Good evening, let's all stand
together, we'll sing hymn number 51. Hymn number 51. Praise the Savior, ye who know
Him, who can tell how much we owe Him. Gladly let us render
to Him all we honor and have. Jesus is the name that charms
us. He for God's sake fits and arms
us. Nothing moves and nothing harms
us while we trust in Him. Trust in Him, ye saints, forever. He is faithful, changing never. Neither force nor God can sever
Those He loves from Him. Keep us, Lord, O keep us, cleaving
To Thyself and still believing, Till the hour of our receiving
Promise joyous with Thee. Then we shall be where we would
be. Then we shall be what we should
be. Things that are not now nor could
be, soon shall be our own. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
225. 225. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
Come unto me and rest. Lay down, my weary one, lay down. I hid upon my breast. I came to Jesus as I was weary
and worn and sad. I found in Him a resting place. I heard the voice of Jesus saying,
Behold I freely give the living water, thirsty won't stoop down I came to Jesus and I drank of
that life-giving stream. My thirst was quenched, my soul
revived, and now I live in Him. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
In this dark world's night, Look unto me, thy warmth shall rise,
And all thy day be bright. I looked to Jesus, and I found
Let's look together at Psalm 19, if you will. Psalm 19. I'll read the whole psalm. The heavens declare the glory
of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth
speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no
speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their line
is going out throughout all the earth, and their words to the
end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle
for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and
rejoices as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from
the end of heaven, and his circuit under the ends of it, and there
is nothing hid from the heat thereof. The law of the Lord
is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are
right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold. Yea, than much fine gold, Sweeter
also than honey and a honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant
warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward. Who can
understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from
presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over
me. Then shall I be upright, I shall
be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth, the
meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O my Lord, my strength
and my Redeemer. Our great and blessed and glorious
God of heaven and earth, God our Father, God our Savior, God,
our mediator, Lord, we bless you that you made Christ to be
our all in all. And we thank you, oh Lord, we
bless you that you give us this time. Lord, just be able to take
time out of our week to meet together, to leave this world
behind for just a little while, to leave our jobs, leave our
worries, leave our uncleanness and all the things that trouble
us and bother us, leave it away for just a moment. Lord, please
meet with us tonight. Oh God, please come among us.
Come down in the power of the Holy Spirit. God bless these
dear saints. They need edified, they need
encouraged, they need to be lifted up. Lord, they need your strength,
they need your glory, they need your grace, they need your mercy,
we all do. So Lord, meet with us tonight.
And Lord, we pray for those who are not with us through sickness,
through weariness of body, and your providence keeps them from
coming. And we pray for those, Lord Jesus, that don't know you. Oh, Lord, you do for them what
only you can do. Please have mercy upon our families
and do it for Christ's sake. God bless you. Word to our hearts
and understanding tonight. of the Lord Jesus, for we ask
in His blessed name. Amen. Amen. Hymn number 388. 388. Have thine own way, Lord, have
thine own way. Thou art the potter, I am the
clay. Hold me and make me after Thy
will I am waiting, yielded and still Have Thine own way, Lord, have
Thine own way Search me and try me, Master, today Whiter than snow, Lord, wash
me just now, As in Thy presence humbly I bow. Have Thine own way, Lord, have
Thine own way Wounded and weary, help Thee, I pray Surely is Thine Touch me and
heal me Savior Divine Have Thine own way, Lord Have Thine own
way O Lord, my being, absolute strength,
Fill with Thy Spirit, till all shall see Christ only, always
living in me. Here in the 19th Psalm, there's
two revelations. There's two revelations. There's
the revelation of the creation, and then there's the revelation
of His Word. You know, the heavens declare
the glory of God. The firmament shows His handiwork.
That's the creation. And you know when the sun comes
up it goes from one circuit to the other, and there s no place
that it goes that people can t see it, understand it, and
you look at the earth and you see God s handiwork. But now
let me tell you something, now you know we can be as David,
we can look in the heavens and lay and say, What is man that
thou art mindful of him? and that you even consider Him,
when I consider the heavens and the stars that thou hast ordained."
That s a believer saying that. But now, you can look at creation
all you want to, and glory in creation. There s been a lot
of naturalists in this world, and a lot of poets in this world,
and they look at nature, and they live by nature, and rejoice
in nature. But nature and the heavens, looking
at them all you want to, They won't show you any blood, they
won't show you any grace, they won't show you any redemption.
You can look at them, and I do, we as believers understand God
created all things. So that's why men will be without
excuse when they see that everything that was made, somebody had to
make it. Somebody had to make it. That's where they'll all
be without excuse. So that's the heavens declare
the glory of God. This earth and everything about
it shows His handiwork. I mean you look at the Tetons,
and then look at the Smokies, go look at the Alps, and go look
at these beautiful lakes and all these beautiful rivers, and
how in the world did they get into existence? How'd they get
into existence? But anyway, and there's another
place where there's two revelations, and I'll deal with those when
we get to Romans. There's a revelation of the righteousness of God revealed
in the Gospel. And then in the same next verse
it says, But the wrath of God is also revealed, not only is
His righteousness revealed, but His wrath is revealed. But two
revelations, but tonight the revelation I want to deal with
is the revelation of His Word. And David here, you know, the
revelation of the Word, the Scriptures. And this, you know, God reveals
Himself in His Word. Now, not in the heavens, but
in the Word. David in six sentences gives
us this blessed, blessed description of the Word of God, and he uses
as the word, the word Jehovah, Jehovah, and he looks at the
effects it has upon men s hearts, especially believers minds, and
how God s grace does the work in our heart. You know, God reveals
Himself in His Word, and that s where He makes Himself known,
not in the heavens. There s no blood in the heavens.
You can t see the Passover in the heavens. You can t see the
rise of God in the heavens. You can t see salvation in the
heavens. The only place you see those things at is in God s Word,
and that s why He says here. So let me give you starting in
verse 7, I want to give you all these things that Davis says,
talking about the Word, the Word, the revelation of the Word. He
said in verse 7, The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the
soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
And you know, the law of the Lord is perfect. Now, this is
one of those words, law, that's talking about ALL the Word of
God, talking about all of it. If you look over in the margin,
and it says, if you've got a Bible like mine, it says the law of
the Lord, or the DOCTRINE of the Lord, the DOCTRINE of the
Lord, the TEACHING of the Lord. The law of the Lord, the doctrine
of the Lord, is perfect. When we say perfect, that means
it's free from all error. There's not a thing in the world
wrong with God's Word. You can't find any fault in it.
And people try to, but they can't. And I tell you, it's perfect.
I mean, you read it and it's full of God's glory. It's full of Christ himself. It's full of the blood of Christ. It's full of salvation. It's
full revelation that man needs to know in this world. And I
tell you PERFECTLY, PERFECTLY FITTED for His purpose. Do you
know what His purpose is? Two purposes. First of all, to
convert the soul. And secondly, to furnish the
preacher. When He gets up to preach, He s got to be furnished
with something. He s got to have something to
say. Where s He going to get it at? Going to get Him a sermon,
a book of sermon outlines? Go see what somebody else has
to say about it. Where are we gonna get what we're gonna say?
We got to get it from God's Word. You keep this, look over in Deuteronomy
32. Deuteronomy 32, talking about
the titles of God's Word. It's called the law. Like I told
you one time, I said the law has three meanings. The Law,
of course, means the Ten Commandments, Moses' Law, and the ceremonies
and the original dietary laws. And then there's the Law, which
is the Law of the Lord, the Word of God, the Law converted into
man. But look what He said here in
Deuteronomy 32, 1 and 2, Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak,
and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. God said, I'm gonna
speak to the heavens, I'm gonna speak to the earth. And he said,
I'm gonna speak to the heaven and earth. And my doctrine, listen
to this, my doctrine shall drop as the rain. And it does, don't it? Don't
it come just like a rain to our old dried souls and hearts and
just like rain coming down on us? And look what he goes on
to say. And my speech shall distill as the dew, it just sets on us
and just distills as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender
herb, and as the showers upon the grass. And this is what my
doctrine's gonna do. I'm gonna publish the name of
the Lord, and I'll scribe greatness unto my God. And his doctrine
is, he is the rock of our salvation. Now, that s what he s talking
about, that s what he s talking about. Now, back over here in
our text, so the law of the Lord is perfect, it s perfect, nothing
wrong with it, no way in the world is anything wrong with
it. And then look what it says, it converts the soul. Now, what
does it mean to convert the soul? You know, let me give you an
illustration. You remember when Simon Peter told the Lord, said,
I'll go with you, I'll die with you, I'll go to prison with you,
whatever's necessary, I'll do it, I'll do it. And then our
Lord said, you know, told him what he would do and how he would
deny him and all that, and he said, but after, next thing he
said, after you're converted, strengthen your brethren. Now,
how in the world is he telling an apostle that you need to be
converted? He was used of God, he was mightily
used of God, he was one of the FIRST that God called and set
apart for himself, so why did he mean be converted? A man has
to be converted from, he personally had to be converted from pride,
self-righteousness, self-confidence, and arrogance. And so all those
things, and when He got converted from them, and here's another
thing about us, we only get saved one time, but how many times
have we been converted? How many times has God said,
You know, you're going that way, but you need to go this way.
You know, we turn from so many things and turn toward the Lord,
and that's what conversion is. Salvation is a one-time thing. And when God regenerates us,
THAT'S when conversion starts. Conversion's when you start turning
to God. We're constantly turning from
ourselves and turning to Him. We're CONSTANTLY turning from
our pride to Him. We're constantly, CONSTANTLY
needing to turn to God, and that's why Jeremiah said like this,
Turn us, O LORD, and we'll be turned! that's what conversion
means, and oh my, turn back to God, oh my, we have lots of conversions,
we got, oh my, you know when you have to go
apologize to somebody, that you just got converted, you think
about that, You know, when we get so proud that we, when we
say something wrong or do something wrong, we say, well, I'm not
going to apologize for that, you know, but then you have to
go and say, listen, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I said that. I'm sorry.
I done that. I'm sorry. I was ugly about that.
And that's a conversion. You know how many people don't
have enough grace about them to say they're sorry. How many
people don't have enough grace about them to apologize for saying
something wrong or acting something wrong. But that s the first time
you do that, that s a CONVERSION! You re turning from YOURSELF
and your pride and saying, Listen, I m sorry! I m sorry! And oh, let s go back here and
look what else it says, The TESTIMONY OF THE LORD IS SURE. You mean God testifies? Paul
said, He said, You know, I determined to know nothing among you, and
he said, I I'm going to DECLARE the TESTIMONY of God, the TESTIMONY
of God. Now, a person, when they get
on the stand, they TESTIFY, and our Lord God Himself has a TESTIMONY. What does God testify to? Well,
He testifies to His Word, that's one thing He does. He testifies
about His Son, that's one thing He does. He testifies about US
and tells us what we are. God's TESTIMONY is SURE. sure, and it's a witness. We can be sure His witness is
true. There's a lot of things in this
world will deceive us, but one thing that will not deceive us
is not the testimony of God. That won't deceive us. A lot
of things will deceive us. People will deceive us. Our hearts
will deceive us. But God's Word, when God's testimony
will never deceive us. Oh, no. He witnesses to the truth. It's a sure foundation, a sure
foundation. And I tell you this Word, you
know, this testimony of the Lord is sure. And I mean, we can write
it down. When God says something, it's
so. It's so. It is so. then look what else it you know
he witnesses to things that to us things that are now and are
to come and then look i love this right here not only then
in verse 7 testimony lord sure then it makes wise or simple
i'm glad it says that makes wise or simple makes wise or simple
You know, man's the only person that'll complicate something.
God never complicated anything. Almost all of His words are one
or two-syllable words. Most of the words in the Bible
are one or two syllables, especially concerning our Lord. But it'll
make wise the simple. You know the first place it makes
you wise at? Why, Paul told Timothy, the Scriptures
are able to make thee wise unto salvation, which is in Christ
Jesus the Lord. That's the greatest wisdom you'll
ever have, is that God make you wise unto salvation. through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what wisdom is that? He takes
the simple-minded man, and I'll tell you something he's got to
do. He's got to make you simple-minded.
You say, boy, he's got a simple mind. Well, that's a wonderful
thing. That's a good thing. People don't
want to admit, well, I'm just so simple. That's exactly the
person God says He's gonna do something for. He makes wise
somebody that's simple. And bless His name, He makes
us simple. He makes the wisdom of this world
to be nothing. And then He takes people that's
nobody, nothing, and He takes turns around and makes them simple
so He can make them wise. Make them wise unto salvation.
Oh, my! And I tell you this, oh, wise
in God's Word, and salvation, wise in the salvation of their
souls. Oh, my! You know, to listen to
the world talk and listen to religion talk, it just absolutely
just, it just nonplusses you. And ain't you glad that God said
He makes wise the simple? Makes wise the simple. Oh, my,
and I tell you what, I'm so thankful that He makes us that way. Then
look what else He said in verse 8, The statutes of the Lord are
right. You know, the government makes
statutes and most of them are not right, and the statutes means
a law, a rule. Well, statutes, God has some,
and He enacted some. They're God's statutes. their
things to follow, things to live by. And the word statutes, you
know, of course, it means a principle also, and they re God s statutes,
and they come from His eternal counsels and His eternal will,
and I tell you what, they re right for man. Oh, listen, there
are statutes that are absolutely right. God's precepts will set
us right and teach us right, and I tell you what, here's some
of the things that He says. You know, He says the statutes
of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. Let me tell you some
of the statutes that come to my mind when I think about them.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, here's one, without Me you can do nothing. Here's one, the Lord gives and
the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
That's one God set up. Here's another one. I'm the way,
I'm the truth, I'm the life and no man comes under the Father
by me. That's a statute. Huh? And yet I'll tell you another
statute. These things are written that you may believe that Jesus
is the Christ and that believing you might have life through His
name. Here s another statute, All Scriptures Written by Inspiration
of God and His Prophet for Doctrine, for Reproof, for Instruction
in Righteousness. Listen, those things, God set
these statutes up. God, He said, He spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days. Here s a statute spoken unto us by the Son. God ain t
got nothing else to say other than His Son. Here s another
statute. No man can come unto me, except the Father which sent
me drawing. And it is written that they shall
all be taught of God, and everyone whom hath seen here of the Father,
he comes unto me. That's the statutes that God
himself set up. God set them up. God said, and
the cross is a statute that God set up. Sin must be punished,
God set that statute up. Righteousness must be a statue.
God set that statue up. And those statues are right.
God ain't never made a statue that we could not follow. Oh,
I like them statues, don't you? And look what it says here. They
rejoice the heart. They rejoice the heart. They
do the fulfillment of the law. The substitutionary death of
Christ rejoices my heart. And He wrote the law, the Word
on our hearts, and I tell you, this rejoicing of the heart,
it'll end in everlasting joy, too. And then look what He says
down there in verse 8 going on, The commandment of the Lord is
pure. The commandment of the Lord is pure. When God commands
something, it's pure. It's so pure. And what does pure
mean? It means without darkness, without
any blot, without any fault, without any flaw. And I tell
you, the commandment of the Lord is pure. You know what it does? It purifies those who receive
it. It purifies those who receive it. Remember, I think when we
was going through the book of Acts, it says when Peter was
witnessing when they had that first counsel, you know, in Acts
15. He said God bear witness to us. He said He purified their hearts
when a priest of the gospel purified their hearts by faith even as
He did unto us, and I tell you this purifies us, and that's
one thing that the gospel does, the commandment does. How many
times do people come in here and you feel oh my I had one
fella come to me one time, says, Boy, I'm so thankful for Wednesday
nights because I go out in this world and I come in here and
I'm so unclean, I just feel so dirty. And he said, I come here
and that's, you know, it's like a foot washing. You know, our
Lord washed Peter's feet, and He said, except I wash you all
over, you can't, He said, you ain't gonna wash my feet, except
I wash you all over, you don't have no part in me. And that's
what the Word does, it purifies us, it washes us, it cleanses
our feet, it cleanses our mind, it cleanses us of the things
we've been through, purifies us. Oh my, and this is the means,
and it says here, It's amazing that the Holy Ghost chooses,
and the next one is pure, it enlightens the eyes. When it
says it enlightens the eyes, that means we see things we never
saw before. The light comes on, the light
comes on. Oh my, you know what we see when
God, first thing we see when God enlightens our eyes? We see how awful we are and why
would God do anything in the world for us? Why would God do
anything in the world for us? How could God steal, steal like
we are, have anything to do with us at all? Oh my, but He enlightens
the eye. We see sin as it is. We see Christ
who put it away. We see salvation by grace. All
of these things we didn't know until God enlightened our eyes,
and to see what we had never seen before, see what we'd never
seen before. And then look what it says here
in the next verse, in verse 9. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. When it talks about the fear
of the Lord here, it's talking about true religion, true religion. And sometimes it s fear of the
Lord in true religion, sometimes it means it s given in the place
of TRUST, you know, SALVATION. The fear of the Lord is SALVATION,
you know, WALKING in the fear of the Lord. Cornelius feared
the Lord, and look in Acts chapter 9, look over in Acts chapter
9, I think this will be a blessing,
I hope it will, talking about the fear of the Lord. The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. My mother said to me one time,
and she didn't know she was in the world the last four or five
years of her life, didn't know anybody, didn't know herself
or anybody else, but she told me one time, I was talking about
the fear of the Lord. you know, the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. And if a man don't fear God,
I mean, boy, when you let lightning get close enough to you and make
it and scare you to, you know, you jump, you know, that's fear
of the Lord. ain't going to stand out here
in the middle of traffic and say, Well, if God wants me to
die, we got the fear. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. It's not a slavish fear. I'm
not talking about that, but I fear God. The fear of God keeps me
from doing things that I would do. The fear of God keeps me
believing things that I wouldn't believe. The fear of God keeps
me from going places that I would go. if it wasn t for the fear
of God. The fear of God would make me
compromise the gospel. If it wasn t for the fear of
God, I would compromise in lots of ways, but I fear God. But
anyway, I said that to say this. My mother said, Well, I don t
fear God, I love Him! You know, He s nothing to fear
about HIM! You know, He is love! He s love! Well, I tell you,
I fear God. You don't think Moses didn't
fear God and he said, I ain't fixing to go up on that mountain
unless you go with me. Huh? How many times people say,
I'm not gonna do that unless the Lord leads me. Oh my, but look what, I forget
what I said. Oh yeah, we're talking about
the fear of the Lord. Look over here in Acts 9 31. Then had the churches rest throughout
all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and were edified," and listen
to this, walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort
of the Holy Ghost. That's walking in the fear of
the Lord. I thank every one of us walking in the fear of the
Lord. It keeps us from saying things to people that we would
normally say. keep up from acting ways that
we wouldn t act. Oh, the fear of God kept us back
from many a thing, and I tell you what, and it goes on back
over here in our text then. Oh, my! And it says there the
fear of the Lord is clean, and you know what it ll do? It ll
make US clean! It ll make US clean! You know, Our Lord Jesus
said in John 15, verse 3, He says, Now you are clean through
the word which I have spoken unto you. He said, Father, sanctify
them through thy word, thy word is truth. The word of God CLEANSES
us, cleanses us, it s clean, it ll make us clean. And look
what it says, And it endures forever. Oh, my! I tell you, the fear of the Lord,
it ll endure forever. And I tell you what, as long,
you know, when we get to glory, God is still going to be so far
above us, we still won't know Him like, we won't know Him much
more than we know what we know. You know, we're going to know
Christ and we're not going to have any sin involved, but God
is so, He inhabits eternity. Do you reckon we're going to
be able to figure out God even when we get into eternity? Huh? And then look what he goes on
to say now. And in verse 9 again, the judgments of the Lord, the
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous. You know, God's
not only is He a God of grace, but He's a God of judgment. He's
a God of judgment, and all of His judgments are true and righteous,
and they come from infinite wisdom. You know, God lays truth to the
plumb line. Let me ask you, has God ever
made a judgment that was wrong? He s the Judge of all the earth,
and He must do right. Was His judgment of what He did
to Adam when Adam sinned against Him, was God s judgment wrong
when He put Adam out of the Garden of Eden? Was God s judgment wrong
when He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plains?
Was God s judgment wrong when He sent the flood? Was God s
judgment wrong when He dealt with Job the way He dealt with
him? Is God's judgment wrong when
He told David, You are the man, the sword never is going to leave
your house? Is God's judgment wrong when He comes in our home
and He takes out one of our children? Is God's judgment wrong when
He takes a husband? Is God's judgment ever wrong?
Oh, no, they're true! every judgment He s ever made
is TRUE, and they re RIGHTEOUS, they re RIGHTEOUS! Oh, my! He s never passed a judgment
that wasn t right and wasn t true, wasn t right and wasn t true.
And now let me show you the value, oh, that s the testimony of God
s Word. Look at the value of God s Word
in verse 10. Here, look at how valuable God
s Word is. David said this, he says, He says, You're talking about
the testimony of the Lord, the statue of the Lord, the commandment
of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, and His judgments of the
Lord. He said this, There are more
to be desired than they are gold, yea, than fine gold. Oh my! God's people value the relationship
they have with God more than anything else that they have
in this world. And I tell you what, they would
give up everything that they've ever had to keep that relationship
with God, but they don't have to. Thank God Christ established
that relationship. But I tell you what, they'd rather
have the relationship with God than all the wealth in the world,
and that's what David's saying. My relationship with God, in
God's Word, is more precious to me than gold itself. Gold is precious, gold is valuable. people are, everybody s trying
to sell people who come and buy GOLD off of us! But oh, my! Gold! He says the Word of God
is more precious than GOLD! Gold is of the earth. You gotta
get it out of the earth. Grace comes from heaven. Christ
comes from heaven. Salvation comes from heaven.
Gold's of this earth. And everybody's gonna leave every
drop of it behind. Go out and get it by the bushel
basketful. Get so much you can't carry it.
Have to put a big bank and put it in a big bank. But I tell
you, you'll leave it all behind. But oh, that word right there. Oh, my. And gold is for time,
grace is for eternity. And that's why he said, yeah,
much fine gold, fine gold, fine gold. Oh my, lots of pleasures
and delights. But oh, you know, the trying
of your faith is much more precious than of gold, though it be tried
with fire. That's what God says about it.
Your faith is more precious than any gold that's ever been. He
said it's more precious than gold. That's what God said your
faith was. And though it be tried with fire.
That's how precious faith is. God said that. And oh my. And I tell you what, God's Word
received by faith, oh, it's sweet, sweet, sweet to the soul. Oh,
in Revelation, he said, take that little black book. He said,
take that book. He said, I took that book. He
said, now eat it. And he said, I ate it. I ate
it, it was sweet to my taste, but boy, it was sure bitter to
go down. It's sweet to the taste, but
sometimes it's awful bitter when it gets down in there, gets down
in your soul. Oh my, and then look what he
said, and I tell you, and he said, it's sweet. This word is
so sweet, sweeter than honey, and that honeycomb, Oh my, I
like honey, I really like honey. And I love to chew on honeycomb.
But oh my, he said this, so sweet. Oh my, y'all sometimes you come
in here on Sunday or Wednesday or Sunday night or something,
and that word, you can taste it. You actually do taste it. You know, taste and see that
the Lord, you taste the word of God, you enjoy the word of
God. And sometimes it comes sweet and sometimes it's not so sweet,
but oh, it is sweet. And then look what he says here
in verse 11. Oh, listen to this. Moreover,
by them, by them, this is how valuable it is. Moreover, by
them thy servant is warned. Oh, God warns us by His Word,
warns us. Ain't you thankful that God warns
you, warns us about sin? warns us about our hearts, warns
us about judgment, warns us of dangers to avoid, warns us to
flee from the wrath to come. Oh, warnings, He warns us. And
I tell you, God's servants, they're the only one that'll take the
warnings of God to heart. They really will. People, they'll
look at, they'll be warned of something and they'll just go
on and go on and go on and go on. Boy, when God warns one of
His people, warns one of His people, they pay attention to
it, they pay attention to it. And then look what He goes on
to say in verse 11, Moreover, in keeping of them there is great,
great reward. What is the reward that He s
talking about here? Well, just the Word ITSELF has
a reward in it. You know, there s a reward in
the Word. When you understand something
from the Word, and you get something from the Word, and we're preaching,
and you're searching the Word, and you read the Word, and all
of a sudden something will come up to you, it rewards you right
then and there. You say, I see it, I got it,
I understand that, I understand that. And oh my, the reward,
the Word is the reward in itself. The knowledge of salvation, that's
a reward from the Word. Grace is a reward from the Word.
Election is one of them rewards from the Word. Christ Himself
is a reward. Oh my, in keeping with them,
it s a great, great reward. And then He goes on to say, now
look at the effects it has upon His people. Look what He says
in verse 12, Who can understand His errors? Who can understand His errors?
I can t. I can't. I don't even know I've
erred until God tells me. I don't even know I've done until
God tells me. I can't. I can't understand my errors
sometimes. Oh my. God can. And not only God can,
but He can expose them and He makes us see our errors. See. You know, you know, you get around
some people and you think, boy, You reckon they really, really
could ever, do you reckon they see themselves the way other
people see them? You say, that's what, you know,
Lord, it'll keep you back from secret errors. You know, if they
wasn't secret, you didn't know them. And how in the world are
you going to know them unless God makes them known? They may
be secret to us and then all of a sudden God comes along and
through the preaching or through reading the word, ah boy, I didn't
know I was doing that. You know, I'm bad to do that. I've been trying to break myself
of it. I've been trying to do that instead of pointing at you
all the time. Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot
some more. But I'm getting to try to do
that. I m trying to get over said, Well, I ll tell you because
I m telling you something from the time I start. But those errors,
God showed me those errors, and He shows them through people
talking to you, people telling you. Oh, my! And I tell you, I can t understand
the number of them, but God can expose them. God can understand
the number of them. And he can understand every one
of them, and he's the only one that can, if somebody else points
out your error, most of the time it'll make you mad. But if God
points out your error, you'll say, Lord, thank you, thank you,
I appreciate that, thank you very much. And oh, what did he
do when he warns us then? He says, well, Lord, then cleanse
thou me from these secrets. Cleanse me from these errors,
these secret faults. Cleanse me. That's what we pray.
Lord, cleanse me. Save me from them. Save me from
these secrets. And so how in the world we get
rid of these and even if we don't know we got them? Oh, David said
it like this, if there be any evil way in me, oh Lord, Deliver
me, save me, cleanse thou me, and I shall be clean. Cleanse
me from all these secret faults. Cleanse me from these errors.
And the only way that can do, we go to the throne of grace.
Say, Lord, I don't know myself, but you do. And if there's anything
that, if there's anything that you see in me that's not right,
oh God, take me like I'd take this glass and bust it all to
pieces and then put it back together. Oh God, whatever You do, don
t leave me to myself! Don t do that! Please, oh Lord! And oh my, that s the first thing
we do, we go to the grace of God, we go to the fountain of
grace, and oh my! And then these secret faults,
He said they re not secret from God, and they may be even secret
to us. That s why God said, David said,
Cleanse me then, cleanse thou me from these secret things.
CLEANSE ME! CLEANSE ME! CLEANSE ME! And then look what he says here
in verse 13. Keep back thy servant also from
presumptuous sins. You know what presumption is?
It's just thinking that you can get by with something and presume
that you have things and know things and can do things and
it's a prideful thing. And He says, Keep back thy servant from thy presumptuous sins, from
my presumptuous sins. You know, I'm going to give you
some illustrations of people who had presumptuous sins. David
sinned presumptuously. He sinned presumptuously when
he took Bathsheba from Uriah. I'm the king, I can have who
I want. Then he sinned presumptuously when he had her husband killed.
And then when Nathan told him about it, David got mad and said,
listen, that man ought to die. And then he said, you're the
man. He presumptuously sinned. Noah sinned presumptuously when
he got naked and got drunk. That was a presumptuous sin.
You know, I presume that God will take care of this situation
for me. And then Simon Peter sinned presumptuously
when he told the Lord all that he would do to stand by the Lord,
and then he went out. That was presumption on his part.
And then when our Lord said, I ve got to go to Jerusalem,
and I ve got to be delivered in the hands of Simon Peter,
laid hands on him, said, Be it far from thee. How presumption
is it to take the Lord by the arm and say, That s far from
you! Don t do that! To sin and say, well, because
I'm saved by grace, I'll be all right. Sin knowing that God will
forgive you. Why would you do something? Why
would you sin against light and grace when you know that it's
wrong? And that's what he's talking about here. Oh my, keep me back
from sins of infirmity, presumption sin, sins against light, sins
against love, sins against knowledge, sins against conscience. Oh,
and then look what he goes on to say here again now in verse
19, 13, excuse me. Don't let these sins have dominion
over me. Oh, don't let them be my master.
Don't let them rule over me. Don't let these sins, don't let
any kind of sin rule over me, have dominion over me. Please
don't let sin be my master. Don't let sin have dominion over
me. Don't let sin command me. Don't
let sin enslave me. Don't let sin hold me in bondage.
Don't let me do that. Oh God, keep me back from that.
And he said, Lord, if you do these things for me, if you do
these things for me, you know what? I'll be upright. I'll be
upright, huh? I'll be upright. Oh my, I'll
be upright in my heart, my walk. I'll be upright in my conversation.
Having been cleansed, let my conversation be as it becomes
the gospel, the gospel. And then look what he says this
in verse 13 again, I shall be innocent from the great transgression. I shall be innocent from great
transgression. Oh Lord, if you keep me back
from secret faults, cleanse me from them. Keep me back from
presumptuous sins. Don't let sin have dominion over
me. And then I'll be innocent. There's no way in the world I'll
sin that great transgression. You know what the great transgressions
are? Six things God said, I hate.
The first one's pride. Pride. He said, the pride, he
said, first thing I hate. He said, I hate a lying tongue.
I hate them that sow discord among the brethren. And he went
on to seven things. And oh my, oh, we don't wanna
be liars. Oh, we don't want to be proud?
Oh, my. And then, you know, an abomination,
God said there was. And, oh, keep me back from apostasy,
sins against the Holy Ghost, or a multitude of transgressions.
God, I'll be innocent. I won't sin against you in a
high-handed way. I won't. And then He says this. Let me close out with this. Let
the words of my mouth, what I've said here, from verse one right
down to here, let the words of my mouth, I've said a lot of
things, Lord. I said some things about your
heavens, said the things about your glory, said things about
your Son, said things about your Word, said some things about
sin. I said a lot of things, Lord.
I said a lot of things. And all my meditations of my
heart, these things had to come out of my heart. They come as
I thought about these things, and they come out of my mouth.
Let them be acceptable in your sight, O Lord. Let them be acceptable
in your sight. Would you please let my words
be acceptable? Keep me back from these presumptuous
sins. Keep me back from these secret faults. Make your word
pure, enlightening. Create in me fear of the Lord.
Do these things for me, O Lord. And then he said, acceptable
in thy sight. Then he said, you're my Lord,
you're my strength, and you're my Redeemer. I ain't got nobody
else to look to. That's what he ended up saying.
He said, Lord, I didn't have nobody else to go to. That's one of
them precepts that God gave. You know, he says the flesh profits
nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
their spirit and life. That's one of them statutes.
I just thought of that. I thought I'd give it to you.
Well, I hope I didn't rush through that too quick. And I hope it's
a blessing to you. Our blessed Savior, thank you
for meeting with us. Thank you for your word. Lord,
I just seem like I skim over it. But Lord, it has so much
to say to us. But I thank You that You gave
it to us. And Lord, I know every one of us here tonight, every
one of us lay to heart what Your Word says about us. And we want
every single soul in here wants to be kept back from secret faults,
want to be kept back from presumptuous sin, don't want sin to have dominion
over. And every one of us in here that
know You say, You're my Lord, You're my strength. You're my
redeemer. And so Lord, that's why we call
on you. And may the words of our mouth
and the meditations of our heart as we've listened to this tonight
be acceptable in your sight for Christ's sake. Bring glory to
yourself through us and do it for the Lord Jesus. Oh God, we
need you. We need you and we want you. Oh Lord, blessed be your holy
name. Amen. Amen. Learning to lead. Learning to lead. I'm learning to lead. on Jesus. Finding more power than I ever
dreamed. I'm learning to lean on Jesus. See you Sunday, God willing.