During the Psalm, back to Psalm
119, we ll pick back up in 137, verse
137, the title of the message, A Right
Estimation of God and His Word. This is what we had before us,
a right estimation God and His Word and it's His Word in His
Word that we get a right estimation of God God has revealed Himself
in His Word that's why His Word is said to be pure that's why
it is said to be righteous forever it's everlasting but David here
starts with the righteous character of the Lord or Jehovah is what
he's calling him here Jehovah The Lord is essentially, intrinsically,
fundamentally righteous. That's what He is. It is His
underrived nature. Think about that. God Almighty
is everlasting. He has no beginning of days or
end of life. And this God is righteous. He's just. We can take comfort
in that. The righteous do, they take comfort
in that. If you and I are righteous, it's
because the Lord has made us so. For he hath made him to be
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him, is what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5 21. Our righteousness
is from another. The Lord is our righteousness. He is our righteousness. Our
righteousness is derived, but God's righteousness, God's righteous
character, His nature is underrived. It's just who He is. It's who
He is. And this being so, He can do
nothing but righteousness. That's all He can do. nothing
but righteousness righteousness you see righteousness can't come
from an unrighteous person you can't do it no more than clean
water can come from a from an unclean fountain God can do nothing but righteous
he says here in this verse verse 137 righteous art thou O Lord
David takes comfort in this And the older I get, the more comfort
I find in the fact that God is righteous. The Lord will do right.
You know, Abraham said this, the judge of the earth would
do right. I've had people ask me about
certain people. They said, do you think they
were saved or lost when they died? And my comment is this,
the judge of the earth will do right. God will do right. And that we can take comfort
in. We can take comfort in the righteous character of our Lord.
And true worship, true worship starts with the character of
God, doesn't it? It starts with his character.
We can't worship someone we don't know. And if we worship him,
we worship him as he is, as he has revealed himself. TRUE WORSHIP
IS GIVING UNTO THE LORD THE GLORY THAT'S DUE UNTO HIS NAME. WE
DO THAT IN SONG, IN PRAYER, IN PREACHING. WE GIVE UNTO THE LORD
THE GLORY DUE UNTO HIS NAME. AND DAVID HERE IS GIVING UNTO
THE LORD THE GLORY THAT'S DUE UNTO HIS NAME. HE'S RIGHTEOUS.
THE LORD IS RIGHTEOUS. AND SEEING THAT THE LORD IS RIGHTEOUS,
HE CAN ACCEPT NO LESS. You know, the scripture says
it must be perfect to be accepted. God cannot and will not accept
anything less than himself. That's why for him to bring us
into glory, he had to make us as perfect as he is. That's hard to imagine, isn't
it? That we are as perfect in Christ, we are as perfect as
God. But that's so he can, he cannot
accept anything less than himself. He demands no more and He accepts
no less than absolute perfection. In Christ, we are complete. We
are perfect in Him. Now, because the Lord is righteous,
then whatever He does is right. There's no question about that.
I don't understand everything the Lord does, but I do know
this. He's right. i don't understand and comprehend
the trials he puts me through and you through i don't comprehend
those things i can't grasp the very the eternality of it the
effects of it but i know this whatever he does is right the
lord is right because he says here he says here righteous art
thou oh lord and upright are thy judgments upright are thy
verdicts whatever verdict he sends down it's right now you
and I cannot comprehend there's nobody can comprehend the torment
of hell in my mind in this flesh in this flesh we can't really
think about it can we we can't it's too it's too much to think
about eternal torment we can't do it but I do know this it's
right is right. The verdict is right. That's
what judgments are. They are His verdicts. God's
judgments are according to the rules of justice, absolute justice. And His judgments are right.
You know, the acts of God are in accordance with the nature
of God. Whatever He does is in accordance
with Himself. his chastening of his children
his punishment of the wicked where he sends the gospel or
does not send the gospel you know one time Paul was going
to go to Asia and God forbid him to go there and he sent him
someplace else he cannot be charged with doing
wrong that's impossible wrong is not in God wrong is not in
him And David, what he does here, he clears the Lord of any harsh
charges in dealing with his children and chastening. You know, we
think of Job. To bury 10 children at one time,
to lose all of his servants, his income, he lost everything,
his health, all of that. Was that too hard? Was that just
a little too much? It's exactly what he needed.
And it's exactly what we needed for Job to have in order that
we might study and learn from it. God's judgments are not harsh. I mean, it may seem harsh on
this flesh, and it is on those who perish, but all it is is
what they deserve. You know, nobody, nobody whom
the Lord sends to hell, none of them get more than they deserve.
their punishment fits the crown it fits it so we know this his his judgments
are upright they are morally upright they are they are they
are the standard God's judgments are the standard listen to this
in psalm 145 17 the Lord is righteous in all his ways holy in all his
work this is our God this is our God I'm talking about and
thy testimonies from Genesis to Revelation God's testimonies
thy testimonies that thou has commanded are righteous the Lord
is righteous and his word his testimonies his judgments are
righteous They're righteous. God's testimony, His Word, His
Gospel, match His character. What I mean by that is this,
what God says and what He does, agrees with one another. You know, some people, they say
one thing and do another, don't they? They'll say one thing,
promise one thing and do another. What God promised, He does. He
does. His testimonies, those that He
has commanded, His promises, they are righteous. They're right. There's no wrong in the Word
of God. There's not one commandment too strict. There's not one too
lenient. They're right. They're exact.
They're what they're supposed to be. The scriptures that God's given
us are holy. I, and I know you don't either,
I put no question mark on this book. I put no question mark
on it. This is the Word of God. I know
King James Version is a translation, and I know there's a lot of translations
out there, but this to me right here is the Word of God. And there's no error in it. If
we start putting a question mark on any part of the Word of God,
It cancels out all of it. It's a question mark on all of
it. Thy testimonies that thou has
commanded are righteous. The scriptures are holy. We call
the Bible, you know, written on the back of this, on the end
of this Bible says, holy Bible. It's God's holy word, isn't it?
I believe that this is God's holy word. I take this to be
God's word and given of God, and it's holy, it's without error. This is God's Word. God's Word is without error.
The Scriptures can be relied on. You can take God at His Word
in this. And that gives me real comfort,
because, you know, the Scripture says, Whosoever shall call on
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Isn't that comforting?
I call on His name. You call on His name. Some of
you. You call on His name. He that comes to me, I will in
no wise cast out. That's comforting. I can rely on that. I don't have
to worry about God being in a bad mood tomorrow and then won't
receive me. Or I've done something that's
going to cause a real conflict and He's going to reject me.
I don't have to worry about that because He said, He that comes
to me, I will in no wise cast out. I won't cast Him out. I
will never leave you nor forsake you. And that means I will never,
no never, no never, for any reason, forsake you or leave you. Isn't that comforting? That's
so comforting. All scripture in 2 Timothy 3.16,
all scripture is given by inspiration of God. None of this is, there's
no fillers in the word of God. There's no fillers. This is God
breathed. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, teaching, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Right here's
the book to do whatever it is, whether it be in doctrine, correction,
reproof, instruction, it's coming out of here. Don't receive it,
only when it comes out of here. You know, if I want to reprove
somebody, I'm going to do it with their scriptures. I'm not
going to do it because this is the way I think, this is the
way I think you ought to do it. It's what the Word of God says. And
if I can't find it in the Word of God, leave it alone. Just
leave it alone. And his testimonies, listen here,
are very faithful or faithfulness. Oh my, that word very faithful,
faithfulness is very stable. It's very stable. This goes right
back to being able to take God at his word. I can tell any sinner
to come to Christ, to look to Christ, flee to Christ. Whosoever
shall believe on him shall be saved. I can say that because
I know that word will never change. It will never change. It's very stable. What reliability
there is in God and His Word. Is God immutable? So is His Word. You would think, now, you would
think that we would eat this book. You would think, like Job
said, it's more than my necessary food. You'd think that with what
we have in this book and the revelation of God and Christ
and the glory and the riches of Christ, you'd think that from
Genesis to Revelation, after 20, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years,
we'd know this book from front to cover, back to cover whichever
way. But my soul, how forgetful we
are and how And it just, I know it's a flash, but how sometimes
it's so hard just to actually sit down and read. We can actually
get so caught up in watching something on television, and
more than we can read the word of God. That just astounds me.
I'm talking about myself. It astounds me that I can do
that. But our God is faithful. He's faithful, faithful to his
word, faithful to his children. Our salvation's in Him, it's
not in ourselves. And I'm glad for that. But the
Lord's promise, and he says here, very faithful, the Lord's promise,
promises are true. Not one has ever failed. Not
one. All the promises, it says, all
the promises of God in Christ are yea and amen. They're all
fulfilled in Christ to us. And they can be relied on because
the one who gave them is true and faithful. this is just not something written
by by godly men god gave this to them he inspired them he directed
them he moved that pen they were that they were writing with so
to speak listen here revelations 3 14 and unto the angel of the
church of the laodiceans write these things saith the amen the
faithful and true witness These are faithful because the
one who gave them is true and faithful. Revelation 20 through
6, and he said unto me, these sayings are faithful and true. Write it down. Every jot and
every tittle will be fulfilled. And there is a right zeal, listen
here, he says here in verse 139, my zeal hath consumed me." You see, his
mind is upon the Lord who is righteous. His mind is upon the
Word of God, His commandments, His judgments, His Word, his
mind is upon it. And he says, my zeal hath consumed
me. You know, there's a right zeal
and a wrong zeal. And a wrong zeal is a wrong zeal.
You know, if you're sincerely wrong, you're still wrong. I've heard people say, well,
if they're really sincere about it, they'll go to heaven. No,
if you're sincerely wrong, you're wrong. If you're right, you're right.
If your zeal is right, it's right. If it's wrong, it's wrong. My zeal hath consumed me, but
let me give you an example of a wrong zeal before I give you
an example of a right zeal. Here's an example of a wrong
zeal. Romans 10, 1-3, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them
record that they have a zeal of God. Right now, over there
in the Middle East, a country called Israel, they have a zeal
of God. But it's still not according
to knowledge. It's a wrong zeal. Here's the
danger of a wrong zeal. Here's the danger of it. I bear
them record, they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. The problem starts with
this. They are ignorant of God. They are ignorant of God's righteousness. Two things here. They are ignorant
of the righteous nature, character of God. They don't understand
what real righteousness is. There's no room for error. God
will not put up with error or sin. He will not put up with
sin. They don't understand the absolute
holiness, righteous nature of God. And then they are ignorant
of the righteousness that God has provided in Jesus Christ. Now, if you're ignorant of God's
absolute righteousness, here's what you're going to do. You're
going to go establish one of your own. You're going to be
like Cain. You're going to bring the fruit
of the ground, the work of your hands, and you're going to say,
look here, aren't you impressed? Mom and dad are impressed. I
bet God would be impressed. I don't think so. Not how it
works. You cannot be ignorant of God's
righteousness, God's absolute character. The Lord, he said,
is righteous. He's righteous. But here's a right zeal. See,
that's a wrong zeal. And that zeal will lead you into
trying to impress God with your own works. It'll take you away
from Jesus Christ. It'll take you away from God.
But here's a right zeal. My zeal hath consumed me. This kind of zeal he's talking
about comes from a genuine love for God and His Word. There's
a real love for God. There's a real love for the Lord
Jesus Christ. There's a real love for God's
Word. That's a right zeal. That zeal is begotten of God.
That's a work of God. David said in Psalm 119, 97,
Oh, how love I thy law. I love your word. Do you love
God's word? Can you, and I say this myself,
can I really say, I love God's word. I love it. I tell you this, if you really
love God's word, if I really love God's word, I'll be in it.
And I'll seek the, I'll seek the Lord's will in it. I'll seek
his mind in his word. I'm not just reading for information.
I'm seeking the Lord's mind, his will, as I read. Open by
understanding is what he says here at the end of this, this
Psalm, this portion of Psalm. We know, listen, we know, first
of all, this can be applied to the Lord Jesus Christ, because
it is written in Psalm 69, 9. And the disciples remembered
this when the Lord went in and turned all those tables over
and the money changers ran them out. They remember this, the
zeal of that house and eaten me up. It's eaten me up. Our Lord was burning with zeal
for the purity and the keeping of God's word. The more God's word was trampled
on by the Pharisees, the more our Lord zeal burned within him
for God's word. This is my father's word. This is his word. And I zeal,
I zeal for the purity of God's word, for the purity of the gospel,
the preaching of the gospel. I don't want to listen to somebody
lie on God. I do not want to listen to anybody lie on God. I told my brother, my older brother,
James, you all know him. I told him, I said, one of the
reasons I want to preach mom and dad's funeral was I don't
want to stand, I'm not going to sit there and let somebody
lie on God. I said, that's why, you know, that's not an easy
thing to do. Yeah, that's not easy. It's an honor to do it,
but it's not easy. But I'm not going to let somebody
lie on God. And I know if they stand there and lie on God, they're
going to be lying on my parents. They're going to be lying on
them too. I want the truth to be told on God and on them. There's got to be a zeal for
the purity of God's Word. And listen, this comes from a
deep love for God's Word. This zeal comes from a deep love
for the Word of God. And I know this, I know this. Our love to God's Word is in
direct proportion to our love for God. It's in direct proportion
to it. And here's the occasion for this
zeal to come out that he's talking about. Because mine enemies have
forgotten thy words. It's no light matter to watch
people trample on the Holy Word of God. I thought about this too. It didn't dawn on me until I
was reading this, but enemies, you know they say enemies can
bring the worst out of you? It brings the best out of God's
people. It brings the best out of them. When they trample on
God's word, that zeal just burns. It's like putting coal on the
fire. You'll stand up for Him more than ever when somebody's
trampling it under their feet. But it's no light matter. to
watch someone trample on the holy word of God or tamper with
it, change it, the gospel, to take the gospel and to twist
it and turn it into another gospel. You can't tolerate that. That
can't be tolerated. And listen here in verse 140.
Thy word is very pure. That word means refined. It means tried. Thy word is very pure. Its source
is pure. Its source is pure. Thy word
is God's word. You know, not everybody has this.
And we have it. We have, listen, we have the
pure, unadulterated Word of God. We have His Word. He says it's
pure. Believers don't take issue with
God's Word. I don't find anything in the
Word of God too harsh. I don't find anything in the
Word, I find no contaminant in the Word of God. His Word is
without contamination. has been tried by millions of
saints and not once found one not one promise has been found
unfulfilled not one in fact he says here thy word
is very pure in john 15 3 listen to this now you are clean through
the word which i have spoken unto you it has a cleansing effect
Doesn't that do that when you come here and hear the gospel
preached? And when we read the scriptures, it has a cleansing
effect. Therefore, your word is very
pure. Therefore, thy servant loves
it. I love it, loveth continually,
loveth it. Our Lord loved the word of God.
The Lord Jesus Christ as a man, it was his meat. It was his meat. But he says here, thy servant,
our love for God is expressed by our love for his word. And
we love, someone said this, we love God's word for the very
reason ungodly men hate it, it's purity. We love it for it's purity. I'm glad the word of God is pure,
it's holy, it's righteous. In other words, God's word doesn't
tell me that I'm okay when I'm not. God's word tells us the truth.
We have the truth. Thy word is truth. The Lord said
in John 17. Sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth. It tells us the truth about God. It tells us who God is. God has
made himself known in his word. and the living word the lord
jesus christ has come and made us made the father known to us
no man knows the father saved the son and he to whomsoever
the son will reveal him god's word is true it's it's
pure it's it's honest it's honest and because of that it puts us
in our right place We need to be put in our place often, often. And we see this in verse 141.
I am small and despised. David said in one place, I'm
poor and needy. Mephibosheth said, who am I but
a dead dog? Another place, David said, who
am I and what is my house? Who am I? What am I? I'm just a God-hating, wiggly
maggot, what I am by nature. That's the truth. Now, most people
find that offensive, and at one time I would have too. But through
God's Word, by His Spirit, through the preaching of the Gospel,
I learned I'm small. I'm small. Despised by the world. Not many mighty, not many noble.
I'm despised by the world. This message I preach is despised
by the world. Because of my connection, your
connection to Christ, the world despises you. They don't love
you. Don't tell me you've got 400
friends on Facebook. No, you don't. You absolutely
do not. You are my friends. That's what the Lord said to
his disciples. If you do the will of my father,
you keep his word, you. are my friends. I know my friends. I know who they are. They're
God's children. Everyone whom the Lord saves
is my friend. And I can say that with full
confidence. I don't care if it's in Mexico.
I don't care if it's in Africa, China, North Korea. I don't care
where it's at. They're my friends. They're my
friends in Christ. Outside of Christ, nobody's my
friend. They don't like me. You just tell them the truth
and see how long your friendship lasts. You just be honest with
them. Tell them how much they hate God. Tell them who God really
is. Talk to them about the sovereignty
of God. Oh, you'll find out. You'll find out they ain't your
friend. Your own family will turn on you. They'll turn on
you. He says here, I'm small. You
know, this is how our Lord was treated. They made nothing of
him. They thought he was small. They said this, we will not have
this man. And the word man was supplied
by the translators. It reads like this. We will not
have this to reign over us. They looked at him and they despised
him. And they said, we will not have
this. to reign over us. They despised him. He was despised
and rejected of men, and so are his children. So are his children. If God, listen, if God Almighty
turned the world loose, turned your neighbors loose, some family members loose, if
he would let them be who they, and what they really are, then
we would see the difference. God keeps everybody in check.
his people, his church, might live on this earth, might live
in this world until he takes them home. We couldn't do it,
we could not, and I'm not exaggerating at all, I'm not. This also here is a sinner's
estimation of himself, him or herself, after God saves them,
takes them off that high horse they're riding on, puts them
in the dust, And they really, really understand who they are. And they say, I'm small. I'm
small. A godly man dares not, as Paul
said, think of himself more highly than he ought to think. Prone
to that, but we know better. Yet, he says here, I'm small,
I'm despised, yet, still, Do not I forget that? I don't forget
your precepts. However small I may be and however
harassed I am for believing God's word, I don't forget them. I don't forget your precepts.
In the heat of the battle, that's what he said, in the heat of
the battle, I don't forget your word, your
precepts, your teaching, your instructions. I don't forget
them. Here's the thing, I never thought
of this, never saw this and thought of this before. He says here,
I do not forget your precepts, right in the heat of the battle
and the harassment and the being despised. I doesn't matter, I
doesn't matter. I keep your word, I love your
word. I remember, I don't forget them. In the Old Testament, The
animals that did not chew the cud were unclean. Those that did were clean. Those who take the word of God
and you meditate on it over and over and over. You know, you
sit down, you get by yourself, you see the old cow laying out
there by herself and you watch her, that just comes up and she
chews on it, goes back down, comes back up, goes back down.
Does that for a long time. That's what you do. That's what
you do. You take the word of God and
you meditate on it. It comes up and you chew on it.
And then you got to go to work. You got to do things. But then
at work, it'll come up and you'll think about it. You'll be impressed
with it. You know why? Because you're
clean. The unclean don't do that. And
God said, you don't eat those unclean You eat the clean. They're the clean. You're the
clean who meditate on God's word and you love God's word and you
just maul over it. That's an old word, but you maul
over it. That was just a thought, just
an image that I got in my mind when I realized that. Many think
the Bible is old fashioned. As for God's children, it's relevant.
It's not old fashioned. It's relevant to every situation
and to all times. It's relevant. It's relevant
now. And when I'm gone from this earth. And if I am, you know,
my grand, my grandchildren. It'll be relevant if the Lord
saves them, it'll be relevant to them. It'll be relevant to
the next generation, the next generation. God's word never
changes. It's relevant to every generation.
I don't care if we have AI or whatever, it's relevant still. Nothing will make God's Word
obsolete. It will never be obsolete, ever. It's God's Word. And it'll be
here until the end. And thy righteousness is an everlasting
righteousness. The only true righteousness is
one that is everlasting. That's the only righteousness
there is, is one that's everlasting. And this righteousness that is
everlasting is revealed in the gospel, and it's the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's our everlasting righteousness.
And thy law is the truth. I find no fault in God's law. You know, you can find a lot
of fault in the laws of men, can't you? We got a lot of laws
on the books that ought to be taken off the books. There's so many laws, I don't
even remember what they are anymore. I mean, there's some laws that
go back since this nation was started, and they don't even
know what they are now, but they're on the books. But we find no
fault in God's laws, and none of them need to be taken off
the books, none of them. And this cannot be said of any
other book. We have in God's word, the word
of truth, the gospel. the truth we had the truth in
verse 143 i'm going to close this trouble and anguish have
taken hold on me that word means found me out it found me trouble
found me trouble and anguish found the lord jesus christ everywhere
he went man of sorrows and acquainted with grief the believer finds
it so in this world trouble is going to find you it's going
to find you It's gonna find you in this world. Whether it be
inward trouble or outward trouble. It's a warfare. It's a warfare. Yet or at word still thy commandments
are my delight. Even though I'm in trouble and
anguish, your word is my delight. Those who are born of God do
not take offense at God's word when trouble comes. Remember the parable of the sower?
that seed that fell on stony ground, and it was received,
and the Lord gave the meaning of it. He said they received
it with joy, but when trouble came, like the sun being up,
it was scorched, but when the trouble came, he says they were
offended. They were offended. God's children are not offended
when trouble comes. They run to Christ. Now, they
cry, they weep, They beg the Lord for mercy, they beg for
understanding, but it doesn't run them away from God. Trouble
does not run you away from God. It runs the sheep to the shepherd. The righteousness of thy testimonies
is everlasting, they're unchanging. Are they righteous? Are God's
testimonies righteous? Is his word righteous? It will
always be righteous. never become a time there'll
never come a time when his word is unrighteous it's always what's
right is right what's wrong is wrong that'll never change it
will never change this shows the unchangeableness
of god and the unchangeableness of his word you can rely on it
give me understanding and i shall live give me a teachable spirit
And Lord, teach me. Give me, listen, don't just. It's not like most of the time
now you go to school, it's a memorization. You just memorize a lot of stuff
and then take a test. I'm not trying to memorize the
Bible. I want a deep understanding of who God is. And if I have
a deep understanding of who God is, I'll understand more about
myself and my need of Christ and how he fits that need. Give
me understanding. And this understanding comes
out of His Word. Let me understand what you're
saying. Guide me with your Word. Understanding
of the Word of God, the Gospel, is of God. And our hearts are
to be enlightened and instructed out of God's Word, just like
you've been tonight, instructed. I thought this. I thought the
fact that one knows they need understanding shows he has understanding. You know that you need the Lord
to give you understanding. Lord, give me understanding.
Every person here, if you're really interested in knowing
the Lord and having understanding. He gives you an understanding
of the gospel, of your need of Christ. He's already given you
an understanding, the fact that you know you need an understanding.
He's already at work. But if you just don't give a
flip anymore when you walk out the door about it, you're dead. You're dead, spiritually
dead. All right, that's a right estimation
of God and His Word.