May I please God to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let's turn to the
book of Psalms and Psalm 119 and we'll read verse 130. Psalm
119 and reading verse 130. The entrance of thy words giveth
light. it giveth understanding unto
the simple. The Word of God and the Bible
is very concise with the statements that it makes and there are no
wasted words in the Word of God and as you may read it you will
note, especially perhaps in some of the parables, where there
is a lot spoken in a very few words. And so we should be very
thankful that although the Bible is a big book with many words
and many pages, many chapters, yet there are no wasted words. Everything is there, ordained
by Almighty God. And this 119th Psalm is a very
wonderful psalm. It is amazing how much is covered
in this psalm. And quite clearly, the psalmist
had a very clear mind and a very clear view as the Holy Spirit
came upon him to instruct him how and what to write. Well, the Bible is the Word of
God. and all the words in the Bible
are the words of God. And so when we have a statement
like this, the entrance of thy words giveth light, we must recognise
that this is God's word speaking to his people and in those words
which are spoken as they enter into the heart, they give light. They reveal things which otherwise
are dark. There is therefore, as the word
tells us here, an entrance. There must be an entrance. We
know with regard to natural things, we think of houses, we think
of buildings, there is an entrance. And we have to go into that entrance
to see what is inside the building. We cannot view it from outside,
we can only view it from inside. And so the same exists with regards
to our spiritual life, spiritual things. There is an entrance,
and of course the entrance is none other than the Lord Jesus
Christ. He tells us I am the door. He is the place of entrance and
we must enter in at the door. We must enter in through the
Lord Jesus Christ. The entrance of thy words giveth
light. There is of course no light outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything really outside of
the Lord Jesus Christ is darkness. And until we enter in, the words
of God are not light. There have been people who have
studied the Word of God, who read it many times, who read
it perhaps in the original languages of Hebrew and Greek, and yet
they have not been blessed with light. It has just been mere
words. They may have come to a very
great knowledge, naturally, of the things contained in the Word
of God, but they haven't entered in. They haven't been benefited
with true spiritual light. And so what a wonderful blessing
it is for us today if we know something of this entering in. the entrance of thy words giveth
light. And really that means very simply,
and I hope it sounds simple, it means this, that the Word
of God is opened up to our spiritual understanding and the Word of
God is applied to our hearts. It's not something which remains
in our minds. It's something which penetrates
into our heart. And when it does that, then you
see, you and I receive that which is true light, the light of the
Gospel. And that light centres in none
less than the Lord Jesus Christ, who tells us, I am the light
of the world. That means, outside of Christ,
it's darkness. That means there's no light.
And therefore what a great blessing for us today if we have been
blessed with passing from that state of darkness into the glorious
light of everlasting gospel. And it's something which is known
by the people of God. And it is an amazing situation
that whereas There we were outside of the entrance, never made any
entrance, never really understood the great truths of the Word
of God as they applied to our souls. And then the wonderful
time when the Spirit of God granted us that entrance and the words
of God were there which produced that entrance for us. And we
entered in and they were light and knowledge and understanding
to our souls. And what a time of blessing that
was. And how glorious it was. You know, we commenced that reading
this morning with the 129th verse. And those first four words are
really tremendous, aren't they? Thy testimonies are wonderful. word of God to the souls of God's
people are wonderful. The word of God to God's people
is wonderful because it gives light to our never-dying soul
and we truly do rejoice in it. Well this morning do we know
this? Do we know something of it in
our own hearts? And again I'd refer you to the
second book of the letter of Paul to the Corinthians where
again often referred to I think as you know and it's a very glorious
statement in the second book of the Corinthians and the fourth
chapter and commencing at verse four in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the hearts of them which believe not so all those
who are blind those who have not believed. You see, we will
not have any light unless the Holy Spirit gives us that true
spirit to believe the Word of God. And he says, in whom the
God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe
not lest, the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image
of God, should shine unto them. So we draw this conclusion, and
it's a wonderful conclusion, and it's a very solemn conclusion,
because if we are, therefore, the children of God, we will
have had our eyes opened to behold the glorious light of the gospel
of Christ. And that is a very amazing truth
and it's a very great truth and it's a very blessed time when
you and I can trace in our hearts, in our lives, that such has been
our experience. The light has shone and has shown
us the glorious Gospel of Christ. Now this surely is the great
purpose of preaching, the great purpose of the Word of God. to
show us the glorious gospel of Christ. And then the apostle
says, for we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. And then he says, for God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. That was in
the very beginning. Remember, we read in Genesis,
the first chapter, the light shone out of darkness. There was darkness. There was
no light until the Lord spoke and there was light. Now there
is the same blessed truth with regard to our souls. We are just
like it was in the beginning, darkness, until the blessed light
shines. And so the apostle is able to
declare here so clearly, for God commanded, God commanded
light to shine in the beginning, and God still today commands
the light to shine in our hearts. we're a blessing today if you
and I can look into our hearts and find there the evidence of
this light shining and how has it shone the entrance of thy
words the word of god has entered into our hearts and there has
been light glorious light light which we never knew before wonderful
evidence of the work of God in our hearts, the wonderful blessing
that God gloriously has commanded the light to shine out of darkness. And what does that do? What does
it do to the child of God? What's the effect of it? Well,
Paul tells us, "...hath shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What a wonderful occasion this
is when the Holy Spirit does this for us. And let us be quite
clear, everybody born again of the Spirit of God has received
this wonderful command of God. And the light has shone in our
hearts. Well, may we be able to find
it. May we be able to confess that
we know it because of what God has done for us. What an occasion
it was. And the poor, the apostle, then
he goes on to tell us who received it. But we have this treasure
in earthen vessels. that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us." That means that you and I will
never be able to claim any virtue ourselves. We will never be able
to say, well, of course, I did this and I produced this. No,
it's all of grace. It's all of God's mercy. It's
all of God's favour. But it is granted, it's commanded
to shine into the heart of every true believer. And so what a
blessing today if we have the wonderful evidence of it. And
remember what it does. It shows to us the glory of the
gospel. It shows to us the blessedness
of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. It centers our mind upon
the glory of Christ and we rejoice in it. We praise God for it, for the
wonderful favour of Almighty God to such unworthy sinners. And I'm sure the whole Church
of God come together on this ground and are amazed that God
should have granted them spiritual eyes to view the glory which
is contained in the life and death and resurrection, ascension
and intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. And how amazing
it is until that light shines. We are in spiritual darkness. The entrance of thy words giveth
light. And you see, When that enters
in and when that gives light, it will do this, as we read in
the 105th verse of this same psalm, where the psalmist says,
thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Then it is that we walk in the
light that is shone from heaven through the merits of the Lord
Jesus Christ to direct us as we journey on through this world. What a mercy my friends, what
an amazing blessing to think that your great God is so gracious,
so merciful that he condescends to come to where you and I are
and to direct us through the Word of God to behold the glory
which is contained in the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
what a mercy if we are amongst those who truly desire to hear
this voice. You know, again in this psalm,
there's many occasions, as I've said on previous occasions, thy
word, I think is recorded 35 times in this 119th Psalm, and
it occurs in nearly every paragraph apart from one. And what a mercy
it is. It shows to us, doesn't it, the
power of the work of the Holy Spirit, thy word. And the 149th
verse tells us this, hear my voice. According unto thy loving
kindness, O Lord, quicken me according to thy judgment. Yes, he wanted to hear the voice
of God. They draw nigh that follow after
mischief. They are far from thy law. Well, what a blessing it is for
us today then to have this desire that the Lord would hear our
voice according unto his loving kindness. Perhaps we come this
morning and we come and say, well, I don't know, I don't think
I really understand these things. I don't think, really, I've had
any entrance of thy words which has given light to me. Again,
we have to be very honest, don't we? Never presume, never assume
that which you do not possess. Never assume that the Lord has
spoken when there's been no effect upon the soul. When the Lord
speaks, there is light. And what a blessing it is. And
you see, if you have not been blessed with this favour, of
this light shining in, as the psalmist says here, hear my voice. according unto thy loving-kindness,
O Lord, quicken me." That means, make me spiritually alive according
to thy judgment. Well, we have every encouragement
then, don't we? To come to the Lord, to seek
that he will grant us these spiritual blessings, that he will show
to us the light shining into our heart. What a mercy it is
that we have such a God who is so kind and so gracious and so
merciful who does not deal with us as we deserve. In an earlier
word in the Psalm, verse 49, we read this, remember the word
unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort. in my affliction,
for thy word hath quickened me." Thy word has made me alive, and
we can come to God and say, remember the word unto thy servant, upon
which thou hast caused me to hope. Well, this morning, have
we a word that we look back upon? A word which caused us to hope
in his mercy? A word which shone into our heart,
which gave us some spiritual light to indicate to us that
we were one of those whom God had loved with an everlasting
love. One of those for whom he had
laid down his life, that we might have life. Remember the word
unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope. It's
the work of the Holy Spirit. which causes us to hope. It's not something that you and
I produce ourself. And as the Lord may bring to
remembrance, perhaps, an occasion, sometimes they may appear dim. And we need the Spirit of God
to revive such words in our heart, and then to be blessed with this
truth. This is my comfort, says the
psalmist, in my affliction. You see, we come into times of
affliction, not necessarily physical, sometimes they are. Sometimes
they're mental afflictions. And sometimes we don't seem to
see our evidences. They all seem to be dark. There
doesn't seem to be any clarity. There doesn't seem to be any
light. Well then, this prayer is suitable, isn't it? Remember
the word. Unto thy servant upon which thou
hast caused me to hope. And then you see, this will be
a comfort, a comfort to our souls in our affliction, when perhaps
we don't feel what we want to feel. We may feel perhaps far
off. Well remember this then, for
thy word hath quickened me. Go back, go back to the beginning,
go back to the time when God spoke, when the light shone,
when you rejoiced in it. You bless God for it. What a
favour it is to have a God who deals with us then in this way
and doesn't deal with us according to our sins. Now, one of the
effects of the entrance of the words of God which giveth light
is this. And again, we read it in this
psalm in verse 162. He says, I rejoice at thy word as one that findeth
great spoil." Well, I'm sure this is a truth which the Church
of God bear out. When the light shines, the entrance
of thy words, the word of God's come and has shone light into
our heart, we rejoice at the word of God. because it is thy
word, I rejoice at thy word. And what's the value? The value
of that is a treasure which is beyond our natural comprehension
because it brings with it eternal blessing of eternal life which
will never be taken away. of great value, isn't it? Oh,
then I rejoice at thy word. Well, I wonder this morning if
we are able to say, yes, by the grace of God, I have rejoiced.
The church of God do rejoice. They must rejoice because they
are recipients of this wonderful blessing of the entrance of thy
words, which giveth light. We must rejoice. We have gone,
and may we go on our way rejoicing. I rejoice at thy word as one
that findeth great spoil. Well, my friends, this is great
spoil. It's treasure in heaven, and it's more valuable far than
earth and all its comforts are. It's more valuable then all the
gold that you could collect in this world, because it will not
fade away, because it will not vanish. Because when the light
has shone into our hearts, through the Word of God, oh what a blessing
it is, and how we do come, and how we do rejoice in it. So, the entrance of thy words
giveth light, And this is, again, very encouraging. You see, this
light, it giveth understanding unto the simple. It gives understanding unto the
ignorant. And this is a truth, and a blessed
truth, because when the light shines into our heart, through
the Word of God, we have to confess that we are very ignorant. We're
very simple. We don't know very much at all.
In fact, we seem to know virtually nothing. And yet here is this
great statement. The words, as they enter in,
they give understanding. They giveth understanding. What a blessing it is to have
understanding. And this is, of course, spiritual
understanding. And it's given unto the simple. It's given unto the ignorant.
What a mercy that is, isn't it? As you and I feel just like that,
simple and ignorant. We don't have to be learned.
We don't have to have great qualifications. We can be a very simple and ignorant
person. And yet God comes and gives us
entrance of his words, which give us light. and it giveth
our understanding. Now, the great truth is this. We find that we are so surprised
when the light shines through the Word of God that we didn't
understand things before. Our ignorance was so great, we
stand amazed to think that, well, we read the Word of God, we may
have studied the Word of God, And yet the words, as it were,
didn't shine forth. No, they were covered. There
was a darkness. But when the Holy Spirit works
in our heart, and the Word of God then becomes living words,
they're not dead words, they're spiritual words, and they speak
to our hearts. and they have a great and a glorious
effect. And then let's come back to the
great truths. What it does is to reveal to
us Christ in all the scriptures. We never knew. We never really
appreciated that Christ existed in the Old Testament. But when
the light shines, And there's the entrance of these words shining,
give it light. How we bless God as we observe
the Lord Jesus Christ throughout the Word of God. We know of course
it's set forth very clearly in the New Testament, but it's set
forth in prophecy in the Old Testament right from the very
beginning in Genesis in that third chapter where the Lord
speaks about the glorious gift of salvation that would come
through that one who would bruise the serpent's head. And in due
time, after hundreds of years, it came to pass. The Lord Jesus
Christ was born in Bethlehem, in that very place that the scriptures
prophesied he would be. Born in those humble circumstances,
But what a glorious birth it was. And how wonderful it was,
wasn't it? To the shepherds. The words spoken
by the shepherds entered into the shepherds' hearts. And they
rejoiced in what they heard. They rejoiced in what the angels
spoke. And they went and found Jesus. Oh what a mercy it is when these
words enter in to our heart and the blessed result is that we
go and we find Jesus. We find him as our saviour. We find him as the one that so
willingly came into this world in order to redeem our souls. What a truth it is. Suddenly,
the Gospel becomes glorious, and it becomes large, and it
touches our hearts, and we're not unmoved. Whereas before we
may have read the Word of God, and it just was an historical
account. But now as we read the Words
of God, it moves our spirit. We're a different person. We
rejoice. the truth as it speaks to us
of the Savior and what he's done in order to redeem our souls. We never realized what was involved. We never realized it was the
work of the Father and the work of the Son and of the work of
the Holy Spirit. They all combined in the salvation
of our souls. What a glorious gospel it was.
Yes, thy words giveth light, and there was given to me, given
to us, this understanding of the truth of God. Whereas I was
blind, now I see. What a revelation. How tremendous
in our spiritual life to have our eyes opened The entrance
of thy words giveth light. However ignorant we were, the
Lord is able to shine forth and bring his word so it lights us
up. And we go on our way rejoicing. It is no longer, as it were,
a closed book. It is a wonderful word of blessing,
a wonderful word of encouragement. Isaiah in his prophecy, he speaks
to us in the 35th chapter, and he tells us this, And a highway
shall be there, and a way in it shall be called the way of
holiness. The unclean shall not pass over
it, but it shall be for those, the wayfaring men, though fools
shall not err therein. And I'm sure as we are moved
by the Holy Spirit, we'll recognize that we've been fools. Yes, we've
been so foolish. We've ignored the great truth
of God. We haven't understood the things that we read. Our
eyes have been blinded. But now to realize this word
is true, but it shall be for those, this truth of God. The wayfaring men, though fools,
shall not err therein." You see, the people that the Blessed Spirit
leads and directs do not err. Many people today err in their
so-called knowledge of the truth of God. The fact is that the
light hasn't shone through the entrance of the words of God. And therefore they've continued
in, really, the Word of God tells us it sparks their own kindling. They've made the light. They
produced it. Sparks of their own kindling. It hasn't been from God. It's
been what they've drummed up to produce a religion which suits
them. A religion which they produced
and a religion which they are satisfied with. But you see a
God-given religion is that which God gave and it's all of his
grace. And it's all of His mercy. And
the blessing of it is it gives understanding as the words of
God are open to us and the light shines. The entrance of thy words
giveth understanding unto the simple. What a mercy it is for
us today to have such great and glorious truths. The Apostle John spoke of the
light shining in darkness in the beginning. And the darkness
comprehended it not. It's in the very beginning of
the Gospel of John, those very first glorious words in the Gospel
where he speaks of this, he says, and the light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not. You see, although the
light's shining, we never understand it. until the Holy Spirit applies
the word with power from on high. And that means that you and I
are directed to the blessed gospel set forth in the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. See, all our religion must center
on the work of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ must be
precious to us. He must be valuable to us. He will not be just a figure
in history. But when the entrance of God's
words comes into our heart and we see in Jesus Christ all that
we need for our salvation, all that we need in order to be found
in glory at last, to be one of those for whom he has so wonderfully
come and condescended to die for, to stand in our place and
to bear the punishment due for us instead. The glory of the
gospel. My friends, when the light shines
through the word of God, how blessed we are. And we then understand
that we need an intercessor. It's then we understand we need
a glorious High Priest to present our prayers. It's then that we
realise how poor we are. It's then that we realise what
a sinner we are, what a terrible sinner we are. So when God's
words enter in, when the light shines into our heart, we fall
down before our Holy God. And we cry out, God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. It's very personal. It's not
until the light shone for the Word of God, which condemns us
before a holy God, that we are a sinner and a great sinner. And you see in that condition,
we perhaps feel lost, no hope. There is no hope until the words
of God give us that entrance and the light shines. And we
see then our only hope is in what Christ has done. Our only
hope is that we have an interest, a personal interest, in the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It won't be something which will
just be theory because our case will be very needy. Because we
stand condemned before our Holy God when the light shone. We tremble. We tremble at the
outcome. The thing that we should spend
eternity in hell. It would be a real shock perhaps
to us. A real wake-up call as we realize
how we really are before our Holy God. We're a sinner, a great
sinner, and in and of ourselves, no hope. No hope in self, I find,
yet oft have sought it well. There's no hope in self. Where
is our hope? In Christ. You see, then, when
the words giveth light, when they enter in, and we see there
is the entrance, through the Lord Jesus Christ who said, I
am. the life. I am the truth. I am the life.
I am the light. It's all of those things. And
without Christ, we can do nothing. Without Christ, we are eternally
lost. But with Christ, we are eternally
safe, safe in the arms of Jesus. Well, when that light shines,
what a comfort that is. What a blessing that is, and
how we should indeed praise God for His wonderful goodness and
mercy, His wonderful favor. Right towards the end of the
Word of God in the 21st chapter of the Revelation, we read about
the wonder of this light. And the Apostle is speaking about
the glory in the Holy Jerusalem, the glory of heaven, And he tells
us, and he says, I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty
and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need
of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory
of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. Now, my friends, that's the glorious
picture in glory. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
light thereof. And my friends, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the light for our souls today. He is the light to all those who
believe. The entrance of thy words giveth
light, it giveth understanding unto the simple. What a mercy
it is when the Holy Spirit comes in and and touches us with this
light. And what's the effect? I believe
it's this. As John the Baptist said, behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And when
you and I, by the grace of God, do behold the Lord Jesus Christ
as the Lamb of God, the Lamb of God in all his glory, Lamb
of God dying as that perfect sin atoning sacrifice on the
cross at Calvary to take away all of our sins washed in the
blood of the Lamb. My friends what an entrance this
is when the words of God enter in to our heart and the light
shines and we see what it means to be under the blood, what it
means to be redeemed, what it means to be reconciled to a great
and glorious God. We who are such unworthy sinners
of the earth, undone, and yet to receive these words, the words
of God. Throughout the scriptures, the
words give light, From beginning Genesis to the end of Revelation,
as the words enter into our heart, they give light. And therefore
they also give understanding unto the simple. So we need never
think, well, we're just too ignorant. No, we have this, giveth understanding. And my friends, bless God that
he gives the understanding that you and I need, not perhaps the
understanding that you want. You won't perhaps have the understanding
so you'll be able to boast and say, well of course I know this
and I know that and I know that. No, it'll be the work of the
Holy Spirit in our hearts and we'll be humbled by it and we
desire to praise God for it, for the revelation of himself
as the sin atoning sacrifice, that one who has loved us so
much that He was so willing to suffer on our behalf, to bear
the curse instead. What a Saviour. O friends today,
may we know that light. We must know the light. We must
know it. Don't think it's something which
is abstract. It is something which the Holy
Spirit gives to us and it's granted to us. as there is this entering
in through the truth, through the words of God, that the glorious
light shines into our dark heart. And what a change, what a blessed
change there is. And do we not glory in it? We stand amazed. We have to say,
why me? Why me? Oh, blessed God, why such a wretch
as me, who must forever lie in hell, were not salvation free,
the free grace of God. Well, this morning, may we be
able to trace in our spiritual life that we do possess the favour,
the wonderful favour, the words of God entering into our heart
which has given light, a light which will never be extinguished
because it is eternal. Amen.