Turn with me, if you would, to
Psalm 119. Psalm 119. I don't consider pastoring and studying and preaching a job. It's more work than I've ever
had laid on me. I'm not saying my job is any
harder than anybody else's job. Just in my own experience, this
is the largest amount of work that I've ever had laid on me.
But to me, it's not a job. It's not just what I do for a
living. This is a calling. This is a
lifelong calling. It is stressful. It is weighty. The reason is
because it's so serious. It is so serious. More so, though, than anything
else that can be said about this calling is it's an honor. It's
an honor and it's a privilege. My calling is to the word of
God. My calling is to God's word. All of God's people are called
to Christ. We are all called to Christ. I, by God's grace alone, have
been called to the Lord Jesus Christ. But my calling as a pastor
and as a preacher is to study this word. You know, people call
us preachers. I think we ought to be called
studiers because that's what we do. If you really think about
the time spent, that's what we do. My calling is to study this
word and seek the Lord for an understanding of this word and
then declare this word. That's my calling. I believe,
I believe, I thought about this statement heavily. I believe
that with each day that goes by, each day that God allows
me to open this word, I believe that I more and more see the
value of it. And I'll say it this way, I want
to. I want to and I hope to and I
believe I do. I believe I do. The more value something has
to you, the more important it is to you. If something has no
value to you, you're just as happy for it to leave your hand
as you are for it to come into your hand. You ever picked up
shells on the beach? You reach down, you know they're
half covered up in sand, you pull it up, no value. See something
covered up, you pick it up, it's a whole sand dollar. Where we
usually go, there are no, you get these little bitty, they're
not even conch shells, they're like snails, something or another.
But it's a little spiral thing, and you're so excited to get
one. We went to a place one time, and there were huge conch shells
everywhere. Complete, no cracks, nothing
missing. You find something like that,
and you stick it in your pocket. And you keep it, you save it.
You go back to where everybody else is, and you say, look what
I found. That's what preaching is. And
that's what believing is. Preaching the word and believing
the word. The more we open this word, the
more we open this word. Why come back tonight? We were
just here. I believe we worship God. Why
come back? The more we open this word, the
more we realize the value of it. It's value to us. Hannah and I have a book at the
house, it's a folder with pockets and stuff like that in it, and
we put all of our important papers, all of our really important certificates,
things like that, they go into this book. That book is important
to us. It's not just something that
you just throw in the corner of the garage. In this book is our birth certificate. In this book right here is our
death certificate. We know when we died. We know where we died. We know
how we died. We know why we died. All right
here in this book. When did we die? When Christ
said, it is finished and bowed his head and gave up the ghost. That's when we died. Where did
we die? We died just outside of Jerusalem
on top of Golgotha's hill. How did we die? God nailed us
to a Roman cross and spewed out his wrath on us. Why did we die? God's justice
demanded it. That sin had to be paid. Every bit of that happened in
Christ. And in Christ and in His Word,
we have our birth certificate in here. We have our death certificate
in here. We have our resurrection certificate
in here. We have our inheritance certificate
in here. The value of this book. The absolute
value of this book. Our family tree is in here. If you feed on Christ, you understand
what I mean when I say our food is in here. Our water is in here. If you've ever needed it, you
know what I'm talking about. Our medicine is in here. Where do you keep your medicine?
Right in here. Those who have to take medicine
every day, do they just throw it around anywhere? This is our medicine. Our wisdom
is right in here. You know the steps of a good
man are ordered. Do you know that? Every single
step. Everything we should do, how
we should do it, when we should do it, it's all in here. Every bit of it. This is not
just a figure of speech. Every single thing we need is
in here. It's all in here. Now let's just
scan a few verses here in Psalm 119 and let's see if we agree
with David. Psalm 119 verse 25, he said,
my soul cleaveth unto the dust. My soul is wrapped up in dust. In this flesh, I'm nothing but
a dead man. He said, quicken thou me according
to thy word. There is life in this word. David said, there is life in
here. Every soul that has been quickened
says it's true. It's true. There's life in here. Verse 28 says, My soul melteth
for heaviness. Strengthen thou me according
unto thy word. The more we open the pages of
this book, the more we're going to realize there is strength
in here. There is strength in here. Is your soul melting for heaviness? That's what David said. My soul
is melting for heaviness. Is your soul melting for heaviness? There is strength in here. There is strength right inside
here. The strength of the promise of
the Lord. The strength of the Word of the
Lord. Look at verse 58. He said, I
entreated thy favor with my whole heart. I started begging with
my whole heart. Be merciful unto me according
to thy word. There is mercy in here. There is mercy in here. You need
mercy. Right in here. It's right in
here. We communicate to our Lord in
prayer. We just did. Isn't that right? We communicate to him with our
words. He communicates to us and he
answers us with his words. We communicate with our words.
He communicates with his words. We cry to him, I need mercy. He says, I will be merciful. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. He says, I will be thou clean. Look at verse 76. Let I pray thee thy merciful
kindness be for my comfort according to thy word unto thy servant. There is comfort in here. You talk about not just a figure
of speech. There is comfort in here. There is no comfort anywhere
else, but there's comfort in here. There's so much comfort
in here. What is troubling you? I've said
that before, I'm saying it again. What is worrying you? The reason
I say it is because something always is. As soon as you finish
with this one, here comes two more, right? What do you need
relief from? What do you need rest from? Oh,
there's so much trouble in my family. When my mother and father forsake
me, the Lord will take me up. Isn't that right? It's money. It's money, things have never
been tight as they are right now. Behold the fowls of the
air. They sow not, neither do they
reap, nor gather into barns, and your Heavenly Father feeds
them. Are you not much better than they? If God clothes the
grass, He's going to clothe you. Your Heavenly Father knows that
you have need of all these things. Take no thought for it. There is so much comfort in this
word. Look at verse 89. Forever, O Lord, thy word is
settled in heaven. Eternal stability is right in
here. When everything else is falling
apart, when everything else seems to be crumbling out from under
you, eternal stability is right in here. How firm a foundation,
you saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent
Word. Right here in His excellent Word. 105. Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet
and a light unto my path. 133, order my steps in thy word, and
let not any iniquity have dominion over me. The light of Christ,
you know, not what the kids sing, this little light of mine, I'm
going to let it shine. The light of Jesus Christ. If we have the
light of Christ, we have the sun as it shineth in his strength. That light of Christ, the direction
and the guidance of God's Holy Spirit is right in here. And
I want to say that again. The light of Christ and the direction
and the guidance of God's Holy Spirit is right inside here. Right inside this Word. Verse
140. Thy Word is very pure. Therefore thy servant loves it."
Do you ever get disgusted with the filth of this world? Honestly, do you ever just get
tired of it? The wickedness of it, the way
that everybody's wanting to conform to it. You know, every generation
has said that, but it seems like it's just so true, so true. When I say everybody, I mean
myself. We see it more in our own heart,
in our own mind than we do anywhere, don't we? But does it ever vex
you? It says it vexed Lot. He lived in Sodom and Gomorrah
and it just vexed him. Does it ever vex you that everywhere
you turn, without, within, Everything, everyone is just
drinking in iniquity like water. Do you ever just long for something
pure? Are you ever just ready to be
done with it? And can't I just have something
pure? It's right here. I mean, it's right here. He said,
that's why you're servant. Lord, you've made me to be your
servant. I wouldn't be if you hadn't made
me to be, but you made me to be. That's why this filthy, rotten,
vile, wicked sinner that you laid hold of, this sinner that
you had mercy on and plunged me in the blood of my Lord, This
center that you put a brand new heart in one that loves purity. One that loves God's holiness. That's why your servant loves
this word. It's because it's the absolute
purest thing on earth. Completely, completely pure.
147. I prevented the dawning of the
morning and cried, I hoped in thy word. He said, I was up all
night crying, crying over the sorrow and the difficulties of
this life, crying over my own sin, crying over the sin and
the lost state of my loved ones. But you gave me hope in your
word. You gave me some hope in this
word. Have you ever... We don't understand
this until God puts us in a position to understand this. We'll never
understand need, we'll never understand crying, we'll never
understand begging for mercy until God proves to us what a
sinner we are. We'll never understand... the depth of what we have right
here until God reveals to us our need. But have you ever needed
hope, needed a word from the Lord and you open up this word
and God speaks to your heart and it floods you in a way that
you can't even describe? David said, You gave me hope.
You gave me hope again in your word. You gave me an expected
anticipation. You proved to me through your
word that. Though weeping endures for the
night, joy is coming in the morning. Joy is coming. This life that
we live in right now is night. It's night. Everything about
it is night. There's a lot of weeping involved. But joy is
coming. It is. And when it comes to our
sin, this word says there's forgiveness with thee. If God can forgive
me, God can forgive anybody. I'm begging for loved ones. If
God can forgive me, God can forgive anybody. Well, they just don't
seem to have an interest. Neither did I. They're just too sinful. Well,
so was I. If God can forgive me, God can
forgive anybody. Anybody. There's hope in this
word. I love how our Lord's ways are
not our ways, not our ways. We have people, oh man, I just
wish God would save him. That person is such a good and
kind person. He's friendly to people. He'd
do anything for you. If anybody ought to be saved,
it ought to be him. You would think if God would
save anybody, it'd be him. Sad to say, that's usually not
the guy. It's that guy that everybody says, no hope. hope. Let's take our loved ones
to the Lord and leave them there. He's able. He's able. Look at verse 160 with me. Thy word is true from the beginning
and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever."
All truth is in here. All truth from the beginning
of it to the end of it, it is nothing but truth. The more we
open the pages of this word, the more we are absolutely convinced
of the fact that God is true and every man and every thing
that is against the word of God is a liar. Isn't that right? This is truth. This is truth. Look at verse 169. Let my cry come near before thee,
O Lord. Give me understanding according
to thy word. That article that I read to you
every now and then, it's called A Good Description of the Bible.
It starts by saying, this book is the mind of God. This book is the mind of God.
In this word, we understand what God demands. In this word, we
understand how far we are from his demands. In this word we
understand how far Christ came down to help us. We would have
never known had it not been for this precious word. In this word
we understand what he did. Verse 170 says, let my supplication
come before thee, deliver me according to thy word. Christ delivered us. He delivered
us and he did it according to the word, in agreement with God's
holy word, completely every jot, every tittle, according to the
word. It's perfect. The Apostle Paul
said, I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. And that he was buried and that
he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures.
Our deliverance is right in here. He said in verse 172, my tongue
shall speak of thy word for all thy commandments are righteousness. We have the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ right in here. Now go with me if you would
to Matthew 24. Matthew 24, this is the verse
that got me to thinking about all this. Matthew 24 verse 35 says, Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my words shall not pass away. This word of God is the only
thing that has any lasting value. This is it. This is it. The more
we come to realize that, the more peace we're going to have
with the way things are in this world. Years ago, I'm going to
say roughly eight, something like that, somebody went down
to Mexico and they were staying with the Groovers. And while
they were there, They found a, I think it was a big crack in
Walter's wall of his house. I don't know where it was, but
their houses down there were made out of concrete. Exterior
walls, interior walls, all concrete. And it was apparently a pretty
big crack and, you know, the expense of it and the hassle
of the construction and the concrete dust everywhere and all that
kind of stuff. People who were visiting said to Betty, I am
so sorry, Betty. And Betty put, this was her immediate
response. She said, everything here is
turning to rust anyway. It's okay. You know where she got that? Right there. Right there. I thought, what an answer. It's
okay. It's all crumbling anyway. What
an answer! The more we get a hold of that,
the easier it will be to deal with what happens in this world. God said heaven and earth is
going to pass away. You know the Lord gives and the
Lord takes away. The Lord gives money and the
Lord takes away money. The Lord gives things and the
Lord takes away things. The Lord gives people, and the
Lord takes away people. But he said, I will never take
away my word from you. Never, never. Heaven and earth
shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. I want to
get a hold of that. I mean this. I mean this. I want
to get a hold of this, and I want to learn this. I want to learn
this. Look with me at 1 John chapter
2. 1 John chapter 2 verse 13 says, I write unto you fathers because
you have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you
young men because you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto
you little children because you have known the father. I have
written unto you fathers because you have known him that is from
the beginning. I have written unto you young
men because you are strong and the word of God abideth in you
And you have overcome the wicked one. He basically said the same
thing twice. He's stressing it. That's what
he's doing. He's stressing it. He said in
verse 13, I write unto you. He said in verse 14, I have written
unto you. I said it before. I'm saying
it again. Verse 15 love, not the world. Neither the things that are in
the world. If any man love the world, and
what he means right here is, at the expense of Christ. If
any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father,
but is of the world. And the world is passing away. And the lust thereof, that's
passing away. But he that doeth the will of
God abideth forever. If anybody gets it, I get it. I do get it. We all have houses
to buy. We all have cars to buy. We have
families to support. We have careers to get off the
ground. I get it. But oh, may we never, never lose
sight of the fact that every bit of it is passing away. I mean, it's passing away. This
is what our Lord said. He said, buy the truth and sell
it not. Buy this Word and sell it not. May we never get to a place where
we say, well, I need to put Christ and His Word off right now. I have something important going
on. May we never, ever get to a place where anything becomes
more valuable to us than this Word. the word of the one we're
hoping in, the word of the one we're looking to. Let's literally
hold everyone, I mean everyone, and I'm preaching to Gabe Stoniker
right now, let's hold everyone and everything with an open hand
so all of it can leave just as easily as it came in. Everyone
and everything except for the Word of God. Clench a fist around
it. I mean both hands, pull it in
close, keep it, guard it with our life. Don't ever let it go. Buy the truth and sell it not. Buy the truth and sell it not.
These are the words of our Savior. Our whole hope is to live forever
with a person. These are his words. These are
his promises. To cling to his word is to cling
to him. That's what it is. I want to
close with this. I believe this is the best illustration
for this. Go with me to Matthew 13. Matthew
13. Look with me at verse 44. He said, again, the kingdom of
heaven, and I love it every time our Lord says that. The kingdom
of heaven is like, well, I want to know what he has to say now.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in
a field. The witch, when a man hath found,
he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he
hath, and he buys that field. Because it's the happiest thing
he could do. For joy thereof, he goes and
he sells everything he has, and he buys that field. Our Lord
said in verse 45, again, The kingdom of heaven is like
unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls, who when he hath found
one pearl of great price, went and sold all the pearls that
he'd gathered up to that point, and he bought that one pearl.
He sold it all and he bought that pearl a great price. Oh,
the treasure God has given us in this word. What a treasure. Put everything you have into
it. I mean everything you have. Put everything you have into
it. We do that with something that means something to us. You men need to put your all
into your jobs. Our Lord said work while there's
12 hours a day. You men need to put your all into your families. You men need to be the absolute
best husbands you can possibly be. You wives need to be the
best wives you can possibly be. Fathers, mothers, you need to
be the best friend you can possibly be. I mean pour your all into
these things, but buddy, pour your all into this. Pour your all into it because
it's never gonna pass away, never. All right, I wanna close with
268. Let's all stand together.