blessed man. That's the
man whose sins are forgiven, whose sins are covered, that
man who is the justified sinner, that happy man. And now in the
other psalm that we read, we see David constantly wanting
God to test him, search me O God. He cries out, know my heart,
try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way
in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Here is then a mark
of the grace of God if we are those who desire to be examined. Examine me, O Lord, and through
me try my reins and my heart. And again we see how the Lord
Jesus draws a contrast in the course of his ministry in the
words that we have there in the third chapter of John's Gospel. speaks of those who love to come
to the light, and those who shy, shy away from the light, don't
want to be proved by God. Everyone that doeth evil, says
the Lord, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his
deed should be reproved, or as the margin says, discovered.
But he that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds
may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." For those
who are the godly, they want to know that what they have is
a real religion. It is that that has come from
God. And so here we see that where
there is this desire for examination, there is some evidence some very
real evidence that this is one of those who are of the election
of Christ one of those who's in possession of that blessed
justifying faith and so there is this appeal made to God because
what we have here in the opening part of the psalm is very much
a prayer of guidance he addresses himself directly to the Lord
his God judgment O Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity,
I have trusted also in the Lord, therefore I shall not slide.
Examine me, O Lord, and prove me, try my reins and my heart."
Oh, is this our religion? We want God constantly to be
proving us and showing us that we have something that is real
because it is wrought by Himself. And who is the one? Who is the
one that that David is appealing to. Well, it's the Lord, yes,
but it's the Lord in this capacity as the judge. And what sort of
a judge is this? Well, this is the omniscient
judge. This is that one who knows all
things. That's what omniscience is. There
is nothing that is hid from him. He knows everything. And we, of course, saw it very
remarkably in the 139th psalm, in the opening part of that psalm,
where David says, O LORD, Thou hast searched me and known me.
Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising. Thou understandest
my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my
lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is
not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it all
together." What knowledge! The omniscience of God. Such
knowledge is too wonderful for me, he says. It is high, I cannot
attain unto it. For every creature is manifest
in his sight. All things are naked and open
to the eye of this God who is the Judge. He is the Omniscient
One. He's the one who dwells in eternity and he sees all of
time. He knows the end from the beginning.
And he knows the innermost thoughts and feelings of my heart, of
your heart. Thou, God, seest me. He says,
Hey God, how God saw that woman, where she was. He's the omniscient
judge. but also as he appeals to the
Lord, to Jehovah why this is the God of Abraham and what does Abraham say? there
in Genesis chapter 18 where the Lord God comes to him before
ever he'll visit his judgments upon those wicked cities of the
plain the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah where Abraham's
nephew Lot was with his family Oh, the Lord will do nothing
but He shows His secrets unto His servants, the prophets. He
shows His secrets unto Abraham. And Abraham is there at the end
of that 18th chapter in Genesis pleading with God as the judge.
And what does he say? Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? Oh yes, He's an omniscient God,
an omniscient judge, but He's also a righteous judge. He only
ever does that that is right. To wise to be mistaken, he too
good to be unkind. He never misjudges, because he's
a righteous one. And then thirdly, this judge
is also the merciful judge. As David here in the psalm speaks
of God as the judge, the examiner and so forth, how does he continue
in verse 3, for thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes. We know that this God is the
God of loving-kindnesses and it's that great word Chesed which
has the idea of his covenant faithfulness he's the god of
the covenant has the idea of the sovereignty of his grace
it's a word that's so full, so rich so pregnant in its meaning
he is a merciful judge he's a merciful judge and he's that one even
when he judges his people why he continually, constantly watches
over them remember the imagery that we have there in the book
of Malachi in that third chapter verse 2 who may abide the day
of his coming He shall stand when he appeareth, for he is
like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap, and he shall sit
as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the
sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may
offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Always the
refiner, watching over his crucible, applying the heat so carefully, He's not a severe judge, he's
a righteous judge and he's a merciful judge. And what a great favour
it is that one can appeal to such a God as this. Why? Remember who that one is that's
spoken of there in that third chapter in Malachi? Because we
see him in the first verse. He's the messenger of the covenant.
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way
before me. That's John the Baptist. And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall
suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant,
whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts, but who may abide the day of his coming?
Oh, he is a merciful judge. He's a gracious judge. And so
David can come and utter these words and this prayer that we
have in the text examine me oh Lord and prove me try my reins
and my heart there is desire there and it's a good desire
and it's the evidence of the grace of God in the heart of
man, this man after God's own heart called David is it our
desire? but let us Secondly, look at
some of the details that we have here. And I want to observe some
four aspects, as it were, of the way in which God examines.
"'Examine me, O Lord,' he says, "'and prove me. Try my brains
and my heart.'" He speaks of examination, he speaks of proving,
and he speaks of trying. But I want to mention, initially,
some four things with regards to the way in which God undertakes
such an examination, and the detail of it. How does He examine? He examines with His eye. He
examines with His eye. Psalm 11 and verse 4, we are
told the Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's throne is
in heaven his eyes behold his eyelids try the children of men his eyes behold his eyelids try
the children of men how are we to understand that what does
it mean his eyelids try well does it not suggest God looking
so carefully and so narrowly into a thing, almost closing
his eyes. He wants to cut out anything
that would distract. He wants to exclude every other
object. He's intent on this one thing
that is before him. That's a sort of examination
that is being spoken of there in Psalm 11. And we sometimes
sing in the words of that hymn number 70, the fictious powers
of chance and fortune I defy, my life's minutie circumstance
is subject to his eye. The minute aspects of our lives
are subject to that examination by God, his high-ledged tribe,
the children of men. But then, when we think of the
way in which God examines, let us not forget that this one is
also the physician of souls. He's the physician of souls.
And how does a good physician work? Well, he can learn much,
of course. He uses his eyes, he observes
his patient, but more than that, he uses his hands. He'll feel. the various parts of the body
he knows human anatomy and if he's a good physician he can
often make an exact accurate diagnosis simply by by handling
the patient well if that is true of men as physicians how much
more of him who is the good physician Even the Lord God Himself. And
how does God come to us? Why He comes, does He not? And He handles our very conscience
at times. All God is greater than our heart,
says John. He knoweth all things. In a way
He's greater than our conscience. The God that we have to do with.
We have to know Him in that very real experimental way and when
John speaks of his knowledge remember his knowledge of God
there in the opening words of his first epistle what does he
say that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we
have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands
have handled of the word of life he has and he did have such an
intimacy of relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ well as
John knew the master in that experimental way so the Lord
knows all them that are his and when he comes to us and when
he examines us he knows just how to apply his word, how to
bring that word home to our conscience, to our hearts and to make us
feel to make us feel where we're in
some forbidden pathway or we're guilty of some sin that we think
is hid but it's never hid from God's all-seeing eye he knows
he examines us and then when we think of examination we can
also think of the nose and the importance of smell we think
of the wine taster as he examines the wine he doesn't just take
it to his mouth he'll smell the bouquet of the wine and he can
discern whether it be a good wine or not well if this is the
way in which men can function how much more the Lord God whatever
we see of humankind God is far greater than any of these things
but here before or as well as examination, we might say that
we read of God proving his people. God proves his people. Where
does he prove them? He proves them in the furnace.
He refines them. We've already referred to those
words in Malachi chapter 3. The Lord, as it were, watching
over the crucible. And see how the psalmist speaks
similar language, Psalm 66 and verse 10, Thou, O Lord, hast
proved us, thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. And this
is what David is asking, prove me. Examine me, O Lord, and prove
me. And God does that. And so we're
not to think it a strange thing. Think it not strange concerning
the fiery trial that is to try you as though some strange thing
happened unto you says Peter when he writes there in the fourth
chapter of his first epistle. It's not a strange thing when
God brings us into fiery trials but he has promised that he will
bring his people through the trials. Or look at the words
of Zechariah Zechariah 13 9 I will bring the third party says through
the fire and will refine them as silver is refined and will
try them as gold is tried they shall call on my name and I will
hear them I will say it is my people and they shall say the
Lord is my God. Why God proves the reality of
the faith of his people when he takes them into those fiery
trials. Prove me, try my reins and my
heart. Oh, there is then the furnace,
the trial of faith being much more precious than of gold, though
it be tried in the fire is found. Unto praise and honour and glory
of Christ appearing. We sing the words of the hymn,
oftentimes gold in the furnished tride. Ne'er loose, loose is
air but dross. So is the Christian purified
and bettered by the cross. All the Lord has his ways. He
knows how to examine his people, how to prove his people, how
to try his people. And what we see when we consider
the ways of men is there's nothing compared with the ways and the
dealings of God. The details here, but also what
do we see here in the text? We see also something of the
depth of the examination. Try, it says, my reins and my
hearts. The reference here is to the
inward parts of the body. The inward parts. Again, Psalm
7 verse 9, The righteous God trieth the hearts and reigns. And our God needs to do a deep
trial. when he comes to deal with us,
because sin is so deep rooted in us, it's so bound up in our
very nature, our fallen nature. Why? We were conceived in sin,
we were shapen in iniquity. David confesses that in Psalm
51. His gracious man, the author
of so many of the Psalms, the man after God's own heart, his
highly favoured saint, he has to acknowledge his sin and it's
not just sinful acts that he's guilty of and he was guilty of
the most heinous sins but his very nature you see, what he
is he was conceived in sin he was shapen in iniquity there
was nothing sinful about his conception he's not saying that
for the moment But he is simply acknowledging how that sin has
come coursing down the generations since Adam and Eve sinned in
the Garden of Eden. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Why, we're all conceived in sin.
We're all shaped in iniquity. And what is that heart, that
sinful heart? It's deceitful, above all things, and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord,
try the heart and the reins, He says, to give to every man
according to the fruit of his doing. Oh, there is a certain
depth then, really, with regards to the way in which God, when
He examines us, examines us. It's thorough. But two things
we have mentioned here. We have the heart. Now, as I
said before, when we think of the hearts we think in terms
of emotion the emotion of love we might speak of an affair of
the heart but that's not the way in which the Hebrews use
the word heart it's not just a matter of the emotions when
they use these words no, to the Hebrew mind here in holy scripture
the heart as reference to the very center of a man's being.
Keep thy heart with all diligence, says the wise man, out of it
are the issues of life. Why the heart is all that the
man is, it's the very center of his being. Out of it are the issues of life.
But what does the Psalmist say? Unto God the Lord belong the
issues, from death? well God knows all those things
that come from the very depths of our souls that proceed from
our very hearts sometimes the heart is used as
it were in reference to to the conscience and that's how John
uses it in writing in his in his first epistle there in chapter
3 we've already made some reference to it in first John chapter 3
and verse 20 John says if our hearts condemn us God is greater
than our hearts and knoweth all things beloved if our heart condemn
us not then have we confidence toward God what a blessing when
God does come and really handle our consciences, and we're made
to feel what our sins are, and we're brought to confess our
sins, to acknowledge our sins, to seek a spirit of real repentance. If our heart condemns us not,
if our conscience is clear, a pure conscience, void of offense,
if our hearts condemn us not, then have we
confidence toward God. or we want God then to be the
one who will come and search us so thoroughly. Even the Lord
Jesus Christ himself, that vision that John beholds there in the
opening chapter of the Revelation, his eyes as a flame of fire,
remember. Those burning eyes, those eyes
that are all searching, all seeing, penetrating into our soul. And
then also here we have mention of the reins. And we're told
that the particular word that's rendered in this fashion really
refers to the kidneys. But more generally we might think
in terms of all the inward parts. Now, I suppose in a sense we
can say that it is those inward parts that are the seat of our
emotions. We feel these things. Emotions
are felt in the very depths of our stomach, aren't they? That's where we feel these things. And we want God to examine all
of these things. all we recognize how he sees
the Lord is so different the Lord seeth not as man seeth man
looks on the outward appearance the Lord looketh upon the heart
and what is it that God is looking for there in our hearts? well
again look at the words of David in the 51st Psalm that Psalm
where he makes his confession of his sins, his penitential
psalm. He says, verse 16, Thou desirest
not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt
offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. Well, this is the sacrifice that
God would have us bring to Him, a broken spirit. the broken and
the contrite heart are grieving over our sins you see as we come
to the Lord's table and the man has to examine himself and so
eat of that bread and drink of that cup when we examine ourselves
what are we looking for we're not to imagine that we're going
to find anything in us that commends us to God no I'm sure if we If
we were to do that and expect to find anything we would be
bitterly disappointed. We would only come away thinking
that we were so unworthy to even partake of the crumbs that fall
from such a table as that. Remember that incident is told
in the course of the ministry of Rabbi Duncan. John Duncan,
that great Scots minister, that great Hebrew scholar he was. He had a real passion concerning
the Jews, a desire to see God's ancient people yet brought to
the saving knowledge of Christ. And when he was ministering in
Glasgow on one occasion, and it was a communion season, and
he was there officiating at the table, and he was observing the
people, he was familiar with them, he was a remarkable man.
Strange man in many ways, eccentric, and yet a man of great spiritual
discernment and he observed some dear elderly lady there who held
back, who didn't come to the table and as the elements were
being distributed amongst the people he himself went and he
took the bread and he took the cup and he approached that dear
woman He knew her to be a true child of God and he passed the
elements to her and he said, Woman, eat, drink. All this was done for sinners.
All this was done for sinners. We examine ourselves, we look
at ourselves and what do we see? We see that we are sinners. All but sinners are high in his
esteem. Who are the sinners high in his
esteem? those sinners who think highly of Him. That's how we
are to come. As we come, if we come in a worthy manner, we come
as those who would give the glory unto the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is the one that we are to remember. And all our worship, any part
of our worship, but certainly when we come to the Lord's table,
it's all of course in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ. May
the Lord be pleased to bless these words to us tonight, that
we might be like David, and pray as this man could pray. Judge
me, O Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity. I have trusted
also in the Lord. Therefore I shall not slight.
Examine me, O Lord, and prove me. Try my reins and my heart
for thy loving kindness. is before mine eyes." Oh, isn't
that what's said before us when we come to the table? Thy loving
kindness, said before us as it were in pictures, in the broken
bread, the poured out wine in the cup. Thy loving kindness
is before mine eyes. May the Lord be pleased to bless
His Word.