Good evening. Let's open the
service tonight with hymn number seven from the Spiral Gospel
Hymns in book number seven, the head that once was crowned with
thorns is crowned with glory now. Let's all stand together. was filled with thorns, is crowned
with glory now. The royal diadem on boards, the
mighty victor's crown. The highest place that heaven
affords, belongs to him I write. the king of kings and lord of
lords and heaven's eternal light the joy of all who dwell above
the joy of all below to whom we manifest his love and grant
his name to know Please be seated. Good evening. Let's open our Bibles together
to a very familiar and encouraging A passage in Isaiah chapter 40,
Isaiah chapter 40. This is such a. An encouragement to me as a gospel
preacher. And I hope that it will be to
you comfort ye. Comfort ye my people, saith your
God. speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned, and that she hath received of the Lord's hand double
for all her sins. I want you to notice the tense
of the verbs in that last verse we just read. Her warfare is accomplished,
her iniquity is pardoned. She hath received of the Lord. Now look down at verse six. And the boy said, cry. And he
said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass and all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass
withereth, the flower fadeth, but the spirit of the Lord bloweth
upon it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever, forever. Let's pray. Our merciful and gracious Heavenly
Father, we are comforted to know and to believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ has conquered our warfare. He's defeated the enemy. He has put away sin. He satisfied
your divine justice by his precious shed blood. And that we have received a double
blessing. We've received your word and
your spirit. And our hope this evening, Father,
is that you would send your spirit and power, that you would open
what no man can shut, open your word, open our hearts, open the
windows of heaven, shine the light of the gospel in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts. Lord, comfort us, secure
us as we find our rest, our hope, and all our salvation. in Christ. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. Let's stand together again. Number
340 in the heart, back, temple 340. ? Nearer, still nearer ? ? Close
to thy heart ? ? Draw me, my Savior ? ? So precious thou art
? ? Hold me, O hold me ? ? Close to thy breast ? Shelter
me safe in that haven of rest. Shelter me safe in that haven
of rest. Nearer, still nearer, Nothing
I bring but as an offering to Jesus my King. Only my sinful countenance I
call ? Grant me the cleansing ? ? Thy
blood does impart ? ? Grant me the cleansing ? ? Thy blood does
impart ? ? Nearer, still nearer to thee ? Lord to thee I. Sin with its follies, I gladly
resign. All of its pleasures, love and
its pride, Give me but Jesus, my Lord crucified. Give me but Jesus, my Lord crucified. Nearer, still nearer, while life
shall last. Till safe and glory my anchor
is cast. To endless ages ever to be. Nearer, my Savior, still nearer
to me. Nearer, my Savior, still nearer
to me. Please be seated. Somebody mentioned to me recently
that they like the fact that we have slowed down in Psalm
119. Well, tonight I want to preach
from the second half of the verse that I preached from Sunday morning.
So we're really slowing down. If you'll open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 119, we're going to look at the second half of
verse 113. This has become one of my favorite
Psalms. was a passage of scripture that
I don't think I appreciated so much in the past because I didn't
understand it. But I hope the Lord has increased
our understanding and given us more of a love for this portion
of his word. I'm certain that there will be
some that will Look at this message online and be intrigued by its
title. Because I've titled it, We Love
God's Law. We love God's law. That's what
David says here in Psalm 113, I hate vain thoughts. And we saw Sunday that how vain
our thoughts are. We're vain in thinking way too
highly of ourselves, much too lowly of Christ, much too lightly
of grace, much too lightly of sin, much too little about God,
and much too much about the things of this world. All our thoughts
are filled with vanity, aren't they? And then in contrast to
that statement, he says, but, thy law, thy law, I love. The word law in the Bible is
used sometimes in reference to the moral law, the Ten Commandments. Sometimes it's used in reference
to all the law of God, the ceremonial law, the dietary laws, the civil
law, as well as the moral law. Sometimes it's the word here
is the word Torah. You've heard that word before.
The Jewish people today would consider the first five books
of the Bible to be the Torah, the books of Moses and the Pentateuch. It would be, they would call
that the Torah. And, but sometimes the word law is used and most
often here in Psalm 119, it's being used as a description of
all. of God's word, all of God's word. Now we love God's moral law. We love his civil law. We love
the first five books of the Bible. We love all of God's word. And so the child of God can say
with understanding, I love, I love God's law. The word Torah translated
means teaching. It means doctrine. It means instruction. And we know that all of scripture
is inspired of God. It's not by private interpretation. Holy men of God wrote as they
were moved by the Holy Spirit. And all scripture is given by
inspiration of God. And all scripture is profitable. And that's why we love it. It's
because it's so profitable to our souls. It's profitable for
rebuke, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. It's our Torah. It's the way the Lord reveals
himself to us and teaches us who he is and who we are and
how it is that he's pleased to save sinners. And so the child
of God says, oh, I do. I love God's law. Now, to look at it in relationship
to the gospel, the work of Christ, I want us to turn by way of introduction
to Romans chapter seven. Will you turn with me there in
your Bible? By the way, the word law or Torah
is used 25 times in Psalm 119. And in every case, we're gonna
go back and look at several of those verses. Why do we love
God's law? What profit is it to us? How
is it that it instructs us? And how is it that it's profitable
to us? And how is it that it makes the
man of God thoroughly equipped unto good works? What is it in
God's law? And David reveals some of those
blessings in Psalm 119 as he uses this word Torah, or this
word law, to describe God's Word. Here in Romans chapter 7, Paul,
who at one time before the Lord arrested him, before the Lord
called him on the road to Damascus, had trusted in his obedience
to the law for his salvation. And now In light of the gospel,
he understands the purpose of the law. And he tells us here
in Romans chapter seven, what that purpose is. Let's begin
reading in verse five. For when we were in the flesh,
when we were walking by the flesh, when all we had was the flesh,
when we were devoid of the spirit of God, The motions or the passions
of our flesh and our sins, which were by the law, did work in
our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Now in another place,
the Lord says that the strength of sin is the law. The law aggravates sin. The law
exposes sin. And that's what he's saying.
The law didn't restrain him. The law didn't save him. But
hold your finger there and turn with me over to Galatians chapter
three. Galatians chapter three. And we'll read verse 21. Is the
law then against the promises of God? Now here he's using the
law as the civil law, the ceremonial law, the moral law, the dietary
laws, this is all that all the limitations that God had put
on Israel. He says, is the law then against
the promises of God? God forbid, for if there had
been a law given, which could have given life, barely righteousness
should have been by the law. If there was a law that we could
obey and thereby be rewarded with righteousness
and salvation, then salvation would come by the law. But we
can't keep God's law. But the scripture hath concluded
all under sin. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Sin is transgression against
the law. And everything we said, the first
part of verse 113 in Psalm 119, I hate vain thoughts. And the
meaning of that reveals to us what sinners we are. You and
I have never had a holy thought. We've never been able to satisfy
the demands of God's law in our hearts, in our lives. We've never
not been able to do it. Our thoughts are full of vanity.
but we love God's law. We love his law. Why? Because his law reveals the perfection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not looking to the law
like Saul was as the means of our salvation, but the scripture
had concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus
Christ might be given to them that believe. Now turn back with
me to Romans chapter seven. So here's the, here's the, The
purpose of the law is to make sin utterly sinful. He goes on
to say that the law is our schoolmaster. We were under the tutelage of
a schoolmaster until the Lord was pleased to shine the light
of the gospel in our hearts. And then we came to see that
salvation is by promise. It's by promise. And it's accomplished
in the Lord Jesus Christ. So in Romans chapter seven, He
says, but now, verse six, we are delivered from the law, that
being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness
of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. Now, all unbelievers
are under the law. All the unrighteous believe themselves
to be righteous in that they've done something to satisfy the
demands of God's holy law. And so he's saying, we were dead
under the law. The law slew us. The law killed
us. We just didn't know we were dead.
We thought we were alive. And Paul's gonna go on to explain
that. Look what he says in verse seven.
But what shall we say then? Is the law sin? Is there something
wrong with the law? No, nothing wrong with the law. The problem is with the weakness
of my flesh in being able to keep the law and my self-righteousness
inspired by the law. What shall we say then? Is the
law sin? God forbid. Don't perish the
thought. No, it's not possible. There's
nothing wrong with the law. Nay, I had not known sin by the
law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou
shalt not covet. And he goes on to say, But sin,
taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence,
for without the law, sin was dead. As long as I didn't
have the law, where there's no law, there's no sin. If the law
didn't come in power and expose my sin, reveal to me the glory
of Christ, then I'm without, Paul believed himself to be without
sin. He believed that. He said, concerning
righteousness, which is by the law, I'm blameless. For I was alive without the law
once. Was he alive? No, he was dead.
But he didn't have the law. He thought he had the law. He
thought he was keeping the law. But the law had not come in power.
When did the law come in power? When Christ revealed his glory
to Saul of Tarsus. And then Saul saw what the law
looked like. That's when he saw what the law
looked like. And the only conclusion he could
come to is there's nothing in me like him. That's what the
law does. The law reveals the glory of
Christ and causes us to conclude that there's no righteousness
in us. But he says, for I was alive
without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived
and I died. Christ revealed himself in all
of his glory. I became a sinner. And that always happens, doesn't
it? When Isaiah, you read the first five chapters of Isaiah.
Isaiah was a prophet of God and he was declaring the judgments
of God against Israel when he said, woe unto you, woe unto
you, woe unto you, six times in the first five verses. He
says, woe unto you, pointing his finger at Israel and rightly
pointing out their sin. And then what's he say in the
year that King Uzziah died? He went to the temple that day
thinking there's no hope for Israel anymore. Look at the sinful
people. Look at the shame that our King has brought on the nation.
Surely God is going to forsake us now. And he said, I saw the
Lord. I saw the Lord high and lifted
up. And his train filled the temple. And what did Isaiah say?
Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean
lips. I live among the people of unclean.
What am I going to do? My eyes have seen the King. I've
seen God. And that's what the Lord does.
When through the preaching of the gospel and by His word, He
enables us through the eyes of faith to see God. And in seeing
Him, we say, woe is me. Woe is me. And the Lord said,
yeah, but you know what? There's a hot coal on this altar
that's able to touch your lips and purge you of your sin. That's
exactly what the Lord did for Isaiah. It's what he did for
Daniel. Daniel said, when I saw him, my comeliness was turned
into corruption. When Peter saw the Lord after
the resurrection, he said, depart from me, Lord, I'm a sinful man. When Job saw the Lord, he said,
behold, I see something I've never seen before. I'm vile.
I'm vile. Paul said, in me, that is in
my flesh. Well, it's no good thing. To
will is present with me, but how to perform that which is
good? I find not, I can't keep God's law. The law was never
given by God to save us. Look what Paul goes on to say
in Romans chapter seven. Verse nine, for I was alive without
the law once. I thought I was alive, he was
dead, but he didn't have the law. But when the law came, sin revived
and I died. And the commandment which was
ordained to life I found to be unto death. I thought the commandment was
given in order to give me life. And the commandment only caused
me to see that I was dead. Was the problem with the commandments? Was the problem with the law?
Look what he goes on to say. Verse 12, wherefore the law is
holy and the commandment holy and just and good. Was then that
which is good made death unto me? God forbid. Perish the thought. It wasn't the commandment that
killed me. It was my sin that killed me.
That's what killed me. The commandment just revealed
what my sin was. He says, he says, was that which
is good made death unto me? Did the law kill me? God forbid.
But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that
which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly
sinful. For we know the law, the law
is spiritual. But I, I'm carnal, sold under sin. So he's telling us the law is
holy in that it reveals the holiness of God and that it exposes our
unholiness. The law is just in that it shows
what God requires for his justice to be satisfied through the shed
blood of Christ. but it doesn't justify us. And
the law is good, but it doesn't add to our goodness. We still
cry with Paul, in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. Now, point is, there's nothing
wrong with it, but not, no, there's nothing wrong, the law is holy,
the law is just, the law is good. The law is beautiful. We love
God's law. We can say with David, I love
God's law. Am I looking to my obedience
to the law of God for the hope of my salvation? God forbid,
God forbid. That's why Christ came. He is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe. What
hope we have, what hope. So go back with me to Psalm 119. Look at verse, look at verse
92 in Psalm 119, unless thy law had been my delights, I should
have perished in my afflictions. The law of God is the delight
of the child of God. And if it wasn't for his word,
if it wasn't for the scriptures, we would perish in our afflictions. What is the affliction? If we
didn't have the revelation of God's word and the revelation
of Christ who fulfilled the law, we would perish in our sins. That's the affliction. This world
is full of afflictions. Everybody's got them. And, you
know, Scripture, Paul talks about worldly sorrow and godly sorrow. Worldly sorrow is when men suffer
the consequences of their sin and want to be taken away from
their circumstances. And then circumstances change and they have no more
sorrow. Godly sorrow is when we realize
that everything about us is sinful and unless Christ presents himself
on our behalf, we have no hope of salvation. Godly sorrow causes
us to flee to Christ. Here he says, that's the affliction
that unless the law had been my delight, if I had not loved
to know, that God's word is sufficient in all my trials and troubles
and most particularly is sufficient to put away my sin. Now again,
we're talking about the living word of God as he's revealed
in the written word. And we don't separate the two.
So the child of God says, what would I do if I didn't have God's
word? I'd be overwhelmed with my afflictions. I'd have no answer. I wouldn't know anything about
the good providence of God if He didn't reveal it to me in
His Word. I wouldn't know anything about the purpose of God had
He not revealed it in His Word. I would not know that God's working
all things together for my good. I wouldn't know anything about
the work of the Spirit of God using the affliction of my sin
to cause me to flee to Christ. The Spirit of God convicts us
of our sin because of our unbelief and drives us to Christ. We wouldn't
know anything about that if it wasn't for God's law, if it wasn't
for his word. If it wasn't for the revelation
of Christ given to us in the scriptures, we wouldn't know
anything about that. We'd be like the rest of the world. We'd
be crying out to God in our afflictions, and when those afflictions go
away, we'd have no more need for him. Or we'd be shaking our
fist at heaven cursing God and accusing God of wrongdoing. Or
we would just resign ourselves to our circumstances and just
say, well, you know, what will be will be. And it's just, you
know, no, no, we have the hope of no. David said, before I was
afflicted, I had gone astray. But now, now, I love thy word. That's what
he was saying. Love thy word. Look at verse 97 in Psalm 119. Oh, how love I thy law. All of God's law. We see the
moral law, the civil law, the ceremonial law. We see that fulfilled
in Christ. And we see the full revelation
of scripture given us in the entire teaching of God's word,
the Torah, as the hope of our salvation. We wouldn't know who
Christ was. We wouldn't have any instructions
on who he is and what he's done and how we're to, we love God's
law. David says, oh, how love I thy
law, it is my meditation all the day. Go back with me to verse 18 in
Psalm 119. As I said, the word law is found
25 times in this one chapter. Verse 18, open thou mine eyes
that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. To behold is to see, is to see. Lord, if you don't open my eyes,
we prayed at the beginning of this service, Lord, open what
no man can shut. Open our eyes that we might see. That's what blind Bartimaeus,
the Lord said, what would you have me to do for you, oh Lord,
that I might see. And then we would be blind, spiritually
blind if the Lord didn't open our eyes. If he didn't open the
windows of heaven and send his spirit, if he didn't open his
word and open our hearts, we would never believe. That's why
we love God's law. We want to know what God says.
We want to know what his word says. Lord, open thou mine eyes
that I may behold wondrous things, things too wonderful. Now we
use that word wonderful pretty loosely, don't we? We enjoy a good meal. We say,
boy, that was wonderful. But to be wonderful is to be
beyond comprehension. It's full of wonder. It's just
we're left in awe, not knowing what to even think of it. We
can't comprehend it. Lord, if you open my eyes and
you open your word, you open your law, I'll begin to see. Though I look through a glass
darkly, I'll begin to see glimmers of your grace. in the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll begin to understand a little
bit about who he is. I'll begin to, that's what the
Lord said to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, you've got to be born from above,
except a man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of
God. Lord, open thou mine eyes that
I may behold wondrous things. wonderful things, things too
great for me. Psalm 139, David speaks of things
that are too wonderful for him to comprehend. He said, if I
go to the far reaches of the rising of the sun, thou art there.
If I go into the sea, thou art there. Lord, wherever I go, you
go before me, you're behind me. You know my thoughts before I
think them, my words before I speak them. These things are too wonderful
for me, he says. I can't, I can't enter in. I
can't comprehend this. All I can do is believe it. How
do we believe? Well, faith comes by hearing
and hearing comes by the word of God. So Lord, open thou mine
eyes that I may behold wonders, wonders about who Christ is,
wonders about what he's accomplished. from by law. That's why we love his law. If
we didn't have his word, what revelation of Christ would
we have? We would have nothing more than
that. I was talking with somebody,
I think it was Donnie Wiginton, we were talking about Mormonism.
And all the revelation they have is given to them by Joseph Smith,
who found some golden tablets in the woods. And then he lost
them, I guess. I don't know. He wrote the whole
book of Mormons. And they're resting the hope
of their salvation on the testimony of one man. or we would be like
the Muslims who are trusting in Muhammad and what he was... No, we've got the word of God.
Isn't it glorious the way the Lord gave it to us? 1,500 years, 66 books, 30 something
authors or penmen, all moved by the spirit of God. And all
this works together in perfect revelation to reveal to us the
glory of Christ. Lord, what? Open thou mine eyes. Lord, if you don't open my eyes,
I won't see Christ. If I do, I'll be caught up in
his wonder. I'll be resting the hope of my
salvation in his accomplished work. And I'll be looking to
his glorious person for all my righteousness and all my satisfaction
before God. Open my eyes. I said, Paul, pray
for the church in Ephesus. He said, I pray that the eyes
of thy understanding will be opened. Open. Lord, every time
we come in here, we ought to be asking the Lord, Lord, open
my eyes. Open my eyes. Cause me. I pray that constantly. I'm preparing to preach to you.
Lord, you're going to have to open my eyes. You're going to
have to reveal this to me. And the divine truths of God
come by revelation. They come by revelation. I've
shared this with y'all before. I'll tell you, inspiration and
revelation is two different things. Inspiration is what God gave
to the penman of scripture when holy men of God wrote as they
were moved or inspired by the Holy Ghost. They wrote the infallible,
inerrant word of God. Revelation is what that same
spirit who inspired them to write the scriptures, revelation is
what the same spirit does when he opens our eyes and enables
us to understand what it is these men were inspired to write. And
the glorious truth is that much of their inspiration, we're able
to understand better than they understood it. These Old Testament
prophets, a lot of what they wrote, You know, they were inspired
of God, but they couldn't possibly understand what you and I understand
now, that Christ has come. And we interpret everything that
they wrote in light of the finished work of Christ, don't we? Open thou mine eyes that I may
behold wondrous things from thy law, we behold something of his
holiness, his justice, his righteousness, his mercy, his love, all these
things revealed to us in his word. We're not looking to the
testimony of a man. We're looking to the revelation
that God has given of himself in scripture. And that's why
we love his law. We can say, my thoughts are bent
God's thoughts are holy and just and good. And I have one who
satisfied all the demands of God's holy law. And who's given
me by divine revelation, a full picture of himself, enabling
me to say, I love God's law. I love it. Where would we be
without it? We wouldn't have anything. Have anything more
than, you know, I mentioned the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons
are trusting the revelation of one man or we could be like the
rest of the world who just trusting the revelation of their own opinions. That's really where the world
is. The world, your friends and people you know and work with,
they're just basing everything on what they think is true. Well,
it seems to me or, you know, they just, I believe. Well, what
do you base that belief on? Well, I don't know. It just feels
right. But we've got God's law. We've got his word. And we say
with God as our witness, Lord, I love your law. I love every
word of it. Look at verse 29. Remove from me the way of lying
and grant me Thy law graciously. I made mention of this a week
or two ago. About grace when you read a lot of the commentators
of the Bible, they'll speak of grace and even the dictionaries,
the Bible dictionaries will say grace is unmerited favor. And it's so much more than that.
It's not that we just don't merit it. We. We've done everything
contrary to it. Grace is in spite of us. Grace is demerited favor. Grace is everything that we deserve. God has given us the opposite
by grace. By grace are you saved through
faith. How do we know that? How do we
know that? By God's law. Grant me thy law
graciously. Lord, I've got no claims to make
on you. I can't insist that you do something
for me. I can't present to you any righteousness
on my half that would obligate you in any way to bless me with
your word. And that's more prevalent than
we might think. Listen, theological education, religious
education, is all for the purpose of obligating God to bless them
based on the efforts that they've made to study and to learn. And
all they've learned is the opinions of other men. It's men thinking
that, well, God's gonna, I'm gonna get revelation because
I'm gonna work for it. No, you're not. You're not gonna work for
it. God's gonna reveal it graciously. And he's gonna make us completely
dependent upon his grace for all the revelation of truth that
we have. After all these years of preaching,
I find myself less and less reading the opinions of other men. I find it much more profitable
to me, and I think to you, to just compare scripture to scripture.
What does God say? You know, and those who are trained
theologically, they'll defend their position with some opinion
of another man. Well, so-and-so believed this,
or so-and-so, somebody asked me the other day, well, you know,
what about Martin Luther? What did he believe? Well, you
know, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't matter what Martin
Luther believed. It doesn't matter what John Calvin
believed. Let's say it's the scriptures.
It's the only thing that matters. God keep us faithful to his word
and just comparing the spiritual to the spiritual. God will answer
all the questions with his word. And he'll do it graciously. You
see that? Why do we love God's law? Because
He grants it to us by grace. We don't obligate Him. We don't
put Him in a position of being, you know, forced to do anything
for us. Everything we receive from God, we receive it by grace. Look at verse 44. "'So shall
I keep thy law, continually, forever and ever. How would we know anything about
perseverance and preservation? How would we know anything about
that? How would we know anything about the Spirit of God preserving
us and keeping us if we didn't have God's law? If we didn't
have his word, how would we know that? We would just, we would
be like most religious people who are just working and working
and working and lying on their deathbed and wondering, have
I done enough? Have I done enough? God's word makes it clear that
he that began a good work in you will complete it. He will perform it until the
day of his coming. God's Word makes it clear that
when the Lord Jesus Christ said it is finished, all our sin,
not just our past sins, our present sins, our future sins, all of
them were put away by the sacrifice of himself. He bore them all
in his body on the tree. God looked at the travail of
his soul and God was satisfied. We're not We're not thinking,
well, you know, I've got to, I got to do better if I'm going
to, I'm going to hang in there to the end. No, we say, Lord,
keep me, keep me, preserve me, protect me. So shall I keep thy law continually
forever and ever. God's people do. They keep, this
is the commandment. This is the commandment. This
is the full fullness of God's word that you believe on him
whom he has sent. That's the commandment of God.
And that's what the Lord is gonna do for us. If we abide in him, he abides in
us, keep his word. God's word is the only way to
be found faithful. It's the only way to be found
faithful. Look at verse 55. I have remembered thy name, O
Lord, in the night and have kept thy law. How prone we are to
forget. How prone we are to wonder and
to leave the God we love. How prone we are to think little
of God and think way too much of the things of this world.
When does God remind us when does he when does he turn us
when does he bring us back and what by what means does he use
to do that he uses his word his word reveals to us the glory
of christ and by his word he turns our hearts and so we say
lord if you're going to keep me you're going to have to keep
reminding me you're going to have to keep turning me you're
going to have to keep saving me you're going to have to keep
revealing yourself to me you're going to have to Keep teaching
me and showing me. And what does he say in verse
55? Look, I have remembered thy name. And that's what his word,
his word reveals who he is. The word of God reveals the word
of God. The written word reveals the
living word and reveals to us by his name. His name is Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. He is the Christ,
the anointed one. He is Jehovah, the infinite,
eternal, self-sustaining I am. He exists within himself. He's
self-existent. He's not like us. His name and
all of His names, how many names He's given of Himself in the
Scriptures to show us more and more of His glory. He's the shepherd
of the sheep, isn't He? He's the rose of Sharon. He's the resurrection and the
life. He's given us so many descriptions
of Himself in His name. And where do we get that? We
get that from His law. Lord, cause me. Look at verse
55. I have remembered thy name, O
Lord, and in the night. What does that mean, in the night?
Well, Nicodemus came to the Lord by night, and that was a biblical
testimony of the darkness of his heart. He didn't know God. A religious man who knew the
Bible, but he didn't know God. He had searched the scriptures,
but he didn't know that these were they which testify of Christ.
And he came to the Lord by night. And night and darkness is a picture
of blindness and spiritual confusion. And Lord, when I get confused
and I get blinded by sin, It's your law. It's your word that
reminds me of who you are and what you've done and and and
that shines the light of the gospel back in and gives me order
to my steps and gives me hope for my soul. All of these things
come from God's word. It comes from his law. We wouldn't
have any place else to go. We have no other place to go.
For. that revelation. Look at verse
61. Verse 61. The bands of the wicked have
robbed me, but I have not forgotten thy law. Look down with me to
verse seven. Their heart is as fat as grease,
but I delight in thy law. And we know that These declarations
are first about Christ. He's the one who was crucified. He's the one who bands of wickedness
robbed him and set a pit for him, but he kept faithful to
God's law. But I want you to think with
me for just a moment about something else. Who made thee to differ? Who made thee to differ? If there
is the righteous and the unrighteous and we're righteous, who made
us that way? If there's the wicked and the believer, who made us to
differ? And by what means did he use
to make us to differ? We didn't just wake up one day
and be made different. We heard the gospel from his
word. And he was pleased to reveal
himself. He opened our ears. He opened
our eyes. He made us to differ. Everything
we have, we've received. We have nothing to boast about.
And so the believer can say with David, the bands of the wicked
have robbed me. They robbed me of my hope. Every
time I'm tempted to consider the wisdom of this world and
the philosophy of man, I'm robbed of the hope of my salvation. But I've not forgotten that law. You've made me to differ. You
keep bringing me back to your word, to your promises. Their heart is fat as grease,
but I delight in my law. Why did we delight in his law?
Why do we want to know? Why do we need to know? Why do
we rest the hope of our salvation in what God said and the rest
of the world is hoping in something else? Why? He made us to differ. And the means by which he did
it was his word. And that's why we love the God's
law. We can say, I love God's law. Look at verse 72 and we'll
close. Look at verse 72. I want you
to see two more verses. Verse 72, the law of thy mouth
is better unto me than thousands of silver and gold. Look at verse
77. Let thy tender mercies come unto
me that I may live For thy law is my delight. What keeps us
from becoming completely addicted to the things of this
world? What keeps us from putting all
our hope in material things and in physical possessions? It's
his law. We could say his word And the
revelation of Christ made to our hearts in his word is our
delight. And we know from what God has
said, what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but
loses his own soul? The rest of the world have all
their hope and material things. We brought nothing into this
world and it is certain that we should take nothing out of
it. How do we know that? Because God said so. God said
so. We would become. Well, this world will be all
we had all we would have if we did not have God's law. We say. With David. My thoughts are Bain. But I love that long. I love
that long. Father, we pray that you would
add your blessings to your word and to our hearts. Have mercy
upon us, we ask it in Christ's name, amen. 268, let's stand
together, 268. Bye! What more can he say than to
you he hath said? Who you who for refuge to Jesus
have fled? Fear not, I am with thee, O be
not dismayed. For I am thy God, I will still
give thee aid, I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee
to stand, Upheld by my gracious, omnipotent hand. And through the deep waters I
call thee to go. The rivers of foam shall not
thee overflow, for I will be with thee by troubles to bless. When through my retrials thy
pathway shall lie, Ah, my grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy
supply. The flame shall not hurt thee,
I only desire thy drops to consume and thy gold to refine. A soul that on Jesus hath leaned
for repose, I will not find new. not desert to his foes. That's so the girl should endeavor
to say, I'll never, I'll never, I'll never forsake Okay.