Psalm 119, the title of this message, The
Wonderful Testimonies of God. The Wonderful Testimonies of
God. He says here in verse 129, Thy
testimonies are wonderful, therefore doth my soul First, I can hear the Lord Jesus
Christ speaking. I can hear Him saying, Thy testimonies
are wonderful. And if anybody ought to know,
he ought to know, because they're all about Him. He's the Word
of God, the Living Word. He doesn't know them by memorization. He knows them by experience. He knows the very depth of their
meanings. He knows them. And to him, he
says they are wonderful. And they are wonderful to God's
children. This book, The Word of God, which is made up of the
words of God, is a wonderful book. Because it's about a wonderful
person. who obtained a wonderful salvation
for us. He says here, thy testimonies. Now the word testimony here means
witness. It means witness, that's what
it means. God's word bears witness to the being of God. Now apart
from this book, you and I would be ignorant of God. We would
not know God, apart from this book. We would not know who God
is. We wouldn't know the God that
is. We wouldn't know Him. And His Word bears witness to
the origin of all things. We know by the Word of God how
the world came into being. We know by the Word of God how
man came into being on this earth, not by a monkey, Not by some
organism. God created man from the dust
of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life
and man became a living soul. We know the origin of man. And we know the origin, listen,
we know the origin of the fall. We know why, we know why the
world is in the mess it's in, don't we? Only God's children
really know and understand why this world is in the mess it's
in. We know, we know by the Word
of God and we know by experience, that the whole world lies in
wickedness, as the Word of God tells us. We know that. We know
why men die, men and women die. By one man sin entered the world
and death by sin. We don't die of old age, we don't
die of cancer, we don't die... These are second causes. We don't
die from heart failure. These are second causes. We die
from sin. As far as a believer goes, this
body that you're looking at me, I know I'm a soul and I have
a body. I am a soul. And it's encased
in this body. I'm in this body. But it's a
body of death, what you're looking at. It's decaying right before
your eyes. That's what we look at as we
age. That's what's going on. I know people don't like to hear
that, but it's so. It's the truth. It's what's happening to us.
But we also know how that God can be a just God and a Savior. I never even heard that until
I heard Henry preaching the gospel. I never even heard anybody even
say that. How can God be just and have anything to do with
a wretch like me? Well, the answer to that is in
Jesus Christ, His blood, His righteousness, His person. That's
how God can be just and justify me, Christ as my substitute. dying in my place, taking my
punishment, bearing my sins. But before he did that, he kept
the law perfectly and provided for me a righteousness. I didn't
even hear anything about that. I didn't even know I needed one.
I just need to be forgiven and accept Christ as my personal
Savior. And then one day I heard the gospel, and I realized that
I not only needed the death of Christ, I needed the life of
Christ for me. The Lord, the Scripture says,
is our righteousness. He's my righteousness. He's my
substitute. He's my high priest. He's my
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The Scripture
says He's made unto us. This is what He is to us. It's
not just what He gives to us. this is what he is to us he is
my wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption he is that to
me he doesn't just give it to me though he does but he is those
things to me but these testimonies are witnesses and they're a witness
to the lord jesus christ whose name is wonderful what a wonderful
person he is what a There's just no person like him.
I wish I had the ability to preach him as he ought to be preached.
God, he is the living God, and yet he's a real man. And yet
he's God, as I believe Scott Richardson said, he's God as
if he were not a man. He's a man as if he were not
God in one undivided person. What a mystery. Only God can
do that. You know, only God can take my
sins, make them His, and put them away, pay for them. Nobody
else can do that. I can't even pay for my sins.
People in hell can't pay for them, or if they could, it'd
be over with. That's why it's eternal there. It can't satisfy
God's justice. Only God can satisfy God. That's
the truth. Only God can satisfy God. And this being so, God's testimonies
are wonderful. They're wonderful. And the meaning
of wonderful here means marvelous, miraculous. This book is miraculous. You know how it stood the test
of times? You know that this book is the most, by the unbelieving
world, is the most hated book ever written? Satan would love
to burn this book. and do away with it. It's a miracle
that you and I have this book right here. This is God's word. You have God's word in your lap.
That's a miracle. But God's words here, listen
also, they are wonderful in their character. One of the things that I thought
of is the simplicity of God's word. You ever read, and I know
you have, you ever read after some philosopher, poetry, how
complicated they get? You read some of these, you read
any, about any philosopher, sooner or later it's going to be so
complicated. It's just, but the word of God is so simple. The
simplicity of God's word. And yet, what a mystery. What
a mystery. It's so simple. But you can't
even understand it unless he reveals it to you. That's amazing. It's marvelous. Marvelous. It's so simple. And listen, it's
wonderful in its character in that it's the truth. What other
book is written That is completely the truth with no error in it,
besides this one. Every book ever written, there
can always an amendment made to it or something added to it
or taken away from it. I was watching something the
other day and they said, well, I used to believe this, but now the
medical field has changed its mind and now it's this. This
book never changes. It's the truth. That's why it's
so wonderful. It's the truth. If you want the
truth, just read the word of God and ask him to open it up
to you. And then it's marvelous and it's
wonderful and it's completeness. You don't have to add to it,
take away from it. It's complete. It's complete. I told you this
before, but I worked for a Mormon years ago. I used to run a company
for him. And, uh, They have their prophet and he gets his revelations
and he gives it to them. And I said, no, no. I said, right, here's a complete
word of God. This is a complete revelation
of God, right? He said, you mean to tell me
that God has no more revelations to give us other than what's
in this book? I said, exactly. I said, you don't even know what
he's already given, so why should he give you more? That's what
I told him. I'm a smart aleck. If you haven't
guessed it by now, after seven years, I couldn't help it. I said, why should he give you
more? You don't even know what he's already said, what he's already revealed. He doesn't need to give you more.
Then it's marvelous and wonderful in respect of its discoveries.
It's like a treasure chest, isn't it? I tell you, the more you
read it, do you get tired of the Word of God? Do you really
ever get tired? It just keeps opening up to me.
I can read, I don't know how many times I've read from several
scriptures and read them over and over and over, and I just
keep seeing more. It just keeps getting richer. The discoveries of it, and you
discover this, and you think you know God. And then you grow
older in Christ and in grace, and you just learn more of him.
You know, Job said, by the hearing of the ear, I've heard of thee.
And he, you know, he offered sacrifices. He worshiped God.
God said he's a perfect man. But after God put him through
what he put him through, you know what he said? By the hearing
of the ear, I've heard of thee, but now, mine eyes see of thee,
and I abhor myself in sackcloth and ashes. Paul said this, "...or
that I might know Him." Paul, don't you know Him? I mean, no
one wrote more extensively and clearly on the Gospel, and comparing
and putting together the Old Testament with it, bringing the
Old Testament into the New Testament, and all the revelations that
was given by Paul, and he said, "...or that I might know Him."
the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and I might have his righteousness
not my own he said I don't want my own righteousness I don't
have any I want his I want his imputed to me therefore doth
my soul keep them now we know our Lord kept every one of them
Our Lord kept every jot and tittle. The older I get to study the
Word of God, the more amazing that is to me. Now listen, He kept them in here.
He didn't turn the page and say, now what's that? No, that's like
the Pharisees. That's what the scribes and the
Pharisees did. They just turned the page and
said, well, this says this, and our Lord kept them in His heart.
He kept them in his heart. He loved God's Word. You see,
if you don't love it perfectly, you can't keep it, because it
starts right there. We are to love the Lord God with
all our heart and soul. And if you don't have that, you
can't keep anything, not perfectly, not perfectly. But now, listen
here, our Lord kept them, and concerning God's children, they've
kept them in Christ. You know, we kept the whole Word
of God in Christ in our substitute, in our federal head, in our representative.
We have kept the Word of God. But now listen, by experience,
we keep them, but not perfectly. We keep them, but not perfectly.
Forsake not the semblance of yourself together. Here we are.
We come together every week, darling. God said to. We take the Lord's
table. Why? God said to. You were baptized. So you who believe, you were
baptized. Why? God said to. We keep His word, but we don't
keep it perfectly. But our Lord did, and we did
in Him. And that's our righteousness. And notice something else here.
The illuminating power of God's word. This is why it's so important. TO MAKE MUCH OF THE WORD OF GOD,
NOT JUST HERE, NOT JUST FROM THE PULPIT WHEN YOU GO HOME,
YOU MAKE MUCH OF THE WORD OF GOD, YOU OPEN THAT BOOK UP AND
READ IT, AND ASK GOD TO OPEN IT UP TO YOU, AND GIVE YOU UNDERSTANDING,
BECAUSE HE SAYS RIGHT HERE, THE ENTRANCE, IN VERSE 130, THE ENTRANCE,
THAT WORD MEANS OPENING, THE ENTRANCE OF THY WORDS GIVE US
LIGHT, YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND You know,
like at uni, Phillip said to him, understand thou what thou
readest? He said, how can I except some man show me? And when he
preached the gospel to him from the word of God, he took the
same scripture, it says, and preached unto him Jesus, and
God opened his eyes. He was illuminated. God opened
his eyes. The entrance of thy words giveth
light, it giveth understanding unto the simple. You know, this
is one of the reasons, one of the many reasons the Pope, especially
back, and I'm talking about back in England, back in the 1700s,
back in Martin Luther's day, they didn't want the people to
have the Bible. They did not want the people to have the word
of God. It was William Tinsdale, I believe it was, said, he said,
even the plow boy one day is going to know more than, he was
talking to a priest, he said, is going to know more than you
know. They didn't want the people to
have the Word of God because you could dupe someone who has
no light. You can. If you can keep them
in the dark, if you can keep them ignorant, you can keep control
over them. That's why they didn't want them because that's how
they got rich. That's how they made their money. But also this,
no one is saved without the Word of God. No one, you cannot know
Christ apart from the Word of God. Now listen, not just the
Word of God, hearing it spoken, but entering into you. Entering
into you. Christ said, if my words abide
in you. You see, these words that we
read here on the paper, or on the book, or the Bible, and I
read them to you, I preach from them, you go home, you read them,
this Word, actually enters into you by the Holy Spirit. You go throughout the day. I
know this by experience, and I'm sure you experience the same
thing. A word will come to you from the scriptures, and you'll
think on it. It'll encourage you. It enters
into you. It enters into you. Listen to
this in 1 Thessalonians 2.13. FOR THIS CAUSE ALSO, THANK WE
GOD, WITHOUT CEASING, BECAUSE WHEN YOU RECEIVED THE WORD OF
GOD WHICH YOU HEARD OF US, YOU RECEIVED IT NOT AS THE WORD OF
MEN, BUT AS IT IS IN TRUTH, THE WORD OF GOD. YOU RECEIVED THIS
AS THE WORD OF GOD, WHICH, NOW LISTEN, WHICH EFFECTUALLY worketh
that means continually it's continually at work if which effectually
worketh also in you that believe the word of god that you hear
preached the gospel is continually working in you you know what
it's doing it's conforming you to the image of the lord jesus
christ constantly it's constantly bringing you bringing you and
conforming you to the image of the lord jesus christ And here it's important to note
this. He says the entrance. It's the
word of God entering into the soul that gives light. You see
the light, the light is in you. It's in you. Christ in you. Who is the light? He said, I am the light. And that word, his words, gives
you light and that light's within. It's understanding. It's been
able to see. I see. But then that seeing is
a spiritual light. It's spiritual seeing is what
it is. It's spiritual hearing. It's
what it is. God's Word When it enters in
by the Holy Spirit and it enters into you, into your soul, into
your very being, I tell you what, it guides your whole life. It
molds you and conforms you to the image of Christ and it dispels
spiritual darkness and ignorance. You know the truth. And it also, listen, when the,
when the word of God enters in and it gives light, he says here,
and it gives understanding to the simple. Now, let me ask you
a question. Does it offend you to be called
simple? Does it offend you to be called
simple? There was a time it did, but not now, not now. Look over here in first Corinthians. Look over here in 1 Corinthians. In verse 23, But we preach Christ
crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness
of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God stronger
than men. For ye see your calling brethren, How that not many wise
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called,
but God chosen to foolish. You know that word simple? You
know what it means? Foolish. Gives understanding
to the foolish. And I can tell you there was
nobody on this earth any more foolish than me. And you. Both of us. And I tell you what,
that doesn't offend me. You know why? Because it's the
truth. God has chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen the
weak things of the world. I used to think I was strong.
God showed me I was the weak thing of the world. God hath
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which
are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not
to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory
in his presence. I have nothing to glory in except
Jesus Christ only. Nothing. I haven't accomplished
anything. Whatever I have, God's given
to me. God Almighty has given to me. I've accomplished it by
His grace and by His power. Because Christ
said, without me, you can do nothing. You can do nothing. And thank
God if you learn that. He gives understanding to the
sinner. And understanding is the effect of God's Word entering
into the soul. it says in 2nd Corinthians 6
2nd Corinthians 4 verse 6 for God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness back there in Genesis 1 hath shined in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ and when he commands that light you
have light you've got light God gave it God commanded it You
know, just like he takes us all the way back to Genesis chapter
1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and
God said, let there be light. And what happened? There was
light. And when God commands the light
of the gospel to shine in your heart, guess what? That light's
going to shine. And you're going to see it in
the face of Jesus Christ, who is the light. That's exactly
what's going to happen. And then he says here, here's
the effect of this Word entering into the soul. Here's an evidence
of a child of God, right here. I opened my mouth, that is, I
opened wide, I gaped open, the way he said, I gaped open my
mouth. You see, God's Word is food for the soul. The inner
man hungers, the spiritual man now hungers for God's Word as
the body hungers for natural food. He said, I opened my mouth
and panted. You know what that word means?
It means to inhale. You know, we think of a deer
and we do, and it's part of it. You know, a deer's been chased
by a dog and now it's panting real hard. But the word here
means to inhale. It means to snuff up. I opened
my mouth and panted and longed most vehemently, that's what
it means, for thy command, I've inhaled your commandments. I
snuffed them up. Job said, your word, God's word
is more than my necessary food. And this truly fits our Lord,
doesn't it? You know, as a man, he learned
as God, he knew all things. As a man, he learned all things.
It says he grew in wisdom and in stature. And yet, as God,
He knew all things. But this is one of the effects
of God's Word entering into the soul. It creates a spiritual
hunger to know God and to know and understand His commandments.
I don't want to just read, I want to understand what He's saying.
I want to comprehend as much as possible what he's saying.
If the Pharisees had known the spiritual application of the
commandments, the law, guess what? They would have known their
need of Christ. If they had just comprehended,
thou shalt not kill. If they had just understood the
spirituality of the law, thou shalt not commit adultery. They
were guilty as could be. And he says, for I long, I yearn
for thy commandments. I long to know them. I long to
obey them. Now this is important. I long to be conformed to their
spirit, to the spirit of your commandments. Not just to know
them in my mind intellectually, but to be conformed to the very
spirit of your word is what he's saying. then David here turns
to prayer and he gives four requests here in the next few verses the
first thing he says in verse 132 is look thou upon me great
sinners need great mercy great sinners need great mercy
if you and i ever get to the place where we really don't need
the mercy of god we never knew it we never knew it And he says here, look thou upon
me, but now he clarifies it. I don't want God to look upon
me in anger. I don't want God to look upon me in justice. Look
what he says. Look thou upon me and be merciful
unto me. See, great sinners need mercy,
great mercy. And we need it and we must confess
our need of mercy. And that's what he's saying.
Look thou upon me and be merciful, be merciful unto me. You know what mercy is? It's
something you don't deserve. When we ask God for mercy, we're
asking Him for something we don't deserve. And He delights to show mercy.
That's what the Word of God says. And look, look here. Look thou
upon me and be merciful unto me as thou used to do or used
to do unto those that love thy name. You know what He's doing
here? This is wisdom. Here's wisdom in prayer. You
know, we could learn a lot about prayer by reading David's prayers.
He's saying here that, and what he's doing here, he, David uses
God's precedence. He's using God's precedence. In other words, God's custom,
God's custom is to show mercy, family mercy. He's asking for
family love and he's showing, he say, asking God to, to, to
do to him what he's in custom to do. You know, if you go to
court, if you set a precedence, let's say you set a precedence
in your company doing something and you don't have it written
down, but you set a precedence, that precedence will hold up
in court. It'll pretty much hold up in court. Because you set a precedence.
This is the way you've always done it. And David here is wise. He's using God's precedence in
the way he's dealt in the past with his children and those that
love his name. He appeals to God's love to his
children, and he says, deal with me the way you deal with your
children, those that love that name. And here's the second request,
and this is so important. I pray this, I pray this, I pray
what he's prayed but I pray this, order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have
dominion over me. It's pretty good evidence that
God has saved a sinner when that sinner wants God to order his
life right down to his steps. Order my steps. Order every little
step I take. I don't want to take one step
on my own. I want my steps to be in accordance
to the will of God. Order my day-to-day life. Can
we pray that? Can we honestly pray and ask
God to order our steps day by day? You know what that's doing?
Thy will be done, not mine. That's what that is. Thy will
be done. Do you really want God's will
done in your life? You know, when you get upset
when things are not going your way, you know what? You know
why? Because your will is out of order with God's will. If
you understand all things are of God and that God is ordering
your steps, you'll submit. Eli, when God killed Eli's two
sons, Apnon and Phinehas, you know what Eli said? It's the
Lord, let him do as he pleases. He didn't get mad. You know what's
strange? They came and told him that that
hot knife Phineas was dead. And he said, it's the Lord, let
him do as he please. And they said, but the Ark's stolen. He
fell off backwards and broke his neck. It just stunned him
when the Ark was taken. It affected him more about the
Ark, which represents the Lord Jesus Christ. being taken away
from them. It ought to alarm us far more
than anything on this earth that the gospel will be taken away
from here. That ought to alarm us. Because
it can be, and probably someday will be. If you look at history,
the gospel just goes through like a wave. And it's at a place
for a certain time, may be there for a few hundred years. But
then it moves on. But it never leaves, listen,
it never leaves, unless it's the people who forsake the gospel. Just go over in Revelation and
read about those letters, read those letters to the churches,
seven churches, and how some of them, Ephesus left her first
love. He said, if you don't return,
what do you say he's gonna do? Remove the candlestick. That's
what he'll do. Or let us be jealous over the
gospel here. Let us be jealous. Listen, and let not any iniquity
have dominion over me. Order my steps. Order my steps. Because he knows this. He knows
this. God will not order my steps in sin. He will not lead me into
sin. James said you're led away when
you're led away by your own lust of you the lust of your own flesh
God's children are afraid listen they are afraid of themselves Lord don't turn me loose on myself
I'm more afraid of myself than I am satan I am I know that old nature I
got would do anything. And if God
didn't keep me from it, I wouldn't be any different than David standing
on that balcony. I wouldn't be any different than
David having Uriah killed. I wouldn't be any different.
No different. Let not any iniquity, evil have,
listen, dominion over me. Now we know this. Paul said,
sin shall not have dominion over you. As far as being believers,
there's no sin that will come upon you that will be your destruction
and put you in hell. But it'll destroy your testimony.
It'll destroy your testimony of the Christ. A sin, even if it's, you know,
there's, and David's wise in this, because there could be
things that we don't even realize is sinful, and yet it is. And
it causes a great problem, a great problem. You remember over in
Corinthians, when they were taking the Lord's table, they were getting
drunk. And somewhere they were partying
up to, you know, get the, the more wealthy ones, they bring
their own food and feast. And those who were poor, they
didn't, they didn't let them have any. And you know what,
you know what the Lord did? Paul said, because of this, some,
many are sick and some sleep. God took some of them out. I don't want that to be a reason
for me to be taken out. Let not any inequity have dominion
over me because I don't want to bring reproach on your name.
We can bring reproach on the name of Christ, not only by our
conduct, but by our conversation, by the language we use. We can
bring reproach on Christ. We know our sinfulness, don't
we? We know it. That's why Christ
means so much to us. He has saved us from our sins. That's what I want to be saved
from. I'm not worried about hell. I'm not concerned about it. I'm
concerned about my sins and put them away. And Lord, don't let
any, any sin have dominion over me. give me understanding give
me light and give me the ability to to forsake it paul told timothy
to flee youthful lust he said run from it run from it and deliver me from the oppression
of man so will i keep that precept you know it's hard to it's hard
enough to walk to walk you know in in a godly manner in this
world with just this old nature i still have with me But it's
even harder when me and I'm being oppressed by the ungodly. Lord, I want to worship you.
You know, and I know we want to worship the Lord in peace
and in quiet, don't we? You know, I'd like to I'd like
to come through the week and have a peaceful week. Reading
the word of God in this study, putting this together, I like
to have a peaceful week and then be able to come out here and
preach to you, but to be oppressed and hammered and then try to
do that, that's difficult. But one of the reasons, one of
the reasons, and I know this from experience, one of the reasons
is as a preacher of the gospel, as a pastor, you can let that
bleed over into the congregation. You can let a bad attitude, somebody
put you in, come out from the pulpit. And you have to learn
not to do that. Let not the wicked oppress me
so I can keep your precepts, know them. And I'm gonna wind this down.
Make thy face to shine upon thy servant. Make your face to shine
upon me like the sun shines on me during the day. When I walk
outside and that sun shines down on me and you feel the warmth
of it and you see Make your face to shine upon thy servant, what
humility upon thy servant, even thy Lord. You know, if our Lord
saying this, you know, the Psalms speak of him. Make thy face to
shine upon, he even called himself a servant. I came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister and give ourself a ransom for many. But listen, all may frown upon
me. And I'm telling you, if you believe
the gospel of grace and you stand for it, you'll be frowned upon. You can come along, you can come
up with any other stupid thing coming along and people will,
well, you know, that's fine. But you come along with the truth
and you're going to offend a lot of people. You're going to offend
them. You put God on the throne. Put God on the throne. Preach
God on the throne where He is and you'll find out who loves
Him and who doesn't. You'll find out. Just preach God's sovereignty
in all things. And then last of all, rivers
of waters run down mine eyes because they keep not thy law.
It broke David's heart when he saw people called by God's name
trampled on God's word. It broke his heart. It ought
to break our heart. You know, our Lord wept over
Jerusalem over in Luke 19 and 41. He says this, and it says
this, and when he was come near, that is the city, he looked over
the city, he beheld the city and he wept over it. He says,
oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if you'd have known what belonged
to you, if you'd have just known, now it's hid from you. And he
wept over that city. Charles Spurgeon said this. I
didn't write it down, but I remember it. He said, it's a good sign
of spiritual maturity when you not only weep over your sins,
but over your neighbor's sin. When you're actually able to
weep over others' sin. others trampling on God's Word,
instead of complaining about them, you actually weep over
them. And that's something, that spiritual maturity, when you
don't just weep over your own, but on others, weep over their
sins. But someone said this, and I
think this could be put in here, this will be my last. He says
here, rivers of waters run down mine eyes because they keep not
thy law. Someone said this, it broke David's
heart because his eyes failed also. His eyes failed also. Back in
verse 123, David wrote this, mine eyes failed for thy salvation
and for thy word of thy righteousness, my eyes failed. You know, my heart weeps over You know, you see someone who
confesses Christ, but you see things going on that, you know,
that shouldn't be. And your heart breaks. You see
someone leave the gospel or, you know, they grow cold toward
it. Your heart breaks. It breaks over their sins, but
your heart's also breaking over your sins because you know that,
but for the grace of God, there go I. There go I. You know how I can tell someone
really means that? They quit talking about others.
You can't say, there you go, why? And then complain about
it. Because you don't mean it. You don't mean it. Are not God's
word, are not His testimonies wonderful? Look what we've learned. Here we sit. I mean, we have
We have all the educational systems out here in this country and
higher learning, so-called, and here is just a high school educated
man that knows the gospel. No, I
know the truth. I know how the world began. You
got scientists that spend years in college, they got doctorate
degrees, and they're done with a box of rocks when it comes
to actually knowing the truth. And yet, you and I know. You
and I know. Isn't that something?