In Psalm 119 in the section, once again, that we considered some of last couple of weeks, verses 22 to 24, or 17 through 24, excuse me, we're going to look at verses 22, 23, and 24. And let's start this morning by reading this section. Sorry, verse 17, Psalm 119. It says, deal bountifully with thy servant that I may live and keep thy word. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. I am a stranger in the earth, hide not thy commandments from me. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times. Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from the commandments. Remove from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept thy testimonies. Princes also did sit and speak against me, but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes. Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counselor.

And I'd like to have us look this morning a bit at verses 22, 23, and 24, and primarily verse 22 that says, remove from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept thy testimonies. And a couple of things and a couple of places we'll look at this morning.

We spent some time on the thoughts of God dealing bountifully with his servants, with his people, and that we may live and keep thy word, and that we may abide in him in that word, and open our eyes that we would behold wondrous things out of thy law. And we mentioned and looked into a couple of different lessons on this, that only by him opening our eyes, as the Lord did those in many places, but in Luke where it says that he opened their their understanding to what the word had to say that he had opened with them. And if that isn't done, they're just words that we may understand some of the words and the thoughts of those, but not the true impact that if the Lord doesn't open it to us. And that we might behold wondrous things, it says. And those wondrous things have to do with the three R's, that we were ruined by the fall, they were redeemed by the blood and the spirit. rejuvenates and does the opening of the eyes, does the revealing of that and of those things. And without that, we just, they're words and the scripture has to be open to us.

And here where it says, remove from me reproach and contempt for I have kept thy testimonies. The reproach it speaks of here, and several places that we know that talks about, David talks about it, being reproached for walking as God has directed, and we see that in the New Testament also, that these verses here, We see that our elder brother himself, the Lord himself has gone before us, that he himself became the servant of the covenant for the redeemed of God. What he did by his death and life have given us the greatest riches.

And we're going to look at a couple of things in that, but the reproach It speaks about two different ways of looking at this. One of them is the reproach of man, when the gospel's preached, and we're gonna look and see what natural man thinks of that, but when the reproach of the gospel, of preaching and believing and standing for what the gospel has to say, and the reproach, we're gonna look also at the greater reproach is that by nature, by the fall, we stand in that situation by the fall, by nature, that we're in a reproachable situation by nature. And that is the reproach and the contempt that we need help with. That's where we need the true only help that he can do.

And one of the, One of the examples we have of the scriptures of this is Cain and Abel.



gave his sacrifice, it was that that had been prescribed, that they'd been taught. The boys that I'm sure had been both taught the same things and the same, what was required, that that sacrifice that was required as a picture for the true sacrifice and the true covering that was needed, they did that, went to the same classes with mom and dad. And what was acceptable, Abel's sacrifice was acceptable to God, Keynes was not. It was of his doing and his thinking. And reproach and contempt sound like pretty mild words, but in the extreme, his reproach and contempt by his brother ended up killing his brother. I mean, he just, yep. There was no regard. God had no respect to that situation. And he did to Abel, but not to Cain.

And the picture has to be correct. The right sacrifice is the only one acceptable. And as the gospel shows forth that which is necessary for Our redemption is the only one. There's no worship how you decide to and you would like to. It's not there. It has to be the prescribed way. And the contempt of man is that type.

We all have, I'm sure, voiced our thoughts and our belief to others and got less than enthusiastic response from, you know, leave me alone, I don't want to hear any more of that, to maybe some, a little more forceful, but in that regard, and we do have that, and if we are gonna, if we are His, and we live according as we have revealed to us, and just besides believing in Him, and standing in Him, those things that we do just as we're told to follow after good things and be good people, as far as that goes, in the world, and those things, some people don't have much respect for that. But that reproach and contempt is pretty mild.

There's a passage that speaks to that, and it says, you have not resisted to blood against sin yet. We've not done that. And there are those that have in the past that have, Paul had a little bit of contempt and held in reproach those people that were believers and he was showing his regard for that very strongly. And there are those that died at his, if not directly at his hand, he directed it and condoned that and acknowledged that. So that's not to make light of what that may mean, but that reproach is physical. He says, there are those that can kill the body. But we have to deal with him that has men's souls in his hands. That's a different standing and different reproach.

And that reproach, we're going to see that the Lord, when he said it is finished, all was finished. And we don't stand in reproach of that anymore because of what he did. And he stood in that in our place. In Isaiah 53, it talks in great length of what the Lord did in bearing the reproach of his people and dealing with the sin issue, the sin problem that we had that we could not deal with. And that is the reproach that I believe is being spoken of here.

In Psalm 145, turn just a few pages over to Psalm 145, and some thought on this. And reading a little bit, starting with verse eight. 145. Starting with verse eight and reading down a bit, it says, the Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power, to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth through all generations. The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raises up all that bow down. The eyes of all await upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. The Lord is nigh unto them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him. He also will hear thy cry and will save them. The Lord preserve us, them that love him, but all the wicked he shall destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh bless his holy name forever.

And here, it says up here, verse 19, he will fulfill the desire of them that fear him. He also will hear their cry and will save them. And we're going to hear it in verse 22 of Psalm 119. The psalmist has said, remove that reproach and contempt. Make us to see and to realize that and to know what he has done and that he has put that away, that he has put those things from us that we stood in contempt of because of that.

Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1. that deals with some of these thoughts about the reproach and the contempt dealt with. And this speaks to the reproach of what the gospel is to natural man and how it what it is to natural man and what God has to say about, and starting with verse 17. It says, Paul teaching to the Corinthians, it says, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

in verse 22, for the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. And, Here, as it says here, that we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block, and unto the Greek, foolishness, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, and unto Natural man, it's foolishness. It's foolishness.

What the gospel says that the need is that the condition that man is in and what is required by God and the only way that we may stand without reproach before God is in the Son because of what He's done. That doesn't make sense to natural man. It doesn't make sense. We are commanded to believe. That's like the saying that people use when something is impossible, and they'll say, when pigs fly. Well, we might as well tell natural man, levitate yourself. It's the same concept to believe of our own self. It's impossible. It's only of God himself that this can take place. And that, it says, is foolishness to man. We stand in reproach or contempt by bringing that up to natural man. Whenever that is, the gospel is brought up, people aren't neutral to the gospel. It's not unaffected. Nobody is not affected by it in one way or the other, either by the Lord opening the eyes to that or hardening the heart, the heart hardened towards that, and natural man, it just It just doesn't make sense, and it just can't make sense to the natural man.

Those who have been born from above hold forth the word. The world by and large will hold believers in contempt and looked on as the foolish ones. But to them which are called, both Jews and Greeks it says, all of his, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Indeed, that's, That's the wisdom and power of God, and it makes no sense to natural man, so naturally in contempt of what we stand in.

And then turn to Isaiah 53 for just a little bit here. Isaiah chapter 53. It is a very powerful passage of scripture through here. It speaks to what the Lord himself did and dealt with the contempt that he took on himself, the contempt and reproach that he took on of his people to deliver them.

And just reading in a couple of spots, starting with the, Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form, no comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

And this is what all man views this like by nature. It doesn't say that the bad guys saw this and they had no respect for it. This is where we stood and where we by nature are. It said that these are things that we stand in here. And it says, we hid as our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. And surely he hath borne our sorrows, carried our sorrows and griefs. We esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. And that was doing that. that was required in our stead.

And verse five, it says, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone his own way and the Lord had laid on him the iniquity of us all.

So that true contempt that we stood in and reproached because of our nature, he took that on. We could not, we couldn't do anything about it. We couldn't, we couldn't resolve that. There was no way that we could, that we could resolve that. And as the psalmist says, prays to remove that reproach and contempt that is on us by nature. And indeed he, he has done that and does do that.

And then just two more verses down here. Start with the verse 11. It says, he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bear the sin of many. and made intercession for the transgressors. In those things that it speaks here in Isaiah 53, and much time could be spent here in this, but this speaks to that, again, that there is, God has a people that he has removed the contempt and the reproach from, and he has done it by his hand. And we see how we held the Lord himself in contempt and reproach by our nature and tell that the spirit of God did a work in our hearts, as we see here. This is what man by nature sees, contempt and foolishness. Here we see that by his being, that lamb slain before the foundation of the world, our reproach and contempt was indeed removed, not covered up or passed over, but removed. and done away with.

And then lighted that, turn to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. Psalm 103, verse here that people have on their wall and underlined and saying, and I've memorized a lot over time. We're gonna look a little more than just this one verse, but verse 12 says, as far as the East is from the West, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

And when he speaks about removing the contempt, the reproach, and our transgressions from us, and our iniquity from us, it says he has done that as far as he says from the West. But I'd like to look a little more into this psalm for just a few minutes. And there's several points I'd like to bring out from this.

It says, bless the Lord, verse one, Psalm 103. Oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crown thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his ways unto Moses, his act unto the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath not, verse 10, he hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. In verse 11, for as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the East is from the West, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust.

And in that, Psalm here, it sets forth the magnitude of God's mercy and grace to his people, to us in Christ the Lord as in Isaiah 53 shows us the greatness of the measure of our sin that he dealt with and what it took upon himself to deal with and the terrible work that was needed to make us innocent of our sin. This psalm shows what extent the reproach of sin was done away with for the sheep of his fold. In these verses that we read forth, it says, forgive us iniquities, heal us our diseases, spiritual diseases, He may heal physical diseases, and he does do that, but that's not what it's spoke of here of the spiritual disease that we stand in. Redeems the life from destruction, crowneth with loving kindness and tender mercies. It says satisfies thy mouth with good things, executed judgment and righteousness in our favor. He's merciful, gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy, not dealt with us and removed our transgressions, pitieth and remembers we are dust. And in these thoughts here in Psalm 103, it deals, and it is a reply, those words in Psalm 119, that when he says, once again, when it says, remove from me reproach and contempt for I have kept thy testimonies.

And here that speaks about keeping the testimonies is by his opening our eyes and by the new birth, we are parallel to what The word says we we're going that way. That's that's that by his by his power and strength, we're going that way. And we we stand for what he has shown us. And we again, the contempt and the reproach we may get for in this world is is nothing compared to the the reproach that has been taken off of us in the Lord himself.

And it says here in verse 24, Thy testimonies are my delight and my counselors." Again, not only do we take delight in that he's done this, has the people and has done this, but also it's our counselors. It's our go-to place. It's the only place we can go to when we have and we feel the reproach of sin and those things.

And as it talks about in Hebrew, entering into his rest. This is, being in his word is that that reveals these things to us. And that these are our delight. And it says, thy servant did meditate in thy statutes. And again, as we said at the beginning of this song, we're admonished to be in the word, to be in God's word. and to meditate in that or ruminate on his word.

And here in that he asked this of God and he prays for this to remove the reproach that we have by nature. And God has, the good news is God has done that. And God does do that for his people. And I think that that passage in Psalm 103 is not just the good stuff. It's a wonderful thing, but it's such a contrast between what we stand by nature and what God has done for us and where we stand in Him because of what He's done.

And with that, thank you for your attention this morning. We're going to Move on to the next section next time in Psalm 119 verses 25 through 32. Thank you.