Psalm 108. The title of this
message, I had two titles on it. My first title was A Heart
Fixed on God. And then before coming out here
about two hours ago, I was reading over it again and I thought,
what is your heart fixed on. What is my heart fixed on? It's fixed on something. Our
heart is never not fixed on something. It's taken up, it's fixated on
something. I thought of this, I thought
before the Lord saved us, me and you, you the same as me,
Our hearts were fixed on ourselves. It was all about ourselves. It was all about the lust of
the flesh. And that could mean many different things. Power,
money, sexual. I mean, it could be many different
things when it comes to the lust of the flesh. It's almost endless.
It's almost endless. Our hearts were fixed on this
world. We were enamored with the world, taken up with it. It was not fixed on God. It was
not fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ. It was not fixed on salvation
from sin. It was not fixed on how. This
sinner can be made one with God. And it was sure not fixed on
praising Him. Praise Him, praise Him. It was
not fixed on that. Not at all. God was not in our
thoughts. He was not in mine, and I'm sure
He was not in yours. You know, Genesis 6-5 tells us
what our hearts were fixed on. It is written in Genesis 6-5,
"...And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually." It was one evil thought after another. One evil thought after another.
That's man's heart. However, when God saved you and
God saved me, there was a great change, wasn't there? There was
a great change. When God saved us, He gave us
a new heart. A new heart. He took away the
stony heart and gave us a heart of flesh. A sensible heart. A heart that could sense sin.
For the first time, we had a real conviction of sin. And not because
we got caught. I'm not sorry because I got caught,
I'm sorry because of what I am. God forgive me for what I am.
And forgive me for the things I've done because of what I am. It's a heart of repentance. It's
a heart that's sorry, that truly sorry and mourns over sin. Job said, I abhor myself. I abhor
myself. I hate myself. I despise my... I'm a despicable person by nature. And you see that, don't you?
Now, some psychiatrist will say, now, wait a minute here. You
know, you need to get another book or something. You're going
down the wrong road. No, no. I'm telling you what,
if you can truly see yourself as God sees you, that's healthy. That's healthy. That's a right
view of herself. And when you see that, then you
can have a right view of God. A right understanding. And then you can understand your
need of a Savior. And then you can be put in your right mind.
When the Lord cast out all those demons that was in that man,
that demonic man, it says he was in his right mind. Those
who believe not." Now listen, I'm serious. Those who believe
not on the Lord Jesus Christ, those who believe not God, are
not in the right mind. You can't be in your right mind
and call God a liar. The One who holds your breath
in His hand, the Scripture says He has the breath of every living
soul in this world. The breath of every living thing
is in His hands. And then to stand and call Him
a liar to His face, you're not in your right mind. That's a
fool. And we were there one day, at
one time. God has given us a new heart
that's sensible of sin. It's a heart of repentance. It's
a teachable heart. You see, you can't put new wine
into old bottles, the Lord said. You put new wine into new bottles.
You can't put the truth in that old nature, that old man. It's got to be a new man, a new
nature. It's a heart that's in submission
to God. Speak, Lord! Thy servant heareth. Don't you want to know God's
will? Every child of God in here wants to know the Lord's will.
Thy will be done is our heart's cry. Thy will be done. And then it's a steadfast heart.
When David says, my heart is fixed, the word means steadfast. It's steady. It's steady. I cannot express how important
it is to watch over our heart. Solomon said this in Proverbs
4.23, Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are
the issues of life. Protect your heart. Your heart,
that's you. That's who you are. That's you.
Protect it. 1 Samuel 16, 7, listen. But the
Lord said to Samuel, Look not on his countenance or on the
height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord
seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance,
but the Lord looketh on the heart. Peter said, Lord, you know all
things. You know I love you. You know my heart. That's what
he's saying. You know my heart. You know I love you. You see,
God does business in the heart. He does business in the heart.
It's written in Psalm 44.21, "...shall not God search this
out? For he knoweth the secrets of the heart." He knows the secrets
of the heart. A fixed heart that David is speaking
of here is a work of God. It's a work of God. It's a new
heart. God does not repair the old heart
that's hardened by sin. It's a stony heart. It's impenetrable. God gives a new heart. He has
to give us a new heart. Listen to Ezekiel 36, 26. A new heart also will I give
you. Give your heart, you know this,
give your heart to Jesus. I mean, that is said so many
times outside of the gospel, outside of this circle. That's
said all the time. Give your heart to Him. He don't
want your heart. What I need, I don't need to
give my heart to the Lord. I need the Lord to give me a
heart. I need Him to give me one. I need the Lord Jesus Christ
to give me a new heart. The one I was born with is depraved,
it's sick, it hates God. There's a natural enmity in it
toward God. I need Him to give me a new heart.
That's what I need. And this fixed heart that David's
speaking of here is of God. It's a work of God. This new
heart is also indwelt by the Spirit of God. That's why it's
called over in Matthew 5.8, pure heart. Blessed are the pure.
You don't feel like you have a pure heart. You don't feel
pure at all, as far as feelings go. But that new heart that God's
given you is a pure heart. It's a pure, sinless heart. That's what it is. And it's a
heart prepared by the Spirit of God. It's prepared by His
Word. It's prepared by the preaching
of His Word. Every time we come into this
place and you sit and listen to the preaching of the Word,
your heart's being prepared. It's being prepared constantly.
It's prepared by prayer. Prayer prepares our heart. It's
prepared by affliction. is prepared by affliction. He
tries our heart toward Him. He proves it. Now what's the evidence of this
fixed heart, this new heart, this fixed heart that David says,
my heart is fixed. You see David's, let me give
you a little back, David's in a lot of trouble here. because
he said here toward the end of that Psalm, give us help from
trouble. He's in a lot of trouble, but
David's attitude here, his attitude is this, in this trouble that
I'm in right now, him and Israel, they're being attacked, they're
in trouble. He said, I know this, my heart
is fixed that I'm gonna praise God. Take that attitude into the next
trial you have. Take that attitude into the next
trial that hurts. I mean that hurts. And have an
attitude fixed that in this trial, Lord, I'm going to praise you
and honor you by your grace. That's what I'm going to do.
That's what I want to do, the desire to do, help me to do it.
And that's where David's at. But the evidence of this fixed
heart is evidenced by some things. First of all, it's evidenced
by the object it is fixed on. It's fixed on Jesus Christ. I'm
going to say it like this. It is fixated. It is fixated
on him. You ever be fixated on anything?
You can't get your mind off of it. You can't stop thinking about
it. You know, you want to trade and
you want to get a new vehicle, like my dad was. My dad wanted
to get a new vehicle. He couldn't get it off his mind
until he traded. Fixated on it. And that's what David is here,
and this is the evidence of a fixed heart. A new heart is fixated
on Jesus Christ, I'm telling you. It's fixated on Him. Christ
is not something you think about when you come here and I start
talking about Him. It's someone you think about
every day. It's someone you speak to. You
don't just think about Him, you speak to Him, you commune with
Him every day. You eat every day, don't you?
We have to have the bread of life every day. We have to have
the water of life every day. The heart is fixed on Him. It
is fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. He is my
Lord and Savior. I thank God He's my Lord and
Savior. Just like we looked at last week over in Psalm 107,
they wandered in the wilderness. I've been there in a solitary
way. Lost. Lost. I need one who is Lord. I need
one who is Lord over me. I don't want to be Lord over
me. I don't want to be responsible
for me. I want him to be responsible.
I want him to tell me what to do. I want him to make the choice.
You know, I have found out that one of the greatest trials that
God Almighty can give me, you know what that is? A choice. One of the greatest trials he
can give you is a choice. I don't want a choice. Lord,
you make the choice. You make it. He's infinite wisdom,
isn't He? He's infinite wisdom. I'm not. It's fixed on the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's fixed on Him as my wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. It's fixed on
Him as my all in all. There's no rival. There's no
rival to Him. I know that in this life, we
get fixated on things, and there are things that rise up that
we get overly interested in. But I'm telling you, in our heart,
in our heart, that new heart, there's no rival to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And you know, my dad said this
to me. He backed off after he said he
realized what he said. He said, I can't believe you
moved away in our old age. And I said to him, I said, dad,
the scripture says, he that loves mother, father, sister, brother
more than me is not worthy of me. So you got to get in the
back seat. You got to get in the back seat. That's so, he has no rival, no
rival. Then it's evidenced by worship,
by worship. Let me ask you this. And it'll
shoot everyone else between the eyes. I know it will, it did
me. Was my heart really fixed, fixed
on coming here to sing his praises? As David said here, I'm gonna
sing his praises. To hear the gospel and as much as possible
to worship him in spirit and in truth. Was my heart really
fixed on that? I pray the Lord would make it
so more and more often. I know we're in this flesh. I
know what I'm talking about. But you can't skirt those things
that convict you. You can't skirt those things
where you know you can just shoot yourself 20 eyes. It's evidenced, listen, it's
evidenced by worship. He says here, Oh God, my heart
is fixed, steadfast, I will sing and give praise even with my
glory. It's fixed on worshiping God
in Christ with all my being. It's not showing up once in a
while. There is no such thing as worshiping God once in a while.
It doesn't work. It doesn't work. It is consistently
worshiping Him in spirit and truth with His people. And it's to do so with the gifts
He's given me. He says there in verse 2, "...awake,
psaltery, and harp." Listen, He says, "...I will sing and
give praise, even with My glory." And He says, "...awake, psaltery,
and harp." With My intellect, with understanding, with the
gifts He's given me, It's like you led the singing. That's a
gift. Not everybody can stand up. I'm not going to ask just
anybody to stand up here and sing. Because not just anyone
can do it. I don't call on just anyone to
pray. I think prayer is a gift. It's a gift. To sing, to pray,
to preach, to teach is a gift of God. And David said, I'm going
to use the gifts that God's given me, and He's given every one
of us a gift. He said, I'm going to use it for your glory. I'm
going to use it for you. Like one man told me one time,
it's Kevin Thacker's dad, and I'm going to preach with Kevin
at Virginia this coming weekend. His father was a businessman. I had several
businessmen, very successful businessmen, and he tried to
retire. And he told me once, after he'd
spent a few months, he had to go back at it again. He said, John, the Lord has given
me a gift to make money. And he did. He could just touch
anything. And I'm telling you, it was just
like it turned into gold. But he said, the Lord's given
me a gift to make money, and he used it. I can verify the
fact that he used that a lot in giving and helping all over
the place. He said, I just believe it'd
be wrong for me to lay that gift down. And he went back, and not
as busy as he was, but he went back and did some work. But he
says here, I'm gonna praise you and glorify you with the talent
or the gifts that you've given me, with my whole being is gonna
be dedicated to you, to you. And then it's evidenced by one's
faithfulness. If you're fixed on something,
you're gonna go after it, aren't you? You're gonna go after it.
If you're fixed on something, If a young man gets fixed on
a lady, he's going after her. If she's fixed on a man, she's
going to go after him. You're going to go after her. You're
just going to do it. It's evidenced by faithfulness. You're going to go where Christ
is preached. You're going to go where he's worshipped. You're
going to do it. Your heart's fixed. Now note
when this praise begins. He says here, God, my heart's
fixed, I'm going to sing and give praise even with my glory,
awake, psaltery, and harp. I myself will wake early, before
the sun rises. That's what he's saying. And
you know, so much of this applies to our Lord. I could apply this
whole thing to our Lord. Our Lord so often got up way
before dawn and went to the mountains by Himself and prayed. He'd pray
all night. He led the disciples often in
singing psalms and hymns. He would lead them. He says here,
I myself will wake early before the sun rises. I will rise and
sing thy praises to meet each day with songs of praise to his
glory. That's how I'm gonna start my
day. But really here's what he's saying,
and get this in your mind. He said, I'm gonna lead the dawn
in. The dawn of the day, I'm gonna
lead it in with singing and praising God. It's like the dawn's following
Him, and He's marching before the daylight, and He's singing
and praising God. And now you apply that to Christ
and it works, doesn't it? It really works with Him. But
this is what David's saying. He said, my heart's fixed that
before the dawn, I'm gonna lead the dawn in. As the day breaks,
I'm gonna be singing His praises. And I'm gonna do it with a sultry
heart, the gifts that God's given me, the talent God's given me.
And I'll not only praise Him, listen, verse three, I'll not
only praise Him privately, but publicly among the people in
the nations. I'll do it, I'll do it privately
in my home when I wake up in the morning, nobody's there,
me and my wife, the kids maybe, if you got the kids at your home.
But he says here, I'm gonna praise you among the people and the
nations. And I think David is saying here,
in this trouble I'm in, I'm in this trouble, but I tell you
what I'm gonna do. Before the nations, before the
Gentiles, the Philistines out there, the Moabites and all them,
he said, before all the nations, I'm gonna sing your praises.
I'm not gonna sit over here and boo-hoo-hoo. I'm gonna sing your
praises is what I'm gonna do. That's a fixed heart. That's
a fixed heart. That's what we do. Oh, that God
will give us this in our trials. That our hearts will be fixed
to praise Him in trials. And to do it publicly. Publicly. David was determined to praise
God before friend and foe. It didn't matter if he was a
friend or a foe. David was going to praise God. Now why such praise? Here's why. David knew the Lord
was merciful. For thy mercy is great above
the heavens. He ought to know, he tasted of
it many times. How many times have you tasted
of the mercy of God? About every minute, every second
it goes by. You may not realize it, but God's
mercy is on you. His mercies follows you, will
follow you all the days of your life. You and I don't realize
it, but God's mercy is continually on us. It's like a, it's like
a, it's like a, Shroud over us. His mercy is over us. It's like
a shield over us. It's constantly with us. Thy
mercy is great. It's above the heavens. Who can
measure the heavens? Who can measure the heavens?
Who can measure the universe? Well, His mercy is above that.
His mercy is above that. And His truth, it reaches into
the clouds. It goes beyond... Here's what's
interesting, I thought of this. He said His truth reaches into
the clouds. What did the disciples watch
when the Lord ascended? They watched Him go through the
clouds. He's the one that said, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. He ascended right through those
clouds and seated at God's right hand above the heavens. is our
mercy in truth, seated at God's right hand. God's mercy and goodness
to me in Christ cannot be measured. It's infinite. Everything about
God is infinite. His mercy is infinite. Many,
O Lord, my God, are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done, and
Thy thoughts which are to usward. They cannot be reckoned up in
order unto Thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, they are more than can be numbered." But God's thoughts,
His thoughts of mercy. Oh my, I'm so glad He's merciful. And then the fixed heart desires,
the evidence of this fixed heart, it desires God to be exalted
above all else. What do you want to be exalted
above all else? Or who do you want to be exalted
above all else? Verse 5, Be thou exalted, O God,
above the heavens, and thy glory above the earth. There's none
like Him. There's none merciful like He
is. There's none who pardons like He does. There's none who
puts away sin like He can. Listen to these Scriptures. Exodus
15, 11, Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is
like unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Psalm 71, 19, thy righteousness
also, O God, is very high. Who has done great things, O
God? Who's like unto thee? Who's compared to thee? Micah
7, 18, who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity
and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?
He retaineth not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy. Who's like that? You and I are
not like that. It wouldn't take long for somebody
to wear us out. How many times should I forgive my brother?
That's what they wanted to know. They wanted to know where the
mark was. Was it seven times seven or something
like that? The Lord says 70 times seven,
a definite number for an indefinite number. How many times you want God to
forgive you? That's how many times you and I forgive one another. But what David is asking God
here, listen, Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and
thy glory above all the earth. What David is asking God to do
here is to exalt Himself as only He can. You and I, we only have
the ability to exalt God to a certain point. because of
our sinfulness, our limited knowledge, our limited understanding. We're in this world, but I tell
you what, the only one who's truly capable of exalting God
as He should be exalted is God. And He's saying, be thou exalted
above the heavens, above all that there is. There can be no
rival. And the reason for this exaltation
is this, that Thy beloved, and that's His church, that's what
He's talking about, His children, exalt Yourself above the heavens
and Thy glory above the earth. And we saw, and I already mentioned
this a little bit of this, this is seen in the resurrection of
Christ. when He ascended back to glory
and is seated at God's right hand, and now that He is exalted
above the heavens and He is seated at God's right hand, listen,
He can deliver and save us now, that thy beloved, thy children
may be delivered. Through the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is seated at God's right hand, you and I can be delivered
from the curse of the law, the power of Satan, the power of
sin. We are delivered from these things
through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is exalted above the heavens. He is. This is an intercessory
prayer for the church, because he's praying here for
the beloved. And he says here, answer me. Answer me. That thy beloved may be delivered,
saved with thy right hand. The Lord Jesus Christ is God's
right hand. He's the power of God unto salvation.
And he says, answer me. Answer me. I hear the Lord here. I hear the Lord Jesus Christ,
even in this intercessory prayer. He's the only one who can say
emphatically, Dogmatically, answer me. Can you say that? Lord, answer
me. He can say that. He said, Father,
I will that they be with me where I am. I can't say that. I mean, I can't say, Father,
I will. I say, Father, Thy will be done. But the Lord Jesus Christ,
who's equal with God, who is God, can say, I will that these
whom you've given me be with me where I am. He can, in this
prayer, say, answer me. He can do it. And then in verse 7 through 10,
here, and I'll wind this down, we have the foundation of faith,
the foundation for every prayer. Every prayer, listen, every prayer
ought to have a foundation. It's got to have a foundation.
And the foundation for every prayer is the Word of God. Lord,
you said, he that comes to you, you would not cast out. There's
the foundation of faith. Lord, you said, come unto me,
all you that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. There's the foundation for faith.
There's the foundation of prayer. Here's the foundation. God has
spoken. He's given us his word. He's
given us his word. I was reading the other day,
I wish I had wrote it down. I'm trying to think of it as I'm
preaching here. But he said, take with you words. And he gave
him the words. He was talking to Israel. Take
with you words. They were backslidden. I think he said Hosea. Take with
you words. And he gave him the words to
take and to pray before God. He gave him the words. The best
prayer you can pray is when you use the Word of God at the throne
of grace. That's the best you can do. God
will honor His Word. God has spoken in His holiness. God cannot lie. God is holy in
the perfection of His character. And all that God is, He has laid
it on the line. He has spoken. He's good for His Word. He cannot
lie. He cannot lie. And because of
this, because God has spoken in His holiness, I will rejoice. Isn't this the matter of the
foundation even of our rejoicing that God has given us His Word,
that He's spoken this? He's the one who said, Come,
and I'll rejoice. I'll rejoice. You see, God's
voice is reason for joy. It's reason for action. Come. He said to come, I'm coming.
It's reason for success. You see, faith... Listen, I got
this from somebody. This one I'd write down, because
it's good. I don't know who said it. Faith
rejoices in the promises of God even before they are realized. Faith rejoices. Saving faith rejoices in the
promises even before they are realized because you know, you
know they're as good as done. You know they're as good as done. You already have it. You already
have it. You already have it. God's already
given to you by a promise. By promise, and God won't renege
on His promise. And he says here, listen, now
this is God speaking, I will devise Shechem, Shechem or Shechem,
and meet out the valley of Sukkoth. Here's what happens, and we'll
see this here. Faith takes God at his word and
counts those things that he has promised as good as done and
rejoices in them, rejoices in the promise, even though they
haven't been realized yet. Now listen, he said, I'll divide
Shechem, meet out the valley of Sukkoth, Gilead is mine, Manasseh
is mine, Ephraim also is a strength of mine, mine head, Judah is
my lawgiver, Moab my washpot. over Edom will I cast out my
shoe, over the Philistines will I triumph, who will bring me
into the strong city, who will lead me into Edom?" David counted these as already
his. He counted the land of promise
and all those territories, he counted that already his. Even
the ones that hadn't been conquered yet, he said, they're mine. They're
mine. Let's apply this to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Let's go to the greater David
on this. In Revelation 11, 15, And the seventh angel sounded,
and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms
of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His
Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. It's already His. It's all His. Right now, it's
all His. The whole world. What's that
song go? He has the whole world in His hands. The whole world
is in His hands. Every human being is in the hands of Jesus
Christ. Every kingdom is in the hands
of Jesus Christ. They're His. Even though David hadn't had
all these success yet in all these places, he's still saying,
they're mine. You know why? Because God said
so. God said so. And I fully expect, listen, I
fully expect, I fully expect that when I die, to stand in
God's presence accepted. I expect to stand there holy,
unblameable, and unreprovable in His sight. And the reason
I expect that, even though I have not yet received that, is because
I have His Word on it. And I'm going to rejoice in it
because it's mine. It's mine. When I was younger,
I went more by what I felt. Now that I'm older, I go more
by what I read in the Word of God. I do. I do. I tell any young believer, trust
the Word of God. Satan is subtle. He knows your
immaturity. He knows the immaturity of a
young believer and he'll try to twist them and make them doubt,
but I tell you what, as you grow older, take God at his word and
stand on it. Don't move. Be fixed, steadfast
on the word of God. Steadfast. In a fixed heart,
listen, a fixed heart of faith lays hold on God for help, even
though it seems as if He's been cast off. Look at verse 11, Will
it not thou, O God, who has cast us off, Wilt not thou, O God, go forth
with our host? You cast us off. Even when it seems that God is
frowning on you, you still have hope in Him that He's with you,
because He gave you His word, I'll never leave you and I'll
never forsake you. So when it seems that heaven
is brass and He's frowning on you, yet I have His word, He
says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. So on His Word,
we can get up and go forward and not fall apart. And faith lays hold of that.
And then a fixed heart hopes in God for victory and not anyone
in this world, not any man, not anything else other than the
Lord. He says there in verse 12, "...give us help from trouble,
whether it be physical trouble, mental trouble, emotional trouble,
spiritual trouble, whatever, financial trouble, whatever trouble
it is. Lord, I need your help. I'm not
going to go to Egypt. I'm not going to go down to Egypt
for help. I've come to you. I come to you for help. Help
me. Lord, help me. And just keep saying, Lord, help
me. You can't deny one of your children that keeps coming to
you for help, can you? You're not going to do that.
I need help. I need help. The very fact you realize it
shows that He's already helping you. And then a fixed heart triumphs
in the end. This heart of grace, this new
heart, this fixed heart that's steadfast, believes God, rests
on God, rests on His Word. He says here in verse 13, Though
through God, through God we shall do valiantly. Can you believe
that? We shall do valiantly. For he
it is that shall tread down our enemies. He is the one who treads
down my enemies. He's walking on top. You know,
you tread something down, you're walking on top of it. He walks
on top of my enemies. The one who rides on the wings
of the wind. The one who commands a storm.
The one who has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm. He
treads down my end. He does it. He clears the way. He clears the path that I walk
on. It says in 1 Corinthians 15,
57, But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ. In every situation, every believer,
every believer already has the victory in Christ. You know that?
I've already won. I've already won. The battle's
over. The battle's over, I already won. I have the victory in Christ
over all things. You know, one of the things I've
realized going through trials as I've gotten older, the end
is already determined. I just pray for the grace to
get there. Give me the grace to go through this in a way that's
honoring to your name, because I know the end is already determined. It's already done. The outcome
is done. Job said, he knows the way that
I take when he's tried me. And he said, I will what? What'd
he say? I will come forth as gold. That's what Job said. He said, I'll come forth as gold.
I'm coming out of this as gold. He didn't sound like it. I mean,
he had some bad days there. But boy, when faith raises up,
he says, I know my redeemer liveth. I know I'm gonna come out of
this as gold. And he knows the way that I'll take when he's
tried me. My heart is fixed. Is your heart fixed? Is my heart
really fixed? I will sing His praises till
He takes me home, and then I will sing them perfectly with the
whole host of heaven.