We'll talk this evening of this
19th Psalm. God has two blessed books in
this particular Psalm. There's the book of creation,
the heavens declare the glory of God. And then there's the
book of grace, down in verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect,
converting the soul. So we got the book of creation,
got the book of grace. And you know the creation shows
God's glory. The word reveals God's grace.
And then there's David, he prays at the end of this. But there
is two ways that God has always spoken. And you know when you
see there in verse 7, when it says the law of the Lord, it
says the doctrine. It says the doctrine of the Lord.
So it's not Moses' law. But I tell you what, as you know,
people argue over creation, evolution, big bang, all kinds of things. But when the scripture says God,
God in the beginning said, And everything He made was good.
And the heavens declare His glory. The heavens declare His glory.
And then the Word of God is what God uses to save people. To reveal
Himself to. And there's no contradiction
in creation. There's certainly no contradiction
in His Word. And the man who can look at creation
and see God's glory in it. and see God's blessedness in
it. And hear God speak to him. Just this morning, we heard some
birds singing. I said, you know, I said, the
birds, you know, they sang whether it's raining or what, it don't
make any difference. We may not hear them, but they sang. And
you know, that's God's creation. He gave them every note to sing.
There's not a bird that sings and a bird that makes a chirp
that God didn't give them that tune. And he gives some of them some
awful pretty tunes, don't he? Some of them some awful pretty
tunes. But anyway, that's what it is. You know, we look at the
world, the creation, then call it nature, whatever you want
to. And then look in God's blessed word. And you know, we say that
they both have one author, one author, and that's God himself,
the living God. And one objective in both of
them. In the creation and in the word is the glory of God.
They both are there. And I tell you this creation,
this is the place where we come out here and we see God in all
of His glory. And then we come in here because
we understand the word and are taught by the word. And here
we come in and we worship and we adore and we learn about our
God here. We learn about our God here.
Now one thing about creation it cannot do. You can see God's
glory in it. But it has no blood in it. It
has no redemptive power in it. It has no way to save a man.
A man can stand and look at the creation and just stand in awe
and wonder at it, but he'll not be saved looking at creation.
But God's people, they can see God in creation, then they come
in here and worship God because of what He's taught them in His
book. And I tell you what, in the Word of God is where we come
and we kneel and worship. Now I want to show you something,
I've read that Psalm 19 to you, and I want to show you something
about God's Word that's so precious and how He uses it for us. So
Psalm 119 and verse 9. You know the Word, He uses the
Word to save His people, and then also He uses His Word
to cause us to praise Him. You know, David says, when I
consider the sun, the stars, and the moon that thou hast ordained,
I say, what is man that thou art mindful of him? But then
look what it says here about God's Word. Verse 9, Psalm 119,
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way. How is he going
to do it? By taking heed thereto according
to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought
thee, O let me not wonder from thy commandments. Thy word have
I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Blessed
art thou, O Lord, teach me thy statutes. So we see God in His
Word, that's where He teaches us. Three little old points tonight,
and I hope I can get through them relatively fast. But let's
first look at the first great and blessed book of God, the
book of creation. The heavens, they said there
in verse 1, the heavens declare the glory of God. Do you know
the scriptures teach us that there's three heavens? Three
heavens. Paul was called up to the third
heaven. And there he saw things that when he came back, he said,
I can't tell you about it. You hear about all these people,
you know that they go down to death's door and they brought
back and they see lights and they see all kinds of hocus pocus
stuff. But when Paul went into the very
presence of the Lord, he come back and said, I can't tell you
what I see. There's no way in the world I can tell you what
I see. So that's the third heaven. That's some place way far away
where we can't see it. But the heavens that we can see
is the heaven of the stars, the sun, and all the planets that
are out there. There's the heaven, that's the
one that's way out there in the galaxy. Out there where we can
see at night and things. See so far away. And then there's
the heavens that we look up and we see the clouds. And the rain
comes from down there. And so you've got the third heaven,
you've got the wordless moon, the sun, the stars are, and then
you've got the heavens right above us with the clouds. But
every one of them are constantly declaring the glory of God and
showing how He made this world and all that's in it. If a preacher
never said another word, The heavens alone would never cease
to declare the glory of God, the wisdom and power and majesty
of our God. And I'll tell you something,
beloved, that's why all men are going to be without excuse. They
are. And then he says there in verse
2, look what he says. Day under day utters speech. It pours forth speech. That's
what he means. Pours forth speech. You know,
when one day leaves off, We get to the day and then it starts
another day. And every day it gets up, it's got something to
say. It's speaking. The heavens are speaking, the
earth as it goes around. One day comes along, leaves off,
and the next day takes up the same message again, over and
over again. And when we look at the day,
the day speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the light of this
world. And when that sun rises up, that
sun declares that Christ is the Son of Righteousness who arises
with healings in His wings. And I tell you, beloved, and
while the night, when we look at the night, the night speaks
of us resting in Him. We get to the end of our day
and we rest in Christ. We lay down and you know that
speaks of our rest that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
also the night speaks of this, and the day does, the sun does.
Work while it's yet day, for night cometh when no man can
work. And that's what is coming. And
one of these days, when it says day unto day utters speech, and
night unto night shows knowledge. Every day, day and night, we
have the same sermon over and over and over. Day speaks of
Christ, same sermon. Night speaks of rest in Christ.
But there's going to be one of these days, an endless day and
an endless night. Going to be endless light for
us. Endless day, endless sun for
us. There's going to be an endless
night for a multitude of people. Huh? Oh my. And then I'll tell
you something else this day, the brevity. It shows you, you
know, day under day, morning and night, morning and night,
morning and night. Same message every day, every
day. And that shows us the brevity
of life. David said, Oh Lord, teach me
to number my days that I may apply my heart unto wisdom. You know, I would have never. You know, I'm not old. Don't misunderstand
me. I'm not old. But I'm older now
than I've ever been. But here's what I'm telling you.
When I was 30 years ago, you couldn't have convinced me that
I'd have been this old. So what I'm telling you is how
quick I started way back there and then all of a sudden one
day you get up and you're 20 years older. One day you get
up and you're 30 years older. But when you look in the mirror
you're looking at the same person. And so our life is brief. So brief. And that's why he said,
Lord teach me to number my days. that I may apply my heart to
wisdom. Wisdom. Wisdom. And then look
what he says there in verse 3. He says, there is no speech or
language where their voice is not heard. You know how many
languages there are in this world? There was a couple of Spanish
guys there today in this They was talking in Spanish, I didn't
understand a word they said. But I tell you, the creation speaks
to them in their language. When it rises in China, Speaks
to China. Where it rises in Japan, house
of the rising, over there where the sun rises, speaks the same. Africa, wherever you go, any
language, there's not a language where the sun doesn't come up
and start its race and the night comes around, starts its night,
there's not any language on the face of the earth that does not
understand the heavens declared the glory of God. Oh my, but
there's no speech you can go, no language, for the voice of
God in heaven does not speak, and it's not heard. And the teaching
of the creation is not directed toward the ear, but to the eye
and to the heart. And that's why Paul said over
in Romans 1.18, he says, God has showed it unto them, that
they may be without excuse. Men are just the fact of the
heavens. That the sun, the moon, and the stars exist. And it goes
on day after day after day, year after year after year. That tells
men that God says, I'm here. I made this. And He'll leave all men without
excuse. All men without excuse. And I tell you men, look what
it says there in verse 4. Their line is going out through
all the earth. And that word line means their
rule or their direction. Throughout all the earth and
their words. You see what it says there? Their
words. The words of what? The creation. Goes through to
the ends of the world. And them hath he set a tabernacle
for the sun. And what he's saying here is
the teaching, the instruction of God's creation is going out
throughout all the earth. through all the whole earth the
whole earth and there's no man living no
man living beyond the reach of God's voice word that's heard
up here in this creation there's no place in heaven and no place
in the world that you can go and it says here that God had
made a place made the heavens a tabernacle for the sun tabernacle
for the sun and that heaven God made a tabernacle for that sun
like a mighty king and it continues on its way and then when it goes
by then the moon comes up the stars come up and then it goes
just and then God said I'm speaking that's my words I've sent it
every direction every direction and when it says this sun Sending
them a tabernacle for the Son. Who is this Son? Who is this
Son? Well, that's a beautiful picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Righteousness. You know,
the Lord Jesus is the Son. He's the sinner. He's the light.
He's the life of God's new creation. If we have a new birth, if we
have a new, and God's got a new creation. And this new creation
is Christ, what He did for us. And He's the light, the sun,
the life, the life, everything about the new creation, Christ
is the son of that. And then the Lord Jesus Christ,
like the sun, dwells, He's in the midst of revelation. And
our Lord Jesus Christ came here and tabernacled among men. And
I tell you if God blesses you to see His brightness is to see
all His glory. And everything that was made
was made by Him and for Him and by Him. It's all held together.
Just like this creation is. Everything that God made and
everything that God does and everything in His Word, Christ
made it, Christ upholds it, and Christ holds it all together.
Like He set that tabernacle for the Son, Christ. is that son
and our Lord Jesus Christ it says there in verse 5 which is
as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. That's what it's
like. We set that tabernacle for the
son. He comes forth as a bridegroom of his elect people. Of those
that he lived for, died for, resurrected for. And he's like
a bridegroom. And you know the scriptures tells
us that our Lord Jesus Christ is the bridegroom. We're the
bride. He's the bridegroom. He's the bridegroom. And then
look what it says there again after that. Which is as a bridegroom
coming out of his chamber. Oh my! Just coming out of his
room. Then look what it says. He rejoices as a strong man to
run the race. And our Lord Jesus Christ comes
forth as the Son, just like the Son does, out of the chamber.
As the strong man who has already fought the battle, run the race,
destroyed all of our enemies, took the forces of evil and death
and everything that was against us, and He took it out of the
way by His blessed cross. And I'll tell you what the scriptures
tells us that He, God saw the travail of His soul and was satisfied. The Lord was well pleased in
His blessed Son. And then we talk about the Son
coming up. You know it's said it's a tabernacle.
And it says He goes forth day after day after day. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, His going forth is from everlasting to everlasting. Never was a time that He didn't
start. And His circuit, His circuit of mercies and grace, just like
that sun, reaches all over this world. The grace and mercies
of our Lord Jesus Christ goes to all the ends of the earth.
Reaches to the uttermost, the remotest places on this earth.
Christ, like the sun, He sends out His mercy and His blessings
and His grace. And then look what it says there,
in the last part of verse... His going forth is from the end
of heaven, you know, and His circuit under the ends of it.
That's what I was talking about just now. And then there's nothing
hid from the heat thereof. What He's telling us here is
that all that come to Christ will not be denied the warmth,
the comfort, the blessedness of His love. And those who don't
believe, They're going to have a different kind of heat come
on them. The heat of His wrath. But oh
my, the heat of our blessed love, Son. His love for us. And then
let's look at His word here together. Look at His word. The heavens.
There's that first book. That blessed book of creation. Oh it says, it speaks every day
in so many ways. Everybody can understand it.
And then look what he says there in verse 7. The law of the Lord. And you noticed it, like I done
told you, it's the doctrine. The law of the Lord. This is
not that Moses' law that he's talking about. It's not what
he's talking about. He's talking about the Word of
God. And the Word reveals His grace.
And it says here, the law of the Lord is perfect. There's no flaw in God's Word.
There's no flaw in God's doctrine. And you know what? He uses that
Word to convert His people. To save His people. And when
He takes His Word, He takes the Holy Scriptures. And He uses
them. And that's all He uses. There's
no way, no way, no way that God will save a man apart from His
Word. He never has done that. He never has done it. He'll come
and He reveals Himself to them. And I'll tell you the way that
He saves His people is by His Word. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing by the Word of God. By
His own will begat he us with what? The Word of Truth. The
Word of Truth. And then look what he says there
again. The law of the Lord is perfect, converts the soul, saves
the soul, turns the soul. And the testimony of the Lord
is sure, making wise the simple. You know, and let me tell you
something. It says that this testimony is
sure. You know, if we receive the witness
of men, the witness of God is greater. And what God has to
say about Himself is sure. What God has to say about His
Son is sure. What God has to say about our
sin, what God has to say about our salvation, every bit of it
is sure, is certain, and is infallible. And I thank God that he himself
is the only one can make himself known. David said in one verse,
I think it's Psalm 36, he said, only in thy light shall we see
light. Only in thy light. And I tell
you, it makes wisest simple. You know, God takes simple people,
and he turns them around, saves them by his word, then starts
teaching about himself. And here's another thing, God
cannot reveal Himself in one way. He can only reveal Himself
as He is. He's not someone that just made
an effort. He's God from eternity. And I'll tell you, He sent His
Son, His dear, dear Son. And what He tells us about His
Son, Makes it simple to understand the sin, what an awful thing
sin is, and then how salvation is that God gets all the glory
in it. And that's what's so wonderful
about the gospel. It sure is certain and it's infallible. And if God makes a man humble
and teachable, and he'll receive the Word of God, It's like God
told Timothy, like Paul told Timothy. The Scriptures are able
to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Jesus
Christ. You know, we can't say enough
about that. And then look what he says here
in verse 8. The statutes of the Lord are right. Rejoicing the
heart. Now watch the statutes of the
Lord. When people start talking about statutes, they're looking
for laws and rules and standards and all this, you know, and fundamentalism.
But when God talks about His statutes, He's talking about
His counsel. His decree. You know, when God says something,
it's done. You know, His counsel. He works
all things after the counsel of His own will. And he got his
decree, his covenant of mercy, his covenant of grace. They're
all founded on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're
founded on the righteousness of God. That's why they rejoice
the heart. This is the thing about the gospel.
God will be merciful and God will be righteous at the same
time. Look at Psalm 85. Look at this with me for a moment.
Psalm 85. This is a This will say something about
the gospel so plain. And this is what he's talking
about the statutes of the Lord. God's going to be just. And He's
going to be righteous. But He also will be gracious
and merciful. But how in the world do these
two things work together? He said there in verse 10, Mercy
and truth are met together. Mercy. How in the world can mercy
and truth meet together? Truth says that we got no hope.
We can't be saved by anything we do. Mercy says, yes, you can. Well, how does it do? Righteousness
and peace have kissed each other. Where did all that happen at?
At the cross. Mercy met truth. Truth cause
Christ to hang on a cross so God can be righteous and turn
around and show mercy justly so to sinners like ourselves. You talk about something to rejoice
your heart, that's what he says, this causes the heart to rejoice. Oh, the righteous, these decrees
of God, this covenant of mercy and covenant of grace of God,
it rejoices the heart of those that have been taught of God.
We have reasons to rejoice. God's taught us how that God
in Christ, how the Lord Jesus, our God in Christ, can save us,
redeem us, and call us, and make us holy and righteous and pure
in His own sight. And that's what he says, you
know, the commandment of the Lord is pure. You know what it
does for us? Well look what it says, enlightens
our eyes. You know what that means? Gives
us eyes to see. Opens that poor old dark brain.
Opens it up for us. The pure holy word of God. It
enlightens our understanding. Gives us eyes to see. And I tell
you, God in Christ is the only way in the world. that God can
save us and he opened our eyes to his glory in his blessed son
the Lord Jesus Christ now look what it says there in verse 9
verse 9 the fear of the Lord is clean
enduring forever and the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
altogether When he says the fear of the
Lord, he's talking about the reverend. The reverence, the
fear of the Lord is clean. It's enduring forever. And when
he's talking about the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever,
he's still talking about God's Word. That's what he's still
talking about. and which teaches us. It teaches us an awe for
God. We didn't have no awe for God
until we found out who He was from His blessed Word. We had
no reverence for God, no fear of God, no worship of God. And
you know why we do now? Because the Word of God tells
us and brings us and directs us to the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, which cleanses us from all our sin. which saves us from
the curse of the law, saves us to His glory, and only leads
us to love and worship our God. And that's why it's clean, it's
pure. It's enduring and it's forever. You know how long this
fear of the Lord will be? It'll be forever. Do you think
you stand in awe of God now? At times? You imagine what it's
going to be like when we enter into eternity and see what He
is. When the cherubims and the seraphims
stand around Him and all they do is cry, Holy, Holy, Holy. Have been since God's been since
Christ on his throne and you think that that's what they do
imagine what it'll be like for us Oh my and I tell you that the
gospel the law's gone the curse of the law is gone for us But
the gospel's forever hitting yours forever and then look what
he said here in verse 10 through 11 Oh, these, these, these, and
they're righteous and true all together. They're perfect. I
mean, it's perfect. The judgments of the Lord are
righteous and true all together. His decrees, His covenant, His
mercy, His condemnation, everything that He does is founded on truth
and righteousness. And look what He says, and you're
talking about bringing some wonderful things to you. This word's more
to be desired than gold. They sang that Sunday morning,
I'd rather have Jesus than silver and gold and kingdoms on this
earth. And that's one of those things
that says that. The Word of God is more precious
than gold. Gold will perish, but the word
of God will. Souls will perish, but the word
of God will. Then it's much fine gold, sweeter
also than the honey and the honeycomb. Oh, it blesses us, it strengthens
us, encourages us, and does things for us. And then he said, oh
my, listen to this now. Moreover, by them is thy servant
warned, and in keeping of them there is great, great reward.
Great reward. I'm telling you, when you hear
them, they warn us. They warn us. Give us some great
warnings. Warn us to flee from flesh. Warn us to flee from sin. Warn
us to flee from anything that would hinder our relationship
with Christ. And then look what David says
here now down in verse 12. Look at this prayer that David
prays. And I tell you, the man who knows
the word of God, knows God, knows his word, knows himself. Ain't
that the first thing he says? Man, who can understand these
errors? You didn't have a clue what you was like until the word
of God come to you. Ain't that right? Who can understand
these errors? We didn't know how bad error
we were. Bruce Cratchford said error. We erred. You know, we greatly
erred. And boy, I tell you, the man
who knows God knows his word knows himself. And look what
he says. Cleanse thou me. Cleanse me from the things that
I don't even see. That I don't even know. Have
you ever had anybody say to you, don't you see that about yourself?
Have you ever heard anybody, you know, you do say or do something
say, didn't you see what you've just done? Can't you see that? I can see his face and nose on
my face. But God says, David said here,
he said, Oh Lord, I can't even see what I'm doing. I don't know
what I'm doing, but you do. Cleanse me from the things that
I can't even see. And then look what else he said.
Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins. Keep me from presuming
on the mercy of God. Don't never let me presume on
God's mercy. Don't let me presume that because
God's done something for me that I can go, you know, it's like
you got a big chain on you and you can go so far with it and
you can't go any further. No, no, Lord, keep me, don't
let me be presumptuous. And I tell you, that's really,
really, I think there's a, you know, we, It's a wonderful thing
to get up and God bless you when you're preaching or listening
or anything. And you get to thinking that God's going to do that all
the time. Until one day He don't. You think God's going to bless
you every day until one day He ain't nowhere around. He won't
hear anything you got to say. The heavens are brass. And that's why we heard a saying,
how tedious and tasteless the hours. Oh how tedious and tasteless
the hours when Jesus no longer I see. And oh my God he'll keep us. You know there's men in the scriptures
that presumed on God. David presumed on God when he
took Bathsheba. Peter presumed on God when he
went and denied the Lord three times. Paul presumed on God when he
shaved his head and was going to go in the temple and go back
under the law. And I tell you what, Abraham
presumed on God when he lied about his wife. And I certainly don't want to
presume on the mercy of God, but I'm saved, I'm saved so therefore
I'm allowed to do, I'm allowed to just do anything, you know,
and that's the thing that they accuse us of. The first time
that the people really truly understand what we believe and
you explain it to them, the first thing they say to you is, well
if I believed that I'd go out and sin all I wanted to and still
be able to go to heaven. Now that tells you that they
really don't understand what you're saying. or they understand
it and they don't like it. A man told me just the other
day that the first thing his sister said to him was, if I
believed like you did, I could go out here and live in the world
and still be saved. God saves us from the world.
Saves us from sin. Christ died for sin. Why in the
world would we want to go out here and sin deliberately? And
go high handed against God Almighty? That's what David said, Oh Lord,
please don't let me, don't let me sin against you. Presume to
think for a minute because I know you, I can do, I can just, just
do anything I want to. Oh no, don't let me do like that.
And he said, don't let the flesh have dominion over me. Save me
from apostasy. Save me from departing from the
living God. That's what he's saying. Keep
back your servant. Don't let them have dominion.
Don't let the flesh and sin have dominion over me. Please don't
do that. Don't let the flesh, and then
he says, I'll be innocent. Don't let me depart from Christ
under no circumstances. And then look what he says in
verse 14. Let the words of my mouth meditation
of my heart be acceptable in thy sight oh Lord my strength
and my redeemer you know and he said here let my words let
my words and let my heart praise you bless you may the words of
my mouth be a blessing to my brethren may the words of my
mouth be free from malice may the words of my mouth be free
from murmuring And let whatever my mind and heart thinks, let
it be sincere, let it be honest, let it be real before you. And let my heart be submissive
to whatever you say, your word, your will. And let me, by your
grace, dwell on Christ more than on anything else in this world. Our Father, thank you for allowing
us to meet here tonight. Thank you for your precious word.
Those two blessed places where you show your glory in the heavens,
in the creation, but you show your grace in your precious word. You show us Christ in your precious
word. You show us salvation in your
precious word. It's in your word that we see
grace. It's in your word that we see our Lord Jesus Christ
and what he did for us. And so God bless the word to
our understanding. And keep us back. Don't let us
presume on you. Don't let us fall away. Let our
hearts and minds be real before you. We ask in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. Oh, how merciful, Merciful blessed Lord