Desires Towards God–a Sermon For The Weak

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 24, 1880,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Lord, all my desire is before You; and my groaning is not hid from
You." Psalm 38:9.

IT is our earnest desire that all who are in Christ may be strong in
the Lord and in the power of His might. I would earnestly wish to see
such spiritual life among us that every man had reached the very height
of holy manhood and was in possession of the utmost possible degree of
spiritual vigor. It is a great calamity when there is a very large
proportion of sick folks in any Christian community, for these must
draw off the care and strength of the Church from aggressive movements.
How favored would we be if it could be said of us as of Israel when
they came out of Egypt, "There was not one feeble person in all their
tribes." Oh that the day would come when the Word of God shall be
fulfilled which says–"He that is feeble among them shall be as David;
and the house of David shall be as God, as the Angel of the Lord before
them."

Let no man suppose that there is a necessity that he should always be
weak in faith, always walk under a cloud, or that he should forever be
a Mr. Feeble-Mind or Mr. Ready-to-Halt. Miracles of Grace are for
saints as well as sinners! Feeble minds can be strengthened and
crutches thrown away. We ought to grow out of the feebleness of our
spiritual childhood. We should cry to God for Grace that we may get up
"into the hill country" of holy confidence and there, like Mary, sing,
"My soul does magnify the Lord." Oh that we might all attain to
assurance, yes, to the full assurance of understanding, so that we
should know why we are thus assured and so become rooted, grounded and
settled in the faith–for then nothing would, by any means, remove us
from the Truth of God or even move us in the Truth. May the peace of
God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds by Christ
Jesus.

I would to God that you might each realize that promise of the 25th
Psalm, "What man is he that fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the
way that He shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease and his seed
shall inherit the earth." At the same time, we are most painfully
conscious that all of God's people are not in a vigorous condition and
we know that there is a large mixture in every Church of those who are
sickly, desponding and faint. These we are bound to care for. Common
humanity demands it, our sacred office binds us to it and the example
of the good Shepherd constrains us. We must feed the lambs. We must
"lift up the hands that hang down and confirm the feeble knees." The
voice of God is heard in our heart saying, "Comfort you, comfort you My
people," which voice we dare not disregard!

Indeed, the sympathies awakened within us by a similar experience
prompt us to be forward in compassion for the weak and the tried.
Therefore, at this time I would seek out the weary and wounded and
feeble–not with a view of trying to multiply their number–but with
the hope of diminishing their number by cheering them till they grow
out of their low condition. We would not pamper weakness till we seem
to offer a premium to unbelief, but yet we would feed the feeble in the
king's meadows till they become strong in the Lord! I shall now look
after those who cannot get beyond desires and groans and let none blame
me for this service. If the shepherd spends much of his time among the
weakly sheep–if he gathers the lambs with his arms and carries them in
his bosom–if he seems, even, to neglect the stronger sheep because
they do not so urgently call for his care, no one should, therefore,
infer that he delights in feebleness.

Far from it! He is trying to remove it by his tenderness! You do not
blame the humane for caring for the sick. If great efforts are put
forth to build or endow a hospital, you do not say, "Sickness is a
desirable thing, for all this money is spent upon comforting and
helping those who feel it." Your feelings are quite the
contrary–though these sick folk become the object of care, it is not
as a reward to them–but an act of compassion towards them. Let none,
therefore, say that the preacher encourages a low state of Divine
Grace–he encourages it no more than the physician encourages disease
when he tries, by his care and skill, to heal the sick! Whatever your
judgments may be, I always mean to look after the downcast and the
struggling! Nor shall the babes be forgotten of my soul while I am able
to be a nursing father to them.

In a large family where there are little children there must always be
arrangements for their feeding. Spoon victuals and milk must always be
in the house, for if the cupboard contained nothing but meat and
biscuits, the tender ones would starve. If it should ever come to pass
that a ministry consisted entirely of the higher doctrines and the
deeper experiences, it would leave many unsupplied and it certainly
would not be like the ministry of Christ which had in it as much of
simplicity as of mystery! A true steward cares for all the household
and provides milk for babies as well as meat for men. If he forgets
anything, he had better forget the meat than the milk, for though
babies could not live on strong meat, men can live upon pure milk. To
tell the truth, I have known the strong men come into such a condition
at times that the milk for babies was all that they could take.

Burly Samsons who can carry Gaza's gates may yet be so reduced that
they can digest nothing but a milk diet. Those whose confidence is at
its very height, today, may be brought so low that they will prize
beyond gold the smallest marks and evidences of Grace and will be
delighted to take hold upon those elementary Truths of God which belong
to new-born Believers! Even fathers in Christ are glad, at times, to
seize upon those simple promises which they left, before, to the most
trembling of the saints, or perhaps to desponding sinners. If,
therefore, at this present time I speak to the very lowest form of
Christian life–if I try to meet the weakest case–I shall not admit
that I am neglecting the strong. My giant Brother over yonder can have
a drink of milk if he likes–it will not hurt him.

Come and try it, my worthy Friend! Receive, again, the simple doctrine
by which little children live and you will find wholesome fare! Delight
yourself, by all means, in such grand old doctrine as we were singing
just now in Toplady's noble hymn, but do not disdain the plain Truths
of God which must always remain the staple food of the household of
faith! Come we, then, to the text, "All my desire is before You; and my
groaning is not hid from You." May the Holy Spirit be our Instructor
and we shall learn aright!

I. Our first point is DESIRES TOWARDS GOD SHOULD BE MADE KNOWN TO HIM.
You, it may be, my dear Friend, cannot see any Grace in yourself at
all–all that you perceive is a desire to have Grace. You know that you
desire to repent of sin, desire to be delivered from it, desire to be
made a new creature in Christ Jesus, desire to be perfectly reconciled
to God–but you fear that you have come no farther. Now, it is true
that many desires are of no use whatever. "The sluggard desires and has
nothing." Mere wishes are sorry things. But the desires of our text are
earnest desires–the movements of the heart–for they are accompanied
by "groaning." The Psalm evidently speaks of desires after God, not
after temporal things–desires which are mainly expressed in the first
verse of the Psalm, "O Lord, rebuke me not in Your wrath: neither
chasten me in Your hot displeasure."

It is of intense, earnest, agonizing desires toward God for spiritual
things that I am about to speak. Such desires ought to be made known
unto God. It may be said that God knows our desires and that is what
the text asserts. I do not doubt the Omniscience of God! But He bids us
confess everything to Him quite as carefully as if He did not know it
until we informed Him. We are to declare our cases for ourselves, just
as David did, for it was not until after he had told out his sad story
in the eight previous verses that he said, "All my desire is before
You." We may expect the Lord to treat us as if He did not know our
desires if we are negligent in declaring them. Does not the Apostle
say, "In everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let
your requests be made known unto God"?

Mark the language–"Let them be made known." The Lord waits to be
gracious, but He tarries till His people have pleaded for the blessing!
He knows, but frequently He does not act upon the knowledge till we
have laid bare our case before Him. Make known, then, your requests and
do so, first, because our whole life ought to be transparent before
God. What is the use of endeavoring to hide anything? "All things are
naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." The life of
every man should be unveiled before the eye of Heaven–but as for those
who are believers in Christ, even in the humblest degree they desire no
concealment–rather do they cry, "Search me, O God." We do not wish to
hide anything! Our hope lies in our heavenly Father's knowing all.

There should be no wish to hide, even, a stray desire, or to conceal
the most doleful groan. All should be open and aboveboard between a
sinner and His Savior. What secrets can there be between a soul
convinced of sin and a pardoning God? It would have an ill look if we
still sewed fig leaves together, or hid among the trees of the garden.
No, let us stand forth and let our covering be such only as the Lord,
Himself, provides. Take care, then, in prayer, to set forth the secrets
of your soul before God. Tell Him your sin and spread it out in all its
sorrowful detail. Tell Him your fears for the past, your anxieties for
the present and your dreads for the future. Tell Him your suspicions of
yourself and your trembling lest you

should be deceived. Tell Him what salvation you wish for and what work
of Grace it is that your soul desires–make all your heart known unto
God and keep back nothing, for much benefit will come to you from being
honest with your best Friend.

Do this, next, because it is commanded of God that we should make our
desires known to Him. Prayer, which is a constant duty and privilege,
is, practically, "desire." It is desire with its garments on. It is
desire booted and saddled for traveling the heavenly road. Prayer
without desire is dead–its soul has fled, it is but the carcass of
prayer. When desire is burning in the soul, it sends up the flame of
prayer, or the sparks of sighs and groans. Prayer is the fiery chariot
and desires are its horses of fire! Since, then, we are commanded to
"pray without ceasing," we are really commanded to make known our
desires continually. Give utterance to your desire in the best form you
can, however difficult may be the task. I pray you do this, for God
would have you confess all to Him. He says that "men ought always to
pray and not to faint." And again, "In everything, by prayer and
supplication, let your requests be made known unto God." Jesus said,
"Watch and pray," and His Apostle said, "I will that men pray
everywhere."

And what is this but to make your desires known to God? It is a great
benefit to a man to be able to express his desires and this is an
argument for making them known to God! You know your own desires better
by trying to express them. They are indistinct till prayer sketches
their likeness and fixes their image. Even should you fail to express
your desires, their inexpressible character will better make known to
you their greatness and their intensity. Sometimes a desire that is in
the heart would at once be extinguished if you were to attempt to
express it, for you would not dare to allow it to exist after you once
saw its true nature. A glance at some desires would seal their doom,
for we should feel them to be unworthy to be presented before the Lord.
But when it is a holy and pure desire, tell it, for it will relieve
your heart! It will heighten your estimate of the blessing sought! It
will bring you to think over the promises made to such desires and it
will, thereby, strengthen your hope that your desire will be fulfilled
and enable you, by faith, to obtain it.

The prayerful expression of one desire will often quicken further
desires and make a thousand of them where there was but one. If you
will make known your desire before your God it will gather strength and
soon obtain fulfillment. Desire should not be like a bird shut in
within the ark–it should be sent out as Noah sent forth his dove.
There! Let it fly towards Heaven! It will come home bearing the
olive-leaf in its mouth. The return of prayer brings peace, therefore
send it on its profitable errand and never attempt to hold it in the
cage of silence! Though it has lain among the pots and is grimed with
groans, let it mount towards Heaven and soon its wings will be covered
with silver and its feathers with yellow gold! By prayer shoot out the
arrows of desire from the quiver of your heart, for every one of them
shall smite your enemies.

Perhaps you feel that you cannot pray because you are under so dense a
gloom–but that is the time to double your desires and your pleading! I
am told that the flower, of which the ancients used to say so much
because it always turns toward the sun, is said to follow the great
lord of day just as much in cloudy weather as when his bright beams
gladden all things. What? Though the sun is not visible, yet he is
still in his sphere and the nature of the flower seems to tell it in
what direction to turn! Be it ever so with our soul in gloomy hours!
When we cannot see the Lord's face, may we still look towards Him with
strong desire. O Soul, pray even when God does not appear to hear! When
your eyes are blinded with tears, turn your mournful face towards the
Mercy Seat and look towards His holy hill!

Remember where He was known to manifest Himself to you. If He meets you
not today at Zion's gates, yet remember Him from the Hermonites and the
hill Mizar, where He revealed Himself, before, and let your desires
follow hard after Him until you find Him again! Let nothing stop you
from desiring and pouring out your complaint, for herein is the way of
health to your soul. A gracious expression of desire before God will
often be to you a proof that those desires are right. A desire that you
dare tell to God is sure to be of a godly sort. If I can say, "O Lord,
all my desire is before You and I wish it to be before You–I court
Your inspection because I hope You will fulfill the desire," then my
wish is such as conscience approves and is right and good! Is there not
comfort in this for those of you who think you have nothing more than
desires? If you have desires which you wish the Lord to know of, they
must be right–you would not dare to bring them before God if they were
not good desires!

When you are in God's House and with God's people, or reading God's
Word, or when you are drawing near to God in contemplation, then these
desires are strongest. Now, if they were bad desires, they would not
flourish in the best of atmos-pheres–they would not be watered and
nourished by the best of influences–for such influences would tend to
kill ill weeds of strange desire. So, then, there is some good thing in
you towards the Lord God of Israel after all! You would not

have these heavings of your soul, these strivings of your heart, this
panting, hungering and thirsting if it were not that there is somewhat
in you of the Spirit's working! God has dealt graciously with you in
giving you these good desires! Sparks of everlasting life are alive
within your spirit so long as you have spiritual hunger and thirst,
your desire must be a good thing or you would not dare to make it known
to God and, seeing that it is a good thing, take care you nurture it
well and cause it to grow by expressing it with your whole heart before
God.

II. This leads up to my second head which is this–DESIRES TOWARDS GOD
ARE GRACIOUS THINGS. Intense

groaning desires towards God are, in themselves, works of Grace. For
certainly, first, they are associated with other Graces. When a man can
say, "All my desire is toward God and my heart groans after Him and yet
I find little in myself but these desires," I think we can point him to
some other good things which are in his heart. Surely humility is
apparent! You take a right view of yourself, O man of desires! A lowly
esteem have you of yourself and this is well. I would to God that some
who are full of bragging and boasts about their holiness could only be
as safe as you are with your desires and groans, for there is in you
that broken and contrite heart which the Lord will not despise.

God has given you this jewel among the rest–a meek and lowly spirit.
Yes, and there is faith in you, for no man heartily desires to believe
unless he does, in some measure, already believe. There is a measure of
believing in every true desire after believing. If you say, "I desire
to trust Christ," why, Soul, you trust Him, already, in some degree,
since you believe that He is the kind of Person whom it would be right
to trust! Your desire to cast yourself wholly upon Christ has in it the
beginning of saving faith! You have the grain of mustard seed within
you which will grow into a great tree. I can tell the mustard by its
taste–the strength of your desire, its pungency and heat–betray the
genuine seed. And you have love, too. I am sure of it! Did ever a man
desire to love that which he did not love already? You have already
some affection toward the Lord Jesus, some drawings of your heart
Christward, or else you would not sigh and cry to be more filled with
it.

He who loves most is the very man who most passionately desires to love
more. Love and desire keep pace in Christians so that the more love,
the more desire to love–and so I gather that this desire of yours to
love Jesus is a sure evidence that you love Him already! Your desire is
the smoke which proves that there is fire in your soul. A living flame
lingers among the embers and, with a little fanning, it will reveal
itself! Your desire to serve God is obedience! Your desire to pray is
prayer! Your desire to praise is praise! I am sure, also, that you have
some hope, for a man does not continue to groan out before his God and
to make his desire known unless he has some hope that his desire will
be satisfied and that his grief will be relieved. David lets out the
secret of his own hope, for he says in the 15th verse, "In You, O Lord,
do I hope." You, my downcast Brother, do not hope anywhere else, do
you? You know that every other door is shut; every other road is
blocked up except that which leads from your soul to God. I know you
have some hope and, therefore, if you have no hope anywhere else I am
persuaded that you have a hope in God!

That thought of God which makes you cry, "Hope in God, for I shall yet
praise Him," has the seeds of hope and the beginning of comfort within
it. I might go over many of the Graces, but these will suffice–as a
man is known by his company, so may our desires be known by their
attendants–and as holy desires after God keep company with humility
and faith and love and hope, I am persuaded they are of like character
and are gracious themselves. Another proof that they are gracious is
that they come from God. Desires after God must come from some source
or other. If you desire to be holy, where did that desire come from?
From your own corrupt nature? Impossible! Certain believers in free
will may think so, but we are not agreed with them. We believe that
none can bring a clean thing out of an unclean, neither can thorns
bring forth figs. If there is a desiring and a groaning of the heart
after God in your bosom, depend upon it, human nature never originated
it!

Can sin desire holiness, or death pant for life? Holy desires are
plants which are by no means native to the soil of human nature–their
seed comes from a far country. Do you think the devil worked these holy
desires? Listen, Brother–does the devil make you thirst after God?
Does he make you sigh and cry after the light of your Father's
Countenance? Does he make you pray to be delivered from temptation?
Does he make you sigh to be conformed to the image of Christ? Then the
devil has very greatly altered since I met him, last, and since he was
described in Holy Writ, or seen in the conflicts of good men! Who,
then, has kindled these heavenly flames of desire? I earnestly
acknowledge my belief that every pure desire is as much the work of God
as the Grace which it desires! He who sincerely longs to be right with
God has already somewhat of a work of Divine Grace within his soul
creating those aspirations. Now, as God can say of all that He creates,
"It is very good," I come to the conclusion that these groaning desires
after God are very good. They are not great, nor strong, but they are

gracious. There is water in a drop as well as in the sea. There is life
in a gnat as well as in an elephant. There is light in a beam as well
as in the sun and so is there Grace in a desire as truly as in complete
sanctification!

Thirdly, holy desires are a great test of character–a test of eminent
value. You ask, "Can you judge a man's character by his desires?" I
answer, yes. I will give you the other side of the question that you
may see our side all the more clearly. You may certainly judge a bad
man by his desires. Here is a man who desires to be a thief. Well, he
is a thief in heart and spirit. Who would trust him in his house, now
that he knows that he groans to rob and steal? Here is a man who
desires to be an adulterer–is he not, in God's sight, already such?
Did not Jesus tell us so? Here is a man who desires to be a
Sabbath-breaker but he is compelled by his situation to attend the
House of God–he is already, in God's sight, a Sabbath-breaker because
he would follow his own works on God's holy day if he had the
opportunity. The desire to commit a fraud and especially the earnest
desire to do it, would prove a man to be a villain at heart. If a man
were to say, "I want to cut my enemy's throat. I am full of revenge. I
am groaning to murder him." Is he not a murderer, already, before God?

Let us, then, measure out justice in our own case by the rule which we
allow towards others. Let me help you to apply the principle. If you
have a desire, an earnest, agonizing desire towards that which is
right, even though, through the infirmity of the flesh and the
corruption of your nature, you do not reach to the height of your
desire, yet that desire is a test of your character. The main set of
the current determines its direction–the main bent of the desire is
the test of the life. It is well with you even though you have to cry
with Paul, "To will is present with me, but how to perform that which I
would, I find not." If you earnestly desire to love God, you do love
Him! If you desire to be purified. If with a strong, continual,
agonizing desire you pine for it–already the work of purification has
begun, for your desire has been purified–your wish, your will, your
heart have already been purified! Is there not proof enough that there
is a measure of graciousness about true desires after God?

Note, further, that our desires are a test very much superior to
several other favorite modes of self-judging. For instance, many people
judge their religion by the regularity of their attention to its
outward duties. "I was never absent on a Sunday morning, nor even from
an evening service. I attend communion at least once a month. I go to
the Prayer Meetings, I read a chapter or half a chapter every day. I
bow my knees at my bedside every morning and evening–I have never
omitted any part of my duty for many years." I am very glad to hear it,
respected Friend, but if you have no desires towards God, all your
regularity of attendance does but liken you to the Church clock which
is quite as punctual, or to the pulpit Bible, which never leaves its
place. You may be a capital Pharisee, but you are not a true Christian
unless your soul is full of living desires!

If you cry out, "I am thirsting for God, the living God. My spirit
groans after holiness. When I have bowed my knee, I groan before God
because I cannot live as I would, or even pray as I desire to pray. I
have come to the House of God longing to be fed with spiritual meat. I
have always been a hungry soul towards Divine things." Then I quote my
Master's words, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after
righteousness, for they shall be filled." Living desires are better
than dead duties–as a living dog is better than a dead lion. The most
regular outward performance of pious duties may be the revolution of
heartless machinery, but desires mean life and life is necessary if we
would please the living God! Desires are a better test than the
self-congratulation I have sometimes met with about the possession of
gracious things. I say not better than the possession of Graces, but
better than the supposed possession of them.

Did you say, "I have faith. I can move mountains"? I had sooner hear
you say, "Lord, increase our faith." Did you boast, "I have love so
that I shall never backslide or deny Christ"? I had rather you should
say, "Hold me up and I shall be safe." Do you say, "I have experience
and shall never be misled. I can hear heresy and be none the worse"?
Ah, yes, I have heard that kind of talk, but I feel safer about a man
who says, "Preserve me, O Lord, for in You do I put my trust." Remember
that the chief of the Apostles said–"Brethren, I count not myself to
have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things
which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus."

We feel surer as to the Grace in a man's heart who groans after more
Grace than we do of him who boasts–"I am rich and increased in goods
and have need of nothing." A man may be full and dead! But he who
hungers is alive. Brothers and Sisters, if your soul is desiring and
crying and groaning after God, do not condemn yourself because you
cannot speak quite so positively as others as to your safety or your
sanctity! Desire on and groan on, but at the same time get nearer to
the Cross! Trust more completely! Look out of self and rest more fully
in the Covenant promises of God. Your state is not one

to cause trouble–it is painful but it is not perilous. I am sure that
there is a graciousness about holy desires because they have been very
prominent in the very best of men. Look at David! See how his soul
longs, yes, even faints! Hear how he pants, like a hart for the water
brook, that he may draw near to God!

His Psalms are very largely made up of desires–they abound with such
passages as, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek
after." "Unto You, O Lord, do I lift up my soul." "My soul thirsts for
God." All his desires went heavenward, for he said, "Whom have I in
Heaven but You?" And in his last hours he exclaimed concerning the
Covenant of Grace, "This is all my salvation and all my desire." Nor
must we forget Daniel. In the passage in which Daniel is spoken of as a
"man greatly beloved," which is a very sweet translation–the words may
be read, "a man of desires"–I suppose that he obtained that name of
the Lord because he much abounded in holy longing and was accustomed to
rise from one desire to another. There is a remarkable expression in
the second of Daniel at the 18th verse.

When the king had dreamed and none could interpret the dream, the Word
of God said–"Then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to
Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, his companions: that they would desire
mercies of the God of Heaven concerning this secret." In other books we
would have found it stated that he asked his friends to pray, but
Daniel went to the very soul of things and begged them to desire. His
prayers thrice a day were not formal–they were deeply and intensely
sincere and, therefore, they were full of desire which is the motive
force, the life-blood of prayer! Daniel, then, was a man of great
desires and hence a desirable man with God–a man greatly beloved. As
for Nehemiah, that faithful servant of God, he began his work by
praying for a blessing on those who "desired" to fear God's name.

If you turn to the New Testament, what a man of desires Paul was! He
was always desiring this and desiring that for other people, until he
desired for himself that he might depart and be with Christ! A part of
the inheritance of Israel of old lay on this side of the Jordan, but
the major portion was on the further shore–and so the major part of a
Believer's portion for the present lies in desires for things not yet
attained. A man of devotion is always a man of desires. Among your
acquaintances you will find the best people are full of longing to be
better. They know that God has blessed them–they rejoice in every
particle of Grace they have ever received from Him–but they are always
wanting more. They are, in spiritual things, as hard to satisfy as the
king whom Du Chaillu met with in the center of Africa. He gave him a
huge present of goods and his gracious majesty was overjoyed and held a
great feast over the treasure.

But before the week was over his black kingship said to Du Chaillu,
"Truly, goods and money are like hunger; you are filled today, but
tomorrow you are hungry again." In one sense he who has obtained Grace
never hungers, that is to say, he needs nothing beyond his God. But in
another sense he always hungers more and more, the more he obtains.
Covetousness of goods is a crime, but covetousness of good is a virtue.
"Covet earnestly the best gifts." He who has little Grace can be
content with little. He that has more Grace longs for more and he who
has most is insatiable to a still larger degree. He has the greatest
esteem for the heavenly treasure who has had the most acquaintance with
it and, therefore, he longs to possess all that can be possessed!

Time warns me to leave this point, only repeating the fact that desires
towards God are gracious things.

III. Thirdly, DESIRES TOWARD GOD ARE CAREFULLY OBSERVED BY HIM. Was not
that the first head? No,

it was not. The first head was that we ought to make our desires known
to God–the third head is that they are known. It is wonderful
condescension that the Lord should observe so poor a creature as a
sinful, mournful mortal. You heard me read the whole Psalm just now. Is
it not a terrible description of a horrible sickness? I wonder how many
of you would like to go and visit a man who was in the condition which
David pictures and watch over him and nurse him? Here was a man who had
no soundness in his flesh and no rest in his bones, but was eaten up
with a loathsome disease and covered with wounds which corrupted till
they stank.

The Lord cannot look upon iniquity. He hates and loathes it infinitely
and yet He looks upon His poor servant when sin has worked in him all
this mischief. Oh, poor, broken-down Believer, your God still looks
upon you! Oh you whose wounds gangrene; you who seem, already, to be
rotting into the sepulcher of apostasy, still if there is any life and
desire in you, your God is watching you! With tender, loving eyes He
sees you in your misery and filthiness! The best thought of all is that
He sees the good points in us for, while David does not say, "Lord, all
my wounds are before You; Lord, all this stench and corruption are
before You," he does say, "Lord, all my desire is before You." God has
a quick eye to spy out anything that is good in His people–if there is
but one speck of soundness; if there is a single mark of Grace; if
there is any remain-

ing token of spiritual life–though it is only a faint desire; though
it is only a dolorous groan, the Father sees it and records it, casting
the evil behind His back and refusing to behold it.

Oh, is it not a blessed matter of fact that my desire is before God?
Even when I cannot speak it, it is all before Him! I cannot explain it,
but it is known to Him! It puzzles me to state my case, but it will not
puzzle Him to solve it and to deal with it and to deliver me out of the
evil of it. "All my desire is before You," as if David had said, "There
it is, Lord, I have not kept back anything. As far as I know I have put
it all in Your view. But, inasmuch as I do not know it all nor I cannot
express it all, this is still my comfort, that Your eyes miss no point,
Your heart leaves nothing unperceived! You know all about me and You
will deal wisely with me!"

IV. The last head is that EARNEST DESIRES TOWARDS GOD WILL BE
FULFILLED. How do we know this? If

men are sighing and crying to God they will be heard–how do we know
that? Why, first, because these desires are of God's creation and you
cannot imagine, at least I hope you cannot imagine, that God would
create desires in us which He will not satisfy! Why, look even in
Nature–if He gives the beast hunger and thirst, He provides the grass
upon the mountains and the streams that flow among the valleys for it!
There is not a fish in the sea nor an insect in the air but what God
has made provision for gratifying its instincts and its desires. If,
then, He has put in you a desire after Himself, He will give you
Himself!

If He has made you long after pardon, He will give you pardon! If He
has made you sigh after purity, after eternal salvation, He means to
give you these. Do you think that God would act towards us wantonly and
torment us with the torments of Tantalus needlessly? Has He made His
mercy flow all around you and has He given you thirst and will He never
let you drink? If He did not mean that you should drink, why has He
created the longing within you? You do not thirst after God by nature
and if He had let you alone you never would have so thirsted! You did
not pine after His love until He made you pine for it–why, then, this
creation of a wish if it is not to be gratified? Has He made you long
after faith and yet, do you think, He will deny it to you? Has He given
you a groaning after His dear Son, Jesus Christ, and will not Jesus yet
be yours? Soul, He is yours!

I have seen some treat children very unkindly when, to make sport for
themselves, they have exhibited fruit or toys to the children which
have excited great desire and they have acted as if they were going to
give them to the children and then they have gone away and given them
nothing and laughed at them. They thought there was wit in such
conduct, but it seemed to me meanness, itself! God has no such cruel
ways with men–if He has taught them to desire His Grace, He will
fulfill their desire because He is always a merciful and gracious God.
Remember, O desiring man, that you already have a blessing! When our
Divine Master was on the mountainside, the benedictions which He
pronounced were no word blessings, but they were full of weight and
meaning and among the best of them is this–"Blessed are they that
hunger and thirst after righteousness." Blessed while they hunger,
blessed while they thirst! Yes, they are already blessed and there is
this at the back of it, "for they shall be filled." Thank God that you
hunger!

Oh, my Friends, if we could make this city of London to be full of
souls that hungered after Christ, we might pray day and night for so
blessed a consummation! If we could cause the multitudes of men who go
up and down these streets, careless of God and of eternity, to thirst
and sigh and cry after God, what a blessing that would be! Time was,
perhaps, when you, too, were stony-hearted and had no such desires–the
change is a thing to be grateful for. Bless God for your grief, your
agony, your anguish–for anything that is like a spiritual feeling–it
is better than to be left altogether alone. Here is something
comforting for your distressed heart–a blessing is already pronounced
upon you. And we may be sure, dear Friends, that God will hear the
desires which He has, Himself, created, because He loves to gratify
right desires.

It is said of Him in Nature, "You open Your hands and satisfy the
desire of every living thing." Does God care for sparrows in the bush,
for minnows in the brook, for midges in the air, for tiny things in a
drop of stagnant water and will He fail to satisfy the longings of His
own children? Nothing gives us more pleasure, perhaps, as parents, than
to gratify the proper desires of a dear child. We like to see the
pleasure that beams upon the little face when the desire is fulfilled.
Do you not know that God loves to give us pleasure? It is His joy to do
it! It is one of the joys of the great Father's heart to make His
children glad. Be assured, my dear Friend, it is no joy to God to see
you with that dreary countenance. God delights in the delight of His
people! He has made a promise to the happy which well fits in with my
text–"Delight yourself, also, in the Lord and He shall give you the
desires of your heart."

He would have us rejoice in Him, for He rejoices over us! If you need
proof, note well the names He gives us–"You shall be called Hephzibah
and your land Beulah: for the Lord delights in you and your land shall
be married." If God delights to fulfill our desires, let us not be
slack in desiring! If you need a sure proof that He will grant gracious
desires, let me remind you of His promises. Sometimes one promise may
stick in the memory and be better than quoting fifty. Here is the 19th
verse of the 145th Psalm–take it home with you–"He will fulfill the
desire of them that fear Him: He also will hear their cry and will save
them." If there is a holy awe of God in your soul, so that you fear
Him, He will yet fulfill your desire and your cry shall bring you
salvation!

The Lord will keep His promise–you can be you sure of that. Has He
said and shall He not do it? What a joy it will be when you get your
desire satisfied and how you will praise the Lord! It may not be long
before your soul's longing is before you. This prophecy I venture to
make concerning you, that when the Lord has given you the desire of
your heart, you will hardly know how to extol Him sufficiently! How you
will bless and magnify His dear name! And what is more, others will
begin to praise Him, too. In the 21st Psalm, when the king had obtained
a blessing from God, his subjects began to bless God for him. Read the
second verse–"You have given him his heart's desire and have not
withheld the request of his lips." Now, I should not wonder but what,
before long, others will say the same of you–"The Lord has done great
things for

him."

His wife, who lamented his deep dejection, will bless God and say,
"Lord, I thank You that You have given him the desire of his heart and
that You have not withheld the request of his lips." Godly friends will
hear of his deliverance and rejoice, saying, "He who has long been cast
down has found the light of God's Countenance," and they will also say,
"You have given him the desire of his heart." As you spread your new
joy and perfume the atmosphere with gladness, the saints will bless God
that He has given you the desire of your heart! I am persuaded that you
will obtain your desire since it will glorify God for you to have it.
"Whoever offers praise, glorifies God" and you will praise Him and thus
glorify Him. Go your way and seek the Lord with confidence through
Jesus Christ and He will bless you evermore. Amen.
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Maschil Of Ethan, A Majestic Song