Psalm 119, the title of the message,
heart prayer is the heart of prayer. With my whole heart,
he said, I pray with my whole heart. My very being is engaged
in this prayer. In these verses, we see the heart
of true worship. It is not possible to worship
God without the heart. The heart is the seat of affection. It's the seat of understanding.
And without the heart, there's no worship. Solomon said to his
son, son, give me thine heart. out of the heart are the issues
of life take a concordance and look at the heart the word of
god has a lot to say about the heart because out of the heart
flows true worship true prayer true faith all flowing from the
heart a new heart not just any heart it's not the old heart
new heart a new heart given of God in regeneration the new birth
that's what regeneration is it's the new birth is to be born of
God God said in Ezekiel 36 26 I will give you a new heart I'll
give you a new heart Jeremiah 24 7 I will give them a heart to know me. Do you have a heart
to know God? Do you really want to know God?
Do you really have a desire? I mean a real desire to know
God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. That's of God. God said I'll give them a heart
to know me. It is this heart with which we
crown to God in faith and in prayer. We go before the throne
of grace with our hearts. Our bodies are here. My body's
here. But my heart can go before God. It can go before the throne of
grace and lay before him all my cares. What a privilege we
have. What a privilege. And this verse, now listen, this
verse first applies to our Lord who only cried and was the only
one able to cry with his whole heart. We as believers do cry with our
heart, and at times our whole heart as much as is possible. But we know this, we don't do
anything perfectly. We don't do anything perfectly.
We don't love God perfectly. We do not. We do not worship
God perfectly. We do not believe God perfectly,
but bless God, there is one that did. The Lord Jesus Christ, his
whole heart. While he walked on this earth
as a man, as our substitute, his whole heart was absolutely
1000% engaged in worship, in keeping the word of God, the
statutes, the judgment, and that's our righteousness. That is our
righteousness. Now he says here in verse 145,
I cried Now, brethren, if you cry, I
mean, if you really cry unto God, it's serious business, isn't
it? I fear too often our prayers
are not cries. There's too much formality in
it. But he says here, I cried with my whole heart. Or he says
here, I cried with heart. with whole heart. I cried with
whole heart, hear me, oh Lord, I will keep thy statutes. And we know, first of all, this
fits our greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord was a
praying man, still is, as our high priest, he still is. But
he poured out his heart continually to his father. He did so for
himself, for protection, He depended upon His Father to keep Him,
but He did so for us also. He prayed for us intensely. Intensely
He prayed for us. Go over and read John 17, that
high priestly prayer. He's praying for us. I cannot
read that prayer without thinking and listening, listening. Tuning in, the Lord's praying
for me. I am included in this prayer. I pray not for them only, but
I pray for them who shall believe through their word. He prayed
for us. And he still does, he still intercedes
for us. I don't know how all that takes
place right now, but he intercedes for us. Right there before the
throne of grace. Our Lord poured out his heart
and he prayed often. How often do I really pray? Aren't
you glad we have one that prays often? We have actually, we have
one who prays continually, continuously. He prays for us, intercedes for
us. Our Lord lived in a perfect attitude of prayer. And our Lord
cried unto God. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
five. this speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ Hebrews chapter 5 look in verse
5 so also Christ glorified not
himself be made and high priest But he that said unto him, Thou
art my son, today have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another
place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. Who in the days of his flesh,
whose flesh? The Lord Jesus Christ, that's
who he's talking about. Now listen, who in the days of
his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears. That's our Lord. He prayed violently. If I can
use it that way, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and
the violent take it by force. Our Lord prayed violently. And it says here he prayed with
strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him
from death. Why didn't he say for this hour
I came? I came into the world to suffer
and die. Didn't he say that? What does it mean? That he was
able to save him from death and was heard and that he feared
he was heard. God heard him and that he had, he feared God. First
of all, he prayed that He would be delivered from those Pharisees
and Satan who constantly wanted to kill him. They tried to kill
him before his time. He said, mine hour is not yet
come. And if his heavenly father had not protected him, because
he's a tender plant, remember over in Isaiah 53, he's a root
out of ground like a tender plant. You know what you can do with
a tender plant? You step on it, you break it. Our Lord was human. He was a real man. You know,
sometimes I think, in my way of thinking, I see Him as God
Almighty, but I can't forget this. He's a real, very real
man who can die and can suffer. He's thirsty. He's hungry. He weeps. He wept. You know,
Martha Mary says, Jesus wept. He wept over Jerusalem. Oh, how mysterious is this man?
How mysterious, but it says here that he has strong crying and
tears and unto him it's able to save him from death. He depended
on God, listen, not only to save him from those Pharisees and
Satan who would have killed him before his time, but he also
depended on him to raise him from the dead. He was going to
die. But he depended on his father.
He spent it on God Almighty to raise his body from the grave,
come out of that grave. He depended on him. And then
he cried for his elect. Those strong tears and crying,
don't think that was just for him. That's for me and you. You see, he took prayer serious. He took calling on his father,
God, serious. He took going before Almighty
God serious. He took asking God for something
serious. It's serious business. It's very
serious business when we call on God and use his son's name. I can't help but think, this
is as I've gotten older and learned a little more, Is what I'm asking
for worthy of the name I'm going to attach to it? Is it? We don't just throw it. We're
not name dropping and we're not going to before the throne of
grace or before the throne of God's grace and name dropping.
When we pray, just like I prayed here. Was that prayer worthy of the
name of Christ? Was it worthy of using his name?
Was God would God hear that prayer for his son you see how serious he took it
he took praying a very serious matter he cried for his elect
he cried for their forgiveness father forgive them didn't he
say that from the cross father forgive them they don't know
what they do I don't know who he said that for at that particular
time. If it's somebody standing there
or if it's all of his elect, I tell you this, whoever he's
speaking of, they're forgiven. They were forgiven because he don't ask the father
to forgive anybody and they're not forgiven. He cried for their forgiveness.
He cried for their pardon. He cried for their acceptance.
He cried for their protection. He said, look over in John 17. In John 17, look in verse, there's
a lot of these verses I could just, I could camp right here.
In verse 11, and now I am no more in the world, but these
are in the world, I come to thee. Holy Father, I come to thee. Boy, that's serious business,
isn't it? Keep through thine own name those whom thou has
given me that they may be one as what keep them. He prayed
for their protection. He prays for our protection.
Keep them. Keep them. Look in verse 24, he prays for
our future. He prays for our future. Father,
I will that they also whom thou has given me be with me where
I am. That's our future. He prays for
that. You think he's going to get that?
everything he prays for he gets because he never prays outside
of the will of God ever so he prays he prays for his
elect he prays for their forgiveness their pardon their acceptance
their protection and their future he prays for them he intercedes
for them No parent ever prayed for their
children like Christ prays for his. And you parents, you know
how you pray for your children. You know. Paul said that if it
would save Israel, I could wish myself a curse from Christ. Our Lord was cut off. for our salvation, for our salvation. He was cursed. He was cut off
out of the land of the living. He actually experienced what
Paul prayed, in that he died under the curse of the law, separated
from God. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? I'm looking at the reason God
forsook his son, that he might save you, that he might save
you. And our Lord prayed, he prayed
for his, he prayed for the children of God, his brothers and sisters.
Wouldn't you like to have a, like I said, wouldn't you like
to have a brother praise you like that? You do, in Christ you do. You have a
brother praise for you like that. Prayer, and listen, prayer and
God's word was our Lord's greatest weapon. Our weapon, our weapons are not
carnal. Now, our weapons of porting down
strongholds are not carnal. They're spiritual. And our Lord's
greatest weapon is two things. Prayer. Prayer. I was trying to think of the
preacher's name who prayed that God would give him Scotland.
You remember that? John Knox? Yeah. That's the difference
between 40s and 60s. I can't remember anymore. But
John Knox prayed that the Lord, I thought, here's an example
for us. Don't be afraid to pray large.
John Knox prayed earnestly that God would give him Scotland. That God would give him Scotland.
Jesus Christ prayed that God would give him the heathen. God said, ask me the heathen
for that inherited. You bunch of heathens have been
given to me. You have. There's a multitude
of heathens from the Gentile race that were given to the Lord
Jesus Christ, and he asked for them. He asked for them. He prays for them. Now we must learn to use the
same weapon that he used, God's word. Remember the temptation
in the wilderness when Satan came at him? He said three times,
I believe it was, it is written, it is written. Prayer and God's
word, that's all we need to stand on. We take God at his word and by
his spirit, We can pray and go before Him and cast all our care
before Him and trust Him, trust Him to take care of our need,
whatever it is. And here's the prayer. Hear me,
O Lord. Our Lord prayed to be heard.
We pray to be heard of God, not men. Our Lord never prayed to impress
men, nor do we pray to impress men. Pharisees did. The Lord
told them that. He said, you pray, you have these
long prayers. You know, have you ever heard
someone do that? There's one particular person.
When this person prays, it's long as a sermon. I'm bound to be careful here,
but we don't make long prayers to be heard. We prayed to be heard of God,
for God to hear us. And here's what he hears more
than anything. Your heart. The groanings of your heart.
That's what he hears. He sees beyond words. You heard
me pray here a little bit ago. You heard words and words have
meaning. But they can have the meanings
and no heart in it at all. We never pray to impress men,
but we pray to be heard of God. And the reason for this prayer
is this, I will keep thy statues. Lord, he said, hear me, hear
me. He doesn't pray for a bigger
house. He doesn't pray for hell. He doesn't pray. He doesn't even
pray right here in his first opening statement here to get
out of trouble, whatever it is. I cried into the, he says this,
I wanna keep your word. Save me that I might keep your
word. Again, again, our Lord is the only one who was able
to do this perfectly. He said, hear me, I will keep,
I will keep thy statutes. But this is the desire of every
one of God's children. We desire to know God's word
and to walk in the light of it. Hear me, hear my prayer for this
reason, not a material benefit, not a monetary benefit, but a
spiritual benefit. And I might keep your word. Lord, hear me. here's another request you'll
notice he he says this i cried i cried and then in another verse
he says he cried it was interesting someone pointed this out i didn't
write it down but someone pointed this out christ prayed three
times in the garden of gethsemane when he went three times and
said the same words paul prayed three times at the Thorn in the
flesh would be removed, and God didn't remove it. Was it Elijah
that laid on that young man that died, young boy that died, and
he prayed three times that his life might come back into it?
What's the significance of that? Well, I really don't know, but
I do know this. You pray about something three
times, you're serious. You're serious. If you really are serious about
it, about something, you're going to pray about it again and again
and again. You're going to be like that
woman with that unjust judge. You're going to keep on knocking.
You're going to keep knocking until God answers that prayer
one way or another. God, you're going to keep going.
And if you do, it'll be God who keeps you going because he's
going to give you the answer. That's why it keeps you going.
I cried unto thee, Save me. You see, He said, Hear me, that
I might keep thy statutes. Save me, and I shall keep thy
testimonies. You see, it all has to do with
God's Word. Anything that has to do with
God's Word has to do with God. It has to do with God. It's a
cry, listen, first of all, it's a cry for salvation. Now, how
can this fit our Lord? How can this fit our Lord? Well,
I've already touched on it briefly, but as a man, he depended on
God to save him from the forces of darkness and the attacks of
men. He depended on God. He completely depended on God
to save him. When he was in that storm on
that boat, and that was, you know, the disciples were losing
their mind. He was back there asleep. He
was depending on God to keep him. He was depending on Him
to keep it. That's what perfect faith does.
Perfect faith allows you to sleep, to rest in the storm. It's His storm. That's what perfect
faith does. The Pharisees would have killed
Him long before His hour had come, if they could have. They
would have if they could have. But this applies to the believers,
to all believers. We need the Lord to save us,
don't we? We need the Lord to save us from
our sins, from the curse of the law, from the power of darkness.
We need the Lord to save us that we might serve Him in spirit
and in truth. We need the Lord to save us that
we might walk in the light of His Word and keep His testimonies. He's got to save us if we are
going to do it. He's got to do that. And you'll notice here
his cry is to be saved, that he shall be able to keep the
testimony. Not to keep from going to hell.
Not to keep from going to a place called hell. But that he might
walk and please God. Enoch walked with God. And if
you and I walk with God, it's going to be by faith, and it's
going to be through His Word. It's not going to be apart from
His Word. And then he says here in verse
147, early prayer, listen, early prayer
is the best time for prayer. I've learned it's the best time
for study, to come over here first thing in the morning, early
in the morning, when that sun is coming up right over there,
the best time to be over here is in early in the morning. Before
anybody else gets my mind, or anybody else grabs a hold of
me, it's best to be over here, early in the morning. I prevented the dawning of the
morning and cried again, cried. Prayer's a serious business with
him. And I hoped in thy word. Our
Lord was up before dawn just to pray. Just to pray. That's an understatement to say
just to pray. He was up before dawn to go before
God on our behalf. And on behalf of that day, he's
going to live out this day. He's going to face Satan and
men and darkness. And what does he do? He faces
God first. He calls upon God first. This
is the best way to start a day. with God's Word and prayer. It's
the best way to start a day and our Lord did so and He did so
hoping in the Word of God, the promises that God gave in His
Word. Listen, prayer without hope is
useless. Why pray? Why pray? If you have no hope for what
you're praying for, If you have no foundation for what you're
praying for, why are you praying? He went before God, and we go
before God, and there's no better way to go before God than with
His Word. And hoping in His Word, expecting,
expecting God to fulfill His promise. Take the promises of
God to the throne of grace. Spurgeon called him, he says,
like taking checks to the bank. Take these promises to the throne
of grace. Nothing better than taking God's
own word to him. And notice here what effect the
heart soon has on the eyes. He said, mine eyes prevent the
night watches, that I might meditate in thy work. I don't go to sleep
at night. He said, I stay up. I'll stay
up. The night watch here is a military term. These are the guards who
watch the night. You know, they change guards
through the night three or four times, I think it was. And he
says here, my eyes prevent the night watches. He rose up early just to pray
and he stayed up late. He stayed up at night to meditate
on God's word. Here is a wise practice. Here
is a wise practice for every one of us. SETTING ASIDE A TIME
TO GET ALONE AND READ THE WORD OF GOD, AND THEN MEDITATE ON
IT. DON'T SEE HOW MUCH YOU CAN READ.
I HAVE LEARNED THIS. IF I READ A LOT, I CAN'T REMEMBER
MUCH. I CAN'T. I READ TOO MUCH. BY
THE TIME I GET DONE READING, AND I'VE BEEN GUILTY OF THIS,
I'VE SAT DOWN SOMETIME FOR TWO OR THREE HOURS AND JUST READ.
THAT'S TOO MUCH. READ A LITTLE, THINK A LOT. Read
a little, think a lot. It's better than reading a lot
and thinking very little. Think it over and over. Read
a little and think it over and over. You know, I think we've lost this
in our day. We don't know how to think. We
stay too busy to think. We're running at such a breakneck
speed, we don't have time to think. And that is a real tool
of Satan to keep you so busy, you don't have time to think.
You don't have time to get up and read, you gotta get up and
put your clothes on, hurry up and get out the door and go to work. This industrial age is, I'm not gonna say it's a real
blessing. Because it has taken us away
from our time to be able to stop. and meditate and think. Here's what, let me give you
what meditate means. It means to think deeply or focus
one's mind for a period of time in silence on a subject. Now you know whether or not you've
ever really sit down and think deeply on something. The synonyms of meditate is this,
ponder. Ponder it over. That's why I
said don't read a lot, read a little bit so you can ponder over it.
It means to reflect. Go home and reflect on what you
heard here tonight and what was read to you out of God's Word.
It means, and I like this one, deliberate thinking. Isn't that
good? Deliberate thinking. It means to contemplate. Contemplate
on what you've heard. It means to muse. To muse, that's
an old word. Concentrate. And I like this one. It means
to be lost in thought. You ever been lost in thought? We were watching something the
other night, and I was thinking of the message. And something
happened, and Vicki asked me about it, said something about
it, and I was lost in thought. Well,
I was sitting there looking at the television, but I couldn't
tell you what happened. Couldn't tell you what happened at all.
I was lost in thought. And that's what he's saying.
Meditate upon the Word of God deliberately. Reflect upon it.
Contemplate it. Use it. Concentrate. And get
lost in thought over it. He did. God did. Our Lord did. And note the advancement
of his prayer here. Hear my voice according unto
thy lovingkindness, O Lord. Quicken me according to thy judgment. Have you noticed here how his
prayer advances? He started out, hear me. Then
he said, save me. And now he says, quicken me,
revive me. We need all three of these to
happen for us to worship. We need this. Revive me. We need spiritual reviving often. We need it. Actually, we need
it every day, don't we? We need spiritual reviving every
day. We need the Lord to impress upon
us His great mercy. His great mercy. And David asked
God here to quicken him according, according. First, to hear his
voice according to his loving kindness. In other words, hear
me in grace. But I look this way, let me tell
you something about studying, and you all know, you know this,
but this word according here is an adverb. And it means this,
as stated by or in. According to your love and kindness
as stated in your word. He's not asking God to do something
outside of his word. and then he says here according
he says here uh according unto thy loving kindness oh lord quicken
me according again as stated in your word to thy judgments
answer me in a way that's consistent with yourself answer me in wisdom
as i pray don't you want god to answer you in wisdom now you
tell me who's wiser to answer your prayers you are god take your burden to the lord
and leave it there or take your burden to the lord and tell him
how to do it how to fix it answer me in a way that's consistent
with your judgment not mine now you know and i know most of the
time or oftentimes i'll say oftentimes we pray we want god to do it
the way we want him to do it and most of the time he does
it the opposite of how we think you ought to do it That's why
we get disappointed because our will comes in conflict with His.
But here, listen, here according to your love and kindness, according
to your judgment as stated in your word, here's the spirit
of submission. One thing about going to God
in prayer, going to the throne of grace, we better start out
with submission. start out already submitted thy
will be done and you lay your case before god but with the
spirit of submission we do not instruct god on how to answer
our prayers our lord taught us not my will but thy will be done
not my will what do i know why do i know it's 15 it's 16 after
8 At 17 after eight, do you know what's going to happen? You don't, you and I don't have
a clue what's going to happen, but he does. He determined the
end from the beginning. Our God does. And here's another
reason to pray enemies all around. Ooh, we have enemies. Like we
got, we got so many unseen enemies, dark spirit of darkness, demons. You know, we're just not in this
world by ourselves. It's a world, it's a spiritual
warfare, spiritual darkness in this world. Verse 150, They draw
nigh that follow hide on the hills of mischief. They're after
mischief, they follow after mischief. You know the scripture says to
the wicked, I'm gonna paraphrase it, to the wicked mischief is
a sport. Why do you think the thief keeps
stealing? It's a sport to him. He gets
away with it, he gets a high on it. He gets a hmm, a god damn. And he keeps on going. I was
watching I mean, I watched a lot of TV. You too. I do watch a lot of YouTube.
We was watching this thing the other night, these train robbers.
They made, it was, for the money they had stolen, they had won. They had stolen well over a million
some dollars. This is back in the 1800s. They
stolen over, they couldn't stop. I told Vic, I said, if they stopped,
they could live like kings, but they couldn't do it. And they
got caught. They couldn't do it. You know
why? Because mischief is as sport to them. It's the same thing
as a basketball player playing basketball and loving it. It's
sport. Now our Lord had and still had
his enemies. He said they'd follow hard after
mischief. They'd try to kill him on every turn. They'd try
to trip him up, trap him, everything they could think of. We still
have the same enemies he has. They're our enemies. Every one
of them. The world doesn't love you. It'll
chew you up and spit you out. You know, that's one thing I'd
like for young people to learn. The world will chew you up and
spit you out when it's done with you. It will. You know the best way to handle
our enemies? We sing a song, take your burdens to the Lord
and leave it there. Well, we can sing it this way. Take your
enemies to the Lord and leave them there. Leave them there. You know, David's not trying
to, he's calling on God to take care of his enemies. Our Lord
did that. We are to do that. Take your
enemies to the Lord and leave them there. And he says here in 151, I'm
gonna close. Here's where he takes great comfort. He takes
great comfort. Thou art near, O Lord, O Jehovah,
and all thy commandments are truth. The enemies may be following
after mischief. They draw nigh that follow after
mischief. They are far from thy law. And I tell you what, the most
dangerous people in the world are those who are far from the
word of God. They are the most dangerous. But God's our Lord
is near. We don't pray to a God who's
far off. God is ever present with his people. He's ever present.
Too often, we think of God as being far, far away, don't we?
We think he's far, far. He's here. He's here. He's ever present. and all His
commandments are truth they can be completely relied on. This
is good news to sinners who need mercy, to sinners who need help. Last of all, we see here a saving
knowledge of God's Word, the encouragement that it gives.
Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded
them forever. You know, there's one scripture
that says, what it says here in Psalm 119, 89, Forever, O
Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. I'm going to read you
what John Gill, I thought he had a good statement on this
verse, and I'm going to close. Concerning thy testimonies, I
have known of old, or from thy testimonies, read it like this,
from thy testimonies, I have known of old. By carefully reading
the Scriptures which testify of God, His Mind and Will, and
frequently meditating on them, he had learned a long time ago,
even from his youth, what follows, that Thou hast founded them forever,
that the things contained in them are sure and certain, established
and eternal truths, the moral law and the precepts of it are
eternal, and a perpetual obligation, not one jot or tittle of them
shall ever fail. The gospel and the truths of
it are everlasting and shall ever remain, in spite of all
the opposition, craft and cunning, fury and force of men, to undermine
and root them out. He says here, concerning thy
testimonies, I've known of old. Thou hast found them forever.
They are sure and steadfast. God's word, what he's given us
in his word is sure and steadfast. You count on it. You count on
it. Whatever God said is gonna happen.
And he said it a long time ago. All right.