Turn back to Psalm 119. I use the title forever. Thy word
is settled in heaven. In these verses, we will see
the permanence, the power, and the perpetuity of God's word. I thank God that He changes not,
and His Word changes not. Everything written in the Word
of God, if you'll notice, He says, Thy Word, singular. I mean, there's a lot of words
in this book, but this is the Word of God. This is His Word. And I'm thankful, I truly am,
I'm thankful that everything that I read in this book has
been established from of old and will not change. And right
now, in the year 2023, God's word is being fulfilled. That's what's going on. God's
Word has been fulfilled, it's been fulfilled, and it shall
be fulfilled. That is what's going on. God's
Word that he settled, established before creation is being done. That's what's being done. I'm
not concerned about what's going on in the world. I'm concerned
about what's going on in God's Word. What's the Lord doing? That's what I'm interested in.
I'm interested in the kingdom of God more than the kingdom
of men. I know this, everything on this
earth changes. It changes. The seasons change,
we are seeing that now. We change, we grow in maturity,
in knowledge. I wouldn't go back To be a young believer for anything.
I feel more settled. I have more confidence in Christ.
Then I've ever had before and I look forward to seeing him
more than I ever had before more than ever. I wouldn't go back
to. To that immature knowledge that
I had in the beginning, you know, we start out as babes in Christ.
We don't know much. Why would I go back there? Oh,
I. We grow in maturity, in knowledge,
and we grow old. We grow old, we die, and then
we change places. It is written in Philippians
3, 21, who, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, shall change our
vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. The Bible speaks of this body
as vile. You know, we look in the mirror,
we try to make it all look good and everything, but God says
it's a vile body. It's a body of sin, a body of
corruption, and it just is deteriorating right before our very eyes. But
He's gonna change our vile body, and it may be fashioned like
unto His glorious body. Job says this, this in Job 14,
14, If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed
time will I wait till my change come. We change, we change. However, God's Word changes not. We can stand on the promises
of God, standing on the promises. They're not shaky promises. I'm
shaky, but the promises are not. We can stand on the promises
of God. God will fulfill his promise. And there are no amendments
to the word of God. You know, we make them, the United
States, they make amendments to the constitution, this law,
that law, you know, they just make an amendments all the time.
God doesn't have to, because it's perfect. And it was settled
before creation. It's settled. It's ever the same. No add, nothing added to it,
and nothing taken away from it. It's settled, established, that's
what it means, set. And David wrote these words under
the direction of the Holy Spirit, and he did so for his comfort. He found comfort in God's immutable
word, unchanging word, and it's written for our comfort now.
You know, it's our time, and it's written for our comfort.
How comforting it is to know that the Word of God never changes,
that it's settled, it's established, and we can rely on it. Both the
living Word and the written Word are settled and are settled,
listen, in heaven. In heaven, that's where it's
settled. That's where the issue was settled years or years back
into eternity. There were no years to it. Everything
about God and His purpose are immutable. His covenant never
changes. His word of promise. Now, verse
89, we see here the permanence of God's word forever. O LORD, thy word is settled in
heaven. Now you would think it would
read better if we read it like this. O LORD, thy word is settled
in heaven forever. But in Hebrew writing, when they
wanted to emphasize something, they took that which they wanted
to emphasize and they put it at the beginning of the sentence.
And here's what he's wanting to emphasize forever. And that
word has the meaning of eternal. Eternal, back in eternity. God
settled this issue. God's Word was settled. God's
promises were settled. They can't change. Now first,
let's apply this to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word. He is the Word. In the beginning
was the Word. The Word was with God and the
Word was God. Let's start with Him. He is seated
at God's right hand. He is settled. He is set. He
is established there forever. And that was established before
creation. That was established before creation.
And our Lord knows no change. The Word, the Living Word knows
no change. He was set up from everlasting. Listen to Proverbs 8, 23. I was
set up from everlasting. from the beginning, wherever
the earth was. Christ was set up. Christ, the
Word, was set up and established. He was set up and established
to be the priest, the high priest, to be the sacrifice, to be the
prophet, priest, and king. He was set up to be everything
you and I need, and that will never change. Look over in Hebrews
chapter 1. Over here in Hebrews chapter
1. This came to my mind while I
was sitting there. In verse 6 he says here, And
again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world,
he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. And of the
angels he saith, Who maketh his angels' spirits and his ministers
a flame of fire. But unto the Son he saith, Thy
throne, O God, is for ever and ever. That was established. A
scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou
hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God,
even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above
thy fellows, and thy Lord in the beginning, the Lord Jesus
Christ in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish,
they shall change. There's coming a great change
on this earth, coming a great change. they all and they all
shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt thou fold
them up he's done with it it's an old garment not needed anymore
he's gonna fold it up and they shall be changed but listen but
thou art the same and thy years shall not fail the word the Lord Jesus Christ
is settled set established in heaven before the earth and all
of creation before it was ever all this was created. He was
set up. But we also have here in this
verse the security and comfort of God's people that His Word,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and the written Word that's about the
Lord Jesus Christ concerning Him are settled. Isn't that a
comfort to know that this Word is it? This is it. We have God's
Word on it. When we stand on a promise, we
have God's Word on it. When we look to Christ, we have
God's Word on it. He'll save us we have his word
on it. We can trust him and that'll
never change Scripture says in Hebrew 13 8 Jesus Christ the
same yesterday today and forever. He'll never change on us You
ever have anybody change on you? You ever have to change your
mind on your children they said well you said we were gonna go well
I changed my mind we can't Our Lord never does that. He never
changes. He never changes His mind, never
changes His covenant, never makes an amendment to it. Never. He's
the same yesterday, today, and forever. And God's covenant of
grace with His Son and with His people in His Son is settled
forever. The promises of God are yea and
amen in Christ. And those promises are to us.
They're to us. They're sure. They're sure. God made that everlasting covenant
with his son, and in it, he gave him promises. And God is sure
to keep his promises. You know why God's forgiven you?
You that are forgiven, you know why he's forgiven you? For Christ's
sake. For Christ's sake, that's why.
Listen to Hebrews. 1320 now the God of peace that
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great shepherd
of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant that
covenants everlasting it's settled it's established and God did
that before creation and then God's immutable word is seen
in creation he says here in verse 90 thy faithfulness God's faithfulness to his word,
his son who is the word and his word that he's given, his covenant.
Thy faithfulness is unto all generations. Thou hast established
the earth and it abideth. This earth is standing, it's
standing as a testament to God's immutable word. When we look
at the heavens, The sun rises every day, doesn't it? Do you
ever worry about the sun coming up or not? That sun rises by the Word of
God. You know that this world is kept
in place by the power, it says, of His Word. the whole universe
God has put every star and he named everyone of trillions of
them he named every one of them he didn't just throw them out
there he named everyone put them in their place put them in their
place and they stay there by the word of his power and God's
faithful God's faithfulness to his word is seen in creation
and then God's faithfulness to his son is unto all generations
God's faithfulness to His Word, His Son, He says here that His
faithfulness is unto all generations. Christ died for a people in every
generation. And God's faithfulness to save
and forgive them for Christ's sake is unto all generations. How many generations have gone
by? Since now, I mean, since in the
past, how many generations? But here we are. It's our time
now. And God has saved some people here in Spring Lake. Because
of his faithfulness to his word. His faithfulness to his word,
his son, to his covenant that he made with his son, his faithfulness
is unto all generations. You know, I I pray and I hope
that the Lord leaves the gospel here for many years to come.
I hope that he does. But I tell you this, the gospel
will be preached to all generations because God has a people in all
generations and he's going to save them in faithfulness to
his son. He's going to save them. WE ARE HERE NOW BECAUSE OF GOD'S
FAITHFULNESS TO HIS WORD THAT HE MADE BEFORE CREATION. THAT
COVENANT. THAT'S WHY YOU AND I ARE HERE.
GOD MADE A COVENANT CONCERNING ME AND YOU PERSONALLY. PERSONALLY. BY NAME. I KNOW MY SHEEP BY NAME. HE MADE A COVENANT. HE THOUGHT
UPON US. INDIVIDUALLY. AND TOOK CARE OF
US. And in the process of time, we
have come into this world and God has faithfully sent the gospel
to us and created faith in us and we believe. That's a testament
to God's faithfulness to his word, his covenant and his son. And this world will continue
until the last sheep. Yeah, I don't know how many generations
it'll go yet. It may go many generations, but
I know this. It will go to the last generation
when the last sheep is called in. God will faithfully save
that sheep. There is a first sheep was saved.
There's going to be a last sheep to say that's to be saved. And God will be faithful to that
and listen, And this earth, the universe, the sun, the moon will
continue. Listen there in verse 91. They
continue this day according to thine ordinances or decree that
God decreed before creation. They continue for all of that
service. They continue and they serve
God. You know, we just look up into
the heavens and we see, you know, we see the, we see all these
stars, all these little, look like pinholes in the sky. It's
what it looks like at nighttime, look like pinholes. But you know,
those stars serve his purpose. I mean, there are probably trillions
of stars we haven't seen yet. We haven't even seen them. They're
so far out there. But yet that star that's so far
out there has its effect on another one and another one and another
one and it all has its effect on this earth because God has
an elect people on it and it's serving his purpose. Everything
that God created serves his purpose. They are his servants. You think sometimes, wow, what's
the use of it? What's the use of a snake or
a mosquito or, you know, what's the use of any of these things,
some of these things? Well, I don't know, but God knows.
God knows. He knows. And they all serve
his purpose. Whether they like it or not,
Satan. You know, Satan serves the purpose
of God. I heard Henry say one time, the devil is God's devil. Didn't he have to go to God to
get permission to touch Joe? Well, he has to get permission
to touch any of God's children. Every demon serves God's purpose. He said the deceived and deceiver
are his. That's what God said. i can't
comprehend all that at all but i believe it and i believe it's
to a good purpose all that's going on in this world right
now the stuff that aggravates you and the stuff that don't
it's serving god's purpose all are thy servants they all are you know it's interesting
how that when god sent plagues on egypt what were they locusts
frauds, lice. They're servants. They were God's
servants. He didn't send an army of men.
He didn't bring in an army. He just sent what he created
in nature. They have served him, served
his purpose. I know this, if it were possible,
Satan and man would destroy the earth. We would self-destruct
if God let us. We would. But God, in faithfulness
to His Son and to His covenant and to His people, keeps it all
intact. He's the one that keeps this earth producing. He keeps
it producing. The earth is the Lord's. Aren't
you glad of that? The earth is the Lord's, the
fullness of heaven. They who dwell therein, they
are all His. All of them. and all serve Him. He makes everything
do His will and serve His eternal purpose. And then the same Word
that preserves creation preserves God's people. We see the power
of His Word, not only in preserving creation and all that. I mean,
we can't even begin what's all created. Can't even begin to
even think of it. There's so much out there. So
much out there we haven't seen and never will see. But that
same Word that preserves creation, preserves God's people, unless
thy law, and you know, David only had the first five books
of the Bible, but in them he saw Christ. He saw the gospel,
the seed of the woman. He saw, he understood that. He
understood about the Messiah. He understood about the Passover
lamb. He saw the gospel in those first
five books of Moses. Unless thy law had been my delights,
I should then have perished in my affliction." Now here, here
is something for us as we go through trials. As we go through
trials, and we're going through them. It don't matter, we're
going to go. When you go through the fire,
when you go through the water, not if, it's when. It's when. He said, unless thy law or thy
word had been my delights, lifted me found my comfort in your word
i would have perished in my troubles i would have perished in these
trials that word affliction means depression he said i should have
perished in my in my depression david recognizes the power of
god's word to keep him in time of trouble I know a little bit about this,
and I think all of God's children, if you don't know it, you're
going to. If you don't know it, you're going to. You're going
to know that there's going to come a time when nobody else
can give you really comfort, nobody else can help you, nobody
else can do it, but God gives you a word and it carries you
through. He gives one word, one scripture,
and it'll lift you and carry you through the hardest, hardest
of times. David found solace in God's word. And the promises, oh, you know,
and this is when we really, really. Take hold of the promises of
God is when we're in trouble. we're in trouble that's when
the promise becomes sweet that's when it becomes powerful is when
we need it call upon me in the day of trouble and i'll deliver
thee thou shalt glorify me that's a promise whosoever shall call upon the
name of the lord shall be saved that's a promise when i'm feeling
down i tell you what when i'm feeling down and i feel like
You think, do you really know God? And then I think of those
scriptures. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. He that comes to me, I wouldn't
know why I was cast out. That's a promise. And sometimes
that's all you can do is stand on the promise, standing on the
promises. You can't stand on your feelings.
You stand on the promises of God. The promises of God in Christ
are yea and amen. You see, they start with Christ.
Promises don't belong to anyone outside of Christ. They do not
belong to anyone outside of Christ. Someone said this, and it's been
something I've remembered. He said this, I can't remember
if it's Spurgeon or who it was, but they said, in order to really
claim a promise, you've got to fit the character described in
the promise. You know, you just can't reach
out there and grab a promise, but you've got to fit the character.
Are you in trouble? Call upon me in the day of trouble. You
see, if you fit that character, you say call. Call. We take comfort and delight in
God's word at all times, but especially in times of trouble.
Well, that's whenever the the word of God is like honey. Is
in times of trouble. What is in God's Word that gives
us delight and comfort and affliction? Well, we find, first of all,
that His Word is settled. We find that it's true. It's
established. I'm not going to take the Word
of God and read something and say, well, I don't know about
that. I do know about it. It's true.
I can take God at His Word. And I find in the word of God
that the Lord, Jehovah, the self-existing one, is my shepherd. He's my shepherd. He's my shepherd
to guide me, to feed me, and to bring me home. He's my shepherd.
And then I find that the Lord is my father. He's my heavenly
father. God is my father. That's a powerful
statement now. Now are you the sons of God?
God's our father. And then he's my friend. You
know, he called himself a friend of Abraham. Do you believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you God's child? God's your
friend. He reconciled to you. You're
reconciled to him. God's our friend. And then the
Lord is our king to defend us and keep us. Brethren, we couldn't
keep ourselves. We couldn't keep, you couldn't
put enough locks on your door to keep the thieves out. You
couldn't do it. But the Lord can. He can put
a hedge about you, about your home, and nothing can touch it. Nothing, no one can touch it.
And we find our acceptance in God's Son. We find acceptance
with God. He has made us accepted in the
Beloved. I'm accepted of God. We find
forgiveness. We find reconciliation through
the person and work of God's Son, who is the Word of God.
We have in Christ all that we need. I'll show you this at the end.
And then we find that Christ died for sinners, and that just
fits me. That just fits me. We find that all things are working
for our eternal good. Do you really believe that? Do I really believe that? That ought to calm every fear
we got. It's working for my good, whatever it is. And then we find
in God's word that he will never leave us nor forsake us. He said
he wouldn't. Do you believe him? You believe him? Everybody else?
Peter? You just read about Peter. Peter
said, I'll never be offended. The Lord said, before the cock
crow three times, you'll deny me. Just a few hours later, a
few hours later, he goes running and scared to death and denying
the Lord and cursing and swearing. And then the cock crew and then
he went out wet bitterly. He left, he denied the Lord,
you know, he went off, but the Lord never denied him. The Lord
never forsook him. He never forsook him. He said, I'll never leave thee
nor forsake thee. And then we find in God's word
that he's coming to get us and take us home. Why are we afraid
to die? Why are we afraid to die? We go to the doctor and he says,
you've got six months to live. I said, I got forever to live.
I've got eternity to live. Really? I don't know how I react. I hope by God's grace, I react
as a believer. You know, something like that
was said to me. But I'm going to live forever. I'm living.
I'm already living. I'm just going to drop off this
dead part. This vile body, this stinky body. Don't take a bath
for a few days. You see how vile your body is.
It's vile. Why do we, why would we, why
would we not want to die? And go be with the Lord and go
get, you'll be rid of all of this. I know, I mean, I know
why it's right here, relationships. This is why, but I understand
that. And then in God's word, we find
many promises. You would think, you would think
as God's children, we would eat this word. Job said it's more to me than
my necessary food. I believe it was Job said that.
Thy word is more to me than my necessary food. I've got to have
God's word. And then he says here in verse
93, I will never forget thy precepts for with them thou is quickened.
I'll never forget your gospel. Oh, this is experience. Someone
said this, experience fixes the word upon our memory. Experience fixes the word. If
you experience grace, if you experience the power of the gospel,
you'll never forget it. You know why? He won't let you.
You're sealed with the Holy Spirit. You will not forget it. He'll not let you. Now, our Lord,
I know this is applied to our Lord. Our Lord never forgot any
of the precepts of God. He kept all of them. But the gospel that God uses,
which is the word, what it tells us in the scriptures, quickens
us. It not only quickens us the first
time from the dead, but it quickens us as we go through this life,
and we slumber, and we sleep, and we get lazy. It quickens
us. The gospel reinvigorates us.
It revives us. God's Word revives us. You know,
it says in James 1.18, Of His own will beget He us with the
word of truth. And that word of truth, Peter,
I think it was Paul said, the word of God, the word of truth
worketh in you effectually. It's constantly working in you
who believe effectually. It's constantly instructing,
teaching, guiding, directing constantly. This is what Peter said here
in 1 Peter 1.23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. That word that settled in heaven
is living, powerful. Powerful is what it says in Hebrews,
like a two edged sword, powerful, dividing, dividing, asunder. And then here's complete surrender
in verse 94. He says here, I am dying. I'm dying by creation. I didn't
evolve. You created me. You're my creator.
I'm dying by an election. You chose me. I'm dying by adoption. You not
only created me, you elected me, you've adopted me, I'm yours
also by birth. Born of God. Isaiah 43, 7. Even everyone that
is called by my name, for I have created him for my glory. I have formed him, yea, I have
made him. I made you, I made you a believer. Psalm 103, know you that the
Lord, He is God. It is He that has made us and
not we ourselves. If we have anything to do with
it, we won't believe. If we have anything to do with it, we will
not come to Him. We won't do it. We'll never confess Christ. If we have anything to do with
it, we'll never confess Him. that's why he says you know you that
the Lord he's God it is he that have made us not we ourselves
we are his people and the sheep of his pasture Isaiah 43 1 but now thus saith
the Lord that created the old Jacob he that formed the old
Israel fear not I have redeemed thee I bought you I purchased
you I have called thee by thy name thou art mine I'm thine
I'm glad I don't belong to myself. You've been bought with a price.
You're not your own, the scripture says. And here's one of the most
comprehensive prayers one could pray. It's very simple, but it's
very comprehensive. You cannot pray a more comprehensive
prayer than this. Save me. Save me. Is that hard to say? Isn't that amazing? The most
simple thing to say, the most comprehensive prayer to pray,
we won't do it unless he saves us. Save me. For I have sought thy precepts.
I hope in your word. I hope in your gospel. Save me. Save me from sin, Satan,
myself. Save me. It's just that simple. Lord, save me. Peter's about
to drown when he's walking on water, started going under. What'd
he say? Well, save me. Yeah, I tell you,
if you're drowning, you ain't gonna be, you're not gonna have
many words. You're just gonna say, save me. And then God's
word is an antidote to all our fears. The wicked have waited
for me to destroy me. They wait to do us evil, waiting
to catch us in a weak moment. You say something a little off-collar
or something, they say, oh, I thought you was a Christian. I thought
you was a Christian. They try to catch you in that
weak moment, as they did our Lord. Remember that woman caught
in adultery last week? They're trying to trap you. But however evil they may treat
me, I'm going to stay with thy testimonies, thy word, thy gospel.
Because he says this, the wicked have waited for me to destroy
me, but I will consider thy testimonies. Oh, I'm just going to rest in
your word. I'm going to think upon your word. I'm going to
meditate in your word. When evil is against me, I'm
not going to stand there and spit back at them. And you know,
you don't win a spitting contest. And you know, if you start slinging
mud, the first thing you do is you get it on yourself. You just consider His Word. Vengeance is mine, saith the
Lord. That's considering His Word. Just leave it in His hands. Best hands to be in. Best hands. And then we have here at the
end the perfection of God's Word. I have seen, or the perpetuity,
I could say it that way, the perpetuity of God's Word, the
perfection of God's Word. I have seen an end of all perfection. And that word means boundary. I've seen an end, a boundary
to all perfection. But thy commandment, thy Word
is exceeding broad. I can't grasp it. I've seen,
listen, I've seen an end. He considered it. And he says,
I have seen an end of all perfection in myself. Have you seen that? Oh, wretched man that I am. Paul
saw the end of perfection in himself. He went from being a
Pharisee and self-righteous Pharisee to saying, Oh, wretched man that
I am. I've seen the end of all perfection in my works. They're
worthless. I have seen an end of all perfection
in the world. Since the fall of Adam, perfection
has come to an end in this world. But thy commandment is exceeding
broad. Let me read you what, I was reading John Calvin and
he quoted a man named Criswell. The literal translation is, through
the whole of perfection I perceive a limit. The Hebrew word, however,
which is rendered by perfection, occurs only in this place. It
seems clearly to have for its root a verb signifying to complete,
to finish. The meaning is, to every created
thing, however perfect, I see a boundary. I see a boundary. That is, it is limited as to
its capability as well as to its duration. It has a boundary. But God's commandment has no
boundary. It's eternal. It's eternal. The gospel is called what? The
everlasting gospel. It's the everlasting gospel.
And there's no searching to its end. And God's commandment, you
know, I thought of this today, I'm gonna quit. When God gives
a commandment, there is no way that we can understand and comprehend
the eternal effect of that commandment. How far reaching is that commandment? How far reaching is the gospel? There's no way to reach to the
end of what God has commanded and purposed and settled in His
Word, in the covenant. There's no searching it out.
There's no searching it out. But this I know, I thought of
this after reading that. I know this, Jesus Christ is
the end of all perfection. The word perfection here means
completeness. It means completeness. In Christ,
what does Paul say in Colossians? You are complete. Jesus Christ
is the end of perfection. Listen to this, and I quit. Romans
10 for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, completeness,
perfection to everyone that believes. Everyone. My God's word is settled. It's
settled. It's established. You and I,
you know, when you get up in the morning and you go throughout
the day, think of this. We are watching the purpose of
God unfold. In our little old sphere where
we live and move around, we're still seeing the purpose of God
unfold. And what we're seeing is the
Word of God that was settled in heaven forever in eternity,
we're seeing it unfold. That's exciting to me. I find
that exciting. There's a purpose to all this.
You know, everybody's going around, what's my purpose in life? What's
my purpose? What's God's purpose? What's
God's purpose? It's to glorify His Son.