Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 32 from the Spiral Gospel Hymns
hymn book, and let's all stand together. All children of wrath In bondage
and sin We helplessly lay Condemned and unclean God's law in its
infinite Justice and wrath Demanded we suffer An eternal death But
long before time had ever begun, One stood in our place, God's
glorious Son. He offered Himself to go live
among men, And give His own life to atone for our sin. The Great Substitute, behold
He has come. The price has been paid, the
work is all done. Christ took on Himself the great
load of our sin. He poured out His blood and He
put away sin. God's justice and law are now
satisfied, and all who believe have been justified. Through faith in the blood of
the Lamb, we are free from sin's condemnation, eternally free. Please be seated. What a glorious truth. From sin's
condemnation, gloriously free. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. Wages of sin is death and death
has been destroyed. It's been conquered. Good morning. We're going to be In Psalm 119
this morning, the first hour. Psalm 119. I've titled this message
hope. For dying men, I stand before
you this morning as a dying man. And I know that I'm speaking
to dying men. The hope that we have is that
death has been conquered. The grave has been defeated.
Satan's been. His well, his works have been
destroyed. Sins been put away. Laws been
satisfied. And the hope is not only has
he conquered death. But he has. This is not a morbid
subject. I know this is a subject that
a lot of people don't want to think about. But here's our hope,
brethren. Christ not only conquered death,
but he provides eternal life. The hope of eternal life in Christ. This is life eternal that they
might know they the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou
has sent. That's our hope and I hope that
our Lord will be pleased to speak to our hearts this morning. I was by way of just something
that you would be interested in knowing about. I was contacted
by a man by the name of Gilbert in India some time ago and we've
been corresponding and he set up for me to preach to his church
last night and it was Sunday morning for them and it was 1030
for me so I was preaching last night close to midnight and I
told the man this morning I'm kind of feeling it right now
but But I want you to know that I told them I was going to tell
you about them, because I was very encouraged to talk to them.
We did that, what do you call it, go to meetings, so everybody's
picture was on the screen, and I was able to greet each one
of them and talk to them. And they've been listening to
our services here for a long time. They all knew me, but I,
of course, had never met any of them before. I just wanted you to know that
there's a group of believers in India that are watching our
services. And we've set it up to where
I'm going to be doing that for them once a month. And there's
space on the thing for 150 people, and they only have about 12.
So I told them, I said, well, next time, some of you will be
logging on and joining us. So I think we've got it set up
for the 16th of August. and it'll be 1030 at night on
Saturday night, and I'll give you the code, and anybody that
wants to log on to gotomeeting.com, you can join in the service and
meet them. You'll be very encouraged. All right, let's ask the Lord's
blessing on our time together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
how very thankful we are for the hope of eternal life that
you have given in thy dear son. We ask, Lord, that you would
send your spirit, that you would open our hearts, that you would
open the windows of heaven, that you would come down and visit
with us. Make yourself known to us and give us hope and grace
and peace and rest in the glorious person and in the accomplished
work of thy dear son. Thank you for your word. Cause
it to be effectual, alive, sharper than any two edged sword. Divide
us under the thoughts and the intents of our hearts. and reveal
to us the glory of Christ. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 119, hope for dying men. And the emphasis is on hope. We are all dying, there's no
question about that. Let me show you an example of
that. Hold your finger there and turn with me to Genesis chapter
5. Genesis chapter 5. People always want to live longer,
trying to figure out how to extend life. Men have been doing it
from the very beginning. Well, I want you to notice that
before the flood, men lived to be hundreds of years old. And
in verse 5 of Genesis chapter 5, and all the days that Adam
lived were 930 years and he died. Look at verse 8, and all the
days of Seth were 912 years and he died. Look at verse 11,
and all the days of Enos were 905 years and he died. Verse 14, and all
the days of Canaan were 910 years and he died. Verse 20, and all the days of
Jared were 960 and two years and he died. And the man who
lived longest is found in verse 27 and all the days of Methuselah
were 960 in nine years, and he died. We are dying men. This is not
a morbid message in an attempt to try to get you to be afraid
of death. No, just to the opposite. I hate
fear mongering. One of the things I hate about
this whole coronavirus thing is a lot of the politicians are
using fear to control and manipulate people. And that's the last thing
in the world I want to do. Our hope is that in death, there's
life. The fact that we're dying is
just, that's a given. Men have been doing it from the
beginning. But the Lord Jesus Christ said that if we believe
in him, we shall never die, never die. And that's my hope, that
we will have the hope of eternal life in the finished work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice in verse 25. of Psalm
119, my soul cleaveth unto dust. From dust you came and to dust
you shall return. Every generation of every man
who's ever lived has returned to the place from where he came.
And you and I will. You and I will. And here's the
believer saying, my soul's cleaving to dust. Lord, the reality of
death is ever before me. But the primary application and
meaning of this passage is to be understood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In Psalm 22, what a glorious
Psalm that is, it's the one that starts out with My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? It's the psalm that our Lord
quoted from the cross. It's the same psalm that says
they parted my garment and they cast lots from my vesture and
my bones cleaved unto me. All the descriptions of the Lord
Jesus on the cross. are found written by David a
thousand years before the Lord died on Calvary's cross. And
they're very detailed. And in Psalm 22 at verse 15,
the Lord said, my strength is dried up like a potsherd and
my tongue cleaveth to my jaws for thou hast brought me into
the dust of death. So Psalm 119, as we see in all
the Psalms, are to be understood first and foremost fulfilled
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one that cries out to
his father from the cross, Lord, I'm going back. I'm going into
the grave. I'm dying. My life is leaving me. And so he says in verse 25, my
soul cleaveth unto death, quicken thou me according to thy word. You know most people are very
short-sighted when it comes to life, and most of the time we
are. Uh, more concerned with temporal
things than eternal things. Isn't that true? And the reason
we're here this morning is to, is to, um, redirect, if you will,
our focus on that, which is eternal and that which is important because
we get so, we get so myopic, don't we? We just, we get focused
on those things that are right there in front of us. But religion
is based on giving people tools to use to conquer their temporal
problems and helping people learn how to live a better life. And
so you have preachers standing up preaching messages on how
to be a better husband and how to raise children and all those
fix-it sermons that that men preach. I was telling the group
in India last night, I'm much more concerned about how you
die than how you live. And my primary responsibility,
now I'm not saying, don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying how we live
is irrelevant, it's not important, but what I am saying is that
if the Lord ever gives us grace to die, he will teach us how
to live. You can't learn how to live until
you know how to die. And the gospel preacher's primary
responsibility is to prepare people to die. But what do we
see in religion? They're just giving people, well,
they're putting Band-Aids on terminal cancer is what they're
doing. And giving people pain medicine to try to cure something
that's going to kill them in the end. And I'm much more concerned
with getting to the heart of the problem, which is our heart. And so the Lord says, my soul
cleaveth unto death. You know, I was thinking in 1
Corinthians chapter 15, verse 26, the scripture says, talks
about all the enemies in this world and in our flesh. And then
it says, and the last enemy is death. Is death. That's the one. That's, that's the war. That's
the war, conquering death, and that's what the Lord Jesus Christ
did on Calvary's cross. He won the war. You know, I was
thinking, why is it that we celebrate things like Normandy, Midway,
the Battle of the Bulge? Why do we celebrate those battles
that were fought in World War II? Simply because we won the
war. The war was won. You know, there
was a lot of battles that we won in Vietnam, and I bet you
nobody here could even mention one of them. Why? Because we
shamefully lost that war. My point is that people are much
more concerned with their daily battles than they are with winning
the war. But the final enemy is death. That's the war that has to be
won. And don't become so focused on
the daily battle that you lose the war. I'm hoping that the
Lord will give us grace to know that Christ Jesus the Lord got
the victory over death. He conquered the grave. Turn
with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Verse 53, for this corruptible,
and that's what our flesh is, that's what these bodies that
we live in are corruptible, they're dying. They're returning back
to the place they came from. This corruptible shall have put
on incorruption. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall see
him as he is and be made like him. The resurrected body, a
body of eternal life. That's the only thing that matters
in the end. The only thing that matters.
You ever sat at the bedside of a dying person, you know, You
know, nothing else really matters. This corruptible shall have put
on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality, then
shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death
is swallowed up in victory. Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is thy sting? There's nothing to fear in death
if we're in Christ. If we know him and he's conquered
death, nothing to fear. This is not fear mongering. This
is just facing the truth that we're dying people and Christ
has conquered the grave. Oh, death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave. Look at the rest of
this. Oh, grave, where is thy victory?
These are rhetorical questions. There's no sting to death. in
Christ. There's no victory to the grave
in Christ. The sting of death is sin. The sting of death is sin. In
the day in which you sin, you shall eat of the fruit of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die.
The wages of sin is death. Christ has put away our sin.
So sin shall not have dominion over you. Sin shall not condemn
you. Why? Because sin's been put away. The sting of death is sin. The
strength of sin is the law. The strength of sin is the law. You put somebody under the law
and all they're doing is you're just aggravating sin, aren't
you? It's the grace of God. that causes us to love Christ. The law can't save. The law only
aggravates sin. But thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's our Lord. Therefore, my
beloved brethren, be steadfast. Steadfast in what? Looking to
Christ. Resting in Christ. Believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't go back to the law. Be
steadfast. Unmovable. Don't step off that
rock. Stand fast, Paul said in Galatians
chapter 3, in the liberty where with Christ has made you free
and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Don't go
back to Egypt. Don't go back to the law. Christ
is the only one that's conquered the grave. He's the one in whom
we have eternal life. And he's the one praying over
here in Psalm 119. He says, my soul cleaveth unto
death, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord for as much as you know, that your labor is not
in vain in the Lord, in the Lord. All right, go back with me to
our text in Psalm 119. This is first and foremost to
be understood as the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. My soul
cleaveth unto the dust and he's calling out to the father, quicken
thou me according to thy word. Now the word quicken means to
be made alive and the Lord Jesus is calling on his father to reward
him for his faithfulness by raising him from the dead. He's the firstborn,
the scripture says. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
firstborn. It's not talking about his physical
birth. It's talking about his resurrection.
He's the firstborn among many brethren. And because he's raised
from the dead, we have the hope that we'll be raised from the
dead. In Psalm 16 verse 9, thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. Now that's the Lord calling out
to his father. Thou will not leave my soul in
hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption. The Lord Jesus Christ, he went
into the grave. He didn't see corruption. Life
was given to him. Because of his faithfulness as
the Holy One before the Father, he met all the requirements of
God's holy law. And he fulfilled everything that
the Father sent him to do. What did the Lord Jesus Christ
come to the world to do? To save sinners. to save sinners. You shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins." And that's
exactly what he did. And because he was successful
in doing what the Father sent him to do, the Father raised
him from the dead. And he knew he would. He said,
that will not leave my soul in hell. And thou will not allow
thy Holy One to see corruption. Listen to Psalm 30 verse 2. I
cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me, thou hast brought
up my soul from the grave, thou hast kept me alive, that I should
not go down into the pit. He came to destroy the works
of the devil. What is the works of the devil?
Death is the work of the devil. Separation from God is the work
of the devil. And the Lord Jesus Christ defeated
Satan. And he's crying here, he says,
I cried unto thee and thou hast helped me. In Psalm 49 verse
15, God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave for he
shall receive me. The Lord Jesus Christ was received
back into glory and he took with him all the names of those for
whom he lived and died and he reigns successful as our intercessor. standing in our stead before
God and presenting himself as all our righteousness before
the Father. To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is to rest
all your hope in his accomplished work and in his glorious person. Psalm 86 verse 13 says, great
is thy mercy towards me for thou hast delivered my soul from the
lowest hell. That's the Lord praying. He's
saying to the Father, great is thy mercy towards me, for thou
hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. That's the war. That's the war. And that's the
final enemy. And the Lord Jesus Christ got
the victory. He got the victory. Oh, death. Where is thy sting? Grave, where
is thy victory? The sting of death is sin. He
put away sin. And he fulfilled the law. Quicken thou me, make me alive
according to thy word. The Lord Jesus Christ died and was raised again according
to the scriptures. All of the things that God promised
in the Old Testament were fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so he's praying, Father, quicken me according to thy word. What
is the hope that you and I have? What's the ground of our hope? Christ is our hope, but what's
the ground of our hope? It's the, what's the, what's
the evidence of our hope? Is it a, is it a feeling? Is
it a sign? Is it an experience? Is it, is
it any of those things? No, it's the word of God. Quicken
thou me according to thy word. Faith is just believing God.
It's believing what God has said. And when the Lord gives you faith,
you believe every word of what God... I've heard people say,
well, how much of the Bible do you have to believe to be a believer?
If you're a believer, you believe every word of it. You just believe
it all. That's the nature of a believer. He believes. He believes everything
God says. We don't pick and choose from
God's word. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. None of it came by private interpretation. And it all speaks to Christ.
It all speaks of him and reveals his glory and his work. And so
the Lord's praying to the Father. You made a covenant promise.
And it's recorded in your word. And I'm coming into thy presence
with that as my only ground of acceptance, my only proof, the
only claim that he had, that we have, is the word of God. When Peter's speaking of his
experience on the Mount of Transfiguration, remember when the veil of our
Lord's humanity was taken away and the, the radiance of his
deity, the scripture says were like the noonday sun and Peter,
James, and John were up there. I mean, that's a mountaintop
experience, wasn't it? You know, you hear people talk about having
a mountaintop experience. Peter, James, and John had a
mountaintop experience. They saw. At least a glimmer
of the deity of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And they were put in
the ground. They were put on their faces
in the dirt one day. And, uh, and Peter said, we did
not bring to you cunningly devised fables. We handled the word of
God and we saw his excellent glory on the mountain. And then
the next verse he says, but. We have a more sure word of prophecy
for the word of God came not by private interpretation, but
holy men of God wrote as they were moved by the Holy spirit. You see is as glorious and as,
as, as life-changing as that mountaintop experience would
have been, Peter said. My hope is not in that experience.
I don't know how much of that experience, you know, was my
feelings, but I've got the word of God and I can rest there. You see, we have the more sure
word of prophecy. Peter said, what we have in,
in the revelation of Christ given to us in the word of God is better
than the experience that he had on that mountain. Faith is believing
what God has said. So the Lord was perfectly faithful,
wasn't he? He believed everything the Father
said. And he said, Lord, my soul cleaveth unto death. I'm dying. Quicken me, make me alive according
to thy word. That's all you and I have. All
we have and all we need. is the precious promises of God's
word. And we rest our hope. We say,
Lord, I believe. I believe. Look at verse 26. I have declared
my ways and thou heardest me. I have declared my ways. and
thou heardest me." Christ's way was perfect obedience to the
Father. And the Father saw the travail
of his soul and was satisfied. The Father saw the obedience
that he gave, even unto death, yea, even the death of the cross.
And the scripture says, and God gave him a name that is above
every name. God rewarded him, exalted him
on high. And so the Lord Jesus is saying
here, I have declared my ways. I've made known to the Father
my faithfulness and my perfect obedience. And he heard me. He heard me and he rewarded me.
The believer's way is Christ himself. Let me show you that
in scripture. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
five. Hebrews chapter five. Look at verse seven, speaking
of Christ as the priests forever after the order of Melchizedek,
Hebrews chapter five, verse seven, who in the days of his flesh,
when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong
cryings and tears unto him that was able to save him from death
and was heard in that he feared. Okay. So the Lord Jesus Christ, If
we can say it like this, obligated the father by his perfect obedience. And he was heard because he feared
God. And so when he says in Psalm
119, I have declared my ways and you heard me. What was his
way? His way was perfect obedience.
That's what God requires and he will not settle for anything
less. God's not impressed with the best that you and I can do.
God demands perfection. So now look at the rest of this.
Verse eight, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the
things which he suffered and being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. What is it to obey Him? It's
to believe on Him. Matter of fact, this word obey
is the word believe. It's to believe Christ. It's
to rest all our hope in His finished work. And so the way of the Lord
Jesus Christ was perfect obedience and the way of those that He
obeyed God for is Himself. He's the way. That's why he said,
I am the way, the truth and the life. No man, no man can come
to the father except by me. Go back with me to our text. Teach me thy statutes. That's our constant prayer. Lord,
open the mystery of the gospel to me. Open the eyes of my understanding. Give me faith. Enable me to see
Christ in thy word. If we haven't seen Christ, we
haven't understood the scriptures. God didn't give us the Bible
as a as a rule book. He gave us a Bible as a revelation
of revelation. People go to the Bible and they
think, well, I've got to obey God, so I gotta do this and not
do that and do the other. Certainly there's things that
child of God Well, no man ought to do and things we ought to
do. Uh, you know, somebody said,
well, you know, I got saved and I quit doing what you should
have quit that before. You know, uh, you know, it's no. Teach me the statutes, show me
Christ, reveal to me his glory and his accomplished work. And
you know what? Rest of them take care of itself. He that began
a good work in you will complete it to the day of his coming.
He doesn't start something without finishing it. And he knows how
to, he knows what each one of his children need in terms of
bringing them to repentance and giving them faith. He knows what each one of us
need. Unlock the mystery of the gospel
to my heart. The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ is what this is all about. And it proves, it
proves that the grave has been conquered, that death has been
defeated, that sin has been put away, that the Lord Jesus Christ
destroyed the works of the devil, that he satisfied divine justice,
and that he fulfilled the law of God. And so he says, Praying
to the Father, my soul's cleaving to death, your soul's cleaving
to death, my soul's cleaving to death. We're dying people.
I know there's a lot of battles in this life. But those battles will mean nothing
if we lose the war. Our merciful heavenly Father,
bless your word to our hearts. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. you.