This robe of flesh I'll drop and rise to see the
stars align. Farewell because we won't need
prayer anymore. We'll see him face to face, talk
with him face to face. Psalm 119 now. Psalm 119. You'll be praying silently, but
the Lord will bless this study tonight, not only to my heart,
but to yours. I was thinking this evening, this
afternoon, I say this quite often, but In
order for this to bless you, it has to bless me. Because if
we really believe that this is God's Word, if we really believe
that this is God Almighty's breathed, His inspired Word,
that He actually wrote, spoke these words, and that He speaks
through these words. And as Paul said, as though God
did beseech you by us, When he thought about that, God
speaking through me, God does beseech you by me, that's when
he said in another place, who's sufficient for these things?
If God would have to touch a man, wouldn't God have to touch a
man powerfully for that man to speak the word of God as it ought
to be spoken? As though God did beseech you?
I'd like to just be able to read it as God meant it to be read. Certainly not to be able to expound
upon it as though God himself spoke it. And only when God speaks,
only when the Holy Spirit takes this word and speaks it to us
will we get a blessing, not when you just hear me read my notes. Right? Now, there's no doubt
that these verses were penned by David, sweet psalmist. I like
that title. Let's see some sweet things tonight,
written and penned by the sweet psalmist of Israel, the man after
God's own heart. And these are the outpourings
of David's heart. There's no doubt about that.
David penned these things, led by the Holy Spirit, and these
were the sincere outpourings, feelings of his own heart. No
doubt about that. And these are the sincere outpourings
or feelings of all of God's people, men and women, all of those who
are men and women after God's own heart. You could be a woman
after God's own heart. Those who have the love of God
shed abroad in their hearts can say these things with David.
But we're not going to look at this in that way tonight, not
at all. I'm convinced that most of these words, if not all of
them, apply to the son of David. the Lord Jesus Christ, the man
after God's own heart. The man, Christ Jesus, after
God's own heart. Or the scripture says he came
from God's bosom. I mean, he really came literally
from God's heart. And they could have been spoken
by him personally at some point in his life. The scriptures do
say that if all the things that he said and did were penned in
books, the world couldn't contain him. all the books written of
the things he said and did. And I am certain that these words
could have been spoken by him personally, and I'm certain,
I'm for sure that they were inspired by him, because he is the Word.
Now, he wrote this. Christ did. He's the Word. Because
when I look at verses like verse 97, look at this. It says, Oh,
how I love thy law. It is my meditation all the day. What man can say that? Huh? What mere mortal man could say
that? All day, without fail, every
day, your law is my delight, I love it, and it's my meditation
all the day. Well, no doubt David is speaking
sincerely here and that he thinks of God's Word off and on throughout
the day. And I can say that in sincerity. Yet no man is perfectly spiritual. No man enjoys perfect, unbroken
fellowship with God and meditates every hour of every day upon
God's Word. No way. You couldn't work a job,
could you? You couldn't put windows together,
John. You'd cut your fingers off. thinking about something
else. You've got to have your mind
on what you're doing, right? No mere man could do this. It's
my meditation all the day. No mere man. But the God-man
could. The God-man, the omnipresent
God-man could do what he did during the day, work as a carpenter
or whatever, while still thinking perfectly on God's Word, meditating
upon it all day long. You ever think about that? He
had perfect knowledge. He had a perfect recall of every
single word in this volume, the volume of this book. Perfect
recall of every word. Why? How? He wrote it. Perfect recall. And he thought
upon and he reflected upon every word in this book for thirty-three
and a third year. every minute of every hour of
every day of every year for thirty-three and a third years. Think of it. Think of it. And he could say
with a true heart, Christ could say with a true heart, with all
of his heart, oh how I love thy law. It is my meditation all
the day. all the day. Turn with me to
Psalm 1, the first Psalm. Psalm 1, and it didn't stop there.
His meditation, his thinking upon God's Word didn't stop when
the daylight hours ceased. Look at Psalm 1 with me. Christ
is this blessed man here in Psalm 1, verse 1. Blessed is the man
that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. That's Christ.
nor standeth in the way of sinners," that's Christ, "...nor sitteth
in the seat of the scornful," that's Christ, "...but his delight
is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day
and night." He went sleepless a lot of times
thinking about God's law. Day and night. Read on. Well,
he shall be like a tree, a tree of life. Christ said, I'm divine. planted by the rivers of water.
He said, I'm the water of life that bringeth forth his fruit,
his people, and his season where the branches, his leaf, his righteousness
shall not wither. And whatever he does, it'll prosper. Day and night, day and night,
Christ delighted and meditated in God's holy law. And I can
say with David, and David's son in sincerity, I delight in God's
holy word, all of it, and think about it during the day. And
I hope you can say the same thing, not all day, not every hour of
every day, but at some point off and on during the day, you
think about God's holy word. You must. You've got to feed
upon it, or your mind, your heart will be in a gutter. and the
gutter. It's cleansing. The Word washes
us. It cleanses us. You've got to
ask the Lord to recall His Word to your mind at some point during
the day. Look at verse 98 now. He says, Thou through thy commandments. Christ continues talking here
now. We're talking We're looking at this as if Christ himself
were speaking this. Am I right? This isn't David
speaking, this is the son of David. And Christ continues,
he says, I love your law, it's my meditation all the day, and
thou through thy commandments has made me wiser than mine enemies. Thou through thy commandments
have made me wiser than my enemies. enemies. You remember last Sunday
night, we looked at this, the commandment of God, singular. Back in the last chapter, it
says, verse ninety-six, back in the last verses, ninety-six,
he says, I've seen an end of all perfection, or that is, Christ
said it's finished, the work is finished. God's commandment,
singular. Psalm two, I'll declare the decree. Thou art my son, this day have
I begotten thee." God's commandment, God's decree, is setting his
son up as king. That's God's commandment. And
God's commandment, it's exceeding broad, encompasses everybody
and everything, that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall
confess he's Lord, and bow down to this sovereign king and this
sovereign Lord. And the Scripture says, Philippians
2, God has raised him above all people. and given him a name,
exalted him above his enemies even. One place it says that
his enemies are going to be his footstool. And it says here that
he's made me wiser than my enemies. Even as a boy, even as a little
boy, he baffled doctors and lawyers because he had a perfect knowledge
of God's Holy Word. He was able to silence the most
noted doctors and lawyers of his day because of his perfect
knowledge of God's Word. And if we were a little bit more
knowledgeable of God's Word, we could answer them that reproach
us. That's what it says back in verse
42. We could answer him that reproaches
us. We could silence all the gamesayers. We know how to answer
people when we dealt with them. We'd be able to, like Peter said,
give every man that asked a reason for the hope that's in us if
we were better acquainted with God's Word. Well, Christ could.
No matter what, no matter the question that was asked him,
he could answer perfectly. He could silence all the gainsayers
and bring to nothing the wisdom of all the lawyers and the doctors
because of his perfect knowledge. He says, thou through thy commandments
has made me wiser than mine enemies. But they're ever with me. That
is, God's word was ever with him, but I believe he also speaks
of his enemies being ever with him. They were always trying
to catch Christ, weren't they? They were always trying to catch
him in his word, trying to trap him, trying to test him, trying
to ask the unanswerable. But Christ was ever mindful of
God's decrees and purposes, and he could answer all their questions
and put them to silence. And so it is with us. People
everywhere are trying to catch us up, trap us, and ask endless
questions. All right, verse 99. Christ continues. He says, I have more understanding
than all my teachers. I have all understanding. As
a young boy, as a young man, Christ being obedient to all
of God's Word, all of God's commandment, Christ must have subjected and
submitted himself to a teacher. He must have subjected himself
to the priests and the scribes and the rulers in the synagogue.
He went to church and went to classes, Bible classes perhaps. As all young people would, all
young Jewish boys and girls would, they'd sit under the instructive
teaching of Pharisees and scribes and rulers in the synagogue,
and Christ did that. And he said, but I have more
understanding within my teachers. While they groped, can you picture
this scene of some old white-bearded fellow? Some old scribe or whatever
who spent his lifetime copying painstakingly copying the scriptures
and all. He'd be looking into some old
obscure passage and groping for the meaning, trying to pull it
out, and the meaning sat right in front of him. The answer to his question was
looking at him. But Christ had perfect understanding,
perfect. He literally cut his teeth on
God's Word as a boy. It was his meat and his drink,
the Scripture says, growing up. He grew in wisdom and in stature
before God and man. It was his meat and drink to
do the will of God. He said, it becomes me. to fulfill
all righteousness. He said, Heaven and earth shall
pass away, but not one jot or one tittle from God's law shall
fail until I fulfill it. So he grew up as a boy, every
minute, every hour, every day, thinking, dwelling upon how and
what way you want to feel this perfect will of God. He says,
because your testimonies are my meditation. I have more understanding
than all my teachers because your testimonies are my meditation.
What are the testimonies of God? Testimonies of God. Testimony,
another word for testament, covenant. the covenant of God, God's gospel,
his testament concerning his son. And it says here, look at
it again with me real closely. It says, Thy testimonies are
my meditation. It doesn't say tations, my meditation,
singular. In other words, God's gospel
or the work that Christ had to do to finish. The saving of a
people, the glorifying of God, justifying God and justifying
sinners was ever before him. It was his soul thought, his
life, his mind, his heart, his meditation. He said, for this hour I came
into the world. He ate, he drank, he slept this
work that was before him. And all that he did was for the
glory of God in perfect fulfillment of every precept and command
of God's Word as it related to him going to Calvary's tree and
establishing that righteousness and saving a people. Now, he
said in one place, Christ himself said, No man knows the Father
but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal the Father to.
And God said in Hebrews one that in these last days, he's spoken
unto us by his son. If you want to know, if you want
to know the scripture, study Christ. He is the scripture. If you want to know an answer
to the scriptures, ask Christ or look for your answer in Christ. Christ reveals the will of the
father. He reveals the father. If you
want to know how to act, study Christ. Yes, He is our pattern.
If you want to know how to look, study Christ. He's the holy,
spotless, blameless Son of God. If you want to know where to
go, what to do, how to react, what to say, what to be, study
Christ. Study Christ. If things are unclear,
if things are gray, If the meaning, if answers we're groping for
and searching for cannot be found, study Christ. What he did, what
he said, where he went. Because the scripture says he's
the truth. Whatever he did was true. And
the only way to do it. He is the truth. He's the answer
to all our questions. And now, look at it again, verse
ninety-nine. He says, I have more understanding
than all my teachers because they, thy testimonies, thy gospel,
is my meditation. Your gospel is my meditation.
Now listen, there's a real sense in which a believer, a true believer,
is wiser than all the noted scholars and doctors and lawyers of his
day, of our day. I don't care how much education
a man's got. And I don't say this out of envy
and jealousy because I have no. I don't always make. Derogatory
remarks about education because I don't have any. But I do it
based on the scripture. Any knowledge a man has that's
worth having it must come from God. I'm from a school. Any instruction a man has. better
be along the lines of instructing a man in the ways of Christ in
the gospel, or else it's vain knowledge, right? It's useless
knowledge. It might work towards some humanitarian efforts, but
there's a real sense in which a believer is wiser than all
the noted scholars, seminary professors, fellows with D.D.s
and M.D.s, masters of divinity. These fellas searched the scriptures,
just like Christ looked at those Pharisees in his day, and he
said, you search the scriptures, I grant you that. You do read
the scriptures, you're in them day and night. But you don't
understand them. You don't understand the scope
of scriptures. You search the scriptures, but
they are they which testify of me. Don't you know, he made those
fellows mad when he looked in their eyes. These fellows have
spent all day long, every day, their whole life, searching,
writing, transcribing the scriptures. He looked into their faces and
said, you do err. You don't know the scriptures.
You do err not knowing the scriptures. Why didn't they? Yeah, they knew
the scriptures. They could quote them. No, they didn't know the
scripture. They didn't know the Scriptures because the Scriptures
testified of Christ, and they didn't know Christ, right? And
I could say the same thing to any man, I don't care how smart
he is or where he comes from, whatever school he may be in,
whatever long list of degrees behind his name, I can say the
same thing to him. If he does not major on Christ,
the person and work of Christ, and point men to Christ, I can
say to him, you do err not knowing the Scripture, nor the power
of God. power of God. If you lay this
thing of salvation in the lap of man, you don't understand
anything of the sovereignty of God, power of God. So there's a real sense in which
a believer, you and me, male and female, are wiser than all
the scholars of our day. A believer, listen, here's the
key, Terry, a believer meditates on the gospel. in whatever passage
of scripture he looks at. That's what he said there. He said, your testimonies are
my meditation. The testimony of God is concerning
his son, the record, the testament, the witness of God. Everything
bears witness of God's son, right? From the beginning, from the
very outset, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth. Who's that? John 1 says it's
Christ. He's the Alpha and the Omega,
and the believer meditates upon the testimonies or the testament
or the gospel, gospel truth, in whatever passage he's in,
and thereby he understands the real meaning of that passage. And as I said, if you run into
a passage of Scripture that doesn't quite gel with you, you're maybe
not thinking of it in terms of Christ and the gospel. Alright,
verse one hundred, Christ continues here. He says, I understand more
than the ancients. Why is that? He is the ancient
one. Before time was, before the world
ever was, set up from everlasting, from the beginning, wherever
the earth was, Christ said, I am. I am. I understand more than
the ancients. Why? He's the everlasting and
ancient. Why? Because I keep thy precepts
also as well. Christ understood more than the
elders, more than the Pharisees, more than the scribes, more than
the doctors and lawyers, because it says he kept God's precepts. Kept. That word kept means to
guard, to cling to, to be jealous over. Christ said it there in
John 14, keep my word, to keep my word. That means to cling
to, to hold in your heart and your bosom as one that has found
great treasure. Keep it, to be jealous over,
to guard it. What are God's precepts? What
are God's prescriptions? That's what the word has its
root. of the glory of God. Everything's going to give glory
to God. And Christ was jealous over God's glory. And had the
Pharisees and scribes been jealous over God's glory, they would
have understood God's Word. In verse 101, he continues, he
says, I've refrained my feet from every evil way. Do you see
how this can't apply? This can't be David. It can't
be David talking here, but it can be the son of David. He said,
I've refrained my feet from every evil way that I might keep thy
word. I've refrained my feet. Christ
walked perfectly in paths of righteousness for God's holy
name sake, perfectly. He said that I might keep thy
word no matter what we do, you and I. No matter what we do or
say or think, we've got a corrupt hidden motive behind it, haven't
we? There's some sinful, evil, selfish motive behind whatever
we do. Not Christ. Not Christ. 1 John 3, 5 says,
In him is no sin. No sin. You think about that. Not a word came out of his mouth
that was what was perfectly for the glory of God and the benefit
of others and fulfillment of God's eternal will. Not a thought
ran through his mind. Not a vain, not an idle thought
ran through his mind, but perfect holiness. Think about it. Not a deed issued forth from
his hands. His feet could not go anywhere
but in a right path. Think about it, his feet could
not stray, could not. I looked this word up, refrained.
I wish Brother Sheasley were here, he could appreciate this.
Some of you others may be able to, that work in his clothing
factory. You see these big looms? This
word, refrained, comes from a Hebrew word, kishore, that means, literally
means The spindle of a distaff Now or a shank the any you ladies
that so know what a distaff is. It's an old Hebrew word distaff
You ever see a spinning wheel and on the front of that wheel?
Where the yarn is there's a stick That's a distaff. That's where
the spool of thread sits upon now if that distaff If that stick,
which that thread is set upon, if it's perfectly straight, if
it's perfectly in line, if it's set securely, that thread's got
to go one place. Right? The thread that issues
forth from that distaff has got to go in the right direction.
You get a bend in it. If it's bent in any other direction,
it's going to fly every which way. And Christ, it says, he refrained
his feet from every evil way. In other words, Christ's heart
was the distal from which his feet or his walk, his life, his
word, his thoughts, everything about him issued forth from.
And it was perfect. His feet couldn't go anywhere
but in paths of righteousness. Couldn't do anything but good
things. His hands could not. This is the reason that we argue
for, it's a big word, the impeccability of Christ. The fact that Christ
could not sin. He could not sin because he's
the holy God. God cannot be tempted with sin. He cannot. He's the impeccable
Christ. He said himself, a good tree
must bring forth good fruits. And he says, I'm the tree of
life. I'm the vine. A good source must bring forth
good water. And God is good. Do you remember
when that rich young ruler came to him and said, good master?
He said, wait a minute, you can't use that term lightly. When you
talk about somebody in terms of being good, he's God, because
there's nothing good for God. But you've rightly said and called
me good, because I'm God. So anything coming from God's
got to be good. Got to be good, holy, just, and
true. That make sense to you? You said,
I've refrained my feet. That was interesting to me. That
word, refrain, means the dis-staff of a spinning wheel. And whatever
comes from it, if it's straight, if it's right, it's got to be
in the right direction. And Christ's heart being holy
and pure, everything from him that emanates from him is perfect,
holy, true, and just, that he might keep his word. He said
in verse one or two, I've not departed from that judgment. I'm sure thankful that. I have
not departed from that judgment, turn back to Psalm 19 again with
Psalm 19, the word judgment throughout the scripture. Throughout the
scripture, God talks about dealing with his people in judgment. In judgment. It's a word. That has to do with justice or
truth or righteousness. God does judge his people. But
in Christ, it's not judge in the sense of condemning them,
but judge in the sense of justifying them. God's judgments concerning
us are justice, righteousness, faultless, blameless. Judgment,
God's justice must be satisfied and in us when he sees us, we've
got to be perfectly holy and just and true and his judgments
concerning us in Christ are true and righteous altogether. Look
at it in verse nine, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring
forever. The judgments of Everything God looks at in us
must be according to God's truth, God's justice, and His righteousness
in Christ. Everything. He cannot look at
us for one minute Can't look at one deed of ours, anything
about us, outside of Christ. Verse 10, he says, More to be
desired are they, that is, this righteousness, this robe, this
perfect standing in Christ, is more to be desired than gold.
Why? Gold is going to fade away, but
not this everlasting robe of righteousness. It doesn't fade. It's that coat of many colors,
and colors never run. Yea, than much fine gold, sweeter
also than honey in the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is our servant
warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward." Believing,
trusting Christ, there is great reward. But back to the text
now. He says, I have not departed from your judgments. Christ said,
No, I have not departed from one of your holy mandates and
your judgments and your commandments. Not one of them. He said he had
to fulfill all righteousness because that's what God taught
him. It all had to be fulfilled. And in keeping of them, we read
back there, there's great reward. Christ was obedient. He was obedient
all through his life and obedient even unto death for us. And God hath openly rewarded
him. in keeping of them their great
reward. Well, God openly rewarded his son by giving him that name
and making him Lord over all and making the heathen for his
inheritance and making his enemies his servant and making heaven
his throne and making earth his footstool. He rewarded him openly
because he established righteousness, because he was just and holy.
And it says he was taught by God to do this, taught by God,
as all his holy children are, You remember when God said, Be
ye holy, for I am holy? Well, Christ said, OK. And he
did. He did. He listened and learned
well. God only had to tell Christ what
to do one time. He did it perfectly from that
day forward. How would you ladies like to
have a child like that? Huh? How about it, Terry? Tell them
one time to do something, and they do it and never err from
it from that day forward. Hmm? What would you give that
child? How would you reward that child
for their obedience? Why? You know, money would be
no object. Well, Christ, the obedient Son
of God, was so much so, so obedient that God couldn't refrain himself
from even telling it from heaven. That's my son. He's done a good
job. I'm well pleased in him. Hear
him. Hear him. He's your only hope.
My beloved son. And God satisfied. God approved
of. God is well pleased with his
son and nothing and nobody else. Once you've had the best, you
won't settle for second best. And God's seen his son and God's
decided that all the rest of his son's got to be just like
him. Just like him. Nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. I heard a woman on TV the other
day, supposed to have been preaching. Her text was from over in Matthew
6 where Christ said, Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, you'll not enter the kingdom
of heaven and not even see the kingdom of heaven. And. No, boy, she sure missed it.
She was talking about how you bet the Pharisees, they weren't
sincere and you better be sincere. You see, they were hypocrites,
but you better be sincere. Your righteousness better exceed
their righteousness. You better have a sincere right.
You better have the righteousness of Christ, what you better have.
When he's talking about exceeding the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, what he's saying is far exceeding. That is perfect righteousness.
Because God said, I'm holy, you be holy. God said it must be,
it shall be perfect to be accepted. And God won't settle for anything
less than perfection. And we can have that in Christ.
Look at verse 103. How sweet. Are thy words unto my taste,
my palate? How sweet are thy words! Christ saying this here, how
sweet are thy, talking about his father, how sweet are thy
words. The person, the work, the mind,
the heart, the will, the purpose, the words of God Almighty. Christ said it was sweet to him.
Everything about it. Everything about it. God, everything
he did, everything he said, everything that issued forth from God. And,
you know, God talks about his words when he talks about his
word. Barbara, everything is created
by the word of God. Everything is upheld by the word
of his power, right? Whatever God does, he just speaks
it. He doesn't have to move. He doesn't have to do anything.
He just speaks it. So Christ is talking about everything.
Sweet. Everything God does, everything God is, everything God says is
sweet to me. Sweet. Yea, sweeter than honey
to my mouth. Sweet. That word sweet is a sweet
word. Sweet word. Everybody likes sweetness,
don't they? Everybody likes sweetness. A
baby. I love to see these babies on their first birthday. Their
mother so carefully withheld sugar from them for the first
year. At least we did with Hannah. Sugar and salt and additives
and all that, you know, gave her the most tasteless, worst
food you could put in your mouth for the first year of her life.
But she didn't know anybody. But Buddy, her first birthday,
we put a big cake in front of her. And when she first got a
taste of that, sweetness! Never had it before, you know.
Stuck it in her face, you know, she couldn't get enough of it.
Couldn't get enough of sweetness. And you're hooked from that day
forward, aren't you? Sweetness, a craving. Chocolate. You gotta have it. It's in your
blood. Sweetness. If you ever taste the grace of
God in Christ, if you ever taste that the Lord is gracious, you
can't get enough of it. It's sweet from that day forward.
Not sweet to anybody that's never had it. Right? Anybody that's
never tasted this gospel? Ever seen God's goodness in Christ?
They don't know what they're missing, do they? Well, Christ
said everything about the Lord was tasty to him. All that he
was, all he did, and all he said left a good taste in his mouth,
a sweet memory in his mind. Have you ever received a kind
word from somebody? Ever had somebody give you a
compliment or smile, did something to cheer up your day and it left
you with a good feeling from that day forward, a sweet taste
in your mouth? Well, Christ said everything
about God leaves a sweet taste in my mouth. Everything. God's
Word, God's Gospel. Verse 104, and we'll quit. Through
thy precepts, through thy appointments, Through thy mandates, through
thy predestinating, that's where the word comes from, precept,
prescription, predestination. I like that word. I like it. I really do. Predestinating. That means there's nothing left
to chance and luck, right? That means I don't need four-leaf
clovers and rabbit's foot and cross my fingers and cross my
heart hope to die, you know. That means God's got her under
control. God's fixed all things, everything's ordered and sure
in God. And that leaves a sweet taste in my mouth. These precepts,
through these precepts, through understanding God's predestination,
I get understanding. Through thy precepts, I get understanding. Christ understood perfectly everything
because he knew the purpose behind all things. He knew the purpose
behind all things. He knew God's predestinating
power. You and I like this verse. Ephesians
1.10, is it? To gather together in one all
things in Christ, both which are in heaven, which are in earth,
even in Christ. That's God's purpose. His one
eternal purpose. To gather together in one all
things in Christ. both in heaven and in earth,
to the glory of God the Father and his Son. That's God's predestinating
power, and if men don't see that, they don't understand anything.
They don't understand anything. Christ knew that. Christ knew
God's predestinating purpose, and that's the way he could face
everything. That's the way he could perfectly
resign himself to everything, and that's the only way we'll
be able to, too. You know what? If we see the only way we can
face hardships, trials, sufferings, persecution, whatever, is in
seeing that God Almighty has ordained every single thing that
comes to pass from before the foundation of the world, and
nothing can alter it, nothing can change it, and it's exactly
the best thing that could possibly happen. For the glory of God,
for the purpose of making me no crime. Everything. Down to
the drink I choose for lunch. You say, that's carried a little
too far. No, it's not either. It's not. If everything is not divinely
ordered by God, then something can throw it out of whack, can't
it? Huh? The Spurgeon used to say that
the dust that floats in the sunlight coming through the window is
divinely ordained by God. The path, wherever that particle
of dust lights, God ordained it before the foundation of the You believe that? He kept it
from getting in your eye, didn't he? That's the goodness of God. And he says, through thy precepts,
I get an understanding. Therefore, I hate every false
way. He says this twice here in Psalm
119. He says in verse 128, I esteem
all thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate
every false way. It's the reason we all the time
denouncing and so intolerant of false doctrine. Because if it's not, if any man
abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, he's not here. Right? Anything and everything that
does not work together for God's glory, to the exaltation of Jesus
Christ, this world, everything and everyone in it who does not
Redound to the glory of God's Son, God hates it, and so do
I. David said it in Psalm 139, Do
not I hate them? Yeah, I hate them with a perfect
hatred. Oh, that is a hatred in light of God's perfect Son. John and I were talking about
this earlier, this thing of free will. I get sick and tired of
hearing all of that. I get tired. I've had it up to
here with all of this. this talk and so forth. People
ought to be concerned with and taken up with the glory of God,
not man. Man doesn't even come into the
picture in this thing. If people got this thing in its
right perspective, they'd keep man in the dust where he belonged
and God on the throne where he belonged. And everything about
man, he'd stay in the dust. His will, everything about him,
his work, stay in the dust. God alone gets all the glory. And David said, Christ said,
I hate him with a perfect hatred, a perfect hatred, every false
way. Why? How can a man do this? I
put that quote in last week's bulletin. A man after God's own
heart. A man after God's own heart.
is more concerned with the glory of God than he is with men. That
means his wife, means his children, his best friends, whoever it
may be. A man, a woman, after God's own
heart, is more concerned with, taken up with, in love with,
jealous over, zealous for his God more than anybody else. That's a man, that's a woman
after God's own heart. And so, therefore, anything and
everything that does not exalt his God, he hates it. He despises it. Oh, how I love thy holy law,
O God. It's my meditation all the day.
Oh, how I love God's Holy Son. He's my hope all the day. And
I hope there's a blessing to you. As his folk of Christ clearly
speaks of Christ to me. Clearly, and I hope you saw that
with. Stand with me and I'll discuss. Heavenly Father, we. We do more
damage to your word than good most of the time. Yet, if we could just read something
out of your word, if you, by your Holy Spirit, would take
one word in season and apply it to us, to our hearts, make
it sink way down deep in the recesses of our heart and our
understanding, just one word, then we'll profit from this.
How we love your word, dear Lord. It's our meat, our drink. It's
why we meet together, to sit under it, to look into it, to
study it. Lord, don't let us grow weary
of it. Give us the mind, the faculties, the capacities to
study, to search, that we might be good workmen. Study to show ourselves approved.
Workmen, men and women, that needeth not be ashamed. Lord,
we're so ashamed of ourselves most all the time because our
lack of interest in your Word and our lack of study of it,
our lack of understanding of it. Lord God, you can change
that. You can make your Word, your
law, the meditation of our heart if you're pleased to do so. And we ask that you might do
that in the hearts and minds of these people here tonight.
They're here, I believe. We're here because we want to
be. So, Lord, bless Your Word. Don't
let it return void. You said it wouldn't. Let this
be a profitable time for us. In the name of Christ, we pray
and ask these things for the glory of God, for our good, for
the feeding of the sheep. Amen.