My heart is fixed, O God. My heart is fixed.
Those ten little words are recorded in the 57th
Psalm. I have wept over them. I have rejoiced.
I have thrilled. I've been blessed. And I know
exactly how David the psalmist felt when he looked
up and spoke those ten words. My heart is fixed.
Oh God, my heart is fixed. The other day, I reminisced
a little. I guess that... Goes along with getting
older, you know. And I turned back the pages
of my life, and it seemed that all that I've
ever done in my lifetime has been just to preach
and pray and work and pray some more, preach
some more, work a little harder. Really, I mean
that. Sometimes I wonder if I missed anything
by not having the same kind of youth that thousands
of young people have had. All I've known, few
people realize that, all that I've known all
of my life has been nothing but hard work. All
that I can remember doing is preaching the gospel.
You wonder why I know the Word of God as I do?
It's because it seemed like since I can remember,
I've searched the Scripture. I've been hungry
for the Word of God. I've sought God. I've sought
understanding of the things that are spiritual.
It seems sometimes like all I've done in my entire
lifetime is just Pray. One constant prayer. Being
constantly conscious of his presence. That's
the reason he said, real to me as the next beat
of my heart. More real to me, very, very often,
than the one whose presence I not only feel but
can see only a few feet from me. sitting in a
room. The things of God are real to me. I can
never remember what folk call backsliding or
having the slightest desire to ever leave the
things of God or to ever stop preaching. are
to take it a little easier. My heart is fixed,
oh God. My heart is fixed. And when at the age
of 14 I was born again in that little Methodist
church in Concordia, Missouri, my heart became
fixed on the things of God. And I've never compromised
for one second. From that first sermon that I
preached in Idaho, Zacchaeus up a tree. And God
knows if anyone was up a tree, I sure was. And
after the sixth sermon, well, let's say after
about the fourth sermon, that I preached in Idaho,
I felt that I had exhausted the supply. There
was nothing more left in the Bible to preach
about. But one thing I knew, I was sold on the
things of God. Jesus was real to me. My heart
was fixed. One thing have I desired of the Lord,
that will I seek after, the psalmist said. One
thing. I've had but one desire. My heart has
been fixed on just one thing, and that is what
I have sought after all my life. The nicest compliment
that has been paid me for a long time was when
someone wrote to me recently, and they'd been
in those early services when I was so very young,
so very inexperienced, and they attended some
of those services in Nampa, Idaho, and Emmett,
Idaho, Caldwell, Idaho, all those little country
places. They were precious to me. That's what
I got so much of my education, you know. I went
to the school of hard knocks. And some of those
knocks were pretty hard. And sometimes I wondered
if I would ever recover from them. But I always
did. I always did. Because I had a purpose. I
knew what I believed, and I was so sure of my
faith in him. My heart was so fixed. My loyalty
to him was so complete that there was never a
turning back for one moment. And a little lady
wrote to me recently and said, I heard you recently.
in the Shrine Auditorium. And you haven't changed
in your preaching one bit from the time I heard
you as a teenager. You've never added any of
the bric -a -brac. You've never changed in your
theology. You've never gone off on tangents.
You've never resorted to fanaticism. No, beloved.
Why should I? I've had the greatest teacher a
person can know. The Holy Spirit. But the secret
of it all is the fact that my heart was fixed
in the very beginning. And I was determined to
be loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ. You know something?
In these days of questioning of time -tested
values in our society and the rise of a school
of thought believing in the ethics of a situation
rather than the ethics of steadfast truth, Good
for us to look at one of the great virtues of
life. That of loyalty. For without it, life is
at loose ends. It just simply falls to pieces.
Loyalty. We've gotten to the place where there's
so little of loyalty left. Loyalty to each other.
Loyalty to what we believe. Loyalty to principles.
Loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ. That word loyalty
has little meaning in these days because there's
so little of it being practiced. Queen Mary gave
some advice to her granddaughter Elizabeth of
the United Kingdom. And this is what Queen Mary
said to Elizabeth. Remember that life is made
up of loyalty. Loyalty to your friends, loyalty
to things beautiful and good, loyalty to country
which you love, and above all, loyalty to God.
You know, some folks seem to get by because of
their cleverness. Oh, I've seen it. I've watched
it. But an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound
of cleverness. Let us think for a moment of just
what loyalty really means. The word isn't used
much. Kind of outdated. Outmoded. Like some other
things, you know. But it still means a lot. What
are we talking about when we talk about loyalty?
Loyalty is something that is intangible. It's
like love. You can only understand it as you
see it in action. Oh, sure. Volgens had them
written about love. There are those who think
that they have analyzed love and can tell you
all about it. But in the final analysis, you
can only understand love as you see it in action.
Because it's something that you do. Love is something
you do. And it's also true of loyalty. It's something
that is intangible. But it's something you do.
It means faithfulness. It means allegiance. It
means devotion. It means so many, many things.
It means that if one is loyal as a friend, you'd
stake your very life on the loyalty of that friend.
That's right. When we say that we're loyal to
an idea like democracy or to a cause like the
Christian faith, or to an institution like the
church, we mean that we believe in it, we have
confidence in it, that we're willing to stand
up and be counted even when the chips are down.
I remember something that my oldest sister Myrtle
said one time, and I never forgot it. Oh, Dear
me, she may have forgotten that she ever said
it. But she said, you know, Catherine, in jail
or out, I'm with you all the way. You know? Now,
she never had to prove that loyalty, you understand.
But, you know, it's kind of like that. In jail
or out, right or wrong, or like the man said
years and years ago, you know, I have so much
confidence in you that even if I saw you do something
wrong, I would think that my eyes were deceiving
me. Loyalty. When we say we're loyal to a person,
we mean that we know him. we have confidence
in him, we'll stick by him through thick or thin,
and that we're glad to be known as his friend,
and that we'll not let him down. And when you
know that you have that person's loyalty, you'll
go through hell not to disappoint that one. See,
it works both ways. That person... who has confidence
in me, that person who is loyal to me, I would
literally go through hell before I'd let that
person down or have that person be disappointed
in me. And it's just like that. I want to live
up to, I want to be the kind of person and even
a... better person than they know that I am.
I want to be even bigger than they think I am.
When we say we're loyal to God, We mean that
we believe in his presence, that we believe that
he is the creator, that he is the sustainer,
the redeemer of our life. It means that we're
determined to let this faith be the distinctive
thing about our own life as well as our relationship
with others. That's what the psalmist is saying
in this 27th Psalm. One thing have I desired
of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of
my life. What the psalmist is saying here is,
I pledge myself in diligence to my God. My heart
is fixed. I'll be loyal to him at any cost, at
any price. The waters have been deep, and I would
not tell you that there have not been temptations.
I would deceive you if I told you that it wasn't.
easy way or an easy life, I would lie to you.
But I also want you to know that I've never been
disappointed in him. Never once. Never once has
he ever let me down. Never once has he betrayed
my trust, my confidence, my loyalty in him. You
see, loyalty is much more than a casual interest
in someone or something. It's a personal commitment.
In a foul analysis, it means, here I am. You
can count on me. I won't fail you. It's a positive
attitude. There's nothing negative about it.
There's nothing negative about loyalty. It's
aggressive. As we noted a moment ago, it is a
quality of life that a person must have if his
life is to amount to anything. Oh, sure, there
are many stories of great loyalty, of a man for
his country, or a disciple to a cause, or one
person for another. And one of the most beautiful
stories that has ever been recorded is found
in the Old Testament in the book of Ruth. Some
hung back, refusing to accompany Naoma to her
homeland. But Ruth, the girl from Moab, stood
firmly at her side and speak some beautiful words
that had become engraved in the language of loyalty
where the Christian faith is known. Entreat me
not to leave thee or to return from following
after thee for whether thou goest I will go,
and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people
shall be my people, thy God my God. Where thou
diest will I die, and there will I be buried.
The Lord do so to me, and more also, Ought but
death part thee and me. Mm -hmm. It may be a
loyalty to a great cause that challenges a person
like Nehemiah, rebuilding the wall about Jerusalem
and saying, I am doing a great work, and I cannot
come down. The loyalty of which we've been speaking,
the loyalty that is born out of faith and confidence
and that always enriches life. I am sure that
is what the apostle had in mind when he wrote
to the Philippians saying, Whatsoever things
are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever
things are just, whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely. and whatsoever
things are of good report, if there be any virtue,
and if there be any praise, think on these things.
I want to just say something. In a time when
things are changing, and we're forgetting, the
real values in life. As we think of loyalty,
how important it is as to where one should put
one's loyalties. There's certain guidelines that
I think will help first. We must be on guard,
lest... A minor loyalty lead us to sacrifice
a major one. Sometimes I think we are compromising
and we're sacrificing to minor loyalties rather
than to be true to a major one. Second, We must
be careful lest a little loyalty to one's family,
one's profession, one's class, one's race be
pressed at the expense of a larger one. Third,
we must remember that first, last, and always
our supreme loyalty is to God. Never sacrifice
your loyalty to God.