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John Chapman

Let Thy Mercies Come To Me

Psalm 119:41-48
John Chapman July, 13 2023 Video & Audio
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In this sermon titled "Let Thy Mercies Come To Me," John Chapman addresses the profound theme of divine mercy as articulated in Psalm 119:41-48. The key argument is the necessity of recognizing and requesting God's mercies, which are found only through Christ, the ultimate source of all spiritual blessings. Chapman emphasizes the dual concepts of mercy and salvation, underscoring that while believers require continual mercies throughout their lives, they experience singular, eternal salvation through faith in Jesus. He cites various scriptural references, including Psalm 145:9 and John 6:37, to support his assertions about God's sovereign and delight-filled mercy towards His people. The practical significance of this message lies in the reminder for Christians to actively seek God's mercies through prayer and reliance on His Word, fostering an awareness of their own continual need for grace and the importance of sharing the gospel with others.

Key Quotes

“In the Lord Jesus Christ, all the fullness of mercy can come to me. And it has come to many of us, hasn't it?”

“All of God's mercies to us in Christ are sovereign. They're sovereign mercies. God doesn't have mercy on me because he owes it to me. He has mercy on me because he has mercy on me.”

“The word of God is our answer to every reproach. The Word of God is the answer.”

“Let your word fill my mouth. Let it be my speech.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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Psalm 119, picked back up in verse 41. I titled this message, Let Thy
Mercies Come to Me. That speaks to my heart. Let thy mercies come to me. One of my first thoughts was that there is a way. There
is a way for God's mercies to come to me. Christ is that way. In the Lord Jesus Christ, all
the fullness of mercy can come to me. And it has come to many
of us, hasn't it? It's come to us. We believe the
gospel because the mercy and grace of God, which go close
together, they're like faith and repentance. You know, you
can't have one without the other. But they have come to us, and
that's why we believe God. We do not believe God because
we are more intelligent. We are less sinful. We believe
God because he gave it to us. Faith is a gift of God. And that's
why we believe. Now, David seeks mercies from
the Lord. He knows where that fountain
is. He's drank from it before. And that fountain never goes
dry. and David knows it, and he applies
to the Lord Jesus Christ, that's who he's talking to, the Lord,
he's the Lord. And he applies for mercies, and
he's very aware of his need of mercy, just as we are, I think. Too often, too often, though,
we grow cold and forget how much we do need mercy. But we are
aware of our need of mercies. And he's very aware also of his
need for the Lord's salvation. Because he says there, let thy
mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation. So he's very
aware of his need of salvation, both temporal, we need God to
deliver us day by day, even though we don't even realize, you know
how many times, and I know you don't, we don't know how many
times the Lord delivered us just today. Just today. But he's very aware of his need
of eternal salvation and I believe that's what he's talking about
here more than anything when he says even thy salvation That's
what we need more than anything is eternal salvation, to be saved
in the Lord. And we'll look at this here in
verse 41. Let thy mercies come also unto
me, O Lord. And I thought it was interesting
the way he didn't demand it as a king. He said, let them come
to me also, also. As they come to your children,
as your mercies day by day come to your children, let them come
also to me. I thought of that song of Fanny
Crosby, where the verse goes like this. Pass me not, O gentle
Savior, hear my humble cry, while on others thou art calling, do
not pass me by. Let thy mercies come to me. Let
them follow me also. And I think also, You know, the
previous verses, David said, teach me, O Lord, give me understanding,
make me to go in the paths of thy commandment, incline my heart,
turn away my eyes from beholding vanity, establish thy word unto
thy servant, turn away my reproach, which I fear, and quicken me
in thy righteousness, and also let thy mercies, also let thy
mercies come to me. Let them come to me, let them
come to me where I am. Because mercy comes from heaven.
David said in two or three places, thy mercy is in the heavens. That's where mercy comes from.
It does not spring up out of the earth. Mercy, saving, sovereign
mercy is what he's talking about, comes from heaven, comes from
God. That's where it comes from. And
David knew his continual need of the mercies of God. We need
God's mercies continually. I thought about this today. There's
never a time, and I know this by experience, there's never
a time where we grow to the point where we don't need so much mercy.
I need as much mercy right now as I needed the day I started.
The day God saved me, revealed himself to me, I need as much
mercy now as ever. As ever, I need it. And I realize
I need it. I realize, and you realize, you
believe, you realize your need of mercies more now than you
did then. Don't you? You know, I realize more of the
wicked world I live in now than I did then. I realized more of
the deceitfulness of my old heart than I did then. I realized more
of the evil of men and the deception of Satan more now than I did
then. And I realize my need of mercies
now more than I did then." And you'll notice that he says, he
says, mercies. Mercies in the plural. But when
he speaks of salvation, he speaks of it in the singular. We will
experience many mercies throughout our life. Many, innumerable,
innumerable, but we only experience one salvation. We're saved in
Christ. We are saved in Christ, in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we experience deliverances
day by day, as I said, but the salvation spoken of here, I believe,
is that eternal salvation, and there's only one, and it's in
Jesus Christ. He is our salvation. And let
us, as children of God, never take God's mercies for granted. I know a man, and I've known
him for a long time. He made a religious profession
years ago, and all the time when we'd be having a conversation
about something, he'd say, well, if I'm wrong, the Lord forgive
me. He'd say that, it was really a superstitious statement. He'd
just say it all the time, well, if I'm wrong, the Lord forgive
me. There was no meaning to it. It was just a religious, superstitious
statement. And I don't want to ever get
to where I take the mercies for God of God for granted. No, well, Lord, I have mercy
on me. All of God's mercies to us in Christ are sovereign. They're sovereign mercies. God
doesn't have mercy on me because he owes it to me. He has mercy
on me because he has mercy on me. He delights to show mercy. That's the good news. The good
news of the gospel to a bunch of God-hating rebels is this.
God delights to show mercy. He gives in great pleasure to
show mercy. And we can't even begin to comprehend
when something gives God pleasure when it pleases him, what that
really means. He enjoys it to perfection. We've never enjoyed anything
to perfection, sin won't let us. But he enjoys showing mercy
to perfection, to whatever that is. And then he says here, he shows
us here that the mercies he's asking for have to do with salvation. Even thy salvation. Let thy mercies
also come to me, even thy salvation. He's talking about the Lord's
salvation. The mercies he's asking for are
special mercies. They are covenant mercies. He's
asking for covenant mercies. That's what he's asking for.
and they are found in the word of God. As he says, according
to thy word. But now listen here, I said there's
special mercies. In Psalm 145, nine, it says this,
the Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all
his works. You know, there's a sense in
which God's mercies is over all his works. The beast of the field,
who feeds them? God does. God does. Who feeds the world? God does.
There's a sense in which his mercy is over all his works. That's what it says in Psalm
145, 9. Psalm 119, verse 64, the earth,
O Lord, is full of thy mercy. You know, God didn't wipe out
the human race today because of his mercy. He has a people
in this world and he's gonna save them. He's still got some
to save. but he hasn't wiped out this human race because of
his mercy. His mercy is over all his works.
The earth, oh Lord, is full of thy mercy. But the mercies that
David's talking about here have to do with salvation. This is
sovereign mercy here. This is sovereign mercy. And
when he says here, even thy salvation, who is God's salvation? Who is
salvation? the Lord Jesus Christ. David
said in one place, God has become my salvation. It made me think of, in reading
this, this scripture came to my mind when he said, even thy
salvation, let it come to me. I thought of what John says there
in the, I believe it's in the end of Revelation. Come quickly,
Lord Jesus. Come quickly. My salvation, come
quickly. The Lord is my salvation, come
quickly. Wouldn't you like for the Lord to come? I would to
God. I know it's gonna come when he
comes, but I wish he'd come right now, put an end to this God-hating
world, and it's not gonna get any better. I know people hear
that statement, they, well, that's mean. No, it's not. No, it's
not. You know that it was a mercy
to Israel when God drowned Pharaoh. It was an act of mercy. When
God cast the wicked into hell, you know that's an act of mercy
toward God's children. That's an act of mercy. You can
go over there and read. I was trying to think of that
scripture as I'm standing here talking, where it speaks of he
cast Pharaoh into the depths of the sea. Thy mercy, O Lord,
endureth forever. It speaks of his mercy right
afterwards. It's an act of mercy. If a mad dog came into this room,
would it be an act of mercy for me to shoot it? Absolutely. Absolutely. And he's saying here, let even
thy salvation, and I believe he's saying here the Lord, come
quickly, come quickly, and do so according to thy word. David
never asked God, even as our Lord, the greater David, never
asked God to do anything opposite of his word. You know, God has
magnified his word above his name. You know a person's really
only good as their word, aren't they? If they're not any good
for the word, they're not any good. I mean, you can't trust them,
you can't trust them. It says that God has magnified
his word above his name. If you can't take God at his
word, you can't trust him, he's worthless. He's worthless. A man is his word. So he's saying
here, do so according to thy word, such mercies as promised
in your word. You know, when you and I go to
the throne of grace, let us learn to go to the throne of grace
with the word of God. There's no greater way to pray
than to take the promises of God to the throne of God. That's
what we asked for. You know, Lord, you said, come
unto me, all you that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you
rest. Lord, I come. Give me heart rest. Give me soul
rest. Let me find that real peace that
comes through believing in you. You said, my peace I give unto
you. Lord, give that to me. Give me
that real peace. and joy as I travel through this
life. Give that to me. Take the promises of God. All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh
to me, I will walk in no wise cast out. Lord, you said you
wouldn't cast me out. You said you wouldn't cast out
anyone that came to you. Lord, I come. This is how we
pray. This is how we learn to pray.
We take the word of God, the promises of God, and that's what
he's saying here. I'm asking you for mercies according
to your word, the promises that you gave. You can go over in
Deuteronomy. I forgot to write it down, but
there's a whole, it says Deuteronomy, I can't remember the chapter,
but it's one through 13. And God tells them if they keep his
commandments, if they follow after him, he will bless their
land, their crops, their marriages, their children. I mean, it's
a whole list of blessings. And it may be that David has
that in mind too when he's praying. Lord, you promised these blessings. But temporal blessings, we need
them. I'm not gonna act like we don't
need them. I need them, you need them. We need a job, health,
food. But the great blessings we need
are spiritual blessings. And we have the word of God.
I mean, we have this whole book that's full of promises. And
we know what's sad is how little we know of them. and how little
we apply them, and how little we take them to the Lord. We
don't take them to him very much because we don't know him. We're
just not in the book that much. We ought to know this book. If
my soul, my salvation is in the one revealed in this book, you'd
think I'd know it from Genesis to Revelation. You'd think I'd
eat this book. David said that, or was it Job?
It might have been Job that said this, that his words were more
necessary than food. It's more necessary than his
food, his daily food. Oh, that God give us a love for
his word. Because if he does, he's giving
you a love for him, because that's who you're looking for. You're
looking for him. You're not just reading pastime
away. You're looking for him. So these mercies, the promised
mercies are found in his word. You know, David said this one
time, God has made with me an everlasting covenant ordered
in all things is sure. Lord, fulfill that covenant.
Let the mercies of that covenant flow to me through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then David shows confidence
in the mercies and promises of God here in verse 42. He says
here in verse 41, let me read it completely. Let thy mercies
come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation according to thy
word. So shall I have wherewith to
answer him that reproaches me, for I trust in thy word. There's something about Psalm
119. Every verse, except for one,
maybe two, but I know one, I don't remember which one it is, but
every verse deals with God's word, you know that? His judgments, in one way or
another, his judgments, his precepts, his word, his law, his commandments. Every verse deals with God's
word, except for I think one or two verses throughout the
whole song. You reckon we ought to make much
of God's word? Oh, my soul. You know, Paul speaks of it.
Paul speaks of the word of God. He said, which works, worketh,
which means continually, worketh effectually in you. In you. You read this word, you
seek the Lord to open this word up, and that word will work effectually
in you. because it speaks of the word
the Lord Jesus Christ who is the word it speaks of him who's
in you and he takes that word and it works in you effectually
let's make much of but he says here so shall I have wherewith
to answer him that reproaches me I trust in thy word the word
of God now listen the word of God is our answer
to every reproach. The Word of God is the answer.
It has the answer to every reproach. In reality, if I cannot answer
a reproach by the Word of God, I best leave it alone. Just leave
it alone. I don't have to answer every
reproach. Our Lord did, he was silent. How many times we read
the gospel where he didn't answer them a word? He didn't answer
every reproach. But I tell you what he did do,
when he did answer, he answered with the word of God. You remember
the temptation in the wilderness? There are 40 days and 40 nights
and Satan came to him. Every time, every time he answered
Satan, he said, it is written. If you want to shut somebody
up, just let them argue with the Word of God because they're
going to be arguing with God. They're not arguing with me.
I've learned that. If I take the Word of God and
I preach the truth and someone wants to argue with me about
it, you're not arguing with me. You're arguing with God. You're
showing your enmity and your hatred of God. Now, I'm just
the one standing in front of you. I'm the messenger. You can
shoot the messenger if you want, but he wrote the Bible, I didn't. I'm just a messenger. I believe
it, I love it. But the real problem's with God.
And David says here, Lord, if your mercies come to me, even
thy salvation comes to me according to your word, I'll have something
to answer those who reproach me. The gospel, the gospel. The word of God, the gospel is
our weapon. It says in Ephesians 6, 17, and
take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit,
which is the word of God. That's our weapon. That's how
we answer. How are you going to answer the
law when it reproaches you? When the law comes and condemns
you, how are you going to answer? With the gospel. with the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the end of the law for what?
Righteousness. The law cannot demand of me any
more than what Christ has provided. It can't do it. It's an impossibility
for the law to demand of me more than Christ has provided. So
when the law accuses me I turn to the gospel. And I say, there's my hope. There's
my righteousness. There's my redemption. There
it is. What about when my conscience accuses me? There's nothing louder
and worse than an accusing conscience. I turn to the gospel. I turn
to Christ crucified. When my conscience tells me I'm
such a, accuses me of being such a wretch, such a sinner, Christ
died for sinners. Christ died for the ungodly.
And I feel my conscience accusing me, I just, Christ died for the
ungodly, there's my hope. There's my hope. How about when Satan, who's the
accuser of the brethren, The Lord deal with you. Isn't
that what you say? The Lord deal with you. Isn't
that what Gabriel, the angel? Was it Michael? I think it was
Michael. You know, he wouldn't argue with
Satan over the body of Moses. He said, the Lord rebuke thee.
The Lord do so. I'm not gonna deal with it. Actually,
I don't argue with, I'm learning this, and I believe I've learned
something about it. I don't argue with anyone over the gospel.
When it starts to be an argument, I just, forget it. Forget it. I'm not gonna argue with you.
If you're right, you don't need to argue. It's honest, if you're
right. And I'm right with the gospel,
and you don't need to argue about it. All you need to do is plead
the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. And take, listen, in verse 43,
and take not the word of truth. Utterly, that word is completely
out of my mouth. Let your word fill my mouth. Let it be my speech. Let it be
what I talk about. Most of the time, when I have
the opportunity, let your word, the gospel, let it be my conversation. Let it be my conversation. That's
what he's saying. For I hoped in thy judgments,
which are found in your word. You know, David was a man after
God's own heart. And it was evidenced by how much
he made of God's word. He loved God's word. He said,
I love thy law. He's talking about the word of
God. I love thy law. I love your word. I love it. And I thought of this, no man
or woman is after God's own heart who is not after God's own word.
It's just not so. If you're not after his word,
you're not after God. David said, take not the word
of truth, the gospel. We know the word of truth is
the gospel. Take it not out of my mouth. You know, Paul said
in Colossians 3, 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
abundantly. Let it dwell in you. Let the
word of Christ dwell in you. You know, we can't hinder that.
That's why he says let. We can hinder that by sin. We
can hinder that by neglect. It's what Paul told Timothy,
neglect not the gift that is in you, that was given to you
by prophecy. Paul told Timothy, don't neglect
the gift. You know, I can neglect the gift
of preaching. I can get caught up in doing something else too
much. Too much, too interested in something else. Something
else has my interest. It doesn't matter what it is.
If it takes me away from Christ, I'm not only neglecting Christ,
which is the worst, but I'm also neglecting the gift that God's
given me. You know how you, you know the best way to cut down
a tree with an ax? Sharpen it. Sharpen it. Try cutting a tree down with
a dull ax. Study, prayer, sitting on the
gospel is sharpening the axe. It's sharpening the axe. That's
why Paul told Timothy, don't you neglect the gift that's in
thee. God gave you, don't neglect it. You remember that one who was
given one talent and he hid it in the ground? The others used
it. They used what was given to them
and it doubled. He hid it. He hid it. Lord, don't let me neglect the
gift you've given me. He's given all of us a gift,
a spiritual gift for the good of the body of Christ. He's given
it to us. Don't neglect it. Pray the Lord
will make it grow. And don't silence me. Don't silence
me. Let me ever be a witness to the
truth when I have the opportunity. Put your word in my mouth. Paul
said, when you are asked of the hope that's within you, to give
a reason of the hope that's within you with fear and trembling.
But when you're asked, you give a reason of that hope according
to the word of God. Don't be silent. And Lord, don't
silence me, don't silence me. David wanted to be a means of
proclaiming the truth, the word of truth for the encouragement of God's
children and the silencing of those who reproach him over the
truth he believed. You know, he put the word of
truth in my mouth to speak. If someone reproaches me, and
I've had them reproach me over the doctrine of election, I've
been reproached over that. But you know, God gave me scripture.
I've been thinking of a particular person and situation. God gave
me scripture. He couldn't argue with it. He
could not argue with it. I didn't say, well, I think
he did. Well, so what? Who cares what you think? You
think he didn't? I think he did. I gave him scripture. And the word
of God is full of it. It's full of it. And to walk away from that, he
walked away in unbelief. He walked away in defiance of
God, not me. Not me. In defiance of God. And he says this, for I've hoped
in thy judgments. God's judgments are the, he's
speaking here of his word, you know, his judgments are found
in his word. And he said, I've hoped in thy judgments that,
number one, they're right. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? God can make no wrong judgments. You know, when we
read in the word of God, whether he's saving or damning, God's
right, isn't he? And we hope in his judgments,
we hope in his acts, and in his mercy, and his word, where we
find his judgments. And you know there's a judgment
that fell at Calvary. The judgment of God fell at Calvary. And my hope is in that substitute
where the judgment of God fell. My hope is right there in him,
where God's judgment fell on him. In Psalm 19, it says, the
fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the
Lord are true and righteous altogether. That's why I hope they're true
and righteous. He was confident that the Lord
would do right, that he could never do wrong,
and we never apologized. Listen, we never apologized for
the word of God. We never apologize. You know,
God never apologized to Job for all that happened to him. He
didn't apologize. Our Lord Jesus Christ never apologized
for anything, any judgment of God. He never apologized. You only apologize when you did
something wrong. God never apologizes because
he could do no wrong. And David, listen, David learned
from the judgments of God in his word when he read about,
you know, when you read the word of God and you read where God's
judgment fell on someplace, you're like, I don't want to go there.
I don't want to do that. Lord, save me from that kind
of conduct. Save me from that. We learn from
the judgments of God. We learn from the flood. We learn
from God burning down Sodom and Gomorrah as an example of his
judgment against homosexuality. Don't we learn from that? We
learn from it. We learn from God's word. We
learn from his judgments that he's carried out over the last
6,000 years. And the greatest place to learn
of God's judgment is at Calvary. He spared not his own son. but
delivered him up for us all, that he might freely give us
all things, but he never spared his son. When Christ was made
to be sin, God put him to torment and he died. Can we not learn
from that? Can we not learn God's hatred
of sin from that? That's why David said, look back
in Psalm 39, I mean not Psalm 39, verse 39, Psalm 119, turn
away my reproach, which I fear. Don't let me do something to
bring reproach on your name. Because he did, he knows all
about that. Because when Nathan came to him,
he said, thou art a man, You know, you've given the enemy,
you've given the enemy reason to blaspheme God's name. So we do learn from God's judgment. And then he says in verse 44,
and I got to wind this down. This is what happens when you
get opportunity to sit in the study. You get the opportunity
to study God's word. I start writing, this probably three days ago,
and each day I add to it, and I add to it, and I add to it,
and I think, I've got to stop. This has turned into a commentary. But that's the privilege of being
able to sit in the study. And I know you all don't have
that. You work and have to do other things. But he says in
verse 44, so shall I keep thy law continually forever and ever. Now David's gonna make some bold
statements here. I wrote this, well, I collared
it with a pencil. In verse 45, 46, 47, 48, he says,
I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, will I, I will. He said, that's a pretty bold
statement. Well, you know, if you apply that to the Lord Jesus Christ,
if you apply it to the greater David, he can say that, I will. But there's nothing wrong with
us having a determination, and I'm gonna touch on this, by the
grace of God to keep his commandments. What are his commandments? Well,
it's his whole word. It's his whole word. We just follow him
and his word. And he said, this is my commandment,
that you love one another. Now, if you do that one, the
rest of them fall in line. They all just fall in line. But
he says here, so shall I keep thy law continually forever and
ever. If the Lord sends his mercies to me and keeps his word in my
mouth, I will constantly follow him and his word. Because he
said in another place, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a
light unto my path. I'll walk in the light of your
I walk in the light of your word. Forever and ever. Now we know
the Lord Jesus Christ did this, didn't he? He did it perfectly. Now I'm gonna give you a few
things here. I'm gonna try to be brief. I'm gonna cut off some
of this. But there's some things here that David expected to do
by the grace and mercy of God. He says, I will walk at liberty.
That word means at large, at large. For I seek thy precepts. Whom the Lord sets free, he's
free indeed. We do not walk in bondage. We
walk at liberty. We are a free people. You know,
we make much of freedom in this country. And I'm glad we do. But the only free people are
those who are free in Christ. Paul says, stand fast in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. We are free, free
from the law, O happy condition. We are free from the dominion
of sin. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. We are free from the power of Satan. We're free. And we can walk at large. We
can walk at liberty with freedom, freedom of conscience, of heart.
Free. For I seek, that is, I pursue
after study. That's more than just giving
it a glance. That's really pursuing and studying
thy precepts. Love your neighbor. Be kind one to another. Those
are precepts. That's what we look after and
go after is that. And then he says in verse 46,
I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings and will not
be ashamed. You know, I'll be bold and courageous before great
men. You know, it seems like the greater
the man, or the man, the less is said about the gospel people
shut up. They do, they shut up. David
said, when the kings come into my presence, I'm not gonna talk
about, you know, the state of things. I'm not gonna talk about
the economy. I'm not gonna talk about you
know, our reign, and I'm gonna talk about the gospel. I'm gonna
talk about God. I'm gonna talk about his word.
I'm gonna take, before kings, he said, but when a king comes,
this is interesting, when a king comes in, David said, our conversation
is gonna start, now it's not saying we won't ever talk about
these things, but our conversation's gonna start with the word of
God. We're gonna talk about his word. That sets the tone. That sets the tone for the meeting. I'm gonna be bold and courageous.
That's why Paul prayed that the Lord would give him boldness.
Boldness. Because we're naturally cowards,
really. I'll speak of thy word, thy gospel
before kings. And here, the king of Israel
is determined to honor God no matter the audience. It doesn't
matter if a poor man walks in or the president walks in. Sit
down, I got something to say. I'm gonna talk about the true
king. I'm gonna talk about the true
lord of lords and governor of the world. I'm gonna talk about
him first. His conversation will not be made up of their greatness,
but of God's greatness and God's mercies. and will not be ashamed. Paul
told Timothy. You know what Paul told Timothy?
I'm getting ready to tell you. Paul told Timothy, don't be ashamed
of the gospel, nor of me, his prisoner. Paul experienced some
people being ashamed. Once they got out, you know,
out into the public or in a conversation in public, they shut up, they
didn't open their mouth. And the reason they didn't open
their mouth There's two reasons. Number one, God didn't give him
anything to say. Or they're just ashamed to say
anything. Too embarrassed. Too embarrassed. Paul said, I'm
not, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it's
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. Jew
first and also to the Greeks. Often being ashamed of the gospel
shows up in silence. Peter, you were with him, weren't you?
I don't know him. I don't know him. And thirdly, in verse 47, and
I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.
This is my delight. We can hear the greater David
say this, my meat is to do the willing that sent me. And the
reason he delights in God's commandment is that he finds the will of
God in it. If you want to find the will of God, you have to
be in the word of God. You can't just pray and say,
Lord, let me see your will, let me know your will, and you'd
neglect the word of God because God does not operate apart from
his word. We learn his will through his word. That's how we come
to know it. But he says here, I will make
much of thy commandments study them, meditate on them, walk
in their light. It's a delight, it's a delight
for God's child to be conformed to the will of God. It's a delight. He said, I delight in it. Christ
said, my yoke is easy, my burden's light, and I delight in that.
In my hands, he said, also will I lift up thy commandments. I
not only delight in your word and reading it, studying it,
meditating on it, but I'm gonna put it into action. James says
faith without works is absolutely, completely dead. It's no faith
at all. Claiming faith does not give
you faith. Faith is evidenced by works. It's evidenced by works. And he said, my hands also will
I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved. And he says,
I'll meditate on them. I'll meditate. You know, you
and I think about something every day, don't we? We really think.
During every day, we're really thinking about something. Something
will have our attention for a while more than anything else. David
made a conscious effort to meditate, to get alone, to get alone and
meditate on the word of God. To meditate. Deep thinking. That's what that
is. That's deep thinking. I have
to say, in the generations we have right now, we are, and I
mean this, we're very shallow thinkers. If we had to think
too much, we have to take aspirin, because we are that shallow in
our thinking. We have learned to just memorize something and
never think anything through. Never think anything through.
In our schools nowadays, it's memory. It's memory. It's not really thinking through.
It's not how to think. It's what to think. That's what's
sad. Meditation is deep thinking on
the word of God. And this is where you come up
with the treasures. Those treasures that are buried
in the word of God. This is where you come up with
them. When you really meditate and think and study and pray,
about the word of God. Open the scriptures to me. Open
them to me. I do ask the Lord every time
I sit down to do this, to study and put it together, I ask the
Lord, open the scriptures to me because if he don't, I won't
know. I won't know what's being said. I won't know it at all. It's
deep thinking on the word of God in which Jesus Christ is
revealed and which is also able to make you wise unto salvation. What Paul told Timothy. All right.
John Chapman
About John Chapman
John Chapman is pastor of Bethel Baptist Church located at 1972 Bethel Baptist Rd, Spring Lake, NC 28390. Pastor Chapman may be contacted by e-mail at john76chapman@gmail.com or by phone at 606-585-2229.
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