Exhortation–"Set Your Heart"
(No. 1884)
DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God." 1
Chronicles 22:19.
THE PASTOR'S RETURN. THREE SPECIALLY- SELECTED SERMONS TO HIS CHURCH,
CONGREGATION, READERS AND FRIENDS, CONSISTING OF
A RETROSPECT, A PROSPECT [No. 1883] AND AN EXHORTATION [No. 1884.]
THIS exhortation may be most fitly directed to those who are already
saved. It was first given to the elders of Israel and we would gladly
hope that they were already good men and true, but, secondly, the
language might be very fitly addressed to the unconverted. There may be
a little straining in this latter case, for we can hardly call the
Lord, their God as yet, but still we shall venture to say to the
unconverted who have come up with God's people, "Set your heart and
your soul to seek the Lord your God."
I. Let us take it, first, in ITS REFERENCE TO GOD'S OWN PEOPLE. You
have already found the Lord. There is a sense in which you have not to
seek Him, for you already know Him, but, in another sense, you are
still to seek Him, for seeking the Lord is a description of the whole
of the Believer's life. After he has found God as his salvation, he has
to seek him as his Friend, as his Sanctifier, as his Example. Until
they come to that glorious perfection which belongs to the better
world, Christian men have something, still, to seek.
Our first enquiry is, "What are they to seek?" Beloved Friends, I say
to you, as David said to the princes of Israel, "Seek the Lord your
God." Do it by endeavoring to obey Him in everything. Let it be our
study to test everything that we do by God's Holy Word. Let us not
willfully sin, either in commission or in omission. Let us be very
particular to seek out the will of the Lord so as to fulfill not only
commands which are plain, but those about which there is a question. In
the service of God nothing is little and, loyalty to the great Royalty
of God comes out in tenderness of conscience concerning little things.
He that carelessly offends in trifles, shall fall by little and little.
The greatest catastrophes in moral life come not usually all of a
sudden, but by slow degrees. The dry rot enters into the timbers of the
house of human character–and when it has silently worked its
mischief–the house falls with a shock.
It is not the wind of temptation that brings it down–that may be the
apparent instrument–but the sly, secret rot that has all the while
been going on, is the real destroyer. Therefore let us pledge ourselves
unto God to live more and more watchfully, seeking the Lord with our
heart and soul in everything–in private, in the family, in business
and in the House of God. He that walks hastily without consideration
will assuredly err, but he that takes counsel of God and watches to
know what the will of the Master may be, shall walk uprightly and
surely. O Christian, set your heart to this, that the Lord Jesus is
your absolute Lord and Master and that, at every point, you will
scrupulously endeavor to do His will, yielding a cheerful obedience as
the fruit of the Spirit within your soul!
Seek the Lord, also, as David wanted these princes to do, in the
building up of His Temple. He says, "Set your heart and your soul to
seek the Lord your God. Arise, therefore, and build the sanctuary of
the Lord." Beloved, it ought to be the main business of the life of
every Christian to build up the Church! It ought to be mine and I trust
that it is. I know that this is the main business of many of my
Brothers and Sisters here, since for its sake they forego many an hour
of leisure and to it they give the best of their faculties. We are sent
here on purpose to build the city of God which is His Church. The
foundations have been laid in the fair vermilion of our Savior's
precious blood. Stone upon stone, the walls have risen. It is ours to
help with the construction, in quarry or in forest, with saw or with
axe. If we cannot do great works, we must weave the hangings, or
fashion the pins, or twist the cords. It should be the main objective
of our life to seek the Lord by building up His Church. Oh, how I wish
that all Christians thought so! Alas, many fancy that the work of the
Church is to be left to a dozen or two of us–that the minister is to
do his best with a few friends–but the bulk of the people are to be
excused the glorious liberty of the service of the blessed God! Come,
my Brothers and Sisters, one and all, seek the Lord with all your heart
and soul in the building up of His Church! Let nothing be lacking to
the Church of God in the Tabernacle which is as a city set upon a hill!
Let all you do, whether it is of personal obedience or in connection
with the Church, be done with a single eye to God's Glory. O Christian
men and women, what have you to do with worldly honor? What have you to
do with ease? The target towards which your life's arrow should speed
is the Glory of Him who made you, who has redeemed you with His
precious blood and has created you a second time that you may be for
Him, and for Him alone! Know you not that the Lord's portion is His
people? Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. How heartily we ought to
respond to the Lord's choice of us by glorying that we are Christ's
chosen servants and that now, the one thing for which we live is to
reflect the Glory of His blessed name! To this are you called, O you
elect and redeemed of the Most High! This is your high destiny! Answer
to it on earth as you hope to fulfill it in Heaven! Seek the Lord! That
is what is intended in the text–to render obedience and to labor for
the building of His Temple and the honor of His name.
Next, let us enquire, how are they to seek? Here is the text–"Set your
heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God." Does not that intend a
fixity of purpose? "Set your heart and your soul." There are plenty of
flimsy creatures about–whose manhood has long ago evaporated–who are
"everything by turns and nothing long." These fritter away life like
fluttering butterflies of the garden. They stay not long enough in any
place to gather sweetness even from the choicest flowers. The genuine
man of God who is going to serve the Lord, puts his foot down and you
might as well hope to pluck up the North Pole as to move him from his
chosen sphere! He has looked ahead and he sees on what tack he ought to
steer–and he will hold the tiller to that point–over mountain waves,
or through the trough of the billows, he still will speed his way! He
has looked to his chart, settled his course and he is not to be turned
aside. You who are men must now serve your God with a determination
that cannot be shaken. Resolve that you will glorify God by holding
fast His Truths and by following in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus,
for the times are flippant and only the resolute can master them.
You see that David says, "Set your heart." That is, have an intense
affection towards God's service and Glory. A man never does a thing
well if his heart is not in it. No painter has attained to excellence
unless he has mixed his colors, not only with his brains, but with the
life-blood of his heart! Success comes not to heartless efforts.
Certainly it is so in the service of the living God. He will not accept
a sacrifice which lacks the life-blood of a warm, affectionate intent.
Brothers and Sisters, nobody is good by accident. No man ever became
holy by chance. There must be a resolve, a desire, a panting, a pining
after obedience to God or else we shall never have it! Set your heart,
then, to seek the Lord your God.
There are other parts of your nature besides your heart. Your soul has
in it, among other things, an intellect. I would that all who serve God
would serve Him with their intellect, for many seem to jog on in the
service of God like old horses that have gone their round so often that
they now crawl over the road in their sleep! Alas, the first big stone
in the road throws them over! Let us resolve neither to leave our heads
nor our hearts at home when we come into God's House. The whole man
should be present and energetic when God is to be honored! We ought to
plot and plan how to win a soul as earnestly as we contrive to make a
profit in our trade. We ought as much to speculate and scheme to
glorify God as we meditate how to advance our business. Our inventive
genius should be more concerned to set jewels in the Redeemer's crown
than to perfect the most beautiful work of art. Let our motto be–"All
for Jesus"–for He has redeemed us altogether. Every thought of
throbbing brain, every affection of beating heart, every movement of
cunning hand–all should
be for Him at its best–and kept well at work for His royal service.
The yoke of Christ should be laid not merely on the shoulder, but on
every part, power and passion of our entire manhood. So should it be.
God grant it may be so!
And then, if I am again asked the question, "How ought we to seek the
Lord?" I answer–by the union and concentration of all our faculties.
Our life should be comparable to sunlight–and holy zeal, like a
magnifying glass–should focus upon a given spot and cause it to burn
its way to success. He will never do much for God who attempts to serve
a dozen masters. I have been called upon this week by several persons
to give my aid in trifling matters of politics, finance and social
arrangement. "Why," I said to the applicants, "there are hundreds of
people who can attend to these matters quite as well as I can." "Yes,
Sir, but we want your weight and influence." I replied, "My weight and
influence belong to Another. I am very willing to help you in any good
thing if I can do it without diverting my attention from the service of
my Master, but my time is not my own. I have to preach the Gospel–you
can get any blind fiddler to canvass for your candidate. I must attend
to my Master's business and let the dead bury their dead."
I would have you Christian people, while you attend to everything that
is just, right, kind, proper and of good repute–everything that can
benefit your fellow men, or help the cause of liberty and
righteousness–yet, still keep your souls undivided and entire for the
service of your God! Throw your life into your religion! Do not be like
the man whose child at Sunday school was asked, "Is your father a
religious man?" "Yes, Sir," she said, "Father has religion, but he has
not done much at it lately." I am afraid there are many of that sort.
They have not taken their coats off at it! They have not thrown their
whole souls into it! Brothers and Sisters, if you follow Christ, follow
Him fully! If you mean to be Christians, be Christians! If you are
worldlings, give your hearts to the world, or you will make nothing of
it–it would be a pity to halt between two objects so as to miss both!
If Jehovah is God, serve Him with your heart, with the concentrated
energy of your entire nature at its best! See, Christian people, to
what you are called.
But the text also tells us when we are to seek the Lord. It has a
little word in it–a golden monosyllable it is! It is a word which
comprehends the whole almanac, every day in the week, all the year
round. "Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God."
Now is the only time worth having because, indeed, it is the only time
we ever have! While I speak, it is gone and another, "now," has come
up. Take your moments on the wing and use them as they fly. Now, now,
now! Let us give ourselves, heart and soul, to the service of the Lord
our God NOW!
When did David mean by his, "now"? I think he meant, first, when the
people had an efficient leader. "I am dying," he said, "but there is
Solomon, my son. He is a man of peace and God has said that he shall
build His Temple; therefore arise and seek the Lord." It is a grand
thing for any Church when God sends them one who can lead them, about
whom they are united in judgment and with whom they can hopefully march
to the conflict. Alas, I know several Churches that have been sadly
troubled by the deaths of faithful ministers. I pray you, if you are
members of a Church which has a God-sent minister still alive and at
its head, set your heart and your soul now to serve God! While He
spares His servant to lead you on to success, take care that you follow
with holy enthusiasm. "Now" is the time for activity!
He means, also, when God is with you. Read the 18th verse, "Is not the
Lord your God with you?" When God is with you, get to work! What can
you do if God is gone? And how soon you will drive Him away unless you
work while you are in His company! God never came upon earth to live
among sluggards and to have communion with drones. Two cannot walk
together unless they are agreed and one thing they must assuredly be
agreed on is the rate at which they mean to walk–they cannot walk
together except at the same pace! Jesus Christ never travels slowly. It
is quick marching with Him! Ho, you laggards, quicken your steps or He
will leave you far behind! Serve the Lord with greater diligence, or
you will lose delight in His ways. While God is with you, O gracious
men, set your hearts and your souls to seek Him!
Note, again, that David says, "Has He not given you rest on every
side?" That is another set time when we ought to serve the Lord with
all our might. When we have rest from care, then our care should be to
please the Lord. You, my Brother, are released from all that affliction
which wearied you a few weeks ago–therefore praise the Lord! Your
enemies are quiet, your anxieties do not harass you as they used to
do–therefore extol your God! Serve God with all your might when He
deals out His favor to you. When there has been dull weather and no
wind, how eagerly the mariner hails the first breath of air! If there
is but a capful of wind, he labors to make headway with it. He uses
every movement that would flutter a handkerchief! So it ought to be
with God's people–they should turn the least favor to advantage–and
much more the greater. When God gives us rest, joy and peace, let us
make a Sabbath of it and consecrate the gladsome hours to His highest
Glory.
But, indeed, this "now," as I have said, is of general acceptation.
Now, you young men in the prime of your vigor, set your heart and your
soul to the service of God! We need more men for our Evangelists'
Association. We are very short of preachers–preachers to go to rooms,
mission halls and suburban villages to declare Christ to the people.
Now, then, set your heart and soul to the service of God while you are
young. Sunday schools around us are pining for lack of teachers. Young
men and women, you are the people to undertake such service as this! Do
not stand back. There is nothing like serving God in your youth. As
soon as you are saved, yourselves, seek to rescue others! The Christian
man who does not give God the morning of his days is not very likely to
give Him much of the evening. He who does not rise with the lark is not
likely to sing like he does!
If I speak thus to the young, I would speak with equal force to the
middle-aged. Now, my Brothers and Sisters, we have had some
experience–we are no longer children–we know a little of the good way
and some of that little was learned in a painful school. I have had my
knuckles rapped very often to make me learn how to make simple
up-strokes and down-strokes–and now I desire to fill my page with my
Master's name. If we have learned anything, let us set our heart and
our soul to serve the living God with all the wisdom and experience
which Grace has given us.
You, upon whose heads I see the snows of many a winter–you whose bare
heads show how often the rough winds of age have swept over your
brows–surely with so short a time to live it becomes you to set your
heart and your soul to serve the Lord! If men knew how brief their time
is, how much would they quicken their service if they really loved
Christ as He ought to be loved! At this hour this is my one message to
old and young, to myself and to you–let us be up and doing!
Beloved Brothers and Sisters, you who have been with me these many
years and you who have lately come among us, let us begin again! Let us
set our hearts and our souls with dogged determination to serve the
Lord. If the work is difficult, a hard thing can always be cut with
something harder. You can cut a diamond with a diamond. Oh, to have a
divinely hardened resolution that will cut through anything for Christ!
Comrades, we will win souls for Jesus, or we will break our hearts over
it! God help us, for His name's sake!
II. Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I have done with you now. You can
sit still and pray while I talk to the others. I have now to SPEAK TO
THOSE WHO ARE UNCONVERTED, just whispering to you, dear Friends, that I
should like to spread the big net and take many in it–and they will be
taken if the Holy Spirit is here in answer to our prayers.
To you who are unconverted, I would earnestly say set your hearts on
true religion and be not content with the outward form of it. Observe
that David had gathered these noblemen and gentlemen around his bed to
urge them to build a Temple, but he was a spiritual man and he knew
that Temple building was not everything, although he valued it highly.
He knew that there was something better than outward service and so he
said to these men, "Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord
your God." By all manner of means attend the House of God, though you
are not a Christian–but go with the desire that God will bless the
Word and make you a Christian! While you diligently attend to the
outward ordinances of God's House, I pray you do not trust in them, but
seek the Lord your God, Himself.
Baptism is the duty of every Believer, but it is not the duty of
anybody except a Believer–I pray you do not put the sign in the place
of the thing signified! Do not trust in Baptism! Why, if you were not
only immersed, but immersed in a thousand seas, this would not help you
to salvation! You must be born again! You must seek the Lord. There is
no salvation in an outward ceremony! If any of you come to the Lord's
Table, I pray you do not come with any view of getting Grace by coming,
or finding salvation in the eating of a morsel of bread and the taking
of a sip of wine. The elements upon the table cannot help you! The
communion will be injurious to you if you are not a true Believer.
Examine yourself whether you are in the faith and so eat of that
bread–but do not dare to eat of it unless in your very heart you have
first known the Lord and are feeding upon Him!
I put this to every person who is not yet converted. Do not rest in
hymn singing, Church going, Chapel going, bending your knees in private
prayer, or in anything else that comes of yourself. Your salvation lies
outside of yourself, in Christ Jesus. Fly away to Jesus! Tarry not in
any outward signs or symbols. Build the Temple, by all means, but first
of all set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord!
Now observe that the end which we would persuade you to, by God's good
Spirit, is that you seek the Lord Himself. Do not merely seek to know
doctrine, or to learn precepts. Seek the Lord! There is such a Person
as Jesus Christ the Lord. Seek Him. The keynote of the Gospel is from
the lips of Jesus, "Come unto Me, and I will give you rest." Seek not
your minister, your hymnal, your prayer book, or even your Bible–seek
the Lord! Some think to find salvation in the Bible and fancy that
Bible reading is the way of salvation, but it is not. "You search the
Scriptures," says Christ, "for in them you think you have eternal life:
and they are they which testify of Me. And you will not come to Me,
that you might have life." If you put Bible reading in the place of
coming to Christ by faith, you will miss the mark! You must come to a
personal Savior in your own person by putting your trust in Him. Trust
in Jesus, not in a doctrine, nor in a command, but in Him–and then you
will be saved. You must trust in Him of the five wounds; in Him of the
bloody sweat; in Him of the crown of thorns; in Him of the deadly
Cross. Trust in Him at once! This, alone, is the way of salvation. "Set
your heart and your soul to seek the Lord," for He says to you by my
mouth, "Look unto Me and be you saved, all the ends of the earth, for I
am God, and beside Me there is none else."
But now observe–for I want to force this home, as God shall help
me–that you must seek Him at once with all your heart and soul. That
is to say, I believe that when a man is awakened, the first thing he
ought to do is to find assured salvation. I have heard of a man who
went upstairs to seek the Lord, with the desperate resolve that he
would do no business till he was right with God. He did not open his
shop shutters, for he had resolved to find a Savior before he took
another penny across the counter. I cannot judge that man to have been
unwise in the reckoning of God and the holy angels, for the first
necessity of life is a renewed heart! If I thought that I was struck
with a serious disease, I would not wait until it grew incurable, but I
would go to a physician and have the matter attended to before it went
further. Wouldn't you?
Act with the same speed as to your souls. Oh, men and women, there is
but a step between you and Hell unless God's mercy shall interpose! How
can you trifle! It is no trifling matter. A lost soul–what mourning
can equal the sorrow of it? Hang the heavens in sackcloth! Darken the
sun; extinguish the moon! Silence all mirth! Hush all music! Harps of
Heaven, be still! You angels, cease your sonnets! The funeral of a lost
soul is the most awful solemnity that can be conceived. Such a funeral
may be needed for you within an hour! What did I say? There may not
remain a minute! Your breath fails and you are lost. Oh, Sirs, I pray
you, make short work of your rebellious delays! Put everything aside
and seek the Lord with heart and soul!
And does not that mean that if anything hinders your finding salvation,
you must have done with it? Does certain company hinder your religious
thought? Do not go into such society! Is an allowable pursuit
detrimental to your finding Christ? Do not follow it! It might be death
to you, though it is sport for others. You must have Christ–see that
you do have Him. That prayer of our hymn–
"Give me Christ, or else I die,"
ought to be in your heart and on your lips. Put everything else away
until you get an answer to that petition. Follow after everything that
may help you to find Christ. When I was seeking Christ, I was in the
House of God whenever the doors were opened. I heard a preacher who did
not speak home to my heart and, therefore, I went to hear another. I
did not care who the preacher was, or what he was, if I could but find
Christ under him.
Neither was I particular whether I stood or sat, or whether I had a
soft cushion to sit on, or none at all! I wanted Christ and I declare
that if I had been forced to sit on the gallery front, I would not have
minded where I was so that I could have found the Savior! Any hayloft
would have done for me, if I could have found forgiveness. Prayer
Meetings, little gatherings of godly people–why I was sure to be at
them if I knew of them–for I wanted to find the Savior. You will have
the Savior when your whole heart and soul are after Him. Remember, the
Lord will not save you while you are dreaming or dancing. He took Eve
out of the side of Adam when Adam slumbered, but He will not take sin
out of you when you are asleep. You must be awakened up in some way or
other. You must be startled, if not with thunderbolts, yet with the
sweet heart-searching love of Christ. You must be thoroughly awake and,
when you are so, then, seeking the Lord in that fashion, you shall not
be long before you find Him!
Lastly, when are we to seek Him? The text says, "now." I forget what
day of the month this is. It does not matter. You will never forget the
day of the month in which you seek the Lord and find Him. Who among us
ever forgot his natural birthday? Yet you are more likely to remember
the day in which you begin to live unto God. A friend writes to me, and
says, "Dear Sir, my birthday was on such a day and such another day."
For the minute I thought, "Dear man! Has he been born twice?" Then I
guessed his meaning. Is not the second birthday much the better of the
two? Born to sorrow the first time–born to bliss the second time! Born
in sin the first time–born in Christ the second time. Born in depraved
nature at first–born in the image of Christ Jesus at last! Oh, how
happy the men who have that better birthday! May it come to you at this
good hour! There is never a better time in which to seek the Savior
than just now. Stop not for anything. "I must get better," cries one.
Must you? Is that what you do when you seek a surgeon? Do you say, "I
must get a little better before I go"? You will never go at all if you
wait to be better, for when you feel better, you will say, "I need not
go now." Is not that the style? No time is like time present.
There is an old saying that, "Half a loaf is better than no bread," but
that saying is not true spiritually. A man who has half a loaf of his
own never seeks the Bread which came down from Heaven. The man who has
no bread at all is in a better case, for he is more likely to come to
the banquet of Divine Grace. Come, you starving ones, and eat of the
Bread of Heaven! Believe and live! Faith brings God to you and you to
God! Therefore believe and seek–seek and believe!
The Lord send all of you home with my text ringing in your ears, "Now
set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God."