I'm back to Psalm 119. I haven't really settled completely
on a title. See what hits me or what hits
you, Donna, since she puts it up. I started out with Christ
Our Perfection because The one that really has
done what's mentioned in these verses is Christ. And to really
understand this portion of Scripture, we must first hear our Lord speaking
these verses as a man. This is the man, Christ Jesus
speaking, our mediator, our surety, our substitute. This is Him speaking. And we'll see this as we go along,
that it has to apply to Him first. Now, I know David wrote from
personal experience, but in his writings, he wrote of Christ. The Spirit of Christ was speaking
in him. You can see in 1 Peter 1, verses
10 and 11, where it says that the Spirit of Christ spoke in
those prophets. all the prophets, David and all
the others, the spirit of Christ speaking. They were not just
speaking of themselves by themselves. The spirit of Christ was in them
speaking. And he starts out here in verse
97. And I believe all all of God's
children can identify with this and say, oh. How love I thy law. You know,
to my knowledge, David had only the first five books of the Bible,
but he had the commandments of God. He had the promises of God,
the precepts, the testimonies. And he said, I love, I love God's
word. And we now have the whole word
of God. Oh, how I love God's word. I love his word. It is my meditation all the day.
But now we first have to apply this to our Lord. Our Lord loved
God's word perfectly. I wish we did. I wish we did. We can't love anything perfectly.
I thank God that we do love him. Peter said, Lord, you know all
things, you know I love you. But in this life, our love to
God is not perfected. It matures, it grows, but it's
not perfected in this life. We still have so much sin in
us, but our Lord loved God's word. He loved it with a perfect
love. It was his meat and drink. Christ
is the only one who could say it is my meditation all the day. Did you meditate on God's word
all day long, all the day? We do meditate on God's Word.
We do think upon the Lord during the day, sometimes during the
day. I believe every child of God does, but not all day. But our Lord did. He did. He was able. He was able to meditate
upon the Word of God all day. Even while he was teaching, while
he was busy, he was still able to meditate on the Word of God
all day. And I look at it like this also.
It is my meditation all the day. Our life on this earth is really
but a day. It's that short. It's really
that short. And our life during our life
on this earth as believers after God saved us, God's word is our
meditation. It's our food and our drink,
isn't it? It's our food and our drink. You came here tonight
to hear me preach Christ from the word of God, not my opinion.
My opinion doesn't matter, but to preach Christ from the word
of God. And so David can say, I love
thy, I love thy law. I love thy word. I love thy promises. I love the warnings of it, the
precepts of it, the commands of it. I love it. Do you? I do.
And you do too. I know you do. You can't be a
believer and not love God's word. It's through God's Word, listen,
it's through God's Word that you learned of God. It's through God's Word that
you have learned of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's through God's
Word that you and I have learned who we are and what we are. It's
through God's Word by the Holy Spirit that we have learned our
need of Christ. I didn't learn that in high school. elementary, middle school, high
school. I didn't learn that in any secular learning that I went
through. I learned that from God's Word.
God taught me that from His Word. That's how I learned it. I learned
how God can be a just God and justify a wretch like me. I learned
that through God's Word. How can a holy God be just and
justify A sinner who's done nothing but
sin since birth, who went from the womb speaking lies. Now,
how can God be just and say, not guilty? I'll tell you why. Because a son of God was made
guilty in my place when he was made to be sin. He was put to
death in my place and in the place of everyone he died for.
And God can be just now and justify us, because the sin debt has
been paid for. It's been paid for. Someone wrote this. I forgot
to write the man's name down. But concerning God's Word, he
wrote, it is the guide of youth and a staff of old age. We looked
at Exodus 12 last week, and when they ate the Passover lamb, they
would do so with their loins girded, their shoes on their
feet, and what? The staff in their hand. The
Word of God. That's what we walk by. We walk
by faith. But that faith is founded on
the Word of God. We walk by the faith in what
we have learned and know of our Father and His Word. The same writer also wrote this
it is the only book that will guide us through the valley of
death You knew any other book do that? My how precious How
precious is the Word of God? That book you have on your lap
opened up is God's Word and it's his word to his children There used to be a song It's
an old song I heard growing up. Who wrote the book of love? I
was trying to get the theme of it in my head. Who wrote the
book of love? God did. God did. It's called the Bible. This is
really, it's a book of truth. It's a book where God has revealed
himself. He's revealed his son. He's revealed
redemption. He's revealed many things in
his word. But there's one thing he has
revealed. One of the things he has revealed is his love, his
deep, deep love in Christ to his people, which are nothing
but sinners. They're just sinners. And he says here in verse 98,
thou through thy commandments has made me wiser than mine enemies,
for they are ever with me. Our Lord could say that. Our
Lord could say that His Word was ever with Him. God was His
Teacher. As a man, you know, as a man,
God was His Teacher. He said, As I hear, I speak.
He says His Father has taught Him. Over in John chapter 8,
where we're going to look at Sunday. He spoke of the Father
had taught Him. Christ was given the Spirit without
measure. But without the Spirit being
his teacher, as a man, he wouldn't have learned. He learned as a man from the
Spirit of God using the Word of God. I bet you Mary read scriptures
to him when he was just a child. I bet she read, I bet Joseph
read scripture to him. Paul told Timothy, he said, you
know, you know the scriptures that made you wise unto salvation.
Well, who read the scriptures to him? His mother and his grandmother. And our Lord learned through
the scriptures. As a man, he learned through the scriptures.
The Holy Spirit taught him through the scriptures. We cannot grow
in spiritual wisdom and understanding apart from, first of all, apart
from the Spirit of God teaching us. That's proven by false religion. Many, many, many false religions
read this book. They read this book. And they
miss it. And the only reason we don't
miss it is because the Spirit of God has taught us. He's our
teacher. Christ said, He will take the things of mine and show
them unto you. He's our teacher. But He teaches
us with the Word of Truth, not apart from it. Not apart from
it. He's the one who takes the things of Christ and reveals
them unto us. Christ said that when he comes,
when the Comforter comes, he will take the things of mine
and show them to you. He'll reveal them to you. God, our God is a God of means.
He never operates apart from the scriptures, from his written
word. I want you to listen over here
in Luke chapter 2 verse 52 is speaking of our Lord remember
whenever he they went up to Jerusalem to worship he's 12 years old
and they left for three days and they realized he wasn't with
him then they went back and then he looked for him for three days
but they realized he was gone and so they came back looking
for him you know where they found him and Jesus increased in wisdom
and and stature as a man and in favor with God and man. And when they came back to get
him, he was in the temple teaching and answering questions. As a
12 year old, he was answering questions to those doctors. And
so it says to the doctors and they were amazed at his wisdom.
They were amazed at his understanding. They were amazed. But he learned
from the Scriptures, and he learned by the Holy Spirit. He learned
and he grew in wisdom and understanding. Now, if our Lord made this much
of the Scriptures, how much ought we to make of them? How much
should we make of the Word of God? And by the Scriptures, Christ
was made wiser than his enemies. God being his teacher, Spurgeon
said this, God was his teacher and the word was his textbook. Do you want to be wiser than
your enemies? I do. I want to be wise. I want
to be wiser than my enemies so that I don't bring reproach on
my Lord, that I don't stumble and fall so easily and be deceived
so easily. Well, here's the remedy. Study
the word of God, get in the word, read it, study it, digest it as much as possible. Pray that
God opens your eyes to it. As I was telling someone here,
not long, not too long ago, it was talking to me about, about
the word of God and asking me some questions. And I said, ask
the Lord to open your eyes to it. That's what you want. You know, I really and I'm trying
to figure out how to say this in a proper way. You know, Solomon
said that the preacher sought words, acceptable words. He said
the preacher sought except words of truth. Words are right. But
I don't want to believe something because someone else believed. I don't want to believe something
because this is what someone that I hold in high regard, like
such as Henry. I don't want to believe it because
he believed it. I want to believe it because
it's God's word. It's God's word. I don't want to believe it because
it's Baptist doctrine. I don't want to believe it because
it's so-called Calvinism. I don't want, that's not the
reason I want, I want to believe because it's God's word. God
revealed it to me. God made it known to me. When
I looked into the scriptures, I can actually say, I see, I
understand. I understand. My because I tell you if you
learn if God if God's our teacher if he reveals the truth to us
We won't be so easily deceived We will be more able to recognize
the wiles of the devil who's very real Satan's very real person
he's a very real person and Then he says in verse 99 I have more
understanding than all my teachers. Well, thy testimonies are my
meditation. Here's why I have more understanding
than all my teachers. Our Lord did. Our Lord did. You
know, he's, as I said, he was sitting there as a 12 year old
and these doctors, and you know, some of them are old. They're
old. Let me read it to you here. I
was trying to find it in my notes, but I have it down here, here
in this section of my notes. In Luke 2, 46-47, and it came
to pass that after three days they found him in the temples
sitting in the midst of the doctors. Twelve-year-old. Who's going to listen to a twelve-year-old?
He spoke with such authority, such wisdom, and such power as
a 12-year-old, they listened. And they were confounded. They
were confounded. Sitting in the midst of the doctors,
both hearing them and asking them questions. And all that
heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers
as a 12-year-old. He understood more than his teachers. I'm sure growing up, he had some
teachers. Those Jewish boys, they had to
sit under some teachers growing up, and they were taught the
Scriptures. And he understood when the Scripture was read,
he understood it. He understood the meaning of
it. More than the ones teaching him
did. Those Pharisees and scribes, They didn't understand what they
were reading. You search the scriptures, in them you think
you have life, eternal life, you think you have it. But there
they would testify of me, and they missed him. They didn't
understand the scriptures. I tell you this, I would rather,
I would rather be spiritually wiser than to be more intelligent. I know a lot of intelligent fools.
I know a lot of intelligent fools. But I pray God make me wise spiritually. Isn't that what Solomon prayed
for? He prayed for wisdom and God gave it to him and then made
him rich. But I want spiritual wisdom.
I want spiritual understanding. I want spiritual wisdom and understanding
to know Christ, to grow in grace and knowledge of Christ, and
to walk by. To be able to walk in front of
men in the community, men and women in the community, and not
bring reproach on the name of Christ. To be able to walk that way in
wisdom and understanding. He did, he did. He said, thy
testimonies are my meditation. He, listen, he thought upon the
word, and this applies to David, and this applies to all of God's
children, because we do think upon the word, but not as much
as we ought to, to really meditate. That's the like, to me, when
I think that to meditate is something, I think of to chew it over. I
just think of chewing something over, you know. You ever watch,
and I know you have, you watch an old cow after it's eaten its
leg down, what they call chew the cud, it comes back up and
goes back down, comes back up, goes back down. That's the way
we ought to do the Word of God. That's literally the way we ought
to do the Word of God. You know, we're so apt to just
Leave so quickly. Everything in this society we
live in is fast food, fast this, fast that, hurry this, hurry
that. It's like stop. Stop and think. You know, one
of the tools I believe of Satan is to keep us in a real hurry.
To keep us in such a rush, we don't have time to think. We
don't have time to meditate. Gotta be here, gotta be there,
gotta do this, gotta do that. Hurry, hurry, hurry. and we don't
have time to sit down and meditate on the Word of God. We don't
have time to sit down and even read it, let alone meditate on
it. But to sit down and read the Word of God. Our Lord made,
I mean, this is all about the Word of God. I have more understanding. You say, I don't have, I don't
understand. Well, get in the Word and ask for it. Ask for
understanding, seek it. I have more understanding than
all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. And that's the reason he gives
for his being wiser than and have more understanding than
his teachers. It's what he meditates on. Someone said this. What? Someone said we are what we think.
I think it was a guy named Earl Nightingale or something like
that, Nightingale. He said, we are what we think. There's a
lot of truth in that. What we give our minds and thoughts
to, that's the direction we end up going in. Our Lord thought
of the word, God's word, God's promises, God's testimony, God's
commandments, and David did also. And then he says here, listen,
He said, you've made me wiser, thy words have made me wiser,
thy commandments have made me wiser than my enemies. I have
more understanding than my teachers, and I understand more than the
ancient, because I keep thy precepts. It's only fitting, I thought,
that the ancient of days should have more understanding than
the ancient in age, because he is the ancient in days, and he
was quick of understanding. That's what the scripture says,
I believe it's in Isaiah 11, he was quick of understanding. And again here, his understanding
has to do with the Word of God. because I keep thy precepts.
We cannot obtain, I thought about this today, I thought we cannot
obtain spiritual understanding if our walk is opposite the precepts
of the gospel of God. We cannot grow in grace and in
knowledge of Christ, in understanding, in wisdom, if our walk is completely
contrary to the gospel of God. His walk was never contrary.
It wasn't contrary, because here, look in the next verse, in verse
101. And this is the effect of spiritual
wisdom and understanding gotten by the Word of God. I have refrained
my feet from every evil way that I might keep thy word. Our Lord
is truly the only one we can apply this to. We know Some of
David's sins, don't we? David said, I have refrained
my feet from every evil way. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not kill. He did both of them. This first applies to our Lord.
Only Christ can say, I mean, say this with full Confidence
and say this and be saying it truly. I have reframed my feet. I have kept my feet Your feet
here is the way you walk it's the path you walk in Our Lord
walked in a path of righteousness He never walked in an evil way
He never turned one foot in a wrong direction He never made one out
of step. He never made one misstep. Never, never. I have reframed
my feet. You see, God by His Spirit and
grace has to reframe our feet, doesn't He? That's why He teaches
us to pray, to lead us not into temptation, because we'll give
into it every time. If He doesn't take it away from
us, we'll give into it. But our Lord said, I have refrained
my feet. His path, His life was perfection. That's the reason I put up there,
Christ our perfection, because He did what's written here. Our
greater David did this, and that's our righteousness. That's our
righteousness. We desire to do it. We strive
to do it. Not to obtain salvation, but
because God has saved us. You want to walk a godly path.
I know you do. If God has saved you, you want
to. Your great desire is not to sin. Though you know you do. But your great desire is not
to. But our Lord didn't. He knew
no sin. And that's our righteousness.
And it says here, I have refrained my feet from every evil way. An evil way and a godly walk
never go together. They never go together. An evil
way is everything contrary to Christ and the gospel, Christ
who is the way. An evil way is everything contrary
to Christ, the way to God. Whether it be in doctrine or
conduct. He's the way. He said, I'm the way, the truth
and the life. No man comes to the father, but by me, but he's
the way. He's the way. And he says, I have not departed
from that judgments without has taught me. Only Christ can say this. Truly,
I mean truly, only he can really say, I have never ever departed
from your judgments. Not in thought, not in word,
not in deed. I have never departed from thy
judgments. And here's the reason why. And
he always goes back to the Lord, for thou has taught me. Thou
has taught me. He never deviated the judgments
of God and the reason is this he was taught of God and as he
was taught he he did that's what he did as he was taught don't
you wish you and I could say that oh I tell you we can sit and
hear the gospel preached in power and rejoice in it and and we
want to go out of here and read more study more pray more and
And tomorrow comes. And so we get busy. We get busy. We do something else. Something
else takes our attention. We get. We get overtaken by something
else, but our Lord and didn't. He didn't. I have not departed from the
judgments. What you have commanded I have
done. And the reason is you've taught me you my teacher. My
teacher. He never turned to the left or
right. His path was straight. And he says here in verse 103. As he's meditating here, David's
writing and he's meditating as he writes. You know, I know something
about what that's about. Sometimes I. I write a verse
down like this, like 103, right? And sometimes I just sit back.
I just sit back in my seat and just think about it. What's it
saying? Try to get, for lack of a better
word, try to get the flavor of it. And he says here, how sweet are
thy words. You know how many people would
take the Word of God and rip page after page out? Well, I
don't like that part. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Wives, submit
to your husbands. Well, there goes that page. A
man shall not sleep with another man like it would a woman. Well,
there goes that page. I mean, it would be ripped all
to pieces. But he says here, your words are sweet. Every one
of them, words, plural, every one of them, every one of God's
words, every word that has proceeded out of his mouth is sweet. Sweet. It's for our good, isn't it?
Every word that comes out of his mouth for our good, that
ought to make, that ought to make it taste sweet. This is for my
good. How sweet are thy words unto
my taste? Yea, sweeter than honey to my
mouth. And if you'll notice, he says,
how sweet are thy words unto my taste? You must eat something
to experience the taste of it. No, you got to put it in your
mouth. You see, this is eating the word of God. This is taking
the word of God into yourself. This is not just reading this
like another book. It's reading it and meditating
on it and asking the Lord, open your word to me. Give me understanding
and give me a heart to love your word, to seek you in your word. Make yourself known to me through
your word. Your words are sweet to me. They're sweet, sweet words. Has God given you a taste for
the gospel? Has God given you a taste for
Christ? Have you tasted, as I think it was Peter wrote, either Peter
or Paul, I think it was Peter, have you tasted and seen that
the Lord is gracious? Have you tasted? Have you tasted
of his mercy? Have you tasted of his forgiveness?
Have you tasted it? It's sweet. There's nothing sweeter
to a sinner than to hear thy sins are forgiven. Is there anything
sweeter than that? You know, I and you have to die
pretty soon. And there'll be nothing sweeter
than to hear enter in to the kingdom prepared by my Father
for you. Enter in. Has God given you a taste for
Christ? Have we tasted the Lord as gracious? Have we found God's
word to be sweet to our taste? A whole lot of people read this
book and they get upset with it. They don't like what it says,
but we do. And then last of all, Here's
another effect of the Word of God to the believer. Through thy precepts, I get understanding. This is
how I get understanding, through God's Word. Therefore, because
I get understanding through thy precepts, God, through His Word,
through His commandments, His precepts, through the whole Word
of God, you've given me understanding. of God, Christ, myself, salvation,
the world. Scripture says the whole world
lies in wickedness. Does it? Well, I see that as
I get older. You know, when I was young, especially
when I was a teenager growing up, but when I was young, the
world looked to me like a playground. Yeah, it literally was like a
playground. Couldn't wait till Friday night rolled around. I can't wait till Sunday rolls
around now. Sunday was a sleeping day for me. But I can't wait for Sunday to
roll around and Thursday. Thursday and Sunday, two best
days of the week. Thursday and Sunday. Through thy precepts I get understanding,
therefore I hate every false way. understanding here comes
through his precepts his word and because of this understanding
every child of god hates every false way every false gospel
i you know paul said they come
preaching another jesus and another gospel i told someone not too
long ago i said make sure the jesus you believe is the right
one Christ said, there'll be many come in my name. There'll
be many come say, here's Christ, there's Christ, everybody, you
know, Christ is everywhere. You know, the, well, I was asked
when I moved to Ashland, I was asked, why did you move to Ashland?
I said, for the gospel. And they replied, well, is it
the gospel around here? We got all these different places
you can go to. I said, no, it's not. No, it's
not. Not every place that opens a
Bible and says they preach Christ, preach Christ. That's why in
1 John 4 he says, try the spirits whether they be of God. Take
this book right here, and you take what the man says. You take
what I say. I mean, you all have been here
for years. Some of you have been here for years. You've breathed the
gospel for years. Take what I say every week. And
you make sure it's according to the word of God. You make sure it's according
to the word of God. You will not find in the word
of God where it says that Jesus Christ died for every son of
Adam. It doesn't say that. You know
what it says? You know what it does say? He
took on him the seed of Abraham. The promised seed of Abraham. That's what it says. That's what
it says. And that is a multitude of sinners
no man can number. And I have good news for sinners.
I have good news for the ungodly. I don't have good news for anybody
else. I don't. And that's not being me. It's
just telling the truth. Telling the truth. Through thy precepts, I get understanding. I understand the gospel. Through
the word of God, I understand the gospel. I understand it. There's only one way to the Father. Christ said, no man comes to
the Father but by me. There's only one way. If you noticed here, How everything
revolved around God's word. Wisdom, thy word, thy judgments,
thy precepts have made me wiser than my enemies. I have more
understanding than my teachers. It gives us more discretion.
It corrects our attitude. Oh, how I love thy word. That's
an attitude. How sweet are thy words unto
my taste! Oh, they're sweeter than honey
to my mouth. Make much of the Word of God. If anyone wants to know God,
if they really want to know God, if they really want to know the
Lord Jesus Christ, you have to get into His Word.
You're not going to You're not going to find him anywhere else.
You're not going to find him anywhere else. And I'll tell
you this. I'll tell you this, as I told someone here not too
long ago. If you're really sincere to know
Christ, to know God in Christ, to know salvation, you open this
book and ask God to make himself known. Ask him to reveal himself. The Lord said, if you seek me
with all your heart, you will find me. Half-heartedness doesn't get
it in seeking God. But if you seek me with all your
heart, you'll find me. That's a promise. And God cannot
lie. And he never breaks a promise.
All right.