Well, this week, Genesis 42 through
45, Joseph dealing with his brethren, the picture of Christ dealing
with us, his brethren. And that's going to be the Bible
lesson. So that's your reading assignment. Psalm 119, the title of this psalm is persecuted,
yet great peace. Persecuted, yet great peace. We live in an ungodly world. We live in a world of darkness. I have learned that the scripture that says
the whole world lieth in wickedness, that's so. It does. The whole world lieth in wickedness. We live in an ungodly, evil world. And this world, when the Lord
of creation came into it, persecuted it. despised and rejected him. And the body of Christ doesn't
know better. If they hate the head, they hate
the body. We know that. And the church is persecuted.
Now, I know that in this country, we've had it, I think, easy. But I can see it coming. I can
see it coming. And it may be that the Lord in
our lifetime will allow us to be persecuted, like our forefathers. Some of them were burned at the
stake. And Vicki and I have been watching some history things. And my, my, my, some of the things
they endured. But if they persecuted the Lord,
they'll persecute his body, his church. she has great peace not just
peace great peace through her head the prince of peace the
lord jesus christ now it says in verse 161 princes have persecuted
me without a cause our lord experienced this as he walked among the jews
and then he experienced it at the hands of the romans the gentiles
But the leaders, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the leaders persecuted
him without a cause. They had no personal cause to
persecute him. As it says in John 15, 25, which
is quoted in the Scripture from Psalm 69, 4, they hated me without
a cause. You know, I thought this as I
was writing on this today, the greatest abuse of the law is
when it is used without a cause. When you take the law and you
use it to persecute someone without a cause, that's the greatest
abuse of the law. But our Lord, listen, our Lord
never gave them a cause to persecute him. Never, not once. He went about, the Scripture
says, doing good. Listen to Mark 7, 37. And that
is, the people were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done
all things well. He maketh both the deaf to hear
and the dumb to speak. Does that deserve persecution? You know, David gave them no
cause to persecute him, whatever this situation was. He gave no
cause to persecute him, and we should never give anyone a cause
to persecute us. You know, the gospel we preach
gives no cause for persecution. It doesn't. We are told to obey
magistrates, aren't we? We are told to pray for those
in power, whether Democrat or Republican. We are told to pray
for those in power. The gospel promotes good government. The Lord said this, give unto
Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and give unto God the things
that are God's, which is everything. But he said, give unto Caesar
things that are Caesar's. He told the soldiers, you know
what he told those soldiers? Be content with your wages. The gospel promotes obedience. It promotes good government.
It's not against it, it promotes it. But the cause for such persecution
is found in them that believe not. It's due to their natural
enmity against God. That's why they persecuted Jesus
Christ. He is God. They persecuted Him
because of a natural enmity, a natural hatred they have to
God Almighty. That's why they do it. Now, how
are we to look at this matter of being persecuted? Well, it
says in Matthew 5, 10, and 12, here's how we handle it. Here's
how we look at it. Blessed, really? Blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness' sake. His sake. His sake. Righteousness' sake. For theirs is a kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you
And shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, now that's
a key word, falsely, for my sake, for your union to me, your connection
to me. Rejoice, he said, rejoice and
be exceeding glad. FOR GREAT IS YOUR REWARD IN HEAVEN,
FOR SO PERSECUTED THEY THE PROPHETS WHICH WERE BEFORE YOU. You know,
when the disciples were beaten, they went rejoicing that they
were counted worthy to be beaten for Christ's sake. And here's
the cause of persecution. It says in 2 Timothy 3, 12, YEA,
AND ALL THAT WILL LIVE GODLY IN CHRIST JESUS SHALL SUFFER
PERSECUTION. It's your life. The life you
live, the life you live in this world condemns them. When they
see your life, they hate it. It brings out that enmity. It
brings it out. You know Christ was hated for
the life he lived? If he had joined in with that
crowd, if he had just, you know, just like ourselves, if we had
just joined in with our old cronies, they wouldn't persecute us, would
they? They wouldn't do that law. It's the life you live in Christ
Jesus. Those who live godly, it's your
life. You live godly in Christ Jesus,
shall suffer persecution. It says in John 15, 18, if the
world hates you, and it will, it will. You know it hated me
before it hated you. If they hate the head, I said
this, that they hate the body. They hate the body also. But
persecution doesn't change one's attitude toward God's Word. He says here that, but my heart
standeth. This is reverence. You know,
when somebody of some nobility walks into the room, what do
you do? You stand. My heart standeth
in awe. That word awe means to fear,
shake, tremble. But my heart standeth in awe
of thy word. You know, it says this in Isaiah
66 too. For all those things hath mine
hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord. But
to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a
contrite spirit, and trembleth. Standeth in awe at my word. At my word. You know, no fear
of God's Word, what God has to say in His Word, if it doesn't
strike some fear in your heart, I mean a reverent fear, I'm not
talking about this slavish fear, but I'm talking about a right
fear, it's evident there's no fear of God there either. I realize
that the way we come to the Word of God, the way we think of the
Word of God, the way we love the Word of God is a reflection
of our feelings toward God. It is, it's a reflection of our
feelings toward God. God's Word is precious to us,
isn't it? It's precious to us. Our Lord
possessed a holy awe, reverent fear of God's Word. As a man, it was his meat and
his drink. He loved God's Word. And if we
have a holy fear and reverence for the Word of God, we will
stand in awe of God's Word when we read it and when we hear it
preached. Lord, we ought to pray before
we come here. Lord, arrest my attention. God is speaking through His Word. This is not an empty book. You
can read any other book, and it doesn't matter if you're paying
attention or not, unless you're going to be graded on it. But
God's Word, that's God speaking, this is God speaking. It's His
Word, He speaks to us through His Word by His Spirit. He does
not speak to us apart from His Word. If you want God to speak
to you, get in His Word and ask Him to speak. He speaks to us
through His Word. God's Word is a revelation of
Himself. You know, it's only by the Word
of God that we know God. the Living Word, Jesus Christ,
and the Written Word. It's only through God's Word
that we have a real understanding of who God is. You know how many
people on this earth go about having some idea of God, some
imagination of God? You thought I was altogether,
he said in the Psalm, you thought I was altogether like yourselves. But God has given to some of
us a revelation of Himself. We understand God is holy. We don't understand the full
impact of that until we stand before God's holy presence. But
we understand God's holy. We understand God is light. We
understand that whatever God does is right. We understand
something of who God is. We are known of God and we know
God. We do. Not like we're going to, but
we do. God's Word is a revelation of Himself. It's a revelation
of truth. Aren't you glad you know the
truth? Because He said, the truth shall make you free. A lie has
never made anybody free. But the truth, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the truth, shall make you free. And God's Word
is light from heaven. Psalm 119, 130, The entrance
of thy words giveth light, and it giveth understanding unto
the simple. I'm simple, but God's given me
an understanding. God's Word makes us wiser than
our teachers. He says in Psalm 119, 99, I have
more understanding than all my teachers. You know, there's a lot more
people who are far more intellectual than I am, who do not believe
God. But they don't have more understanding
than I have, and you have. We understand who God is. We
understand how God can be a just God and a Savior. We understand
our need of Christ. We understand who Jesus Christ
is, where He is, and what He's done for us. We understand that.
I understand how the worlds were made by Jesus Christ. It didn't evolve. As I wrote
in a bulletin, someone said, we didn't evolute, we devoluted.
God created us. The Lord Jesus Christ, God created
us. Can we say that we stand in awe
of God's word? Listen, if we do not stand in
awe of God's Word, we do not stand in awe of God. We don't. Not if we don't stand in awe
of His Word. Because He can't be separated from His Word. And
this holy awe of God's Word keeps us from being persecutors. It separates us from the world. Separates us. It divides us from
the world. Can we say that we stand in awe
of the Living Word, Jesus Christ? Do we stand in awe of Him? What
a person. What a person. Here He is, God
Almighty, who created all things, who has the power over all things. Here He is, stooping down, writing
on the ground with His finger to a woman caught in adultery.
And then you see him again, he's got a child upon his knee, said
it, child, and he blessed him. A child sitting on the lap of
God. And then he goes and a leper
comes to him. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. And he's touched him. Nobody else touched that leper,
but the Lord touched him and he was made completely clean.
And the Lord has touched some of us. He's made us clean, every
whit, as we read last Sunday. You're clean, every whit, in
every way, clean. Oh my soul, we stand in awe of
God's word, we stand in awe of the living word, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And because of this, because of this, it says in verse
162, I rejoice, I rejoice at thy word. at that word at has
to do with an object God's Word listen first of all
God's Word was the object of our Lord's rejoicing wasn't it
he as a man he rejoiced in God's Word as I said it was his meat
and drink you know Job said this that God's Word was more to him
than his necessary food he said it's more than my necessary food
Believers rejoice in God's Word. Think how dead and ignorant we
would be without it. There was a time we were ignorant,
dead and in darkness, and didn't even know it. Didn't even know
it. I didn't know I was lost until
God saved me. I didn't know I was blind until
he gave me sight. I didn't know it. I rejoice at thy word. You know, one day, one day I
sat down and I heard my pastor Henry preaching on television
and I heard the word of God. I heard the gospel in power and
I have rejoiced in God's word ever since. There was a time
you, I didn't care if you throw this book in the trash. That's
sad and it didn't mean anything to me. It means everything to
me now. It's how I commune with God through
His Word, by His Spirit. God's Word, His Word was the
object of our Lord's rejoicing. It's the object of our rejoicing.
We rejoice in God's Word. We rejoice in the One whose Word
it is. It's the Lord's Word. It's God's
Word. It's our Lord's Word. And because
of that, we rejoice in His Word. Now he says here, I rejoice at
thy word as one that findeth great spoil. Here's one of the
reasons we rejoice in God's word. It's God's word. But what we
find in God's word, we find God. We find the promises. You know,
the word the word spoil here means booty. We find great booty. We find great promises. We find
forgiveness. We find pardon. We find justification. We find righteousness. Here's
righteousness. We find great spoil is what we find. But you
know, looking at this as it belongs to Christ, let me look at it
this way. This belongs to Christ first who won the battle and
has taken from Satan the spoil. You know, I thought about Isaiah
53. He says, he shall divide the
spoil with the strong. This has to do with our Lord
who defeated Satan. You see the strong man took over
the house. He came in and took over. He
conquered Satan. He, he, he conquered principalities
of powers. And he has found great spoil,
booty. You know who that great spoil
is? It's you. You. You're his spoil. You're his booty. You're to the
praise and glory of his grace throughout eternity. You are. And we find great spoil in God's
word in the promises of the covenant, The Lord Jesus Christ, eternal
life. You know, we have all this. We
find it in God's word. God's revealed it to us. It's
all written right here. You know, if I told you that
there was a great treasure over there in this house, a great
treasure, you'd want to go over there and get it, wouldn't you?
You would. If I told you there was a great
treasure hidden in the ground over there, we'd dig it up. There's great treasure in this.
We ought to dig into it. We ought to dig into it and see
what we have in Christ. Because it's what he's given
us is what we praise him for. We praise him for who he is first,
not just what he's given us. That would be cheap. But we do
praise him for who he is and what he's given to us. NOW BECAUSE OF THIS LOVE, I REJOICE
AT THY WORD, AND I LOVE THY WORD, BECAUSE OF THIS LOVE FOR THE
WORD OF GOD, BECAUSE OF THIS LOVE TO GOD THAT OUR LORD POSSESSED
AND WE POSSESS, HE SAYS IN VERSE 163, I HATE, I HATE, The word hate here has to do
with as an enemy. I hate as an enemy and abhor,
that means detest or intense delight or intense dislike. I hate and abhor lying. Our Lord hated falsehood in every
form. He exposed the Pharisees. He
exposed them for who they were. He hated it. If we love something, remember
this, I told you this not too long ago, but if we love something,
we hate the opposite of it. If we love whatever it is we
love, we hate the opposite of it. If we love the truth, we
hate a lie. We hate a false gospel. Our Lord
hated a false gospel. You know, and I've been faced
with this, is why don't you, you know, meet with these preachers
when they, you know, they'll have meetings together and they'll
gather somewhere and eat. I'm not eating with that. I'm
not gonna cast my pearls before swine. I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna do it. There's
a difference. Paul said, if any man preach
another gospel, let him go to hell. That's strong language. I'll tell you what's strong is
when God casts men to hell, because he will. He will. And I'd rather know that now
than then. I'd rather somebody tell me the truth now, I don't
care how mad it makes me. If we love something, we hate
the opposite of it. If we love God's word, God's
truth, we hate falsehood. We cannot be indifferent to another
gospel. We can't do it. Can't do it.
But thy law do I love. You see, he said, I hate and
abhor lying, but thy law do I love. This is more than an agreement
with it. It's my affections. I embrace
God's law, God's word, God's precepts of the gospel. I embrace
them. They are a part of me. They're
a part of me. You know, you love God's law
because it's God's law. You love God's word because it's
God's word. Let me tell you something. If you had a son, let me put
it this way. If you had a son at war, over
in another country at war, and he wrote you a letter, you'd
cherish that letter, wouldn't you? I'm telling you, you would
take that letter and you would read it and reread it and reread
it and you'd put it in a safe place and you'd look at it. But
now if you took that letter and you said, oh, this is from our
son, you just put it over on your desk and you didn't read
it, you don't love your son. And if I don't love this book,
I don't love God. It's more than an agreement. With my heart, I embrace God's
Word. It's to embrace Christ. It's a reflection of my love
to God, my love to Christ. And listen, we love God's Word
for its purity. No other book like it. Proverbs
30, verse 5, every word of God is pure. It's pure. This book is pure. No air in it. And where this
intense love for the Word of God is, it will come out in your
life. You can't hide it. Listen to
verse 164. Seven times a day do I praise
thee. Now why does he do that? Because I love thy law. I love
thy word. I love what's written in it.
I love the one it's written about. I love the one who wrote it.
I love it. Our Lord gave perfect praise
continually as He walked on this earth. He praised God for His
Word continually, and He praised Him from His heart continually. He lived in an attitude of praise.
And our Lord deserves, and listen, He deserves continual praise.
I tried to figure out how to word this, and I hope it makes
sense. But we are to be a living praise
to God. Does that make sense? we our whole life is to be a
living praise to God but praise here listen now praise
is not without merit it's not without merit seven times a day
do i praise thee because of thy righteous judgments the first thing that popped in
my mind calvary Calvary is the supreme example
of God's righteous judgment. It's the supreme example. And
we praise God continually for Christ and Him crucified, don't
we? His righteous judgments fell
on Jesus Christ. And by God's grace now, they
won't fall on us who believe, and all who believe. What's a
terror to the ungodly is a reason of praise to the godly. It's
a reason to praise for God's righteous judgments. We do rejoice in God's righteous
judgments. You take his righteous judgments
away and what do we have left? Chaos and no salvation. But now
listen, if God brings this nation to
its knees, we will praise God for his righteous judgment. I
can see why the Lord would bring it to its knees. You know, we
live in a day now that just, it's sad. It's wicked. It's wicked. If God brings this
nation to its knees, we rejoice. We will praise God for his righteous
judgment. She deserves it. She deserves
it. For all this same-sex marriage
and homosexuality and transgender stuff that's going on, she deserves
God's righteous judgment. You know what they don't even
realize? What they think is freedom, they think that's freedom, that
is judgment. That is judgment. As one man
said, it's the simmering of judgment. But we rejoice at God's righteous
judgments. And when he casts a great whore
into hell, the whole host of heaven is going to shout, hallelujah. Nobody's going to be crying.
They're going to shout hallelujah. And now listen, great peace comes
through the Prince of Peace here. He says here, great peace have
they. great peace not a little bit
of peace this peace that we have that the Lord Jesus Christ obtained
for us who is our peace is great peace because a great person
obtained it great peace have they not everybody
not everybody which love thy law You see, I've told you before,
before anybody can claim a promise, you have to fit the description
described in the promise. If you don't love God's Word,
God's Law, you don't love God, and you don't have great peace.
You may have false peace, but you don't have great peace. You
don't have the Prince of Peace. You don't have that. You've got
to fit the character described here. Great peace have they which
love thy Law. they have great peace with God,
they have great peace of conscience through the blood of reconciliation,
Colossians 1.20, and having made peace through the blood of His
cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, by Him I
say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven, we
have great peace through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
who has reconciled us to God. And they have great peace that
cannot be taken away from them because of persecution. That doesn't take away our peace
because Jesus Christ is our peace. Peace is not a feeling. Peace
is a person. You got to take him away to destroy
our peace. You know, I know what, you know,
we can get up in the morning and not feel, we can feel bad
or, you know, something bothering us, but Christ is our peace.
He is our peace, he says. And nothing shall offend them.
They shall have no stumbling block. They've been removed.
The stumbling block has been removed. And notice something else here.
I want you to notice how hope and obedience go together. In verse 166, Lord, I have hoped
for thy salvation and done thy commandments. Now, our Lord did
that. He completely kept the law to
every jot and tittle. He did that. But now, let me,
now listen here. Where there is no obedience,
there's no hope. There's no hope. In other words,
put it this way, as James put it, faith without works is dead,
and faith without works that's dead equals no hope. There's no hope. Hope and obedience always go
together, and heart love is the heart of
obedience. 167 my soul hath kept thy testimonies. You don't think he's saying this
and I love I love them exceedingly I Love them exceedingly My soul,
you know, that's me. I'm a soul. I'm a son The Lord
Jesus Christ He was he was he was a real living human being
he had a soul and Love was the root of Christ's
obedience. It was the root of his obedience.
You see, if love is absent, forget it. Forget it. I don't care how
outwardly obedient a person may look. If love is absent, you
already messed up. You've already messed up. Period.
But love was the root of Christ's obedience and is the root of
a believer's obedience. It's the root of our obedience. We love God. We love His Word. We love His precepts. We love
His precepts. Love one another. Don't you like
that? We love His law, whether it be the Decalogue or the Old
Word. Thou shalt not murder. I like
that. I like that. I wish everybody would follow
it. We're not saved by it. We're
not saved by our obedience. You know that. You've heard that
a thousand times. But we love it. And we seek to
walk in the light of the scriptures, the word of God. And last of
all, verse 168, I have kept, I have kept thy precepts and
thy testimonies, for all my ways are before thee. Our Lord could
say this. He could say this with a perfect
conscience, conscience. He kept the precepts. He kept the precepts. He kept
the law. He kept the commandments. He
kept it all from Genesis to Revelation. He kept all of it. He kept it
perfectly. And that's our righteousness.
His faith and faithfulness is our righteousness. And we can
say this in reference to our substitute. In Christ, we have
kept God's precepts and testimonies perfectly. in Christ we have. However, however, though we do
not keep them perfectly in this life ourselves, we do strive
to walk in them by the grace of God. The Lord knows our ways. He knows our ways. He knows our
heart. He knows our heart. Peter said, Lord, you know, I
love, you know, all things, you know, I love you. Not like I
ought to, but you know I do. You know I do. That was a good study for me. I hope it was good for you. I enjoyed that. I really did. All right.