Psalm 119. I believe this will
be an interesting study. We almost have to study this
like a separate book of the Bible. It's such a long chapter. And
it's worthy of that much attention. I considered just preaching one
message on the whole chapter. But I just don't think we'd even
come close to doing it justice that way. But I want to Of course
we can't expound the whole psalm without probably spending quite
a few of our Wednesday evening hours in this chapter. But there are some things we
can see regarding the whole psalm at the very outset. If you read
through you'll see, and you may have noticed in the first ten
verses, every one of those verses refers to God's word in one form
or another. And I'll tell you this, in 176
verses, there's only two or three that don't refer to the Word
of God. So clearly there's a theme to
this song that David sung. And the Word of God is called
by different names, and that's interesting, and that's one of
the first things we want to look at, are the different names and
why. God's never redundant. So the law, first verse, the
law, the testimonies, the precepts, the statutes, the commandments,
the judgments, the ways, and the word. So all of those, and
that just about covers it except in verse 91 his word is referred
to as his ordinances. But as we'll see that's the same
original Hebrew word as one of the other ones so so really in
the first ten verses you have all of them and The word truth
is in verse 142, but what it says there is by law is the truth
so Talking about the law of God there the second thing that we'll
see in this chapter First of all, as I said, the various names
of the word of God, they're worth looking at. And then the second
thing is the psalmist's relationship to that truth. And that doesn't
really describe, for lack of a better word, I say relationship.
But what I mean is it's either his or God's people's relationship
to the word. And here's what I mean by that.
He says in the first 10 verses that he or we will walk in it
We're talking about God's Word, our relationship to the Word.
What are we going to do about the Word? What does it mean to
men? What's my relationship to it? I'm going to walk in it.
I'm going to keep it. I'm going to have respect unto
it. I'm going to learn, I've learned it over them. Take heed
to it and not wonder from it. And that's just getting started.
Good. That's just in the first 10 verses now. So that's, And
it's well worth mentioning, in fact, it's key. It's the first
point that we'll actually, I guess, elaborate on a little bit. It's
simply this. In some cases, David said, I
do this, or I will do this, as in verse eight. If you look at
verse eight, he says, I will keep your statutes. That's pretty
clear. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna keep
them. Okay, and so other places he'll say he says your people
will do this or have done this or are doing it at other times
He says that it's the Lord doing and he desires it. He asks for
it Like in verse 10 look at verse 10 With my whole heart have I
sought thee. Oh Let me not wander from thy
commandments So you see the difference sometimes he says here's what
I'm gonna do. I And other times he says, oh Lord, let, may it
be, make it so. And this is important, I think,
to see right away. Here's why he does that. In God's
purpose and providence, we his people are ordained unto good
works. God is said to have created us
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which he before ordained that
we should walk in, Ephesians 2.10. And included in that, of
course, is that we endeavor, we strive, we determine to follow
Him, to be like Him, and to obey Him. All of which are done according to His revelation
of Himself. The Word, the statutes, the judgments. Now think with me. Let's keep
the train of thought, and I'm trying to be clear. We want to
follow Him, we want to be like Him, and we want to obey Him.
What does that have to do with the Word? Everything. You can't
follow somebody you don't see. And we see Him as He has revealed
Himself in the Gospel. If you're going to be like somebody,
you've got to know everything about them, don't you? You've
got to pretty much know them. And what can be known of Christ
our God is revealed in His Book. He taught his disciples from
Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets, the whole Old Testament, the
things concerning himself, it says. And if you're going to obey somebody,
and we do seek to obey, motivated by love, not by law, not to be
righteous in his sight, because Christ is our righteousness,
and we know that we have none of our own, but we want to obey
him because we love him. But we do want to obey and we
strive to. If you're going to do that, you've
got to understand their will. Obedience is a response to somebody's
will. If I told my kids when they were
little, make your bed, it's because that's my will. I want their
bed made. And so they respond to that one
way or the other. You have to understand the will of that person
if you're going to obey them. Paul said in Ephesians 517, wherefore
be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And this is none of this is accomplished
merely by book learning. Not even if the book that you're
learning is the book. We have to remember this. It's
accomplished, though, as the Holy Spirit of God takes the
things of Christ recorded in the book and reveals them to
us. So it's not done apart from the
book. But it's not just book learning. Does that make sense?
A lot of people know this book better than I do, but don't know
the God of the book, don't know the Christ that's revealed in
the book, and so have no idea about His will. Don't know who
He is, so how are you going to try to be like Him? Don't have
any desire to anyway, even if they knew how. Because that comes
from God. This is a spiritual book and
it can only be spiritually discerned. And so the means is important. Read, study, know it. But understand
that the means are what God uses to reveal and to bless. And only
He can do that. So what I'm saying is this. We
desire, we determine to learn of Christ. How are we going to
do that? Why do we want to learn of Him?
Well, so we can do His will, so we can be like Him, so we
can follow Him. Well, how are we going to do it? How are we
going to learn of Him? His law, His testimonies, His judgments,
His statutes, His ways. In other words, this, this is
it right here, this book. And that's why, David, this theme
of this whole psalm is the word of God. But as we desire and
determine, think about this. And we have to remember where
I started on this point now, is that why did David in one
place say, here's what I'm going to do, and then in another place
say, oh, Lord, please, make it so. Because as we desire and
determine to do all we know to do to follow and to be like and
to obey our Lord by his word, we acknowledge and ask knowing
that God's got to grant it. He's got to bring it to pass.
He's got to bless us in it. And so we're determined And we
can speak like this as long as we understand that in our flesh
we're not going to accomplish anything. As long as we understand
without Him, we can do nothing. There's nothing wrong with saying,
I'm going to keep His statutes. I'm going to do what God said.
That's what David says here. But remember, he speaks two different
ways. He says, I will keep God's Word. And he also says, oh Lord, let
me not stray from your word. So we're determined, we're purposed
in this, we're committed by God's grace to him. That's what baptism says, I'm
his. I belong to him. I pledge my allegiance to him.
But we know that in ourselves we can do nothing. So we pray,
we cry, we ask. Okay, so now back to our main
train of thought regarding the whole chapter. Three things then,
three things. To keep this simple and straight
in our minds, think of it in terms of three divisions. Number
one, we'll look at the word itself and how it's described. As it's
described in these different terms, What is a statute as compared
to a commandment? Is there any difference? Is He
just being repetitive? There are different meanings,
and in these terms, I believe we'll be helped to understand
what God's law is, what His word is. And then secondly, what do
we do about it? What's our relationship to it?
By God's grace, we're not indifferent to His word. We're not unaffected
by it. So what are we going to do about
it? Seeing that his word is the storehouse of all of his riches
for us that we experience. And then thirdly, what are the
benefits of God's word unto us? And we must understand again
that these are not just natural benefits of knowing the book.
We must ask under this same heading, how does God Use His Word to
bless us. What are the benefits? In other
words, how does God bless us by the Word? It's not just a
natural result that's just gonna happen. If you read the Bible,
these things are gonna happen. No, if God uses His Word to bless
you, then these things will happen. And what are they? We are told
in this chapter that we are counseled by the Word. We are quickened
by the word. It's a light unto our paths.
You see what I'm saying about what are the benefits of it?
What is it to us? How are we blessed by the word?
And so you see these three simple divisions that we'll look at,
and just about every verse has all three of them in it. Verse
36 says that this book will make it so that you won't be covetous.
If this book is blessed to your heart, if you know it and understand
it, you won't be covetous. You see that? Verse 36. And climb my heart unto thy testimonies,
and not to covetousness. It's going to be one or the other
now. You're going to be... You're going to be covetous unless
God teaches you His testimonies. If He does, then it'll have an
effect. It'll have that effect. It says
in verse 42, here's a benefit, it's a blessing. We'll be able
to answer those that reproach us if we know the Bible. And there are many such things
that we'll call, for lack of a better term, again, the benefits
of the word. With the understanding that they
are benefits that God bestows by means of the word. They don't
just naturally come by you reading the Bible. God bestows these
things through His Word. Many people who know the Word
pretty well will never have these benefits, these blessings. But those who do have them will
not have them without the Word. A knowledge and understanding
of the Word. And without, by God's grace,
being doers of the Word, you won't have them. Not apart from
it. So let's try to be, let's try
to see it now, the different names for the word of God. And
we might be able to get to at least one of the ways that we
relate to the word, but maybe not. We may just have time tonight
to look at what is his, how is his word described, and what
does that mean to us? How does that define what his
word is? First of all, the law of God.
That's verse one, isn't it? of God. If you ask somebody to
tell you what's the law of God, they're probably going to try
to quote the Ten Commandments. They probably wouldn't be able
to do it, but they'd try, and they'd say the Ten Commandments.
That's not what this means. That's not what this is. Of course,
that's included. That's in the Word of God, but
it's not just the Ten Commandments, and it's not just the ceremonial
law. This is a term used here and elsewhere to describe everything
God said Everything he wrote the word Torah or law is from
a root word which means to point or shoot You ever heard somebody
say he's a he's a straight shooter Means he tells the truth you
tell you like it is just show you the show you the way I The idea is to teach or to show
what is true. To point out what is true. It means direction or instruction. That's what you do when you point.
You're giving direction. There's the Lamb of God. You're
directing people to look to Him for atonement. Because that's
what God's Lamb is. God's atonement. And here's, this is important
because what is it that points us to God, that directs us to
God, that teaches us of God, it's not really a what is it,
it's a who. Christ is himself the law of God. If you want to
be pointed toward the right way, look to Christ. Everything he did is a pointing.
and he hit the bullseye every time you want to know how to
shoot watch him shoot shoot where he shot because he hit the bullseye
every time in thought in word and indeed and so if you want
to learn how to shoot watch him and again he is revealed in this
book that's where you're going to see him is in this book. And I can't stress enough really
that this is Him and not just what we would call laws in man's
society. It's not the same thing. Thou
shalt not kill. What does that mean? Well, it means don't murder anybody.
That's not the extent of it. There's a whole lot more to it
than that. Our Lord taught in the New Testament that if you
just hate somebody without a cause, you've already killed them. And
even that, you can't define it really with words. Thou shalt
not kill is more than just not committing the act of murder.
What is it then? Well, look to Christ and you'll
see. You'll see what it is. To love
and to love God and to love your fellow man, your brother. Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy
soul, with all thy strength, and have no other gods before
him. That doesn't just mean don't carve a totem pole in your yard.
It doesn't just mean that you should get the warm and fuzzies
when you think about God. What is it then? How do you define
that, that law, that pointing, that direction from God? How
are you going to get that? Not just by reading the testimony,
the language. You're going to get it by looking
to Christ. He is the embodiment of it. He is the experiencing
of it. He is the living example of it. He is the definition of it. Of
everything that expresses the will of God, everything that
points to God, He is the revelation of God and
His will and His word. Now the second word, and we'll
have to go through these because of time, but listen to this one.
Testimonies. We know what a testimony is,
don't we? And if you looked up that Hebrew word, it would be
just what you think it is. The word of a witness. What a
witness gives in a trial. But how important is this? God
has not just stated cold facts about himself, but has inspired
men who experienced who he is to describe it to us. You think
about the blessing of that for a minute. He caused men to experience. When he said, I'm going to teach
my people something about my love, what did he do? He said
to Gomer, he said to Hosea, go and love that nasty woman. Comer fall in love with her and
you love her no matter what no matter how hideous and terrible
and spiteful and ungrateful she and you love her and that and
we see that played out in the beauty of it the fact that he
he said his affection upon her and he was going to have her
no matter what she had no use for him but she he said anyway
you're going to be mine I've got to have you. You see how
that's different from just trying to define the love of God by
cold facts. He caused Hosea to experience
it. And then Hosea wrote a book.
And that's true of every book of the Bible. That's true of
everyone who wrote of him. You see how beautiful that we
have a test, the testimonies of God. The only illustration really
that I can think of is the difference between reading a book about
something, say reading a book on auto mechanics. Okay, I'm
going to learn how to fix my car. I'm going to read a book
on auto mechanics. You know, big old textbook. Well, when
you get done with that, you may or may not know how to fix it.
But I tell you this, you find somebody that knows how to fix
it and get him to show you how to fix it, you're going to know
how to fix it. That he's experienced it. He knows things that aren't
in the book. You see what I'm saying? And
these men knew some things that they experienced from God, and
God inspired them to tell that to us. And it's so wonderful
that he did. The difference is not in day.
You're benefiting from more than just descriptive facts and definitions. You're benefiting from experience. First John 1 3 John said that
which we have seen and heard we declare unto you That you
also may have fellowship with us Not just so that you might
know some facts that you might get in on it Here's who we saw. Here's who we heard and here's
what he didn't say We were there And truly our fellowship is with
the father and with his son Jesus Christ. You see the method that
God has used in giving us his testimonies 1 John 4.14, we have
seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the
Savior of the world. We don't just know cold facts
that He's the Messiah. We saw Him saving people. We
know He came from the Father. No man could do what He did except
God sent Him. Even Nicodemus knew that before
he knew anything else. He said, I know that you must
come from God. You wouldn't be able to do what
you do. And of course, more importantly
now, think about this. This is the testimony of Christ,
who testified unto us of the Father, having come from the
very bosom of the Father. And again, try to distinguish
in your mind the difference between if God just had set forth some
cold facts. No. we have the testimony of
witnesses his people his inspired prophets and saints but also
his son and the holy spirit who testifies of father and son think
about this now no man knoweth the father save the son the son
knows the father he doesn't just know about him he knows him and
i tell you who else knows him those to whom the son will reveal
him He reveals as one who knows him, who is one with him, who
is from his very bosom, who is sent by him with a message. God came as a man and spoke the
language of men. And the scripture says he himself
suffered being tempted that he might be a helper to those who
are tempted Hebrews 2.18 this is we have the testimony of him
who is God who came from the father who was from the bosom
of the father who says I know the father nobody else does but
me and if I reveal him to you you'll know him too He also knows
me intimately and experienced everything that I experienced,
yet without sin. And He's the one that testifies.
He's a witness to who God is, to what we are, and how God's
going to save us. And the Holy Spirit of God, He
testifies of the things of Christ. He takes the things of the Lord
and shows them to us. So that word testament, that
was a blessing to me. And then the third word is precepts.
How is this different? It's from a root word, which
means something to observe, something to pay attention to, something
to attend to and seek. So this emphasizes our reaction
to and involvement in the things of God. How we, how important
it is that we apply, how many times did Solomon say apply your
hearts to wisdom? That's what a precept is. It's
something to apply to yourself, to observe and to pay attention
to. It's important, it's vital, it's life and death. These are
not just things that adorn our walls or even that we just agree
with. They are to be observed. They
are to be responded to. They demand a response. They
have no benefit unto you at all unless you're doers of them. You see what I'm saying? Attend
to, observe, pay attention to, seek. That's what David said. I'm going to keep them. I'm going
to attend to what God said. I'm going to be about the business
of what God said to do. Oh now, if God is gracious to
us to be able to say that honestly and do that now, we'll enter
into the word of God, we'll experience the gospel. And not just be like
a man beholding his face in a glass who turns away and then straight
away forgets what he looks like. He says, oh yeah, I know the
Bible. Yeah, really? Are you living it? Then you don't know it. You've
already forgotten it. Psalm 103 17 the mercy of the
Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his
righteousness unto children's children to such as keep his
covenants covenant and to those that remember his commandments
to do them that remember his commandments to do them That's where the benefit is.
Now, important, you know where I'm fixing to go because it's
important that we stop right here and say this, we're not
blessed under the Old Covenant understanding of this. Under
the Old Covenant understanding, the responsibility is upon us
to actually obey the Word of God righteously, perfectly, in
thought, word, and deed. in a way that's meritorious before
God. Perfect way. And under that old
covenant, we're not going to be blessed in that. By the deeds
of the law shall no flesh be justified. We cannot do them. It says to do them. We can't
do them. Not in that sense. But, or and, under the new covenant
understanding of this, which is confirmed and accomplished
by Christ's obedience, As our representative, we are blessed.
Why am I blessed of God? Because I kept the law, but I
didn't do it personally. My representative did it. I please
him. I'm worthy before him in Christ because
he kept the law in my place and obeyed him unto death, even the
death of the cross. Our righteousness before God
is Christ as the mediator of that new covenant and as the
one who met the terms of that covenant for us. And also, though,
as believers in Christ and beneficiaries of that covenant of grace through
him, we are exhorted to be doers of the word that we might experience
the blessing that he earned for us in the new covenant. That's the means. How do we experience
salvation? By faith. By grace through faith
are you saved. God's grace happened a long time
before I ever experienced it. But by faith I experienced what
he did for me. What's faith based on? The word
of God. I believe God. What did he say? This right here. All of it. All of it. It's Christ from cover
to cover. And our faith is in Christ as revealed in his word.
So you see how we experience, that's what I mean by we experience
those blessings in this way. We are exhorted to be doers of
the word and the blessing, the knowledge, the peace and salvation
that's ours. And those things are ours not
by us being doers of the word, but by Christ who finished the
work of salvation. It's accomplished by what he
did. but it's experienced through this means of us being doers
of his word. Our doing doesn't add to the
finished work of our salvation accomplished by Christ, but I
guarantee you this, if you observe the gospel, if you attend to,
and this is still the word we're talking about, the one that means
to attend to, to observe, Through the extent that you do
that, you'll rest in Him. I guarantee you that. What did He say? Take my yoke
upon you and what? Learn of me and you'll find rest
to your souls. I kind of want to do that, don't
you? I kind of want to do that by His grace. The precepts of this book, this
hymn book, H-I-M book, are the means whereby we will find that
sweet rest in Christ. Alright, statutes. Now this is
an interesting one. It means to cut out, to decree,
to enact, to prescribe. It means an ordinance, a boundary,
It means to trace, to mark out, to scribe, or engrave. Now this one actually makes you
think of the Ten Commandments because they were literally engraved
upon stone. But what this impresses upon
us is that this is the written, expressed will and character
of God, engraved in stone, just like Him, unchangeable. We must
never think of the Ten Commandments or any statute of God as anything
but wonderful and awesome and good. We know that the law is the opposite
of grace in a sense and so we don't want to be under the law
and yet never look at God's law as anything but wonderful. Though
we are sinful and can't keep it, though we are sinners and
they are damnation to us by nature and in a sense our enemy, yet
as believers we love God and so we love what he prescribes,
what he decrees, what he marks out. And that's what this word
is. God's statutes can't save us, but they were our schoolmaster
to bring us to the one who did save us. I kind of like that
about them, don't you? In addition to the fact that
they're just an expression of God's character, His will, His
holiness. And so that's a good word too.
And then commandments. This word here perhaps will impress
upon us the gravity of what God's word is. Again, you cannot think
of God's commandments as just what people usually call commandments
or law. The gospel is a commandment.
Everything God said is a commandment. He doesn't make suggestions.
He commands from His throne. He commands it. It reminds us
that God insists upon it. On penalty of death, He insists
upon what He says being obeyed and followed. and honored, not
just obeyed reluctantly. You can obey me outwardly and
still hate me. That's not going to cut it with God. We get to
honor his commandments and obey them. And of course, that's only
done meritoriously in Christ. But it's what we want as believers. I want to honor him, don't you?
I want to do what he says do. I really do. But this reminds us that God's
not to be trifled with. What he says, he commands. He
commands our respect. He commands our reverence. When
Mary at the wedding feast says whatever he tells you to do,
you do it. That's not a suggestion. When God declares from heaven,
this is my beloved son, hear him. He doesn't say or else there.
But in all of his word, we are taught the consequence of not
hearing him. It's eternal and it's terrible.
So you see this word commandment in John eight, our Lord said,
now you turn to this later. I want to, we're going to have
to finish here, but John eight, 21 through 24, if you don't believe
I'm telling you what it said, Here's what the Lord said to
the Jews there. If you do not believe what I say, you will
die in your sins. And you Jews who I'm talking
to right now, you're gonna die in your sins, and that's why.
Because you do not believe what I say. And this is what he says. You will die in your sins. Everything,
every word, man shall not live by bread and lumber, by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Now you read it
later and you see if that's what he said to him. So you get some
sense of the word commandment. Our Lord commissioned his preachers
to go and preach. He said, you preach what I've
taught you. So we're just repeating him, we're just imitating him,
saying what he said. And he said, you go do that and
the salvation and damnation of sinners will hinge upon how that
preaching, your preaching is received by those that hear you. If they believe you, if they'll
hear you and receive you and receive my word, I'll save them.
If not, I'll damn them. And this is their testimony.
And it's also our testimony. This is what he was talking about
when he said that. Now listen to this passage, 2 Thessalonians
1 7. And to you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus
shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming
fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey
not the Ten Commandments. They don't say that. In flaming
fire, he will take vengeance on them that know not God and
that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not about
keeping the Ten Commandments. We can't do that. No sinner's
gonna do that. Nobody's gonna be saved that way. But I tell
you this, by his grace, by the power of his spirit, by his quickening,
life-giving power, you're gonna obey the gospel. What is obedience
to the gospel? Come to me. Believe on me. Trust me. Commit yourself to me. Follow
me. Are we still doing that? Imperfectly?
And if our acceptance with God depended on our obedience to
anything, much less the gospel or the law, then we're goners.
But we still obey it nonetheless. It says, she's in flaming fire
taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of his power. You see what that word commandment
carries with it now? This is vital. This is not God
saying, it sure will be better for you if you do what I say.
This is do what he says or the consequences are eternal and
they are unthinkable. And God is worthy, he commands
it and he's worthy to be obeyed. All right, judgments. This has
always been one of my, this has been a blessing to me for a while
now since the Lord began, just a little bit to show me what
his judgments are, what it means when he talks about judgment.
Again, if you just ask somebody, what's the judgment of God? Oh,
that's him punishing sinners. No. That's one of the things
that happens when God makes a judgment about things. When he judges
you unworthy, you're going down. But the judgment, his judgments,
that word, I looked it up. You know what it means? The deciding
of a case. That can be good or bad. It means
to act as the law giver. In other words, he gives the
law. Here's the commandments. Here's the ordinance. Here's
what do this and don't do this. But also, he's the one that determines
whether you did or didn't do it. He's the judge. He's the one
that we're accountable to for his word. And this causes us to picture
the Lord Jesus Christ to whom the Father has committed all
judgment. It causes us to picture him sitting
on his throne and calling all the shots. That's what a judge
does. He calls the shots. He says guilty, not guilty, good,
bad. He decides the case. And those shots, the shots that
he calls, are revealed in this law book. And this is God's way. Think about this, judgments.
It's God's way of reckoning things. If he reckons you, now think
about this. And notice verse seven of our text there called
righteous judgments. He reckons things the way they
are. If God reckons me to be righteous,
then I'm righteous, period. You see what I'm saying? That's
what his judgments are. It's his determination of what's
true and what's not, of the outcome, the verdict. He gives the verdict. Paul said, who can lay anything
to my charge? It is God that justifies me. He has made a judgment in my
case. I'm not guilty. So who are you to lay anything
to my blame? Who are you to accuse me of anything?
Even the great accuser of the brethren, Satan himself, cannot
lay a charge against us that'll stick. Because God, the judge of all
the earth, has decided my case. You see how beautiful this word
is? The judgments of God. You know what that is? This whole
book. If you want to know how God calls
it, there it is. We have no idea
what we have. We have no idea what we have. And he's judged my case based
upon the doing and dying of my representative, the Lord and
Savior of my soul, Jesus Christ. It is Christ that died. That's
why God justified me, because his son died in my stead. How'd
you find that out, Chris? Well, I know a little bit about
the judgments of God. I know how God has determined.
I know that he's the one that determines your case. He'll save
you, damn you, He'll call you guilty, not guilty, and He'll
be right when He does it. And here's what He does it based
on. And you know what this is? The revelation, the record of
God concerning His Son, Jesus Christ. God has declared me to be justified,
blameless, faultless, And more than that, now that's just the
negative side of it, not guilty. There's a positive side to it
too. Worthy of all glory and blessing in Christ. That's the
judgment of God toward me. I kind of like the judgment of
God. Don't you? People say, oh, I don't want
to face the judgment of God. I kind of do. If I'm in Christ,
if I be found in Him, I'm kind of looking forward to facing
God's judgment, aren't you? This book is the judgments of
God And they are in Christ marvelous and delightful not terrifying
and dreadful Now if you despise and reject his son if he is not
the sacrifice of for your sin Listen to this Hebrews 10 26
and 27 if Christ is not the sacrifice for your sin Then there is nothing
for you, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery
indignation Which shall devour God's adversaries? But if Christ
has died for you, justified. No charge against me. But for
God now, he's the judge and his judgments are right there. What
a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful book. What a gift we have from
God. God has put me in his Son and
has judged me worthy of eternal life. I kind of like reading
about that. And I read about it in his Bible. Okay, ordinances,
verse 91. This will be a quick one because
it's the same original word as judgments. And so we've already
looked at that. And then there's simply the word
ways. You know that believers in the
New Testament were called those of this way. It's just the way
God does things. He revealed his ways unto Moses,
didn't he? He revealed his statutes to all
the people. They saw the law they saw the
letter of it that he revealed his ways to Moses Moses knew
him Not just about him Not just what he wrote he knew him And
then just simply the word word It means speech or speaking Now we have the written word
which you say well that's not speech. Yes it is because I'm
telling you it was spoken and that's why it's written because
God spoke it. How wonderful this is that God
condescended to speak to sinners. In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word
was made flesh. So when you think about the Word
of God there again it's Christ. Christ is the judge. He's the
law. You want to be pointed to God?
Don't just read the letter. Look to Him. And He's the living word. To speak, speech, or speaking. He was the word that was made
flesh and dwelt among us, Christ Himself. Who He is, all that
He did, all that He said, that's God speaking to us. It's not
just letters written in a book. This is the means whereby we
learn of Him. And He is God speaking to us. Does that make any sense? God says, Come now. He says to every sinner,
you come right now. And let's, you and I, reason
together. Concerning your sins and have
it though they be as scarlet They shall be as white as snow
Now how does how is God who is spirit and doesn't he doesn't
have a mouth like we do He's spirit. He doesn't speak a language
like we do. How's he going to counsel us?
He says come let's reason Let's let's take counsel together.
How's he going to counsel us Christ? I? His name shall be
called Wonderful Counselor. He is God reasoning with sinners. Hebrews 1.1 God who at sundry
times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he
made the worlds. And since I didn't have you turn
there because we're almost out of time, I'll explain this to
you. It says, God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
son. That word his is not in the original.
What it says is this, God in these last days has spoken unto
us by son. Christ is the language by which
God speaks to sinners. He is the Word. Well, we have it in English,
but you can understand it in English and not understand it.
You have to understand it in sign to get it. That's how you're going to get
it. When God teaches you sign, then you're going to hear from
God. And if we are to know what he said, who he is, what he did,
what he's doing, what he shall do, everything he reveals in
this book, and why he did it, why he's doing it, why he will,
then God must speak to us in a language that reveals all of
his person, all of his purpose, and all of his power to save.
And Christ is that language. It can be communicated to you
in English, and you may never get it. But if it's communicated
to you by God in Christ, you're going to get it. And you're not
ever going to be the same. And you're going to praise Him
with every breath you have from then on for doing so. Christ is that language and Christ
is the one who opens our understanding By his spirit that we might be
fluent in that language fluent in Christ We are wise unto salvation
because we have been taught Christ By Christ And it's by this book that he
did it by means of the book now it's by means of this book so
you see what a treasure we have And our prayer is oh lord have
mercy on us and save us so that we might be able to say honestly
From our hearts, you think about that. What did Job say about
the word of God? He said, I have not gone back
from the commandment of your lips. I have esteemed the words
of your mouth more than my necessary food. If you can say that honestly
from your heart, it's because God has spoken to you by son. A language that nobody understands
except his sheep. He's revealed to you, his son,
in that language. And as Paul said, we have the
mind of Christ and we discern all things. Nothing's what it
used to be. I don't understand anything the
way I did before I knew him. Everything's different. And bless God, may we truly be
able to say that. His word is more important to
me than the necessary food that sustains this body. If I never eat again and I shrivel
up and die, and I know God, as he's revealed
himself in this book, I'm gonna be just fine. Let's pray together.