Good morning. I'm usually a big bear at this time of year, and I'm so exceedingly happy not to be this year. As I've heard, they've had extreme weather, anywhere from torrential rain to very hot temperatures, even hotter than we've had here in La Mirada. And it just reminded me of all the reasons why camping is a part of my past and not my future. But speaking of Big Bear, I have a message prepared here today to give to you that if you're not a normal Big Bear attendee, you will have never heard it before because I preached it up there four years ago. And I looked at it carefully this week and realized that not only will most of the people present here today not have heard this sermon, But also that it is very much in keeping with this series of iterative or occasional messages which I announced last week, thoughts, select thoughts from the Psalms. Except for one thing, is as we picked a little phrase from Psalm 1 last week, you might have expected me to pick a phrase from Psalm 2 this week. And I decided to change the rules a little bit. And we're not going to go in necessarily the order that the Psalms are given to us. I want to tackle the great big chapter of Psalm 119 this morning. So if you'll turn to Psalm 119, we're going to look at a particular verse in that Psalm, which is extremely long, as you know, and I will not be doing justice to the entire chapter at all. And the verse that we're going to look at this morning is not one that summarizes everything in this chapter. It's not similar to what we looked at last week in that In Psalm 1, where we considered what it means to be known of God, where it says, the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish. That does seem to take into itself the whole message of Psalm 1 and the contrast between the blessed man and the man who is not blessed, the man who is known of God and the man who is not known of God. Rather, this particular verse is one that can stand on its own, as it were, and may include some idea of what the entire chapter of Psalm 119 is, but will not be as comprehensive as the one last week. A few things about Psalm 119 we should understand, first of all, is that it is an acrostic psalm. And what I mean by that is that there are sections in this psalm, and each section is entitled by a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And so you'll see, if you have a Bible like mine, you'll see that the first section, verses one through eight, is entitled Aleph, because that's the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet. And in the Hebrew language, though not in our own translations, each word that begins each section begins with that letter of the alphabet. And so you have Aleph, Beit, Gimel, Dalet, He, Vav, Zion, so on, it goes all through the alphabet of the Hebrew language and it's a way of memorizing, as it were, very edifying and helpful prayers by beginning each prayer with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Now the section in which the verse we're going to look at today is, is the second section under the letter Beit. And so I'm gonna read that entire section and then I'll announce to you which verse we'll be looking at in particular. Psalm 119 and verse nine. How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes. With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word. The verse that we want to look at is verse 10. with my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments." I think it's a remarkable thing that the psalmist, whoever he may have been, who wrote this particular phrase, could say in good conscience, without blushing and without pride, he could say, Lord, I seek you with my whole heart. I don't think I've ever said that. to the Lord. Because as I look within, I see so much that's wrong. And I don't see myself seeking the Lord with my whole heart. But I think it would be helpful for us to realize that when the psalmist says he's seeking God with his whole heart, it doesn't necessarily mean, in fact it doesn't mean, that he's seeking God in a sinlessly perfect way. That's not how we're to read this. And so perhaps maybe we get confused because when we see something like that, we feel like, well, there'd be no way in the world that I would ever be able to get to a point in my Christian walk where I can actually say to God, in all honesty, I have sought you with my whole heart. But maybe it's because we're looking at that phrase in an intensively perfect way, which is not what the psalmist was thinking at all. In fact, we'll look at this more carefully in just a few moments. But when he says, I'm seeking you with my whole heart, it's not that he sees that he's perfect in every respect, but he sees that all of the aspects of his being in their entirety, though not perfectly, are engaged in seeking you. after God. And of course, this whole idea of seeking God is just another way of expressing his love and affection for the Lord. And of course, throughout Psalm 119, you cannot divorce the two concepts of loving the Lord and loving his word. There are about five or six different synonyms all throughout almost every verse in Psalm 119 that refer to the revealed Word of God, whether it's precept, or statute, or rules, or ordinances, or the word word itself, or the word law. and all of them, in a sense, in a very general way, point to the revealed will of God for us, which we have, of course, completed in this 66-book canon of Scripture. And so the love for God and the love for His Word are tantamount to one another. And what he's saying here is that every part of my being, as I look within my soul and my heart and I see all the various aspects of my heart, my inner self, that you have created me to be, I am engaged in all of those ways in seeking after you. Not perfectly, but completely. Sort of like your engine in your car. Your car, if it got you here today, is working. But not everything in that engine is working as well as it should be working. But at least it's working. You can find fault in any engine. And we can find fault with ourselves very readily if we're honest. And of course we don't like what we see. but there is some comfort for the people of God who have been changed and have been given a new heart that does seek after God, that there may be those times in our Christian experience when we can say, by the grace of God, Lord, everything I've seen, it's working. It's not working perfectly, but by your grace, I'm seeking you with my whole heart. Don't be afraid. to hope that such an occasion should happen. Don't think that I'm turning into a Wesleyan, believing in sinless perfection, this side of glory, not at all. And the psalmist didn't think that either. But there is a sense in which believers can honestly say, I'm seeking you with my whole heart. Just like when Jesus asked Peter, Peter, do you love me? And he says, yes, I love you. He asked a second time, Peter, do you love me? Yes, I love you, Lord. Peter, do you love me? You know I love you. So Peter was able to say with all conviction and with sincerity that he loved the Lord, though he himself had just experienced a grievous fall and knew that whatever love he did have for the Lord was certainly far from being perfect and far from being what God deserves from us. yet he's still able to say, I love you, Lord. Well, wouldn't you like to know whether you're seeking the Lord with your whole heart? How do we know that? What basis do we have to operate with? What criteria do we judge ourselves, as we're meant to do in scripture, to examine ourselves? What criteria do we have to measure as to whether we're seeking God with our whole heart? Now, I believe that this verse in and of itself contains at least seven answers to that question. It has within itself evidences, and from the example of the psalmist as well as the words that the psalmist uses, that it gives to us a seven-fold criteria whereby we can measure ourselves and say, okay, am I seeking the Lord with a whole heart? Before I mention what those seven are, and we're going to look at them only one at a time, let me clarify something though today that we looked at last week in Psalm 1. Remember, Psalm 1 begins with the words, blessed is the man. Who? And then it begins to list all of the things that are evidences of the fact that that man was blessed. So we began to immediately set the foundation for the psalm that it was not so much a psalm about law, that is, do these things and then you will be blessed, but rather the man has already been blessed of God and the blessing of God can be seen in his life through the evidence of a changed heart and manner of walk. So we don't try to get God's favor by doing good things, we do good things because he's already sovereignly changed our hearts and made us willing in the day of his power. And you remember the Bible says in the Psalms as well as quoted in the New Testament that there are none that seek after God. There is none that seek after God, no not one, none are righteous. Okay, so why can the psalmist then be able to say, I've sought you, I'm seeking you with my whole heart? How can he say such a thing when the Bible makes a description of all of mankind, says there is none that seeks after God? Well, the obvious answer is, is that this man is also a blessed man, like the man in Psalm 1. God has done something to him that he could never do for himself. God has changed his very nature, changed his nature from one who did not seek God at all, at least not the God of the Bible, and now one he is that seeks after God with his whole heart. So let us get something straight from the outset, that we're not looking at a passage that is Law, that is, seek God with your whole heart, and then he will accept you as one of his. But we're looking at a passage where it's someone who already has been changed by God's grace, is seeking God with his whole heart, and in addition, wants to keep seeking God with his whole heart. He doesn't want it to end. He wants to persevere in that same condition. He's already accepted of God. He knows that when he does sin, there is a remedy for sin, that there is forgiveness with God. He already knows that he's in a different category of human being. He's blessed of God. He's one of God's people. He's not afraid that if he does wander, he'll no longer be one of God's people. But nevertheless, he does not want to wander. He wants to maintain this joy, this condition of seeking God with his whole heart. There's a lot more that can be said in which we will say. If we could use the analogy, and I think it's proper to do so because we find it in scripture in the New Testament of marriage, we could say that an analogy that would fit this kind of verse, is when a wife, for example, would come to her husband and say, husband, I love you with all my heart and I don't ever want to stop. I don't ever want to wander. I don't want ever anything to come between us where our sweet fellowship and love for one another is hindered in any way. Now, Paul the Apostle uses this kind of language in 2 Corinthians when he speaks to them. 2 Corinthians 11, he says, I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your mind may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. There is a concern on Paul's part that the Corinthian saints who've been betrothed or espoused, if you will, to their husband Christ, in a spiritual sense, would be led astray, deceived, either through naivety or gullibility or even through unfaithfulness, that they would be deceived and led astray away from their full devotion to Jesus Christ. And isn't this what Jesus himself, the husband, speaks of in Revelation 2 when he addresses the church at Ephesus? I have one thing against you, he says. You've done well in being very courageous for defending the faith and decrying the errors of the Nicolaitans. You've done all of these things very well, but I have something against you. You've lost your first love. You've strayed away. It's cooled down. Your zeal for truth is still there, but what about your true, wholehearted devotion to me? And so that is our concern, isn't it? That should be your concern, that you would not drift, that you would not be deceived through whatever, either a besetting sin, an idol of the heart, or through naivety. that you would walk down the path that leads away from Christ. Now, the glory of being a Christian is that we know that we belong to a covenant of grace, not a covenant of works. And that meaning, very simply, that if we're truly one of God's people, changed by His grace, Though we may wander, and though we may stray, and though we may wane in our affection and our devotion to Jesus Christ, He won't let us get away. Now that's the comfort of it, isn't it? But it's just as true to say that we should not test the limits and stray from Him and sin that grace may abound. He's not gonna let me fall over the cliff, so I'll get as close to the cliff as I possibly can. Why would a true Christian even think that way? How can someone who truly loves their spouse get as far away from them emotionally, geographically, and every other way as they possibly can because they know their spouse will never say goodbye to them, will never let them go? What kind of person is that and can we really say they have genuine love for their spouse? And if we've been truly changed in our hearts, we ought to find at least a measure of resonance in our own heart with the psalmist's concern. With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I don't want to stray. I might, but I don't want to. So if you're someone who is sinning that grace may abound and taking advantage of making grace into some kind of an excuse or license to sin and go as far to the edge of the cliff of apostasy as you can, then perhaps you really should re-examine whether you're in the faith. Because that's not a manifest evidence of true conversion. Because the change that comes over a person when they are truly converted is one that in light of what Christ has done for them in his life and in his substitutionary death, is one of gratitude and love and devotion. And though it's not perfect, and though there are times when we fall, and there are times when we do backslide, yet there is still the seed that remains within us, as John says in 1 John. and there's a desire to be restored to that fellowship that we once knew and that level of love that we once had for our Lord Jesus. So having said all of that and putting it in its correct setting, I return to the question that we started out with. How do we know when we are seeking the Lord with a whole heart? Assuming that we're already seeking the Lord, Assuming that we already love him, that we've been changed by grace, we love him, we love his word, we love his people, we love his church, we love the things that we used to hate. Assuming that that's all true, how do we know that we're seeking the Lord with a whole heart? Well, let me suggest to you seven criteria which we find here in the text itself. The first one may seem redundant, but I assure you it is not. How do we know we're seeking the Lord with a whole heart? We know that we are seeking him with a whole heart when we are seeking the Lord. Seeking the Lord. And you might think, well, of course. Yeah, well, that's not necessarily as obvious as you might think. because some people believe and truly believe they're seeking the Lord, but if they were to compare their understanding of the Lord with what Scripture reveals about Him, they would find that there are contradictions. What they view God to be doesn't necessarily line up with what Scripture says God to be. And there's a problem there. Once that's been discovered, How do you respond to that? Once your view of God is somewhat contradicted by the scriptures, who do you bow to? Do you bow to your own reason? And you say, I don't really like that that's said in there in the Bible. In fact, I think it's a product of cultural thinking of the day. And that's just how they thought of God. And I think the New Testament portrays God in a much more loving way than the Old Testament. If you approach the scriptures that way, then you'll pick and choose what you want to believe, and the God that you'll settle for will not be the God of the Bible, but the God of your own imagination. Now you need to submit to what scripture says in terms of who God is. He's the holy, triune, sovereign God. He's not just loving, he's also just, but he's also merciful. And I've seen people on both sides of the fence, some emphasizing sovereignty, but forgetting that they have any responsibility at all before God. And then some who are emphasizing God's justice and wrath, but then they forget that he's slow to wrath and abundant in loving kindness. And they get it wrong. And it shapes their personality, it shapes their evangelism, it shapes how they worship. because they're not disciplining their minds by the theology of the scriptures, but by their own proclivities and preferences. Well, we know we're seeking the Lord with a whole heart when we're seeking the Lord, as he is revealed in scripture, but we also need to add to that something else, and that is, are you seeking the Lord, or are you just seeking things and blessings from the Lord? Are you seeking the Lord because you love the Lord and who he is, or is it just a matter of self-interest where you're looking for things that he might be able to give you? Now, using the marriage illustration, let's say a couple went out to dinner together, and the man asked the woman, why do you love me? And she said, right here, this is why I love you. And he says, what do you mean? This plate of food is the kind of reason why I love you. It's the things you give me. This is why I love you, that diamond ring. And that car we're driving, that's why I love you. How would that make the husband feel if he has any true feelings at all? Gee, I thought you loved me because of me. I didn't know it was because of the fancy car or the ring. or the meals, or anything else. I thought, wouldn't you have been just happy with me? Now, a lot of women would honestly say, no, I wouldn't be happy with just you. There's a story in 1 Samuel of Hannah, who is the mother of Samuel, but she was barren at the time, and she found her identity in motherhood, and I think that that's a mistake right there. Women who are married should find their identity, first of all, in the fact that God knows them. They are one of God's people. They are Christians. And the second thing is they should find their identity in the fact that they are a helpmate, a corresponding needful person in a family, in a relationship with their husband. And then motherhood comes third. But nevertheless, Hannah, typical of her own day, found her identity in motherhood and was going berserk because she was barren. And then her husband, Elkanah, somewhat naive, but I think legitimate, said to her, honey, aren't I worth many sons to you? And though she didn't answer, we all know what she was feeling, don't we? Well, as a matter of fact, Alcanna, you leave something to be desired. I actually do want a child. You're not enough, and you're not worth many sons to me." Well, that was her implied answer. Now, I'm not picking on Hannah, but what I am saying is this, that when it comes to God, and whether we're seeking Him or not with our whole heart, we need to really be honest with ourselves. Are we seeking Him merely for the things that He gives us? Simon Magus, who supposedly was a convert in Acts chapter 8, proved that he was not a true convert when it became really obvious by his request to Peter that he wanted the gift of the Holy Spirit because he wanted something from the Holy Spirit, something that he could use as a money-making device and also to earn notoriety and fame and power. In other words, he viewed God as an end to himself, as a means to his own ends rather than an end in himself. So let us look and see within our hearts whether or not we're seeking God or perhaps we're thinking, well, if I seek God, then he's going to bless me and I'm going to have a perfect life. I'm going to have a great job and I'm going to have a great relationship with my wife and I'm going to, um, never get sick, and if I do, then I'll have all the benefits that come from having the indwelling spirit. If I come to Jesus Christ, I won't have to suffer eternally in hell. And all of those things may be true. In fact, we know for sure you won't be condemned if you truly come to Christ. But really, is that the only reason you're coming to God is because he's simply a means to an end? Simply because he somehow in your mind exists for your happiness? Is that really the only reason that you're seeking Him? If it is, you're certainly, the least that can be said is you're not seeking Him with your whole heart. There are delights in God Himself, requires the Word of God to tell us who He is, requires us to think calmly, and that's hard to do in a frenetic culture in which we live. upon the greatness and wonder of God, the goodness of God and His attributes. And when we do that, we find, just like many have found in Scripture who give testimony to it, that He becomes our portion. He becomes, in and of Himself, our inheritance. And even though all of those other things are thrown in, the streets of gold, the mansion, and all those other things, we realize that even if those things were all taken away, the delight of being able to behold Jesus Christ in all of his exalted glory will be enough in and of itself. And some of that taste of the beatific vision, some of that can be experienced even in the here and now by faith and most usually right here in the house of God. The second way in which we know that we're seeking God with a whole heart is when we're seeking the Lord with all of our being, all of our being. The heart is used in scripture mostly in terms of the inner man, the whole being of you. And if you look carefully into how God has made you, you will find that there are aspects, I hesitate to call them parts because they really, though they can be distinguished, they really do act together as in accordance with the nature that we have. There is the mind, the will, and the affections. The mind, our intellect as it were, our will, that is our power to choose, and our affections, or our emotions, our feelings. And sometimes we find that these things are in conflict with one another, but they ultimately work together and come to certain conclusions and actions. Well, the psalmist was able to see, at least to some extent, that these various things that make up what he calls his heart, his inner man, We're all engaged, though not perfectly, in seeking God for who he really was and not just for what he could get out of God. And we need to examine ourselves to see whether that's the case with us because you know that there are many who profess to be lovers of God. Many who are in churches even today who profess to be lovers of God and who will sing it over and over again that they love God and will pray it And yet it doesn't seem as if they think that they need to love God with all their minds. They're very full of emotion, which isn't wrong in and of itself. If it's basing itself, if emotions are based on something and not based less, but they seem to think that worshiping God is all about feeling something or having an affection or being exhorted to do something, go out and do this and that and that, and they think that that is seeking God with their whole heart, but they forget that there is this thing called the mind. And I don't know about you, but I can't feel what's in this. I can't hold it up to my heart. and feel its truth and power. I need my brain to do that, don't I? Isn't that the means by which God communicates his truth to us, either through the hearing of what's in this book, but certainly through the reading, preaching of it? That's a big book. There's a lot of things in that that are easy to understand, but also many things that are hard to understand. Am I going to say to God, I love you God, I'm seeking you with my whole heart except for the fact that I don't really want to use my mind in looking into what you've revealed to me. This is God speaking to us and we're telling God, God I'd rather hear my own voice speaking to you praises. I don't really have time to listen to your voice and what you have to say. Though I've used this illustration before, I'll use it again. Once again, a married couple at the table and the woman is saying to the man, every time he opens his mouth, please, I don't understand a word you're saying and I don't care to even try. Everything out of your mouth goes over my head. So just be quiet and let me do all the talking. Rude, to say the least. And how credible would her profession be that she loves her husband? if he's never allowed to talk. Because everything he says, she's really not interested in because it might just take a little effort to understand what he's saying. But if you love somebody, you make that effort. And don't tell me you're a serious Christian if you're not serious about the Word of God. And if you throw your hands up and say, well, it's just all over my head, and then you give up, wrong response. To the measure you do that, to the degree you do that is a measure of how much you love God. You should have resigned a long time ago that this is the book of all books because it's the Word of God. and I will make full use of it as much as I can, and I will expand my mind as much as I can, and I will do whatever I can to understand it more fully, not just so I can be a brainiac, but because I love God, the author of that book, and I want to know him better. Now brethren, that's why you need to be in church. That's why you need to be in the word and take it seriously. And that's why you should never throw your hands up and say, well, I don't understand that. So it just, it might just not matter. It's an insult to God, no doubt a grief to the spirit. And we need to be careful that we don't. love God superficially, just with our feelings, but we need to use our mind. But you know, it's equally possible that someone could be a very knowledgeable person about doctrine, about scripture, but it doesn't seem to translate into a proper emotional response. And there, I keep coming back to the same illustration, but, and I'm always making the wife look like the bad person. But you understand why, it's because the husband represents Christ. And unlike us, he's a perfect husband. But in the analogy, if a woman were to say, I hang on every word that my husband says, and I know him inside and out, I'm eager to know more. But there doesn't seem to be any emotional affection toward him. When he reaches out to her, she doesn't want to be touched. She doesn't want to praise him for anything. She doesn't seem to have any inclination to be cheerful or joyous in his presence. There's something wrong, isn't there? And how often has it been when we've heard glorious truths and we understand them, at least to some extent, but we don't seem to have that emotional response which is fitting. And we go away shaking our heads wondering, are we even alive spiritually? How can we be so dull to these things that are so grand and glorious? Well, that's something that the psalmist was concerned about. He remembers a time when he was not seeking the Lord with his whole heart. And now that he is, he doesn't want it to end. And neither should we. We shouldn't be happy with that condition. Yes, by faith sometimes we'll walk through those dry and dark valleys and we don't have all the feelings that we sometimes have, but we should not be content with that. But one thing is certain, you're not going to get those feelings back by departing from the truth and trying to work up your feelings in a false, counterfeit way. It's through the truth that the feelings do come. It's in response to the truth that makes those feelings legitimate. Don't forsake the truth, but pray for spiritual revival in your own heart. And then, of course, there are those who don't love God or seek after God with their will. They're content to have great feelings and great knowledge, but when it comes to actually putting their feet to the pavement, something falls apart. There's a disconnect. They hear the word, they understand it, they might even receive it with great joy, but then they don't put it into practice. And Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. Don't just understand them, don't just have warm fuzzies about them, do them. And James says, if you don't, you're deceiving yourself. Deceiving yourself about what? That you even love the Lord. that you even have faith at all. If there's no translation from intellect to affection to doing to willing, then you're not loving God with your whole heart, and that's the best construction on the matter. In the third place, we know we are seeking the Lord with a whole heart when we are seeking him in private prayer. Seeking him in private prayer. The man who wrote this psalm, or at least this section of the psalm, and we have no reason to think that it was a variety of authors, though it may have been, but the man who is writing this psalm is writing it as a result of his own personal, private devotion before God. He's speaking directly to God about his own heart. That is an example before us that we find throughout scripture that one of the marks of someone who's been truly changed of God and who is truly seeking God with their whole heart is one who does not merely limit his prayers with God to public occasions when he's called on, or mealtimes, or in some great crises, but someone who actually wants to be with God, in communion with God, both through his word and through prayer. We find that over and over again. Some people say, if God's sovereign, why should we pray? Because you love him, don't you? Well, if I pray something and he's already got it figured out what he's going to do, why even go to him? Because he's not just your genie. He's not the go-to person to get what you want. He's someone you ought to be loving. He's a person, he has attributes, and he's so kind, and he's so good, and look what he's done for you in Jesus Christ. And if you view prayer merely as something to go fetch something with, then you've got a very poor view, or at least a very low view of prayer. That's only part of it. It's quite bestial and juvenile to think that prayer is merely going to God to get things. Get, get, get, what's in it for me? What have you done for me lately? You see how selfish that is? There's glory in God, and we should be drawn to his throne from who he is, alone. If we understood him like we should understand him, there'd be enough to pray about all day by way of praise and adoration, not only for who he is, but for what he's done, and we might not even have time to even come up with things to ask for. We might after a few minutes of meditating realize that we already have everything we need in Christ. Well, private prayer is a real test because the hypocrite is the one who only prays publicly to be seen of men or when he's called on or when there's some great trial that impinges upon his earthly comfort. Private prayer means you really love the Lord, you're seeking him. Provided he is the true and living God that you're praying to, provided that your motives are for his glory and not just for your own ends, private prayer is very much an indicator as to whether we're seeking the Lord with our whole heart. And you might say, well, nowhere in scripture does it say I need to pray every day. Well, check your attitude on that one. But secondly, the Lord's Prayer is proof that we're to pray every day. Give us this day our daily bread, which means it's a prayer to be prayed at least once a day, not the exact prayer, but the principles of that prayer to be kept in mind each day. And it wasn't meant to be a public prayer. Jesus, in the same context of giving the Lord's Prayer, said that when you pray, enter into your closet and shut the door. He's speaking of private prayer, even with reference to the giving us this day our daily bread. So, this is something we need to view as all-important in our communion with the Lord. By degrees, we fall away from the Lord. By degrees. And you know where it starts? It starts when you get spotty in your attendance at church. Then you start to get really sloppy with your prayer time during the week. God becomes further and further from your consciousness. And then you start living like an atheist, though on Sunday you might say otherwise. That's how you drift. Married couples drift that way. They get so involved in other things and they drift apart in their relationship. And there's that, where's the blessed communion you once had? It's broken. So, private prayer. The fourth thing that we can say is that we know we're seeking the Lord with a whole heart when we're seeking to obey the commands of the Lord. when we're seeking to obey his commands. Notice in verse 10 it says, with my whole heart I seek you, let me not wander from your commandments. Now remember what we said last week about Hebrew parallelism, especially when we look at the poetical books of the Bible. With my whole heart I seek you, don't let me stop seeking you, is the parallel. And you might say, well, I don't see that there, but that's the inference that we're to draw. He just rephrases it a different way. With my whole heart I seek you, don't let me stop seeking you. Which means, let me not wander from your commandments. In other words, seeking God with your whole heart means that you're seeking to keep his commandments. You can't be seeking the Lord with your whole heart if you're not seeking his commandments to do and obey. Well, there's so many commandments in the Bible. Where do I start? Well, why do you think, one of the reasons anyway, we were given a nice summary of the commandments called the Ten Commandments? You realize how many professing Christians today would not even be able to give to you, recite to you the Ten Commandments? Oh, but they love the Lord. Okay, you love the Lord. I'm not even asking you if you do His commandments. I just want to ask you if you even know them. Do you know them? Well, there's something about murder in there. Brethren, get serious. If you say you love the Lord, you're seeking Him with a whole heart. You need to know, at least know, the summary statement of His commandments given to us in the Ten Commandments. And then even those who do know the Ten Commandments very seldom see their breadth and their depth in terms of application and all the sides of the prism of those commandments and how they apply positively and negatively. Worshipping only God exclusively, no idols, which includes idols of the heart. Worshipping God in exactly the way He has ordained. as he is ordained in the New Testament, which means corporate worship. No innovations. Worshiping God reverently, not using his name lightly, flippantly, insincerely, or profanely. Setting apart the Lord's Day as a day to rest from earthly toils and to focus on the worship of God corporately and privately. Submitting from the heart to God's authority as represented in all spheres of our lives, in the home, the church, Marriage. Government. Respecting and caring for and endeavoring to preserve and build up the lives of others. Promoting life rather than taking away life or detracting from life. Maintaining sexual purity both in mind and body. Respecting others' property and rather than tearing down or being jealous, we rejoice and seek to build up our neighbor and his temporal happiness. Being zealous for the reputation of our neighbor, not bearing false witness through exaggeration or gossip or misrepresentation, speaking the truth in love, being content with God's dealings with us, rejoicing when others prosper without envying them, Weeping when others see some downturn in their prosperity. Weeping with them instead of rejoicing now that they're back in their place. They should have never been exalted in the first place. Now that they're abased, I rejoice secretly. Jealousy, envy. The law is deep. There's a lot of application there, and that's just hitting the surface. How many Christians who say they love the Lord and are seeking the Lord even know the commandments of the Lord. The fifth thing we can say is we know we're seeking the Lord with a whole heart when we're keenly aware of our inherent weakness. When we're keenly aware of our inherent weakness. He says, the psalmist, keep me from wandering. Let me not wander. Now, if the psalmist thought very highly of himself, he would probably not say that, would he? With my whole heart, I have sought you, O Lord, and though all else forsake you, yet not I. No, he doesn't say that, unlike Peter did in his prideful moment. The psalmist realizes that he has inherent weakness, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. I'm constantly like wheels out of alignment, wanting to go to the left or to the right and to wander and to bypass meadow and get away from you, Lord. I know that there is an element of sin and rebellion within me at all times that, that is driving me away from you. And it's out of my power ultimately to keep in the way. So let me not wander from your commandments. Brethren, it's not a mark of maturity, spiritual maturity, when a person says, I've arrived. I'm strong. The person who plunges himself into the way of temptation needlessly is not the mature person that he thinks he is. He's the person that is incredibly foolish and doesn't know himself the way he should. and he's prideful because he thinks he has the sufficiency in himself to handle those kinds of situations. It's the person who, as he grows more and more holy and like Christ, begins to see that he's more and more sinful than he ever realized he was to begin with. Sounds kind of It's paradoxical, doesn't it? I thought that the more I grow in grace, the less sin I would see in my life. But that's exactly the opposite. The more you grow in grace, the more sin you see in your life. And the greater your temptations might actually become. And that leads us to the sixth thing. We know we are seeking the Lord with a whole heart when we are afraid to wander. When we're afraid to wander. We're anxious and afraid about many things, many things we should not be afraid of. In fact, Jesus told us not to worry about the things that the world worries about. Job situation, finances, children's education, the future, relationships, all of these things we worry about and we shouldn't. But there is one God-ordained area that we are allowed to worry about. We're allowed to be afraid of. Where to be afraid to sin? Well, I thought you told me that if I'm a true Christian, no matter how much I sin, I'm still safe because I'm saved by the merits of Jesus Christ alone and not my own works. So what is there ultimately to be afraid of? Aha. You've revealed something about yourself by saying that. So you're a Christian merely for fire insurance. Once you got that, you don't care. You don't care about grieving the spirit. You don't care about taking pleasure in the very sin that nailed Jesus to the cross for you? You don't care about that broken fellowship and blessed communion with the Father that you will experience by sinning against Him with a high hand? You don't value your relationship with God? You don't love Him, you just love the fire insurance policy He gave you when you first believed on Him? Aha, you've revealed something about yourself. If in your heart you're thinking, why should I be afraid to sin? I'm safe for all eternity. Then you're not seeking God with your whole heart, to say the very least. When Hugh Latimer was on the stake being burnt by Bloody Mary, a passerby came to him and said, Mr. Latimer, are you not afraid of the flame? And he says, I fear nothing but sin. And it wasn't because he thought to himself, well, if I sin here, I'm going to hell. He knew better than that, and his theology was better than that. But he wanted to bring honor and glory to the one he loved, who had been so kind to him in grace. And then lastly, we know we're seeking the Lord with a whole heart. when we acknowledge our complete dependence upon his grace. When we acknowledge our complete dependence upon his grace. He says, let me not wander from your commandments. In other words, keep me, Lord, from wandering. I know it's my responsibility not to wander, but I also know I can't do this without you. But I can do all these things through you who strengthens me. I can through you. But in and of myself alone, I cannot do these things. The ability to even seek after you is given me by grace. The ability to continue seeking after you with my whole heart is all of grace. I depend upon you. I cannot do this in my own strength. And that's why the hymn that I've already quoted says, Oh to grace, how great a debtor. daily I'm constrained to be, let that grace now like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee. We need the fettering power of the grace of God. We need to over and over again go back to the gospel of grace and to see Jesus living for us and dying for us in order that we might go from that scene with a sense of love and praise and gratitude that we might Seek the Lord with our whole heart. But even in doing that, we have to pray, Lord, I can't do this on my own. Uphold me, preserve me, sustain me. And even now, as we bring this to a close, if you are one of God's true people, and you know you seek the Lord, but you also may see many areas in which you've strayed and wandered, and you don't seek him with your whole heart, well, I'm right there with you. But if that's the case, then what will your response be to all of this? I know you want to go home and you want to try to lift yourself up by your bootstraps. I know that you want to, like a good soldier, start doing the right things. I'm going to start praying and reading now more faithfully and regularly than I ever have, and I'm not going to discourage you from any of that, except I don't think that's the first thing you need to do. Where do you get the motivation to do the things you need to do? Where? And what are the means that God uses whereby he keeps his people from wandering? Well, chiefly, the gospel itself. The Lord Jesus Christ. You see failures? Go to him and tell him about it. You're thinking to yourself, I've ignored him so much. I've offended him. He's given me nothing but blessing and love, and I haven't returned the favor. I haven't gone back to Him to even thank Him. I've taken Him for granted. Will He even want to talk to me? Yes, He wants to talk to you. Will He forgive me? Yes. If you turn from the things that have replaced Him, what has replaced Him? What idols? Find out what they are. Go to Him and say, I want a restored fellowship with you. I want to seek you with my whole heart." And you'll see what kind of Savior he is. He'll embrace you and he'll take you in and he will forgive you. And you may know something of a restoration of the joy you once knew and your first love. That's what we need to do, brethren, is the motivation to love God and to seek God with all our heart is to observe and to understand and meditate upon the great love wherewith he has loved us in his son, the Lord Jesus. May the Lord enable us to do that very thing today. Let's close in prayer. Father, we ask your blessing on this day as we depart from your house of worship that we would take seriously the things that we have heard. that by your spirit you might enable each one of us not merely to be set on the path of duty once again, but to be reminded of your great love and grace toward us in Jesus Christ, that we might realize that we're already accepted by you in the beloved one, and out of gratitude and awe and wonder of your grace and love toward us, we might be motivated to commune with you, to seek after you with our whole heart. We pray that this might be the case, that there might be a reviving of your spirit in our hearts today. It might not just be a flash in the pan, but something that we would continue. Let us not wander, Lord, from communion with you and from keeping your commandments. Forgive us in Jesus Christ for all of our sins in this regard, especially we ask for a restored fellowship and walk with you. For it's in Christ's name we pray, amen.