I'd like to give you all a warm welcome to our worship here this morning. Let us ask the Lord's blessing in prayer. Let us pray. Our Lord God of heaven and of earth, be pleased to grant us thy blessing, the power of God accompanying the word in a true spirit of worship. We might gather in thy almighty presence, that we might sing thy worthy praise and worship thee in the beauty of holiness. We ask this through our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen. Hymn 1036. Tune, Luther's 370. Let us read together from the Holy Word of God, the Book of Psalms, Psalm 119. If you have one of our free Bibles, that is page 603. The Psalms are in the middle of our Bibles. Psalm 119 from verse 1, reading through to verse 32. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity, they walk in his ways. Thou hast commanded us to keep Thy precepts diligently. O that my ways were directed to keep Thy statutes. Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all Thy commandments. I will praise Thee with uprightness of heart when I shall have learned Thy righteous judgments. I will keep Thy statutes O forsake me, not utterly. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee, though let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me thy statutes. With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate in thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy statutes I will not forget thy word. Deal bountifully with thy servant that I may live and keep thy word. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. I am a stranger in the earth. Hide not thy commandments from me. My soul breaketh for the longing. that it hath unto thy judgments at all times. Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments. Remove from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept thy testimonies. Princes also did sit and speak against me, but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes. Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors. My soul cleaveth unto the dust, quicken thou me according to thy word. I have declared my ways and thou heardest me. Teach me thy statutes. Make me to understand the way of thy precepts. So shall I talk of thy wondrous works. My soul melteth for heaviness. Strengthen thou me according unto thy word. Remove from me the way of lying and grant me thy law graciously. I have chosen the way of truth. Thy judgments have I laid before me. I have stuck unto thy testimonies, O Lord. Put me not to shame. I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart. Thus far the reading of God's holy word, may he bless it to us and help us in prayer. Let us pray. O Thou merciful and gracious Lord God, we do plead the precious name of Jesus, that Thou who art our advocate with the Father, that we might have that access through Thee, and enter into the holiest of all. Lord, we come confessing our sin, our unworthiness of anything from Thy hand, our unfitness in ourselves to stand before Thee, our need of a mediator, our need of an intercessor. And we thank Thee that we have this in our Lord Jesus Christ. We would confess our many sins seeking, Lord, that precious promise if we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We thank thee for he that has come to this world, has made flesh and dwelt among us. Lord, we do thank thee for thy perfect righteousness, and that which is to be imputed or put to a sinner's account, and our sins put upon thy account. And O Lord, that we might know that this is so, who bring us to love Thee, to believe in Thee, to obey Thee, to follow Thee, to know Thee, and may it be with all our heart we walk in Thy ways. O Lord, we thank Thee for Thy sacrificial death at Calvary, Thy blood that was shed, the blood of the New Testament. Lord, we do thank Thee for that covenant that is sealed with Thy precious blood. And we thank Thee for the promises, when I see the blood, I will pass over You. Lord, Thou has said, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. But now Thou has shed Thy blood, we thank Thee that there is remission of sins, forgiveness of sins through our Lord Jesus Christ. And do grant, Lord, that we might know that and know that we can stand and will stand Faultless before thy throne, not in our own righteousness but in thine, and with the debt that we owed put away and settled by thee. O Lord, we thank thee for the gospel. We do seek, Lord, we might be truly partakers of it, and know day by day that we are reconciled, we are brought nigh. We do walk with thee by faith. We do love thee and thy people and thy word. that we are not of the world, and we do not seek those things to make our rest here below. And our hope is in heaven where thou art, and that thou hast given us that hope beyond the grave. O Lord, do be pleased to bless us with daily evidence that we are new creatures in Christ, and all things are passed away, all things are become new. We do seek then thy blessing upon this cause of truth. Bless us as a church and congregation. Be with those that join with us online. We do seek, Lord, that thy blessing might be upon us each as we gather in thy name. We thank thee for the great mercy of being able to gather. And Lord, we do pray for those who cannot, through illness or through weakness, and especially those that are in hospital at this time, we pray for Anne Garrett, that thou be pleased to grant healing for her and that thou be with her family in Wales and that thou be with Sandra to continue to be with her in her home and grant healing, health and strength in that measure that can be expected, lengthen her days. And Lord, do be with David Parrish. We commit him unto thee in his affliction terminal as well, and that thou has bless him in his soul. Be with the friends that sways thee, and do bless them. Oh Lord, do remember many that are unwell, and that thou has grant that affliction might be turned for good, and that thou has grant that from these things there might come good. You might be able to say with the psalmist, it was good for me. that I was afflicted, and those of us that are not, and we look on and we see the path of others. Lord, we do pray it might work for our good. We pray for many of our loved ones, many of our friends, Lord, those whose lives have been spared from serious injury or death, and Lord, yet they do not know thee. And oh Lord, do be pleased to work in their hearts. Bless that which has been spoken to them, Lord, remember those whose loved ones have passed away tragically and do comfort them, especially those at South Chard. Lord, we do seek to be prepared for that time that heart and flesh must fail. We do thank thee for the mercies of this last week, many answers to prayer, and we do thank thee for it. Lord, thou knowest each one of us In what way we have sought Thee, and answers have been given, and we have been given, Lord, that heart to praise Thy name, to speak one to another of what Thou hast done for us, and we do thank Thee for such tokens for good. O Lord, do be pleased to help us to enter upon this new week in the same way we might commit it unto Thee, the journeys, the ministry, the things that are before us. hospital visits, whatever it is, O Lord, be pleased to be thou the orderer, the keeper of our souls. We thank thee for every measure of health and strength that we have. And we look that we might be not only strength in your body, but also in our souls. Didst thou not charge Peter, when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren? O Lord, do grant that the brethren might be strengthened through thy word. Lord, this morning and indeed throughout this day. Remember each of thy dear servants, Lord, to remember them, especially those that have weaknesses and maybe wonder whether they shall get through today with strength of voice, Lord, to strengthen them and to help them. We do say, Lord, that thou remember the people of Cranbrook, O Lord, who bring many into a concern for their souls. Lord, we know we live in the midst of a people who see no need to hear the word of God, who feel no danger near, who do not realize that beyond death is the judgment and wrath of God to come, and that there was a reason for the Lord Jesus Christ to come. Lord, do we please to awaken many around to come and fill this place. Do bless, Lord, thy word that goes out from here. And those that have taken copies of thy word, do bless it to them and to their families. We commit that word unto thee, whether locally or throughout the UK. And Lord, those that have been given over the years, over the last 24 years to the schools, Lord, may there be copies that are found. as people maybe leave home or turn out their drawers and find thy word and read it and that it bring forth fruit even many, many years after it has been given. O Lord, we do pray for this blessing and we pray for prayer that we might constantly come before thy throne and see thy word to be with power. Pour out Thy Spirit in our day. Help us to remain faithful, consistent, and to be able to persevere unto the end in the lot where Thou hast cast us. I know, Lord, do help each one so to do. We might be what Thou hast have us to be. Act in the way Thou hast have us to act. Speak in the way Thou hast have us to speak. Think in the way Thou hast have us to think. And Lord, where we have imbibed habits or wrong thought patterns, where we have besetting sins, where we have weakness and the devil takes advantage of it again and again, deliver us and set our feet free from those snares and do cause that our ways might be right in thy sight. We might be sanctified and made meat for the master's use. Lord, we do pray for those in authority over us We pray that Thou would keep us in this nation from going further and further away from Thee, deliver us from ungodly laws. Lord, we do pray that Thou has preserved to us a Protestant heritage and Lord, that there might be Thy blessing on many little churches, chapels up and down this land where Thy truth is still set forth. Lord, do help us this morning. We seek, Lord, light upon thy word, thy blessing to be upon it. And may the Lord Jesus Christ precious to us. And Lord, may we truly profit through thy word this morning. We ask through thy name, Lord Jesus. Amen. Enhancements, God willing, I am expected to preach here this evening at 6.30pm and on Thursday at seven o'clock and next Lord's Day at 11am and 6.30pm. We're thankful for a good number that joined with us on our Thanksgiving services on Thursday We will announce, God willing, the collections next Lord's Day when those have had opportunity to give online, which that is, of course, still open. And we will know then more what the collection has been. Hymn 95, Tune, St Bernard 219 Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 119 and reading for our text, verse 10. With my whole heart have I sought thee, though let me not wander from thy commandments. Psalm 119 and verse 10. The penman of this psalm is not known. There are many that think it was either David, Daniel, Ezra, Jeremiah, one of those, but we are not told. But of course, whoever the penman is, in the word of God, the author of it is God himself. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. This is a psalm that is divided, as you can see, into sections of eight verses. There's 22 sections answering to the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. It is an acrostic. Each section begins with a letter. And so the method of remembrance of the scriptures is aided, especially in the originals. And we have the same method that is taken in other books as well, especially Lamentations of Jeremiah. And we have it in other psalms as well, Psalm 22 and other psalms, that 69 in that sort of arrangement. We would remember that Christ is through all the scriptures. When we turn to Old Testament scriptures and preach from them, we are not to think, well, we're in the gospel day now, we're in the New Testament, how can we see Christ in the old, or how can these Old Testament saints be speaking in ways that we can take, but we must remember this, that there is only one God, there are only one people of sinners, there is only one way of salvation, only one Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, there is only one faith from Abel right to the last soul, all if brought to be saved and brought to heaven, have been blessed with faith in Christ. Our Lord said that Abraham saw my day and rejoiced at it. And we believe with righteous able in offering that blood sacrifice, he also saw that through the promise of the seed of the woman, how his sins were to be put away. And so we are to remember that. We are to remember also that when our Lord preached to the two on the way to Emmaus, in all the scriptures concerning himself, it was the Old Testament scriptures. The same with Philip, given the text to preach from to the eunuch in what in our Bibles is Isaiah 53. And of course, Paul, he preached from the Old Testament too, so the Breans, they could search the scriptures daily whether these things were so. And of course, the scriptures that they were searching were the Old Testament scriptures. May we always remember this. I have been challenged sometimes in preaching from the Old Testament that as if you can't do so, and as if it is not part of the message for the New Testament. But of course, It is, and God has given to us, and in the preaching, the great volume, the whole volume of the Word of God. Preach the Word, not preach the New Testament, preach the Word. And the promise is upon that preaching. If the fall of Adam alienated from God, which it did, a man was banished from the garden, and a separation between man and God. The work of our Lord Jesus Christ is to reverse that, God and sinners reconciled, but not on a universal way, not as some would teach, where Christ has come, he is now reconciled, and there is now no condemnation to anybody, no. It is only to those that are brought to personal saving faith and trust in Christ that are saved. The Lord Jesus Christ did not save and die to save every man, woman and child. Those for whom he shed his precious blood will, in time, be brought to faith and, in the context before us here, will be brought to seek the Lord. The Lord himself said, I am come to seek and save that which is lost. But as far as the sinner realizes, the Lord says again, no man can come unto me except the Father which sent me draw him, and I'll raise him up at the last day. So for the sinner, he first knows when he is brought to seek the Lord. when he seeks after the Lord, which is what the psalmist here testifies that he was doing. We're told in the earlier part of the psalm, verse 2, blessed are they that keep his testimonies and that seek him with the whole heart. Then in our text is the testimony of the psalmist, with my whole heart have I sought thee. And then the petition, oh let me not wander from thy commandments. So, I want to speak this morning with these two headings, two main headings, we'll subdivide them, or at least especially the first one, is the psalmist's testimony, with my whole heart have I sought thee. And then secondly, his petition, though let me not wander from thy commandments. A testimony and a petition. And what a blessed thing it would be if myself and you that hear, you also have a testimony and also have petitions. We are people of prayer. but people that can make a very clear statement of what we are and what we are doing. And this, our first point, can we really say with our whole heart, not the heart that beats the blood round our body, but our whole being, what is the mover, what we really are, not what we contrive to think or imitate, but what really deep down is what we are. The Lord says that out of the abundance of the heart man speaketh and the Lord's work begins in the heart. It's not something just superficial, it's not just something that is learnt and just acted because we think we should act in a certain way. It is what we are. You know if we were to hear a dog bark, we would say, well, not that that is a dog because it barks, but it barks because it is a dog. And what comes from it is an indication of what it actually is. And if it could be possible that the dog could become something else, a cat, then again you would know by what it uttered as to what it actually changed into. But the way of the Lord with his people, he says that he will give them a new heart and a new spirit and make them new creatures in Christ. And when we think of the Apostle Paul, what he uttered when he was unconverted, when he was an enemy of God, was only to the persecution of God's people and blasphemy, but when he was called, what a different man, what a different character he was, and what different things came out of his mouth, and what different things characterized his life, a new changed character. And so it is vital that we have a heart work and that we can testify. Paul says in Romans 10 that with the heart man believes, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And with our text, the psalmist is making confession and he's actually joining with it about his heart, with my whole heart have I sought thee. Well under this heading I want to look at three points. Firstly there is the seeker himself, this is the psalmist. Then we have the one that is sought for which is thee or as in the context here Jehovah the Lord. And then we have the manner of seeking. With my whole heart have I sought thee. And we have in the context something of the manner that the psalmist is using to seek the Lord. But firstly, the person that is seeking is one thing with God's people. that they are brought to be mindful of who they are, what they are. The Apostle James, he says that we are to look into the Word of God as if the Word of God was a mirror. Now, of course, we are used to looking in mirrors. We're used to seeing ourselves. We can also have a photograph of ourselves and we can look at that. There have been those who have made experiments in the jungle and they put great mirrors up and then put some cameras to record the reaction of wild animals that come and see themselves in a mirror. And it's quite amazing to see lion or tiger or bear come face to face with itself in this mirror and their alarm and they're trying to attack it as if it was another animal not recognizing that is themselves and looking behind the mirror to see if something is there and not realizing this this is actually them and we can be like this as well in the word of god we can read the word of god And we think, well, there's some strange things here that are important, some things that are terrible things about people, and not realize it is us. You know, the Lord used this way when David had sinned with murder and adultery, and he sent Nathan with a parable to tell him about someone else. So David can view this as if he was viewing someone else, not realizing that the picture that was before him and what he was going to pass judgment on was actually himself. And so when he told him the parable of the rich man that had great many flocks and herds and a poor man that had one little lamb brought up special with him, One is the household, one that he really loved and doted on. When the rich man had visitors come and travellers come to him, he didn't want to take of his own flock, but took of the poor man's lamb and slew it. And David's anger was raised up against that man. He said that man should restore fourfold because he had no pity and because he killed the poor man's lamb. And Nathan said, thou art the man. There was David with all his wives, and yet he took Uriah's wife and then slew Uriah with the sword of the children of Ammon. And David fell under it. He fell under it as a sinner. I have sinned. And the Lord said through Nathan, the Lord hath also put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. The consequences were that the sword should not depart from his house or his days. And so the word of God is as a mirror. And in James we read, be ye doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. If any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. The picture in the Word of God sets forth the holy, righteous law of God, the law by which we shall be judged and before the God that we must stand. He shall open the books and it shall be according to that Word, not according to what we think or according to our measures, measuring before other people, You know, if you and I have an insurance contract, then we are bound by that contract. If it is insurance on the car, then they say, if you have an accident, we will pay for the damages of your car. But then you continue reading the small print, and it says that they'll only pay out if the car is insured, if the driver is got a license, if the keys had not been left in the car and it was then stolen with the keys in the car, they wouldn't pay out. And you would have to keep within the law, and the car was roadworthy. Otherwise, if none of those things applied, they would not pay out. And however much you could argue it, However much you deceived your own self and thought, well, I'm just going to drive anyway, and I'm covered, I'm insured, but not realizing that when it actually came to it, that you're not. And there's many like that, that think, I'm all right for heaven. I'm a good person. I do charity works. I'm not as bad as the next person. And they never look into the word of God. try themselves by that pure, perfect plumb line of the Word of God. It's like someone saying that I built this wall, and yes, it's straight, it's straight up, it's right, it's good. And someone says, well, have you put a plumb line next to it? Have you put a spirit level next to it? No. Well, you put that next to it, and by that measure you find out, well, Actually, it's not straight afterwards, or the floor is not flat. You put something on it and it rolls off. And all the time, we have those things in life where something is put to the test. Is it really right? Does someone really come up to this standard? Do they really have this knowledge or not? How many think that they would have the knowledge of God and the things of God and what it takes to be saved and yet never come to the Word of God. You know, as a sinner, we have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Word of God, the law of God, is to bring in everyone guilty before God. By the law is the knowledge of sin. And the psalmist here, though we don't know his name, we are absolutely sure of this, that he was a sinner, that he lied with all of mankind. are fallen, are lost, are alienated from God by nature, that need the Redeemer, need the Saviour, need the way of escape. And we might say it even gives a hint of this in his petition, the second part. Oh, let me not wander from thy commandments. Why? You would say, why, psalmist, would you think you would wander from his commandments? Because I have a deceitful evil heart. because I have a fallen nature, because I am so prone to. That's why. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. The condemnation is passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Not just some men, but all men. Who so offendeth in one point is guilty of all, not thinking, well, I offend just in a few small points, I'm not such a bad sinner. No, in one point is guilty of all. And so the seeker here is a sinner. The gospel is for sinners. And for those are to be saved, it is those that first are lost. Those that are brought to be free from condemnation are those that first feel under condemnation. It's good for us to think here whenever we come to someone who has a testimony or to the characters in the Word of God, what kind of person was this? What kind of character are they? And we might say many things out superficially in their lives, but when it comes to the heart and when it comes to the fallen nature, they all have sinned. They're all the same. But it's good for us to think, what manner of persons are we? And the mirror is not the mirror in your bathroom, it is the word of God. And so when we think in this first point, is the seeker Those that the Lord has come to seek and save will be those that seek. Those that seek after the Lord are doing so by the grace of God, the mercy of God that has made them seek after the Lord. It is a blessed thing that there should be any of the sons of God that ever think after God and want to know Him and want to find Him I want to seek him. You know, just the very idea of a seeker, one that is seeking after God. You know, if we've lost something, if we cannot see something, then we're not going just straight to it, are we? We're seeking it. We're looking this place, looking that place. There might be some that hear the word this morning who say, That's me, I've gone and looked at this place, I've gone to this place of worship, that place of worship, this book, that book, this person, that person, seeking. I've been looking, feeling the need, feeling an emptiness, a vanity of everything here below, feeling what a solemn thing it is to die and eternity before me. And so you're seeking. It's a blessed thing to be a seeker, but to be a seeker seeking in the way that is set before us here and with the object that is set before us here. So this word then is for those that feel themselves sinners, those that are seeking and yet perhaps don't know what they're seeking or how they should seek. This is a word for those that feel their emptiness, their condemnation, feel they don't know which way to seek, which way to go. Here is one that gives testimony and says, with my whole heart have, I sought thee. Now then, secondly, under this first head, the one sought. Thee. Now in the context here, the Thee is the Lord, spelt with the capitals, and it is then Jehovah. Verse 12, blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me thy statutes. It is the law of the Lord that the psalm opens with. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. When we said about the fallen state of man, it alienates between God and man, and in the gospel, in the way of being saved, it is that men will be brought to seek unto God. Now we must be very clear in this, we're not We're not seeking wealth or material things. There's some blasphemous so-called pastors that just say if you're sick and if you want to be healed, then you pay a lot of money into the church and the Lord in response will heal you. It's just utter blasphemy. We think of Elisha when Nahum and the Syrian had been healed by a miracle through Elisha's hand. Ne'eman wanted to give him money and garments, wealth, and he refused to take it. But Gehazi Elisha's servant, he said, I will take somewhat of him. And he ran after Ne'eman and told him a whole pack of lies that there was those people that had come and could he please give them something. And then he went and hid the silver and the garments that he'd got. Went and stood before Elisha as if Elisha wouldn't know what he'd done. But Elisha knew the Lord had shown him exactly what he'd done. And he said to Gethesei, is it a time to receive money, garments, lands, and vineyards? All of those earthly things. It's not a time to seek that. There are many today, they think, well, religion and the things of God, It used to be said years ago, it's good for business to go to church once on a Sunday. That was when it was fashionable to do so, get a nice lot of people in the shop. But today, well, people have got wealth, they've got health, they've got families, they've got good jobs, they've got plenty to do. What do they need of religion? It's only when it's realised that It is not for this life, it's for that which is to come. And it centres in this, the reconciliation between God and man. And it begins in the seeking in this way, a poor sinner is seeking after God himself. I have sought thee. I've not sought wealth, I've not sought something for me, So much with us, all the time it is. What's in it for me? If someone comes to hear someone speak or anything that's advertised, come to this function, the thought always is, what's in it for me? Why should I go? What am I going to get from this? But here is a seeking unto God, and the aim is to have communion, fellowship, oneness with the God, with God here below, here in the day of grace. And many that deceive themselves and think that they're going to be in heaven, they're going to be with God, they're going to be with his people in heaven, But they don't want to be with his people here. They don't want to hear God's word. They don't want to be in the house of God. They don't want anything to do with the things of God here below. But if you told them you are going to hell, you are going to outer darkness and banishment from God, they'd be so offended. Oh, my good person, I do some charity work and I'm not as bad as the rest. Making that judgment without having any regard to the word of God at all and not seeking after the Lord. Heaven would not be a nice place to someone who didn't want the Lord here, who didn't want his presence, didn't want the Lord's people's presence here. No, heaven would not be heaven for them. There is only two places, heaven and hell, and all mankind will go to one or the other. And those who have had nothing to do with the Lord here, God will have nothing to do with them in the world to come. The Lord says that whosoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall my heavenly Father be ashamed before the angels in heaven. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. It is vital that we be a seeker that has this object after the Lord. You think from our Lord's Prayer in John 17. His desire all the time is for his people to be with him. Father, I will that they whom thou has given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. All the time it is to be drawn No man can come unto me except the Father which sent me draw him. I will raise him up at the last day. Those when he was on earth that sought like Zacchaeus to see him, to come unto him, the Lord's invitations, come unto me. All ye that labour and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. It's a blessed thing to have this object of our first desire and so pushing aside every other consideration, every other thought, it is that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection be made conformable unto His death. When we think of Jehovah here, we think also of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God manifest in the flesh, Emmanuel, God with us. And we seek God through His beloved Son. We seek unto him who came to this earth, who suffered, who bled, who died, who raised again from the dead. The Lord Jesus Christ made that way of reconciliation by paying the debt his people owed and by working out a righteousness, a life that they could not give, live, and giving that to them and taking their sin upon him. He has made a way that God and those sinners can be reconciled. And it is through his spirit and through the preaching of the word that the two are brought together. I, if I be lifted up above the earth, will draw all men unto me. It hath pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And all the time, It is the fruit of Christ's death, his blood, and that which comes from God leads to God. And so the seeking soul, the soul that seeks for the Lord, seeks for life, seeks for salvation, they're seeking after Christ, after God through Christ. There is all the salvation. There is how they are saved. in the Lord Jesus Christ. The truth is in Jesus. The Lord said, if you believe not that I am he, you shall perish in your sins. John says at the end of his epistle, these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ and that in believing he might have life through his name. And it is the Lord Jesus Christ that has declared that he is the only name given among men whereby we must be saved. So it is the one sought for. Then we have how. How that one is to be sought for, the manner of seeking. The psalmist says here, with my whole heart have I sought thee. The things of God and the exercise of a living soul is not something that is just a small thing in their life. It's not just like taking up a hobby and you say, well, my life, I've got my wife, my family, and I've got my job, and I'm going to have this little hobby, and it's just going to be for a few hours a week. is not just something for Christmas and Easter going to the church, is not just going even every Lord's Day to the house of God, is not that outward worship in Christ's day, the Jews, the scribes, the Pharisees, they made for a pair of tents, long prayers, wore long garments, they were said to deceive. They appeared unto men outwardly as righteous, godly, but inwardly they were full of wickedness, full of iniquity. Their heart was not right with God. And so this seeking is with the whole heart, and it will affect our work, our families, everything that we do will be consistent with a faith in Christ and the worldview will be according to the Word of God, not according to men who believe God, not man. And so that seeking will be with wholeheartedness and will be in the way, and I'll draw your attention where this text is. The verse before says, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Then we have the word of our text. So we say one that is seeking with the whole heart, he's seeking to cleanse his way. He is seeking to do it by taking heed to the Word of God. Then we have after our text, Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Before and after the text that speaks of his testimony of seeking, it's all to do with the heart, and with cleansing, and with sin. When we think of the name of our Lord, His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Not save them straight to heaven, but save them here below. When we have sin working in us, bubbling up, casting up uncleanness, that would be a plague to the child of God. A plague that it keeps alienating us and doing those things that are contrary to the revealed will of God, and how we can be cleansed from it. The only right way is through the Lord Jesus Christ. If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. It's faith in what the Lord has done, redeemed us, set us free by the payment of a price. Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. And it is the Lord alone that can release from the bondage of sin. You shall know the truth. The truth shall make you free. Many people do not want to know the truth at all. You try to tell them, they say, stop. I'd rather be in ignorance. I'd rather not know anything. And you start to tell him, but this is not all bad news. It's not all condemnation. It's a way of escape through the Lord. They still don't want to know. Why not? Because our Lord says, light is come into the world. But men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Men know subconsciously Whatever might be set before them of a hope in the word of God and the things of God is going to deal with their lifestyle. It's going to change. It's going to condemn some of the things that they're doing. Their lives will need to change, and they don't want to change. Our Lord says, because their deeds were evil, and the witness of the conscience in man, he knows it. He really does know it. but he'd rather be ignorant and rather not hear the worst of it until he drops into the grave and then it is too late. And the other end, the judgment, then there is condemnation. But the manner of seeking here is a seeking wholeheartedly and it's a seeking to walk in those ways that in the word of God are set as pleasing to the Lord. and those ways that will require us more and more to have a union to Christ and be close to Him. Those when the Lord was on earth and He worked miracles, He worked miracles of healing the deaf, the blind, the lame, those that were dead, He raised them. Each one that had a trial, what was their first thing they did? They sought the Lord, they sought unto Jesus, they went to Jesus. They brought their sick, they brought those that were too hard cases to Him. How did they know they were too hard cases? Well, they were literal sicknesses, they were literal blindnesses. But when we have the sickness of sin and the evil and the desperate wickedness and evilness of our heart, when that is known and felt, and we identify that as clearly as a broken leg, as being a malady that is a fatal one, as one that is a terminal illness, than it is to be seeking unto the Lord with the whole heart. And so it is vital that we notice where the text is, set right in the middle of this one that is seeking, does not want to sin, he wants his way cleansed, This is a wholehearted Christian. This is one that doesn't just want just an empty name and his life not touched. He wants his life changed. He wants that he walk in a way that he may walk with the Lord. How can two walk together except they be agreed? If we are to be with the Lord, then we need to be sanctified, we need to be cleansed, we need to walk in ways where we can be in agreement, we can walk together. And this is how one that is seeking will seek to walk in. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. So may our seeking be a seeking unto the Lord, a seeking that desires to walk in a upright way a way that is cleansed, a way that the Lord, we need the Lord to deliver us from the sinfulness of our heart, the evilness of our heart. If we are mindful of what goes on in our heart, you know, the Lord says he cannot serve God a mammon. By nature, we try and try to do it. We try to live as close to the world as we can. We try to have two things. We try to satisfy our old nature, and want heaven as well. The Lord says, no, you cannot do it. It needs to be all the heart or nothing, not just part, all of it. And so the testimony here, and really it's a blessed testimony, with my whole heart have I sought thee. And may that truly be true of us, may we desire that testimony to be true that we be able to say we may have you know read this many many times but have we ever thought can we really take this language on our lips with my whole heart have i sought there and have the lord to bear witness yes this soul has been seeking in that way you know when Philip spoke to Nathanael and said, we have found him whom the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip says, come and see. When he was coming, the Lord said, behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. In other words, the Lord saw that what you saw was what you got. This was a genuine man that did not seek to deceive. He was honest, sincere, seeker after God and a worshiper of God. And you know, Nathaniel said, whence knowest thou me? The Lord said, before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. And when we were children, we had a fig tree. If you walked right past it, someone was under it, you'd never know they were there. The leaves were so big. That one thing was enough to convince Nathaniel. He said, thou art the King of Israel. Thou art the Christ. We didn't need anything more. And it's a blessed thing that the Lord should look upon us and see that we really are genuine. There's no attempt to deceive. We're not making out with something that we're not. So we have the one that is seeking, their sinner, is one mindful of their need of the Lord. We have the one that he is seeking, which is the Lord. And then we have how he is seeking in a holy and an upright way, a way consistent with the Word of God and with the whole heart. I want to look then at the second part, which is a petition. And this is a petition that is consistent with seeking with the whole heart. It's put together. Petitions and seeking. I wonder how it is with us. What is our profession? What is our testimony? And what do our prayers look like? What do our petitions look like? Are they together? Do they go together? He says, Oh, let me not wander from thy commandments. You know, this is like the man that had the sun that cast into the fire and into the water Disciples couldn't help. He came to the Lord, if thou canst do anything, have mercy upon us. And the Lord said that all things are possible to him that believeth. And he says, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. This is a similar way. I believe with mine whole heart. Help me when my heart wanders. When it goes away from thy commandments, oh, let me not wander from thy commandments. The testimony here is not, I will never go from thy commandment. It's not like Peter, though all men forsake thee, yet will not I. And then he did forsake him, and then he denied him three times. This is testimony to felt weakness and turning into prayer, asking for the Lord's keeping, that we do not wander from thy commandments. Hear, my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you. The words of our Lord. The way of the Lord. May that be our prayer, that we do not wander from the commandments of the Lord. We are not saved by keeping of the law. We are not saved by our works. That is not our title for heaven. But one that loves the Lord doesn't want to offend, doesn't want to grieve. There are some that would charge us as being antinomian because we believe that we are saved by grace, saved by the sovereign grace of God, and that our rule of conduct is the gospel and not the law. As if we are anti-law. No, we are not. The whole Word of God sets forth God's will His commandments, His way, and everyone that fears the Lord will want to do that which is pleasing in His sight. Right through this psalm, the psalmist professes his love to the Lord's word, His precepts, His commandments, His testimonies, all those things he desires to love and to walk in. And yet the reality in the prayer here is the feeling so prone to wander. And you and I, if we're honest, we're like this. How easy we do. The hymn writer says, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. You think, how is it possible? But we're still in the flesh. And we're still in all nature. And there will be this conflict, but blessed be God if we not only have a testimony, but we also have prayers, prayers that set forth the reality of our own felt weakness and our need of being keeping. Reading Peter, kept by the power of God through faith. unto salvation, and faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, and may it be through the word this morning. The Lord is pleased to use it to keep us, keep us in the way of his commandments, keep us in the way of his footsteps, to encourage us, encourage those who feel faint-hearted, weak, so prone to wander, those who feel they can make this testimony and profession but almost like the man feeling his unbelief must qualify it as well. May the Lord then bless this word and give us this profession and to seek and to find and to have these petitions. With my whole heart have I sought thee, O let me not wander from thy commandments. Amen. Hymn, 421 . Tune, Cambridge 16. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and evermore. Amen.