I titled this, God's Word is
Our Guiding Light. We live in a very dark world. The only light in this world
is the word of God, the living word, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, I'm the light of the world. Apart from that, there's
no light and there's no light. And the older I get, the more
I see the darkness of this world is dark, dark place. But now in saying that God's
word is our guiding light. I'm first talking about God's
son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the word of God. He is our
light. He said over in John chapter
8, I am the light. If any man follows me, he will
not walk in darkness. He'll have the light of life.
So he's the light of which we walk. But now, we cannot separate
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, who is God, and the written
Word. This written Word is all about
Him. And He uses this written word
to reveal Himself. He makes Himself known to us
through His Word. That's why it's so important
to study the Word of God. To study the Word of God is to
study Jesus Christ. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. And we do that when we read the
Word of God. So when I read the Word of God,
I'm reading the Word. the Lord Jesus Christ. So what
I'm doing is what you're doing. I don't read the word. I don't
read the word of God to see what I'm supposed to do. I read the
word of God to learn of him. Oh, Paul said, Oh, that I might
know him and the power of his resurrection that I might know
The Lord Jesus Christ, he's speaking of a relationship. He's talking
to someone about this the other night or the other day. I said,
the connection between Christ and the believer is a relationship. That's why he said to Peter,
Peter, do you love me? That's a relationship. That's
a strong relationship. Do you love me? You know, our
Lord said to those Pharisees, He said, You search the Scriptures,
for in them you think you have life. You think in searching
the Scriptures, reading this Bible, and doing what it says,
you think you have life. But they are they which testify
of Me. You see, the Scriptures, apart from Christ, just add to
your condemnation. It will, it'll just add to your
condemnation. But He said, They are they which testify of Me.
They are to lead us to Him. written word leads us always
leads us to the living word the lord jesus christ now in these
eight verses 105 through 112 the first thing i want us to
see is the relationship of these verses to the lord jesus christ
first and then the application of them to us but always to christ
first if it's applicable Now he says here, Thy word is a lamp
unto my feet and a light unto my path. Speaking here, I think,
first of all, of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Word of God. In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The written
Word, apart from Christ, the Word, the Living Word, will do
us no good. It didn't do the Pharisees any
good. He said, you search the scriptures. But you don't have
life. They don't have life. In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. When
he started preaching, he said, I'm the light. I'm the light. He's the one who lights our path.
He's the one who gives us understanding of his Word. The Lord Jesus Christ
does. you know the written word apart
from him I said will not do you any good because it says over
in 1st Thessalonians Paul said the gospel came not into unto
you in word only if it comes in word only it won't save you
it will not save you he said the gospel came to you not in
word only but in power and in demonstration of the Spirit the
Holy Spirit regenerated you using the Word of God which is the
seed Christ the living word guides
us by his spirit using the written word as he said he that followeth
me shall never walk in darkness well how do we follow him how
do we follow the Lord Jesus Christ I can't see okay we've never
seen him you know how we follow him in his word that's how we
follow him in his word and I know this Christ as a man can be speaking
these words. As a man, he studied the Word
of God. You know he did. You know he
studied the Word of God. He read the Word. Every time
he'd go to the temple, he'd take the Word and he'd read it. He
studied the Word. And by God's Word, he grew in
wisdom and in stature. He walked according to the light
of his own Word. The Lord did. As a man, he did. Now in reference to the believer
here, God's word, the Lord Jesus Christ, using his written word,
is an evil lamp. We don't have light in ourselves.
We have no light in us whatsoever. You know, the Lord said to those
Pharisees, if the light in you be darkness, how great is that
darkness? The light that's in human nature is nothing but darkness. It's dark light. what it is,
it's dark. He said, how great's that darkness?
It's a needful lamp. It's a needful light for us to
walk by. You know, it says over here, lamp, it's a candle. It's
a candle. And I thought about, you know,
Christ, who is the light. He's the bright morning star.
He's the son of righteousness. But how little we see. How little
we really know. It's like, compared to what we
are going to know when we stand in His presence, compared to
when we have the mind of Christ, compared to that, it's like candlelight
right now. That's what it's like right now.
But it's a lamp. Listen, it's enough. One writer said this,
and I like this. He said, it's enough light to
get home by. It's enough light to get home
by. God has given us light, and He's given it to us to walk by. It's a lamp unto our feet and
it's a sufficient light. We don't need no other light.
I don't need to add secular education to biblical education, spiritual
education. I don't need to combine the two.
I don't need to. I need, I need his light. I need
his light because any other leads away from God. Secular education
leads away from God. Spiritual education always leads
us to the cross, always leads us to Christ crucified, and always
leads us to the Word of God, which is Christ. It's a sufficient
light. We don't need to add anything
else to it. And it's a light that yields comfort under the
greatest trials. You know, God's had some saints
that he has tried greatly, like Job. And those, you go over in
Hebrews chapter 11 where they lived in caves and dens and were
salt and sundered. You know where they got their
real comfort from? God's word. God's word. It's a light that
comforted them. And it comforts in the face of
death. It comforts in the face of death.
When you see a believer die, they die in hope. They die in
hope, but where'd they get that hope? From the word of God. They got it from the word of
God. Thy word, thy word is a lamp unto my feet. Every, it is, this
is my walk. Every step of the way, every
step of the way, God's word is light to my feet, every step
of the way. We find in God's word, light
and direction for every step. I don't mean. a direction for this, then, you
know, it's for everything. Every situation I can find myself
in, there's direction in the Word of God. Everything I want
to know, everything I, as far as my relationship to Christ
and my direction in this life, it's in the Word of God. He directs
me by His Word. That's how important His Word
is. And it's alighted to my path.
The path is the direction I'm going. It's the direction I'm
going. You see, to my steps, because
there's many, there's many snares. He said, the wicked have laid
many snares. There are many traps and pitfalls that we could fall
into, but God's word lights the path to our feet. We can see
where we're walking. But here, the path is a direction
we're going. We're pilgrims here. Are we really? We are pilgrims here. We're just
on a journey. I was telling someone the other
day that's talking to me about something, and I told him, I
said, this is one of the things that I've learned. It's part
of the journey home. Whatever I go through day by
day and deal with is part of the journey home. My Heavenly
Father has predestinated, predetermined everything that this child of
God is going to face. And you who believe the gospel,
you're God's children. Everything you're going to face,
God Almighty has purposed it. God Almighty has decreed it.
It can't come before time or after. It can't be early or late.
It's on time. It's on time. We're just pilgrims here, and
the path we are on is the path of righteousness, His righteousness,
and it is lighted by His Word. And His Word keeps us on the
right path. What would you do if you couldn't have the Bible
no more to read? What if it's taken away? What if this book
was taken away from us? They can't take Christ from us,
but I tell you what, we sure miss this. We sure miss it. We couldn't have the Word of
God to read and direct us and comfort us and keep us. As Peter said, we are not following
cunningly devised fables of men. We're following Christ in His
Word. That's how we are following.
That's how and that's who we are following. And then verse
106 here belongs to our Lord first. He says, I have sworn,
I have given an oath. And I will perform it, that I
will keep thy righteous judgments. Only Christ could swear to keep
God's judgments and do so. And do so perfectly. Perfectly. We can't even make one thing
happen. You know, James said, don't swear. You can't make one
hair white or black. And our Lord, listen, our Lord
gave an oath that he would keep God's judgment. He said, I swear,
I have sworn, I have sworn, that's past tense. When did the Lord
do this? Before creation, in that covenant
of grace, all the terms that were laid out, he swore. And since he could swear by no
greater, he swore by himself, I will keep your righteous judgment.
I will keep thy righteous judgments on behalf of all your elect.
I will come into this world and I will perform all the duties
that they should have. I will keep your law to every
jot and tittle. I swear I'll do it." We can't
do that, can we? I swear I'll be at your house
tomorrow. I might not even live till tomorrow. Who said we're
going to get up in the morning? Only the Lord could do this.
In that covenant of grace, He swore, He swore to keep all the
law on our behalf. He did that. 2,000 years ago,
that man, Jesus Christ, walked over there where they're having
a war right now, walked on those streets, and He kept God's law
perfectly for us, for me, for you, you who believe. He kept
it. He did it. He did it. now as far as a believer goes
i believe david in writing this is very sincere i think he's
very sincere in keeping god's commands not for salvation not
for salvation but because they are his lord's commands he does so out of love to his
master we you know we we want to walk
in a godly manner don't You know every child of God desires to
walk in a godly manner after the Word of God. Keep his precepts,
not perfectly, we don't do anything perfectly. But the desire is there. The desire to be taught of God.
Teach me out of your Word. Direct my steps. direct my thoughts
I like that verse 113 look there I hate it says vain thoughts
I hate thoughts I hate they should have put in there I hate my thoughts
they put vain thoughts empty nothing thoughts that's my thoughts
I hate vain thoughts I do but I thy law thy word do I love
I hate my thoughts most time don't you any good thought I've
ever had God's given it to me he's won impressed me with it
enabled me to think about it, enabled me to remember scripture,
enabled me to apply it. But my thoughts, I hate, oh,
I hate them. And the believer here, listen,
the believer walks in the light of God's word. He seeks to keep
God's word. He precepts his commands and
he does so sincere, but he never does so to be accepted. He does
so out of love, out of love. And all believers seek to grow
in grace and knowledge of Christ through his word. Lord, reveal
yourself to me out of your word. You want to know God? Do you
really want to know God? Do you really want to know Christ?
If you want to know, this is the truth. Is this the gospel
we preach here? Is it it? Or is it just like
everybody else? Just our version of it? Get in
the word and ask God to let make you know it. He said he would. The hardest thing we seem to
do is to take God at his word. He said he would make himself
known. Seek me with all your heart and you'll find me. That's
what God said. That's a promise. But here's the good news of this.
The good news is all believers have kept the law perfectly in
Christ, their federal head. We've done it. We've done it
in him. Now, because he's a son of God,
because he's God incarnate, we have verse 107, I'm afflicted
very much. Quicken me, O Lord, according
to thy word. I am afflicted very much. You know, the scripture
says that he that is surety shall smart for it. He's our surety. He paid the
debt we couldn't pay. We owed it, but we couldn't pay
it. You know, I know a lot of people,
and I know this, they pride themselves on that. We pay my bill, I pay
them all the time. You sure missed it on Gothbard.
You didn't pay that bill. That's the biggest bill. Now,
we ought to pay our bills, I know that. But you can't brag about
it because nobody can boast about it, brag about it, because the
greatest debt we owe, we can't pay. We can't even put a dent
in it, we can't even We can't pay any of it. Zero. It's zero. Christ had to pay it all. All
to Him, I hope. He's the one who did it. Who
put it away, our sins away, by Him paying the debt. But our
Lord was afflicted very much because of His connection to
us. Because He swore to be our surety. He made an oath to be
our surety. To bring us home. And to bring
us home spotless. and without blemish. And because
of that, he says here, I'm afflicted very much. Scripture says he was a man of
sorrow and acquainted with grief. You know, there's a lot of sorrow
and grief I'll never bear because he did. He did. I had a good day today. You know
why I had a great day today? Because he had a bad day. He
took my bad day. He took my worst days. That's why I have good days. In the Garden of Gethsemane,
he said, my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. That's because of me. You see, I don't just see him
suffering. I see him suffering for me. I don't see his blood
shed. I just see, I see his blood shed
for me. That's what I see. I don't see just a man hanging
on the cross. I see the God man hanging on the cross for me. It's personal. It's very personal. It's for me. You see, most preaching
want you to just believe the story with no personal real connection
to it. Just accept the story. That's
not salvation. Salvation is being joined to
Christ, totally committed to Him. He said, I'm the vine and
you are the branches. A branch grows out of the vine.
That's the union we have in Christ. And a believer, because of his
or her connection to him, will be hated by this world. The world's
not going to love you. You and I shouldn't get upset
when the world doesn't call us. It should disturb me when the
world calls me and wants me around. Truly, really. Because that's
darkness. And God's children are children
of life. He said, the friendship of the
world is an enemy of God. They don't, they hate him. And
Christ said, they hate me. They hate you too. They'll hate you too. But quicken
me, revive me according to thy word, according to thy promises. Our Lord was given promises in
the covenant of grace which he held to. He held to those promises
and you and I are to hold to those promises because those
promises that were given to him are given to us in him. They're
ours too. Call upon me in the day of trouble
and I'll deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me. That first
belongs to Christ. He did. He did. And he glorified God, didn't
he? Read John 17. Glorify thy son, that thy son
may glorify thee. But that promise also belongs
to us. It also belongs to us to call upon him in day of trouble.
Whatever belongs to Christ belongs to us. Oh, he says, according to thy
word, according to thy promises, And accept, I beseech thee, verse
108, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me
thy judgments. Accept my praise, my worship.
I know this, I know the Lord makes us willing in the day of
His power. And you are here tonight. Because you're willing to be
here. I know you are. You're willing to be here. You're
willing to sing his praises. You're willing to worship him,
aren't you? You are. You're willing to do
that. God made you willing. He gave you a new heart and a
right spirit. And you're willing to do that. You're willing to do it. But
now listen, we fall short of it, don't we? We can't keep our
minds on the message through the whole thing. You can't. I mean, I preach sometimes,
and you wouldn't believe it, but your mind starts to wonder
even preaching. And you're just like, what in the world? You see, we can't do anything
perfectly, but our Lord did. Our Lord did. Our Lord in his
human nature, as a man, he truly can say to the Father, accept
my free will praise and worship, the oath that I made, accept
it. Our Lord offered up himself willingly
to redeem his people from their sins, accept them, accept there's a lot of that going on
in this in these verses here we have in front of us he said
i have sworn i i'll keep your your word accept the free will
offerings of my mouth oh lord teach me thy judgments he says here in verse 109 my
soul is continually in my hand yet do i not forget thy law only
christ can say this When you really look at the Word of God,
what He's saying, only He can say, my soul is continually in
my hands. Is your soul in your hands? Your
soul's not in your hands, it's in Christ's hands. Our Lord said this, no man takes
my life from me. I lay it down of myself and I
take it up again. He said, Apollo, you have no
power at all against me except to be given you from above. My soul continually in my hand,
yet do I not forget thy law. Now most everybody I've read
said that Dave was saying that his soul was continually in great
danger. And it was, because of his connection
to the Lord. But our Lord, they continually
sought his life, didn't they? They continually sought to kill
him on every turn. But they couldn't touch him.
They couldn't touch him. His hour had not yet come. My
soul's in my hand, not yours. It's in mine, not yours. Yet do I not forget thy law in
all, listen, in all his afflictions and all his stress and all that
came at him, he not one time deterred from the word of God.
Not one time, not one time that he forget the word of God or
did he turn from it? Afflictions didn't drive him
away. They didn't drive him away. Afflictions don't drive a child
of God away. They drive you to God every time, not away from
Him. They drive you to Him. Now, the
wicked have laid snares for me. The Pharisees did. Remember that
woman caught in adultery? They brought her because they
were going to trap him. They thought, we got him. We know
he's merciful. The people know he's merciful,
but he's going to have to keep the law. We got him. We got him. They tried to trap him in every
way they could. They laid snares on every turn.
Every turn. The wicked have laid snares for
me. Satan tried to tempt him into wilderness. He tried to
lay snares for him. But in all that came his way,
he said, but I erred not from thy precepts. Now, listen. Here is our righteousness. I erred not from thy precepts. That's our righteousness. Our
Lord never sidestepped. He never was deterred. He, right
in the face of afflictions and right in the face of teeth of
Satan, He never deterred from God's Word. He never erred, never
erred from it. That's our righteousness. There
it is. That's it. And thy testimonies have I taken
as a heritage forever. Well, this is good here. All
that was given to him in the covenant of grace is what he
counts as his heritage. What do you count as yours? I was trying to think of that
song sitting up here, take the world, but give me Jesus. I just know that phrase, but
I can't remember any other part of it. Thy testimonies, thy word,
thy promises. They are my heritage. You know,
he was said in the Old Testament, ask me for the heathen, ask me
for the heathen for that inheritance and I'll give them to you. Well,
here you are. Here you are. I was a stinking
heathen before God saved me. I'm telling you, I'm not telling
you in a boasting way, but I was just a heathen. You know, nowadays we just got
educated heathens. You either have a redneck heathen
or an educated heathen, but you're still heathens. Until God saves
you. But thy testimonies have I taken
as a heritage. All the promises are ours in
Christ. Give me the promises of God in
Christ and let the world have the rest. Let the world have the rest.
You know, I have, I have, my inheritance is yet to come. My parents, mom and dad, when
dad was still alive, they was talking to me about, at the time
they wanted me to be the administrator of the wheel. But since I moved
here, I changed that. But they started talking about
different things and giving different things out and stuff like that.
And I said, I don't want anything. I said, I'll tell you what I've
got. I said, I'll tell you what you've already given me, and
it's all I need, great memories. I said, I don't need anything
else. I have Christ. I have it all. I honestly do,
I have it all. You can't make me more rich than
I am. You can't make me more blessed than I am. And that's when I thought of
that song, take the world, but give me Jesus. Give me the Lord
Jesus. No, old Lott. Abraham said to
Lott, Lott, take what you want. That's what he said. Here's Abraham. He's the elder. He had the control
and he could have done what he wanted, but he said, Lott, just
look about. Take whatever you want and I'll
take what's left. Paraphrasing, but that's what
he said. I'll take what's left. That is so against human nature.
I grew up in a family and, you know, there's seven of us brothers
and sisters. It wasn't none of this. Take what you want and
I'll take what's left. It's like, get out of the way.
I'm taking it. You know, this is what grace
does. And the reason Abraham said that,
because his, his inheritance was Christ. Our inheritance is yet to come.
Thy testimonies, thy promises. Your promises are my inheritance.
They're my heritage. It's not houses, money, or this
or that. Give me the promises of God in
Christ. That's what I'm waiting on. That's
what I'm waiting on. For they are the rejoicing of
my heart. Well, I tell you what, if God's
promises are truly the rejoicing of your heart, you can lose it
all. You can lose it all and you'll
still rejoice. You'll still have deep down,
you'll still have rejoicing. You ain't gonna go down the road
laughing, but you're gonna have real deep rejoicing in your heart nothing made him happier nothing
made our lord happier than the promises of god in that covenant
of grace what do we count as our heritage earthly possessions
or heavenly possessions it's one of the other one of the other
i've seen families that were look you supposedly were tight
i've seen them fall apart I've seen a brother and a sister can't
stand each other over a pitcher. Well, not a sister, it was somebody
else, but somebody close in the family. I mean, it's just, it's
crazy. But if Christ is it, if he's
it, we can lose all this, still rejoice, then I close. I have inclined my heart to perform
thy statues always, even to the end. This belongs to our Lord. You know, we can't do that. Now
we can be, we are sincere about, you know, following the Lord
and doing what he tells us to do. Walk as he tells us to walk.
We're sincere about that. But only the Lord can say, I
have inclined my heart to perform, to do. perfectly thy statutes
always Even unto the end Our hearts get inclined to many
things but not our Lord's heart We getting we get we get enamored
with stuff Things take our attention. We get wrapped up in things but
never our Lord. He never did that He never did
that It never got a hold of his heart.
You know, this is this is amazing. The world never got a hold of
his heart. He never had a house. He had
no place to lay his head. He never owned a house. He never
owned one. And he never envied anybody that
did. He never envied him. He always did the will of his
father. And again, I say. this is our righteousness this is our righteousness everything
he did he did perfectly and he did it for us this being so make much of the word of god
make much well seeing his word his written word the lord jesus
christ the living word will guide us and direct us in every every
situation We just keep seeking him sincerely. He'll guide us. All right.