Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 22 from the Spiral Gospel Hymns Hymnbook,
number 22. Let's all stand. We were ruined by the fall, Adam's
sin defiles us all. By our deed as by our birth,
we deserve the law's great curse. Helpless, hopeless sinners we,
never can our souls retrieve. But the blessed Son of God Came
as man in flesh and blood He fulfilled the law's demands And
in death stretched out His hands On the cross of Calvary Christ
redeemed and set us free In the time which God had set, the Spirit
came for His elect to regenerate and call from the ruin of the
fall. By His power and by His grace,
we were born for God's own praise. ? Now your purpose we fulfill
? ? Saved according to your will ? ? Sing the song of joyful praise
? ? For the glory of your grace ? ? Blessed, holy, triune God
? ? Hear our praise through Christ our Lord ? Please be seated. Good evening. We're going to read from the
Gospel of John, Chapter 1, for our call to worship. If you'd
like, turn with me there in your Bibles. I was driving in a car
yesterday and listening to the radio, and there was an advertisement
for an investment opportunity. And the announcer at the end
of the advertisement gave this disclaimer. He said past performance
is no guarantee of future profits. And I thought, I only know of
one thing where the past performance guarantees a future profit. And that's the performance of
the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. when he bore our sins
in his body and satisfied the demands of God's justice, he
guaranteed that everyone he performed that work for would be with him
in glory. There's our guarantee. The world
has no guarantees. We have the only true guarantee
accomplished all by the Lord Jesus Christ. You have your Bibles
open to John chapter one in the beginning. Now this is in comparison
to Genesis chapter 1 verse 1, in the beginning God. And John
when he's writing inspired by the Holy Spirit says in the beginning
was the Word. And the Word was with God and
the Word was God. This being used to just define
the essence of Christ as the Word of God. The same was in
the beginning with God. All things were made by him and
without him was not anything made that was made. He's the
creator and sustainer of everything. In him was life and the life
was the light of men. Now in the natural world we think
of light being necessary for life, but here in the spiritual
world life was necessary for light. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the source of all life and in him we have the light of truth. And the light shineth in the
darkness, that's the world, and the darkness comprehended it
not. Skip down with me to the next few verses are about John
the Baptist. Look at verse 10. He was in the
world and the world was made by him and the world knew him
not. He came unto his own, that's
the Jewish nation, and his own received him not. But as many
as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of
God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of man, nor, I'm sorry, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God." They're
born of God. And the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace
and truth. God add his blessings to the
reading of his word. Let's pray together. I just got
a text from Hugo. And, you know, Hugo has some
compromising health issues. He and Zobey got sick yesterday.
Zobey has a hair salon where she deals with a lot of people
in and out, and they both are not feeling well, and they're
concerned about this COVID thing. So, yeah, so we pray for them.
Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
We come into thy holy presence thanking you for your word. Thank
you for your written word, the revelation that you've given
to your church of your glory and of your dear son. Thank you,
Lord, for the living word, the one who's revealed to us by your
spirit. the one who promises to abide
with us and live in us and save us. Lord, we ask that you'd be
pleased to cause the Lord Jesus Christ to be lifted up among
us tonight, that our hearts will be drawn in faith to him, that
we would rest our hope in his glorious person and in his accomplished
work. Lord, we know that all things
work together for good for them that love you and those that
are called according to your purpose. We know Lord that everything
that happens in this world is being directed by your sovereign
omnipotent hand. We know Lord that this pandemic
is is of you and Lord you have a purpose in it. Purpose for
salvation and a purpose for your own glory. Lord, we ask that
you would Protect your children. Keep us safe. We pray for you
going so be asked Lord for your hand of strength and healing
to be upon them. We prayed in Christ's name. Amen. Number 226 from the hardback
Himmel number 226. Let's all stand again. I am not skilled to understand
what God hath willed, what God hath planned. I only know at
His right hand is one who is my Savior. I take Him at His word indeed. Christ died for sinners, this
I read, for in my heart I find a need of Him to be my Savior. That He should leave His place
on high and come for sinful men to die. You counted strange,
so once did I, before I knew my Savior. And oh, that He fulfilled, may
see, The travail of His soul in me, And with His work contented
be, As I with my dear Savior. ? Yea, living, dying, let me
bring ? My strength, my solace from this spring ? That he who
lives to be my king ? Once died to be my savior Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 119? Psalm 119. You remember that
every verse of this psalm with the exclusion of one has a reference
to the gospel directly, either by the word, word or statute
or commandment or precept. And we find it to be true in
these verses that we want to look at tonight. We'll begin
at verse nine. Wherewithal shall a young man
cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word. I've titled this message, the
word of God, the word of God. And we just read in John chapter
one that the Lord Jesus Christ is the living word. Now, one
thing we don't do is separate the Lord Jesus as the living
word from the scriptures as the written word. The written word
is a revelation of the living word. And so when we look to
the scriptures, we're looking for Christ, for in the volume
of the book, it is written of me. The Lord rebuked the Pharisees
who were very diligent students of the Bible. Some of us have
been there. ignorantly studying the Bible
and not knowing Christ. And the Lord rebuked those Pharisees
and he said to them, he said, you search the scriptures because
you think in them you have eternal life. You think if you can come
to understand the Bible, you think if you can memorize the
Bible, you think if you can have some theology and doctrine under
your belt, that you can earn favor with God. You can achieve
eternal life by your study of the Bible. And then he went on
to say, but these are they which testify of me. You've missed
the meaning of the Bible. You've missed Christ altogether. In another place, Isaiah said,
thy word shall not return unto thee void. It will accomplish
the purpose for which I send it. The Lord Jesus Christ as
the living word accomplished the purpose for which he was
sent. He was sent in order to save
his people and he saved them. He didn't make salvation possible.
He actually accomplished their salvation. It's finished. Everything
necessary for the salvation of God's people was completed, finished,
satisfied on Calvary's cross. And when he returned back into
glory, That little disclaimer that I heard yesterday, past
performances are no guarantee of future prophets. That's not
true of Christ. His past performance is the guarantee
that everyone whom God chose in the covenant of grace would
be with him in glory. It is the guarantee that he will
return and receive his church unto himself and reveal himself
as the sovereign, reigning, omnipotent king. And that's it. We're guaranteed of that. We
don't have guarantee of much else in this world, but we're
guaranteed of that by his past performance. He did not return
to God void. He returned with the names of
those that God chose those for whom He lived and died. And those
people are seated with Him in the heavenlies right now in Christ. All our blessings are in the
Lord Jesus Christ right now, standing before God in our substitute,
in our advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.
What hope? What hope? That's the word. And then the scripture tells
us in the book of James, of his own will begat he us. In other words, according to
his purpose and by his will, not by our will. We just read
that in John chapter one, not by the will of the flesh or by
the will of man, but by God, by the, by the power of his spirit
of his own will begat he us or birthed us into the kingdom of
God. And that's the preaching of the
gospel, isn't it? When we open God's word, Peter
tells us that the word of God is quick and powerful. And then he goes on to say, and
this is the word, this is the word, which by the gospel is
preached unto you. So if the gospel of God's free
grace in the glorious person and finished work of Christ is
not being preached, the Word of God is not being preached.
That's just how simple it is. And let men glory in their presumed
knowledge of the Bible. If they don't know Christ, they
don't know the Word of God. Christ is the Word. And so when David writes in Psalm
119, where with all shall a young man cleanse his way by taking
heed thereto according to thy word. Now notice in verse 10,
the last word is the word commandment. In verse 11, the second word
is the word word. In verse 12, the last word is
the word statutes. In verse 13, you see the word
judgments. In verse 14, you see the word
testimonies. In verse 15, you see the word
precepts. And in verse 16, you see the
word statutes. These are adjectives that give
us a little different view of the word of God, the living word
of God, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and what it is
that he accomplished. How shall a young man cleanse
his way? Job asked the same question in
Job chapter 9 verse 2 when he said, how shall a man be just
with God? The Philippian jailer, what must
I do to be saved? How can I be saved? In another place we read, who
shall stand in his presence? How shall a man cleanse his way? Any man for that matter, young
man, old man. This is a reference to Christ
first and foremost. He's the young man that cleansed
his way by heeding every word from the Father. He went to the
cross. Somebody sent me an email this
week and said, I know that And they've just started listening
to the gospel. He said, I know that we have to be perfect, but
could you show me that in the scriptures? And I was happy to
correspond with him. But that's what God requires.
He requires absolute perfection. He will not settle for anything
less. We are accepted in the beloved. The Lord is not going
to be pleased with anything other than absolute perfection. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
at 30 years old began his public ministry and at 33 bore the sins
of his people. That seems like a pretty young
man to me. And he cleansed his way. He made himself to be perfect. He made himself to be holy. How? By heeding every word of God. You and I can't say that we've
heeded every word from God. We believe every word that God
has spoken, but have we Have we obeyed it? Have we heeded
it? Have we fulfilled it? No, the Lord Jesus Christ is
the young man that did that. And so when the scripture says,
who shall stand in his presence? And the answer to that question
is, he who has clean hands. and a pure heart, and has not
lifted up his soul into vanity, nor has ever spoken or sworn
deceitfully." Who is that? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the one whose hands are clean. He's the ones whose heart is
pure. He's the one who never lifted
up his soul to vanity, nor swore deceitfully. And here's the glorious
good news, brethren. What's true for him is true for
all those that are found in him. This is whatever is not of faith
is sin. Now is the Bible filled with
precepts and admonitions and statutes that we that we want
to heed to, and listen to, and follow after? Certainly it is,
but we can never do that without an eye towards Christ. Let me
give you some examples of that. Be ye kind and tender-hearted
one toward another. Do we have an interest in being
kind and tender-hearted one toward another? Of course we do. even
as God forgiving one another. Be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
You see, there's no way we can be kind and tenderhearted and
forgiving without an eye toward Christ. That's why the scripture
says what so we, we, we, we love his law. We love his precepts,
but we, but we acknowledge the fact that we've got to, we've
got to look to Christ for the fulfillment of those things. What about this one? Husbands
love your wives. What husband doesn't want to
love his wife? What husband feels shamed when he doesn't love his
wife as he ought. Even. as Christ loved his church
and gave himself for it. You see, you can't love your
wife, husbands, without an eye toward Christ. And wives, you
can't love your husbands without an eye towards Christ. So when
we read these scriptures with a whole heart, look at verse
10, with a whole heart have I sought thee. Oh, let me not wander from
thy commandments. See, how should a young man cleanse? What would the world say the
right way to get your life on track would be? And that's the
way here. The way is to be on track, to
be on the straight and narrow. What would the world say? Well,
you know, you got to have some therapy and you got to have some
counseling and you got to read some self-help books. And you've
got to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and you've got to
be disciplined and you've got to do this and you've got to
do that. And that's how you're going to cleanse your way and
that's how you're going to be a better person. And what's the scripture say?
By heeding unto thy word. by looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ and everything that he has said in his word. That's
the only way. There's no other source of infallible
truth. It's not by discipline. It's
not by determination. It's not by the counsel of men. It's by heeding the word of God. We have an infallible source
of truth. We've got the precious word of
God. which is given to us in order to reveal the Son of God,
the living Word of God. What more can we ask for? And
what other source is there to point us to Christ other than
the Word of God? There is no other. So we take
heed unto the Word of God. We acknowledge God's Word as
infallible, inerrant, inspired, And we acknowledge it as a revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we go to God's word,
we, we believe every word of it. We don't, we may, we, well,
we don't understand any of it. That was more of the conversation
I have with this gentleman this week. Uh, I said, you know, we,
we really don't understand anything we believe. Uh huh. I'm so thankful
the Lord doesn't require us to have a full understanding. No,
faith is the evidence of salvation, isn't it? We just believe what
God has said and the Lord gives us some understanding, but the
truth of God's Word is so glorious and so infinite and so eternal
that we're just scratching the surface, aren't we? And yet we
know that this is a revelation of Christ and by God's grace,
We look in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible doesn't give us rules
and regulations as a book of laws. The Bible gives us precepts
and testimonies and commandments and words that point to Christ.
We look in faith to him. As I said, whatever is not a
faith is sin. So whatever efforts we might
make to follow after the commandments of God, if we're not doing it
in faith, Looking to the one who fulfilled that commandment
and looking to the only one who by his grace can give us any
grace to follow after him, then it becomes a law, doesn't it? It becomes self-righteousness.
That's all it is. I can remember reading Psalm
119 years ago and thinking, I'm going to cleanse my ways. I'm
going to take heed to God's word. I'm going to hide. There's another
verse in this Psalm. I'm going to hide God's word
in my heart that I said not against him. I'm not going to sin. I
can do that. And we pulled out verses of scripture. and stuck them in our pocket
and when we got tempted we pulled them out and rubbed them like
a rabbit's foot and stuck them back in and thought okay we got
through that one didn't we and we thought we were using God's
word but we didn't know Christ we didn't know that this was
a revelation of the glorious word of God that was made flesh
and dwelt among us but that's what religious people do isn't
it they take the bible and they use it as a book of rules and
regulations. Turn with me to Isaiah 28, just
over a few pages to Isaiah 28. I can remember in religion, there
was a parachurch organization, which
by the way, none of those are ordained by scripture. Everything
that God's doing, he's doing through his local assembly of
believers. You know, all these parachurch
religious organizations find that in the scriptures. It's
not there. But there was one called precept
upon precept. You remember that? And, uh, they
gloried and prided themselves and their ability to, to rightly
divide the word of truth. It's like I said, Sunday study
to show thyselves approved a workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth, rightly dividing the word of truth is
taking every passage of scripture and understanding it in light
of the gospel. That's what it is to rightly
divide the truth. It's not to say, well, this is
theology, this is doctrine, this is precept, this is law, this
is... No. You know, we had all of our
different ologies, didn't we? We had soteriology and eschatology
and Christology. How shameful is that? Christology? To say that there's a portion
of the scripture that speaks of Christ, but other portions
of the scripture speak to future events, or they speak to the
ministry of the Holy Spirit. No, every bit of it speaks of
Christ. It all leads us back to Christ. And that's what it is to rightly
divide the word of truth. You have your Bibles open to
Isaiah 28. Look at verse 9. Whom shall he
teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand
doctrine that are them that are weaned from the milk and drawn
from the breast, the babes craving after the sincere milk of the
word that you may grow thereby. Lest you become as a little child,
you snotted the kingdom of heaven. The Lord said, this is who I'm
going to reveal myself to those who who depend upon me like a
child depends upon its mother. For precept must be upon precept,
precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a
little, there a little. Now that's how the Lord reveals
himself. And what a blessing it is to a pastor's heart to
watch your growth in grace as you sit week in and week out
under the gospel. And what a, you know, you change
your diet. You, you, you know, you got a
really bad diet and you're unhealthy and you don't look good and you
don't feel good. You get on a good, on a good diet and everything
changes, doesn't it? You got energy, you feel better,
you look better. Same thing happens spiritually.
When you have a steady diet of the gospel. the effects that
it has on men's hearts and on their lives and on their spirits.
It's just such a blessing and it's little by little, precept
upon precept, line upon line, all of it pointing us back to
Christ, where young man shall cleanse his ways by taking heed
unto the word of God. And then verse 11, the Lord's
prophesying that The Gentiles are going to lead the Jews. For
with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this
people. You're going to, he's going to raise up and that's
where we are right now. The religious that's represented
by the Jews, they don't understand the speech, the speech of grace.
They don't understand what we're talking about right now. To them
it might as well be a foreign language. They don't, they don't
comprehend it. They don't have an interest in
it. To whom he said, this is the rest, this is the rest wherewith
you may cause the weary to rest. Are you weary with your sin?
Are you weary with being lost and confused and in a world that
has no answers for anything? Christ is our rest. He finished
the work before the foundation of the world. Hebrews chapter
4 makes it clear. The Lord Jesus Christ. He's finished. He sat down. And we rest in Him. We're not under the law. We're
not under wrath. We're not under judgment. We
rest in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is
the rest. Wherewith you shall rest. And this is the refreshing. Yet
you would not hear. You wouldn't listen. You wouldn't
hear what you wouldn't take heed to the word of God. You wouldn't,
you wouldn't look at his precepts and his commandments and his
statutes as they revealed Christ. But instead, instead of doing
that, you understood them for nothing more. Then precept upon
precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little. That's
the meaning of this passage. Look at the next verse. You would
not hear, but the word of the Lord was, and the idea here is
that it was nothing more to them. the word of the lord was not
and i can relate to this those of you who spent years with me
in religion you can relate to this the word of god was nothing
more than precept upon precept line upon line here a little
there a little and you thought well if i can just if i can just
you know follow god's word memorize god's word and and know some
of god's word i can i can get all this worked out and you didn't
rest in christ you turned the bible into a rule book of works. Isn't that what we did? It's
exactly what we did. The word of the Lord was unto
them nothing more than precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little,
that they may go and fall backwards and be broken and taken and snared. Snared and taken. You see, The
strong delusion that God has sent that men might believe the
lie is his word. God has given the unbeliever,
those who refuse Christ, those who will not give him the glory
and not rest in him and not see that he's the young man that
cleansed his way and he's the only hope that we have of cleansing
our way. But they took the Bible and they made it nothing more
than a rule book. precept upon precept, line upon line, that
they may be taken and snared and fallen by the very word of
God. That's where religious people
are that are caught up in the study of this book. God's given the unbeliever enough
rope in his word to hang themselves. And that's exactly what men do. Wherefore, hear the word of the
Lord, ye scornful men that rule this people which is in Jerusalem,
because you have said, we have made a covenant. Now what's a
covenant? It's a promise. Now what do religious
men do? They study the Bible. They figure
out the precepts, the commandments, the statutes. And they've got
line upon line here that they might get snared and stumble
and fall. And they say, I've been there.
They say, I'll make a covenant with God. I'll hide God's word
in my heart that I would not sin against Him. I'll keep His
commandments. I've made a covenant. I've made a promise. I'll accept
Jesus. I'll let Him be the Lord of my
life. You see, that's nothing but the covenant of man. You've made a covenant with death
and with hell. Are we at agreement when the
overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come upon
us. We know there's going to be a
day of judgment. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ is returning
as a sovereign reigning ruler, but we've made our covenant with
him and we've made our promises and we've got his word down and
we're not going to be overtaken by that, by that judgment. We're
ready. I can't tell you how many funerals
I've been to where these religious people have been preached into
heaven because they've demonstrated in their lives some level of
obedience to the Bible. For we have made lies our refuge,
and under falsehoods have we hid ourselves. Remember in the book of Revelation,
when this day of judgment does come, this over, this scourge
of God's wrath comes, and what do the religious do? They run
to the mountains and they say, let the rocks fall on us and
hide us from the wrath of the Lamb. What are they saying? But Lord, we've done many wonderful
things in your name. We've prophesied in your name.
We've witnessed in your name. We've cast out demons in your
name. We've been religious all our lives. What are they doing? They're calling for the rocks
to fall on them, to hide them from the wrath of the lamb. They're
not looking to the lamb. They're not looking to the obedience
of Christ. They're looking to their own
covenants and their own obedience and their own righteousness. And the Lord says, depart from
me, you workers of iniquity, for I never knew you. Child of
God, you know that everything you do is iniquitous. It doesn't,
don't you? Except when you're looking in
faith to Christ and you're acknowledging him and his accomplished work
for all your righteousness before God. Then you see those things
that are done in faith. Those things are done in looking
to Christ there. They're pleasing to the father.
because Christ is being honored. We're not being honored, Christ
is being honored. Therefore, verse 16, therefore,
thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation,
a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.
He that believeth shall not make haste. And we know who that stone
is. It's the stone that the builders
rejected. It's the stone that God has made
to be the head of the corner. It's the stone that the religious
stumble over. It's the precious stone, the
priceless stone. It's Christ. He's that. I lay in Zion. I made a covenant. I fulfilled my lone law. Judgment
also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet,
and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the water
shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death
shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not
stand when the overflowing scourge shall pass through. Then you
shall be trodden down by it." Oh, what a horrible day. It's the great and terrible day
of the Lord, the scripture says. great for the child of God, and
terrible for those who have made their own covenant with death,
and turned the Bible into nothing more than precept upon precept,
line upon line, here a little, there a little. Judgment, well, I lay to the
line. The plummet, that's the plumb line. And there'll be another
passage right there to answer our friend's question who asked,
well, show me in the Bible where God requires perfection. Well,
there it is. That plumb line is perfectly
plumb. You know, I've got some levels
that I've dropped a few times, and I'm not too sure they're
exactly accurate. But you put a plumb line there,
and it's going to be perpendicular every time. It's going to be
straight up and down vertical every time, isn't it? It's not
going to change. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ
is a plumb line. He said, I'm going to measure
everything by the plumb line. And if it's, if it's off a half
a bubble, a quarter of a bubble, it's not going to pass inspection.
It's got to be perfect. That's why we don't take God's
word. And we don't, let's go back to
our text. So why we don't take these passages and say, well,
with my whole heart, I sought thee. Lord, I'll keep
your commandment. I'll follow your statutes. Lord,
I'll if you'll reveal Christ to me by your grace. And by the
faith that you give me, I'll look to him and walk after him
and follow him and trust him for all my righteousness before
they. Verse 11 by word have I hid in
mine heart that I might not sin against thee." Now this is what
the Lord Jesus Christ was talking about in John chapter 15 when
he was speaking of him being the vine and we being the branches
and that the vine if the branch abides in the vine then it has
life but if it doesn't abide in the vine then it's cast into
the fire and burned. And if my word abides in you,
that's what it is to hide God's word in our hearts. It's to look
in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, I've got to abide in Christ.
I've got to have Christ. If there's going to be any fruit
and that John chapter 15 speaks of fruit bearing and the fruit
of faith will remain and, and, and the, and the Lord being the
bind dresser prunes those branches in order that they might what
bear more fruit. That's the, that's the discipline
of the Lord, isn't it? Pruning his children, exposing
their sin and revealing them to them, their need more and
more for Christ. We've got to abide in Christ,
otherwise we have no life if we're not in the vine. Blessed
art thou, O Lord, teach me thy statutes. Turn to me to Romans chapter
12. Romans chapter 12. Verse one, I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. That word service is worship. Worship. It's only reasonable that we
should bow in worship before the Lord, presenting ourselves
as a living sacrifice. And someone said the problem
with a living sacrifice is it often crawls off the altar. And
that's what we do, isn't it? We, you know, we lay our lives
down and we find ourselves, you know, off doing our own thing.
And coming back again and again, looking in faith to the Lord
Jesus Christ is what it is to present yourself a living sacrifice. Be not conformed to this world.
You're not going to get any wisdom from this world. This world is
not going to give you Any hope for your soul? They don't know. This world is confused about
everything. Be not conformed to this world,
but be transformed. That word is metamorphosis. That's the idea here. It's a
worm crawling in the cocoon and coming out a different creature.
Be you not conformed to this world, be you transformed by
the renewing of your mind. What is it to renew your mind?
It's to set your affections on things above where Christ is
seated at the right hand of God. It's to have the mind of Christ.
It's to look in faith to Christ. that you may prove what is the
good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through
the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to
think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to
think soberly, according as God has dealt with every man the
measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and
all members have not the same office, so we, being many, are
one body in Christ and every one members of another. This matter of presenting yourself
to God is by grace and it's looking to Christ. You see, as soon as we begin
to think, well, I can hide God's word in my heart that I said
not against God. I can cleanse my ways by taking heed unto the
word of God. I can follow if there is command. Then we're thinking too highly
of ourselves, aren't we? And we're not looking in faith
to Christ. Let me show you that another
passage in 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter eight. Believers have received everything
they have from God. They know that. And we can hold
on to what we have, but by God's grace, believers are giving people. They're forgiving, they're giving,
they're gracious, they're merciful, they're tenderhearted and kind
as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven them. And look what
the Lord says about monetary giving in 2 Corinthians chapter
8, we begin reading in verse 1, moreover brethren, we do you
to wit of the church of God, I'm sorry, the grace of God bestowed
on the churches of Macedonia. So Paul's pointing out to the
church at Corinth how God's grace was poured out on the churches
in Macedonia. How that in a great trial of
affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty
abounded unto the riches of their liberality. All the churches
in Macedonia were suffering as a result of the gospel. And Paul
told them, he said, don't worry about it. You guys need that
to just survive. And they begged, no, no, we want
to give. For to their power I bear record,
yea, and beyond their power, that they were willing of themselves,
praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift
and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.
Remember, we saw in the book of Acts, the Jews in Jerusalem
and in Israel, they were all cut off because of the gospel.
And Paul, when he traveled, he would go to these Gentile churches
and take up an offering to send back to support the poor Jewish
believers back in Israel. And Paul told the church in Macedonia,
said, you know, you you all don't need to be involved in this.
You're just as poor as they are. You keep what you've got to take
care of yourselves. And they begged him. No, we we
want to we want to be a part of that. In verse five, and this
they did not as we had hoped, here it is, look at this, but
first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto the will of
God and unto us by the will of God in so much that we desired
Titus that as he had given, so he also, he, so, so he would
also finish in the same grace also. Therefore, as you abound in everything
in faith and utterance and knowledge and all diligence, and in your
love to us, see that you abound in this grace also. I speak not by commandment, but
by occasion of the forwardness of others, that you prove the
sincerity over your love, for you know the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes,
he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich. So, even in the admonition of
giving, the Lord points us to Christ. You can't give without
an eye to Christ. Otherwise, you're making a law
out of giving. All right, go back with me to
our text. Verse 12, blessed art thou, O
Lord, teach me thy statutes. Lord, put into my heart the grace
to pray, to give, to forgive, and enable me to set my affections
on Christ. Show me the meaning of your word
as it reveals the living word, the Lord Jesus Christ, and as
we see him, those other things will become part of our lives. With my lips have I declared
all the judgments of thy mouth. Now we can't say that. With my
lips I have declared all the judgments of the Lord with my
mouth. The Lord Jesus Christ did. Every word he spoke the
judgment of God, the truth of God revealed in every word that
proceeded out of his mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of
thy testimonies as much as in all riches. Let me ask you, child of God, what would you rather be taken
from you? Christ or every other thing you've got. If you had to lose one or the
other, what would it be? I know what it'd be. Hey, the Lord is
more valuable to us than all the riches of this world. I will meditate in thy precepts.
And have respect unto thy ways. Lord, help me to muse on the
things of God. I bring up this correspondence
I had with this gentleman this week, because it was so encouraging.
He said, I'm not sure if I'm a believer, but I think about
the gospel all the time. Ever since I heard it, I've been
thinking about it all the time. Isn't that the way it is? We get distracted, and before
we know it, the Lord's got our minds back on Christ, doesn't
he? I will delight myself in thy
statutes. I will not forget thy word. And because the Lord has made
that covenant, that promise, notice how many times in these
last few verses, I will, I will, I will. And as soon as you and
I stand up and push out our chest and say, well, I will. That's
when we don't. But we look to the Lord Jesus
Christ who said I will. And you shall. The word of God. Precious to
us. Whether it be as written word.
Or the word that was made flesh. We can't live without God's Word.
Our merciful Heavenly Father, take thy word and apply it in
truth to our hearts. We ask it in Christ's name, Amen. 175, let's stand together. Yeah. Standing on the promises of Christ
my King, through eternal ages let his praises ring. Glory in the highest I will shout
and sing, standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing on the promises
of God, my Savior. Standing, standing. I'm standing on the promises
of God. Standing on the promises that
cannot fail. When the howling storms of doubt
and fear ? By the living word of God I will prevail ? ? Standing
on the promises of God ? ? Standing, standing ? ? Standing on the
promises of God my Savior ? ? Standing, standing ? ? I'm standing on
the promises of God my Savior ? Standing on the promises of Christ
the Lord Bound to Him eternally by love's strong cord Overcoming
daily with the Spirit's sword Standing on the promises of God
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises I cannot
fall, Listing every moment to the Spirit's call, Resting in
my Savior as my all in all, Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. We shall miss the work you're
doing.